Blogger Party

VANCOUVER- Okay, now that I am back in Vancouver for a few days, I can update the tour blog.

A lot has happened since the last update.

Our two shows in Saskatoon were absolutely fantastic. Since this update is going on the official tour blog as well I can only say that, in addition to our best Saskatoon turnouts yet, the events of the weekend were such that I wouldn't even have been able to make them up. You wouldn't believe me if I wrote them anyway, and so, I won't.

Valentine's Day in the Slocan Valley was excellent. The Little Slocan Lodge is something very special. Check them out before reading on:

http://www.littleslocanlodge.com/

When we got there, some volunteers were hard at work painting a giant Jack of Hearts for the show. We got our stuff inside and settled in for the night, feeling great to be in such a comfortable location among such great people. The lodge is truly amazing, and we just love it!

The next day I was up earlier than anyone, and I decided to go for a walk in the cold winter air, to maybe work off a bit of the beer and burger fat I built up this tour. I walked up the path, and there was a yellow toboggan beside the trail. I took a few steps past it, and stopped. I turned around, and looked at it.

"Might as well take it up the hill, just in case," I thought to myself. I took it by the string, and started up the long, steep trail. It took me a while and I was a little out of breath when I got to the clearing at the top of the hill. I looked forward. It was beautiful! I looked backward. It was steep. I breathed heavily, and then made a decision: screw the walk! I hopped in the toboggan and headed down the hill.

The trail had been worn into the snow in the shape of an icy bobsled track, and thank goodness for that, because before long I was moving faster than I had ever been on a toboggan. With a twenty foot drop to my right I made a hard left turn and started the long descent back to the lodge. About halfway down I started giggling and by the time I hit the bottom I was laughing like a maniac. My thirst for the outdoors slaked, I headed inside.

We spent the day lazing about, eating fine vegetarian food, and setting up for the show. Before long, friends old and new were arriving at the lodge. Our good friend Alice arrived too, and as you know, when she parties with us, the parties can get weird! We played four sets and a two song encore. The highlights for me were the weirdest Black Creek drum solo ever (Sean was somewhere in the cosmos that he's probably never been before) and Juice Pig. Gretchen and Earl seemed particularly affected by the skull-scraping sounds in the middle of A Hole...... There was talk of some Space Frog.....

After the show, a whole bunch of people went tobogganing again! This time, Brody pulled them down the trail on a huge toboggan, diving out of the way at the last minute! I wasn't going to go, in fact I had recently decided that I would never use a muscle again, and was having excellent luck getting people to pull me around on the floor, and turn my head to different angles when I wanted to look at something. Sometime after I decided I was only going to communicate through zipper sounds for the rest of my life, Gretched convinced me to go out by dressing me up in wings and a thneed (invented by Dr. Seuss, see the Lorax) and dragging me into the cold night. When I got there I realized the craziness that was going on. Jim had been chugging a beer every time he climbed to the top of the trail (and they had already been out there for hours), smashing the can, pocketing it, and heading down the hill...... you fill in the rest. We tobogganed until eight or nine in the morning.

I didn't sleep at all, so at around one in the afternoon I woke everyone up and made us leave. I wanted to get home to Verny more than anything, and the ride home may have been one of the longest eight hour trips I've ever been on. Thank goodness I was able to sleep for the first half.

This past weekend we played Sonar, here in Vancouver, and The Boot Pub in Whistler.

Sonar was excellent, although the double booking with the regular saturday Richard's on Richards urban top forty hip-hop night (which is moving residency to Sonar on Fridays) made for some weirdness. In the end all was good, and we had the opportunity to hang out with Baked Potato, Vancouver's newest jamband, and a good one at that!

Then, it was off to Whistler for what turned out to be a fantastic night. It was Jay Guthrie's birthday which basically meant debauchery for all. And oh, what debauchery. Once again, I can't put it in the blog... sorry, you'll have to use your imaginations (and unless you have one like mine, your imagining is likely to fall short of the truth).

Now, five days off, and then off to the island for a couple shows. I'll keep you posted.

Scott