SLOAN
SLOAN
KingFest Music Festival,
King City, Ontario
what to say about sloan? those guys put on the best shows, and at a sloan concert is probably my favourite place to be. mandi, tamie and I made the voyage to king city to see the guys play kingfest last night, we had an absolute blast, got to see the trews, the joel plaskett emergency and sloan.
I met mandi and tamie at kipling station (the beginnings of all our road-tripping sloanish adventures) at 2 and tamie drove us to king city, even though it was the middle of the day there was still traffic which was kinda weird, it probably took us like 40 minutes or an hour to get there..doors were at 6:30 so we wanted to be early cos this kingfest thing is a big outdoor all weekend musical party at seneca college king city campus. we'd never been and didn't know what to expect, and of course we wanted to be up front at barricades (mandi and I always say, if you're not at the barricades for a show, what's the point?) right, so it was like 3pm and we got in queue and no one else was around, it was kinda funny..we ended up sitting out in the grass, munching on carrots and chips and cookies and sandwiches (we had such a serious picnic)..it was a gorgeous day, like 20 degrees and sunshine so I had a sweater on and was fine..about an hour later some other people showed up, but they were trews fans..we chatted with them and hung out, I gave them cookies and they were like "are these special cookies?!" (they were older ladies, like late 30s so they were joking) and I was like "haha no." but then we spent a while thinking about how it'd be a good way to sneak drugs into a show
we hung out til the gates opened (I think at like 6ish) and mandi and I bolted to get wristbands, then we ran to the stage like there was no tomorrow. we got up to barricades and then looked around and no one else was behind us for like another 10 minutes lol. so me, tamie, mandi and their friend brian got barricades and joel plaskett was just finishing up his soundcheck (he's so dreamy...for those of you who don't know who he is, think alex kapranos, but a bit more nova scotian) so I asked for a photo and said hi and introduced myself, he was really cool
we sat around and ate sandwiches and sushi at the barricades, and people started to show up, but no one came near the barricades, they were all kinda far back on the lawn which was nice. the salads started playing on the beer stage which we couldn't see, but we could hear it..martina and dan showed up which was sweet (marty sat next to me and we were both like "yessss you're here, that means total dance party" [every. single. sloan show we're the craziest dancers there, so it's good we get to stand next to each other lol]), there was this girl from the smb that I'd never met in person before there too. they had all sorts of food at this thing, there was indian food, hot dogs, all sorts of stuff, I had no idea so we brought all this stuff to eat lol)I saw greg and so I went over and said hi and chatted with him for a bit..he asked me if I was going to their show in central park and I was like "I would but.." and then he was like "well I know you would, but are you?" and I told him if they had another plane ticket lying around I'd totally be up for it, but alas, I can't afford a trip to manhattan. then he asked if I was going to the bala show and I said "I wouldddd but I'll be out of the country. I really wanted to come this year but I can't" so that sucks cos it'll be the last sloan shows for a while (greg said that they're taking august, september and october off cos chris and mike are having babies, and patrick just had one not too long ago too so it'd be nice for them to spend some time with their families) mandi and I spotted chris murphy and so we went over to chat for a bit and she gave him a baby card and a list of names from the two of us and I gave him some cookies (I had made chocolate chip cookies and he was like "are these hash cookies?" and I was like "haha no." people and their drug cookies!! it was cute though, I gave him one then as we were talking he started pawing at me for a few more "rebecca's monitoring my sugar intake" lol oh boy) he went through the names list with us and I think he liked a few, we chatted for a bit, it was cool then these other little girls wanted a photo so we went back to our spots and hung around for a bit.
the joel plaskett emergency came on and played a cool set, probably 45 minutes or so..they did an amazing version of "can I go nowhere with you?" which rocked my little socks off, they played a bunch of stuff off the new ashtray rock album (but not fashionable people, I was dying to hear that), and some older stuff as well. they put on an awesome live show (they sound just as good if not better than on the album..which is a superfeat) AND they had peter elkas on keyboards/guitar/harmonica..dan was like "he's like a better looking sam roberts!" (I concur.) marty had a good time, she loves joel plaskett.
peter elkas!
after that stupid barry taylor from 102.1 the edge came on and was telling people to hang out for til the stage was turned over, and he told people to go get beer (ugh. WRONG thing to say)..we hung out for like half an hour and then the trews came on..I'm not really a big trews fan, I only hear their stuff on the radio (I was really amazed by how many songs of theirs I knew and could sing along to..like half of their set list were songs I'd heard on the radio over the past few years)..they played a pretty cool set, it was SO loud though. I have a pretty high tolerance for loud music at rock shows, so if I'm saying it's loud, it's really loud.
in this one, you can't see it cos I could get it all in the shot, but marty's got this hilarious mocking look on her face and she was doing the rock sign thing with her hand (lol, not a trews fan either)
barry came back on and said "you know, this show is a buck65 performance away from being the country's best east coast music festival yet" (the trews, sloan and joel plaskett are all from nova scotia), he encouraged people to drink more beer (whyyyy?) and then said sloan would be on soon...we hung out again, I saw more smb'ers (I love when there's a huge group of us, it's so much fun)..the sun finally set and it was getting cold so I had my sweater on, barry taylor came out and tried talking but I was screaming "slooo-ooooannnn" at him lol and he was like "you know what, they'll actually be performing on this stage in like 5 minutes" and I was like "ORLY?" lol. people were pretty pumped for the sloan show, so I was happy about that. paul neuman was there setting up stuff so mandi and I said hi and at the end we both got set lists (and I ended up with one of jay's picks? I dunno if paul stuck it to the tape or not but cool)
tamie, mandi, me and marty put glow sticks on our wrists and we looked SNAZZZZZZY cos it was dark enough for you to see us glowing. the guys came out and started playing, chris immediately acknowledged all of us true-blue sloan troopers (I think me, mandi, marty and dan have been to every show they've done in the toronto area this year, plus we've all been around for ages seeing them) they sounded really bang-on (again, they've been having a good week this week). they opened with flying high/who taught you (as always, best way to start a show cos they get you so pumped AND flying high is a 4 part harmony as well as each of the guys gets to sing a couplet so it's equal) they played a couple more off of never hear the end of it, then they went into the other man (AWESOME...this was just the beginning of the older catalogue for the night)..chris sang at us individually all night which is a really cool way to connect to the song and the band, it makes it way more personal when they sing to you. they played lines you amend (love that song. lovelovelove), then did the ol' switcheroo and chris went on drums, andrew came up front for gutiar and jay hit up the bass for the usual golden eyes/love is all around/living with the masses/hfxnshc/blackout gig (near the end of this stint, mandi said "you think they added an extra song in there? maybe andrew will play an older song?") then they did a string of older songs, greg bust out the air raid siren (which is kinda old and rusty, but it adds to its charm lol) for money city, then they did I hate my generation (they did an extra "S-E-A-N-S-A-I-D-P-L-A-Y YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH part which rocked cos I can't get enough of that song, they played it in buffalo and I went completely mental, this time I tried to tone it done a bit, but really, how can you not jump around to that song?) there's certain motions that go with every song, like someone I can be true with has the gremlins 2 and not watch the view part, other than that there's a ton more, anyhow I think jay gets a serious laugh out of us every show cos we're all so extra. at one point, martina and I both did that arm thing that chris does at the same time and he saw and laughed a bit then humoured us and did a half assed one handed version...martina and I were screaming "DEEPER THAN BEAUTY" all night cos we tried to get chris to play it for us when we saw him on tuesday, but they didn't...chris looked at us at one point and gave us the "sorry, not tonight" headshake..they did coax me (I am such a lucky duck..I've gotten like all of my top 10 songs played live for me this week, I wish I could see sloan play everyday. fuhrealz), and someone started crowd surfing (?) he was really wasted and the bouncers did a garbage job with him, when he was on top of martina and allegra, rather than grabbing him and pulling the guy out, the bouncer tried to push the surfer back into the crowd! he ended up at the front again and the bouncer dropped the guy on his head which looked painful, but he got up and was fine..also somewhere during the course of the show, there were beach balls being tossed about and jay came off the stage to pick up a ball and toss it back into the crowd, only he kicked it and it went like straight for martina's and my face lol, however we dodged it and jay kinda looked at us like "ohshit hehehee". then they pulled out the big guns - andrew scott did people of the sky, which I've never seen live, I reckoned it was only a myth that that song ever got played live cos I know how much he hates playing his older stuff (WHY?! it's so good!)...it was at this time that the crowd got a bit out hand..all those people that barry taylor told to go drink lots of alcohol had done so and started a circle pit. it was retarded. the guys hate it when people get pushy and stuff like that, jay, chris and patrick were starting to look a bit concerned cos we were getting pushed around alot, but we professional sloan fans (lol, mandi came up with that one, it's true) linked arms and held our positions. the security people were useless, they didn't do anything the stop the trouble (I've been in tons of moshpits, so I was fine, but there were younger kids and stuff so I was more worried about them..a little moshing never hurt anyone [ok, yeah it knocked me unconscious, but that was only once], but slam dancing to the sounds of sloan? really?) the guys paused the show for a bit, jay hopped down and talked to security about it, chris ran off stage and got mike who came out and tried to calm things down..anyways, they kept playing and things kinda just kept being pushy the rest of the show (someone either punched or kicked me in the back of the head lol, uncalled for) they played a couple more nhteoi tracks, then losing california! YESSSS it was fantastic. they ended on penpals and the good in everyone (got a video, see below), both of which were super well done.
easily the scariest photo I have of chris, he was on the barricades and did a creeptastic pose for me lol..after he was like "it's good?" and I said "it's fierce!"
then they came back for an encore, and they brought a guitarist and the bassist from the trews out with them..greg got on the bass, chris was instrument-less (just a mic), patrick, jay and trews guy were on guitars and andrew was on drums, trews bassist took over keyboard/marracas. they played a few chuck berry songs and it was such a blast. everyone was dancing (how can you not? old school chuck berry = a good time), they did roll over beethoven (got a video, see below), then they did around and around (also, video, see below). before they started the last song, chris was like "this song is dedicated to you..." and then the trews guitarist mouthed "cos this song is for people who know what rock and roll is about" and I mouthed it at the same time and I guess he saw and we said it back and forth a few times (in the video, see below) then chris said it and it was like a whole huge group of people on stage, greg brought out the air siren, it was such a good time.
VIDEOS
sloan - the good in everyone
sloan and the trews - roll over beethoven
sloan and the trews - around and around
sloan and the trews - if it feels good do it
then that was it for music, it was probably like 11:15 or something, so we stuck around cos we told chris and greg we'd see them after the show..mandi brought this photo of chris (beth hamill took it a while ago, at the kool haus show in november I think) licking a mic stand to get signed and chris was like "what's it for?" and mandi was like "it's going up in my place" and he was like "oh yeah? where?" and she was like "in my bedroom" HAHAHAH so good. I was laughing so hard cos that would sound like the creepiest thing you could say to a person but it was ok in this situation. chris signed it and wrote "this is why I'm sick all the time" (lol, greg's always telling chris not to lick the stands cos that's why he gets sick all the time and he's right) I forgot what I said but my voice cracked which was kinda hilarious (I'd been screamsinging all night)
we chatted for a bit more, martina and I were like "what happened to deeper than beauty?!" and he was like "next time scream it so we can hear it" and we were like "yo chris we screamed the entire niiiiiight". I guess it's just not gonna happen, but that's ok, I got to hear so many other great sloan songs so I'm not too heartbroken. then the guys had to start going home and chris was like "are we all walking the same way?" so me, mandi, tamie, martina and mike nelson all walked over to the car park and chris was like "so mandi, you gonna teach me and rebecca how to swing dance?" (she mentioned she was a dance instructor on tuesday and said that the two of them should come by sometime) and somehow the two of them ended up dancing in like total darkness on this uneven grassy area lol, it was pretty cool...mandi and I asked if chris wanted to hang out and like do lunch sometime and I think he was keen on the idea so he has mandi's contact info, so maybe we'll do sushi or something sometime cos we're all downtowners..somehow jay was already up by the parking lot and he shook my hand and said hi and stuff, the park staff were trying to get us outta there (they said they were expecting like 4000 people at this thing tonight...YEAHRIGHT. there was probably 500 or something..there would have been no room to accomodate that many people...the stage was kind of in the bottom of a valley and the lawn didn't extend that far back...if everyone was standing then maybe they could have put 1000 people in there but the folks at the back wouldn't be able to see anything) so we said bye to everyone and chris was like "we'll drive by you guys and moon you or something" (didn't happen - THANK GOODNESS.) tamie drove me, marty and dan to wilson station and I ttc'd it home and was probably in bed by 2 (had to get up at 7:45 ughhhghg). I had such a fun time (and I have cuts and bruises all over the place?), mandi is my favourite person to go to sloan shows with, I'm so glad to have her around cos she's up for anything and doesn't mind sticking around to chat with the guys and I think the guys like us both so it's cool. yayyy for sloan shows! this will probably be the last one for a while, but it was a good one.