Canadian Carnage Tour

Last night June 26th 2009 a Friday, yes, finally a show on a weekend, was the Canadian Carnage tour here in Edmonton with the mighty Slayer and Megadeth touring together for the first time in 15 years. This would have been awesome 15 years ago, and actually it was good now as well. Just would have been better 15 years ago, I think I am getting old. After a while it all just starts to sound like noise, but nonetheless this was the perfect show for me at this time in my life. I will always love the heavy shit, just not so sure I can take hours of it anymore.
This show was a four band bill, I missed the first band Suicide Silence, but was there in time for Machine Head, which did nothing for me at all, ya they were heavy and had some good riffs, but not really knowing there music, I wasn't able to get into them.
But up next was Megadeth, this was my 5th time seeing Megadeth, and they haven't changed a bit. Good ol' thrashing metal shit, old classics, one new song, and lots of head banging and pumping of fists. They played for an hour and rocked the fuck out.
Next up and headlining, I guess Slayer and Megadeth are switcing back and forth, co headling tour, as Megadeth headlined in Vancouver according to my bro. I was very happy to see Slayer headline here, not that they played any longer then they did in Van. One hour set per band for Slayer and Megadeth. But holy motherfucker did Slayer lay it all on the line( 3rd time seeing Slayer), these guys still fucking go all out in the thrash metal department. There were no breaks for small talk or fuck all, just all out metal massacre shit, good times. They too, did one new song, which was awesome and am very looking forward to hearing there new album.
What an insane crowd for this show which should come as no surprise, considering the kind of music they play and the kind of people that relate to the all out metal assault. I was lucky enough to run into a ticket scalper I have known for many years and have dealt with off and on. I had decent seat for the show, but who the fuck wants to sit at a show like this, he traded me straight across for a general admission ticket. Which was fucking sweet, makes smoking dope easier and fucking head banging and moshing way easier. Ya, I got caught in the mosh a few times, good times!!!! Reminded me of the old days. And as for the dope, wow, I must say there was no lack of pot at this show and few treats too, thanks to whom ever passed me the coco puff,mmmm, that was a nice touch. At one point , I had to say no to the dubes flowing around, I know when enough is enough, but wow, have to admit, I was fucked up by the end of the show.
At the end of the night, I wasn't so sure what I really thought of the whole show, but now that it is the following day, and I sit back and think, that was an incredible double bill. Fuckin' good times. The train ride home was brutal. I don't think I have ever had such a dry mouth in my life, I couldn't even talk, I believe my lips were stuck together. Thank goodness for all night Mac's stores and water :)
Here is a quote from my Bro about the Vancouver show, and he is straight edge.
"The crowd was insane! I think i got a contact high from all the weed in the air. Seriously as the show was getting closer to be done all i could think about was how badly i wanted an iced tea and a big bag of plain lays salted potato chips. Man, just thinking about the salt.. and how refreshing the iced tea would be... man i was tweaking! When the show ended i pretty much ran to the 7-11 a block away, and pretty much chugged the iced tea only taking breaks to stuff the chips in my face. It really hit the spot." Captain Citrus
As for the beer they sell at the Coliseum, that shit is goof juice, for 7 or 8 bucks a beer, well it should be. But wow, that shit sent me flying. All and all a really good time. I would rate this show a 7 out of 10. Good fucking time.

Leeroy Stagger at The Haven Social Club

On Thursday June 11th, I finally got to see Leeroy Stagger play live. My brother has been hyping him for at least a year now,Leeroy being a Vancouver artist, my brother had seen him play a few times before. I have a few of his albums and have to say he is quite good live as well.
I had never been to The Haven Social Club before, it's been open for a year now, it's on 151st and Stony Plain Road, not the best location for a live music venue, but have to say it's an excellent venue, very intimate. It's in a basement and holds maybe a couple hundred people. For the Leeroy Stagger show there were maybe 50 people there, not a great turn out, but he still played like he was playing for a packed club.
The opening acts were Carrie Catherine, a solo artist, and she was actually quite good. Next up was local band The Wheat Pool, I had heard and read lots of good things about this band, but have to say, I wasn't really all that impressed. They didn't suck, but weren't real good either.
As for Leeroy, he put on a good show and played for about an hour and a bit. Leeroy Stagger kind of reminds me of an edgier Steve Earle. I would recommend checking out his albums if you like Steve Earle kind of music, folk/rock kind of thing.
All and all I would give this show a 7 out of 10. Good times!!!!!

Favorite Shows Of 2000

New decade, another round of concerts, although the year 2000 wasn't the best for shows here in Edmonton, I still managed to get out to a few and have some stories that go with them.
May 2nd was The Violent Femmes with then unknown (Hawksley Workman) unknown to me anyways. This show was the The Shaw Conference Centre, but a set up I had never seen before, and I have been to a few shows at this venue. It was a small set up with maybe one section open, if you have ever been to Shaw Centre, you may know what I mean. Anyways, it was small and only maybe 900 people there. Hawksley opened, and at the time I wasn't all that impressed with him. I now am a fan of him, but at the time, I was there for the Femmes. Violent Femmes ended up coming on late, but it was well worth the wait. They put on an excellent show and played for close to 2 hours. Good time was had by all. I went to this show with A Bomb.

Another very memorable show for me this year was Ween in Vancouver at the Vogue Theatre on June 22nd. This was my first time seeing them live, which was big deal to me, cause to this day, they are still one of my all time favorite bands. What a fuckin' show it was too, it was just them, as it always is nowadays, an evening with Ween. I had a great buzz on for this show and had an awesome time. The Vogue Theatre is, well, a theatre,(holding about 1000 people maybe) all sitting, which was fine by me. Like I say, had a good buzz on, so I sat in the last row of the theatre, which actually aren't bad seats at this venue. I sat up there and tripped out for 3 hours, what a show. They went into a big jam thingy, where it seemed, it was the cue to go get drinks, and I swear, everyone did. Needless to say, the crowd drank the bar dry, I got some booze, I was lucky, but it was dry soon after. At one point in the show I thought Deaner was singing thru the Stanley Cup, it was just a silver megaphone, but hell to me at the time I though it looked like The Cup. Ya, I was a little inebriated!!!! What a great time that show was, the crowd outside the venue before they let us in was quite interesting and fun too, lots of doobies making the rounds and a few drinks being drunk.

On July 6th I made the trip to Calgary for the Warped Tour (first time the tour had been in Cowtown) to hang with my brother and checkout the festival. The Warped Tour of 2000 actually had quite a good line up. Some of the bands I wanted to checkout and did see were, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Hot Water Music, Snapcase, Green Day, Long Beach Dub All Stars whom were fucking amazing, Supersuckers which unfortunatelly cancelled, couldn't get across the border.
They festivities started early, and thank goodness my bro,Liz and I were there early. We all had passes for the show cause my brother and I did street team stuff for BYO Records at the time. We were able to park in the VIP section which was right behind the main stages, which was nice cause then I could sneak off to Liz's car to have a quick beer whenever I wanted,sweet!!!
The first two bands of the day back to back were Snapcase and then Hot Water Music, which was the main reason my brother wanted to go, and wow, fucking amazing and tense hardcore music. I wasn't really into Hot Water Music at the time, but I sure was after seeing them play live, and Snapcase who I had been listening to for a short time were as amazing as HWM. Sure was a nice heavy way to start the day. Thanks Citrus for turning me onto such amazing music. All and all a really good time was had by all.


Then on July 20th I got to see KISS yet again for my fourth time in a matter of 3 years at The Skyreach Centre (Coliseum) and what a story this show ended up being, not so much the show itself, but what happened before the big show.
This KISS show was at the same time as the exhibition (Klondike Days) so with a ticket you got into Klondike Days free. Well, the day started with work of course, but at the time I had an excellent job, where we were able to drink and smoke all day, ya, like I say an excellent job,lol. So one of my co-workers (Psycho) and well actually all of us at work were drinking having a good time at work no less. It was a slow day at work so my buddy Psycho and I decided and got permission to leave early (2pm) and go to the grounds of K-Days and have a few more drinks before the show. Psycho wasn't going to the show, but decided to hang out with me before I went to the show. So we picked up a six pack and drank that on the way to the grounds and parked and had a few more in the parking lot. As you can imagine we were both pretty lit up by the time we entered the exhibition grounds. This is when the fun really started. So we get to the entrance gates to the grounds, of course I have my KISS ticket which entitles me to free entrance. Well, Psycho just walks right through the gate and keeps walking, while the gate keeper stops me and asks for our tickets, I show him mine, which is cool, but then I start getting hassled about my friend who just walked in. I told the guy, not my problem and I am not paying his way, shit out of luck buddy. The guy should have stopped him, and by now, he is long gome in the crowd, ha, one free entrance,lol. So, I catch up to psycho and we have a good laugh, but now I am really wondering what is going to be in store for us the rest of the afternoon. Well, sure enough, lots more!!!!
Now we are wandering the grounds, drinking some skunky warm draft and having a good time. He decides he is going to go play a few games, while I go gamble and some of the roulette tables. When all of a sudden I hear a commotion, I look back from the table and see Psycho walking quick towards me, I leave the table and hook up with him, when he says, " we have to split up" so we each go our own way, well as quick as that happended all of a sudden there are four cops that came out of nowhere, 2 on me and 2 on him. They quickly tackled him and cuffed him while the other 2 pigs questioned me and gave me a hard time, although I hadn't done fuck all. As the pigs are bothering me, I am watching them slam Psycho to the ground, face down, hands cuffed behind his back, when a pig slams his knee into the back of his head on the concrete splitting his forhead open (for 7 stitches), blood everyhwere. So I start asking the pigs bugging me for there badge numbers, cause this isn't right. I was told to shut the fuck up and mind my own buisness or I was going to the slammer with him ( for public drunkness). Well, needless to say, I did just that, shut up and they let me go, as I watched them cart him away bleeding allover the place.
I later found out from Psycho, that what had happened is the carnival woker had cheated him out of a prize, so he popped him in the face and broke his glasses. Hence, the pigs being all over him, still it was needless to slam him into the concrete when he was already cuffed and by then 4 pigs all around him. Yup, it was a wacky afternoon. That put a damper on the rest of the day and night, but the KISS show still kicked ass. But that was the highlight of that KISS concert lol,Ted Nugent and Skid Row opened for this show, Ted was good but way too loud, you never knew what song he was playing til half way through, and Skid Row I missed. Good times!!!!!


Other shows I saw in 2000 were Sloan with Danko Jones (Danko kicked ass) at The Golden Garter, Punk o Rama with Dropkick Murphys,The Bouncing Souls,The Dwarves and The Distillers, Motorhead with Nashville Pussy and Speedealer at the Agricon Hall A, Wide Mouth Mason at K Days, Wilco and Steve Earle at The Folk Fest, Mighty Mighty Bosstones with The Gadjits at The Golden Garter, The Misfits at Red's, Danko Jones and Trciky Woo at The Urban Lounge and finally Gordie Johnson and Kelly Hoppe of Big Sugar playing an all acoustic show at The Myer Horowitz Theatre which was an excellent show too. Not a lot of shows this year, but some good ones. Good times!!!

Garage Sales Day Re-visited

Sunday Earl and I got out to a few garage sales, and come upon one where I cleaned up pretty damn good. Not great music, but for the price, why the hell not. Here is a list of what I walked away from the garage sale with.
Van Morrison - Wavelength on vinyl
David Bowie 45 rpm single from 1973 Drive-In Saturday w/ Round and Round, not sure which is side A
Whitesnake 33 1/3 7" E.P Side A - Long Way Home, Side B - Trouble and Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City, released in 1979
Free 45 rpm 7" single Little Bit Of Love w/ Sail On, again not sure which is side A released in 1972
Queen 45 rpm 7" single Side One - One Vision, Side Two - Blurred Vision released in 1985
George Harrison 45 rpm 7" single on Apple records again not sure which is side A or B but the songs are My Sweet Lord and What Is Life, released in 1970
Joe Walsh 45 rpm 7" single Side One - Life's Been Good, Side Two - Theme From Boat Weirdos, released in 1978
All vinyl in mint condition.
Then I also got some CD's, here is the list of them.
Medeski Martin & Wood - Tonic
Buck 65 - Square
Marilyn Manson - The Last Tour On Earth (Promotional Copy)
Atreyu - The Curse
Body Count - Born Dead
Living Colour - Pride and the Biscuits album
The Super Friendz - Love Energy
And finally, I also purchsed a book William S Burroughs - The Naked Lunch on paperback First Edition. All of this for the price of a toonie. Yup 2 whole fucking dollars. Couldn't go wrong with all of that.

Favorite Shows Of 1999

I didn't see a lot of shows in 99, but the ones I did see were quite good, and three of them were in Vancouver.
One of the shows I saw was Motorhead at a bar called Cowboys here in Edmonton. ya, Cowboys, if you can imagine Motorhead playing a cowboy bar, but they did, and what a fuckin' show it was. I hadn't seen Motorhead play in something like 10 years, well since they opened for Alice Cooper in the late 80's, so to see them play a club was going to be wicked, and it was. This show was incrediblly loud, my ears rang for 2 days after this show. I went to this show with Psycho. A good time was had.


June 11th had me travel to Vancouver to see two folk music legends play together. Bob Dylan and Paul Simon at GM Place in Vancouver. Paul Simon opened the show with a 75 minute set, followed by Dylan doing an hour and a half set then with both musicians sharing the stage for a couple of songs together, which was damn cool to see. Tickets were expensive for this show, but well worth it in the long run. After all, who would have thought you would ever see these 2 play together. I had row six on the floor for this show, excellent seats. A few years later I ended up finding a video bootleg of this very show, which is cool to look back on.


In July, I made yet another trip to Vancouver for the Ozzfest show on July 16th, I got to Van. on the 15th and found out that Pavement were playing the day before Ozzfest, so I thought I would check the show out.
Pavement were playing the Vogue Theatre on Granville Street. Vogue Theatre is a cool venue to see a show. I did a hit of sid for this show and sat in absolute amazement through out the whole show. the opening band was a band called US Maple. I had never heard of the before or since, but wow, they were fucking awesome, a lot of the people in attendance were actually booing them, but I thought they were amazing, maybe it was the drugs,lol. They were a whole lot of noise with an excellent guitar player. I was hooting and hollering through the whole set. Noise and psychedelia hardcore. Then next was Pavement which too were awesome, again good psychedelic music. All and all just an amazing night of music. I really really enjoyed this show and was a fluke that I ended up going to it. Pavement broke up not long after this show.

July 16th was Ozzfest in Vancouver at Thunderbird Stadium, which was the main reason I had travelled to Vancouver for. This was the one and only time Ozzfest was ever held in Vancouver and what a line up it was. I got to see a lot of bands I had never seen before at this festival. The original line up of Black Sabbath were the headliners and were fucking awesome, it was cool to see the might Tony Iommi play and Ozzy was sounding great, the whole band was on this night. Fuckin' wicked to finally get to see the ultimate metal band. Other bands I saw for the first time were Slipknot, the first album wasn't even released in Canada yet when they played this show, and what a freak show that was. I really enjoyed them and became a fan of them after seeing them perform. I also got to see Primus, who were also awesome. Slayer played in the afternoon, which was weird to see with the sun beating down and Slayer in all out thrash mode. That was the most brutal mosh fest I had ever experienced, it didn't take me long to get the hell out of that, I backed out in a hurry. But Slayer were excellent. Rob Zombie was good as well, Deftones were alright and System Of A Down were excellent too. They hadn't it hit big by this time, and only had one album out at the time.
My biggest complaint about this festival was no booze being sold at the venue. Can you imagine, a metal fest with no booze. I was so disappointed, now I know why I saw people digging up the grounds when they got in. Obviously they knew about the no booze thing, cause I saw people dig up there alcohol from the ground, that was good thinking. As for pot though, that was a whole other story, the place was one big cloud of smoke through out the whole day. And at the end of the show, it was quite the sight to see the grounds covered in empty baggies all over the place. All and all an excellent show and well worth the trip to Vancouver for.


Other shows I saw in 1999 were The Tragically Hip with By Divine Right in Red Deer at the Red Deer Centrium, Less Than Jake with All,Good Riddance and Limp at the Old Scona Bus Barns, Weird Al Yankovic at the Shaw Conference Centre, Coal Chamber with Slipknot and Dope at the Golden Garter, George Thorogood at Red's, and finally the last show of the 90's Big Sugar New Years Eve at the Shaw Conference Centre.