These pictures come from Franny and Kate, and the report was written up by Franny. Thank you ladies for sending in your story and your photos!

Kate and I snagged our 'borrowed' front row balcony seats while the stage was dark and the drumbeat of Ultrasound was taking over the room. We were in place when the lights came on and THERE THEY WERE . . . how great to have them right there in front of us after only seeing them on the screen all this time. The boys were on fire, and by the end of their show the whole place had caught the bug (and there were a lot of people who had never even HEARD of the Lovehammers before or didn't know Marty because they had never seen RSINXS). Kate and I were Street Teaming like crazy and I have to tell you, after the Lovehammers played it was incredibly easy to talk to people, everyone we spoke with thought they were fantastic and we convinced quite a few of them to buy their CD. We met Cheeky, Daniela and another org lurker, as well as other Marty fans who didn't know what he had been up to after the RSINXS.

I can't remember the set, too focused on trying to be part of the music, but I do know that it was put together so that the energy built in layers . . . Marty sang to the whole audience and "played" on stage, with all of his famous energy, conductor moves, backbends and crouches . . . losing layers of clothing as the set progressed . . . sunglasses . . . black jacket . . . red Aragon shirt . . . down to the Speedfreak Tshirt. At one point he was crouch-conducting right behind a security guy who was sitting on a chair up against the front of the stage (because you wouldn't want anyone to get up and actually ENJOY the band!) We all know the Lovehammers' feelings about the security . . . and Marty felt the need to do some magic conductor moves over this guy's head . . . a little hocus pocus. . . a sweeping abracadabra . . . even a presto or two . . . singing the whole time while the security guy remained with his arms crossed, looking stony faced out into the audience, completely unaware that he was part of the show. When Marty had finished with him he got up and walked over to our end of the stage . . . laughing . . . and so were we because it was really very funny and he didn't miss a beat. At another point the lights were aimed so the audience could be seen from the stage . . . . . . he spotted a pretty girl in the balcony who was dancing like crazy and he did the same little shimmy-wiggle she was doing . . . then he laughed . . . it was just really cute. He's great at connecting with his audience, it's very natural and you can tell he's enjoying it.

He also climbed up to the balcony. . . singing. . . singing . . . walked all the way around the balcony to the other side, stood on the outside edge for a moment . . . singing . . . then scrambled back down to the stage . . . AND DIDN'T MISS A BEAT THE WHOLE TIME!!!! (In fact, I still don't know how he got up or down that quickly. He climbs like he was born in the jungle . . . makes it look so easy.)

After the balcony walk, the energy in the room must have doubled. I was expecting him to climb, but this was the first glimpse of Marty for many of the people in that room and they really responded to it. Marty was up on the speakers after that, and the drums a few times. He had everyone standing up for Trees, and they just stayed up for Ring of Fire. The only ones who weren't standing were people who had just come in and were obviously there for INXS. Even they were grinning and obviously enjoying the part they caught, and they certainly understood and didn't complain that we were standing up and dancing in front of them.

Bobby and his drums were amazing . . . very clean, strong, loud rhythm . . . Dino was playing his heart out, sounded great, and you never would have known there was anything wrong with his hand. And Billy . . . well I could go on for a long time about how much I love Billy's guitar. I loved being able to actually watch them move instead of just seeing them in pictures.

During our Street Teaming, Kate, Daniela and I got to know Nader who is the official Sony Toronto Street Team Rep. We all ended up near the merchandise/bar area during the INXS set, and lo and behold, Marty was there too, wandering around with a glass of wine. There were very few other people there, and so we were lucky enough to have Marty almost to ourselves for the better part of an hour (Thanks Marty, that was awesome!!!) I couldn't have imagined getting that much time with him to just talk. . .and he was so relaxed with only a few people around and no security. We talked about everything . . . a lot about the different groups and people who are behind the Lovehammers, how loved they are and all the things that people are doing for them. Out of my impressions of him I'm pulling the words kind, funny, warm, intensely private but at the same time very open and friendly, generous, caring, gracious, intelligent and graceful . . . very focused and very centered . . . he's got an incredibly warm and bright "aura" around him. He's easy to talk to and genuine, just like the rest of the band.

At the Meet and Greet later we had a chance to meet Billy, Bobby and Dino (although we had to go through the whole line-up twice because security moved us through so quickly!!!) What can I say. . . they are very cool and there was nothing about them that didn't impress me. They know exactly who they are and they are so natural . .. no pretense at all. Dino could probably strike up a conversation about anything . . . he's very responsive if you catch his interest. Bobby unfortunately I didn't get to say much to (but I hear from my dear friends Sheowl and Hellosun that he is great to talk to). Billy is just incredibly cute and animated, you just can't see it in his pictures, There wasn't a moment where he wasn't grinning . . . a really sincere smile and full of energy. Kisses to his wife because I think she has something really special there. At the end, when Security was hustling them out, we managed to get a hug from him, at which point I got to tell him how much I loved his 'guitar'. And I meant it.

So then they were gone, off to Detroit. But they definitely left some good stuff behind them and I sure know who will be there to watch them when they come back to Toronto again.