December 10th and 11th, 2002: The Cariboo - Quesnel:

"So I go to the drive-thru liquor store in town here... I can't believe it; I've never seen one of these... I'm standing there in the line-up between a Honda and a pickup truck... and the truck keeps nudging me ahead with its bumper... I didn't know there was a door to the place as well..." ... ahhh, yes, Doug Bennett's in fine form tonight...

This is a great little pub! and if you're in Quesnel looking for a place to eat, The Cariboo has great food, inexpensive, and the staff will treat you right... thanks to Darlene and the entire staff for making us feel right at home!

The stage is quite small and Chris and I are the only ones able to fit on it... Jay, Doug and Elio are all standing on the dance floor in front of us... this ends up looking pretty good actually; the effect being sort of like a drum and keyboard riser in the back... apparently the power here is quite small as well; we blow the power twice on the first night; once in each of the first two songs... oops... then Mike earns his money and figures it out, running a long extension cord up through the ceiling and over to the back of the room, where there's another outlet on a separate circuit... all of this, during Chinatown Calculation, while praying that the power lasts long enough to finish the job...

The crowd is great - sold out both nights - and Doug has a great time with them... there's 'Mullet Man', whom Doug reassures that if he just waits until he's 56 (he looks to be in his thirties), his hairstyle will probably be back in style by then... there's a familiar heckling voice out in the crowd that turns out to be one of the almost famous judges from the Vanderhoof festival - where all the security guards bared their respective, well, everything - and she's giving Doug a hard time about talking too much, saying, "... anyways..." at the top of her voice... of course this is only more fuel for Doug, and he singles her out, bringing her up to the stage, and from then on, uses "... anyways..." as part of his stage vernacular... and there's the limbo contest on the second night which is quite a hit...

An interesting bit of advice here: you know those little packets of salad dressing they give you in restaurants? Well, they don't take too much pressure obligingly... in other words - and especially with ranch dressing - don't put them in your hand and punch the other hand down hard on top of it, and expect nothing to happen... right Jay? This, of course, never happened... and definitely not upstairs in one of the hotel rooms after the show... it's amazing how much dressing fits into one of those little packets... I'll leave it to your respective imaginations how this would look if it got in Mike's hair, on Mike's back, all over Mike's face, on Mike's bed, all the way up to Mike's pillows, on the floor in Mike's room... I mean, if it had really happened of course... the look on Mike's face alone would probably be enough to keep the band laughing hysterically for quite awhile...

Doug evens makes a rare, after the show appearance, in the club, on the microphone... Mike plays one of Doug's favourite songs, "Man of Constant Sorrow", on the system after our last song and Doug can't resist the impulse to come back, grab the microphone and sing, karoake style, along with the tune... expect that song to be added to the show soon! Anyways... a great couple of nights in Quesnel! Off to Prince George next... Cya! Marc.