Saturday morning we woke up and braved the outside wilderness which was covered in frozen rain. I was not impressed but once we hit the roads, it was clear sailing. Thanks to Mike who managed to change my much needed to be changed wiper blades! They were beautiful on the way up. The trip was uneventful other than getting passed by Danny and Carol in their van with some red-headed fury hanging out of the window. Also, the great iPod challenge occurred in the car near the end of the trip which was excellent. It consisted of two categories until we ran out of time: best guitar solo, and cheesiest song. Oh wait, there was also the ‘most rocking song ever’ challenge which Mike clearly won with Crazy Train.
After hanging out with the parents and Nanny (who had trekked up to the North for Christmas) we headed out to the Legion that night to grab an early table. I had never been to the downstairs portion and was pleasantly surprised. Bruce’s band was excellent and the volume wasn’t too loud and the place was packed. I saw a few familiar faces and then during the break, they invited Mike and me up to the stage. After setting up everything, we started it off with Blind Melon’s Changes which went over well. Mike thought his mandolin solo could have been a little better but I thought it was a beaut.
During a small break, I commented on how only our table laughed at Bruce’s joke of how they accept requests but only on the back of a 5 dollar bill. I told everyone how I asked Mike why that was and he said that it was an old joke of his Dad’s. Everyone had a good laugh at that.
Then we head on into the Barenaked Ladies Brian Wilson which I had literally started playing a few nights before as per Mike’s suggestion. I do remember playing it with Troy a few years back, now that I think about it, but never really thought of it as one in my repertoire. I don’t know how describe the feeling of playing a new song, but there is an energy about it. There is more enjoyment in playing a song that is new and exciting to you, rather than an old one that has seen its day. So all cylinders were firing when we launched into the force which was Brian Wilson. I thought it came off pretty well even though I needed the lyric/music sheet as I had no idea how to play the song by heart by that point. At this point, we could have sit there all night long, but we knew that it was not destined to be and settled for one more song with Danny coming up to try his hand at guitar during Neil Young’s Heart of Gold.
Danny was a success! He was nervous (as he should have been!) at his first time in front of a giant audience like that and it went over well. I made have flubbed a chord change here and there during the song, but I’ve realized that the best musician is one that makes it look like there is no flub during the performance. Also, one must realize that these things happen and it’s just music, man! Enjoy the moment! Mike rocked the harmonica like no other, although he said he started to sweat when he saw the greatest harmonica player in Kapuskasing walk by him as soon as he started! I had a good laugh at that.
Thanks to Bruce for allowing us to take the stage that night! It was a moment we will never forget. PLUS, some of it is on video.
The night descended into madness with draft beer all around and meetings with old friends. Of special note was Angele who commented on my Sam Roberts shirt and mentioned how she was good friends with Matt Mays and the boys from El Torpedo. I was very excited to hear this and chatted with her for awhile about it. My favourite part of this conversation was the following:
Ryan (to Mike): Hey Mike! Angele knows Matt Mays!
Mike: Oh yeah? That’s cool. (not looking too impressed.)
Ryan: No man, she KNOWS Matt Mays! Like, actually knows the guy!
Mike: WHOA!? Really?
Ah…hilarity. My highlight of the night was definitely when there was enough rye pumped into Brent’s body to convince him to get up on the drums which he hadn’t done in public for the past decade. It was a great time and I’m sorry to see the band couldn’t whip into some Zeppelin for the guy. I could tell he got the itch back. Hopefully he pursues it!