Red’s – West
Edmonton Mall – Edmonton, Alberta - March 3rd 2006
It’s been nearly three months since the band has
played live. Between Christmas, Jason’s trip to Australia
and my Vancouver Island journey there has been little time
to get together and put on a live performance. Today is
going to be our first show of the New Year and it feels
great to be back at it.
I’m a little intrigued to see how many people actually
show up. Mike Dilts the promoter at Red’s and myself
threw together the show in just under 10 days so the promo
materials didn’t really hit the streets or our friends
for that matter until about 3 days before the show. We
got out about 60 promo tickets; hopefully the other two
bands did the same.
Tonight’s band list consists of Fusebox, Living
Illusion and Gameshow. Fusebox is the first band on this
evening and by the time we arrive they’re already
set up. We haul in our gear and make our way to the green
room. Once inside, we comment on how the green room is
literally painted green. I run to find the evening manager
and tee everything up. I grab a free beer and BS with him
about music and his band Deep Fine Grind. Nice guy.
After
finishing my conversation Jason grabs me and we proceed
to get a couple rounds of pool in. (Red’s
is huge and has a bowling alley, pool hall, arcade and
bar) People start to slowly drizzle there way in and I
see some friends that I invite to join us for a round of
pool. We drink and play a few more games before Jay and
I decide to go check out the first band that just started
playing.
There
are a good 15 people in the crowd as Fusebox plays; they
look like there having fun. I decide it’s time
to go get my gear together as we’re the next band
on. I make sure all my stuff is good to go and head for
a pre show smoke, but not before grabbing a couple more
beers. Jason joins me outside and says that more people
are starting to show up.
After
we’re done we head back in to watch Fusebox
finish and begin to load our gear on stage. There are a
good 75 people in the crowd now, which is always a good
sign (well a better sign). As always it’s like a
house party, surrounded by friends all there to party,
watch us play and have a great time. We start to play and
every one is digging it.
As
we make our way through our set we get to one of our
only covers, Stinkfist by Tool. The crowd cheers as we
start to play. The song is going awesome and sounds superb.
We get to the bridge of the song and Mark kicks in his
bass solo. We build and build slowly to get to the heaviest
part of the song, then once it hit the Light Tech at
Red’s
kicked on the strobe light. We start jumping up and down
to the beat of the song and get the crowd going. Lights
are flashing, crowds going hardcore, it’s wicked.
Once
we finish our set we tear down and I run around like
a mad man selling CDs. I head out front to have a rette
and say goodbye to some people who aren’t staying
for the last band. I head back in and sit with the crew.
The crowd has gotten smaller but we sit and enjoy the last
band. They put on a good show.
As
they finish the bouncer’s start to kick every
one out, but not before they mention to us that they think
we did an awesome job. The band loads up all the gear and
we all head home. It’s nice to be knee deep into
the music again.
Happy and Fulfilled,
Shane Lamotte
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