The End of Days

There's no denying that I love going to concerts. If there's an indie or alternative band coming through town, I'm there. Practically all of my money goes towards concerts and I'm happy with the way I spend my money (though I'm not gonna lie, I'd love going to shows for FREE!)

Last night, Pilot Speed was playing at Edmonton's KDays (or rather Capital Ex... the gross new name that city counselors bestowed on the fair in '06) and my lovely Arkells (from Dine Alone Records) were opening for them. Of course, Fabs and Luls (who were taking their lil sis and friend) were going to this show, too and we made plans to meet up and enjoy the festivities... I mean, the music.

So we're waiting for Arkells to start, a few members of the band (who are acquainted with Fabs and Luls) wave in our direction and smile.  Now, I gotta say that yesterday was also the first day that it was BOILING hot in the city. Like, +30 hot! That's why we were all a bit taken aback when it started raining... HARD. I, however, (who went to a few outdoor shows last year in Montreal and am therefore paranoid when it comes to the rain and my hair... haha!) brought along two umbrellas; one for my sis, one for me. Being the nice girls who passed kindergarten on the first go, we shared our umbrellas with my friends =)

Needless to say, it seemed like they were canceling the show. Lame-sauce. Max, lead singer for the Arkells and co. started putting their stuff away, and Fabs asked whether he knew if their set was canceled. "I dunno," he answered, smiling. 

So it rained... it blew... literally... the wind blew at speeds of 90 km/h last night, but more on that later. The temperature dropped drastically while it stormed. It felt like it was at least +3... but from +30 to +3... it's quite the difference. I remember thinking, "this is tornado weather. Creepy." This went on for a good 20 mins and my favourite radio personality (Rick Lee) came out to assure that the show would go on. "This is Alberta! We can handle this weather!" And when it stopped raining, they re-set everything up for the show. Yay!

So Arkells came on... Played an awesome set... smiled in our direction a few times since Fabi and Luls are the cutest people ALIVE... and then, their set was over. It was awesome that even despite the weather, people still came out to see them and that they stuck around. People wanted to see the Arkells! They were there for them. They sang along to their songs and were generally bummed when their all too-short set was over (they were openers, after all.)

Fabs, Luls, their lil sis and friend all went to the merch table to buy some band tees, leaving my sister and I alone... We heard the Event Staff arguing. One of them (a lady with sandy hair) kept insisting that the patrons' safety was their first priority and they should say "something". Yeah... That something turned out to be that the city was on tornado watch... WTF?!?! She approached us, said "go to the nearest building." When asked, where's the nearest building, she pointed in a random direction. My sister panicked, but I was all calm, cool and collected. At first.

Needless to say, we grabbed Fabs, Luls and their bunch and headed towards the nearest building... but we couldn't find it. We asked the workers at the Ex, and NONE of them knew where the nearest building was. When I asked them what they were going to do about the bad weather (already it was storming; lightning was crashing overhead and hail was starting to fall), they stuttered they didn't know yet. We even passed some employees who were holed up in their ticket kiosks. They smiled meekly as we ran passed. My sister panicked even more. I grabbed her tiny wrists and told her to calm the FUCK down or I would hit her. This helped... a little, but I started to worry a bit then because like I said, this was by the time the bad weather had started. Trees were SPLITTING in two, Fabiana and her friend were crying... I was basically leading all six of us. Since when do I lead??

I saw Rick Lee and thought "he MUST know where to go!" and we followed him onto a city bus (hahaha, such creepers) which eventually took us to Coliseum (a train station here in E-Ville). Too bad the fucking police wouldn't let us INside the actual underground building. Anyway, as you can tell, I'm still alive, but it was still a scary ordeal. My older sis says that concerts are going to be the death of me. Could be. Don't all addictions eventually lead to your death....? hahaha.