January 11th, 2003 - The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC:

Ahhh... back to our favourite gig in Vancouver... our once a year stop... a great article in the Vancouver Sun today - worth reading if you missed it... spotlight on some of the 70's/80's Vancouver bands, most of whom are still out there gigging... bands like Chilliwack, and the Slugs (coincidentally or not, playing the Commodore tonight) as well as Trooper, Prism, and The Powder Blues Band... Loverboy was even mentioned, though apparently their manager wasn't interested in having them included in the same company as the rest of us... apparently Loverboy are still looking for those 'two tickets to paradise' with Eddie Money right now...

We did this show last year as well, again with Chilliwack, and again, it's an honour to be on the same stage as Bill Henderson and the rest of the boys... this band has it all... great songs, musicianship, and a singer that never seems to get any older... amazing... there's an opening act tonight as well... a band called, 'Glare', that I confess I'd never heard of until tonight, but their set rocked and the band was well received by the crowd...

This show isn't littered with catastrophes like last year... remember that? No broken snare drums in the first song; no keyboards that just decide to quit halfway into the show... not this time... but I do add a little flavour in 'Day by Day' when I mess up the intro a little... Chris is laughing about it at the end of the show, and says to me, "I've never, ever heard you make a mistake before!"... well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Chris, but I make mistakes all the time... I get a second chance at it anyway, when Doug stops the song to berate the audience for not dancing enough and we start over, this time with the right intro... and that's not to say anything negative about the crowd at this gig... the dance floor is jam-packed! Maybe that's the problem... there isn't enough room to dance... it's a sea of people from the stage to the bar; a sold-out crowd who definitely didn't want to sit at their tables!

The only bad thing about this gig is it wasn't long enough... an hour is just not enough time to play all the songs people want to hear at a Slugs show... songs like 'Love Shines'; 'Tomcat Prowl'; 'Real Enough'; and 'Mondays'; usually a part of the setlist, didn't make an appearance tonight...

An interesting part in the show: during the breakdown in one of the songs, an older lady is trying to get Doug's attention... he bends down to her and it's obvious that she has something to say... so Doug extends the microphone to her, and she says, "Hot drummer!" Of course, none of us onstage think that's funny... at all... so Doug gets her up onstage... a little later he has Elio hop on the drums, because apparently all this woman wants in life is a chance to dance with Chris... Chris does leave the safety of his drum set, but declines to demonstrate his dancing prowess for the crowd, so the two of them go to the side of the stage where no one can see what they're doing... hmmm... I'm unable to comment on what went on over there as I couldn't see either...

Anyway, another very successful night at the Commodore and already I can't wait to play here again! Thanks to management and staff for making everything run so smoothly (again)... CU next time! We're off to the Maritimes next... just two shows... Coal Harbour and Halifax on the 17th and 18th... Bye for now... Marc.