Canada Day Weekend - Ottawa

well, we're getting better... 3 days after the fact is a little better than 10, eh?

so rachelle and i went up to ottawa for the big canada day weekend celebration... we left late thursday afternoon to hopefully beat holiday traffic, but still managed to get somewhat fuckled by traffic and construction, and arrived after about 8 and a half hours on the road... the trials and tribulations of my late afternoon prior to leaving, coupled with the joys of holiday highway driving made for a cranky guigsy, and no doubt made the ride somewhat hellish for rachelle... sorry 'bout that.

friday afternoon i hit the links with jordan while rachelle went out on a big 3-4 hour cycle tour... had a great game of golf, shot 101, and my short game was unstoppable. chipping from the fringe and beyond was easy as pie, long range putting - no problem. i even had some success off the tees - if i could learn to hit my 3, 4, or 5 iron, i might put a decent game together one of these days. jordan's a damn good golfer, and it was a treat to watch him play - i picked up a few things just from observing, so that was cool. blew through 5 or 6 groups of people, and finished 18 in just about 3 hours or so.

after some dinner, time for the burties....

Burt Neilson Band - Mavericks, Ottawa 06.30.06

distraction >
holes
down with the sound
untied
in the belly
full tilt
stop 28
these days >
by the door
st. andrews
wyld knights

encore:
watchin' tv that no one else could see >
jack lumber

and, whoah boy, did they rip it up!! full tilt and untied are 2 new songs, and wyld knights was an older one they dusted off, after about 5 years on the shelf.

full tilt was a more upbeat jeff song, featuring a trombone (nice to see a horn back in the burtie mix!), and untied sounds distinctly like a mike song, a good groove and progression, a nice bit of writing for sure.

my highlights from the show were the distraction opener, that song just gets better and better each time i hear it, it's really evolved into a great tune... down with the sound is always great to hear, and this night was no different with a deep spacey chevronesque jam in the middle... stop 28 brought it hard, and how can you argue with the watchin' tv > jack lumber encore? great show, high energy, thanks boys!

next up...

Canada Day Party at 40 Main

so many great bands throughout the day, 28 kegs of steamwhistle, johnny's pizza from carlton providing the grub, McVelvet on the mic keepin' us entertained between bands, and all sorts of various this' and that's of goodness.

my favourite acts on the day were the spades, my first time seeing them and loving every second of their brand of alt-country-rock, and dave lauzon doing a rockin' solo set, a real treat for me, having not seen dave play a guitar since nero's new years eve finale a couple years back. the man brought it hard and rocked our faces off... lotsa layering and building, keys and acoustics... loved it.

and i cant forget El Beejay covering the rheos saskatchewan, rocked up style, and LURE sounded pretty good, too... both featuring jay mcconnery from nero on the kit. vanderpark sounded alright, and it was towards the end of their set that the po-po came and shut 'er down... not bad, we got through 9/10 of the day, anyways... but i really woulda loved to see Bullmoose... they rocked it last year!

so much fun hangin out with so many great people, playing with balloon animals, catching the fireworks, etc...

the folks up in ottawa really know how to show out of towners a great time... to all the folks at 40 main who threw the party, the folks that helped make it run so smooth, jordan and lisa for giving us some crash space, thanks so much - it was great to be up there celebrating the weekend with you guys.

moment of the weekend: getting my thrush hermit t-shirt back after almost 2 years!
game of the weekend: fog or mist
quote of the weekend: "the room smelled like death slept over and fucked your mother"

see ya next year.