I love music. I love live music. I love local music.

Last night a friend of Olivier’s, Vanessa, brought us to a show at a bar that was just local bands. I had never been there before, but the bar is called Orange House, which I love because I, technically, live in Orange House. See, the main buildings in Studentenstadt are each different colours and you usually just refer to them by what colour they are; Nicole and I live in Orange House and Katie lives in Green House. I thought it was pretty funny. At any rate, the crowd was an interesting one. It was kind of like a show at Eastwood Hall, actually. Plus beer. Well, there was always beer at Eastwood Hall shows, but last night there was less vomiting; which, I should say, is the benefit to having a culture so open when it comes to alcohol – it’s not a novelty and isn’t as abused as it is in North America. And, as much as I complain about indie rock crowds and their lack of dancing, I was reminded last night why I prefer them to punk rock crowds – punks are rude. Now, I know how bad it is to stereotype groups, but, honestly, in indie rock crowds, if you want to get through to, say, go to the bathroom, you can just put a hand on someone’s back and they will move forward or sideways or whatever; in punk crowds, you just have to push your way through, and people will just push their way through and it’s all very… pushy.

Anyways, the headliner was a band called Riff-Raff and the connection to Vanessa is that a good friend of hers is dating the lead singer. It was an interesting night right from the start. There was a midget at the door. Two actually. Well, one might have just been a really short guy, and I would actually call the girl a dwarf because she didn’t have the normal midget qualities. Either way, it was a good way to start things off. I also thought I noticed on the sign at the front door (and later I saw another sign that confirmed it) that said the production company (I don’t know what else to call it, basically the guys who set the show up) is called Soylent Gelb (Gelb = yellow). I thought this was absolutely hilarious! We girls dropped our stuff off backstage (the best part about knowing people who know people) and then Olivier and I went to listen to the first band while the other girls (I should mention that Vanessa’s friends are named Nina and Carina) went to hang out near the bar. I really gotta say, I didn’t like the first band at all. The best part was when it ended. They had some pretty decent sounds, the problem was they changed styles and tempos too many times in each song and then back again… and then back again. It was wretched.

After the horror was over, Olivier and I went to talk to Vanessa and her friends, and we all took a wander through the bar, though I can’t remember why. Anyways, we ran into a couple other friends of Vanessa who turned out to be the members of Riff-Raff. Not to brag (but also to brag, hee hee), I apparently have the German accent down pretty well. We were chit-chatting with Daniel, the lead singer and boyfriend, for a little bit, and then Flo the drummer and Toby the bassist came up. And it was a whole lot of, “This is Olivier from France and Bari from Canada, blah, blah, blah…” And Flo was very surprised that I am from Canada and speak German (I don’t know if the surprise was that I am from Canada and speak German, or if it was that I’m from North America and speak German, but either way…) and wanted to know how that came to pass. So I started telling him the story and a sentence or two in he, all of a sudden, started yelling something that made absolutely no sense at all. He wasn’t angry, but really… excited – or something and I finally look at Vanessa and I’m like, “what the hell is he yelling about?” And she says, “You said something with an accent and now he knows that you’re a foreigner.” So I started laughing and was like, “I just finished saying that I’m from Canada and only now are you realizing that I’m a foreigner?! Do people often lie and say that they’re from Canada…blah, blah, blah!” It was great because I did it all in German (of course) and actually had them laughing. It felt really good because I’m not normally funny in German. It felt like me again. My point is that it took him a few minutes to really believe that I wasn’t German, and that says something.

The second band wasn’t bad, but was a little harder core. They started to get the crowd riled up, which is good for the headliner, and I started to get into it as well, which was necessary after the wretchedness of the first band. There isn’t much to say about it. A small pit started up, which basically means that there was lots of pushing (again, it’s how it is) but I stayed on the outskirts and just danced to myself, and when they were done I grabbed another beer.

Riff-Raff actually made it onto the stage in record time, which is impressive because the show was running a little behind and they almost put it back on track – not that it mattered because they were the headliners, but still. It was about the third song in and I wasn’t in the pit yet because I still had two thirds of a beer, but I was, again, right on the edge dancing to myself when a stray “dancer” fell backwards and elbowed me right in the mouth. Don’t worry; I’m not injured. I thought I’d have a huge lip today, but it’s really not bad; it’s that sort of bloody that’s not bloody but also not swollen, so I’m cool with my battle scar. Anyways, I realized that I had to quickly finish my beer and get into the action, or I was just a sitting duck. So I did. It was great; a small but lively pit; and I really enjoyed Riff-Raff.

That was pretty much it. We left shortly after and headed back to the train station. It was pretty late at that point and they were running at stupid times, but we made it to the station where we have to catch the tram back to Olivier’s in fairly decent time. Then we had to wait for the tram for 15 or 20 min, so we went into an arcade and played the naked ladies game. Then we had to run for the tram. I actually think that we probably would have made it without running, but we ran anyways. Then we played crib at Olivier’s for a few hours and I came home. All in all, a fantastic night!