Brade in the Lucky Tree

So this story goes back a bit, probably in the fall of 2007. So not part of our last tour in the slightest, but way before that. Shawn was out of town visiting family and Shane had not made the full move to vancouver yet, though he'd already made the decision to come.

A friend of the band named Jeff Denomme (www.hauntedzoo.com) was holding an art show with some of his pieces at a gallery up east hastings. Jeff had asked josh and i to do an acoustic set. So josh and i were happy to prepare some tunes acoustically, and because it had been so long decided to even throw in some old spark that screams tunes.

Kicking off the music that night was another acoustic performer by the name of Chris Brady. I remember very little of his set except for the fact that myself and others had claimed he was quite Jack Johnsony. My appologies to Chris and all other performers that I've shared the stage with. When i have to play a show i can't really concentrate or enjoy the other musicians' sets. I'm usually preparing mentally or I'm just too ADD to take anything in.

Chris Brady, however, did become more memorable during josh and i's set. Now i'd met Chris before but didn't know him very well at all. Having had a few too many beers from the bar, Chris became the loudmouth who started demanding songs.

"Play I'm a Radio!" he bellowed.
"I don't know if...." i started.
"Oh come on" chris broke in "you 'artists' and your never wanting to play your hits. You have to play it. It's your best song, get used to it".

Chris obviously wanted to hear I'm a Radio so we were happy to play it next. He even sang along nicely... from the audience.

A few songs later one of the strings on my guitar broke. Actually, I'd borrowed shawn's guitar for this show which makes this next part of the story even better. Or worse. A broken string was all fine at this point as Josh and i had planned that i would play a couple songs by myself at the end. So i took his guitar, and he somewhat foolishly laid shawn's guitar on the ground in front of where he'd been sitting.

Before i started my next tune, my good friend Will indicated to me that he was leaving. Now will's favorite songs have always been 'so beautiful' and 'colleen'. At this point in the evening, however i had not played colleen yet so i indicated for will and his friends to stay for one more song and started playing colleen. I luckily did not have to play colleen completely alone, as the song was apparently one of Chris Brady's other favorites as well. Brady half asked if he could join me and proceeded to sit down and sing into the mic next to me.

Now i love when this happens. Sometimes it's annoying because the drunky, kind of, well... sucks, and to just kick them off makes me look like an asshole. But Brady was great and that's ultimately what we want: people to participate in our music. The next song i played, however, was a new one, a favorite of some of my good friends who'd been standing near the front. And Brady did not look like he was going to leave anytime soon. Mildly annoyed by his falsetto chirps by the first chorus i looked over to my good friends. Painted across all of their faces along with some other listeners near the front, was a look that i would compare to how a mother looks when daddy comes home drunk and starts playfully throwing the baby a little too close to the ceiling.

I had to act fast, I saw my opening. At the end of the first chorus there was a 4 beat stop in which i didn't have to sing. I plucked the last note, casually reached over to the sound board, and pressed the mute button on Brady's microphone. The whole front row turned around to hide their laughter from what had just occurred. I had to laugh myself, but i felt like i'd been a bit of a jerk. All that guilt washed away, however, a few moments later when my muted drunken stage mate, Brady, spilled the remains of his beer into the sound hole of shawn's guitar. The one we had so foolishly left on the ground.

For months after this occasion some of my friends and I have dubbed doing foolish or idiotic things as pulling a chris brady. That and sometimes you might have heard us just utter the name as a quasi swear word... sorry chris.

Now a few days ago I had the opportunity to hang out with Chris again, and learn that these were just extreme circumstances. During our hang out Chris and i played some songs, and he showed me some of his recordings, and I'm honestly floored by one song so much that i've decided to write this whole story in it's honor. If you have a moment check out Brade in the Lucky Tree at www.myspace.com/theluckytree and listen to the song EYES. I can't stop listening to it. And if you're still interested listen to HOLDING THE SUN as well.

dom

The Scandalous Topless Photos on Facebook

I must quickly back paddle in this story to not only share with you some good times we had in Toronto but also clear up some semi scandalous photos from North By North East that have been posted on facebook.

Well not really scandalous, but for some reason I've appeared scantilly clad a couple times now tagged in a photo with our dearest friend Adaline. My sister likes to give me a hard time about such things, claiming that it could harm my future career. Say if i were to become a politician, but in my defense i can't see myself being a politician.

I can't really say much about the photo's from Kamloops. I had probably taken a few too many doses of silly when Corey and I decided that there was no reason for us to get our swimsuits wet and sweaty in the Marshall's sauna. It was or first day of tour and it would be a while before we could clean our clothes, so therefore, we thought we'd just do as they do in scandinavia... and go naked. When it comes to the part where I was parading around the Marshall's house in a towel with them and other house guests present, I have little excuse but that i wanted to make myself at home? Though Adaline was there, I have no one to blame but myself for that set of photos so sneekily taken by our band mom Cathi Marshall.

Adaline, however is completely to blame for the Toronto photo's. It was the night of the crazy show we had at the Hideout that i've likened to a scene from Coyote Ugly. I started the show drenched in sweat so when we hit the after party at Queen street studios i needed a new shirt. So Corey lent me one of his.

Now, perhaps, this next part is where i might have brought this whole fiasco upon myself. But you be the judge. Our good friend Bechara had reclined himself on one of the many leather couches at queen street studios with his head resting on a coffee and a plastic cup balancing on his forehead. As he created quite a scene, I jokingly told him to stay still as i wanted to sink my cell phone, free throw style, into the cup from about a 10 foot distance. Bechara protested as i started the countdown from 5. 4----3-----2---. All of a sudden Bechara jerks himself forward, and swooosh. He's spilled a cup full of red wine all over his very nice white shirt. Being quite like myself, Bechara wasn't pleased about the wine stain on his shirt, but he also wasn't too concerned about spending the rest of the after party with no shirt on.

So this amuses me greatly. It's one of those situations, where i can't be blamed, but really was the one to blame. Enter Adaline who had been at the after party all along. This is the part of the story that I hate to tell, because really there is no segue. No lead up, no reasoning. I walked up to Adaline said something completely non-confrontational and she threw a cup, that she perceived to be empty at me. The cup as you may have assumed was not completely empty, and i now had a red wine stain on the shirt that corey had lent me.

Feeling the camaraderie, I then joined Bechara in the minority of people shirtless at the party. And it was during this period that those scandalous pictures of me on Facebook were snapped. So really, you tell me who's to blame.

dom