Saturday, August 29th/09, Farewell House-Party, Ottawa ONT

Like any awesome house-party, ones that are of epic proportions, usually held in celebration, of some obstacle overcome, achieving impossible goals, a birthday, or in this case, all the former tenants vacating the premises, they require lots of people informed of the event at least 48 hours in advance, acknowledging confirmation and ready to throw down, loud music, preferably live bands if attainable, a keg or two, if not, lots of beer in cans or bottles, in a trough, whatever you need to do. Some precautions you may want to take, no under-age kids to your knowledge, a safe room for the injured and highly intoxicated or to store the band’s gear and valuables, and most important of all, be aware of the noise by-laws. Nobody likes a good house-party shut down before the point is made. To find more information on the subject, you may want to ask your older brother or sister how it’s done or watch the movies “House Party 1 and 2,” “National Lampoon’s Animal House” or some of my personal favorites “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Old School.” They should tell you all you need to know about successfully, and confidently, executing the “one last hurra,” as it were. And if you’re in one of the bands performing in the living room of a 3 story townhouse in Ottawa, it is totally okay to wear your own band’s t-shirt, and if it leads to your demise, reunite in front of everyone and play some new songs, mostly old ones.

As the theme of this tour seems to be quickly turning into show cancellations, we managed to talk to our loved ones in Brights about helping us get a show for tonight, a Saturday night, which led us to Ottawa and playing an amazing farewell house-party, hosted by the soon-to-be former tenants and good friends of the boys in Brights, Ryan and Peter. We got to Ottawa at around 6:00pm and relaxed for awhile at our friend Aaron’s place, watched Stallone destroy Carl Weathers on the television, always a great mood enhancer. We picked up some beverages, in Quebec of course, and then proceeded to load in our gear to a pretty small, but suitable and soon to be packed, townhouse. We knew hardly anyone, except Aaron and Brights, but we made friends quickly. We played in the living room, following an epic drum and bass-off and an excellent local solo hip-hop artist, “Kwizz Masturz,” and it was absolutely great, better than some shows we played on this tour. Lewis decided to wear an Acres of Lions shirt and we acted out our favorite scene from “Can’t Hardly Wait,” named all our songs after quotes form the movie, “I heard Mandy’s about a dog,””Would you like to touch my penis?””Mike Dexter is an asshole!””In this light, you somewhat resemble David Duchovny.” You know, those old gems. It was loud, but nobody seemed to mind too much, just moved their hands and feet, some even sang along. I enjoyed this very much, can’t thank Brights enough for this. We were followed by Brights and two more amazing local bands, “Old Crowns” and “Amos.” We spent the rest of the night making friends with PBR and a bunch of Ottawa party-goers, some who Dan attempted to speak French with the whole night, and who were probably both amused and scared until the morning.

Late-night activities ensued, like most do following a good house-party, the staggering to a late-night pizza, poutine or chinese cuisine joint, cheap and not great for you, but sustaining the walk back to whoever’s apartment for the night, or if you’re a real soldier, to another party or a night-club. In our case, we each got some of the above and split up, Tyson and Dan to our bro Ross’ apartment, Lewis and I to Chris’ place, where we finished of our poutine and fell asleep to George Carlin, his menacing voice, telling us like it is, over and over again. The party was successful, nothing got destroyed or stolen (I hope), the police did not show up, the neighbours did not complain, the typical “drunk asshole” did not end up fighting anyone, nobody passed out in their own vomit, the bands all played great sets with only minor technical difficulties. Sure, some people may have hooked up, but if they did, it was legitimate and out of sight, dignified. Yes sir, it was a fine night indeed, nothing to the capacity of Seth Green and Lauren Ambrose getting together or Charlie Korsmo getting back at Peter Facinelli, or Ethan Embry winning over Jennifer-Love Hewitt’s heart with a long overdue letter, but you make due with what you got, right?