Thunder Bay

The thunder bay gig was perhaps poorly attended and freezing cold, but awesome nonetheless. We arrived to find the bar manager and owner's daughter, Sheila waiting for us. She was friendly, but perhaps a little nervous. The hot water had just been restarted that day after a month of absentness, and the electric guys were still working on the heat. Sheila invited us to sit with her and her mother, a little 70-something greek woman who had claimed a small round table in the back corner and transformed it, unintentionally, into what looked like a tacky fortune-tellers booth. She had lit a few candles to keep warm and was munching on grapes and foil-wrapped easter eggs. Her and Sheila told us the story of how the oil company had somehow scammed them into owing $17,000 and had shut off their heating.

Tina, Sheila's mother, made us pasta, garlic mashed potatoes and warm, buttery dinner rolls. Oli and I stuffed ourselves as Tina encouraged. We hung out with the ladies of the Apollo for a few hours and listened to stories about other bands, competing bars, asshole booking agents, tradespeople and oil company receptionists.

We knew there weren't going to be many people there. The bar had opened again that night after a month of being shut down, the person who was supposed to hang our posters lost them, and it was -30 outside.

We were right about the people, but that was ok, because the first people who came had heard my music and about the show on CBC radio that morning. CBC! That made my evening. A few other people came for the show, and a few people came because they were regulars, but had a lot of very kind and encouraging things to say. We would have made all of $9 that night, but a guy we met handed us $60, possibly just because he was in a good mood and he liked us. We had a lot of fun after the show, just hanging out with Shelia, Tina, Alex the sound guy and the remaining, jovial patrons. The thermometer would have read 12 degrees, but the room was full of warmth because of the people who were in it.

The bar itself was quite impressive. Big, similar to The Horseshoe tavern. The sound system was huge and beautiful and Alex the sound guy did an amazing job. It was a pleasure to hear ourselves through it. A lot of bands we admire had played at The Apollo, so it was pretty cool to have a show there, and to be invited back. We will definitely book with them again, they are really good folks. Apparently there's a local booker who tries to scoop up all of the musical acts for other bars when they come through for a second show, because at that point they have more of a following. Most bands, it sounds like, don't remember who booked them when they were unheard of. But I won't forget. It took a heck of a lot of emails to find venues that wouldn't ignore me.

Our accommodations were confusing. After unpacking in an apartment that we were told to use, (the one that looked like someone was living in it, but that person had apparently just moved out) Alex came up to tell us that she was still a tennant and moved us upstairs. The whole building was heatless, and freeezing, but luckily they had brought in a good supply of space heaters, so we got it to a bearable temperature. Otherwise the accommodations were pretty nice.

So, that's that. We made friends and had a lot of fun and made a little gas money, got on CBC and L.U. radio. I'm happy.

Today we drove to Brandon Manitoba. I helped drive. (Standard - yikes) That was a long long day, and will be our longest. Tomorrow night we play in Regina for what promises to be a big crowd. Staff party for Sask/Albt brewery chain.

Ok, I'm tired.

xoxoxoxo miss you all.

Ashlea.