Hey everyone,
Greetings from HELL. Halifax is currently being buried by fourteen
metric tonnes of snow, but otherwise it's quite lovely.
For those who have never visited this city, let me tell ya, it's very
nice. Lotsa cool places to eat, reasonably good record stores (well, if
you're looking for local stuff, anyway), and hey, everyone that I've met
from this list has just been so wicked and nice, it's just great. :)
It's almost mind boggling the number of times I have been walking/driving
around with someone and they'll stop and point and say "oh, there goes so
and so from that band" or whatever. Small town, man. :)
Since Yan was cool enough to share some of his stories from Hell, I'll
try to do the same, just to let you all know what's going on here from my
lame point of view.
Thursday - Got picked up at the airport by listmanagerboy, Jim Cooper, and
Heather Harkins, all sloan net kids. Totally nice and funny, James Covey is
the king of overkill when it comes to jokes. ;) "breaker, breaker..."
Shant Pelley and Adam Rodenhiser apparently got to the airport one minute
after we all left, and I felt bad about that, since they made this wicked
"welcome to halifax" banner. anyway, we caught up with them in Hell later on.
Adam is the scariest driver ever. :) We went out to visit Katrina at work -
pretty funny. She's a pharmacist so I asked her if I could get my
prescriptions filled out and handed her a piece of paper with my name on
it. hee hee...:)
I got a very brief tour of hell, featuring stops at some of the infamous
spots around town ie. the grey house/apartment thing from the Ear to the
Ground special with sloan, apartments where members of sloan live/lived -
all c/o shant and adam, truly obsessed fans. ;)
STopped in at the mokka, where I got to meet three of the state champs,
andy sawler, mark mullane, and jon dacey, in addition to steve dinn and
of course, the infamous marc brown who i have unfortunately known for
months already. ;)
Everyone was totally wicked and funny, Jon pulled out a tshirt for James'
birthday, his very own State Champs tour shirt (official roadcrew!). I
went down to the payphone to call my mom and who should walk in but the
legendary Michael Damian Catano. He said hi to my mom and hi to me and
then went up to join the pack o' sloan net kids. For anyone who has ever
wanted to know what Mike is *really* like, lemme tell ya, he's the
biggest jerk around. ;) Nah, he's harmless. Sassy, but harmless. Oh man,
he's probably gonna read this and kill me. Oh well, I"m sure I could take
him in a fight....
Friday was pretty cool, got to see some more of Halifax, which is indeed
a very lovely city. James and Heather took me to some cool shops and I
got to buy my first Eric's Trip tshirt, plus some 7''s I couldn't find
back home. Stopped in at the murderecords office to pick up our slack
ass lunch date marc - the office is a lot smaller than they appeared to
be on tv. Colin Mackenzie is like totally just as nice in person as he
has been on the phone, just a friendly guy. Jay was in the office at the
time as was Allison Outhit from Rebecca West. Which I found hilarious,
since I had just purchased the Bubaiskull 7''... Chris walked in a little
later on. There, obligatory "celeb" talk for those who care.
James and Heather continued to point out local "celebs" throughout the
day, including Stinkin' Rich, Scott from Trike/Quahogs, and
hmmmm...probably more, but I'm overloaded with sights, sounds, and stuff
like that.
This is one of the coolest parts of my day - James, Marc, and I went over
to Jay Ferguson's place to watch Thrush Hermit on the wedge. Let me just
say that Jay is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. I've
only ever talked to him like once or twice before, but he's totally down
to earth and nice. I ended up spilling 7Up on his carpet in his room, boy
that was cool....He has the biggest record collection I've ever seen.
Anyway, that was pretty weird and unexpected. Let me just say it once
more, Jay's a nice person, even when he doesn't have to be, if you follow
what I'm saying.
The gig itself .... wow. Birdland is one of the best clubs, seriously.
It's great, you can see the stage from all over, there's plently of room
for running around and for sitting down and everything. Cleanest
bathrooms I've ever seen at a nightclub. :) Good root beer.
Trike were up first. Trike have only practiced once in the last four
months, and it sure did not show. They rocked, and I'm so disappointed
that "fort" will not be on the new CD, since it was by far their best
song last night. Todd said afterwards he felt it wasn't a "great" gig,
but he was happy nonetheless. I think crunchy rock pop is the only way I
can descirbe it. It's heavy, but poppy. You know?
Thee Suddens. WOW!!! I had heard their tape a bit earlier over at marc's
place and I thought they sounded like a ramones tribute band. Live, they
kicked ass. Very tight, heavy. I doubt they like KISS ;) - they nod so
heavily to that late 70's KISS style it's surprising they don't wear neck
braces. Impressive, I can't wait to see them again tonight.
Hardship Post. I had been warned earlier that they don't play songs
they've released. It's true. They only played "silver suit" and the rest
were all from _somebody spoke_ or were unreleased. However, it was a
great set, albeit short by my standards. Many people told me this was a
long set by their standards, though. I'm not sure what Hardship POst are
trying to do, by not playing their older more familiar songs. It's been
ages since I've gotten up and totally jumped around like that at a gig,
tho, so it was immensely fun. Mike Pick played guitar and Sebastian
played bass for I think most of if not all of the show. Weird. Great
show, the new album is very good, even if it doesn't ROCK the way they
used to. I like it. Buy it.
Many people were bitching about the $6 cover charge, which I guess is
justifiable if you're used to seeing these bands for like a few bucks. I
have never seen any of them and didn't have a problem. :)
Again, for those who care, local celebs spotted: Patrick Pentland
(surprise), Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Catherine Stockhausen, Matt
Murphy, Charles Austin, Alyson Macleod, Peter Rowan, Angie Fenwick, and
of course, the always present Mike "MUCHEAST" Campbell.
Oh....and we really embarrased James, we put up a banner saying "happy
25th James Covey. *heart* Sloan Net" - totally embarrassing. :) Plus Todd
from Trike said Happy birthday to him on stage, that was nice. :)
After the last song from Hardship Post, me and Shant and Katrina started
to dance around like maniacs and soon our little circle grew to include
about six or seven sloan net kids. Yay! And then they played Duran Duran
and there was just no stopping Kat and I. :) She's the best dancer in the
world. :)
Anyway...this place is great, everyone is totally nice, and you should
all try to come here someday for a visit. :) Sorry to go on so long,
it's probably my last or second last post for a month and a half or so.
:) So go easy on me, eh?
Ooooops, we're gonna be late for State Chimps. ;)
Wish you all were here,
Tara Lee
--
"stick around for a while
listen to my thoughts
it makes you smile..."
LISTEN - Eric's Trip
