Went to the "big" summersault rock festival at an old
racetrack in Ottawa with a bunch of guys. Of course
the main goal of the event was to drink some beer
outside while trying to avoid sunstroke. The bands
were probably OK but we didn't watch them, instead we
decided to scam our way backstage. After the usual
failed attempts at pretending we knew someone in one
of the bands and then pretending we were Dave Grohl we
decided to sneak back. This was much easier than I
would have thought. We just walked behind a tent and
there we were watching Billy Corgan play ping-pong
with some other band people.This was fun for about
five minutes until we noticed the roadies driving
around in golf carts so we decided to take one. As
soon as one roadie got out of his cart to deliver some
bottled water, we jumped in and took off. He chased
us but the carts were fast and before long we were
doing donuts on the dirt horse track with some pissed of guy
in a Guess Who rock jersey and a couple of cops
screaming and chasing after us. Eventually we gave it
back and we got kicked out.
Ten minutes later we were
back again stealing cases of wine coolers and running
around like a bunch of idiots. When I got stopped
again the security guy just wanted to know what my old
band (Jimmy George) was up to these days. After a while, when we
couldn't find Dave Grohl to see if he really looked
like my friend Tim, we decided to leave.
The show was really far from town so we decided to
take someone's limo home. As you can imagine the
driver got pissed off and kicked us out. Instead we
pretended we had won some contest a local radio
station had put on and got a drive home on a shuttle
bus full of jar-head contest winners. They kept
yelling "show us your tits" at all the women on the
bus. My brother and I made the bus driver stop a few
times so we could go piss on the highway and we kept
giving wet willies to this drunk, semipassed out, jock
in the seat beside us. I don't think he appreciated
all the spit in his ears.
About the bands? Well as I said, drinking beer and
getting backstage were more important than the music
that day but the music provided for a decent
soundtrack. We arrived at the show just as the second
band, Treble Charger were finishing their set. I've
always liked them though so I'll say that they rocked.
Next up were a bunch of bands I don't really know or
care about since I don't listen to modern rock radio
that much. One of them (Perfect Circle) did a heavy metal-like version
of a cure song that was interesting. Then it was the
Foo Fighters… I did watch them and they did ROCK!
Dave Grohl promised to give anyone in the audience one
of his stinky t-shirts if they could hit him in the
head with a frisbee. Then he upped the ante by taunting the crowd
to throw mud at him. Then he went and stood in the
middle of the mosh pit with his guitar and mic and
played a song while being pelted with sod and mud.
It was cool. Our Lady Peace was next and lets
just say that I was not a fan before and am less of
one now. (If these guys were ten years older I'm sure
they would have felt very comfortable playing in
Honeymoon Suite or Glass Tiger.) And finally it was
the Smashing Pumpkins… what can I say, they played
their songs, they were rockstars, Melissa Auf der Maur was
cool, they left...
I was late for work the next
day.
