There were a lot of reasons I was excited for the upcoming weekend. I had started a job just shy of 6 months ago. The probationary period, although mostly a formality now was approaching it’s end. This new job was a big step in my professional career. My career hasn’t always been my priority in life.
Technically I hadn’t passed the six months but my manager had confirmed to me he had already given his approval in regards to passing the probationary period to the human resources department. The deal was done.
It’s Friday night. Early Saturday morning I’m taking a bus to Toronto. This is my little gift to myself for reaching my 6 month probation. It’s also a trip outside of Montreal. Something I haven’t had a chance to do in a while. I could have taken the train or the plane but I wanted to see the country side and hadn’t taken a bus in what seemed like ages.
Back to Friday night. I finish work, go home, pack a small bag for Saturday morning and get ready to go to the show. Although the party itself was to celebrate the music label and it’s artist I was primarily attending to see Sean Nicholas Savage.
A good friend of mine, the audiophile of the group had introduced me to Sean at a show here in Montreal 4 or 5 years ago. Since then when ever he’s in town I try to go see him. He’s a lounge singer that I describe as “David Bowie”esque.
I headed over the the space early. I don’t remember exactly what time I left my apartment but it was sometime around 8 pm if not earlier. In the case of this particular party, it wasn’t too far from my neighborhood. I could have taken a bus, metro or uber to get there but it was a nice night and I decided to walk. I brought one beer with me as I made my way east on Notre-Dame.
A little while later I arrived at the space. Couple of artist (musicians) mixed in with the crowd smoking outside. No line to get in at that point. The space was really well designed and decorated for the event. I knew we were in for a good night when I noticed that not only did they have washrooms, the things were clean and good looking washrooms. The attention to detail in ensuring the facilities would surpass the expectations of the attendees made me realize just how much time had gone into prepping the space. As well as what kind of night this was going to be.
All proceeds from the door were to be donated to Suicide Action Montreal.
I walked around the space. They had a nice bar area, merchandise table, washrooms setup to the right of the entrance. You had to take a few steps down to reach it. There was a large stage along the primary wall of the warehouse and further to it’s left you had some common areas setup with living art spaces. The whole place was rather dimly lit but this went with the team of neon lighting. There were some art pieces placed around the room.
Once the initial walk around of the space was down I made my way to the bar and grabbed myself a simple gin and tonic. Plenty of Red Bull cocktails available, but I had to get some sleep later in the evening and didn’t want to take any chances.
Afterwards I stopped at the merchandise table and had a look at what was on sale from the different artist. They had a special for the Sean merchandise, something like if you bought two products then you also got a small poem of his books. One of Sean’s vinyl albums on the table only had two copies. I thought this was a little odd as the others all had several more. I had already picked out one of his albums to bring home when the girl behind the counter spoke:
“That’s a really rare album, not a lot of them still available for sale”. I thought it over for a few minutes and then told her i’d take the two albums. Got myself a little poem book out of the deal (which as of mid October I haven’t read yet). I didn’t think anything else of the purchase. I made my way up the stairs back into the main area. I sipped my drink while I had a closer look at all the art installations and soaked in the scenery.
It was still early enough that there weren’t too many people in the space. Some time later I met up with my old roommate and the new girl he was seeing. Funnily enough while at the space he sent me a text message saying “We’re in the corner with the neon”. I lifted my head, looked at every corner in the place and they all had some type of neon. I laughed to myself and replied the same thing to him. “Dude, there’s neon ever where”. This despite me knowing what he meant. In one specific corner there were art pieces made to look like rooms via the use of “neon” lighting. The interesting thing about these pieces is that the edge of the designs would turn on and off. If you scroll through the images you’ll notice that some of the edges “go dark” in the shapes.
My favorite piece of the night was this one (extra shots of it in the gallery below):
A little while after that the first artist appeared on stage. I’m afraid I don’t recall who it was. I got up, walked over to the stage and stood relatively close as the crowd had yet to really show up to the party. To my left I saw a young woman with ear plugs. I felt the music was a little too loud and I eyed her jealously. Why hadn’t i remembered to bring any ear plugs? I poked her on the shoulder softly and leaned in to ask her if she might have a extra pair of earplugs? Mentioned that she was smart to have remembered to bring a pair. She quickly answered that she didn’t have another pair but it was possible to get them on a table near the entrance. When I asked her to point out the general area rather then explain she simply said “It’s not problem let me go get you a pair”. Shortly there after she returned and handed me a pair.
I thanked her, dropped them into my ears and continued to enjoy the show. A short moment someone poked me on shoulder and I heard “that’s a really rare vinyl you picked up good choice.” As I looked up I recognized the face. Early in the week I had been googling more about the RedBull event and I stumbled on an interview of the owner of the label, Sebastian Cowan. You can learn a little more about him, the label and the artist in this video.
Low and behold Sebastian the owner of the label had tapped me on the shoulder. He explained to me how one small part of the wrapping had been a pain to actually get onto the vinyl. He had had to fight the pressing or wrapping company to get it done. He gave me other information about the album which I’ve since forgotten. I believe I wish him congratulations on the ten years and it’s at this point he knew I recognized him. I explained that I had seen the small video on the red bull website earlier in the week while researching more about the event. He in turn thanked me and we continued talking Sean Nicholas Savage. I asked him why Sean wasn’t in Montreal as much when he came back to North America to tour. I got the answer but I can’t share it here, at least not now.
After a pause to listen to the artist playing I mentioned to him something along the lines of:
“Hey you might be able to actually make this happen! You have to try and get Sean to record his Wind of Change from the Scorpions cover.”
As the words came out of my mouth, his face lit up. I had been lucky enough to see Sean cover this song at one of his shows. I’ve been to 5 or 6 at this point. He doesn’t seem to cover the song often. His version of the song was just amazing. We both agreed it was an amazing cover of it. Who knows if we’ll ever see the cover recorded.
A little while later Sean appeared on stage. He did a medium size set and then was off. In my opinion the sound wasn’t the greatest. I believe it was close to midnight if not a little bit later at that point.
I had a bus to catch early the next day so I wish my friends a good evening and headed back home. I heard afterwards that the band Tops played an amazing set. As my friends were leaving at the end of their night they said it looked like the party was just really getting started for some. Part of the events was a DJ that would be playing with the sunrise. This was going to be an all night, 10 year anniversary party. I wish I would of been able to stay up all night, then take and sleep on the bus to Toronto.
In my younger days I might have done it. Instead, on that night I walked home by street and moon light. Vinyl disks in hand happy to know I’d soon be on a bus to Toronto in a few hours.
