Velvet

Yo Sloth, couldja give me a call?!?

nero @ the Planet, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Second time nero has played this room, and a fine room it is. We look forward to it for the band room if nothing else. Swooped into Halifax just in time to miss all the music stores and Dave needed some of his hard-to-find DR10 strings. Ahh, the challenge I've been waiting for. Mad calling all around and I promptly failed in my mission, though I looked like a real-live band manager sitting in the phone booth with my roll of quarters. Better luck next time.

We were disappointed to find that Dr. Yellow Fever was playing their last show ever at a bar down the street, and the local favourites certainly affected the attendance at our show. That being said, a big crowd of friendly folks came out to this one, easily three times as many as last time, which is a great sign. Once again we saw people who had been at other shows on the tour, which is really cool too.

The last time we were here was my birthday and two notable things happened that night. One, I got rip-roaring drunk like I was in first-year and the frosh drunk, and two, nero played better than they ever had before. This time around I stayed sober ("Hey, weren't you the really drunk guy from last time?"), but nero stayed consistent and played easily the best show of this tour. And the audience appreciated it. After the show everyone was congratulating the band and buying cd's and giving us pot and inviting us to parties and giving us pot and telling us how great the show was....

It's really exciting to see people really turned on by music.

We bowed out of the parties and headed to the hotel for a much needed rest. The hotel is 100% nonsmoking, and they offer a $300 ‘environmental fee' to those that break the rule. At least they don't fine ya. And ironically, we were in room 4020 and finally had nice buds to not smoke! Whatever.

Quote of the Day: "Betcha a quarter I can squeeze your breast without touching your shirt or bra."

I

Holetown Charlie

Oregano Mice

Wata Bug>

Miko Mard>

Wata Bug>

Miko Mard>

Whispy Mountain Wonder

Tonto's Underwater Paradise

401 Theme

II

Gordon's Revenge>

Hockey Night In Canada

Happy Birthday to You>

Peaches en Regalia

Lemondust>

Chocolate Monkey Machine

Flurmy>

Basheeba>

Flurmy>

Centregnome

Condor

e: Pumpkin Song

Kinda wish I was still in school just so I could re-experience the bliss that comes with screaming, "I'm fucking done!!!" Especially pleasant when ya know you did a good job.

Congrats, Blane. D'ya suppose you could use some of this newfound free time burning me some live Ween? Mr. Sloth downstairs assures me you're the one to talk to.

So, anybody wanna offer up their floorspace for nero (and me) to sleep on after the Comfort Zone gig in Toronto? It would be so much more pleasant than driving back after the show. Just respond here, and win an overnight date with nero (and me)!

Uh...I meant symbiotic. Synbiotic is my fourth favourite word.

Great mag, great work, congratulations. And kudos to the fact that you've already recieved criticism. Nothing is real that hasn't been criticised. Keep going, Canada is the unabashed leader in the jamband thang, and this rag is poised to ride it all the way.

Synbiotic is my current favourite word.

I'm there.

Wow, you got some live Hawksley?!? Where do I get my mitts on such a thing? Canada's own David Bowie and Freddie Mercury all in one, with a dash of Edward Scissorhands thrown in to boot.

Is that how you spell scissor?

nero @ Chuggles, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Yeehaw, back in the ‘nish! Flew into town and headed straight to the campus station for an interview. Maybe it was all the fatigue from the double-header of bus breakdowns, or just to break the monotony of answering the same questions every time, but a very silly interview ensued, to the point that I had to keep leaving the room to laugh like an idiot in the S.U.B. foyer.

First time playing at Chuggles. Nice layout, nice staff. Pretty good crowd out for this one, though there was some strange local competition for audience. Seems there's this big hockey game at St. FX and it's the biggest party weekend of the year. Sounds good, right? Well, turns out the party starts at around 9am on Saturday morning and most folks go to sleep early on Friday to prepare. Great. Fortunately, almost nobody was there for the first set, ‘cuz nero kinda sucked (except for hearing my first ‘Run Like Hell'), but about 50 people showed up at setbreak and were treated to a great second set, from the first note onward.

Went to a party after where I got loaded on Jagar and played guitar for about three hours straight. Shane and I got to a friends campus room around 5:30am for some sleep.

I was very rudely awoken at 9am (oh yeah, that's when the party starts) by a thousand soon to be drunken idiots in the hallway, and I was viciously hung over. Somewhat healed and definitely fed, I managed to pilot us off towards the great city of Halifax.

Quote of the Day: "nero opens for me, and I only do encores."

I

Moby's Dream

Miko Mard

Holetown Charlie>

Oregano Mice

Flurmy>

Run Like Hell

II

Wata Bug

Speed Queen

Chameleon>

Basheeba>

Centregnome

Whispy Mountain Wonder

Condor

401 Theme

nero @ the Paramount, Moncton, New Brunswick

My first time seeing nero in my hometown. They played there once before (at Doc Dylan's), but this was nero's first show at the Paramount. The Paramount used to be a twin movie theatre, now it's two bars, the Paramount being the nice funky smaller room (with a 200 gallon fish tank backing the stage with three scary fish and about a half dozen scared fish) and the Oxygen room being the big room. There was a Black Sabbath tribute band in the big room, which was pretty funny on a lot of levels. More familiar faces from this tour and the last ones and though the show got off to a weakish start, it picked up and the house got rocked.

Packed ‘er all up and Jay and I got in the bus to head home while Shane and Dave were going to a small gathering at the mansion in Shediac. Went to drop the bus into drive and the gearshift basically broke off in my hand. Hmmm. Managed to catch Dave and Shane and we kept humour firmly forced on our faces as Tony Iommi and Ozzy's lighting twins outwardly showed their hatred for us for (imperceptively) obstructing their load out. Half of us got a ride home and half of us went to the mansion. Awoke early and made repair arrangements, a skill I'm unfortunately getting lots of practise at. Borrowed my brothers van and headed out to Antigonish. Left Buddha at home on the bus.

Quote of the Day: "Nice box for storing the gear. You ought to jack it up and put a bus around it."

I

Tricky

Gordon's Revenge>

Dr. Who

Tonto's Underwater Paradise

Wata Bug

Lemondust>

3rd Stone from the Sun

II

Iron Man tease>

Oregano Mice

Miko Mard

401 Theme>

Flurmy

Chocolate Monkey Machine

Condor

nero @ Baba's, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Islet

Two day layovers are boring. Everyone was excited to get back on the road and get our asses to Charlottetown. Upon arriving we checked out a very cool music store (need an oud or sitar strings in PEI?) and found our way to the bar. Great little place,. Baba's is. We're all fans of the sun smoking the hookah above the ‘stage'. As we were setting up the gear the beautiful waitress came over and told us not to expect too much of a crowd; March break, snowstorm outside, Wednesday night. I politely warned her to prepare for an onslaught.

Pretty good night; great crowd...my prophecy was realised. Met some old friends from last time here and even had some folks from Saint John and St. Andrews.

We decided to pack up and get on the road back to Moncton. Plan was to get to my folks' place by four or five and sleep large and long. Ahh,...the best laid plans of mice and men...Mercifully, about 200 metres from the last telephone leaving Charlottetown, our (formerly) trusty bus died on the road. In good spirits we got towed to a big tractor trailer repair spot and bunked down for a few hours sleep in the bus. -15 C. What should have been 2 ½ hours sleep turned into an hour and a half gigglefest and an hour of shivering slumber. Got the bus running (blown fuse and two shiny new relay switches later) around 11:30am and headed back to Moncton, ironically arriving two hours late for our appointment to get the transmission looked at.

The Buddha said all is sorrow and he seemed fit to laugh about it. A fine example to follow.

Quote of the Day: "It'd be a lot warmer if we all just spooned."

I

El Vez>

Joseph's B&E Bonanza

Wata Bug

Oregano Mice>

Miko Mard>

Whispy Mountain Wonder

Pumpkin Song

II

401 Theme>

Tonto's Underwater Paradise

Flurmy>

Centregnome>

Chocolate Monkey Machine

Lemondust

Willie Nelson - Stardust

The Stones - Exile on Main Street

Nanjang - New Horizon (trad Korean music/jazz groove)

Sticky Rice - s/t (way wacky Taiwanese stuff)

Drums and Tuba - I forget the title.

nero @ Doc Dylan's open stage

A beautiful ride from Saint John brought us to my parents house in Moncton for a couple days off. After a fine mom-made dinner and a visit with my buddy we ended up downtown.

When we checked out Thursday night's venue, I ran into several folks from my past, most notably my first ever guitar teacher, who gave me my first few lessons. He was the entertainment and he got up with his Ovation and played Tom Petty and Poison. If I could go back in time and show Steve a video of himself playing this set at the Paramount I'm sure he'd voluntarily drown in his own vomit. Very sad indeed.

Needless to say, we got outta there in a hurry and went over to Doc Dylan's open stage down the street. I think when Dave saw the electric guitar leaning up against an amp he got the idea to jam. I was really looking forward to hearing a couple of tunes sans pedalboard, but with glee I saw Dave strap on the acoustic! Turns out the Strat was a lefty. Well, we were treated to an acoustic pair of tunes that rocked the place. Holetown transfers nicely to acoustic, certainly a good pick.

Quote of the Day: "Everything is everything!"

Holetown Charlie>

3rd Stone From The Sun

nero @ the Waterfront, Saint John, New Brunswick

Arrived in Saint John to perfect port city weather...drizzling, windy, and lots of fog. A dark and stormy night, indeed. Hooked up with a couple of recent Ontario expat friends for drinks and accommodation requests before the show and headed to the bar (after a stop at Subway where we almost had to hold Shane back from justifiably beating the ultra-bubbly sandwich artist).

The Waterfront is one of those two-sided bars - band on one side, dance floor and recorded music on the other. I was working the door; guess which side I was stuck on. Luckily the pre-recorded music was good acid jazz, though the wash from the band side kinda killed it all.

Near the end of the first set the music was shut down on the dance side and the second set was soooo nice, with special mention going to Condor for being extra strong. Condor is a song that has really grown on me as it's developed over the last couple of years to being the showcase tune it is now.

I'm told that the foghorn was invented a few miles from the bar. It was also pointed out that the back wall of the stage (which used to be the outer wall of a building and is over 200 years old) had seven bullet holes from minute-man .48 muskets. Firing squad. I suspect these two legends are related.

Quote of the day: "If I was blind, it would be a five piece!"

I

Whispy Mountain Wonder

Wata Bug>

Miko Mard

401 Theme

Oregano Mice>

Basheeba

II

Holetown Charlie

Peaches en Regalia

Chocolate Monkey Machine

Tonto's Underwater Paradise

Condor

Lemondust

Centregnome

e: Flurmy

Sounds good, I haven't heard Mike play in a long time. We better not stay out too late though, huh? How was last Friday morning off?

This Saturday, March 16th, at the Comfort Zone

nero w/ the Groove Diggas, $5

This is a fundraiser for the Marijauna Party of Canada, which I'm sure we're mostly happy to support in one way or another. Plus, nero is just back from their east coast tour and they're playing really well. See you Saturdy.

So three guys die and find themselves at the pearly gates. St. Peter assures them they've all made it into heaven, but he likes to play a game with all new arrivals. "How much money did you make last year?" he asked the first man. "$80,000" was the reply. "Bet you were a lawyer!" stated St. Peter. "That's right!" "Okay, c'mon in," and turning to the second man, "How much did you make last year?" "$100,000" "You were a Doctor?" "Yeah!" "All right, You're in!" St. Peter then asks his question to the last man. "$10,000" was the answer. St. Peter then asks the man, "What instrument did you play?"

Okay, out with your best musician jokes...

What do you call a guitar player without a girlfriend?

-Homeless.

or perhaps:

These two bass players walk by a bar...

Shame on you all.

Hey all. Just a reminder that the finest music in Ottawa on Saturday is gonna be Dave Holland at the Alumni Theatre. This guy is more than a 'he's played with everybody' guy (Miles, Frisell, everyone), this is the Dave Holland quintet! Simply the finest jazz collective touring today, everyone on stage is devastatingly good.

My only regret is that I will be missing it to be with nero in St. Andrews, NB. Gotta write them logs tho'!

And as a last ditch effort, my current favorite joke:

Two horses were down at the racetrack, and one horse says to the other, "Y'know, a funny thing happened to me today. I was running in the fourth race and I was sluggish and falling behind, and something bit me on the ass and I got a surge of energy and won the race!" The other horse replies, "Wow, that's weird, 'cuz yesterday I was in last place in the third race, and I got bit in the ass by something and won the race too!"

Just then a greyhound from the neighboring dogtrack wandered over and said, "Pardon me, but did I overhear you say that something bit you in the butt when you were racing and you ended up winning because of it?"

The first horse then looked at the second horse with astonishment. "Hey look, a talking dog!"

Confucious say: Stop quoting me!

Do I get honourable mention (and a bit for my bowl) for making up a joke that could completely revitalize the t-shirt industry? (think 'keep on truckin', or 'I'm with stupid')

So, it turns out that one of the Moon Boot Lover fellas fell down and broke an arm, and they won't be playing the Comfort Zone after all.

ergo:

nero with s/g tba @ The Comfort Zone

Saturday, March 16th, $5

This show will be a benefit for marijauna in some context, and we all know marijauna is good in pretty much most contexts.

note: Neither myself nor any members of nero were involved in the accident in any way. neroboy asks that any accusations get forwarded straight to his lawyer. And remember, marijauna=good!

Omigawd, I might actually have to go to Dave Matthews now. At least I'll have no problem getting out of the parking lot...

My avatar was totally random, but now I feel like a chef.

Go figure.