Alcohol & Irony Pt 3
I was wandering to Richards on Richards again on Saturday when I saw a Canadian bowling alley. I decided to take myself bowling for my birthday. Canadian bowling has five pins and a ball not much bigger than one used for lawn bowls. No finger holes either. I negotiated with the spotty (stoned?) teenager behind the counter and soon had myself a lane, a pair of shoes and a can of Kokanee (not a bad beer). I proceeded to bounce a couple of balls in the general direction of the pins. Canadian bowling balls are very light.
I noticed that unlike ten pin bowling - where, try as one might, it's impossible to spin the things like the pros do - the slightest tilt of the hand sends a Canadian bowl into the gutter. While I wasn't great at the actual bowling, I was impressed with how well I worked out the scoring system. Enough so to confidently instruct the young Aussies who turned up to use the lane next to mine. For the record, I bowled 116.
So I turned up at Richards in a good mood.
As a result of my (mostly mental) notes from the night before, I knew where to stand for the birthday show. Front & centre and a few rows back so that I could hear properly. I was also not going to put up with bad crowd behaviour (at one point I bravely told a couple of loud short girls in front of me to be quiet during the soft songs).
The show went pretty much along the same lines as the others - nervous local support (this time a diminutive girl), Constantines rocking and Weakerthans opening with (Manifest) - the title comes with brackets. I started to get worried about having asked JKS to play Aside for me. Was he going to mention that some Aussie with big hair had come half way round the world to see the Weakerthans on his birthday? At this stage I really hoped he didn't. Anyway, at about the same time the band played the song at the previous shows (fourth or so on the set list) Aside was played, I sang along ("I'm leaning on this broken fence between past and present tense...") and there was no mention of my birthday. I was both very relieved and a little disappointed.
The highlight of the show was the encore. This was the last gig of a seven week tour so the smashed Constantines took the stage with enough shots for everyone. The merch guy grabbed a guitar, the diminutive girl shared a mic with a roadie type person and JKS announced that for the first time an audience member shared their mushrooms with the bands.
The newly formed twelve piece rock act belted out End of the Line one more time and with a little more meaning. The girl, the merch guy and the roadie then decamped and the remaining nine played Neil Young's Don't Be Denied with the son of Bruce & Bob on lead vocals. If you form a band, don't ever have the Constantines support you.
I noticed that unlike ten pin bowling - where, try as one might, it's impossible to spin the things like the pros do - the slightest tilt of the hand sends a Canadian bowl into the gutter. While I wasn't great at the actual bowling, I was impressed with how well I worked out the scoring system. Enough so to confidently instruct the young Aussies who turned up to use the lane next to mine. For the record, I bowled 116.
So I turned up at Richards in a good mood.
As a result of my (mostly mental) notes from the night before, I knew where to stand for the birthday show. Front & centre and a few rows back so that I could hear properly. I was also not going to put up with bad crowd behaviour (at one point I bravely told a couple of loud short girls in front of me to be quiet during the soft songs).
The show went pretty much along the same lines as the others - nervous local support (this time a diminutive girl), Constantines rocking and Weakerthans opening with (Manifest) - the title comes with brackets. I started to get worried about having asked JKS to play Aside for me. Was he going to mention that some Aussie with big hair had come half way round the world to see the Weakerthans on his birthday? At this stage I really hoped he didn't. Anyway, at about the same time the band played the song at the previous shows (fourth or so on the set list) Aside was played, I sang along ("I'm leaning on this broken fence between past and present tense...") and there was no mention of my birthday. I was both very relieved and a little disappointed.
The highlight of the show was the encore. This was the last gig of a seven week tour so the smashed Constantines took the stage with enough shots for everyone. The merch guy grabbed a guitar, the diminutive girl shared a mic with a roadie type person and JKS announced that for the first time an audience member shared their mushrooms with the bands.
The newly formed twelve piece rock act belted out End of the Line one more time and with a little more meaning. The girl, the merch guy and the roadie then decamped and the remaining nine played Neil Young's Don't Be Denied with the son of Bruce & Bob on lead vocals. If you form a band, don't ever have the Constantines support you.
posted by woden pete @ 12:46 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:02 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Awww Pete I remember that gig. I was there with a totally random guy who was later Catriona's flatmate. The highlight for me was definitely when they all sang "Don't Be Denied". That song always makes me think of Vancouver... Ok i'll stop now cos i'll start crying. Hope you're ok love!
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