WHEN: Thursday April 20, 2000 7:30??
WHO: Gosquad(Ottawa), Three Orange Whips, Closet Monster(Toronto) and N &H [Naked and Happy] (Montreal)
WHERE: Almonte Civitan Club
HOW: Much: $ 6.00 at door

As usual I showed up too early. Maybe it's my trusting nature but when I somebody tells me "Starts at 7:30" I tend to believe them. So I showed up at 7:30 and killed some time by helping some bands carry in their equipment. It wasn't till later that somebody actually questioned my being there so 'early' "So your Dad owns the centre or something??" Uhh no.

So the bands didn't get their shit together till around 8-8:30.. Maybe even later than that.. I didn't really pay that much attention. Instead I chatted up the bands. They were all very cool, a group of them asked me about eateries in the fine town of Almonte.. "Is there a Taco Bell around??" Uhh no. I told them about the only thing that remotely resembled fast food in Almonte was Subway. After they'd all finished making barfing noises, I told them about a couple pizza places and they left to go get something to eat.

The first band that went onstage was Gosquad A real awesome bunch of guys. They played some really awesome ska, and I actually got up and skanked, it was wierd cuz truthfully I can't dance, but the guys told me earlier. "Everyone looks like an idiot when they skank" So I got up and looked like an idiot like the rest of them. Then in the middle of the set a girl got up on stage and yelled at everyone for not skanking, not that she made much of a difference. The same token crowd of girls, which now included me, danced but as far as I could figure nobody was exactly swayed by her speech. Other onstage antics were because of the hockey playoffs. I guess since Gosquad was from Ottawa(Senators) and Closet Monsters were from Toronto (Leafs) the whole rivalry thing was evident. But I'm pretty sure it was all in fun, and the crowd seemed to get a kick out of it.

For a band that hasn’t cut a CD or made a demo, Gosquad's very polished. They had a tower that was connected to the drum kit, I don't know exactly what it was for but it looked impressive. The lyrics and stage presence was very upbeat, fast, skankin' music with even a touch of punk, makes me wish that they had a CD or even a demo. I want to hold a piece of them in my music collection. At least I have an autographed playlist! Not only did they have cool upbeat music, but they catered to us old farts and played a Devo cover. Whip It which I'm still trying to figure if it was an homage to the Three Orange Whips. These guys were great. It's nice to have a great band with friendly members. I hate it when its an awesome band and you try to be friendly with the members and you get snubbed. Guys with egos suck!!

After Gosquad played the hometown ska heroes The Three Orange Whips They played some old ones like Handsome Man some new ones like Tight Pants and a cover of Seeya Later Alligator which blew me away. Again I skanked away with the rest of the fans, which now included Gosquad, who were surprisingly the only guys skanking.. I finally got the Whips to sign my demo, which I had bought at thier Almonte show last year. They all signed it, but not before saying... "Hey! This is the OLD cover!!" Like I had actually got this cover on purpose or something... And my demo was Sattler's first autograph, where he did a little squiggle and printed his name in brackets with an arrow.. Hmmm..

After the Whips, Closet Monster complete with thier memorabilia and purple hair stumbled onstage and played a great set. Being the only band there with members still in high school their songs dealt with things like how much highschool sucks. But I got a CD and read over all thier lyrics and some of the songs are very profound, and these guys got thier shit together enough to be sponsoring a kid in a third world country. Cool. I didn't really have enough to pay for a CD. I slapped a fiver down on the table and got out my change purse. ten minutes later I had five dollars in nickles and dimes and a couple quarters. The guitarist just stared in disbelief as I counted up the change. He didn't seem to mind though as he picked up the change and evilly dumped it into his friends' jeans pocket.. Hmmm. Well I did get rid of all my change AND get a CD out of the bargain.. not bad...

Finally played N&H. I bought some memorabilia from these guys, okay it was just a couple pins. a Naked and Happy pin and a STOMP pin... I have to find my krazyglue my N&H pin fell apart, while I was walking home.

On another note, don't walk home if you can't find a phone to get a cab. Bang on somebody's door if you have to. It doesn't matter if its 1 in the morning. Walking home alone on the highway at nite is scary.. TRUST ME...

Anyways back to the N&H. These guys were cool. Sax and sass and a trumpet. Very cool. I was helping these guys unload their gear when the bassist dropped something on his finger. "Hey can you play bass eh?" Well... No. They laughed.. Thank god they were kidding. These guys were awesome and a great way to end the night. But the sad thing was the place wasn't very packed in the first place and by the time N&H came on there was a total of 25 people watching, with the owners of the club mopping and moving chairs and cleaning up during the set. I didn't feel very welcome at that point. The overtones of "Get out now!" hung in the air. but I stood my ground and watched the rest of the set.


After the show I didn't think I'd have enough money to get home so I got a lift in a very cramped ThreeOrangeWhips car, where I shared the backseat with the bassist and a drum kit.. I got a ride to the bank machine and got out enough to get home where I went to the 24-beckers that well.. The 24 hour Beckers wasn't open 24hours... so I made tracks to the other beckers but got sick of walking there half way through town and decided to walk home along the highway. Stupid idea, like I said.. I thankfully have friends in Almonte and one spotted me on the highway and drove me home.. Not everyone's that lucky. I was walking along the very highway that last year a girl was killed in a hit-and-run. Don't take the chance.. Phone a fucking cab!