The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 19

I open my eyes. I’m tired. But what am I tired of? Turning on the wheel? Reincarnation?

We get up and ready to go. We drive out of town and go to a Husky resto. Breakfast is simple but delicious. Zasta had steak and eggs and was amazed at the meat. It was great he said. I have my three eggs over easy and hash browns with toast. Great! Jon has a huge omelette. He says it’s very good. Alex has ham and eggs. The ham is too salty and he’s sure he heard his eggs say that he was a psycho but other than that it was good.

I’m in the backspace of the Banyion. I don’t want to drive through the prairies – I’m from here and, like it did years ago, it suffocates me. It makes me feel like I’m drowning. That’s one of the major differences between prairies and ocean side dwellers. If you fall into the ocean you die so quickly. Mercifully fast it will pull you down. It will fill your lungs and that’s it. The prairies will drown you for a lifetime. Will choke you with dust and chaff until you barely breathe – but you get just enough air for one more day. One more day to dream about a life somewhere else, finding a love that reaches up to the universe and connects you with everything. And today the sun is shining which is even worse. I hated the sun when I lived here. I worshiped the rain, those churning dark skies that would cry all over me. But here the sun is just a hard slow death without forgiveness. I close my eyes and shut out these strangling memories of this flat nothing – this place that broke my father’s back, broke my mother’s mind and wrecked my whole fucking past.

I open my eyes and we are in Regina. It’s 35C. No respite from the sun. No trees. We go to the Hotel. A Howard Johnston’s. There is a small pool with a spa. It’s also under renovations but they’re so friendly it totally makes up for it. We feel sorry for them because the key lock system is down. The whole place is locked but they have to take you to the rooms and let you in themselves. Their are no keys. So no matter what time you get back they have to open the door for you. Yikes.

We’re in the room and I want to go for a swim. I change and make my way over to the pool. There are two girls there. Kelsey and Tyler. They’re having cannon ball, summersault and holding-yer-breath competitions. They insist I’m in. After a few minutes Zasta shows up and is initiated into their games too. He does 6 summersaults but I do the biggest cannon ball. Both Kelsey and Tyler are very impressed with us. They don’t care at all that we play in a band. But then 10 year olds have a completely different outlook on life – They’re so cute and hilarious and make me totally homesick.

We get ready to go to the club – called The Club. It’s easy to find. We go in and talk to a guy who says the show is expected but no one is there yet. We need to talk to Carla, he tells us. She’s the woman running things tonight. Okay. So, we have time for dinner. The guy tells us about a great little vegetarian resto called The 13th Avenue Café and we plow over there.

This was the best meal I’ve had so far. The presentation was fantastic and made me want to eat the great food. Hummus, baba ganouj, olives and falafel. Fantastic! Zasta has something similar except it wasn’t falafel it was tabouleh. Excellent! Alex and Jon, sad because they haven’t got dead cows anywhere around them, have a chicken sandwich each. They say they’re fresh and tasty. Alex says the reflection at the bottom of his plate is menacing him so he would have rather had matt dishes then shiny ones. But that aside, it is a terrific dinner and is all under budget! If you go to Regina you must eat at The 13th Avenue Café. It’s a small place but it has a relaxed vibe, friendly staff (they say things like – “You cleaned the plate! You must have been hungry!”) and the most spectacular fuel that will make your body run smoothly.

We head back to the Club. We want to drive in beside the front door but pylons block it. Their’s a guy who sits in his car and who gets out to talk to us. We can go into unload but the trains go by here so you can’t park. Umm, okay. So he moves the pylons and we drive in.

We unload our gear.

Carla is inside and she’s very nice. She tells me that this is our show so we need to supply everything – door person, etc. What? This wasn’t told to us by our booking agent. He simply told us we needed to rent the room and that once the rental was covered by the door the rest would be ours. Sigh. At least the local bands playing with us had time to bring their friends…

…the local bands (great guys all of ‘em) weren’t told about the show until the previous after noon when they were contacted on MySpace by our booking agent. They keep saying with sympathy “You’re booking guy is royally boning you guys!” and “Holy lick! You’re paying a guy to set this up? You gotta rethink you’re plan buddy.” Now, I can’t argue with their sentiment, but honestly, if you know anything about me and TGON, you know we’ve got our shit together. Our business is like our kung-fu – top shelf. It is very difficult to remain positive about an associate or hired agent when this is happening more and more – and it doesn’t seem to affect him either way.

Carla – the very professional and kind woman who was in charge for the night also seemed very disappointed in our booking agent. And more concerned because we aren’t the only band that he booked with her and if this is the fate of our band on this night, what of the other bands he has coming through her doors?

Karma is karma. Everyone will get what’s coming to them. At this point it’s beyond my control – if this upsets anyone – do your fucking job.

I’m smiling as people tell me how comedians and poets are the only people who use this room. How that in their words, “You came all the way to Regina and you’re playing here?” How a great woman, the manager from the Gaslight Bar (“where ALL the rock bands who come through play”) told me the name of her booker there and that we would have had a packed place”. Wow. I’m smiling and nodding and staying positive. Back in the day I played pizza places because it was the only place that was available. I can play here and still rock… We’re here to play.

The girlfriend of one of the band members of “12” the first band is named Stephanie. She is so nice and pretty too. Lucky man plays the drums for his band. She volunteers to do the door for us. We need a quota to pay for the room – we all have our fingers crossed.

We set up the merch right by the door. We sell.

I’m sitting sipping a coffee when two women walk in. The tall statuesque woman who looks like a model but dressed like a sexy 80’s rocker smiles at me briefly. I have to ask her name. Maya. I tell her she’s beautiful. I’m not flirting. I’m just observing. It’s the same thing I do when I see Lake Louise, or a Dali, or hear the Nature Chord – I say “How beautiful”. But to me a woman is the ultimate work of art – complex, simple, stunning, inspiring, magical. I express it by saying a word that tires to put a frame around something – hey! It’s better than saying, “Well, for a bi-pedal being of the mammalian genus, you gush with feminine pulchritude”. Yeah, no. I’ll just call her beautiful. She thanks me for the compliment. Her friend she’s with is a wild red head named Kristin (sp?) and the girlfriend of the singer from “12”. He also saved the entire night by bringing his sound gear. He said he had showed up earlier and there was hardly a PA to be seen so he scooped up his and brought it with him. Now he’s a great guy.

Steph and I talk. Her sis is a popular folk singer in the west and her boyfriend is in the band – I bet she likes stray dogs. She’s very kind. And very pretty, but her boyfriend is a stand up guy. And she’s a banker! Yes. That’s right. A hot banker was our door person! I gave her a shirt for her trouble. It’s funny. We have so many different styles, especially for women. And she chose a straight up black Tee with the logo. I’d have thought she would have taken a purple one (almost sold out) or a blue tank top. Banker by day, rocker by night? Intriguing.

“12” plays their very first live show. Nathan the drummer has his first live show in years. And they’re just fine. They’re having a ball up there and so are we watching them. The bass player in particular looks like he’s on the moon – of course – ahem – he might be – Ha! Just kiddin’ buddy! Look over there!

A League of One are the other local band and they very graciously let us play second so we can play to the most people. Thanks for that – we owe you guys one!

We play and kick ass. This is one of the MAIN benefits of playing on the road. You become tight – grade 9 tight – really fucking fast. We growl through our set and I’m dead for it. But fuck did it feel good! And the sound was fucking awesome – Thanks again Andy!

A League of One plays. Okay, if you get a chance, you have to see them. They are, first of all, very talented players – second – they’re fucking hilarious (you have to hear “I’m just a lonely garbage man”). I was so entertained by their full on, meandering, fast, slow, ballad, cock-rock, saga, instrumental, mental love songs that were as loud as they were long as they were great to listen to. The guitar solos in particular were very well composed and very high level.

I go next door to the Exchange – “This is where bands that are really booked by real booking agents play” – so the locals tell me – once again I smile. I’m staying very positive about this. I have tools to deal with these blows to my self-esteem. I really don’t like being made to feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. In the past this would cripple me into a shit load of bad behavior and retaliation. Now, I can honestly say that it’s all okay. It is what it is. What they are saying doesn’t reflect on me or my band, just on the persons responsible.

So anyway – next door there is a Cuban band playing with a kick ass flutist. But it’s very middle of the road. So it’s boring – even though it’s exotic – I’ve seen many better Cuban bands. But it’s nice.

The Show ends and we grab the guitar stand that we lent to A League of One. We never lend gear so we clearly liked these guys. We bring all our gear out to the Banyion. The boys and girls from “12” are there placing bets on the fact that they don’t believe that we can tetris up the Banyion and still have room left over for us. “Holy Lick! Their’s no way you’re going to be able to put all that in there.” Nathan, Steph’s boyfriend said. Now we say Holy Lick – but only when we refer to a great looking girl.

Everyone around us is so nice and supportive. “If we had more time we would have packed the place!” and “When you guys come back – then we’ll do it right for ya!”. I grab our bottle of J.D. and pass it around – everyone is feeling great. Especially us. We’ve made great friends here in Regina and that’s why we’re here.

At the end of the day we exceeded our quota that we needed to meet at the door.

Carla is extremely nice to us. She gives us extra gas money. This is a woman we will always have no problem working with. She is great people and understands bands. She knows we are almost helpless but fierce about what we do. She didn’t like seeing us put into the position we were in tonight. I like her.

We go to Denny’s – like all good bands do. We look at the menu and ask the manager to come out. Nice girl named Sheela. We explain that we’d like a contact name cuz we need to get in the late night menu for the next time we release a record. It turns out Denny’s is rebranding itself. More edgy and late night. Where else do you go after things close at 2 am in the West? We have Nachos. Alex has a sandwich.

Once again we feel very spoiled to be from Montreal. Je t’aime ma belle ville.

We go back to the Ho-Jo’s. Our little friends Kelsey and Tyler told us the people who work there would NEVER let us into the hot tub late at night. (and yes they yelled “NEVER”!).

Meranda – who was there when we arrived earlier today and is there now at 3am (she must be so tired) is still at the desk. She asks if we need to have her unlock the door for us. I tell her yes, and would it be possible for us to use the hot tub. She looks at all four of us and says “Go for it!” Clearly Kelsey and Tyler have been banned after a certain time. Ha! Great!

Now I miss home. I want to see people who know me by another name. I want to be in my studio. I want nothing to happen for a while. That would be fine. Just fine.

Good night.

Somewhat Related Entries

• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 5
• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 28 (Last Day)
• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 4
• The Gods of Now On Tour – Day 9
• The Gods Of Now On Tour – Day 15