April 13th, 2002 - Red's, West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, AB:

This is the second time we're playing here since I've been in the band... (the last time was about three years ago)... maybe they promoted it better this time, who knows?, but the place is jam-packed! Kudos go out to Mike Dinger (our soundman) for this gig too... soundcheck is a little rough, but, (and this is very rare), it sounds better at the actual gig than it does in soundcheck - thanks Mike! good job...

This club holds around 1500 people... there's lots of video screens around showing what's happening onstage to those not close enough to see... and speaking of close enough... I don't remember the crowd swarming the stage the last time we were here, but this time it's a sea of people...

..the stage is quite high though, so Doug and his bad knees can't wander into the crowd as per usual... a few gigs ago, Doug was loading in the gear (he always works very hard at the load-ins... we can hardly keep up to him)... and while carrying the entire drum kit he slipped on a bottle of Jack Daniels that some airhead left right at the back of our van... really!... sometimes it just doesn't pay to work that hard I guess... anyway, the rest is history and Doug is confined to a stool onstage for the show... of course that doesn't stop him from hurling the usual barrage of insults and jokes from the stage!

The section to our left gets it the worst at this show... there are three tiers of seats there and the people seated there look like some sort of panel... Doug names them the 'French Olympic Judge section' and the rest of the people in the club are the 'Canadian Olympic Judge section'... we have a competition in the middle of Day By Day and, of course, the Canadians win... again... Zeno is the manager here (forgive me if I spelled your name wrong), and treats the band excellently... I remember his hospitality from last time as well... thanks Zeno!...

... we almost have another competition going at this gig as well... a... hmmm... a member of the female persuasion... challenges Doug... she'll take her top off if he takes off his pants... I think I speak for the whole band when I say I'm really glad that competition never happened! Thanks also to Scott, the drummer for the opening act, 'Crush', for lending Chris his drums for this show... the rentals are past being usable by this time - this is the last gig on this swing and the drums we rented were, um... well... thanks Scott! He even got his drums to the club in time for our soundcheck... what a guy!

Hi to Rhonda... a loyal fan who comes out to a lot of shows... good to see you here! Like I said this is the last date of this swing, so we fly back home after this... for a couple of days, then out again to Winnipeg...
See you there!

Marc.