There are 12 cicadas buzzing non-stop in my ears this morning. It was so loud, the air in the room shimmered and my pant legs flapped with the bass notes. It was great.
I bought tickets yesterday morning for me and Nate but when I got home this was on the email:
Hey dude;Despite my hopefully short term loss of a broad range of frequencies, it was great being the kings of rows G, H and I - before the show kids (I mean kids) were hanging over chairs asking how we got the backstage passes. Rather than explain a long time ago I knew a Guy from a Library in Halifax and he and I both became lawyers, he representing Sloan, I a little web company called silverorange and one day I figured there might be something in an introduction...I said "we do Sloan's web page". Our coolness spread into portions of row J and was so intensely felt by one guy that he jumped into the row behind us and told us that he had seen Sloan four times so far this year, that he was in Kingston from U. of A. in Calgary for a conference and then told us a bunch of stuff using words I really didn't recognize but they were generally variants of cool. He was a fan.Sorry... just got your message. No... I'm in halifax. But you are on the guest list plus one. Mike Nelson is the tour manager...find him if there is any problem. Tickets are in your name so pick them up anyway as they are likely better seats. also, backstage passes if you are in the mood to introduce yourself to the boys. The tour manager knows you might stop by. have fun!
We went backstage before and after, got a rock hug from Chris, talked about ear plugs with the grey Dads of the band and resisted the temptation to grab a beer and sandwich. Chatted about how I watched some of them in earlier incarnations Kearney Lake Road and Blackpool and felt like a dweeb later for being the needy guy but then not so bad as the Chris Murphy chickenburger vintage hoodie sparked a discussion of good stuff that included my 60's St. Pats High sweatshirt. The show was loud, loud, loud in line with the volume of the new records, Action Pact. Lots of high kicks, roadie exchanges of guitars each of I wanted to lick (the guitars not the roadies) and a ten foot-high flashing strobing arc of tube lighting behind them the width of the stage that confirmed I am not epileptic. "Losing California" was very good. They switched instruments around for "Sensory Deprivation" with Chris on drums, Jay on bass which got very loose. They started to play with us making us shout "hey" on the back of a bo-diddly beat between songs and later all crouch down quiet in our seats until a certain point in the song when we all had to jump up at the perfect rock moment. It was a big loud sing-song.
I have pictures from Nate but I guess he doesn't know the internet so well as he sent them all as 1,000 kb files which I have to figure out how to reduce. I guess he figured I wanted my signed forearm printed out as a poster - which I might yet do, now that I tihnk about it. Photos, then, later.
Comments
Alan - October 28, 2003 10:39 am
Another view from the Chump, a dedicated fan of music and follower of Sloan through many years [who thinks he is old and who is having linking issues so I quote]:<blockquote class="smalltext">...last night sloan played the grand theatre. now, i've seen sloan at least a dozen times, so i was less excited than i am for, say, melissa auf der mar's band on wednesday - but considering the declining quality of sloan music over the last few years, i'd say that was warranted. it kind of made me sad to note that all of the hyper-excited kids at the show (who consider themselves massive sloan fans, to the point of making their own t-shirts and screaming continuously for several hours) think sloan began with navy blues or between the bridges. this was evident with the declining excitement from the crowd during songs like coax me or deeper than beauty (i, of course, was far more excited for the oldies...but then again, i'm old). also: sloan didn't tour with a keyboard. gah! that was a big let down. the only good thing i can say about that is that their keyboardless version of c'mon c'mon was excellent. overall, they did a much better job of mixing up new songs with old ones than they did in the past, but their glory days are behind them. oh, and boy (who opened) kicked their ass, much like the dears did last time i saw sloan at the grand. </blockquote>I agree with the keyboard and the declining excitement comment but the age of the crowd is not a big thing for me. After Pat said they had now outlived at least 3 crowds of undergrads. I figured more like five. There were some kids who must have been in highschool in the row ahead of me who knew every word. I am now old enough to have outlive six generations of three-year degree undergrads so I do not worry about this anymore.
Mike - October 28, 2003 1:58 pm
Any lassies rolling their beautiful R's last night? 8-)
Alan - October 28, 2003 4:03 pm
Band members were pointing out the approved after show in the room. Music of choice for Andrew pre-show - The Clash's first album. "Jenny Jones is still the best recorded music I own. He drinks Boddingtons, Patrick drinks Corona. All very, very moderate on the women and drink, however, somewhat genially nerdy if that is the right way of saying it.