Our Last Gig.

So, as I posted last time, we played our very last gig at Vern’s on Tuesday.  There’s going to be video, and possibly also some photos.  I’m not entirely sure I am going to post any of it though.  In short, it was awful.  The sound guy showed up late making us all a little tense, once we were onstage we weren’t relaxed and having fun, and the more we screwed up the more confidence we lost.  It was probably among our worst sets.  And it was a Tuesday.  Some way to throw a farewell show, huh?  Oh yeah, we always do it with style.

Tonight’s the Night

The Regurgitones as we currently know them are ending. Mikey needs to take a break from being in 5 bands and as for me… well, no good excuses, just me needed to take a break from bass playing in general. My heart hasn’t been in it so much lately, so I’m trying to get that passion back. I want to be able to miss it for a while and maybe just putz around on my own for a bit. Despite that, though, I would be lying if I said I was excited that tonight is our last night as a band. We’ve had some amazing times playing together and I love my mates dearly. Good friends and musicians, they have always been inspiring to me musically, as well as personally, and I will definitely miss this.

Near misses and other excitement.

Back home again and working like a chump. Like what? A chump.

Long weekends are only okay when you don’t come back to work faced with a bunch of crap you’re not prepared to deal with just yet. It’s Thursday now, and I still feel like I’m behind.

That being said, the weekend was quite good. I drove back to Saskatchewan with my aunt and uncle who so graciously allowed me to tag along on their trip and who also refused to let me contribute cash for gas. Arriving early, around 4:30 pm, on my parents farm, we were there in time to greet the rest of the family as they all arrived within the next couple of hours. It was a scorching weekend, with temperatures above 30 degrees both Saturday and Sunday. I got to spend time with my neice and nephew, as well as all of my cousins on my mom’s side of the family, and all of their little ones also. My dad had also decided it would be fun to roast a suckling pig for the day on Saturday. My cousin, being a gourmet chef, offered to help and I must admit, for not being a huge fan of pork it was mighty tasty. Plenty of drinks were had, as were walks around the farm and through the fields, and I couldn’t have asked for a better reunion of family.

Driving back home with my cousin was an adventure in itself, with a rather scary near miss on the road in Swift Current. A retired looking couple decided that the highway we were on was two lane instead of four, and decided to go the wrong way down my lane while I was passing a semi. With a concrete wall to my left, and a semi to my right, I barely managed to brake hard enough to fall back and pull behind the semi in time before a head on collision. Some days, man. Some days you remember how alive you really are.

Back home now, though, and already looking forward to the weekend. I’m broke as can be and haven’t been feeling all that well for the last day or so, but it will be nice to relax and enjoy some down time. My close friend, Scotty, will be moving in on Friday, his first official day of not living with his parents anymore, and we’re both pretty stoked that it is finally happening.

In other fronts… the Regurgitones will be ending as we know it. Our guitarist has decided to take a hiatus from band-whoring for a while, and I’m also deciding to take a break from bass. Whether or not the band continues with a new lineup has yet to be seen, but I kind of hope they do, as I am still a big fan of what those boys do.

So, for now I will sign off and say it’s been eventful here for the last little while. But life is good overall and I am very very glad to be here in this life. Now if only I could remember my password for my secure login so I could do some troubleshooting in a timely fashion. Wouldn’t that be neat?

What? The moon really IS kind of slow.

On Friday, I got to see the new Distillery for the very first time as we were playing a gig there. A few years back, I would have been there on the day it opened and would also likely have been a pretty frequent visitor. Maybe it was becoming a home owner, or maybe it was just me getting a bit older but I am quite contented to stay indoors in my little home just relaxing and spending the night with Ian or some friends. That aside, the show really went well and the first band was outstanding. The Kronic Groove Band from here in Calgary are a funk/disco house/fusion band (according to their myspace) who did a pretty rousing rendition of the Ghostbusters theme.

Saturday night, I went to Airdrie to enjoy a BBQ with a former instructor of mine and his lady friend. Partying with a teacher, yep. Good times. He’s actually got a pretty sweet place and I must admit the company and the food were both impeccable. My co-worker, John, was also a student of his so it ended up being both of us going up for a night. Things I learned from Saturday night:

1. Costco makes amazing marinated chicken.
2. Being a math teacher gets you the good lookin’ chicks.
3. Not all accountants have no personality. (just sayin…)

All in all, pretty packed weekend, so it was nice just to relax and wrangle some zombies with Scotty on Sunday. We also finished Series 2 of the Mighty Boosh (I looo-ve the chosen one!), which is a very bizarre Brit-com, and I would highy recommend it if you are the kind of person who enjoys daft moons, jazz, and polar bears. Well, I’m sure you’d have to like more than that, but it’s such a jumble of stuff that it’s really too hard to describe it in its entirety. Either way, I’d call that a pretty perfect Sunday. Pretty sweet weekend in all, actually.

^^^ Image courtesy of the lovely Llisa, who snapped shots of us on stage. This is Jim playing my bass and me taking his mic to sing what we like to call the “encore”. It’s really just me singing the last song of the night.

Tent Revival Revival!

Tonight, we are playing a gig at the new Distillery downtown. Normally, we pick a theme and dress up as something whacky, but at jam this week we decided we were all po’ and strapped for time so we will be reusing a previous idea. Kind of fitting, really, for a band called the Regurgitones HAR HAR. We will once again be presenting the crowd with Professor Ted Haggrit in a good old fashioned tent revival. Check out a Willie Nelson cover we did at our last revival:

Hey, I never said we were any good, did I?

Video is courtesy of one Monsieur Jean Guy Rubber Boot. If you are at all interested in the Calgary punk music scene and/or the Calgary Beer Core, check out some of his other videos.

Oh, and also …

Johnny Incognito does not exist anymore. I am now part of the Regurgitones. Same drummer, same front man, same me, different guitarist.