July 13, 2002 - Rock'n the Valley - Craven, Saskatchewan:

Ahhh... outdoor festivals... my favourite kind of gig... this is Chris' first festival - he's a festival virgin, and we let him know about it as often as possible of course...

We're playing on the beer garden stage, after the main stage closes down... the line-up for the main stage includes Joan Jett, Platinum Blonde, and Judas Priest closes the show... Chris (the festival virgin), and Mike and I wander up to get our daily infusion of heavy metal, Priest-style, in the flesh... we were here two years ago too - the big name that year was 'The Guess Who', and it strikes me that there were more people for that show than the crowd I see here this time and I'm almost disappointed for Chris (the festival virgin)... BUT!!!... we head over to the beer stage to set up our equipment for the show... don't know if I've ever mentioned it before (just kidding), but has anyone figured out yet why it's always the keyboard stand that gets forgotten about? Why is that? Anyway, we do find one... this time... and after a very quick set-up and soundcheck (thanks again Mike), and only a couple of minutes after Judas Priest finishes their encore, we launch into Terminal City... and a couple of minutes after that, the entire crowd from the main stage joins the already quite inebriated crowd at the beer stage... and we've got a major party happening! There you go, Chris! Chris is the festival virgin, in case I forgot to mention that...

The stage is quite high off the ground here... but there are no barricades... and the combination of Doug and a fairly drunk crowd puts security through their paces... during the Twist contest, Doug calls a few people onstage... a few... umm... okay, so A LOT of people are onstage now... this is getting out of hand... more people coming up onstage still... finally security gets them all off the stage with Doug helping on the mic... except for one guy... if anyone knows this guy, kick his ass for us... Doug called him Drunken asshole #1... it was pretty comical to watch, actually... he kept moving from one side of the stage to the other, trying to jump up, succeeding the odd time, getting kicked off, going back to start over... he'd even wait until someone tried to jump up on the opposite side, then while security was involved there, he'd jump up on his side... we love him...

This gig was so much fun... if you live anywhere near the area... hell, even if you don't... I strongly recommend you check this venue out next year... BUT!!!... bring some bug spray... the little critters are amazing out here... they have these weird ones: they fly, but they have a rounded shell kind of thing for a back... and they obviously like to burrow, because they'd land on my keyboards and try their damnedest to get between the keys... I'm serious... ass sticking straight up in the air, pushing their heads through the cracks... I can imagine how many I brought home with me... Chris, (the festival virgin), was having fun bashing them off his drums while he was playing, too...

We're in Merrit, BC next week... on Friday, July 19th... The Merrit Mountain Music Festival... another festival... and we're looking forward to this one, with Chris now experienced, and matured into full festival-hood... C U there! Marc.