Hey y’all
Well I’m just now recuperated enough from the ECMA weekend (that went down two weeks ago) to try and recap it. It was classic ECMA good times I can tell you that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Charlottetown has THE BEST ECMA set up. It’s just nice having it all right in one spot you know. There is just something about the island hospitality that kicks ass! The Bastards and I played A LOT of shows in the few days we were there. We played big stages (Rock Room) and little stages (members lounge) We played some rawkin’ Sets and even pumped out a full set of blues for the Partnered Blues Showcase. Every show was a blast and I just want to send a quick shout out to ECMA, MusicNB, KeleRedmond, Glen Strickey and Aaron Hicken for organizing these stages.
Rock Room
The Globe
I managed to do a little business while there too like hooking up with Sennheiser Canada for some free stuff and some great deals on other stuff. REAL happy about that relationship. We also ran into a whole whack of peeps we haven’t seen in ages from Ian Sherwood to The Hupman Brothers to Matt Andersen>, Irish Mythen, Tommy Green Jr….oh man I could go on.
A couple down points would be that, ONE: I did find it very challenging playing so much AND trying to get business done but I think it all worked out in the end. Only time will tell. And TWO: Some bands over the weekend were disrespectful about time slots and would not get off the stage when they were supposed to and ate up other band’s time…I really don’t get that. THAT, kids, is NOT how you make friends. People remember that kind of shit ya know? Just sayin’.
After my Managers forum, which was fun, we also got the chance to see the new Ron Hynes Documentary “Man of a Thousand Songs”. It’s cool. check it out if you can. Very dark, but good. Got to have a late night “chat” with him on Sunday at the bar too, although calling it a chat and late night may be exaggerating. I was foggy at that point. Previously, we had made a kick ass supper at our apartment and enjoyed some Martini’s. Then we went to the Gala awards. They were awesome. Real nice room (Confederation Centre) and a lot of good tunes. We decided, though, that we may have been having to much fun for the peeps around us and opted to convene to the bar and scheme about a new record. Scheme we did…. Then we tried to steal Haywire’s limo….
I tried my best to convince the driver to give us a ride to the delta and that he’d be back before the Gala got out. Reading our minds, he mentioned that there wasn’t even any booze in it so we decided to walk. When we finally made it to the after party Haywire was actually on stage and I gotta testify, they sounded good and rocked the crowd. Somewhere around this point details get fuzzy….anyhow, all I know is The Bastards and I were having a big time!
The whole weekend was good except for one thing…You see I left for this trip knowing that my Grandmother was ill in the hospital and probably wouldn’t make the weekend. She passed away on Sunday and in typical fashion I “Watered” my grief all Sunday night. My life is a lot of fun, I’m not gonna lie to you…BUT…when you can’t be there for loved ones, to be the support they need, it straight up sucks. If you think I run around all the time and never give fleeting thought to where I “Should” be and what I “should” be doing your wrong. I think about it all the time. It’s one of the few downers of my job. Anyhow we sent Helen to the great gig in the sky last week in a lovely ceremony. I hung out with my moms all night and we traded tales and had a few laughs and a few tears. I had Easter weekend off, which was nice, funny enough though I didn’t really eat any chocolate or ham and saw no Zombies.
So that brings us to this weekend. I can barely contain my enthusiasm!!! Me and The Bastards have teamed up with Chris Colepaugh (who took home entertainer of the year and rock album of the year at the ECMA’s !!!) and his Crew for one huge weekend of RAWK!!! Tomorrow night (friday) we’ll be at the Capital complex. Around 7.30pm Chris and I will be trading songs in a solo set format, at The Wilser Room. No cover for that! Then at 10pm we’ll fire up the rhythm sections and rawk the Capital to the ground. I believe Chris is on around 10.15pm for 75 minutes then we’ll be on around 11.45pm for 75 minutes. This show is planned to be over at 1am so don’t be late. Come down and hear the solo sets then rawk the night away. it’s gonna be awesome! I believe the night show is a $5 cover
Saturday we head to Saint John to Peppers Pub for a similar night. Solo sets form 9-11pm and full band later. Me and The Bastards will kick off the band segment at 11.30pm for about an hour. Then Colepaugh will come on and clean up what’s left of the ears right till 2am! Late show tickets are Ten bucks. You can come early for the food tasting and see all the shows for $25 I believe. I’m telling ya folks…this is gonna be a great weekend. Make sure you’re there.
The Summer tour is almost 100% booked, and there are lots of Summer Festivals that are gonna be posted soon too so stay tuned to the DATES section of the site….also my next post should be a post with our awesome new logo on it! Stay tuned for that…we’re just waiting for our Facebook Fan Page to reach 1000 likes…..we’re 15 away i think…..stay tuned!!!! We’ll post the logo there first!
Lots going on, talk to you soon! Stay Good,
Ross