Victoria Ska Festival 2012 (Mad Bomber Society & Rude City Riot!)

Got back to Vancouver the weekend before last to hang out and rehearse with the band for Victoria Ska Fest and work on new material for the next album. Stayed at Erik's for most of it, had a lot of time to myself to spend walking around and reading in cafes. The last few months has been insane, I can't remember the last time I've had an afternoon to myself. Erik's is the best for that, I've spent so much time there the past couple of years that it has that calming "home" feel to it.

Took the ferry over to the Island Friday morning with Rude City Riot. That Festival is the highlight of my summer, it was really great to be back again. And I got to hang with Sara for a bit when she wasn't running around everywhere! The usual suspects were all there, really happy to see Sterno and Jay, and Bobbi Jo and Kitchen and Zuke, and the 780 boys from St. Albert. And Ska-T! And Dane! And Finn from Edmonton (who famously [in my mind] was involved in a dancefloor incident at Xmas in Skaville during the Elixxxirs set and was kicked out before we even played!) I should stop this tangent of remember everybody who was at the festival again this year, I'd go on forever.

Was pretty anxious about playing two back-to-back sets, both bands are pretty high-energy. We were at Lucky Bar, an awesome bar that also tends to get really hot really quickly. Mad Bomber Society opened, it was great to get to play the new album for the B.C. scene, we hadn't been out here for a really, really long time. (I'm not sure, I'd ballpark 5 years? 7 years? Ska Fest 2005?) The set went over really well, and I walked off-stage feeling pretty spent. And my mohawk looked worse for wear too.

Had a fair bit of time while they changed over the stage for Rude City Riot to catch my breath. One of the funnest shows I've ever played. I think I lept up into Dusty's arms at one point during one of my saxophone solos.



Ska Fest was awesome this year, I just regret missing Danny Rebel & The KGB (they played Vic Ska Fest Tuesday while we were still in Vancouver, then played Vancouver Friday while we played Vic Ska Fest), but I got to catch up with Valerie & the band in Edmonton last night to see their show at DV8.


Going home for a week to recover from the last few months, maybe do some laundry. Then Rude City Riot is doing a weekend playing Vancouver-Kelowna-Kamloops: