Brighter Hell

Tonight marked the last night of the tour (apart from the appalling 20 hour drive home, of course). We had a late departure from Liverpool (what a surprise) and after another great meal at the Mersey house we tasked our GPS system (Tom Tom) with the top priority of finding us a DQ. Glenn and I had been jonesing since the US when he discoverd the M&M Blizzard (superior, I am told, to the Smarties Blizzard) and I discovered the Butterfinger Blizzard (superior to the Crispy Crunch Blizzard). Now, Glenn had been a little 'off' altogether since the 'accidental' freebasing accident that occurred shortly after he bought a 4 lb. bag of M&M's in a Walgreens for $4.99. But every man has his vice so we all sought the DQ with the help of the Tomtizzle.We had success about 45 minutes out of Liverpool (and halfway to Halifax) and we gorged ourselves on frozen, sugary goodness. You know - what all bands who have 5 guys that sing should do. Why didn't we just pour cream and wax down our throats as well?


Dusty and one of his groupies.

It got really, really cold as we pulled into Halifax and a fog fell over the city. I've not been to London but it's as I imagine the London fog would be. We had trouble backing up the van (and trailer) because we could barely see 6 feet behind us. The venue was pretty amazing. We played in Hell's Kitchen which is the baby bar associated with the Marquee Club (the gorgeous upstairs room that has an 850 person capacity). Jesse described it as 'strangely reminiscent of Jabba's palace' and he couldn't have been more right. It was well documented on video but we won't see that until Alex gets off his lazy bum and edits some video (in his defense this IS a tedious endeavour because we swear like a thousand, angry truckers all the time we're on the road).

The show itself was great. In the classic tradition of east coast generosity, our friend Jason MacIsaac (who got us on the bill) switched the order of the bands. We were set to go first but he said, "Nawww. We'll go first. We play here all the time and if you guys go second there'll be more people here to see you." I assure you that kind of thing never happens in Ontario. That was the best night of music I've been a part of in a while. As good as some of the bands were that we played with on the road, these guys were the most honed, the most entertaining and the most enjoyable. The other two acts (Jason's band, Silvergun and a great local act called, Alert the Medic) were just fantastic and I think we played our best show of the tour. It was a proper farewell show for a good crowd that will included a classic - almost Gord Downielike - rant from yours truly. I highly suggest searching for the bootleg. If you can't find that, just buy the record and I'll come to your house and do a rant in person. I don't know what happened, but the spirit just moved me and I went on a little sojourn in the latter part of 'The Beginning of the End of the World.' I had the crowd shouting, "I feel good! I feel strong! I feel good! I feel strong!" just before Len channelled the remainder of his M&M sugar-high into a face-melting solo. Seriously. Some folks left there with less than half a face.


Just some folks that were at our show in Halifax. (Actually they're from the exhibit at the Smithsonian I saw in Washington - sad that with a space shuttle next door to me I was more excited about R2, 3P0 and the original Kermit the Frog puppet.)

And now the long, long road home.