Sloan

There was a 5-pin bowling tournament in Edmonton on our first day off. About half of us are Maritimers and we’re used to 10-pin (candlepin) bowling where it seems you can knock something down even if you hit the gutter. This bowling also kept score for you, which is fun but as Jay commented to me, he missed the score sheets and giant pencils. I am both a terrible bowler and a sore loser. You know who’s good is Jay Ferguson. After bowling we all went out to dinner to the only place that Kevin has eaten for his last 5 times through town. I asked our Russian hosts to change the (goddamn) channel of the (unnecessary) TV from UFC. What it changed to was the dance drama Step Up and just in time for one of its many fight scenes.

EDMONTON Tuesday, May 31st

Jay, Gregory and I went way out to the suburbs to play a few songs on the radio. I made Gregory drag his keyboard out there and made the technicians line him in but in the end we switched songs and he didn’t use it. Sorry Gregory and technicians.

The show was great! We used our pre-recorded drum intro to Follow The Leader as our walk on music. I think it’s pretty effective. The lights are lower until Andrew comes in with real drums and then the lights really come on. It may seem a little Vegas to some people but I don’t think we’re in danger of being approached by Cirque du Soliel. I just looked up CDS for spelling and saw how they are doing a show based on the spirit of Michael Jackson. Cripes almighty!

For us, the American venues are often places we’ve never played before but the western Canadian venues have been the same places we have been playing for 20 years. Winnipeg is The Pyramid, which used to be The Spectrum. I know we played there as early as 1993. Saskatoon is still Louie’s Pub, a place I swore I’d never play again at least 10 years ago but we’ve played about 6 times since. There is nothing wrong with it but by 1999 I figured we should be moving up and was frustrated when we weren’t. I have updated those feelings of frustration to feelings of gratitude that we are playing together at all. I know a lot of talented people that can’t get their act together. Anyway, Edmonton is The Starlite room, which used to be the Rev and The Bronx before that or the other way around. I believe we were there in 1993. Calgary is the Rebublik and Vancouver is the Commodore both of which we played for sure in 1992. Plus ca change…

Chris Murphy

The SLOAN XX CREW purple satin jackets arrived at the venue and the crew were finally able to make sense of their head to toe yellow ensemble. To be clear, these outfits are a crew initiative. It was a great surprise to us and they look upstagingly amazing, although I am sure that we are going to have to pay for them in the end. The show in Chicago was great. I don’t know if it was the satin jackets or the fact that we were that much more rehearsed or the fact that there was not a tornado that night. Admittedly, the Cleveland show had been a little sleepy and was perhaps not the best place to take stock and ask ourselves why we’re still doing this. Chicago made it all seem worthwhile. We shortened our set after Cleveland but we could have played longer in Chicago as we could feel we had the audience's interest. There is something to be said for leaving them wanting more. We would like to come back soon and have people see that show too. Thank-you Chicago for your enthusiasm!

Chris Murphy