After a pretty low-key evening, the night was about to be set to
'whirlwind' status and I didn't even know it. I had spent the
bulk of the day enjoying free wireless access in a hotel and
sipping on a few 2 dollar cans from the LCBO (I also ordered
Topper's Pizza for dinner as I had remembered it being
decent from the days of Laurentian - it still was pretty
dang good). The time had come to meet the band in the
lobby. I met the drummer, the bassist and the tour manager
down there (Steve, Brent and Ian). They were talking about
Brent's intestinal/gas issues as Steve asked him 'How is your
ass?'. Brent didn't say much. 'Better, I guess.' Ian played with
his iphone as they waited for the other dudes to come down.
The lobby of the hotel was pretty small and I remember
thinking 'How would they handle a massive group in here, like
a soccer team or something' as the hotel, itself, was a fairly
big. Soon, the rest of the band showed up (Murray, Chris
and Dave) and we piled in the van and headed to the venue.
First off, I remember thinking 'these guys are loud' as they
would either try and grab, fart on or yell in each other's ears.
It was dark out and Sudbury looked a lot different at night -
much more bleak. When we pulled up to the venue (the grand
theatre - an old cinema-style theatre with a bulbed vertical
marquee sign out front), Ian noted 'I'll run inside and find
another door for you guys to come in' so I slid down a side
street and all of us waited for Ian to appear out the side of
the building.
A few minutes passed and the guys starting getting antsy.
I asked the other guys 'Where do you think Ian went'. Steve
the drummer chimed in 'Oh, he's probably just inside the
venue - pushing his way through our fat demographic'. This
made many of the guys chuckle, including me. Tension was
broken. Finally, Ian's curly head popped out of a side door
as he looked all over in every direction except where we
were. The band members hopped out of the van remarking
that he was a 'reet' (retard) and headed in.
I parked the van and since I really had no other plans dans
le Sudbury on a terrible tuesday night, I went to the show.
I couldn't believe how many people were there on a tuesday
night. Almost a thousand. It was a sold out show sponsored
by local radio. I ordered a beer at the bar and slid among
the Sudburians in the middle of Tara Oram's set. She
actually had a very decent voice (and turned out to be quite
the joker).
Doc Walker took the stage and the place went into a fit
of pandemonium. Girls were grabbing their faces like in
old Beatles videos. It was nuts. Later on that night, I
learned that John (a guy who was playing guitar with Tara
Oram) was on the side of the stage where the crowd
couldn't see him and had stripped down completely naked
and was flossing his buttcrack with his own belt. Tara
also got in on the action (and apparently got partially
naked) as this was a game the two bands had played with
each other all tour to try and get reactions from each
other.
After the show, there was a little rigamarole from the
local radio station that was sponsoring the event (KICX)
and some presentations to different band-members.
I hung out backstage with Steve (the drummer) and
chatted briefly as the band had a few cases of free beer
behind the stage area.
I wandered around and couldn't believe how much room
was actually backstage. After what seemed to take forever,
the band finally got their gear out to the van (which
wasn't much considering everything was back-lined), we
hit the hotel for an apparent 'post-show-wrap' that I
was invited to. Back at the hotel, I barely got to my room
as a few musicians from other bands (Tara's and
another guy named Steve Lee Olsen) saw me in the
hallway and yelled out 'PARTYYYY! WOOOO' and I
waved geekily. The post-show-wrap was being held in
the hotel bar. I headed down and saw all of the bands
and a few record executives at a long table. As funny as
it was, I felt a weird connection with the Doc Walker
guys and got a huge, loud, drunken 'HEEEEEEYYYY'
when they saw me - I felt like Norm from cheers walking
in. The bar was very low-lit and very low-ceiling-ed.
I talked with a bunch of the band members and a few
executives (who all had a massive amount of free drinks
on their long table) as they bought me a beer. I quickly
learned that the label that Doc Walker is on (Open
Road) is involved with distributing Taylor Swift's music
in Canada. Ridiculous! I couldn't believe that I had never
heard of them before this trip. As the evening progressed,
I found myself sitting at different seats and talking with
many different folks at the 'wrap'. Oddly enough, the
bar supplied tables with popcorn. Popcorn at a bar.
Weird!
Anyways, most the night was kinda blurry (not due to
drinking) and it passed by quick. A guy named Ron (who
apparently runs Open Road records) and another guy
who runs the KICX radio station kept the drinks flowin'
for the guys. It was a steady stream of comp beverages
for all to slurp. A few odd creature-like ladies were
stalking the band from the bar area and nothing really
materialized there. A few highlights from the rest of
the night were:
-Steve the drummer (who is a hilarious man) convinced
me 100% that he is Hugh Dillon's brother
-John (the Tara Oram guitarist) convinced me he was
born in 1971 when in reality he is 26.
-Brianne (who works for the label) told me that she
helped get a song from the label on CSI or some big
tv show
-Some random girl from the radio station asked me
if had known the band for years because we all seemed
so tight (I had known them for 6 hours)
I hit the sack in the crusty hotel sheets...and realized...
I liked this.
All of it.
It was good.
More to come.
