I forgot to mention something about the Balafre (the venue in Montreal). With the wooden decor and the ambiance, it reminded me of what would be born if the Khyber and the Seahorse were to have a child.
We got to Toronto Wednesday afternoon. We found the venue, but we were too early to unload, so we went to find somewhere to eat. Christian took us to a place where I had the best burrito to ever be created. I always thought I didn't like burritos, but it turns out that I just don't like Taco Bell or the ones you get at the grocery store. I got a little cranky because I wasn't ready to order, but I ended up loving what I ate. The guy who runs the place was kind of scary. He reminded us of the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. He was NOT pleased that a few of us wanted to change his recipe. "No tomatoes," "I don't want that white sauce." I told him I wanted mine however he normally makes it, but he still made us lose our table to come up and tell him what we wanted, step-by-step.
I don't think many of the people in the Freestar liked that city much and Mark was the only one that had never been there before.
When we got back to the venue, there were people there. We met the organizer and some of the other band members and brought in our gear. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the urine stench. "Hi, I'm in the Hold, from Halifax. We were looking to book a show in your city, but I have one question? Does your venue smell like urine? It doesn't? Oh, that's too bad, we won't be able to play there. This place smelled worse than the first and the smell didn't disappear when the people came. By day, it was a restaurant, by night, it was rented out for private parties. I can't see who would eat there with the urine smell. Upstairs, where the pool table and bar was, the walls were covered in graffiti like Cafe Ole.
I think it was a wet/dry show as some of the people seemed rather young and they only ID'd people when they got a drink. There were only about 7 people (or 8) people drinking; mainly the Hold and our friends. Me, KC, Mark, Claudette, Shannen, Mandy, her roommate, the owner. Yep, 8. (But there were A LOT of people smoking) It was nice to have familiar faces at the first two shows. I referred to them as Haligonians, but really none of them were from Halifax, but just people I knew from Halifax. As Claudette mentioned, the bartender made a big deal about how young we looked. First, he asked me for ID. Actually, he said "Do you have ID?" I said: Yes, do you want to see it? To which he replied "No, I believe you." ...but it's a Nova Scotia ID, I told him for some stupid reason. So, he asked to see it. As he looked for the birthdate, I told him I just turned 25 yesterday. "Wow, you must use Oil of Olay." I just nodded and smiled and went back downstairs. I'm bad with accents and didn't actually understand what he had said, until I got my second beer and he had the same reaction to Claudette. He said we could make a lot of money on TV advertising skin care products.
Oh, and when Mark and I went to the door guy to see if we could let Claudette and Amanda in for free, the guy said "Who?" We repeated their full names and I heard someone behind me say "I've never heard of them" and the door guy said "Well, they probably won't come anyway, but yeah, you can let them in." I found that very off-putting.
We got to Toronto Wednesday afternoon. We found the venue, but we were too early to unload, so we went to find somewhere to eat. Christian took us to a place where I had the best burrito to ever be created. I always thought I didn't like burritos, but it turns out that I just don't like Taco Bell or the ones you get at the grocery store. I got a little cranky because I wasn't ready to order, but I ended up loving what I ate. The guy who runs the place was kind of scary. He reminded us of the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. He was NOT pleased that a few of us wanted to change his recipe. "No tomatoes," "I don't want that white sauce." I told him I wanted mine however he normally makes it, but he still made us lose our table to come up and tell him what we wanted, step-by-step.
I don't think many of the people in the Freestar liked that city much and Mark was the only one that had never been there before.
When we got back to the venue, there were people there. We met the organizer and some of the other band members and brought in our gear. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the urine stench. "Hi, I'm in the Hold, from Halifax. We were looking to book a show in your city, but I have one question? Does your venue smell like urine? It doesn't? Oh, that's too bad, we won't be able to play there. This place smelled worse than the first and the smell didn't disappear when the people came. By day, it was a restaurant, by night, it was rented out for private parties. I can't see who would eat there with the urine smell. Upstairs, where the pool table and bar was, the walls were covered in graffiti like Cafe Ole.
I think it was a wet/dry show as some of the people seemed rather young and they only ID'd people when they got a drink. There were only about 7 people (or 8) people drinking; mainly the Hold and our friends. Me, KC, Mark, Claudette, Shannen, Mandy, her roommate, the owner. Yep, 8. (But there were A LOT of people smoking) It was nice to have familiar faces at the first two shows. I referred to them as Haligonians, but really none of them were from Halifax, but just people I knew from Halifax. As Claudette mentioned, the bartender made a big deal about how young we looked. First, he asked me for ID. Actually, he said "Do you have ID?" I said: Yes, do you want to see it? To which he replied "No, I believe you." ...but it's a Nova Scotia ID, I told him for some stupid reason. So, he asked to see it. As he looked for the birthdate, I told him I just turned 25 yesterday. "Wow, you must use Oil of Olay." I just nodded and smiled and went back downstairs. I'm bad with accents and didn't actually understand what he had said, until I got my second beer and he had the same reaction to Claudette. He said we could make a lot of money on TV advertising skin care products.
Oh, and when Mark and I went to the door guy to see if we could let Claudette and Amanda in for free, the guy said "Who?" We repeated their full names and I heard someone behind me say "I've never heard of them" and the door guy said "Well, they probably won't come anyway, but yeah, you can let them in." I found that very off-putting.
posted by crystal at
1:03 pm
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