(by Lo) ---PETIT MOT EN FRANCAIS PAR LA SUITE---
...that's the only word i could think of to describe the last few performances of the band. and i know that those who were there to witness those shows will agree.
our show in montreal at petit campus (sat jan 28th) was amazing. the night was opened by the entertaining "synthetic folk hero" of toronto. he used to live in Montreal, so it was fun to see his homecoming!
between the two bands, we had great tunes playing as DJ "Amyl Nitrate" (whose birthday it was that night) was spinning for us.
i'd had a hard day as i'd been running around to pick people and stuff up, and as always before a show, i was nervous (frantic)... not to mention that when i got up at soundcheck to test my megaphone, i realized it was busted. i don't have a protective case for it, and i guess something heavy leaned on it and broke the on/off switch! marc st-laurent who was our sound tech for the night saw that i was upset about it, and he opened it up and soldered the switch to short circuit my megaphone to permanently "on"... phew... he wen above and beyond the call of duty to save my night! then, seconds before we went on stage, i realized that my video camera was sitting on stage, plugged in (being charged)... meaning no one would be filming the show... i was upset about it, but the guys said "forget it, we're here to play music"... and the instant the music started, i realized they were right, and all that silliness melted away and on we went to perform a beautiful hour of great music! the crowd's reaction was priceless as they savoured every note and shared a great night with us.
the most recent show was a showcase in toronto at the horseshoe on tuesday feb 14th (yup, valentine's day). my van transmission had recently quit on me, and so, of course, i was upset (hahaha, are you seeing the pattern here?) in fact, i was downright depressed, trying to figure out what i'm going to do to continue providing transport for the band... it makes me very sad on one hand because the van has provided 5 years of faithful and safe travel to the band, we've done over 250,000 km together! and on the other hand, it puts a huge amount of stress on my shoulders as i don't have the financial means to fix the van, much less buy another one... anyway, needless to say that my mind was somewhere else on our trip to toronto in our rented minivan. fortunately, i knew that our former rehearsal space mates "mission district" from montreal were playing the same night so i arranged for us to borrow their drums. we had to squeeze dan's cockpit into the minivan, along with raz's amp and mike's drum pieces. mitch lives in toronto, so he brought his own bass amp in his car (otherwise that would have been interesting!) there was just enough room for everything and we got to drive a bit faster than usual and made it in very good time. just as we rounded the corner to the horseshoe, we called in for our interview with skip on "ska party" on CIUT 89.5FM (tuesdays at 6PM) once that was done, we had a great soundcheck with brian at the controls. i've always loved playing at the horseshoe, the sound is always good and they have good gear to work with! dan and mitch got to load in around 7 (dan had taken the bus from ottawa to play!!) i was feeling a bit nervous (for a change - NOT) before we went on, i went downstairs to change into my dress and tried to get my mind off anything and everything. i have to stay, we put on a stellar performance that night! we played our hearts out and we created what we call our "bubble" - that's the place we get to when everything is just right... we had only 30 minutes to impress, and impress we did! raz's back vocals were right on and the little touches he adds on guitar were perfect. mitch was a wildman as always digging into his bass to pump out pure energy, and mike held the hole thing together with his signature solid and dynamic drumming, driving us up or down when the songs took us there. the new songs went really well and at the end of each song, you could hear a pin drop until we played the very last note, even in our fade-outs, and then wild outbursts from an audience taht was listening intently! the finale was unbelievable!!! to end off our short set in which no saxophone had been played as yet, we chose "this town's unbearable" and when dan pulled out his sax at the end of the song, you could feel the anticipation in the room... he began quietly playing beautiful melodies and climbed to such amazing heights and emotion... wow... i sound like a critic or publicist "two thumbs up"... but really... two thumbs up (and a pinky!) all the guys were super happy with that show! dan even said "it's a pleasure to spend twelve hours crammed on a bus for a show like that"
we stuck around to chat with people during "delta" (thanks to them as well for letting mission district use their keyboard stand instead of ours which was filled with dan's "cockpit" of gear) then, before the last band was into their second song, it was off to montreal to unload the van, return it to the rental agency, and get into the studio with mitch here in montreal (we are co-producing an album for a local band called "One Night Band")
so it's been a hell of a week (friday, i was the single driver for a band going to chicoutimi, 8 hours there, 10 hours back because of a detour - my transmission gave out uring that trip) and saturday, after a two hour nap, i was single driver to ottawa to play with Lo.Raz.e.pam (acoustic duo with Raz - guitar and vocals) opening for trip the off, and driving a couple of their guys to the show. i came home right after that show and i think sunday is just a blur, i must have dozed in and out of consciousness (haha) that led up to tuesday's trip to toronto...
what a long blog! maybe it'll make up for the occasional silence! and certainly it does let you in much more than ever before on what really goes on behind the scenes...
might i add that this week, a few of our songs appeared on Broadjam's top 10 ("pull it all apart" - MUCH music has our vide for "pull it all apart" by the way - is on the ROCK/POP top 10 by genre, and BOTH "pull it all apart" and "fool on impact" are on the quebec top 10 by region) their top 10's change almost daily though... still, that's nice. and if it sells 200 CDs, we can fix our transmission!!
:-) a girl can dream... so far they've all come true!!!
thanks for reading this far! and for being so magnetic!
Lo
---UNE PETITE PORTION EN FRANCAIS---
message de Lo
salut mes amis, il se fait tard ici et je suis epuisee... ayant eu une semaine tres mouvementee!
donc, je vous ecris un petit mot pour vous mettre a jour. ceux d'entre vous qui comprennent l'anglais pourront lire ce que j'ai ecrit ci-dessus pour l'elaboration...
les deux derniers spectacles de "Lo and the Magnetics" on ete tout simplement SPECTACULAIRES... ceux qui sont venus nous voir au petit cafe campus samedi le 28 janvier et au horseshoe a toronto le 14 fevrier peuvent en attester!
de mon cote, c'est la folie! le 28, j'ai decouvert pendant le test de son que mon megaphone etait brise, marc st-laurent notre technicien pour la soiree a ete vraiment superbe avec moi et l'a repare en faisant une soudure pour court-circuiter le "on/off". le vendredi 10 fevrier j'etais engagee comme unique condutrice pour un groupe qui jouait a chicoutimi, 8 heurs de route aller, 10 heures retour a cause d'un detour! c'est pendant ce voyage que la transmission de mon vehicule a laché. peut etre le moins 35, peut etre le temps... qui sait? apres deux heures de sommeil samedi apres0midi au retour de chicoutimi, je suis repartie comme seule conductrice vers ottawa (dans un vehicle louer, evidemment) pour amener quelques membres de "trip the off" a leur spectacle. j'y jouais avec mon duo acoustique Lo.Raz.e.pam (mettant en vedette Raz, guitariste des Magnetics) ensuite j'ai jouer au saxo avec trip the off et chante une chanson... le retour c'est fait le soir meme... j'avoue que dimanche j'etais semi-consciente!!!
mardi le 14 nous sommes parti a toronto en minivan louer. heureusement, "mission district" qui jouaient aussi ce soir nous ont prete leur batterie! nous avons joue un spectacle sublime pour ensuite revenir a montreal le soir meme!
ceci me laisse donc avec des graves soucis en ce qui concerne le transport du groupe a partir de maintenant... ni moi, ni le groupe aovons les moyens de faire reparer le vehicule, bien moins d'en acheter un autre!
cette semaine quelques-unes de nos chansons sont dans les top 10 sur broadjam... leur top 10 changent presque quotidiennement, mais quand meme... si ca permet de vendre 200 CD, nous pourrons reparer le van (avec lequel nous avons fait au dela de 250,000 km en 5 ans!!!!!) on ne sais jamais, tous mes reves a date se sont realises! ou presque...
j'ai la tete qui commence a tourner, je vous dis bonsoir et a tres bientot!
:-)
Lo
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