Sloan, Two Hours Traffic and the Pascale Picard Band
Sloan
Grey Cup Tailgate Party
Toronto, Ontario
grey cup fever has apparently taken over the city. today I got to meet up with a bunch of friends and catch a free outdoor sloan concert.
right, so I made plans to meet rob at the stage around noon, as he was gonna show up early to try and catch the soundcheck (turns out the guys didn't do the check; rather, their crew took care of it). we hung around for a bit and were offered these wretched chili-cheese-lime doritos (we tried to eat them, but they were terrible) and watched the hordes of over-enthusiastic CFL fans walk by (I had no idea the CFL was so popular..people were fully decked out in mostly saskatchewan roughriders regalia, there were a few winnipeg bluebomber fans out as well). we saw mike lol and he said "you guys are such troupers! you should go inside, it's cold"
I don't know why, but the saskatchewan fans wear watermelons on their heads
mandi showed up so we hung out with her for a bit and then dave and tracy came as well as stephanie and ruhee and allegra. dave took the liberty of unbuttoning his coat to show off his arse-nal jersey lol
take one: dave punching mandi in the face lol
peek-a-ruh and allegra
the first band, two hours traffic started playing around 1:30. I hadn't heard any of their music before seeing their show, but I'd heard good things. they were really fantastic! I was very impressed, all their songs were fantastic and I'll probably go have a look for their cd's. they have a song called "jezebel" that is super and it's on their myspace page. in fact, I think they sound better live than on album, that's a feat.
unbeknownst to us there was an additional band playing before sloan. the pascale picard band (from quebec city lol) took to the stage. they were...interesting? I dunno, it seemed like every song was about how the lead singer (who was a lady) was a bitch. their one (ok, two) redeeming qualities were that 1) they had a ton of energy, the lady was singing with all her might, so I'll give her that and then 2) they did this (weird) medley that included guns n roses' "sweet child of mine" and the beatles' "while my guitar gently weeps"
my feet were frozen at this point. this happens every outdoor show. I had mittens on my hands so I took those off, took my shoes off and put the mittens on my feet and then feet back in shoes. it helped a bit, but not much lol.
sloan got on the stage pretty quick, and then the head cameraman was like "ok crowd, you're gonna be on tv in about 30 seconds so get really loud" so the guys came out and everyone was cheering and going nuts, it was cool. there were cameras and bright lights and stuff. plus, the stage was right on the street so traffic, which was reduced to two lanes along front street, was driving by, sticking their heads out the window and rocking out to sloan. chris was saying "you know who's playing the half time show tonight? lenny kravitz. why didn't they ask us? we would have done it for half the money. I'm just putting that out there; we'll still do it for half the money." the guys played mostly singles from the 90s with a few tunes off of their latest record. on sensory deprivation they did this huge long jam which was fantastical, chris went nuts on the drums. andrew's songs actually sounded really good; his voice was solid and his guitar was only turned up to 9 rather than the usual "omg my ears are bleeding" 10. here is the official set list (everything was played except for everything you've done wrong and coax me. which sucks cos I rather enjoy both of those numbers)
it was the good ol' smb crew at barricades having a serious danceathlon. mandi had these cool hand-warmer things, so she tossed one up at chris who was thankful for it cos playing the bass outside in bare hands in winter is cold. during the middle of their set, sandra (patrick's wife) came with marshall (patrick and sandra's song) behind an amp and let the little guy watch his daddy in action. it was the cutest thing ever, patrick even smiled. jay tried to amend the lyrics to include marshall's name which was cute ("c'mon c'mon c'mon, let's give it up for marshall"). (apparently chris was there with his baby earlier, but francisco's really tiny so he and rebecca probably took off when the guys hit the stage). it was a really good show; since they played tons of their older singles, everyone in the crowd knew the words and was singing along and doing the sloan chant, it was good times. patrick's getting a bit rusty in his old age; he effed up his lyrics a few times lol, chris and I looked at each other and were both like "LOLWTFBBQ PATRICK"
pentland and the marshall
chris and patrick were both singing to him, it was adorable, marshall was so bashful
you people on the sidewalk on the other side of the street - start clapping!
"I can't hear yoooouu..."
MURPH!ATTACK
which one of these hams is not like the other?
I only took one video cos by now I kind of have their entire catalogue recorded at least once and I was jumping around a ton to try and stay warm (didn't help)
sloan - underwhelmed video
they didn't do an encore cos the guys had to run and watch the game (there was a contest on the edge and the prize was watching the grey cup with sloan [the game ended saskatchewan 23 - 19 winnipeg..a little low for football? but what do I know.]). mandi and I both got set lists and then we went over and chatted (briefly) with jay and then chris, who's really cute about being a daddy ("francisco just started smiling, I'll have to send you this cute video..." lol. AW.) he said they hope to have the new record out in april (they're in studio now working on it daily). so we said goodbyes to the boys and then headed home.