nerolog, Stardate 060502

[Velvet]

nero w/ Retrograde @ Wylders, North Bay, Ontario

Driving around the clock for fourteen and a half hours got us to North Bay by

around 4:30pm. It's hard to believe that just three days ago we had left

Canmore, Alberta, and it had been that long since we showered. Excited to be

cleansed we got to the bar and inquired into our supplied accomodation and we

were told we had to wait until 6pm to get into our rooms. Grrr. She suggested

a place to eat, we walk in and there's Darren, the former drummer for a really

cool Ottawa band, Pleather, and he's our waiter. That was a great surprise and

so was him flipping the bill for dinner. We also eventually ran into some

Ottawa friends who had made the trek up North Bay. The showers and the food

made us all a bit more human, then we found out there was an opening band.

Retrograde is a very loud, high energy Nickelback-y sort of thing. I set up a

merch table for them - that way I wasn't in front of the mains. It was

deafening and uninteresting. We shared the accomodations upstairs with them,

kept them awake all night, and the guitar player took every joint passed his way

and didn't inhale any of them. Weird.

nero played well. It's funny, last night on the bus we pulled out what we

thought was a really good nero show from a couple of months ago and listened to

it. That's when I realized how much better they've gotten after a month of

steady touring. Being this close to it, and hearing all the shows it's hard to

notice. Scary to think of what they'll sound like a year from now. They are

certainly to the point where a bad show is still a great show. nero's gonna

tear it up back home and out east, where people know to come out.

Next day was a day off, spent doing business and getting an oil change. Got to

Sudbury, had a few beers and played a great pinball machine at the Townhouse,

where nero is playing tonight (060702) and slept in the bus. There won't be any

nerolog for tonight's show 'cuz I'm currently on the bus headed to Guelph to

start shmoozing at the COCA conference. New Deal is playing tonight and I'll be

missing nero. Those that know me know what I think about that.

Quote of the Day: "It's hard to describe our music, it's like melodic pop/rock,

but more melodic."

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