Monday, August 10/09, Avenue Theater, Edmonton AB

This is where I mention that Mapping The Escape is made up of a great bunch of dudes, the kind of dudes you could bring home to mom and dad. Handsome, talented, smart, funny, sensitive, sexy, all good things, and they are nerds in the most amazing of ways. They write incredible songs, and the care that they put into their stage performance is nothing short of immaculate, although meticulous, the end result is worth the effort. They also enjoy Star Trek and other great nerdy things to long lengths, which is fine by us, considering Lewis and I quote Star Wars on an hourly basis (that’s right, there’s a war on between universes) Actually, Clark and Dan had a conversation tonight about Deep Space Nine, a quite popular aspect of the Star Trek television universe, that lasted for about an hour. I found that to be truly amazing in itself, how such things bring two people closer together. We’ve spent the last week with the band, and I feel that sparks may be flying. I’ve realized over time that, as a band, we are always drawn to the bands who are nerdy like us and work hard at what they do and they always turn into great friendships. We’re always doing the same things when we’re together as when we’re apart. It makes sense. It’s going to hurt like hell parting ways.

The night was pretty spectacular. I was into the rock and roll portrayal, scissor kicks, guitar spins, spontaneous rave dancing. We had a massive stage that was literally half of the venue and an amazing sound system, not gonna lie, it got us pretty pumped for the show and we set up with more enthusiasm than usual. This was the second time for us at Avenue Theater, only the last time it was still a dusty skate-park that needed a coat of paint or two (kind of like the ghostbuster’s firehouse headquarters) We hung out behind the building for awhile, practicing back-up vocals in the alley and then played with a couple of pretty rad bands, “Forever and Never,” and “Letters To Elise,” for whom the show was for, their tour-kick off. Well, since it was a monday night, let’s just say it wasn’t the most massive crowd, but we were pumped regardless. I met up with an old friend, Chelsey, with whom I attended Stanley Humphries Secondary back home in Castlegar and we caught up. It was good. I haven’t seen her in years, since high school. She left shortly after, jumped in a car with a guy waiting for her with a rather large and uncomfortable cat, which apparently was a gift. I can’t wait to meet up again, so I can finish explaining myself.

Load-out hour came, and we did it rather quickly. Thad came out of the darkness of the backstage area, clutching his knee, obviously in pain. Apparently, he had been trying to sneak out the back in the dark, had attempted to hop on a chair to jump over something, wasn’t able to notice that it was a rocking chair, bailed hard on his knee. I sympathized, but was also amused as it was the last thing I expected him to say, like really, it was pretty genuine. We had another late night at Trisha’s, after stopping at a Macdonalds (SAD) and having two guys on bikes convinced that we were extreme marijuana enthusiasts, being from BC, of course. This is not the truth, but I went with it, it’s more fun that way. The remainder of the evening was spent at a table, conversing about pop music, kind of a grim subject I know (lol), dissecting it’s formula and wondering if there would ever be the perfect song, one that is all inclusive of 16th notes and 4 on the floor drum samples, synth and acoustic guitar, layered and catchy melodies, hand claps, accessible lyrics. The only one I can think of for the time being is some Jimmy Eat World song or “The First Single” by The Format.