Ottawa Review: I was there with my wife, the first of 3 shows I attended and enjoyed. Though my reviews may be critical at times, I'd be lying if I said I could be totally unbiased, I just wish to give my honest, personal opinion and everything I felt; good and bad. Nice quaint music hall, we sat in balcony type box seats so there was no one behind us and so little chatter. This hall is made for music and what beautiful sound it was. I only wish I had thought to bring an extra MD disc as I ended up having to record the show in Atrac3 (10x compression) in order to get it all on the one disc. The sound is still very nice but pcm linear would of been just awesome in this venue. Walking around town before the show, there was a red Jeep cruising the main drag of the venue with Shangri-la blaring through the speakers. Felt very nostalgic. There was no opening act and they played Rolling stones tunes during pre-show seating. The band seemed in good spirits, very tight and even Mark's voice was ok considering how many shows he had done to date. Having opted not to go to the Montreal show because of the busy jazz festival in progress, we were somewhat disappointed to learn that he played All That Matters and Our Shangri-la in Montreal but didn't include them here the next night (or any other night that we saw them). I had so hoped that more DS stuff would get dropped in place for more solo stuff in this leg of the tour and I still can't understand how on earth anyone could call this a Shangri-la tour with only 2 or 3 songs from the album being played. I have yet to hear of a good or sensible explanation for this! Definitely the biggest let down of all as far as I am concerned. Other than that, it was a great show and pleasing to see the man again after 4 years of absence. The show started about 15 minutes late and seemed to be cut short after SFA but I think they ran into curfew limits and had no choice. Drove straight home from the show (5 hour drive) as I listened to the recording all the way home (2 -1/2 times) and really could not believe the nice sound. Ottawa Set list: WAM, WOL, W-it-is, STP, R & J, SoS, DwB, SfS, Rudi, BLT, Speedway, TR, BiA, MfN and SFA. A far cry from the 20 or so songs they did elsewhere. :( But still, performance was awesome! :) Dan Lapierre - Toronto

I posted a review on the official MK site so here is a copy of it. The other reviewer for the show (on this site) didn't think much of the sound but i thought it was good. I was in the first row (yep, first row) and was in front of the stacks on the right hand side of the stage. Not knowing how loud it was going to get I put in earplugs. It cut out some of the volume and made the music easier to decipher as well as the vocals and MK's talking. I took them out during the Rudiger, etc and when Speedway hit, whoa, massive blast of sound. Also here is a link to the local paper's review of the show. http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/K/Knopfler_Mark/ConcertReviews/2005/07/04/1116145.html *************** There was no opening act and the show started at 810 PM and went two hours (almost to the minute). After reading Guy’s diary about how at some of the European shows where people storm the stage after Sultans, the band might have been a little disappointed that nothing like that happened here. In fact half the time, the band looked a little bored (but it is late in a very long tour). SOS did bring the crowd to their feet. That aside it was a great show and 110 per cent better than the STP tour from 2001. I had read other reviews of this tour and thought some of the comments about the great sound and how much better Mark’s voice was a little too much but it turned out to be (in my opinion) true. People talking on the way out after the show felt the same way. Standard set list with the addition of one new one from Shangri-La, All That Matters (it came in after Rudiger, as I recall). Guy had mentioned on his Web site diary that they had added it the night before in Montreal. Done with MK on acoustic, Richard on a National Steel (played with a slide giving it a dobro type of sound), Matt on accordion and Guy on the keyboards (I was in the front row and in front of the PA stack so looking up, I only saw the top of Guy’s hair. ATM also got a good response when they started it so I think most people knew the set list and knew they were hearing something different. MK explained what a national steel guitar was (“made out of scrap metal” and “my first one cost me 80 quid which was 80 more quid than I had at the time”). They did the tea thing with the roadie rolling out a cup for Mark (and later one for Richard). The crowd got a chuckle out of this. I think MK was even explaining what type of tea it was. (I’m a tea drinker too but I guess we get different brands over here!) A couple of observations from the front row: There were two directional microphones pointing out into the audience (one at either side of the stage). I gather that means they were recording the show???? I didn’t see any video equipment so maybe they are thinking of a live CD. Maybe somebody can comment on this. I also noticed during the final part of “What it Is” (after the solo where it slows down) that MK faced Danny and called to him to change his drumming (he was hitting the high hat and switched to some cymbals). To me it shows MK’s professionalism. He is playing but is aware of what everybody else around him is doing and will signal the other players to speed up or slow down. It also shows that the other band members have to be ready to adjust their playing accordingly. To me you have to have talent AND chemistry to make that work. All in all, a great show.

Good show but for the venue which is class A for acoustics the vocals were muffled and the sound mix was far too in favour of the base -- too bad. Set list Why Aye Man Walk of Life What it is Sailing to Philadelphia Romeo & Juliet Sultans of Swing Band Introductions Done with Bonaparte Song for Sonny Liston Rudiger All that Matters Boom, Like That Speedway at Nazareth Telegraph Road Encores (for which the audience really had to work for): Brothers in Arms Money for Nothing So Far Away