I was so excited as many of you may know from previous blogs that i was selected to perform at new music west. Jacquie and i packed up the car and set off to vancouver with our heads in the sky.... we thought... opportunity of a lifetime. Well... that’s what i thought anyway.

 

Things started off awesome in vancouver with a random meeting of surprisingly kind investment bankers at some flashy yaletown pub that was probably more expensive than we anticipated. We ended up beating the crap out of them at pool all night long, and by the end of it we got invited to come join them at their soon to be finished house in Italy. Not to mention they paid for all of our drinks and turned out to be incredibly cool people. We seemed to be off to a good start.

 

The next night was the show. Though we were kind of nervous, all the other musicians which we were sharing the bill with seemed to calm our nerves. However the location of the venue did raise some concern. To those of you who are familiar with vancouver, the venue we were to play at that night was on Dunlevy St. & East Hastings. That’s two blocks away from the infamous Hastings & Main.... no exactly the best part of town.... not the kind of place you want to leave your dad’s car unattended.

 

I was starting to get a little concerned when nobody showed up from New Music West  to greet us... i was a little more concerned when there was no promised free beer backstage.... and then at showtime when there wasn’t even someone from new music west taking cover at the door I was fucking pissed. Basically we travelled all the way from edmonton to vancouver to play a random show in the downtown eastside ghetto with a bunch of other musicians who did exactly the same thing (some of them came from Australia), to play for FREE to no one. What exactly was the point of that?

 

Just to make sure we weren’t the only ones getting the shaft at this venue, we checked back the next night. Thought there was a representative from new music west at the door, the only people in the crowd were bands. So we were pissed right off. But we were in vancouver, and there was something like 300 bands playing this weekend so there should be some solid shows going down. After scanning the schedule I saw a name that i recognized. CR AVERY & The Boomchasers. We headed off for the Yale (one of van-city’s old style blues bars) in search something to redeem our experience. And did we ever get it!!!

 

What a sweet band. Better than sweet. These guys fuckin’ rock. It’s like Waits meets Iggy Pop and a human beat boxer all rolled into one. And then, while Jacquie and I were in sheer awe of our fantastical Vancouver redemption, someone we recognized joined the band on stage for a few songs. The Ramblin’ Quincy’s. Half of the Quincy’s, a girl named Ange used to come to a ton of shows that I played with a now defunct band (Radiovacana), and we also ran into her randomly at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues fest last year. We weren’t exactly friends yet, more like acquaintances, but when you see someone you know in big city far from home, the whole friendship process is expedited exponentially. Soon Ange and Jacquie and Me and Jody (the other half of the quincy’s) found ourselves back at pad of the Boomchasers which was cleverly named “The Whammy Bar”. Late night jams ensued and this night essentially set the pace for our entire tour.

 

After peeling the sleep from our eyes the next morning, we finally found what vancouver is all about. COMMERCIAL DR. What we were doing hanging out downtown is beyond me. With the temperature rising and the sun peeking out its smiling face we found a nice piece of park on “the drive” and jammed the next few days away. I made us both want to move to vancouver. It just seemed as though everyone we met was on the exact same wave length. So we made an executive decision. FUCK THE FESTIVAL!!