Another Great Concert

Last Sunday, a friend of mine invited a group of people, including myself, to watch a concert by "Hey Rosetta." To be honest, I have never heard of them before, but I'm pretty much always up for going out with friends for live music.

The band is from Newfoundland, and as a typical Torontonian, I made the mistake of assuming that we would be hearing maritimer folk music. Well ... I am an idiot. Instead, I got to see one of the best live Rock n' Roll shows that I have ever seen.

The show was at the "Pawn Shop," a bar/club on Whyte Avenue. The "Pawn Shop" is equipped with a dance floor which was packed with about 75-100 people, whenever there was a band on stage. I was actually surprised at how busy the place was considering it was a Sunday night, and the headlining act didn't actually start until abou 11:30pm. Admittedly, university students had the next day off, but this is still Edmonton, and I find most places close really early on Sundays in this city.

I'm not exactly a music critic, but I knows what I likes, and I likes this. They used a variety of instruments on top of the standard drum, guitar, bass, and vocal setup - including the prominent use of the violin. Again, I can't really ask for more from a concert than hearing great music, seeing the band enjoying themselves up on stage, and having most of the bar rocking out with them.

Due to my lack of tact, I had a nice little moment when I went up to the merchandise table near the end of the "Hey Rosetta" set. I was hoping to beat the lineup which was clearly going to build as soon as they were done playing, so I sneaked up near the end of their set. The table was still close enough to the stage and dance floor that I could still see what was going on. What I didn't realize at the time was that each band was selling their own merchandise, and so I would have to wait until after "Hey Rosetta" was done in order to get a CD.

Anyways, I foolishly go up to the two guys sitting at the table and am told that I have to wait. At this point I recognize the two as members of "Two Hours in Traffic," a solid pop rock band from PEI. Me, being the super-smooth guy that I am, went with the following response:

"Oh ... Sorry about that ... yeah ... Anyways, nice set guys ... ummmm .. real good job ... yeah, that was great ... thanks anyways." I then scurried away as quickly as possible. Yup, accidentally implying that I'd rather spend my money on another band right to the face of a few musicians (of which I actually enjoyed) - all in a day's work for me.