Red’s (Edmonton Events Centre) – West Edmonton Mall – Edmonton, Alberta – March 3rd 2006

It’s been nearly three months since the band has played live. Between Christmas, Jason’s trip to Australia and my Vancouver Island journey there has been little time to get together and put on a live performance. Today is going to be our first show of the New Year and it feels great to be back at it.

I’m a little intrigued to see how many people actually show up. Mike Dilts the promoter at Red’s and myself threw together the show in just under 10 days so the promo materials didn’t really hit the streets or our friends for that matter until about 3 days before the show. We got out about 60 promo tickets; hopefully the other two bands did the same.

Tonight’s band list consists of Fusebox, Living Illusion and Gameshow. Fusebox is the first band on this evening and by the time we arrive they’re already set up. We haul in our gear and make our way to the green room. Once inside, we comment on how the green room is literally painted green. I run to find the evening manager and tee everything up. I grab a free beer and BS with him about music and his band Deep Fine Grind. Nice guy.

After finishing my conversation Jason grabs me and we proceed to get a couple rounds of pool in. (Red’s is huge and has a bowling alley, pool hall, arcade and bar) People start to slowly drizzle there way in and I see some friends that I invite to join us for a round of pool. We drink and play a few more games before Jay and I decide to go check out the first band that just started playing.

There are a good 15 people in the crowd as Fusebox plays; they look like there having fun. I decide it’s time to go get my gear together as we’re the next band on. I make sure all my stuff is good to go and head for a pre show smoke, but not before grabbing a couple more beers. Jason joins me outside and says that more people are starting to show up.

After we’re done we head back in to watch Fusebox finish and begin to load our gear on stage. There are a good 75 people in the crowd now, which is always a good sign (well a better sign). As always it’s like a house party, surrounded by friends all there to party, watch us play and have a great time. We start to play and every one is digging it.

As we make our way through our set we get to one of our only covers, Stinkfist by Tool. The crowd cheers as we start to play. The song is going awesome and sounds superb. We get to the bridge of the song and Mark kicks in his bass solo. We build and build slowly to get to the heaviest part of the song, then once it hit the Light Tech at Red’s kicked on the strobe light. We start jumping up and down to the beat of the song and get the crowd going. Lights are flashing, crowds going hardcore, it’s wicked.

Once we finish our set we tear down and I run around like a mad man selling CDs. I head out front to have a rette and say goodbye to some people who aren’t staying for the last band. I head back in and sit with the crew. The crowd has gotten smaller but we sit and enjoy the last band. They put on a good show.

As they finish the bouncer’s start to kick every one out, but not before they mention to us that they think we did an awesome job. The band loads up all the gear and we all head home. It’s nice to be knee deep into the music again.

Happy and Fulfilled,
Shane Lamotte