Sunday, August 24th, 2008: Quest for the Past Concert

Bill has to work at midnight, so we take two cars again. Kyle has to book it after the show too, so he goes in his own ride. We leave my place where we all meet and head to The Grim, where we meet up at Steve’s.

We kick around for a bit and talk about his vacation and he regales us with stories. We hand out walkie-talkies to the drivers of all four cars, and we’re on our way, caravanning it to the Dunner.

I’ve never really used a walkie before, especially not one when I’m to be taken seriously. For anyone that remembers the old “Spy-Tech” toys, that’s the extent of my walkie experience.

I felt like the biggest geek driving along field sidling roads using a walkie-talkie.

We get to the theatre and head inside. It turns out that there will not be a full band rehearsal before the show. I’ve already told Alicia what I’m looking for in lighting cues, and we go over it again.

Bill fine tunes the lights, which seem to have moved, and we talk to Carl. We get our shit ready to go and find out that the audio is piss poor. Since this is a concert, we can’t really have a shitty hum droning its way through all the songs. Kyle and Carl troubleshoot the problem and they get it down to a better level. From my understanding, there’s still a bit of hum, but I couldn’t notice it while the band was playing. The hum is also coming through the speakers, so it has nothing to do with the camera.

The nerves are starting to hit me.

We head out for lunch, and since it’s Sunday, nothing’s open. We head over to the Subway/ Mac’s/ M&M Meats store. So here’s what you can do in the Dunner.

You can buy a porn magazine, order a big plate of meat to cook later while enjoying a sub.

Dunnville ain’t so bad.

Since I boycott Subway because of Jared, who might have lost a lot of weight but gained it all back in ego, I decide to try to find somewhere else to eat. Not only that, but I’m just not in the mood for a sub. Or food for that matter.

I walk across the street to a pizza diner, decide the place ain’t for me, and turn around and walk out. Everyone finishes their meal at Jerod’s house of hell, and since my coffee fetish is pretty well known, it’s just assumed that we would walk over to Timmys. While there I get a sandwich and we’re back to the theatre.

It’s at this point I can’t get enough nerve calming nicotine in my system.

The rest of the work we need to get done gets done and Bill and I head out to satisfy my increasing smoke habit. We talk about the show, what we’re going to do, and form a plan of action, while Kyle loads the four cameras up with tapes and doles out spares for us.

The show comprises of two sets and an encore. Each set is about forty-five minutes long, and the encore is about fifteen. That’s good news to us because now we don’t have to worry about changing tapes over during the middle of the performance.

The encore will be a problem, because it won’t be a ten minute or so intermission in between. We need about a minute and a half to change the tape on the sound camera, and that job will go to Bill, who will also have to change the tape over in his camera. We formulate a plan of action for this with Steve, who will hold on to the band until we’re ready for them.

Steve has a walkie backstage and tells us there’s two minutes until show-time. I fill Alicia in on what I want for lighting cues again, wish everyone a good show, and then get to my camera. We’re about to shoot a concert for a band which we’ve never heard the music for, don’t know who’s coming in when, have lighting cues we don’t know exactly when to use, and I’ve never directed a live show of this size before.

It’s show-time.

The band comes on for the first song. Things go remarkably well I think. I didn’t think I’d be able to hand out cues using the walkie during the show, but I manage to do it, even though Alicia is already on her game; doing the cues while I’m handing them out. Bill and I communicate quite a bit, filling each other in on the shots we have.

I’m feeling good after the first song. The problem is they have more than one song.

I have a film background where I concentrate for minutes at a time at the task at hand. Once the take is over, I hand out direction or say “let’s do it again.” Okay, that’s not true. I say “one more time,” and then we’ll do it five more times. This show made me concentrate for the whole thing.

From my camera, and the crowds reaction, I think we got good stuff for the entire show. I know that it was expected that we’d only be able to release five tracks or so, but I’m hoping the whole thing is high enough quality to put onto a DVD. Brad also gave us a shout-out, so you bet your ass that’s making the cut!

I haven’t seen Bill or Kyle’s footage, but I could see in the here and now what Alicia was doing and she did a great job with the lights. Last year when the band played, they just turned all the lights on and kept them on for the entire show. People that came to both shows I don’t think expected an actual show.

Once the whole thing is over, I almost collapse. I have a feeling of euphoria. All that’s running through my mind is “I can’t believe we did it. I can’t believe we did it.” We went into this show about as blind as you could be, and we continue to defy the odds pulling shit off that we have no real business pulling off. I’m sorry for the ego trip, but I really can’t believe we did it.

After the show all I hear is how great the lights were and how it was much better than last years show. I’m glad to hear it, and I’m glad I was apart of it. I’m glad I’m part of this super team we have. I really am man.

That’s about as much emotion you’re going to get out of me.

We pack up our gear and head back to the Grim to find someplace that’s still open and have a mini-celebration.

It turns out that on a Sunday night in the Grim, Boston Pizza is the place to be.

Inside, Steve orders something called “The Team Pitcher.” I’ve never been to Boston Pizza before, well, because I haven’t wanted to, but after seeing the Team Pitcher, I might have to move in. The thing is hyuge! Bill snaps a photo of it with me modeling. I’m sure it’ll be up on Facebook before I get home.

We have some food and drinks, and Steve again, regales us with stories, including how to beat a breathalyzer. Coolest mofo going. I didn’t realize how much the concert was playing on my nerves, but now that it’s all over, I’m pretty beat. The adrenaline dump killed me.

Bill heads out to work and we continue to chill watching the young drunks in the joint and chatting it up. At one point, one of the drunken girls drops a full tray of empty bottles. She earned a slow clap. By one person. Who forgot that a slow clap starts slow and builds to fast, not just from slow to fast. Damn kids, if you’re going to do shit, do it right.

There’s some other hi-jinks at the BP tonight, including the same drunk girl yelling at a guy that’s trying to make out with her that his heart belongs to another broad. Looking at the girl, she shouldn’t really care who his heart belongs to as much as she should care that there’s got to be something wrong with this dude if he wants to make out with her.

Actually, it’s the same broad that Alicia heard in the washroom throwing up and then running out when her friend came in to tell her she had shots to do on the bar.

I now love Grimsby. Actually, I might just love this broad. I’d like to call her up when I’m bored just to entertain me. Stupid people are funny when they think they’re smart. Just ask anyone that hangs out with me.

We end up calling it a night, probably later than we should’ve. We have an early call tomorrow for the final day of Episode 4: The Van Halen Guitar. It’s also the last day of shooting for at least a month, and the final day of shooting for this amazing summer.

Here's some screenshots from the night. No color correction or cropping.