A month before this show my brother from another mother jokingly invited me to it because it was also his birthday. I wasn’t opposed to the idea, since I had yet to make my way out of the country even after having a passport for some 3 years, but it sounded way too expensive for me to pull off! After pricing plane tickets though… I told JDM I was coming and when did he want me to be there? I really wish I could have seen the look on his face when he said “Wait, what? Are you serious?!”. YES! So x1984x invades Toronto! The trip already started off on the wrong foot since I overslept the morning it was time to leave, Friday the 13th, and almost didn’t make it to the airport in time. And was still half asleep trying to go through security where they had those stupid new x-ray machines instead of metal detectors… My fucking passport set it off from my back pocket! Ridiculous. So they swiped me for bomb chemicals and all that bullshit. Because of my passport. Then after finally making it to Atlanta my connecting flight was delayed, and delayed, and delayed because they had to change a tire. So I was already some 30 minutes late by the time I landed in Toronto. That view flying over the great lakes for the first time though… WOW! The furthest north I had been before that was RVA. So when we finally land I’m thinking all I have to do is go through customs real quick then jump in the car with JDM so my Canadian adventure can begin! But it seemed that me bringing him a couple of records for his birthday was too shifty… Especially since it was my first time entering Canada. So the lady told me I had to go to immigration next. Ok? I’m not moving here! But what can you do? So here I am not in the line at immigration, which I stood in for 45 minutes, JDM circling the parking lot the entire time waiting to pick me up. And after all that wait, the guy at immigration asks me the same stupid questions, gets his mind blown because I both work in a record store and own a record label, then says “Have a good time in Canada, eh!” after a 5 minute conversation. Geez!
So after circling the parking lot a few more times trying to figure out where I’m at I finally jump in the car with JDM and we’re off! A good 2 hours late that is. On the way from the airport, now in rush hour, I could barely keep a thought in my head. Something you all might not know about Canada? There’s nothing but amazingly beautiful women everywhere! I’m saying at least 3 to 5 on every single block. I definitely wasn’t in Chattanooga anymore… Anyway, he had wanted to grab a bite to eat and show me around a little bit first but that idea got shot in the ass real quick. I was starving to death by this point though so we went by his place to grab some bread and cheese before I got sick from hunger and then headed downtown to get the evening started. I didn’t know it but I was already enthralled by the Bovine Sex Club soon as we walked up to it! There’s some amazing junk art on the front of the building that I immediately took a picture of. Same thing on all the walls and ceiling inside the place. And right next door was a cool little cafe called the Shanghai Cowgirl. That’s where we had dinner and killed some time before the doors opened next door. A lot of the bands were there chilling out too. I had a nice little vegan platter since meat would have tore me up as hungry as I still was. Everyone cracked up when JDM stuck the other half of his hamburger into his guitar case too. That’s the Italian coming out! He walked me out the door without paying soon after that so it’s a good thing the venue was right next door. I would have felt like such a dick not paying for my food! The waitresses were glad I came back too.
At the club JDM was doing all the boring things people have to do while running a gig. And of course the door time got pushed back further. So there was still a few more hours of sitting around and talking to people. It was cool shooting the shit with everyone I met though. It was my first time outside of the country and it was exciting for me! Even if it was just 1,000 miles or so away from home I could tell I was in a very different and much more friendly place. Even with all the crazy people walking up and down the street… Then show time finally rolled around! The first band was Fake Lake which I really enjoyed. And apparently they were just a made up band that played mostly songs from old bands just so they could play this show. But I didn’t care. Jo used to be in Anthem Red who did at least one really good album and were also on the Leatherface tribute. Then up came DOGS! Oh man… This was totally the Canadian version of Too Many Daves! The only thing that was missing was alcohol flying everywhere during the entire set. JDM plays bass in this one. And there was some crazy weird old latina running around the stage while they played. Everyone was yelling at her and throwing drinks at her. After they finished she started yelling at a girl like “you just don’t like me because I’m prettier than you!” (not) and got thrown out after taking a swing at her. HAH!! This shit was priceless! It was halfway through DOGS set that Cactus finally noticed me across the room, after me staring him down for 10 minutes, and yelled x1984x in unison with Wally while pointing at me. I love that shit! Canadians are so awesome. I was in the back of the club, which was almost another club to itself, talking to them when The Hunters started so I only caught about half of their set. It was definitely entertaining with their guitarist wearing a bearskin vest.
Up last was The Sainte Catherines. This was their last ever Toronto show and one of the last 2 or 3 ever so it was an unusually special evening for everyone. I had seen them a few times before at Fest and on tour with Leatherface but they totally dug their hooks into me this time. They put on such a tight and amazing set which made me want to get everything I could find and listen to them on a regular basis. The crowd totally lost in too. It was their last caress and they were going to enjoy every moment of it! For the first half I was right up front by the steps. I started just standing there and taking pictures. Then holding onto the railing with one hand while trying to take pictures. Then holding on with both hands for dear life! From what everyone told me after I didn’t want to know what kept slamming into my back… I could hear myself grunting and oofing with every blow by the mid-point and one time I even got hit so hard that it lifted my feet completely off the floor! I surely would have flown halfway across the stage with that amount of force if I weren’t holding onto the railing. Several hundred shows under my belt and I’ve never been hit like that before… Around then I turned around and locked eyes with Naomi from Sinkin’ Ships. She had no idea I was going to be there so that look of shock on her face was completely priceless! Just like Cactus she pointed at me and yelled x1984x with joy. Man, it felt like Fest, or coming home for the first time. It wasn’t long after that I had to move though. There’s a point where getting the ever living shit kicked out of you isn’t fun anymore! So for the rest of their set I was over by the wall where I only mildly got knocked around and tried to recoup. But that wasn’t going to happen after that beating…
After the show there was more, albeit slightly incoherent, chatting with people. I was ready to get to bed though after a long trip and an even longer night. The plan was to catch a cab home but JDM got us a lift in The Hunter’s van instead. Those kids are absolutely crazy! There was about 15 of us in the van and their singer kept opening the door and yelling shit at people while driving down the road. Then a cake appeared out of nowhere and he started eating it, and then threw it out the door, thus landing ever so gracefully through the window of someone’s car! HAH!!! And then, right before we stopped of course, he yelled something about Asians to a kid on a bike so he turned around to the then parked van and said “Excuse me, did you say something about Chinese people??” to which everyone was like “no, no, we didn’t do that!”. Oh man… Then we spent almost an hour in the street deciding if they wanted to stay there with some girls and drink, go to “the shop” (now past 3am) to get some tattoos, or to head back to JDM’s with us to get some sleep before they had to leave at 7am and drive all the way back to Montreal. The girls got tired of going back and forth on the idea and went home, which pretty much ended the conversation on it, and all but one of the Hunters was ready to go get some rest. Of course him being the first to pass out after getting back in the van after being dead set on getting tattoos…haha! So after finally arriving back at Casa de JDM he made us some amazing sandwiches with some sort of pickled eggplant and everyone passed out for the night for some much needed rest…
