Paul and his imaginary band
Serendipity has been the catchword for this gig, man. First it was me half-heartedly scanning the new dates with the expectation that nothing would be anywhere near me, only to discover that there would be a show in Toronto and it would actually be during the window of time that I would be there. Then, oh_johnny_ was not only able to come with, but picked up our tickets. We discussed on the weekend where we should park, and had settled on a place, and then ended up at a different parking garage just around the corner from the one we'd picked - both of us, on the same level, about six cars apart. And then twitch from the Rockfic board had said she was getting a ticket after I'd posted over there about my glee that I could go, and with one thing and another I totally forgot to PM her and enquire after meeting up, but as luck would have it, she randomly sat right next to us and as we were talking about Paul, and Rob, and then about Green Day, she leaned over and asked if I was me. Hee! So I did get to meet her after all, which was awesome.
Okay, so The Break and Repair Method gig was at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto - oddly enough, a venue I've never been to before, despite it having been around and hosting musical acts forever and a day. However, it's broken into two sections: the front part is the main bar, a long, narrow room with a looong wooden bar stocked with stools and a sort of bar shelf on the wall opposite, also with stools; and another long, slightly less narrow room up a couple of steps, divided into a standing section on the left, and a tabled section on the right with a small dance floor area directly in front of the tiny stage. This is where we sat.
Paul had posted on his MySpaz that TBARM would consist of him and one other person for this tour, but it would appear that said other person was never recruited and so it was Paul, his acoustic guitar, and a portable keyboard set to piano. He'd also posted that since that was the case and he'd thus be doing an acoustic set, he'd be playing mostly new stuff, and that was definitely true. He played for about half an hour, and This City (Is Bound to Do Us in) and You Won't Be Able to Be Sad (the closing song - sans any instances of "You don't get it" due to the acoustic delivery) were the only ones off Milk the Bee - the rest were all brand new and in fact, he said that this was the first time he'd played most of them in front of an audience. *g* I would like to know when we get to hear recorded versions, b/c I liked them all!
As for the imaginary band, Paul had a fair bit of entertaining banter, which surprised me a little - I'm not used to him being funny; he's not usually that talkative! But he was tonight and told a couple of silly stories, and introduced himself just as Paul and the band was The Break and Repair Method, but it was sort of an imaginary band since he'd recorded most of the instrumentation on the record, but tonight it was a little more imaginary than usual. He set up, checked, and took down all of his own equipment, which really brought home that he is starting all over again from the bottom with this endeavour. The crowd wasn't large but the response was favourable, which was cool. Canadians tend to appreciate self-deprecating humour as a general rule and the imaginary band thing started him off on a good note.
The silly stories: one about the graffiti he'd found in the Horseshoe bathroom, saying that such-and-such a band had sucked - he wouldn't name them - and "I'm deeply sorry; I wanted to like them, but they sucked," and said that that pretty much summed up Canadians and our global reputation for niceness to him LOL - he had actually typed it into his cell phone so as to get the exact wording; and two, that he'd chosen to go to the hip, young female customs officer thinking she'd be cool and instead she scared the fuck out of him. *g*
Oh, and he's been stuck at 19 comments on the album on iTunes and would really like to crack 20, so he was like, "You don't even have to buy it - just leave me a comment!" So if any of y'all in the US of A would care to do that, Mr. Doucette would greatly appreciate it, heh. Right after that was the one throwaway comment about his 'day job' which was that five years ago, he could not have imagined begging for comments on a record. Awww.
Several times during his set, he referenced how cool he thought it was that nobody here knew him or his music so he was all right playing only new stuff, since probably no one had his record anyway - he was disabused of that notion by someone whose name I recognised as a poster on Rob's board, but then Paul basically declared that okay, one person, it still didn't matter if he flubbed a chord on a new song b/c she didn't know those ones either. I felt like he went to some trouble to deliberately distance himself from any hint of Matchbox and thus, when he came out of side stage after his set dressed to leave in his coat with his messenger bag slung across him, I didn't feel comfortable approaching him even though other people did. Actually, the girls from Rob's board kind of swooped in immediately. He looked happy enough to sign stuff and take pictures with people, though, and I certainly don't begrudge anyone their moment with him especially as he seemed to be in a great mood and all sociable, talking animatedly with his hands to whomever was asking for pics/autographs, but I didn't feel right asking for anything, despite having brought camera, Sharpie and album with me, so I just watched him talk to everyone else until the last fan moved off and he finally escaped. I may kick myself for that later, but it didn't feel right, so I didn't do it.
Ah, well. I didn't get to do anything with my copy of Milk the Bee, but I did get a couple of pictures with the camera (shall upload later), and I did get inspired by his little story and use the Sharpie to write on the bathroom wall: The Break and Repair Method = WIN. ;-D
Okay, so The Break and Repair Method gig was at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto - oddly enough, a venue I've never been to before, despite it having been around and hosting musical acts forever and a day. However, it's broken into two sections: the front part is the main bar, a long, narrow room with a looong wooden bar stocked with stools and a sort of bar shelf on the wall opposite, also with stools; and another long, slightly less narrow room up a couple of steps, divided into a standing section on the left, and a tabled section on the right with a small dance floor area directly in front of the tiny stage. This is where we sat.
Paul had posted on his MySpaz that TBARM would consist of him and one other person for this tour, but it would appear that said other person was never recruited and so it was Paul, his acoustic guitar, and a portable keyboard set to piano. He'd also posted that since that was the case and he'd thus be doing an acoustic set, he'd be playing mostly new stuff, and that was definitely true. He played for about half an hour, and This City (Is Bound to Do Us in) and You Won't Be Able to Be Sad (the closing song - sans any instances of "You don't get it" due to the acoustic delivery) were the only ones off Milk the Bee - the rest were all brand new and in fact, he said that this was the first time he'd played most of them in front of an audience. *g* I would like to know when we get to hear recorded versions, b/c I liked them all!
As for the imaginary band, Paul had a fair bit of entertaining banter, which surprised me a little - I'm not used to him being funny; he's not usually that talkative! But he was tonight and told a couple of silly stories, and introduced himself just as Paul and the band was The Break and Repair Method, but it was sort of an imaginary band since he'd recorded most of the instrumentation on the record, but tonight it was a little more imaginary than usual. He set up, checked, and took down all of his own equipment, which really brought home that he is starting all over again from the bottom with this endeavour. The crowd wasn't large but the response was favourable, which was cool. Canadians tend to appreciate self-deprecating humour as a general rule and the imaginary band thing started him off on a good note.
The silly stories: one about the graffiti he'd found in the Horseshoe bathroom, saying that such-and-such a band had sucked - he wouldn't name them - and "I'm deeply sorry; I wanted to like them, but they sucked," and said that that pretty much summed up Canadians and our global reputation for niceness to him LOL - he had actually typed it into his cell phone so as to get the exact wording; and two, that he'd chosen to go to the hip, young female customs officer thinking she'd be cool and instead she scared the fuck out of him. *g*
Oh, and he's been stuck at 19 comments on the album on iTunes and would really like to crack 20, so he was like, "You don't even have to buy it - just leave me a comment!" So if any of y'all in the US of A would care to do that, Mr. Doucette would greatly appreciate it, heh. Right after that was the one throwaway comment about his 'day job' which was that five years ago, he could not have imagined begging for comments on a record. Awww.
Several times during his set, he referenced how cool he thought it was that nobody here knew him or his music so he was all right playing only new stuff, since probably no one had his record anyway - he was disabused of that notion by someone whose name I recognised as a poster on Rob's board, but then Paul basically declared that okay, one person, it still didn't matter if he flubbed a chord on a new song b/c she didn't know those ones either. I felt like he went to some trouble to deliberately distance himself from any hint of Matchbox and thus, when he came out of side stage after his set dressed to leave in his coat with his messenger bag slung across him, I didn't feel comfortable approaching him even though other people did. Actually, the girls from Rob's board kind of swooped in immediately. He looked happy enough to sign stuff and take pictures with people, though, and I certainly don't begrudge anyone their moment with him especially as he seemed to be in a great mood and all sociable, talking animatedly with his hands to whomever was asking for pics/autographs, but I didn't feel right asking for anything, despite having brought camera, Sharpie and album with me, so I just watched him talk to everyone else until the last fan moved off and he finally escaped. I may kick myself for that later, but it didn't feel right, so I didn't do it.
Ah, well. I didn't get to do anything with my copy of Milk the Bee, but I did get a couple of pictures with the camera (shall upload later), and I did get inspired by his little story and use the Sharpie to write on the bathroom wall: The Break and Repair Method = WIN. ;-D