Great weekend. Left Edmonton Thursday at Midnight on the Greyhound to Calgary. Didn't sleep. Arrived at 6:30, met up with DL3, and left Calgary by 7 en route to Kelowna. Highway construction meant an extra 2 hours on the drive. Listened to Aggrolites' Dirty Reggae and caught a couple winks finally.
Rolled into Kelowna around 3 or 4, checked into the hotel, and spent the next few hours poolside with Kevin, Nick, and Jeremy. Made Doc Willoughby's to load-in and grab a bite around 7. Colin Carrierre at Doc's is the man! Before we played Ang & I snuck out to Greatful Fed to catch some of Edmonton's Burning Sands play, and she bought me a birthday shot (Scottish-Canadian: 1/2 whiskey, 1/2 scotch).
Great two sets at Doc's! Full house, Roland the sound guy was incredible, and the floor was packed. Highlights include Kevin soloing on top of the speakers while I held up his mic stand for him to play into, our flash hotel-room after-party, and late-night after-after-party beach-party.
Still low on sleep, caught a good solid 4 hours before we checked out of the hotel and hit the highway. 6 or 7 hours later we finally made it to Shambhala. Probably the craziest party on the planet. Bit of confusion on the schedule, but it all worked out. Met some cool people. Got to see Jon, and Malcolm from Easy Brothers again. After us, Easy Brothers and Los Furios played. They all killed it! Great sets, and Los Furios annihalated the Rock Pit dance floor. Crazy good.
Left for Calgary at around midnight, but instead of a 6 hour drive, it turned into an 8.5 hours drive. I essentially missed my 8 o'clock Greyhound connection to Edmonton, to make it home to play another gig Sunday afternoon, but right after buying a ticket for the next bus leaving a few hours later, I heard the final boarding call for the bus I thought I missed. Asked the driver if it was cool that I split on his bus instead, and he let me slide. Fantastic.
Back home for a while, not sure what's happening with Winnipeg Ska Festival. Big Easy Music Festival in Nanaimo is going to destroy my face clean off of my face. My good friends Mike Noga and Lacey are coming out to work sound for us, should be epic.
Shambhala 2009:
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