February 16th – 22nd, 2010

Wednesday morning Lindsay, Carson, and I woke up early enough to go see a free Davinci exhibit going on downtown at the VAG / Vancouver Art Gallery. Being as Lindsay is a terrific artist herself, she was excited to take us there and show us around the museum. Knowing personally some of the artist which had exhibits on display, I knew she would also be a great guide and would be able to offer insight on what it was exactly that I was looking at.

We made our way as close to downtown as we could, before entering the pay-park areas, and took the skytrain to the heart of Vancity. As we emerged out of the earth and onto the streets, we still had a bit of a walk. Carson and I were carrying: guitar, djembe, mic stand, mic, patch chords, and a mini battery powered amp to maximize on sound. I didn’t want to kill my voice while singing since it takes a bit more vocal projection to get on top of the street noise, and also because we had a show that night at Nyala’s. We arrived at the art gallery only to find we’d have to stand in line for quite some time to get in but we had anticipated this.

As we were waiting I noticed I’d received a text message. My good friend Jay had sent out a generalized text to some of our friends stating he’d arrived in Vancouver and was enjoying the Olympics so far. In his message he mentioned he’d been taking in the sights of the city as well as the pavilions set up for the Olympics. He ended his text by saying he was currently in line at the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the free Davinci exhibit. I called him up and told him I was in line for it too! He didn’t believe me at first so I asked where he was so I could go find him. Thankfully, he and his friend were further ahead in line than us so we could cut in!! We both couldn’t believe we’d ended up in the same place downtown, 4 provinces away, at the same time of day. I went back to get Carson and Lindsay and then we were five.

Walking in to the gallery we had to check our instruments and backpacks as part of visiting protocol. The curator saw this and asked us what it was we were doing this afternoon after visiting the art display. We told him we had simply planned on doing some busking around the city. He was happy to hear this since the Davinci exhibit had been attracting such a crowd that there was a line outside the gallery all day long. I guess they had talked about hiring a busker to accommodate their patrons. He told us he’d watch for us once we came back to claim our instruments to see if we were interested and that he would talk to his manager in the meantime.

Jay and I caught up a bit as we hadn’t hung out since I left Toronto on October 10th. Lindsay did a great job of showing us around and pointing out the subtleties in the displays we would have missed otherwise. Some of my favourites included the life size whale skeleton made entirely out of white plastic lawn chairs; and, the staged pictures in which an artists uses leaves, water, trash, anything natural to the environment of his picture to make it look natural, even though it was put together to look this way.

We claimed our instruments and gear as we walked out and, as promised, he offered us the busking spot outside. He also informed us that someone would come by to see us play and make sure everything was okay, but I never did see this person if they did in fact come. Jay said he was going to get some lunch but he’d text me later for directions to the show at Nyala’s. Carson and I played for about 3 hours to the slow moving crowd. The circumstances were much better than a few days ago because we were amplified and people had a chance to listen to the songs. We made a killing that day! After tearing down later in the afternoon, we went inside to thank the staff for having us. They thanked us in return as they’d heard good things from the people walking in, they invited us back if we wanted the spot again during the games. We accepted his offer and did in fact go back again.

The three of us went walking to a music store downtown in order to return a defective patch cord. I grabbed something to drink out of the vending machine as I had enough change. Singing for most of the three hours had left my voice pretty dry and raw. Carson and Lindsay came walking back out and to our surprise again we spotted Jay and his friend stepping out of a city bus right in front of the store. Twice in one day, it was little too weird we all admitted. We separated again before the show that night in order to get ready. The guys from the band would be at the Embassy a little later to pick up the equipment and we still had to get some food in us.

We arrived at Nyala’s at around 8pm. An Ethiopian restaurant/bar with great food and great staff! We were invited to feast on the buffet which is spread out every Wednesday before their show. A tad spicy it was but I ate it all regardless, one of those hurt so good situations. I was set to open up the evening and play a few songs with the band before they went on to rock the roof off the bar and socks off their faithful fans and friends.

It was a pleasure to share the stage with a band of their calibre. Playing groovy funk beats and fat pocket grooves were what we both liked to do, and they did a great job with my songs even without much practice. The band themselves entertained us all with their eclectic array of originals and covers ranging from Fleetwood Mac to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Sade’s Smooth Operator.

Everyone meet Jackie Treehorn!!!!

Photo courtesy of Facebook!

We played another show on Friday night at the Bottle Tipper. This time their were two opening acts, myself and Shirley Gnome as well as a planned after party back at the Embassy after the show. It was Jay’s last night in town. He had tickets for the events in Whistler and had to leave at 5 in the morning to catch the bus up to the grounds; so, the plan was not to fall asleep that night.

On Thursday night we’d spent some time catching up and wandering around the city. Carson had brought us down to Commercial Drive, a hipster hot spot in the city, to check out the stores and enjoy some great food and different beers the drive had to offer. Ends up we were sitting next to the lead singer of the band Mother Mother which we’d watched perform downtown a few nights ago.

Friday night, Shirley Gnome opened up the evening. Her music is quite special because her voice is the prettiest but her lyrics are the raunchiest! Writing songs like “Masturbation Over Breakfast” and “Old Man” a song about “loving” the elderly, Shirley had us in tears, making us laugh so hard I sometimes wanted people to stop laughing so I could hear all the lyrics, but I was as guilty as anyone! Shirley is actually travelling to Ontario with her music this summer. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I know when and where to direct you!

Photo Courtesy of Facebook!

We had an amazing night, the venue had filled up and the last song of the night was the address to the after party! Everyone who had attended the night was welcome back, in true Embassy fashion! I know this sounds like a disaster plan if someone were to try this in Ontario, but everything worked out. When we woke up the next morning the house was not a mess, everyone had been respectful and used the garbage, they had avoided trashing the place, and there was not one fight or altercation at the party either. I woke up early to go see the damage but there wasn’t much to do apart from sweep and move the furniture back into place.

This was the last massive hippie party I would attend in Van before my final destination, Victoria. The date had been set and I’d have a partner in crime, B.B., the King of the blues djembe!