Local Rabbits show at The Opera House on Sat. May 31st 1997.
I was right!! All of the bands from the Korova remembered me!! Before i was in
line my friendz and i were walking down the street and met up with THE
friendz!! The Super Friendz drove by in their red van minus Charles who was
with his girlfriend walking past us, I said hi to Charles and he remembered
me. I was waiting in line with the rest of the crowd including a group of
girls in front of me and my friendz they must have thought i was a loser when
i first walked up because of my Sloan rip off haircut, actually i think it
looks more like Joel Plaskett. Well anyway, Rob and Cliff pulled up in a tow
thruck with their camper (i believe it is called "Roger") wheeling behind. I
was like "hey Rob, wha happened??" he came right over (much to the surprise of
those girls) and said "hey Rob (my name too) the camper died on the way here"
so as rob and Cliff unloaded they're stuff a Rent-A-Van pulled up. Joel, Ian,
Pete and Ben steped out and the crowd all took notice. Pete ran across the
street and hugged some girl, and Joel, Ian and Ben came over to my friend
Patrick and I. Joel was like "hey, coolest, you came, it's gonna be good
times" A line that i now use by the way! We went in after that and since
Patrick was on the guest list we got in, in no time. I chatted with members of
all the groups as the walked around the Opera House before the show. I bought
a Local Rabbits shirt and showed it off to Pete & Ben, they liked. I told Pete
that I'd listened to the "Super Duper E.P." that i bought at the Korova show
and really liked it!. He was a little red in the face considering i guess he
doesn't like it anymore.
The show was kicked off by the "Brown Belts" outta Toronto (cool name). The
coolest thing about the "Brown Belts" was their drummer! It was Andrew Scott
from the Rock combo, SLOAN!!! Man i was shocked and stood with my mouth wide
open while Andrew kicked off the back beats!! I'm a drummer too by the way.
(my bands page is on this here Rabbits page as well, CRASH of the NOWHERE is
da name) I've seen Scott with the Sloanies before but man was he on fire!
After that Plumtree hit the satge and rocked the crowd with their special
style of rock classics, I don't think most of the crowd knew them that well
but were ready for a taste of an all girl band. Next up was the Local Rabbits
they hit the stage. Johnny T. Starr hit the stage first welcoming everyone.
They pleased the crowd by jumping right into "(Sally Ann's) Style Denial"
right off the bat. The now 8 min plus song was so killer that the crowd went
ballistic!! They played all their favourites and welcomed Katrianna back to
the stage to have a harmonica show down with Pete. Their set was awsome. The
Thrush Hermit guys were up next after setting up their crowd pleasing sign
"ROCK & ROLL" the Hermit's rocked the show starting off with "French Inhale".
Mid-set Ian stepped off stage, Joel explained that ian had been through the
system a few times and was going to sing a song about it. Joel announced
"Ladies and gentlmen prisoner 9025396!!" Ian came back to the stage wearing
only his socks and underwear. The crowd went nuts, as Ian belted out the tune
of "Jailhouse Rock" . Afterwards Joel and the rest of the boys started off the
rock'n tune of "Patriot" while Ian steped behind the amps and stuffed a swab
into the top of his bass. Ian emerged and blew a 30 foot flame off the top of
his bass and the crowd lost it, "Patriot" is amazing live!! The Super Friendz
topped off the show and finished up with a song that Drew likes. It went
something like "I'd kill the whole wide world, I'd kill the whole wide world
just to find 'her, I'd kill the whole wide world, I'd kill the whole wide
world, to find out were they hide her" it was a rock'n song that i saw them do
at the Volcano in Kitchener a year before. This time all the members of all
the bands came out and did a sort of "WE Are the World" type thing with the
song. With Pete on guitar with Matt and Charles on bass and Ian talking his
belt and whipping down on to the stage. The show was amazing and as i was
leaving i noticed Patrick Pentland from SLOAN standing behind me! He was with
a friend so i didn't bug him but that was cool, I met Sloan a year before at
Fed. Hall in waterloo, and take it from me SLOAN (with the possible exception
of Andrew) are really short!
Anyway the show rocked and i can't wait till the next one.
--Rob Butcher †