Party, party and more parties

What a weekend! I partied from Thursday night to Monday! No kidding – 5 days straight!

Thursday Aug 30 – Richard’s on Richards

This was the first Mint night – aka: the Country Nite w/ Neko Case, Carolyn

Mark, and Tennessee Twin. I missed Tennessee Twin because the show was an early one. I saw parts of Carolyn’s show but spent most of the night catching up with old friends and trying hard not to let myself buy any expensive drinks. Richard’s is such a rip-off. I advise people to get drunk before they come to the shows there, but please drive safely! Neko was suffering from a bit of a cold and had some throat problems but still seemed to blow everyone away as she normally does. However, the Corn Sisters didn’t end up playing due to Neko’s condition. The coolest thing about this night was there was a huge box of free Chupa Chups at the merch table and everyone who bought tix to both Mint nights got a free CD sampler. Woo, free stuff is always A-OK in my books. Oh and towards the end of the night Duotang decided to show up. I hadn’t talked to those Winnipeg boys since the last Mint show at Richard’s (w/ Duotang and the New Pornographers). The first words out of Rusty’s mouth were “Hey Mar, how’s it going? We’re staying at your house, right?” So then the chaos began: I fell asleep at 3:00AM.

Friday Aug 31 – Commodore Ballroom

Night #2 of the Mint extravaganza. Jenny and I went down early with the

Duotang boys for the free Mint food spread. Veggies, dip, deli meats, etc. Jeez, I have never spent so much time at the Commodore (8:00PM – 3:00AM – that’s 7 hours baby!). The New Town Animals were on first and the 30-day tour they just arrived from that day definitely showed! Whoa, tight ass. They played to a fairly small crowd but slowly things began to fill up. Duotang was next who were good as usual. This time at least the button fly on Rod’s super tight pants didn’t break. The last show I had to lend him a safety pin right before they went on. By the time The Evaporators hit the stage the room was well packed. They did the Thor thing again (second time I’ve seen it) and he still didn’t manage to pop the hot water bottle. I started chatting up Chris Nelson from MuchMusic at this point who then, before I Am Spoonbender went on, snuck me backstage! I spent I Am Spoonbender’s set catching up with an ex-boyfriend of mine I never talk to anymore. The dark synthesizer ambient noize/music was a nice break from the rock. The Smugglers went on with singer Grant Lawrence announcing the show was now sold-out (Hurray for Mint!). A special appearance from ex-cub member Lisa Marr singing “My Chinchilla” was definitely the highlight of the set. Everyone was dancing for that one. At this point I was in desperate need of a bathroom and made my way up to the dressing rooms (where I spent the rest of the evening missing most of the New Pornographers set). At the end of the night everyone was so hammered and so happy backstage of the success of the evening it felt like Christmas!

After the show we went to a party at an apartment owned by Jason Priestly. My friend Shane’s girlfriend Karen is actually Jason’s stepsister and they rent out their place from the Beverly Hill’s 90210 star. It was a small party but the cops managed to come by twice. I fell asleep at 5:30AM.

Sept 1 – RadioSonic BBQ and Geared to Go-Go

Unfortunately, I had to get up and work this afternoon. Today was the 4th annual

RadioSonic Barbeque (the show I work for). We broadcast live from the CBC plaza and we have a live band, this year it was the farfisa-rock combo the Tonics, and a BBQ. This year we had “celebrity” Chef’s as Hamm (Slow, Copyright, Jungle, Canned Hamm) came buy to cook up some wieners, as well as Sean Allum from Duotang and Sara Lapsley from Vancouver Nights. I was operating the soundboard and such so I wasn’t getting much of the food or social action but everything seemed to go smoothly.

This night was the Geared to Go-Go (part of the Vancouver Scooter Rally) night at the Ridge Theatre with bands, Groovie Ghoulies, Girl Trouble, Skablins and more playing! And downstairs in the bowling alley they had dancing (w/ DJ Todd Tomorrow) and drunken bowling. I got there more than fashionably late and only managed to catch Girl Trouble and the Groovie Ghoulies. I had never seen Girl Trouble before and wanted to check them out but was a little disappointed with them so I headed downstairs to the dance party. Back upstairs for the Groovie Ghoulies, fully drugged-up and loaded I had the best time dancing between the theatre seats. B-Face didn’t come up for the show so Kepi was on double duty as bass player and singer. They were taking tons of audience requests and seemed to be having a great time. Simple Ramones inspired punk rock about ghosts and vampires – who could ask for anything more?

After the show a bunch of us piled into two vans, Jenny, Duotang, Sara, and myself in one. In the “Gaylord Home Securities” van our friend Steve and some people from Seattle. We went in search of the beach scooter party but by the time we found it (after lots and lots of driving through the woods) there were 2 scooterists left revving their motors to take off. So we stumbled along the beach anyways and came across a “rave” type dance party up a hill in the woods. Steve managed to barf all over the grass, I smoked some grass, and everyone else rolled around in the wet grass. We kidnapped an extremely tall gay man from Miami named Tyron who had lost his friends, and went back to my house. I think we had another dance party at my house to the Stones but I don’t remember much after this part other then my squeegee punk neighbors coming over at 5:30AM and telling us to shut up. I woke up the next morning to find Tyron passed out at the foot of my bed still in his suit and boots!

Sept 2 – Duotang, Blue Lodge Quartet, and Brit Pop @ the Purple Onion

I don’t think I could be any hung over than I was this night but what did I go out and do? Party! Brit Pop night at the Purple Onion usually lands on Monday but this weekend because of “Geared to Go-Go” and everything it was a day early and that day early sure made a difference! The place was packed, completely sold out! I’ve never seen it like that. It was amazing! Of course I was drunk so anything would have been amazing but this was night was really fun. Scooterists from all over came to shake their “booty.” Most people were from the Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle regions but a few came from far off places like New York and Arizona. The two rooms were split, as they normally are on Monday nights: Brit Pop in the big room and 60s soul & rock in the smaller room. Duotang played in the smaller room and you could barely move it was so squished with mods. Everyone was really into them, which was the upside of the evening, the downside was that their van got broken into. Rusty lost his wallet and all of his ID! People when you come to Vancouver don’t leave your bag with all your valuables in your car if you park it in a bad neighborhood. I’ve lived in Vancouver all my life and never have had anything stolen out of a car before but you can never be too careful.

After the show everyone went back to Ska-T’s (Canada’s King of Ska) for a house party that went to 6:00AM. I really wanted to make out with a mod boy from Victoria but by the time I got to the party he had left so I settled for an old friend to smooch with.

Whew, so that was my Labour Day weekend. Coming up in Vancouver lots and lots of stuff to see! Go check out these shows if you can.

• Oct 4 – Southern Culture on the Skids @ the Wett Bar
• Oct 5 – Apples in Stereo @ Richard’s
• Oct 8 – El Vez @ Richards on Richards
• Oct 8 – The Faint @ Starfishroom
• Oct 14 – The Strokes @ Commodore Ballroom
• Oct 25 – Vue (San Francisco) and Hot Hot Heat (Victoria) @The Pic
• Nov 9 – Sloan @ Croatian Cultural Centre

Plus on Oct 10 I’m heading out to the East Coast, Halifax that is, for the Halifax Pop Explosion festival. My work is paying for the flight, hotel, etc. so it’s going to be pretty fun. We’re broadcasting live on the Saturday Oct 13 so I do have to work (it’s not all fun and games) but the rest of the time I’ll be checking out bands like Chicks on Speed, Peaches, Les Sequelles, The Weakerthans, and more. Alright, so get out of the house and go to some shows!

xoxo Mar

Oh yeah… and I got my electric blue Bubble Bag in the mail the other week.
Woo… my whole house smells like grape bubble gum. Yum! Everyone at my work was so jealous. It’s really small only big enough to fit my keys and maybe a credit card… I want a bigger one so I can put more stuff in it – it is so cool!
www.mybubblebag.com