Organ from organ donor in Calgary, Nudists in Sundre, and Helicopters in Bragg Creek.

We arrived at the Liberty Lounge at the Mount Royal Collage in Calgary to the sound of Newfoundland’s 'The Novaks.' Unloading the gear we came across some rad looking guys that were no doubt from the other band. They introduced themselves as members of 'The Italian Edition.' They had a unique sound which reminded me of New York Cities 'the Strokes,' and New Brunswick's 'Grand Theft Bus'. Quite satisfying.

Our first show of the tour came with some expected challenges. We were taken to task by our latest musical addition to the show, an 1897 pump organ. It wasn't sounding right through the PA.

The time was March of 2007, the place was our manager Grady and his wife Helen's home in Egmont Bay PEI, the reason was recording part of our latest album 'Chucky Danger.' Something was missing on the record. We tried Tubular bell to no success, we tried piano to moderate success, but when the sound of an old pump organ came coming through the monitors, we knew it was just right. We had found the organ, and our lead singer John was able to play it well enough to implant it into our show, and fortunately Grady and Helen were willing to be organ donors.

Back in Calgary, we finally fitted it with the appropriate microphone, our philosopher Al, and the Liberty Lounges house sound man Pat fiddled with some knobs at the sound board we were ready to go. The show was fun, it had energy. Afterwards, a young nameless man asked, "Where is your next show?"

"The Sundre Arts Development Centre."

"Really?" he said with a smug grin, "I grew up in Sundre, it is mostly nudists and oil workers."

"Sounds like my kind of town."

We arrived at the Sundre Arts Development Centre to the sound of accordion music. John and Roger were our support staff for the night. Our philosopher and sound guy Al worked with John, and Roger accompanied me to the workshop for some maintenance on an important piece of equipment.

The wooden salad bowl has a very distinctive sound. When struck on the outside of the rim by the butt end of a drumstick, it has a very crisp high pitch tone, when struck by the shaft of the drumstick on the inner edge, it has a crisp low pitch tone. Unfortunately, due to transportation issues, a new crack had formed in ours which gave it a certain children's toy rattle tone which would be more welcome in a nursery than on stage with us. Fortunately, Roger was there to pamper it with a fine dose of wood glue. In a few short hours, we had a functioning musical salad bowl again.

We made our entrance onto the stage, and I immediately noticed two things, the first was three young women who I recognized from performances we had made in British Columbia who were sitting in the front row (hi girls from Kimberley), the second was that everyone was wearing clothing, and peoples clothing seemed to be eerily free of oil stains. The rumours from the night before may have been just that, rumours.

This, the second show of the tour, had spontaneity and zest. Thanks to the audience of Sundre for allowing that.

We arrived at the Bragg Creek Community Centre to the sound of 'Do You Feel Like I Do' from the album Frampton Comes Alive.

Bragg Creek is upscale rural living. Many of the people who live in Bragg Creek work in bustling oil business in Calgary. I am told that it is not uncommon to see people fly helicopters to work. We see all this through the dirty windows of Agnes, our 1994 Chevrolet fifteen passenger sport van which is loaded to the roof with people and gear.

As we entered the hall, people rushed around, adjusting lights, moving around monitors, adjusting floor plans, and generally being busy. It's an honour that most of our shows are full productions of this type, but in the end, in order to validate all this hard work, we have to perform well each night. Sometimes when you are cramped in a tight van for hours at a time, this doesn't always seem worth it. But we played the show, and it proved something. It's always worth it.

Download Chucky Danger's New Album
Check out my favorite videos