February 20th, 2003 - The Shamrock, Calgary, AB:

Ahhh... home again... well not really, but it might as well be... we play here a lot and so far it's been jam-packed every time... this time is no exception... The Shamrock is a small, dimly lit, smoky bar... and I love it. The crowd here is always up for the gig... a room full of loud, blue collar working, obnoxiously drunk people... what more could you want?

Mike (soundman), has an interesting day... as we're loading the equipment in, he twists his back carrying Elio's amplifier and is forced to take it easy from then on... then, after soundcheck, we're having dinner upstairs and he bites down on something hard, almost cracking his tooth... AND THEN... he trips over the one stair in the club, after already hurting his back earlier... good day for Mike...

Later, in the middle of the show, Elio finally lands himself a woman... or should I say she lands... at his feet... one of those aforementioned obnoxiously drunk people... apparently she doesn't see the monitor sitting there on the floor in front of Elio and trips over it (a good day for tripping), landing unceremoniously at Elio's feet, knocking him and his microphone backwards... nobody is hurt though and the show continues... (I don't even think he got her name)... in 'Day by Day' we're joined by the "Harpies From Hell" onstage, who "help" us sing the song... you've never heard harmony like that before... and then in the Twist contest, Mike, sore back and all, makes his guitar playing debut, as Elio has to make an emergency visit to the bathroom... I guess Mike must've lost Elio's guitar pick too, because near the end of the night the closest patrons are treated to one of Elio's guitar solos... as he uses some unsuspecting guy's tie for a guitar pick... while still around the guy's neck!

After we've finished the regular show, we're backstage listening and gauging the amount of enthusiasm for an encore... and it sounds like the audience wants one... so Doug says, 'go', and we head to the stage... only the crowd dies down almost immediately... drinking that hard can zap your staying power, or so I've heard... so we all stop en route to the stage... except Chris, who doesn't hear us and doesn't know that we've all aborted the previous plan... anyway, Chris is alone on the stage and, while the rest of us think this is uproariously funny and are quite willing to sit there and watch Chris' confusion, Elio suggests that we start the encore off with a drum solo... Chris is only too happy to oblige and the crowd goes wild... the rest of us join Chris for a couple more songs and the night is over... wow... a lot of weird stuff happens sometimes... the last stop on this swing is Edmonton... we're there for two nights; tomorrow and the next... Cya! Marc.