Down through the mountains. Bussing
May 10, 2002
Down through the mountains. Bussing it to the coast from Edmonton. So far we’ve had a picnic near Jasper and seen a Moose, a bear cub, and a herd of big horn sheep. Mark was the field trip guide from Texas to Winnipeg and it seems Scott has taken over. Scott has instigated the picnic.
Last night turned into the comedy equivalent of one of Prince’s legendary marathons. Our show at the Northlands Agricom (not a very romantic name) was pretty unique for the tour. Firstly it was a big hockey arena. This added a certain rock element to the proceedings. The troupe was loose and played it a little bigger to reach the people at the back. Last night was the first time that every note of music was original. I’d spent my two days in Vancouver composing and recording songs and snippets to replace all the found recordings used in the show. In the process I think I found some things that I can expand on later when making another record. I was excited to have been forced to cram a lot of inspiration and perspiration into a couple of days. The road cycle of pure performance and recovery was interrupted to good effect. It felt great to bring something big back to the show.
After the show we ran over to the Sidetrack (Club) and busted in on the band to do a bit of an impromptu performance. Bruce billed it as “the Craig Northey Experience”. Flattering unless we bombed. Here’s what we did:
Extended Blues Guy -- me & Mark
Write it in Lightning -- me
Guitar Strings -- Dave
the Fourth Susan -- Kevin & me
Someone Who’s Cool -- me
I Read the Bible -- me & Bruce
I Am Bob Seger -- me & Bruce
Mercy to Go -- me
Scott watched because we hadn’t had time to work anything up. It was probably the closest I will come to feeling what it was like in the Rivoli days of the troupe. They were simply brilliant as they riffed on the material. Kevin played acoustic & I played electric on his song. He’s like Jonathan Richmond only way way funnier. Mark expanded the Mississippi Gary sketch to about triple its length. Dave actually smashed the guitar at the end of his guitar string breaking sketch. The pieces of the guitar were quickly snatched up by the audience to be signed later. It was later discovered that the instrument was a rental for the “Country Doctor” sketch. Oops.
Thanks to Andrew White for arranging our little performance.