Rocktober 9th - from Steve and Trevor

October 12th, 2004

Here's a double-barreled diary entry from your two axe wielding Setbacks: Steve Palmer and Trevor Kealey. Between the two of us we hope to give you the most comprehensive rundown possible of our EP release party on Saturday.

Trevor's Recollection

We’ve had a couple of days to recover from the cd release party last Saturday at the Dominion, and that’s given me a bit of a clearer picture to draw from to sum up the night. I left the other fellows to haul all the gear, as I had a wedding to attend. It was a great wedding (Congratulations Amy and Andy!) and everyone there was having a blast. I dipped into the wine and beer to make sure I didn’t fall behind in my rock and roll preparations.

I was delivered to the Dominion at about 10:30, and the Heelwalkers were in the midst of ripping it up. Wow. The rock was being delivered, and the crowd was eating it up. I headed for the washroom, where I met up with Steve. He brought me up to speed on what I had missed (ie nothing). I was in no mood for small talk, so demanded my beer tickets. He excitedly handed me two. Two beer tickets?! What’s the deal here? But when I got to the bar I was surprised when the staff handed me a huge bottle of 50. The tickets were for 710s. The equivalent of a wine bottle full of beer. Quite an arm workout, I only hoped it wouldn’t destroy my muscles before the show.

Soon Les Pugilists hit the stage and caught the audience off guard with all their energy. I was amazed! It was inspirational. I would use this and the Heelwalkers performance to fuel the Setbacks rock and roll machine. We had apparently put together such a good lineup of bands that we were doomed to be upstaged. But I was not deterred. I brought the fellows together, and we prayed to the gods of rock to help us deliver the good word.

We set up and Dave Aardvark, who was hosting the night, asked me how we would like to be introduced. I suggested that he warn all ovulating women to step away from the stage, because otherwise our music would impregnate them. Sadly he did not warn anybody and we hit the stage. Look for a lot of babies to be born in about 9 months. Chris and Steve both had a few 710s under their belts already, and Chet was pumped up from earlier in the day (events to be described later), so we rocked hard.

We tore into One Track Mind and were off. Playing at break neck speed and ear bleeding volume we gave it our all. After the show people questioned why we were swearing so much, which I hadn’t noticed. But if they were expecting Sunday mass, they definitely were in the wrong fucking place at the wrong fucking time.

The set culminated in Born on the River, where as in Montreal I ditched my guitar and played ‘front man’ for a song. First I couldn’t get the mic cable off the mic stand, as apparently two boy scouts helped a sailor tie one hundred knots in the thing. All the while a frenzied fan helped by playing the tambourine. He was playing it sideways for some reason, I guess he had never played the instrument before. He may also have broken it, but that’s what happens when you bring the rock hard, there is bound to be casualties.

We then attempted a stunt that we’ve never tried before. We had talked about it, and actually tried to work out the logistics of it on a lawn in Barrhaven one night, but it was deemed too dangerous to try. But with several 710s in us, we went for it: The Rock And Roll Totem Pole. Before the second verse, I called Steve (who was tearing it up with some face melting licks on in front of the stage) to come close to the monitor, which I was standing on. Chet sensed something was up, so went down to where Steve was. I then hopped up onto Steve’s shoulders and we rocked out in the audience. Chris meanwhile was sweating up a storm playing the beat that he hates to play for an extended period of time. It was hard for me to guage the crowd response, as I was focused more on keeping my testicles off of Steve’s head. I soon dismounted, we finished the song and the set and were ready to pack it in. But the crowd wanted more, so we gave them a Deep Purple song, where Steve melted even more faces, then shut ‘er down.

By that time apparently some of The Killers and openers Surfarosa from Norway had come over after their show at the Capital Music Hall. They loved the show, and we sent them back to Oslo with some Setbacks cd’s and stickers. They claimed we would be huge in Norway, so look for the Scandanavian tour sometime in the future.


Steve's Recollection

After playing Montreal the night before we were all pretty beat on Saturday morning and mostly just slept in and lounged around in our individual undergarments. But while most of us were munching down on McCain Deep'n'Delicious cakes and watching old Family Guy episodes, our bassist Paul Townsend was making life-altering decisions which included (but were not limited to): getting an oil change on his truck, buying a bagel, and asking his girlfriend to marry him. With this good news announced just before we loaded our gear into the club we all had a warm feeling in our hearts that we were sure would enhance our friendship and the performance that evening.

Soon after we showed up at the club Les Pugilists and The Heelwalkers arrived separately from Montreal. Since they were the first ones on the bill The Heelwalkers did a quick sound check, successfully peeling much of the paint of the walls while also deafening the 10 or so of us who were watching. Rawk on!

With all the gear and PA under control we snagged our beer tickets and headed towards the bar on the way out to the patio for some fresh air. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that a single beer ticket would get us a gigantic 710mL bottle of Labatt 50... another reason why the Dom is the best venue in Ottawa.

After discussing our listening habits with a couple of the Heelwalkers we figured it was time to set up the "merch booth". The Dom has a great little alcove near the front entrance that bands often use a spot to hock their stickers, albums and t-shirts. Being the poor bastards that we are, our merch booth consists of our new EP (it was the launch party after all), our old CD, and some pins and stickers that very obviously go with the old CD. Pretty slim pickings. The alcove is rather empty. No matter - we didn't come here to sell t-shirts... we came to destroy the fucking place with pure rawk.

At about 10 or so the Heelwalkers hit the stage and the place was starting to fill up a bit. For those of you haven't seen them, the Heelwalkers are great. They're loud as hell... think AC/DC with chunky guitars. They got a good reception and people were even asking for an encore... unfortunately the unwritten code of multi-band lineups forbids any band other than the headliners from honouring such a request. The Heelwalkers know this and tear down their amps to make way for Les Pugilists.

Within half an hour Les Pugilists are up and running and they kick it into 5th gear immediately. Fuck! A few people who weren't paying attention got thrown against the wall like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix. They embarassingly cleaned their spilled drinks off their shirts and started getting rock-schooled along with the rest of us. Les Pugilists play fast and ferocious garage rawk with the best of them... think of a cross between the New Bomb Turks and Le Nombre. Their lead singer doesn't play any insturments so he spends most of his time bouncing off the walls or getting down on his knees to send up a prayer to the Gods of Rawk. His energy rubs off on all of us Setbacks as we are reminded how good these guys are live... two tough acts to follow. Would we be up to the task? Fuck yeah! Read on...

By the time Les Pugilists wrapped up their set the place was a buzz... most of the buzz was originating from Chris, Trevor and I as we downed lots of the 710mL Labatt 50's. We hit the stage semi-inebriated around midnight and immediately kicked it into our lead-off track from the new EP, "One Track Mind". The reception was good as we powered through all six tracks on the EP and a couple of Setbacks "classics" from the first album. We even tossed in a new track we just finished writing called "The Music is the Medicine" (for now at least).

We wrapped up the set with "Born on the River". Lately in our rehearsals Trevor has taken to ditching his guitar in this song and running around like a maniac... scissor kicking, punching his fists in the air, launching his mic Roger Daltrey-style, and dry humping Paul and I as we try to hold the song together. We figured this kind of raw, unbridled fit of energy would translate well to our live performances. So, with the encouragement of the other Setbacks, Trevor reluctantly agreed to attempt this mayhem at the show. Soon after busting into this song on Saturday, Trev ditched the guitar and began his running around. Most of his "mayhem" consisted of him leaping off the stage, then back on, then off again, then back on again. No dry-humping... thankfully.

About half way through the song Trev and I moved into formation for a rock maneuver we promised only to break out in case of emergency. What kind of emergency, you ask? Well, we figured that with us following two kick-ass acts we couldn't rely on our good looks to blow the roof of the club, so we'd have to employ some acrobat-style trickery to put us over the top. Enter the rock'n'roll totem pole. This move, perfected by acts like the Mooney Suzuki, has one member climb onto the shoulders of another member during mid-performance. So, being the heavier of the two (and the guy who had to continue playing guitar while this occurred) I volunteered to take the bottom position and allow Trev to climb up top and drive the crowd into a frenzy.

From all reports, this stunt paid off... we simultaneously impregnated all the female audience members while rendering all males sterile. Mission accomplished.

People seemed to really dig the show and by the time we wrapped up our set people were begging for more! For a quick encore, we played a slightly-hacked version of Deep Purple's "Highway Star" and I literally sang away the last remnants of undamaged tissue in my throat.

Post-show reports from several audience members seemed to focus on Trevor and myself swearing a lot during the show... specifically in our between-song banter. What can I say, it ain't fucking Sunday mass... it's rock and roll people!

Well - after the show we chilled out with Les Pugilists and the Heelwalkers. A good time was had by all! Thanks go out to John and Dave from Birdman for helping us put the show on, and of course to the two great bands we got to share the stage with! We can't forget all our friends and Ottawa rock fans who came out too... you guys made the show a real success! Golden!