Date: April 28th, 2007
Venue: El Mocambo
Series: Band on the Run qualifiers [Supernova.ca]
I’ve always known Daniel Paiken (lead guitarist/back up vocals) to be excessively optimistic, but at the time I didn’t yet know he was clinically delusional. I mean, the band had realistically been jamming for maybe 2-3 weeks, if even that, and before I knew it I was having the following conversation with Dan:
Dan: Dude, I think we should really try to get a gig.
Yui: It’s been 2 weeks.
Dan: But I think we can do it; we’re ready.
Yui: It’s been 2 weeks.
Dan. I’m gonna do it.
Yui: It’s been 2 weeks.
Dan: We have a show the 28th.
Yui: Shit.
You have to sympathize with my line of logic here: it had been two weeks. Seriously, we got together the beginning of April and laid tracks down like the Chinese did in the 1800s down south, but based on personal experience alone, I knew we were irresponsibly unprepared to play even at a nursing home where the residents wouldn’t be able hear us (or remember us after we left, for that matter).
Nonetheless, Paiken was on it. Several days later, we had a gig booked at the El Mocambo for the night of the 28th of April. As a band, we feared the worst.
Surprisingly, we were able to bang out a substantial 7-song set by showtime, and we actually played at a pretty decent calibre considering it was our first time on stage together as a band. The only thing that brought us down had nothing to do with us: the sound technician at the El Mocambo was asleep at the console. Either that or he had the cognitive abilities of Terry Schiavo on Ritalin, because what we heard on stage did not match up with what the crowd was hearing in the audience. In short, the monitors on stage that were supposed to feed out our vocals at an equalized level in relation to what was coming out through the speakers simply did no such thing. As a result, the instrumentals were overbearing, and Blythe (lead vocals) and I ended up having to yell just to hear ourselves. Meanwhile, everyone on the floor could hear us just fine, and was wondering why these two idiots were screaming at the top of their lungs, off beat and out of tune.
Because I had to literally shriek my way through the seven songs like a little girl who just got her first period, my voice was weak and strained by the end of the night; towards the end of “Reach For The Sky,” a song where Blythe takes over the majority of the vocals, it was cracking like the homeless. I’m sure everyone had a good laugh at my expense. I know the band sure did when we watched the DVD of the show together in the Paiken basement several days later; my band is full of bastards. Hands down, though, the funniest part of the show was at the very beginning, when Blythe broke the cable off her microphone and then tried to blame the sound guy for not having hooked it up in the first place. The poor guy was getting shit from us all night, but that’s his fault for being such a moron in the first place.
All-in-all, we were pretty thorough with our set, especially bearing in mind that this was a first collective effort from the band. Little did we know that this relatively sloppy act would etch our names in the minds of all Supernova staff as the “new kids on the block with that fresh sound,” and lead to numerous opportunities to come…
Date: June 1st, 2007
Venue: The Reverb
Series: Band on the Run semi-finals [Supernova.ca]
If it seems like we went from the qualifiers straight to the semi-finals of this Band on the Run series with Supernova, it’s because we did. That’s right – we didn’t even need to play the quarterfinals. After hearing Soul Plane play as well as we did (by their standards) and seeing the potential crowd numbers we were able to pull out (last show we were well into the hundreds), they gave us a pass right into the semis; there were certainly no complaints from anyone in the band.
The show itself was, in my opinion, much better than our first effort. Not only were we carrying all the emotional momentum from having advanced without even trying (literally) into the semi-finals, but on just an audio level, the sound engineers at the venue were very competent and accommodating to our needs; this was made evident by the near-perfect mixing of instruments and vocals, both through the speakers as well as the stage monitors alike – a sharp contrast to our experience at the El Mocambo.
Although we performed the same repertoire at the Reverb that we did at the El, the difference in terms of showmanship and musicianship was day and night. At the Reverb, we were a much more cohesive, tight-knit group – we played our music to near perfection. Everyone was into it, and without a doubt, if only for a moment, we seemed to have had the crowd convinced. More importantly, though, we had ourselves convinced. By the time “Reach For The Sky” kicked in (all over again), the crowd was chanting the lyrics to the hook of the song along with me.
The most notable aspect of this show was the selling of our demo tapes that we had just finished making copies of and printing the day of. We recorded our demo at Velvet Sound Studios; Mark McLay (owner, operator) was very patient with us and understanding of our needs (I will write more regarding the demo-recording session in a separate article later on) and did everything in his power to help us get the demo out on time; his efforts were not in vain, and neither were Dominic’s.
I was fortunate enough to have met Dominic Chenier (talented graphics expert and animation artist) at our place of employment; when he expressed interest in our band, I was shocked that an artist of his skill level would stoop to mere peasantry and sign on to do the artwork of the demo CD – and just like most of the people I surround myself with, Dominic came through and then some just by doing what he did best.
It was also at this show that we were approached by Orange Record Label owner Aubrey Winfield. It must be mentioned that I was excruciatingly hammered for this show (I’m not sorry); when I stepped off the stage I had only sobered up enough to remember that I was actually rapping on stage, at a show, at a venue where people were watching, rather than in the shower naked. I must have gotten confused because I tend to grab at my crotch when I’m rapping no matter where I am, and sometimes even when I’m not rapping. Anyway, some guy around our parents’ age came up to me and told me I played a great show. I asked him to what I owed this honour. He introduced himself as Aubrey Winfield, from
In general, it was a great night, and we truly played remarkably well; it makes me wish I was sober to actually remember something about it.
