Oh Kanata

Damanta rolls up the 401 to the Port Coquitlam of Ottawa: Kanata, Ontario on August 8th, 2008

This time Matt woke us at 12:30pm asking, "What time is you guy's show in Ottawa? You know it takes five hours to get there, right?" Our show was at 5pm and yes, I knew but I figured I'd wake up around 9am as usual. Unfortunately, I'd slept poorly due to an all night video session happening beside me so I'd put on an eye mask and ear plugs and slept through the morning. With frantic packing and help from Matt we were on the road at 1:30pm.

Of course the dark side of Toronto reared it's ugly head as we tried to escape its clutches: Gridlock on the 401. Seriously. It was a parking lot until Whitby. Now I know Torontonians are gonna write me and say, "That's nothing, I remember this one time..." Save it. I am from Vancouver where we have only one highway and I ride my bike almost exclusively so I never have to use it. I was overwhelmed and consequently had a serious lack of patience for "Left-Lane Larry's" after we finally broke away. Eventually, we managed to get The Beast up to Ludicrous Speed again and got the the bar (only) two hours late. I'd phoned from Kingston to let them know and we agreed to play the allotted time, just later.

It looked like it was going to be a hard drinking suburban crowd that would be more annoyed than buoyed by our performance but we went over really well. Some young guys really got into it and bought t-shirts and CDs and I got into a conversation with a retired teacher whose family was from Ireland. She really enjoyed what we did and it was neat to talk to her and hear about the times when she and her girlfriends would head down to the Irish pub in Ottawa on St. Patrick's day. I think telling the stories did her more good than me listening to them.

After the show, The guys dropped me off at the Ottawa airport where I was to catch a flight to Moncton, NB the next day to attend my sister's Canadian wedding reception in North Rustico, Prince Edward Island. I was excited to take a break from the rigours of the road and see family after the hectic schedule since the drive to Chicago . Elegwen and Jon then had to drive 2 hours through the night to meet Ben, of Tarkin 'fame', in the Mount Royal neighbourhood. When next I'd see them hopefully we'd be playing an early week show in one of Montreal's Irish Pubs.