I head back into Calgary and try to find a bank – everything I make is in 5’s, 10’s, and 20’s, so I have a wad of cash that I get nervous about carrying around. Afterwards I head to Chris & Jo-Anne’s – nice folks who are doing their first house concert.
Their kids, Cam and Griffin are great boys but totally different. Cam is into sports and Griffin is the resident artist – playing music on all sort of instruments, making comics, and generally being creative (sound familiar?).
Tonight’s crowd is interesting for a couple reasons – almost all of them are skiers and also, an old friend, Denene, from Toronto is coming to the show. The skiers are all serious skiers (case in point: Chris once got Jo-Anne an avalanche oxygen mask for a birthday present – yes, a mask, just in case you get buried in an avalanche… you have to REALLY want to ski, if there’s a chance there’s an avalanche, and you STILL go skiing!!!).
It’s nice to catch up with Denene - she’s getting married – Congrats, D!! – but part of my job is to meet everyone and kind of welcome them, so it’s hard to talk too much, just to her.
The show is downstairs in the basement. Like in Rocky Mountain House, my bedroom is right behind the performance space, which rocks! The show goes great – Chris & Jo-Anne pull out the most people on the tour so far and they’re an excellent group, with a rowdy front row. On the side, Gryphon watches – I think he’ll be playing house concerts soon. Or making comics. Or both.
After the show, two of their friends arrive late and I promise them a couple tunes once everyone else has left. They’re good folks who clean up completely. We head back downstairs and I ask Chris & Jo-Anne for requests from the show – and to my surprise Chris chooses My Eyes Wide and Seventeen – two of my older tunes – which is pretty cool. One of the nice things about this tour is the fact that I’m playing 2 hour shows, which means I have to play some of my older songs, which I don’t normally play – but it’s sweet to have people hear these songs again for the first time – and respond to them. Especially the somewhat more serious tunes – since I’m sometime known for my goofy tunes like Jetpack or My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding.
We play songs until I feel like I’m going to fall asleep playing – so I stop playing and go fall sleep.
