August 6, 2004 - Kicker's Saloon, Red Deer, Alberta:

I wish people would just think things through. You know, before just acting in their own best interests without any thought directed toward the consequences of their actions. Yeah. I'm going to give the radio station the benefit of the doubt and say that's probably what happened here. They just didn't think things through.

Mike, Elio and I pull up to Kicker's at around 4pm. Elio slides out of the van and into the club, looking for the load-in door. Mike and I stay and listen as the radio station advertises our show that night. This is the ad: 'Doug and the Slugs are playing Kicker's tonight, but it's sold out and the only way you can still go if you don't have a ticket is to keep listening to…' I can't remember the exact words of the rest of the ad, and Mike and I are pre-occupied with loading the gear in anyway, but the gist of it is that the station is holding some sort of contest and if you win, your prize is a couple of tickets to see the sold out Slugs show. Only the show isn't sold out. And they said it was. See, that's where they didn't think things through. And I have to believe it was that, because apparently the club and the radio station are very friendly…but what happens is people don't bother trying to buy tickets because they just heard it was sold out, and we end up with half the crowd we could've had… which is too bad, because if we'd had even more people in there… well… I'd be writing about that instead of a radio station faux pas. The show comes off really well regardless and the crowd is great. A few of the women on the dance floor get really really hot, because of how much they're dancing I guess… we all try not to look when that happens… could be they're just trying to prove to Doug that their parts are real, as he's quite often stated his preference for real body parts over um, shall we say enhanced… my own thoughts in that regard are more in line with our friend The Face (read some of the earlier road diaries for more on The Face)… anyway, in the immortal words of The Face, "Any boobies are good boobies."

So. A good show regardless, as I said… we've got a short drive tomorrow to St. Albert, which is just outside of Edmonton, for an outdoor show that we're headlining, so we're not even on until midnight… but more on that later… take care… Marc.