The Gods Of Now On Tour – Day 13

Last Part Of Day 12

Okay, this is weird. It’s Day 13 and a Friday but it’s the 12th of September. There’s some kind of vortex of confusion here for sure.

Last night me and Alex went to look around in Sun Peaks Resort town. Whew! Dead. But it’s the end of the season so what do you expect. It is what it is. Walking down the cobble stones – could have been in the Netherlands or in the Swiss Alps for all we knew. We find Bottoms at, appropriately enough, the bottom of the hill. Inside were locals going for a last brew. Friendly. Girl named Elena and a bar tender from New Zealand. I thought he was Aussie. Sorry dude. Didn’t mean to. We watched everyone play pool but that isn’t much fun.

I leave. Alex stays behind.

I enjoy the quiet walk back up. I would love to come back here.

I get to the room and do some work. Jon and Zasta are working on getting the pix ready to put up on the blog. They realized that we don’t have any vid footage from the Stargate visit so they improvise a Space Monster vid to include. (see Vid).

Everyone goes to bed and I’m left working alone.

I feel like I’m in space. Nothing around to stop or change my direction. I’m moving that’s for sure. But up here there’s no backwards or forwards up or down, this way or that way. It’s forward in all directions. Their is no stability. How can their be, that would imply that I know what it feels like to be right sometimes. But their is no right or wrong, no morality because this is uncharted territory – so I’m not right about that either. I feel like I’m in space. A million miles and a million years from anywhere. And even if some miracle happened and I got there…Then what?

I go to sleep.

Day 13

I walk up to Zasta’s cell phone alarm that I asked him to put on. I immediately feel conviction. The Gods Of Now!

I see that the establishment doesn’t like to hear things that are new or anti-establishment. I’ll take it as a sign that I’m right on track.

It’s always best to make up your own mind – just buy the record and listen to it. If you don’t like it, burn it. And tell your friends that you have no musical taste – Oh come on, I’m kidding. Like it or not – just make up your own goddamn mind. It’s taste.

Zasta says in my voice “Don’t be like me – don’t be ambivalent”. Ha! He’s so right. Do I even know what I like? Ask I guess, then I’ll tell you. I have opinions but do I stand by them… Is it bone head judgment or informed opinion?

Oh fuck this is getting complicated now… Ambivalence is all about keeping it going as long as possible. Trying to stay right where you are in the comfort zone and not break out of it by deciding what you need to do – EVEN WHEN YOU MUST. And that last bit is key.

Definition of Ambivalence #1

You must make a choice sometimes – who of us has never been with four strippers who all want to you to fuck them, shoot heroin and crash sum poor family and terrorize them for 3 days? You must make a stand – yes or no – me – I want to hang with the four strippers for as long as possible with out engaging in the deadly actions – who wants to spend three days doing nothing when I’ve got too much work to do anyway! Just to be – to do is to decide – so to be ambivalent means you stay where you are. God what a deceit it is.

End Definition.

We go for a light breakfast at a little place called 5 Forty Cafe & Deli. The food was SOOOOO good. Breakfast sandwiches made fresh. I had the two egg vegetarian with spicy cheese. Whoa! Amazing. The coffee was fantastic too. All the boys in the band vacuumed their sandwiches with ease.

Journey down the mountain. Their’s this smell coming from the Banyion. No, not in the Banyion but the furnace that keeps us moving forward. I think it’s the brakes but it may be the power steering fluid that needs topping up. Either way – I’m gonna take it in for a lube job. Alex knows all about giving those, pal.

We get to Kamloops and go to Long and McQuade music. What a helpful bunch of people. We once had an argument about people in music stores and how I knew, because I’ve been to so many, that they all act like assholes. Selling two bit guitars that are impossible to play to little kids. (and you wonder why their are so many D.J.’s.). Anyway – I had to fix my cable from the Vancouver show. The guy takes it and tries to fix it on the spot (I tell him that we’re from MTL and that we’re playing tonight here in Kamloops), which is a fucking amazing thing to get done anywhere let alone a music store! And then I buy a strap and a new cable cuz mine went Lobotomatronic on me – for those of you who somehow don’t have the record yet – that means the wires have been crossed. Not good. I’ve only had it for like 10 years. I suppose it was due. Zasta bought a snare skin. Jon wanted to get a pedal but couldn’t find any he liked. The cashier told me how to get to the hotel and was totally friendly.

So, I’ve rescinded. I was wrong. I was close minded and now I’m born again about guys who work in music stores. I admit it. Not everyone that works in a music store is an asshole. To tell you the truth – it’s been a long time since anyone in a music store has been anything towards me but very nice and helpful. I’ve just been hanging on to some kind of deep anger, I guess. It’s good to let it go. In fact, the next music store I go into I’m gonna shake the fucking sales guy’s hand and say “you are doing a great job here dude! Keep up the good work!”. I will too. Wow, this is one less issue I have to worry about. My disdain for going into music stores! Hey! It’s not much, but one less issue in my plethora of issues is sooo uplifting.

We go to The Best Western and settle in. Very nice hotel. Friendly, clean and big rooms. Me and Zasta go for a hot tub and a swim. I know, touring is rough. And it’s gonna get rougher when Amanda and Max show up. Amanda is a knock-out native girl who is covered in tattoos and piercings. She sees me and Zasta immediately, but not before we see her. Ha! Me and Zasta are such sluts!

We’re swimming around them and Zasta tells them about the show tonight. They say they’re going to come. We’ll see. They seem like the kind of girls who would totally dig what we do. So we’re hopeful.

We go back to the room. Alex is napping. Today, he’s feeling blue. He misses home. I don’t blame him. And I understand. We all do. Nothing is easy. But nothing is erroneous. Cuz unless you die, you have a chance. And if you have a chance – that’s all you need.

I mean, what the hell drives us to leave what we have and come out here into space and drift? Psychologically, physically, mentally, spiritually. What is the fucking click we need to hear in our head to calm us down? To make us stable? And most importantly, to make us happy?

Oooo that’s a hard one, that last question. What do we need to make us happy? If I could answer that, I don’t know if I would be here right now. But for now there is one thing that at the very least gives us conditional happiness…

We perform.

Anyway, I say to the guys that their is an amazing, albeit expensive buffet that the hotel does every Friday. It has fish and meat and everything we could want. So we could have that, or something else if that doesn’t do it for us. Jon and Zasta are with me on it. They’re going to the mall to look around and invite girls to the show. I’m working and Alex… well…

…Alex gets up. He says curtly, “I don’t want that. It’s not the quality but the quantity I need”. I don’t say that this is a fine restaurant with a chef that puts this buffet on. Besides he says “what I’m going to do is get two hamburgers. I’ll eat one now and have one for later.” I think I should tell him but, I don’t think what he’s on about has anything to do with food.

He’s about to leave and I ask “where’ya goin’?” He looks back at me like I’m the last fucker he wants to see right now (now remember this is all in my Point Of View or POV, he might have been in fine mood and it might be me who is projecting all of this) and says “I dunno! But if I don’t find anything, I’ll be back.” And then he leaves. Yeah, I don’t think it’s my POV.

Alex is, like Zasta says, a cross between a Special Forces soldier and your mom. He cares for us all cuz were family. But wow! Ker-Plow – When the God of Wrath shakes his fist at the heavens, those under him tremble. I figure – cuz I’ve been on tour so many times before and been down where he is right now – that he needs to be alone out in space. Just by himself.

Jon and Zasta come back at about the same time as Alex. He has two hamburgers and eats one. We leave him in the room and go for our meal.

If you stay here – get it. The food was fantastic. It was so fresh and good. And the variety! Especially in the fish!

Our waitress – Jamie was a shy, cute girl who had the, as Zasta so eloquently put it – “Whapishhhh!” the tightest ass you’ve ever seen. Couldn’t keep my eyes off of it.

Amanda and Max were out on their balcony – the honeymoon suite – taking pictures of themselves. They were dressed up to go out. They waved. Their were others with them too.

We finished up with desert and coffee. Amazing meal – and I don’t as a rule, eat before playing. But today I’m hungry. We go back to the room and get ready. The vibe is good. We’re on. We all want to scrape away that psychotic residue that we picked up at the Vancouver show. Put that to rest once and for all.

We get in the Banyion and go look for the club. A place called Malone’s Pub. It’s in North Kamloops. On the way – I have a vague idea where it is, we stop to ask these two girls walking down the street – Alex opens the window and says “Excuse me, would you know where…” At this point the older one runs away shaking her head, while the other girl, younger looks at her friend like she’s crazy. Alex continues the question, “…Malone’s Pub is?” The one running away shout back “No! Leave us alone,” The other smiling one shrugs and shakes her head and follow her friend. Hmmm, this is gonna be a good gig we think.

We finally stop and ask a big tattooed guy where it is. He tells us. We’re there in a cunt hair.

We walk in. It’s a salle de spectacle pure and simple. Bar, then tables and chairs then dart boards with no drum riser. The sound guy was setting everything up from scratch. Monitors, FOH bins and mics. We meet Stan the guy who put on the show. Old roadie for Burton Cummings. Good guy too. He postered – kick ass posters too (see pic), did radio ads, and put ads in the local papers. Hmm, my PR person is supposed to be doing stuff like this too but so far we’ve seen nothing – Stan is a good old school rock guy. Great!

We set up and sound check. The cable is fine and we’re ready to play.

We see Eriko out in the parking lot. We played with his band Throttlcaster in Vancouver. It was good seeing them again. Nice guys.

We sat down to watch them put on their show. Lots of applause. Can’t go wrong with heavy riffs.

Meet a heavy music fan named Jay who saw a poster about our show in a window somewhere (see it does work). He drops a wad of cash on the CD and everything else that seemed to catch his eye. And he wasn’t the only one who did this. I admit that our merch is so fucking amazing. I’d buy it without a doubt. And this guy Jay is so freaking nice. Just happy to be listening to live music.

Now it’s our turn to play.

I would love to see us play when were on like this. Holy fuck – everything was like fucking the perfect girl. She looks great, smells amazing and when you look into her eyes you figure it’s love. It was a kick ass show! Everything was out of control and sexy and hot and The Gods Of Now. Zasta smashed into the Intro Riff and there was no turning back. We made them all ours with Wrong But In Throes and Jon’s solo in Broken was spectacular! We ended with Assaholic – fuck, you really feel like a God playing this tune. Ahhh, that’s so much better…

We get off stage and we’re happy. I say “I know this is situational happiness but holy fuck I feel good about this”. Alex gives me the TGON hand shake and a pat on the back. “Sometimes it’s okay, right, pal”. Yeah, especially right now.

….And who should be there – Amanda from the hotel and he brings all her friends. She loved what she saw. Thought it was “Awesome”.

Dean, a happy heavy music fan – who fucking loved what we threw down, buys our sexiest shirt for girls (the black mesh tank top) for Max who says she isn’t wearing any undies – I say, “Yeah, let’s see.” She laughs and walks away from me and lifts her skirt. Ha! Nice bare ass. Well, Dean wants to see her wearing the shirt cuz she’s “She’s got those big tits, ya know!” he says. Hey, I’m here to facilitate the party – and if he needs a shirt to get some nudity going on – well, I’ll take his money and shake his hand! I do and he takes the shirt over to her.

A little later Dean comes up to me and once again tells me the show was killer and that he learned a valuable lesson tonight “Don’t buy a drunk girl a shirt and then give it to her if she promises to put it on. Dude, she took the shirt and won’t put it on for me.” Ha! Good for her.

So everyone is talking to everyone all at once. Eriko from Throttlecaster really wants to hit the road. He tells me he’s ready to go. Well, that attitude will get you on the road for sure – But like everything, you got to do it yourself.

I’m standing there when Amanda comes up to me and puts her hand on my back. I’m covered in sweat from the show. She thinks this is hot and tells me so. Ah! Really now?

Anyway, I pack up my stuff and it’s time for Tetris in the Banyion.

Back inside I get my a pic taken with Amanda. Dean is doing a hilarious impersonation of a photographer and takes bad pictures of us.

We go back out to the Banyion and finish the pack. Everyone is hanging out there – especially Amanda who asks “Are you gonna come to our hot tub?” and not just once. But like 78 times. We say, yeah, sure. She has such a nice face – killer body too. Tattoos all over the place.

We have a full Banyion and a band so we setoff for the hotel with “Are you coming to our hot tub?” ringing out over the night.

I’m driving and we’re talking, going over the performance. Great moments, weak moments, etc. We realize we missed the turn to go up to our hotel. I make a U turn and head back down the same road…

“YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!!” says the disembodied voice coming from a pick up truck going in the opposite direction – Whao! I’m on a one way! ROCK AND ROLL!!!

We flip back around and find the hotel. The boys are off and up to the hot tub. I’m not interested in this… You know I’m not – the hot tub I hang in has a bikini clad girl named Ambivalence and a sexpot drunk girl named Addiction who blow me every chance they get. But I’m the Singer for The Gods Of Now. I’m here to make friends so I go.

I go up to the third floor. I see Alex coming back saying “You don’t wanna go there pal, there’s nothing but sausage”. Well, this must be the case as a couple got married and I suppose these are all their friends: Telsa, Max, Amanda, Charlotte… They’re hot! I’m not looking for a thing – just fans.

Alex goes back to the room and I see Amanda out on the balcony. Zasta is there and Jon is having a smoke. Zasta looks at me and en Francais says “Il y a des saucisses dans la chambre.” I nod and say “Spa bon”. Zasta didn’t hear me – but I thought it was funny. But I say hello to Amanda. She’s wearing her black bathing suit from earlier today. I think it’s the pair of our black TGON hot shorts she bought at the show. I say I’ll take a pic of them on her and she can be on the website. She says “I’ll go put them on if you fuck me first.” Click. That’s all I needed. I say “yeah, sure,” and leave. I’ve got too many issues for anyone these days. I’m fucked in my head – that’s more than enough. I’d like to be drunk right now. I’d love to not be able to get it up. Wasted.

I go back to the room with Jon. He asks for the key so he can go have another smoke. He’s smoking a lot these days (!). He comes and goes a couple of times – smoking is addictive no doubt about it. Alex tells me Amanda was asking for me at the hot tub room before I got there. This tugs at my old self inside. But that’s okay. I like Amanda, in another life we could have been friends. And, I don’t think she needs Lucifer in her life right now and… and…and… you know why.

I work.

Zasta comes in. He seems happy and content. He puts the keys to the Banyion on the table. I smile. The road is a very strange place. A very strange and confusing place.

Goodnight.

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• The Gods Of Now On Tour – Day 25
• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 5
• The Gods Of Now On Tour – Day 14
• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 4