Twenty years ago today, MuchMusic was born - Canada's first music video network went on the air for the very first time. Simultaniously, that very same day, in an unrelated and ultimately more impactful event, an underground 'occult' band from southern California called "W.A.S.P." releases their debut self-titled album.
Flash forward fifteen albums and twenty years (well, minus a few hours) and you'll find me, my wife, the rest of the guys from Scarecrow Balcony and about 900+ diehard W.A.S.P fans packed into the illustrious Commodore Crystal Ballroom to witness the band's Neon God tour - their first Vancouver performance in over 15 years.
The set was non-stop ENERGY. For over 90 minutes, the band didn't let up long enough to let the audience breath, let alone take a breather themselves! Blackie Lawless played rhythm guitar for the set, (which surprised me - I had only ever seen him play bass before) and sang impecably while tirelessly bouncing around and inciting the already energetic crowd into a frenzy - Not too shabby for a guy that turns 49 in 4 days!
Ah, then there was Blackie's mic stand... a 1,000 lb steel skeletal frame with arms raised high as if it were gripping the handlebars of a chopper. This spring loaded maniacal metal masterpiece not only held up a mic for Blackie, but it made a great perch for him as he belted out a few songs from the latest album while lathering up with glowstick juice - a freaky site under the black lights! Freaky, but very powerfully effective - in fact, as much as the other cities may have complained, I can totally see why W.A.S.P. recently cancelled a few sold out shows simply because the stage wasn't high enough or strong enough to support the mic stand. Don't get me wrong, without the neon encore, it still would have been a helluva show - I figured I had my money's worth after the first six songs, but those last images were what put it over the edge, making it one f**k'n AWESOME and infinitely memorable experience.
I also ran into two old singers from my past at that show... it was so cool to see these guys again - first was Dan, who sang with Typhus - not while I was in the band, but shortly after. He recognized Carole and I right away - great guy - good to see him again. The second was none other than the very first singer of the very first band I was ever in... back in Chilliwack - I must have been 20, and Harley was 17 or 18 - we rehearsed in his garage, and did songs like Paranoid, Sweet Child of Mine, Wild Flower, Hard to Handle, Rock you like a Hurricaine, Enter Sandmand, Smells like Teen Spirit - basically all the shmoltz that came out in 1991, plus all our earlier favorites... We never actually performed anywhere, but we sure did practice a lot. I played lead guitar for the first and only time in that band, and the my favorite guitar and amp, the ones I still prefer and use to this day, I bought while in that band. Wow. That was thirteen years ago - talk about memories! It was really cool seeing Harley again.
So anyway, I know that's not much of a show review, but it was a super awesome time - I had such a great night, I'm still pumped now - at work the next day, some 5 hours after getting home from the show (LOL!) - my ears are ringing like a moe-foe, but I'm still psyched! After a couple of legacy band letdowns (like Skid Row and Quiet Riot...) it was such a relief to see one of the bands of my youth still kickin' it 120%.
Last night, while standing at the bar lineup, a kid started talking to me about how he has loved W.A.S.P since he was fourteen, and has waited 10 years to see the band- I chuckled and said, yeah, I first heard W.A.S.P. when I was fourteen too, and got my first album of theirs later that same year ... I've totally been wanting to see them since then - of course, that was TWENTY years ago, and it was their first album. I bought the next 6 albums after that, but still never saw them until now. Yeah, I suppose talk like that could make a guy feel really old... but not after watching Blackie kick ass all night, and not after realizing that he was my age now, when I was saving up my paper route money to buy his 2nd album.
It just wouldn't be a weekend without some kinda rockin' now, would it?
Friday night it was another Scarecrow Balcony rehearsal turned party when people just kept showing up and rocking out with us. Our warehouse is starting to become known as a place to party, which is not very good for a band that wants to practise... it's always a load of fun, but we've got to curb it somehow or we'll never get anything done.
Saturday night I played a show with Randomblind at The Anza - and though there were 35 people in the audience including the bands and the bartender, we still put on an awesome show, with great sound, and had a great time. I think it's safe to say that was the best show we've ever done - by far... out of two gigs now. LOL.
Sunday, Carole and I went to the PNE. we went on 9 or 10 rides, took in the Superdogs, Nearly Neil, viewed the prize home (bought tickets for it...) checked out some fat pigs, fuzzy chicks, and wooly sheep, ate the obligatory bag of mini-doughnuts, and managed to get out of there without spending a penny on darts, hoops, rings, balls, or anything else that can be thrown or tossed for a change to win a cheap Tiawanese SpongeBob keychain. Yes, I got out of there unscathed, despite the flurry of barkers yelling "Come on man, what's wrong with you? That beautiful girl's holding nothing! What kind aman are you? You've gotta win her something to prove your love! Oh, you don't love her, is that it?" For the record, the last big stuffed critter I won her went in our last garage sale for 25 cents.
We were smart enough to leave the PNE grounds for dinner, so we had Thai on Main Street with Carole's sister in law before heading back for more rollercoaster rides - and considering that I had to find PNE parking TWICE, I was pretty damned lucky. The going rate was $12, but I managed to find free parking the first time and $4 parking the 2nd time. So all told, 9 rides, dinner, superdogs, chicken pee and parking set us back $163 - and it could have been a LOT worse... Imagine if we had a couple of kids? Whooowee!
I hate hypocrites. I bet they were all wearing leather coats and sealskin boots too...
"Environment activists piled thousands of dead fish at the foot of Berlin's biggest tourist attraction, the Brandenburg Gate, Tuesday in a demonstration against over-fishing and pollution in the North Sea... visitors to the famous neo-classical landmark were greeted by the smell of 11,000 rotting fish displayed on a 100 meter long table under banners bearing the slogan 'Don't waste life!' ... The dead fish on display - some 95% of the catch, including endangered species of octopus and sea urchin - were those that commercial crews would normally throw back overboard for failing to meet traders' criteria.
Friday night was rockin'. A 3 hours rehearsal followed by two more hours of live playing as people kept showing up at our rehearsal spot, basically turned our studio night into a 5 hour, hot, sticky jam party. It was a total blast - we even got flashed by an excited passerby (female of course!) which kinda makes the whole 'being in a band' thing worthwhile :-)
We've got three brand new songs that are just killer, but one of them, "Just Wanna Hold You" is getting freakishly amazing feedback from everyone who hears it - we can't wait to get some new recordings done!
Saturday was one of those 'a little bit of this, a little bit of that' days where we got stuff done, bailed on our plans (yet again...) to go to Play Land, and also bailed on our plans to attend the North West Metal Fest in Chilliwack. Lots of friends were playing there, and every one of them says the show was amazing. Oh well, I suppose there's always next year.
On Sunday, I hiked The Stawamus Chief (now that's a lot of rock!) with BobDog and Scotty Dogma
As you can tell by both of their bio pages, they rock climb a lot - and even on a simple hike, I was way out of my league - but, we managed to make it to the top within an hour, and I took lots of pictures while Scotty dangled Bob over the edge. Pictures coming soon - trust me, you won't want to miss these ones...
So anyway, it's two days later now, and I'm one stiff and achin' dude right now. I've got sore muscles that for the life of me, I can't even figure out how I used 'em.... like pecks, triceps, abs, lats, delts ... I don't remember using much upper body on the hike, but it's ALL sore ... calves definately the worst though. I'm SO out of shape, it's pathetic.
Regardless, Bob and I still managed to get out to the Cobalt for an hour on Sunday night to pay respects ... yup, that was the last night for the Cobalt. It's gone. History. Closed, caput, fini. But boy was it packed Sunday night - it was quite a party. I was never fond of that place, in fact, I've downright hated it at times - but one thing WILL be missed... it's not the piss smell or the bar fights or the swill, it's the Hardcore community. Without the Cobalt, there's nowhere left to go... It's the end of an era, or perhaps the beginning of a new one - only time will tell.
Oh - I know I said I wasn't going to plug the bands to much on my blog page (put the band plugs on your band pages, man!) But I've just gotta say that over the next few weeks we've got oodles of shows in the works between Scarecrow Balcony and Randomblind.
So far, for sure there's August 21st at the Anza, with Randomblind and September 8th at the Showroom with Scarecrow - but there are also shows in the works for September 1st, 4th, and a good line on the Fairview September 13th. Don't hold me to any of this yet, if it ain't on the band webpages, it's not officially true - but since this blog is MY forum, I can feel free to express my excitement about having a lot of shows in the works... right?
Okay - first and foremost, thanks to Michael Moore's website (www.michaelmoore.com) because I ripped this story off of it, word for word:
August 5th, 2004 5:57 pm
Is George W. Bush Planning to Attack America?
He sure makes it sound that way:
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
- George W. Bush, August 5th, 2004
Watch the speach yourself (1MB file - QuickTime required).
I'm sure everyone in Canada has heard last night's headline news - you know, the story about the guy that at 6:20 AM yesterday morning, had staked out his ex-girlfriends house with a rifle, waited for her to leave for work, and as she walked down the street he shot her six times in the back? Yeah? Then you must've heard about the ensuing highspeed police chase that culminated a few klicks away with a flipped car, a Hollywood style cops vs. robbers gun battle, something like 30 to 40 shots fired, and one dead wacko?
Vancouver Sun: Police shoot man dead in chase drama
Yeah, I'm sure you heard all about it. The lady with six bullets in her back had just been taken away when I drove down the hill on my way to work at 6:30. I only live 5 blocks from where she was first shot - fortunately for her, the hospital is exactly one block away. I guess I must have been brushing my teeth when all the shooting was happening, 'cause I didn't hear a thing... very strange - but there certainly was a lot of traffic chaos that morning. And even more that afternoon when I was heading home from work. News cameras and crews, and trucks - reporters doing monologues on the corner, sattellite vans with their dishes up, geez louise, our perfect little neighbourhood is starting to look like Surrey. What the devil is going on here???
I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I'm actually in two bands now. For the past month I've been rehearsing with Randomblind (as well as with Scarecrow Balcony) and on Friday night I played my first show with the RandomBoyz at The Pic on Friday night. It was also the first night for Craig from The Joint Chiefs - the new Randomblind drummer, who like me, started rehearsing with us about a month ago. It was a little rough nailing down 10 songs when half of the band is new, but considering the timeframe, I think we did a damn good job. Also on the bill were Tenant and 'The Join' - both really awesome bands.
Saturday was a fairly lazy day, as the days after late night gigs tend to be... (wasn't home 'till about 4AM) - so we watched The Last Samurai again, before a rendezvous with Scarecrow Balcony for a photo shoot. We got some great shots - I can tell... the setup was killer, so I'm hopong there are a few good bio shots out of this session. Then it was off to Scarecrow rehearsal, then up Buraby Mountain to watch the fireworks finale. That was both a good idea, and a bad one. Good because aparently there were over 400,000 people downtown, and we'd never have gotten in there (let alone out) alive... but bad because there were several thousand people on Burnaby Mountain too, with a police baracade, roadblocks, the whole bit - so we settled for a side street up the mountain with a decent view, where we sat on a bluff and had a couple beers while chewing the fat and watching fireworks from 18 kilometers away.
Sunday, while another late-to-rise day, was actually pretty productive. We got some errands run, then Carole and I spent the day in the big city. We had paninis in a quaint Italian bistro, we finally went to STORYEUM, we got over to relative's house for a visit, and we saw The Manchurian Candidate down on Granville. We had planned to see Metallica's 'Some Kind of Monster' but it wasn't playing. Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to download it ... just kidding Lars, it was a joke! don't sue me!
Storyeum was fun, and educational - I think everyone should check it out once, but I don't think it was worth $23. I was keeping a running tab of what I though the experience was worth, and I think that at $16 a ticket, they'd be stretching it. There were NOT any of the 'state of the art special effects' that were promises (and that I was looking forward to), but rather it was more like walking through the B.C. Museum in Victoria, with the only difference being live actors to bring the sets to live. However, things I learned that made the experience interesting, educational, and worth seeing at least once:
- Barkerville was at one time the largest North American city north of San Fransico and west of Chicago.
- Spain owned western Canada for a long time - it was only when they pulled out to concentrate their efforts on their South American holdings that the Hudson's Bay Company crept in and Spain never bothered to contest when the British started moving in. We were almost Spanish!
- 150 years ago, the native population of BC was nearly a quarter of a million. After the white man introduced smallpox, the decimated population was less than 25,000.
- Over 600 Chinese workers were killed while building the railroad through the rocky mountains alone.
- Over 22,000 Japanese fishing boats were 'confiscated' and moored in lower mainland harbours during the 2nd world war.
- B.C. ALMOST joined the United States - only the promise of a transCanada railroad made us join the Canadian Confederation. Six years later, when a railroad still had not been started, we threatened to secede and join the US. It ALMOST happened again - so the Canadian government started the railroad imediately. Whew! That was close!
Okay. Finally, a story worthy of the blog. This whole flat tire thing has really whipped me into rant mode. I'm fumin' and ready to write!
I guess I mentioned the other day that I drove over a screw in 70 Mile House this weekend, and the air slowly leaked out of my tire until I was driving with a flat. Since the tire was a "ride-flat" safety tire, there was really no way to even tell I had a flat until I went around a sharp corner and felt a slight drag. "Uh-oh... feels like I might have a flat!" We were litterally one km from our destination, so I drove the rest of the way, and subsequently discovered that yes, I did have a flat tire. However, upon further inspection, the screw wasn't the biggest problem - the sidewall had actually split, and therefore the tire was useless. While thankful that the safety tire had indeed done it's job and kept us safe from the perils of a blowout on the Fraser Canyon Highway, I was pretty miffed that it basically meant that I would unknowingly destroy a perfectly fine, patchable tire. If I had KNOWN I had a flat tire, I would have changed it, and had it patched.
Anyway, I knew it wouldn't be cheap - but I didn't expect the replacement to be $369. Ouch! Ha, but that's not the real ouch part.... my BMW dealership told me that it would be SIX WEEKS to order a new one! Four days after the flat, I was still driving on the tiny emergency spare tire - that was dangerous. I just wanted to get a new tire - how hard could that be? Well, apparently it's pretty hard. You see, BMW puts a new model of tire on every new model year. They're impossible to find after a year because the factories have all started making NEW models. So, "Fine" I say... "Find me something compatible! I'm not driving for six weeks on that donut, I need a real tire! Are you telling me that if anyone in Canada blew a tire in a 2003 BMW they'd have this same problem? I find that very hard to believe!"
Well, believe it or not, apparently it's true. Usually tires all wear out at the same time and all get replaced at the same time. Even if you get a flat, it's almost always patchable... nobody ever needs just 'one' tire, (so they say) so even if you're existing brand is no longer available, there's always another model that will fit on those rims. "Fine. Whatever..." I tell my repairman. "Get me another model that will fit on those rims then - get me something different, but the same. Whatever. Big deal. Fine me a tire that will go on my car. That's all I ask."
"Oh, it's not that easy" He expounded. "You see, you've already got 48K kilometers on these tires and so if we put a single new tire on, the tread wear will be different and that would cause a lot of problems all over... your braking, your mileage, your steering, all over!"
"Argh... fine, so can you please just find me some alternatives and let me know how much this is going to set me back?"
"Sure, no prob - I know Michellin makes one, and so does Pirelli. I'll just call a few suppliers and get back to you!"
He never did. Two days went by, and no call. I was still driving on that damned "do not exceed 80kmph" donut. So I went to the Pirelli store. Kewl - high performace tires! Oodles and oodles of models in stock! This'll be easy!
I thought I had it ALL figured out too. I confidently walked up to the desk and exclaimed "Hi, that's my beamer right out there. I blew a tire and need a replacement right away, but the wear on it's mate is about 50% so I hear it wouldn't be a good idea to ride a single new tire. I was thinking that if you could find me a couple of 'wider' tires that'll fit on my rims, I'll move them to the back, and keep two of my older tires on the front. What do you have that will fit my rims?"
"Well, it looks like you've got a 2003 330 Xi." I was impressed - all he could see out the window was my front headlights. He may have guessed the year and possibly even the model, but how did he know it was an "Xi"??? "So you'll have 17 inch rims on there. I can offer you several alternatives, but there is one problem... that's an Xi, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, that means it's an all-wheel drive."
"...um, yeah... that's right..."
"So you've got to replace ALL the wheels or you'll void your warranty. BMW's pretty picky about that - all the wheels are turning at the same time - if you put two different size tires on there, then it'll screw up the computer when two tires are rotating faster than the others."
"Okay, so let's back out of plan-B, can you just find me two tires that are the identical size as the ones I currently have?"
After a few phone calls, he comes back and says "I found one tire in Victoria, one in Calgary, and two in Toronto. If you only want two, I can have them in two days, but if you want four it'll be a week. I still think you'll void your waranty if you only put two on though, because as you said, you've got 50% tread wear on your tires. These new ones will not really be the same size, even though they're the same size... if you get a written letter from BMW that says they'll let you do it, then we'll install them, but we can't knowingly void your waranty."
Geez, Who knew it would be this difficult!!!
"Okay then, let's say I replace all four then. What have you got?"
"Oh, well we've got plenty in stock that we could do right now. I've got some models that are of much higher quality and a lot cheaper, too."
"By right now do you mean 'this week' or 'right now'?"
"I mean in 5 or 10 minutes."
"Great - so I guess if I'm getting four new tires, I may as well go with something cheaper and of higher quality!"
"Yeah, those Goodyears you've got on there really don't have a very high user rating. Check out these driver comparasins:" He pulls up a website (www.1010tires.com) and shows me that, sure enough, of all the tires that can be put on a 330Xi, the ones I have are the most expensive and have the lowest overall customer satisfaction rating.
"Geez, that's lame!"
"Yeah, I don't know why BMW ever chose that model - they usually always pick the best of the best. Here, let me suggest these Falkens. They won a consumer reports magazine rating of the best all around all-season tire." He whips out a Consumer Reports magazine and magically opens it to the right page with a single flick of the wrist...
"Plus, they're very modestly priced. Only $189 each. They're still low profile, but are about 20mm wider, and will still fit on your rims. This is the 17th best selling brand of tire in the shop."
I look around and visually count about 9 brands of tires on display around me. His comment confuses me, but instead of going off on that tangent, I just ask if there's anything cheaper that's still a good quality tire.
"Actually, if you look at this webpage again, you'll see that of the 12 tires you can put on there, the Falken is the 2nd cheapest (The other being $139 each) but look at the ratings - breaking, turning, noise, smothness, the Falken is top of class in everything - this other one is dead last. It's up to you..."
He was just too slick. I said "Okay. I've already got 600km on that emergency tire out there, I can't wait another 6 weeks let alone one week. I'll grab the Falkens." An hour later, I was out of there, and my Visa was $917 lighter.
Such is the story of the $917 flat tire.
Okay! The photo gallery insanity has all been straightened out, and Carole has scanned and uploaded the pictures from our trip to Bowen a couple weeks ago.
So what did we do there?
Well, first we checked in to our floating hotel room on the warf of the Snug Cove Marina. And after a few drinks on the dock (as the ferry arrived behind us), we headed up to Doc Morgan's for a BBQ dinner, and a few more drinks with the whole fam-damily. We had a great night's sleep, and early the next morning, my aunt's beau, Chris took us out on his boat to haul up the crab traps (tonight's dinner!) and otherwise just enjoy a beautiful morning on the water.
Carole spent her liesure time feeding goats, taking great pictures, chillaxin' on the boat, and taking more great pictures - while I mostly drank beer and got stupid (so unlike me!).
That night was a big BBQ party at Chris' place (that's my dad tending to the meat), where I drank muchos cervesas. As you can tell by this scenic shot (taken in the afternoon the next day) I was feeling a little rough...
But, we did manage to get out on an awesome boat ride to Gabriola Island, and even managed to make it back on to the ferry (after a one sailing wait). It was an awesome weekend. Much better than the next weekend when we went to Newport Village for Italian Days, and sauntered out to the low-tide Rocky Point mud flats to snap this picture.
Howdy! We got the pictures back from Bowen and there are lots of good ones, but Carole was having troubles uploading them to her Photo Gallery (I had screwed up when moving everything to the new server) so I had to upgrade it and convert all the old albums to the new format... so... now that it's up and running, Carole's going to upload the pictures, and I'll write about what we did on Bowen. (Actually, I uploaded one picture just to test if it was working - you can checkout a pic of the two of us in front of our floating hotel room, first night on Bowen)
Hey, did I ever mention that I moved all my websites to a new server? Hmmm... very long story - maybe next rainy day I'll tell ya all about it.
Anyway, this past weekend (B.C. Day long weekend) We joined the Scarecrow Balcony drummer Ron and his family and friends (Including members of Omegacrom, Sack Blabbath, Mach Turtle, and more) for a killer long weekend at Green Lake. Weather was awesome, camping was great, food was awesome, and Matt's campfire storries kept us all howling 'till the wee hours of the morning. Again, when the pictures are developed and uploaded, I'll post some links to 'em here.
Only crappy thing was that I blew a tire about 20 minutes away from our destination and since I've got those damned low profile 'ride-flat' safety tires, I didn't even know it until we arived. I suppose that's what they're made to do, keep us safe - but if I had KNOWN that I had run over a nail, I would have gone right to the tire store in 70 Mile and had the thing patched! By not knowing, I drove on it for 20 minutes and split the sides, thus destroying the tire... which, of course, NOBODY carries a replacement low profile 17 inch 'ride-flat' safety tire in the Cariboo, so our 600 km trip home was done on the mini donut emergenct spare tire that you can only use to a maximum of 80kmph...
Even back in Vancouver these tires are hard to find - but my BMW dealer was nice enough to order me in one from back east at the amazing $100 below cost price of $289!!! Wow - what a deal... the patch would have been $15 max!!!
Ah well. I keep telling myself that "people buy BMWs because they're SAFE, not because they're economical!" and I suppose the safety tire did it's job. The price of safety these days...
Aside from the tire, it was an awesome excusrion. The weather was so perfect, about 30 degrees every day - and now that we're back in Vancouver, it's pouing rain for the first time in over a month. For once, great timing! We REALLY need this rain...