January 24th, 2003 - Rod and Gun Club, Parksville, BC:

This gig is becoming one of our 'home away from homes'... it feels like only a few months since we were here last... Joel is still the house-tech here, which is a good thing - he's very good and we need him tonight as you'll find out reading on... after soundchecking around the hockey game, (Joel's a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, which is perhaps the only knock on him), we have dinner and head off to the hotel... this is the same hotel we always stay in when we're in Parksville and we've gotten to know Michelle at the front desk quite well... she tells us she's coming down tonight, which is great because she really lights up the place - she's always smiling...

So it's gig time and we walk in the club, head straight up to the dressing room and get ready for the show... on this particular night we have a lot of time to get ready... Mike (our soundman), comes upstairs and tells us that someone has re-patched the entire system and it will be awhile before we can play... in case you don't realize what that means, someone pulled all the cables out of the back of the soundboard and put them back in different spots... as well as plugging inputs into outputs etc., even removing fuses, which can potentially blow the entire system if you don't notice it in time... luckily Mike notices in time... so Mike and Joel spend the next half hour tracing all the lines down to find out where they should go, and re-patching... what a waste of time... especially for the people who paid to see us... we don't know who did this, though Joel said he has an idea, but we're pretty sure that anyone who would do this is also too much a coward to stay in the club, so at least we're now among friends... This kind of thing - joke? - it seems to me, is done by the same type of person who plants computer viruses... I suppose it falls loosely under the category of 'practical joke', but the perpetrator's not even there to witness the result, so what fun is that? And no one's laughing... that's usually a good indication that it's not funny... anyway, who knows if the incident got our blood flowing or whatever, but it's one of the best shows the band has given for awhile... tons of energy, a great crowd, lots of hot, sweaty bodies, and just a very enthusiastic vibe from everyone...

After the gig we head back to the hotel and head up to Michelle's room to listen to Chris rant and rave about The Trailer Park Boys again... okay, and to have a few drinks... and then the new 'Snow' video comes on the TV and Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys) is on it... ahhh! Chris (Gadget), is in heaven, eyes glued to the TV, with that faraway, dreamy expression on his face once again... so everything's back to normal... we don't make it to bed until almost 6:00 am, so tomorrow should be interesting... See you in Nanaimo! Marc.