sloan+the apples in stereo
Sloan
The Berkeley Church
Toronto, Ontario
last night was the tv taping for beautiful noise: sloan edition at the berkeley church on queen street.
first I met doris for lunch, we did sushi at ichiban near the harbourfront centre (her place of employment), it was fantastical. doris went back to work then I decided to kill some time before lining up for doors for the show..I went to the eaton centre, walked around then got bored and thought meh, might as well head over there..
I got to the church (k, technically it's a church, like there's stained glass and lovely gothic architecture, but inside is stripped, there's no pews or anything, it's like a really hot concrete box with neat columns and walls) around 3pm (doors were at 7..yeah, I know.)..I sat outside with a few cameramen and line runners, loads of crew people for the show who were all waiting for lunch..then it started to rain. like REALLY pour. it was super windy and there was so much grit flying around and rain like I've never seen before..one of the crew people had a sister out on the water and he showed me a txt she'd sent him that said funnel clouds were starting to crop up..scary. I got to sit inside the church (I was the only non-crew member there lol)
I chilled for a few hours til mandi arrived (I think she got there around 5:30?) then we hung out and chatted and chris and rebecca showed up for an interview..chris had on the most amazing little number I've ever seen..like these SHORT 70s jogging shorts, runners with socks and some tshirt. very magnum pi of him lol, I could barely say hi cos I was so entranced. doris got there a little while later...it was kinda funny cos as time went by, more and more of the sloan regulars started showing up..it was me, mandi, mandi's friend, doris, cynthia, dan and martina, and allegra and kevin. we were all up front and got wristbands and ended up getting front and centre (well, centre and andrew-zone) which pleased everyone..mandi and allegra and I stood right in front of chris and marty and dan covered mandrew. the producer lady told us no cameras, no camera-phones, none of that so that's why I don't have any photos or videos..however this will be aired on tv sometime in the future so if I hear of it, I'll post and then my minion can watch my sloantastic antics on film. grrrrreeeeat
the apples in stereo came on first, they played a pretty long set actually..like an hour or something..I didn't know a lot of the stuff they play cos the two albums I do have weren't really played, except for ruby at the end, which I sang and danced to. there was this one song they did that sounded like they lifted the bass and rhythm guitar directly from an ocean colour scene song..same tempo, same sound, it was tripping me out. there were cameras all over the place..we stood behind a velvet rope that was about 2ft from the stage (stage was about 3ft high)...
they had a steady cam operator walking to and fro the entire evening..there was a crane and a couple guys with shoulder cams sparsed around, there were cameras at the back as well as one on a track at the side, so it was quite the production.
after the apples' set was done the producers told us to chill for like half an hour, so I met up with doris and cynthia (they're camera shy I guess? *cough*lozzzzers*cough* lol) and they were already downstairs in the lounge and they said that chris stopped to chat with them for a bit earlier and they were comiserating about how hot it was inside (it was so hot. like, so so hot.) we chatted with the guys from the apples in stereo (richard schneider (?) the lead singer is an extremely congenial guy, cynthia got an autograph for one of her friends and then they ended up chatting for ages), I ran into greg who was in this room with chris/rebecca/patrick/andrew (jay hadn't arrived at this point and people were like "yo, where is that guy?"..and can someone tell me what diet patrock is on? cos that guy has gotten soooo skinny. his skinny jeans are loose), I got to chat with the goose for a bit which was nice..then doris and I went to this next patio outdoors and cooled off for a bit, then back inside and I bumped into jay (every time I see him, srsly every single time, in my head I'm like holy moses this guy is unbelieveably tiny he blows my mind, like I don't think he's actually that small then I see him and I get blown away) and chat-chitted with him for a few minutes (said hi to jay from ruh), then we ended up talking with the apples guys again lol (doris and cynthia fell in love with that band cos they're such nice guys)..doris and cynthia managed to get free beers (steamwhistle, but they both said it tasted rubbish) and I saw bottles of water so I snagged some of that (they were selling it upstairs..why pay when it's in the performers' lounge for free?) then I went back to the pit and waited for teh sloanz to come on
sloan was supposed to come on at 9:30 but it was like 10 before they got on stage..I was right in the front row so I'm pretty sure I was filmed for crowd shots way too many times..I looked like garbage cos I was singing and jumping around...my hair was frizzed out and sweaty from the heat/humidity/rain so I looked a right mess. but anyways. sloan came on and played a fantastic set, they played stuff off the new album exclusively (the only tracks they didn't do were live the life you're dreaming of, people think they know me, it's not the end of the world and light years)..in a quiet break between songs before I started sloan-chanting, dan yelled "TWO SEATER!" which is his amazing trademark, any time I've been at a show with him, he's requested it..chris kinda laughed and the other guys smiled at it..martina and I have a serious reputation for being the dancing queens of any sloan show and we did not disappoint. allegra and I lyrics'd each other the entire night, during hfxnshc we started a two man slam-dancing/mosh pit which was mildly impressive, there was the classic peace sign during "someone to watch gremlins 2 with", the usual motions were carried out..in between songs it was quiet, so every single time I started a sloan chant, always by myself first then allegra and mandi and eventually the rest of the crowd joined in..there were these few guys to mandi's left that had really strong man voices and could really belt out the sloan cheer (mandi complemented them on this lol) chris noticed and winked and smiled at me and allegra a few times..a few times throughout the night I caught jay laughing at our amazing dance skills (today ruh said that jay told her that 'the usual crew was there dancing and making me forget chords' mwuahaha, my dancing distracting? nooooo [to be fair I look pretty funny dancing in a skirt and flip flops..or in any outfit for that matter, so jay may be onto something]). I think his monitor was giving him trouble cos he was kicking it, and I said "kick that amp like it owes you money!" but I don't think he heard lol
about midway through the gig, chris turned around and asked if they were doing an encore lol, so when they came back out they played lines you amend, she says what she means (!!!) and the good in everyone. I didn't turn around to look, but apparently the majority of the crowd had left by the time they got back on stage..you wouldn't know it by listening though, it sounded like a full crowd and the guys didn't let on. they posed for a picture then as per usual, andrew and patrick were never to be seen again, jay disappeared but chris ran out to come catch mandi and I before we left (no kidding, he like came running around the corner which was pretty endearing cos he'd been with rebecca all day and I guess didn't want to get into anything with her around, fair enough). we chatted probably for like 20 minutes/half an hour or so..I kinda felt bad cos there were other people waiting to talk to him, but he kept on going lol so I wasn't gonna tell him to shut up or anything..mandi and friend had to split and I dunno where allegra and kevin went but they were gone too so chris went and chatted with some other folks and doris and cynthia and I hung around chatting for a bit then cynthia said "you want a photo with chris?" and I said "meh ok" so I went over and said "could I bug you for a photo?" and he said "any time!" then I was like "well, also...you gave mandi a kiss, could I have one too?" and so he gave me a couple on the cheeks and cynthia got a photo (I look terrible. really. so bad. ever. ugh. we've got matching sweaty hairdo's which is always wonderful and I don't know why my face looks like I weigh 300lbs. cursessssuh)
he's always such a good sport with me lol. I bid him adieu and then went for a quick goodbye to greg (seriously, nicest guy around. really. he gives the best hugs and he's always so nice to me) then cynthia/me/doris split and headed home. friday: king city with mandi/tamie/dan/marty (I dunno if allegra/kevin are coming, they might be). time to partaaay