| grayline bathurst |
| GRAYLINE TOUR STORIES |
| Monday July 9, 2001 Travel Day |
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| Well, so far the tour has gone pretty good and we're having our first day off. Looking at the map, we decided to stop in Edmundston, hoping that it was big enough to have a youth centre or something of the like, then we would offer to set up and play for whoever was there. No such luck, but we did meet some kids and sell some stuff, so it was a successful venture. We were planning on crashing in Edmundston before heading to Fredericton the next day but our minds got changed for us and we discovered a really cool place called Grand Falls. It was really quite awesome to see this big gorge and stuff. A little bit of sightseeing for a change. Pete |
| Monday morning had rolled around and this would be our first day off. We were at a rest stop somewhere around Quebec city and our plan was to do a shit load of driving, and perhaps catch a movie in the evening. When on a road trip, it is expected to see a lot of what we saw this day... the road. Besides a great breakfast at a diner where nobody spoke any english, our morning and afternoon was all driving. It is truly amazing the conversation that can arise when you put 4 guys in a van for a long period of time. Randy and I tried keeping ourselves busy with in depth discussions regarding just about everything. Randy is a very interesting conversationalist. He can animate a story like no other. He also makes the perfect front man. The looks, the wardrobe, the tattoos, the voice, the talent, the ability to offend just about anybody while on stage!! When I first met him about 7 years ago I thought he was a total fucking lunatic. We first met at Call The Office during an 80's retro night. He was eating a Gyro and started a conversation with me. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about and he just walked away from me laughing. It wasn't until 1998 when I joined the band that I really got to know him. He became a good friend instantly. Under his rock and roll exterior there is a good hearted, caring guy. Believe it or not, the same can be said for Pete. I know the two of them will probably erase this and beat me silly for writting it, but its true. Randy is also the Grayline heart throbe. He even has a fanclub that really grew in numbers after our tour! One good thing about all of this driving was that Pete came prepared with a great selection of music. It is safe to say that by the end of the trip the boys wouldn't let me listen to the Lunachicks anymore. We had a bit of everything really. We had great Punk Rock from the likes of The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Face to Face and SNFU, good driving Metal from Slayer, Black Sabbath and Sytem Of A Down, and a bunch of great Classic Rock by The Who, Kiss, and Queen plus a whole lot more. He also brought a bunch of AMP Records stuff and we all went crazy for the Comrades disc. Fucking awesome!! As we approched the border to leave Quebec, a level of excitement arose. Truth be told, we actually cheered as we entered New Brunswick. We had mad it to the Maritimes!!! We video taped it and everything, but it was pretty anti-climactic. Regardless, it was goodbye Quebec! Tabernac!! We scanned the map for a place to pull into for the night and rolled into Edmunston with perfect timing for dinner. Our plan was to check out a movie later that evening but I screwed those plans up for us. We met some dirty punks outside the restaurant and they actually bought a CD. Not knowing that the guys had already gotten directions to the local theatre from our waitress while I was in the bathroom, I asked the punks about where we would find the theatre. They were very curious as to where we were going and what our plans were, and what we had in the van. Me being the trusting goodfellow that I am, I told them our movie plan and they looked inside our van as I talked about our tour. They told us to follow them and they would take us down to where the theatre was. After we parked the van downtown we noticed these kids kept circling the block. Pete already knew something was up back at the restaurant, and Randy and Darren were in agreement with him. We sat in the van and the next thing we knew, the dirty punks were on foot, sort of hovering around the area keeping an eye on the van. We expected the worst and decided that for the sake of all our equipment we would skip the movie. Instead, we opted to try and sell some more CD's. After Darren and Randy softened up some kids on the street, I went in for the close!! "Hey guys, you are gonna absolutely love this CD" I told them enthusiasticaly. "Oh yeah, how do you know" they questioned. "Well... what kind of music do you listen to?" I asked. "Iron Maiden!" was the quick concensus. "Perfect! Your gonna love us! This disc is totally for YOU!! Now that'll be $10 please" They hummed and hawed for a while so I kept trying, "What do you guys pay for a Maiden CD?" "$20 new, $10 from the pawn shop." They answered. "There you go! $10 bucks for a new CD that you will love." I exclaimed. They were thinking about it as I saw them look over at Pete. There he stood! Long hair tied back, tight rock t-shirt on, tight black jeans with a shoe lace for a belt, and Converse shoes. The poster boy for Hesherville. They looked at him as if he was some sort of God. It was fucking scary, sad, but scary. They smiled as they looked back at me. "Is he in the band?" They asked. "Yep!" "We'll take it!" SOLD to the rocker kids on the street. Hey, we needed the money so back off. We then headed down to the skate park were there was just one young kid practicing hard. We talked to him for a while and he seemed in awe of us. He did some tricks for us and asked if we skated. I borrowed his board as the boys started to laugh hysterically. I don't skate but I was willing to try. I decide to start with the half pipe. As I stood at the top I started to feel some butterflies. These however were not the butterflies you get the first time you kiss a girl, oh no, these are the evil satanic butterlies from hell that are trying to let you know you are about to experience pain. Oh well, fuck it, the camera was rolling and it was my time to fly. "Just lean forward and go" Darren yelled. Away I went! SLIP, POP, BANG! Tumble tumble stop! OWE!! THAT FUCKING HURT. So my career as a skater ended there. Darren then got up to show me how it's done. He is actually not bad at all. Randy decided to take a shot and fell as well, but for some reason he still looked cool doing it. We tried to talk Pete into a go but to no avail. The little skater dude asked us to sign his deck and we gave him a CD even though he didn't have any money. His eyes lit up and he skated off home saying he was going to listen to it right away. It was snack time so Pete treated me to some dairy queen as Randy and Darren tried to get some chick who we could see clearly through her huge front window across the street, to show them her tits. It wasn't like we were in a neighborhood either, we were on main street! She seemed to like the attention, but no flesh tonight so it was time to hit the road again. After more driving we decided we would pull into Grand Falls to rest for the night. We found a parking area that just happened to be a tourist attraction because of the beautiful gorge and falls (hence the name). We checked it out from all angles and it was really quite spectacular. It was late at night and the bugs were all around the lights so we had to cut the sight seeing short. There was also this huge indian statue out front. Pete wanted to get some video footage of it with Randy talking about his Indian Heritage but while filming it, Darren ran into the shot. There he was, completely naked except his black socks and running shoes! He waving his cock and balls like a mad man as Randy continued to narrate. There was this pickup truck that kept cruising by and I had a bad feeling these locals wouldn't approve of our antics. Thankfully nobody noticed Darren except, of course, anyone who picks up the next Grayline Homevideo #4, ONLY $10!! Believe me, you'll love it. What's your favourite movie? You don't say. Perfect, you'll love the entire Grayline Homevideo Collection. You can get them online NOW! -- Sorry, its just a natural instinct. We all settled into our allocated sleeping areas in the van and were looking forwards to playing in Fredericton the next night. As I tried to sleep the vision of the naked white redhead in black socks kept haunting me as I tossed and turned. I felt that this vision would haunt my nightmares that night but I did eventually slip away into a restful deep sleep. |
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