: : : May 13, 2002 : : : 5:39 PM : : :

It has been a loooong times since I have had a busy weekend. Except for the intermittent work, it felt like a weekend since Wednesday.

On Wednesday I took a half-day because it was Sneek Peak. Before I went to that, I went to MTV to see Sloan. It wasn't until Wednesday that I even KNEW we had an MTV here. I figured there would not have been a lot of people, but there was a bit of a line up because Sum 41 was there as well. So I was in line with a bunch of kids waiting for the other band.

Some guys from MTV walked around asking if anyone wanted to request something. I said I would if they had the new Jon Spencer video (nevermind that I wouldn't be able to see it), but apparently we couldn't request a video, we had to "request" a video. That means a song from an already predetermined list. WTF?!?

Though I wasn't enjoying my time in line with them kids, I was really pleased that at the other end of the block was a really huge group of people wanting to get into the Virgin Megastore to see Puffy Ami Yumi.

Inside I was overwhelmed by all the screaming and yelling by the kids. Actually I found it quite annoying. But finally Sloan came on, or I should say Jay because it was only him. He's been hanging around Murph too much because he was hamming it up. A lot. A girl asked him a really smart question ("How do you feel your music has evolved over the past ten years"), as opposed to the girl who asked Sum 41 a really dumb question ("Have you guys ever thought about going into acting").

Anyway, Sneak Peek was more "meh" than awesome. Goldfinger (they wrote a song called "Fuck Ted Nugent" how cool), gob and Sloan were really good. The rest weren't. Edwin & Co. were truly awful. At first I thought it was just sound problems, but no because the other bands didn't sound that bad.

**Newsworthy info: I was NOT front row.

Now, time for the event:

Day 1: Thursday

Roomie and I went to the Pic Pub to check out bands I heard of but haven't really heard any of their music that I could remember. We caught the last half of The Organ, who were really good and I wish we saw their whole set. We were pleasantly surprised to see band-slut Rusty was also in The Waking Eyes (site not up yet), though it took a whole night of "is that him," "it looks like him," "no it can't be," "but it is." Roomie went to get our drinks, but instead of asking for a Coke and a Sprite, she asked for a Sprite and a 7Up. She got distracted by a Hot Little Rocket member standing right beside her (I teased her that the band was stalking her). The bartender didn't seem to catch the mistake and when she came back, asked if Roomie asked for a Coke and a 7Up.

We saw HLR again, and Roomie requested that we don't see them again. Poor HLR.

Moneen was up after HLR, and there to see their set was none other than George Snufflupagus. Roomie had a minor freakout and I was all cool. hee hee. I joked that she should go buy a CD while he was at the merch table, but she lent me money so *I* could go buy a CD. I made sure to brush against him as I walked by. I thought to myself, "Hee hee, I'm being a geek." I walked past him with my purchase and tried not to brush against him, but he bumped into me. D'oh. We didn't stay for The Salteens because we had work and have seen them perform already.

Day 2: Friday

I was so damn tired at work. It was easier last year when I started at 9:00.

The DJ at Luvafair was awful. He disregarded the music everyone was there to see that night and played much deathmetal and Korn ripoffs. The only break we got was when he played The Hives and Gorillaz.

The first band, Headscope was alright. I found the girl's voice a bit high for my liking. Other than that, they were pretty good. Panurge...they are my new favourite band. Alt.country/rock with a DJ in the mix. Really, I think I have a crush on the band as a whole.

Then we headed over to Ms. T's for Motion Soundtrack because their write up said, "An aural landscape blending the earlier elements of Radiohead with the pop sensibilities & harmonies of the Beatles. In short, it's liquid architecture." Damn if I'm not going to see a band like that. I didn't really hear much Radiohead in the music, but they were really good.

Now the bad news: we couldn't get in to see The Weekend and The Constantines. The place was full by 10:00 PM (the bands weren't scheduled to get on until 11:00 PM and 12:00 AM respectively). The bouncer said he was only going to let in ten more people. We were at about fifteen. Boo-urns. If the festival was touting The Constantines as THE band to see, maybe they should have been booked somewhere larger than the Picadilly. We got home by 12:00. I was pretty upset.

Day 3: Saturday

When I woke up, I vowed to throw a temper tantrum if I didn't get in to see SFA. Later in the day Roomie told me that she would have a hissy-fit if we didn't get in (we could have been some non-NMW sanctioned entertainment). The opening band was scheduled for 8:00 so we got there at 7:30. We stood in the bracelet lineup until 8:15 when the bouncer said that the venue was filled to "capacity" and if we wanted to get in we would have to buy a ticket. We took off for the ticket lineup and bought ourselves a ticket. We were pretty mad that we had too. I do understand giving ticket buyers preference, but still.... And if there was an opening band, we missed them.

Holy cow was that a show. It was awesome. One of the best I have been to. I took a few pictures. I told Roomie that I was going to take a couple from a different angle and no sooner had I left at least seven people whooshed into my spot. So when I got back I was stuck behind a guy with a big head. I was too nice by not asking him to move it.

After the show we bought pins and shirts and then took silly pictures of ourselve with our purchases. Then we headed to the tiny but cool Sugar Refinery to check out P:ano. We managed to catch the band before them, but at that point we weren't officially in the venue as we were stuck behind the velvet rope. That meant no drinks. I was so thirsty.

P:ano were pretty good too. They are an adorable little band with a small but loyal following. I hadn't heard of them, but liked their write up in the program. They are doing a show next week. I just might go.

After all that, our NMW weekend was done. In our opinion, the festival wasn't worth the bracelets because we missed some bands and had to pay for another. Oh well, next time I'll have to plan better.

(If you've made it this far I applaud you, but I also ask, "Don't you have anything else to do?"

On Sunday we skipped the few NMW shows because we had a more pressing matter: THE KIDS IN THE HALL. We had people come over from the island to see the show with us. In fact, I went with Roomie's brother to the meet and greet at a music store. I took a really cool picture of Mark McKinny squishing his head. Unfortunately neither one of us had anything cool to say or ask so we just walked by and got stuff signed. Also unfortunate was that Bruce wasn't there. Depending on who you asked, he was either dead, was plugged to recharge his batteries or a third reason I can't remember. The Odds' Craig Northey was there (with dyed red hair) and I was all 8) which I usually am when he dyes his hair in various shades of pink or red. (During the show he wore a grey/silver suit *swoon*)

The show was fantabuloso!! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The funniest parts were the screw ups...and when Hecubus was being violated. =) The show was being taped for PayPerView so somehow we'll have to get that taped.

And as we were leaving, MCM was being played over the speakers. It's called closure. =P

=)