Looking at the World Through Beer Coloured Glasses

February 2nd, 2005

January 27 – Barrymores – Ottawa

A quick rundown of events from our last show through the beer goggled eyes of Trevor Kealey:

We all met up at Steve’s apartment around 5:30pm to pick up the gear. As Steve, Chet, and I hauled it all down the narrow stairway while Steve’s fiancée Maritia held the door, Chris again managed to avoid moving anything. He was holed up in his car with his best lady steaming up the windows. Heavy petting session is my guess.

Anyway, we get him out of liplock, and he joins us all in Chet’s truck. Where he proceeds to unleash a Palmer-worthy bomb. For those of you that don’t understand, I am referring to flatulence. Italian flatulence. It smells like ravioli and pesto that has fermented, strong red wine, and cheese, all filtered through a thick layer of ass hair.

Thankfully Barrymore’s is merely blocks away. We load in through the back alley, taking on the treacherously icy steps. Luckily no one is hurt from falling, and all the gear survives. Upon arriving in the club, we find it to actually be colder inside than it is out! I have never done soundcheck with a coat and gloves on. It was hard. Chris managed to plough through all his drum sticks, I suspect the bitter cold caused them to turn to ice and shatter. He tried to play the last sound check song with only one drum stick. Not good. But our luck was about to change. After sound check we were lucky enough to find a whole box of Shadow Vale t-shirts! It was like a dream come true! I’ve already seen Steve wearing his.

Harshey and Blackball arrived soon for their soundcheck, so we snuck over to the Royal Oak for dinner. Chris went to get some drum sticks and catch a quick nap. Rock and Roll.

We got back to the club just before Blackball hit the stage. True to his word, Dave the drummer did indeed remove his shirt (remember: it is still colder than a seal’s ass in there). He survived, using the heat generated from their smoking set to combat frostbite on the nipples.

Harshey hit the stage shortly after, and hit it fast and furious. Some new songs were introduced and the crowd was digging it. Plus the bodies filling the place and all the frantic movement managed to heat it up enough to upgrade the club from meat locker to cold storage.

By the time we hit the stage I had no fear of the cold due to the beer jacket I had put on after the club gave us 26 beer tickets. We played all the songs from the EP, as well as some Deep Purple and a new song called Music is the Medicine. Everything was well received and we had a load of fun. Thanks to everyone who came to watch and to play.

I managed to sneak out without helping with any of the gear (I likely wouldn’t have been any help anyway) and got a drive home from our good buddy Gary. I think I struck up a deal to have him manage the Setbacks’ side project: Deeper Purple, the Ultimate Tribute to Deep Purple. Either that or the Space Truckers. Watch for us.