Oh Burlington

We've only ever played house shows in Burlington and so playing at the YMCA there a couple weeks ago was a welcome change. YMCA shows, while sometimes poorly organized or weird (this show was anything but, Ashley is a great promoter) hold a place in my heart because of the history of punk bands who played epic shows in YMCA. A quick google search for "Fugazi+YMCA" or "Black Flag+YMCA" will familiarize anyone with what I mean. A search for "the Decay"+YMCA found a posting for the show I'm writing about. That feels way too Neuromantic.

Anyway.
I was sick as hell and threw up apple juice all over the bathroom. It was a good time.

Playing all-ages shows at bars is usually the most enjoyable venue because we have friends that like to drink, and friends that aren't 19 yet, but you don't generally meet families out for their friday night jazzercise in some skid dive. Getting to the show early, we met some Grade 6 (eleven and a half year olds) who thought being in a band is cool and hung outwith us while we restrung our guitars, and generally kicked it looking real cool. The girls told us about what it's like to be eleven these days, and updated us on Rihanna's current status with Chris. I wish kids would worship figures that advance our society (like my man Joe E. ), instead of gyrating pop icons, but reflecting on my own childhood, I often told people exactly what Axl Rose was doing at any given time. When you're 12 and your daily highlights are lunch and farting, not having to wear pants in front of a crowd seemed like to most balling thing going.

We stuck around the show and caught the other bands. One of the guys from the Saint Alvia Cartel (the Joe-Strummer-for-halloween enthusiast), played an acoustic set which I was looking forward to checking out, but the rockin' grade sixes had me enthralled and when I thought he was finished sound checking, he was actually done. Dude left immediately afterwards, but seemed nice enough. God knows I have places to go on a friday (I don't).

The rest of the night is a blur to me but we played with some decent bands who were really nice. I have to pee.