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