nerolog, Stardate 060202

[Velvet]

nero opening for , Regina, Saskatchewan

I fucked up. It took most of the tour to discover a major managerial fuckup,

but here it was. In my defence, I merely initiated the fuckup, and with a hair

of awareness or a quick phone call there would have been no fuckup at all.

We pulled into Regina after a long drive, I walked into the bar and said I was

with nero, who was playing that night. "You mean tomorrow night..." Um. So

the guy takes me into his office and shows me some of the posters I had sent him

(why are these posters in the guys office instead of around town? Search me)

and, like a little baseball bat made of ice striking my soul, there on the

posters I had put "Mon. June 2nd." Today is June 2nd, of course, a detail he

had failed to notice, though he was all over the fact that today was Sunday and

not Monday. They have a regular Sunday/Monday band who was grumbly about having

to give up their Monday. So we get on the phone and see if they'll give up the

Sunday and take the Monday back. Sure, they'll take Monday back, but they won't

give up Sunday. Eventually a compromise (?) is made and nero played the first

half of the show and the other band took over after that. Suspicious, 'cuz the

net total was that the house band got an extra half night out of the deal, and

the guitar player (who was really good and a pretty nice guy) told me that when

he saw the poster he didn't know what night they were supposed to be playing.

Anyway, we ate some lousy Vietnamese food and set up, Jay using the other guy's

kit and nothing being miced except the kick, an overhead, and Shane's bass. I

thought they played really well, but they didn't think so. For the most part I

think the crowd really liked it, and I'll make a point of calling the guy first

next time. We took advantage of the early stop time to start our long drive to

Winnipeg. Out of Regina go us, underpaid and not entirely pleased.

This is about where the log should end. Make with the quote and the setlist

and I'm outta here. Unfortunately, I think it's prudent that I include the next

log here.

Woke up in a mall parking lot so I got a couple of hours of business done,

including sending off the bribery check to the US, which was depressing,

compounded by the slime covering my body. Have I mentioned that it seems

everywhere we've been has been raining? Everything on the bus is damp, and

nonshower mornings spent in a mall (malls make me feel slimy at the best of

times) sending $1500 to the US gov't (by overnight courier, no less) really can

up the sliminess factor. Anyway, got outta there and pointed the bus east

towards Winnipeg. We seemed to be running a bit late so I called the guy in

case he was wondering where we were. He wasn't. "I emailed your agent last

week telling him to cancel the gig." Turns out his friend had died, funeral was

tomorrow, the show hadn't been advertised, ect. He said we could come by and

eat/drink and head out and that's just what we did. I could sympathise, and the

pizza was excellent. Again we took advantage of an early night and started

driving towards Ontario. We stopped around 3am somewhere between Kenora and

Dryden, and camped beside a beautiful mist-covered lake, with amazing northern

lights rippling over our heads. Onto every tour a little rain must fall, but if

you keep you cool and grin and bear it, the rewards come back pretty quickly.

Quote of the Day: "Thanks to nero for opening up tonight. This next ones called

'Brown-Eyed Girl.'"

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