August 4th, 2002 - Rockfest, Vanderhoof, BC:

This is the second year in a row for us at this festival and we're looking forward to it... we had so much fun last year - the audience was great, the staff was incredible - Ernest and Rosy are amazing hosts!... a relatively new festival, but they do it up right! The line up for the day we're on is Doug and the Slugs; The Stampeders; Glass Tiger; Tom Cochrane... okay... preshow...

We're a little tired... last night we played the Bowen Island Dock Dance... then we crashed for about 3 hours, drove to the airport, flew up to Prince George, got picked up there by a couple of vehicles - a truck for our gear and a limousine for us (I told you they do it up right...), and drove to our hotel rooms in Vanderhoof to catch another hour and a half sleep before we're picked up again and driven to the site... the location is the same as last year and is perfect - a huge field seemingly in the middle of nowhere where they have to use men on ATV's to patrol the perimeters, because of the large area...

I have to background this show a little... last year we had a contest onstage... (as with most festivals, the stage is quite high and there is about a 10 foot space between the stage and the barrier between us and the audience... this is where security stands - about 10 security guards, just standing there, backs to us, facing the audience, incase of any trouble...)... so last year Doug brought 3 women onstage to judge the security guards butts - you may have read about this in the road diary last year, but for those who didn't, and just to summarize, security really got into it last year, for the most part baring it all, and the audience got a real charge out of it... well, one of the women sent us some pix of this just before we came up this time, so it was obvious that we would have to do this again... as soon as Doug refers to last year's contest, the audience erupts! Apparently this contest is now famous in Vanderhoof and everyone remembers! The same 3 women are in the audience this year... and, well, you get the picture... and the security guards are ready for us this time! One of them is even wearing a thong - and it so happens that the thong-wearer is our winner this year! For us onstage, it's kind of like the car accident syndrome... where you can't help but slow down to look... it's so funny, we can't help but watch the contest, but I think the band's seen enough security bums and thongs... at least until next time...


(last year's bums)

A special note here: one of the band's favourite people comes out to this gig... he shall remain nameless, referred to only as 'the face', but it's always a memorable occurrence - at least to the rest of us - when the face comes out to one of our gigs... the face usually drinks Jack Daniels, and we'd been told that it's impossible for the face to drink anything else... but tonight he's drinking beer... something entirely new to us, and we're wondering what effect this new twist will have on the usual outcome... you see, the face drinks quite a bit, and gets a little obnoxious, but quite funny too, and you never know what to expect when he's around... I'm here to tell you that the face can do it on beer too! After our set onstage, we hang out for a bit to listen to the rest of the bands and somewhere in the middle of The Stampeders set we notice the face... he hangs out with us in our tent for awhile and we're all protecting our foreheads, (the face loves smacking people on the forehead, but like I said, he's drinking beer tonight, and perhaps it's only the Jack that prompts this behaviour)... a little while later the face and I are watching Glass Tiger from the crowd, but he's getting a little too obnoxious by this time and we don't last too long out there... so Chris hangs out to watch Tom Cochrane, but the rest of us head back to the hotel, the face in tow... well, of course there's a bar at the hotel and there doesn't seem to be anyone else around to close it down, so we're pretty much obligated... and this is where the face shines! I'm sure you've all seen Michael Jackson's moonwalk right? Well, believe me when I tell you that he's got nothing on the face... the face's moonwalk is something you never forget once you've seen it... I've only seen it once before - many years ago, but he's obviously been practicing... we even get the bartender to light up the stage for him! The face makes his way up there, carefully at first - this is after quite a few beers remember - but once onstage the real performer comes out! I only wish there had been more people in the bar to witness this incredible feat... after moonwalking, the face returns to the bar where the rest of us are sitting and proceeds to grab Doug around the neck repeatedly, giving him "nugies" (who knows how to spell that word?)... the rest of us are howling, because it's not often the face goes after Doug... this just gets funnier with every repetition and doesn't stop until Doug gives up and goes to bed... finally it's just me and the face sitting there, and the bartender wants to close up shop... I convince the face, (this is not hard - he'd do just about anything at this point), to come upstairs and help me 'shortsheet' Chris' bed... Chris is still at the festival site... so I tell the front desk lady that I've forgotten my key and get a key to Chris' room... shortsheeting the bed, for anyone not knowing this, is when you fold back the bottom sheet so that it looks like the top AND the bottom sheet when you get in... and of course, you can't extend your legs any further than half way... you have to remake the whole bed to fix it... but I guess the joke is on us, because tonight was Chris' night to have a date with Jack Daniels and when he comes back to the hotel, he just crashes on top of his bed and doesn't even notice... anyway, suffice it to say there were many hangovers the next morning... the face? didn't see him in the morning, I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to him... but he'll be back... I'm sure of that...

Till next time!

Marc.