Thursday, May 16, 1996

FIRST ROAD TRIP

(This is Carolyn Mark, aka Blue Bill, of The Vinaigrettes, but that is not her house, and the lollypop's a prop...)

I guess it all started with this idea I had that MusicWest would be as good a place as any to introduce MMB to the industry at large. I hustled to get all the things together (bios, demos, etc... oh yes, and a $20 processing fee...), and I even made sure it was postmarked MANY times on the outside of the envelope to indicate that I was on time. They said to not bother them, that the decisions would be made in the last two weeks of March, so I didn't bother them. They didn't bother me either. They didn't even bother to tell me we were rejected. I found out by looking up their website and checking out the list of who would be performing. MMB wasn't there, so that's how I surmised we didn't make it. They had my e-mail address and everything. Go figure. Anyway, I cleverly planned for MusicWest to happen at the end of the projected "time away", reasoning that if we weren't accepted, we wouldn't be stuck with many days off in the middle of our trip. So, even without MusicWest we had a small tour and a damn good reason to go. I found out we weren't at MusicWest in enough time for our Bristol Agent Chris Martin to book us into The Drake in Canmore Alberta on those particular days. I had to host the open stage at The Boiler Lounge in Edmonton the night we left. We left right from the bar, leaving not only our friends, but also all my harmonicas behind. I didn't figure it out till the next night. I was waving goodbye smiling like an idiot. We were in Darren Carter's van. He had recently got off the road with King Letus (Brian Toogood's current project. Power pop trio) and he had a little time off. I was in a panic to find a way out there. We still don't have our own vehicle. Darren was a Godsend. He is a great traveling partner as well, and despite its reaction to the humidity, his van performed majestically. Our first stop was Victoria. Before we actually got there, we had to first stop at a phone booth near Hope or someplace as I had to call up Clare at The Sidetrack and hammer out a few details about a show on May 7. Details like "Can we play there then?" It was raining, and I was looking at mountains doing business on a pay phone. Mi vida loca. I was also trying to get a hold of Lianne to bring her to Victoria with us, but I kept getting her machine. We got right into Vancouver when I called and got the message that she had opted to stay in town to see The Piemyn (my neighbors at home). As a result, we missed the 5 o'clock ferry. Oh well. The hysterical thing was that Lianne showed up in Victoria at the gig anyway. So we get to Carolyn Mark's place, where we were parked for 5 days. We generally cleaned and stretched a bit, and then headed over to The Nautilus Club, where we played for two nights and I found out I forgot my harps. We were a little tired the first night, and some of those songs sure suck without harmonica in them. There was a squash tournament going on there at the time, so the clientele was of a different vibe. It was fun nonetheless, and I thought the band played quite well under the circumstances. We reacted as good as you can to being tired, anyway. The next day I had to talk the local Long+McQuade guys into helping me out with the harp thing. The plus side is that I now have new harps. Those Lee Oscars are damned expensive though. The next night was a little more high energy. After the show, we went to what I surmised was the annual "Art Fag" party, where many Victorians play bongos and scream torturously through the night. We ate very well at Carolyn's. After one of the great meals (you might say the Sunday one), we all went to Blue Bill's Sunday Hootenanny. The name of the establishment escapes me, but good ole Blue Bill almost brought a tear to uncle Mike's eye when she informed him that she got the idea from The Rosebowl Sunday Jam. Well, I don't think I deserve hardly any credit at all. Open stages are hardly new, and that Blue Bill's works is a testament to her belief in the project and her hard work, not mine. It does feel great to know that someone thinks I made a difference. I have to keep remembering there's more to life than the material world suggests. Thank you Blue Bill! The Hootenanny, incidentally, is very great. The Piemyn had invaded Victoria as well by then, and we were all garrisoned under the Banner of Edmonton in poor Carolyn's place. At this point I'd like to thank Dave Lang, Sherwood, and Mike the Buddhist from the back porch for their amazing tolerance. Onward... The next day (Monday), we were off to Nanaimo, to play The Queen's Hotel with Superpop, and a band called The Metronome Cowboys Carolyn and Ed Dobek are in. They were highly entertaining. Makes you wish some folks lived in the same town as you. To make a long story short, it wasn't my favorite gig. The good things were The Metronome Cowboys, and my third anniversary off booze. April 29. Whoopee!! Just my luck, I accidentally took a sip of a real beer. It was awful. Don't worry, it was a genuine accident. The next night we had down, so we all went to see The Piemyn at The Java Cafˇ. Terry Morrison was there! The boys played great. Ryan did a great drum solo, and I hate drum solos usually. Finally, we left Carolyn's house. We got up early the next day, and went and invaded Lianne's (she only stuck around Vic. for a couple days) Ken Larsen (our stage tech) and Darren loaded in to The Railway Club while Sherry-Lee, Duke and I met Dorothy Allen of SOCAN for lunch, whereupon I did the songwriter paperwork I'm not so prompt with. We had a great visit. It was from Dorothy I got my first sense of the building tension preceding MusicWest. There was a buzz in the air for sure. We were playing the night before it all went down. We had a decent sized crowd for once, and I thought we did a good job. As usual in Vancouver, I knew practically everybody there, and thus it was impossible to spend quality time with anybody. Sorry about that my friends, but too much really freaks me out. Anyway, we were hanging out the next day. We went to The Railway (Thanks by the way to Janet for giving us a chance) to get our gear where I ran into my old friend Janice Fike. Back in the bad old days, Janice and another old friend Fran Hollywood had a publicity company, and Jr. Gone Wild was among their clients when they started out. It was a result of our association with those two that JGW had any following at all in Toronto. And it was the Toronto hubbub we caused that got us everywhere else. It was interesting to see her now that JGW is literally gone. She has an amazing job! She's A+R for Atlantic Records, and she works out of Rockefeller Plaza, where they shoot The Letterman Show! Unfortunately, we could only say hello. It was day one of MusicWest, and she was busy. It was day one of MusicWest and I had to get the hell out of there! The next night we were in Canmore. Hotel rooms, TV, good food (we lucked out the whole trip foodwise), and a great gig, thanks in part to Andrew and Matt and their crazy friends. Rochelle and Daisy of Painting Daisies and Dale Ladouceur of Dale Ladouceur popped over after their gig in Calgary as well. Saturday afternoon we took a sidetrip to the hotsprings in Banff. I recommend it, but not within 5 hours of playing. My arms and legs felt like overcooked linguine. It sure is relaxing though. Good to do if you're touring. We got back home in plenty of time for The Rosebowl Jam. For me it officially ended after The Sidetrack gig on May 7. My final assessment: it was fun, I got to break my routine at home, we didn't lose money (can you believe that?) we played pretty good as far as I'm concerned, made some good contacts out West, exposed the band well, ... most objectives accomplished. I think this band is going to work out just fine. All the machinery works. All we need now is gas...

Remember, the MMB home page is interactive. Just e-mail me or Steve, and that's all there is to it. Thanks for listening.

Mike McDonald