September 10th & 11th, 2004 – Casino Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan:

We’re flying out to this gig and before we even leave the Vancouver airport weird things start happening… Chris, Elio, Doug, and Mike all take the same cab to the airport, and as the cab driver gets close to departures the traffic controller guy thinks he’s driving too fast and puts his hand out, gesturing for the driver to slow down… instead of just complying, the cab driver rolls his window down and says, “Are you having a problem?” The traffic guy explains that he’s just trying to slow him down, as he was driving too fast… but the driver just can’t leave it alone… he says, “Do you think you have the power in your hand?”… at this point the controller apparently decides that it’s no use talking sense to this driver, and ends the exchange, telling him once more to slow down through that area and walks away… maybe this particular cab driver should cut down on his caffeine… and meanwhile, Doug is trying to be heard over the two of them, (usually not a problem for Doug), hinting that Westjet is just up ahead… of course the driver is stopped now, in the middle of the road, wanting to argue some more with the controller… and the meter’s still running...

Then it’s security… usually not too much of a problem… we’re used to taking our cell phones and laptops out, hats off etc., but this time Doug is stopped as he walks through the security archway… by the time he finally gets through, he has been asked to take off his belt and his shoes, and is padding around barefoot looking for a place to sit down and get dressed once again… Jay and I have a good chuckle as we see this… I don’t know why, but for some reason it’s just funnier when it happens to Doug…

Nothing else happens on the flight thankfully, and we arrive in Regina at 2:00pm… there’s no transportation supplied at this gig, so we hop a couple of cabs to the casino… it was a pretty early morning for all of us, so we’re in a bit of a hurry to get the gear setup and check in at the hotel so we can catch a little sleep before the gig… to that end, we leave Doug with all the luggage on a cart so he can arrange for the concierge to take it all up to his room – we’ll pick our luggage up from his room later and we go over to the casino to setup… it’s been awhile since Elio’s boned up on his French though, and he tells everyone that the connaisseur is handling the bags… of course none of us give him a hard time about that… repeatedly…

The showroom is one of the bigger casino showrooms we’ve played… a mixture of chairs and tables, and theater-style seating… great gear, great lighting… should be a fun show…

There’s an intro tape that plays just before we go on, and our cue is “let the show begin”… we start into Same Old Story… it isn’t sold out, but it’s a receptive audience and, even though the venue isn’t exactly set up for dancing, by the time we’re playing Viagra, there are quite a few people dancing between the tables and the stage… Viagra is the fourth song in the set… some women had been gesturing to Elio for a couple of songs before that, but he had no idea what they meant… but with more people on the ‘dance floor’, and as more people start to point and gesture, it becomes apparent that Doug has been doing the entire show up to now with his fly open… this of course, isn’t funny at all to the rest of us… and Doug figures that since he’s done four songs already with everything hanging out so to speak, there’s no real hurry to remedy the situation… he finishes Viagra without changing anything… during Day by Day (the next song), perhaps it’s getting a little drafty, perhaps he’s just tired of the extra scrutiny, but he decides to do up his zipper… only after much fumbling around down there, he can’t… so after the song is over, he has us play for a bit, while he goes offstage and fumbles around in a bit more private area (pun intended), than center stage… the band plays three songs in total… some people are just zipper challenged I guess…

The rest of the night is comparatively uneventful, although for a venue where no alcohol is allowed onstage, the blood alcohol levels of the people in the Twist contest should have been setting off alarms… wow… there are some drunk people here… we finish the set, then get called back for an encore and play two more songs before calling it a night…

I head back to my hotel room, tired and just wanting to catch a bit of TV and then crash, but some of the other guys head out to a local bar… and the Face is there! Damn, I’m sorry I missed him this time… you never know when that guy is going to come around… always the life of the party… but, like I said, quite elusive and we never know where he’ll show up next…

The show on the second night is the better of the two for the band… and a few more people in the audience as well… the band’s had some well-earned sleep and plays hard tonight, though it’s seemingly more difficult to get the audience up dancing… no matter, the show is great, and we’re called back again for an encore… we play Satisfaction – a long standing tribute to a great rock and roll song written by one of rock’s best bands, and one of our newest tunes, Cinderella… and call it a night. It’s a great time at the Casino Regina… check it out, if you’re in the area… take care Slugfans… until next gig… Marc.