One by one, as the other rooms became available, the room cleared out a bit. Around five, Todd and I got ourselves together and met Dave and Squid for soundcheck at The State. On the way, they picked up a KISS comic book and some crappy *real* food at a 7-11. Always a mistake buying anything besides, say, chips at a convenience store. Everyone felt a bit off afterwards. Driving around towards the club, we passed a sign outside a Value Village that exclaimed, “Ant + Collect,” which prompted a,”what does that mean?” from Todd. Silly. The soundcheck went as well as a soundcheck can be expected to go. There was a small reunion with Todd and the sound guy, Tim. The club was a typical rock club. For you Vancouverites who will actually know what I’m talking about, it sort of reminded me of a cross between the size and vibe of the Starfish Room, with the general layout of Richard’s (with the balcony and all). I recall the sound initially as being excessively bassy and tinny as hell, but it all got fixed in short order. Made me cringe at first though. And for some reason, I got chills when they broke into I Don’t Mind. Realization hitting home? A mile-marker for me? A bit of both I suppose. Either way, it had little ice men sliding up and down my spine. Todd’s voice is really quite exceptional. There are a lot of very distinct voices on the Canadian rock circuit, but Todd’s is definitively RAWK. It’s great, it’s emotional, powerful, and somehow haunting. It has a strained, gravelly strength that can knock you on your ass. It was one of the first things that hooked me about AOE, and remains a constant source of ‘melt’. I should stop this now before I just lose it.

And may I reiterate that I cannot believe how many bugs there are in the prairies. The grasshoppers! I thought Kelowna was bad, but the ones here are quite large, they hop around into buildings whenever you open a door, and they have no qualms at all about hopping onto your shoulder to hitch a ride. Freeloading bastards.

The time between soundcheck and the show was pretty low-key. We sat around and watched sit-coms and music programs between slowly getting ready. Who here has not seen those irritating Buck-A-Day computer commercials? Consider yourselves blessed, for it is the most horrifying insult to the entire world of commercial jingles ever. So of course, during this downtime, the commercial shows up roughly 8,000 times. Todd mused that perhaps he should cover it at the show. I also commented, during one of his videos, that life should be like a Lenny Kravitz video. Now that’s a party. I think Todd agreed. He may have scoffed. I’m not quite sure. Casting the drapes aside on the window in the room exposed a lovely opal glass opaque window, beyond which lay the tarred roof of the adjacent building. My, isn’t Regina pretty? After coming back from a phone call, I noticed that the ceiling in the elevator was mirrored (…), and also noticed that the angle of view when one looks directly up into it is extremely flattering (…). Photographer’s mind reeling, I burst back into the hotel room and informed Todd that I needed to take a shot of him in the elevator at some point. That happened a little while later, and the result is somewhere on this site. Such an unbelievably beautiful man. I don’t know if he realizes it. Surely, he must by now, but his actions and words sometimes suggest otherwise. It’s almost not fair to the rest of us comparatively ugly schmoes who have to go through life not looking like him. Argh! Shiny rock duds, freshly-coiffed hair, and a few phone calls later, and we were off.

We stopped at good ol’ McDonald’s for dinner. I had just dined at the Mr. Sub in the hotel building (remind me to never eat there again), and so only indulged in a drink here. Oh the high-end touring lifestyle. Todd ran into a girl he knew there who ended up at the show with a bigass video camera. Squid got reprimanded by an irate McDonald’s worker who told him that he was really supposed to pay for his little packets of McChicken sauce. Lady, it’s not our fault you work in a McDonald’s in Regina. Don’t take out your troubles on your patrons. I then was treated to a demo of the creation of Dave’s patented fry-burger. Perhaps he should open a restaurant.

We got to the venue at around 11:30 or so. I walked in and discovered why those two seemingly unrelated guys who showed up at soundcheck looked so bloody familiar. **Holy-hell-it's-a-small-world-alert** The band on stage at that moment was a band I shot last April at the Pub Night following a semester-end composition concert at Douglas College. A friend of mine was part of the music program and recruited me to shoot the evening’s festivities. And hovering around near the stage and getting really into this show at The State were members of another one of the bands I shot that night. The Hoodwinks and The Accident. If you’re interested in this crazy indie-madness, take a look at the block of photos here, here, and here. You’ll also see some shots of Musa, which features Chris Farrelly, who also assists at Greenhouse Studios, where Todd records. I thought Chris' brother, Clayton (who I went to high school with) was in that band as well, but he's watching this set instead, so either this really isn't Musa, but another of Chris' projects, or I was mistaken in thinking the brothers were in the same band. Sorry, those shots are all mixed up rather than broken into individual bands.

The Hoodwinks and The Accident were touring together, which makes an awful lot of sense, and I suppose weren’t exactly expecting to end up on a bill with Todd Kerns. And they didn’t seem to be too pleased about it. Not helping the fact was that the crowd, sparse as it was, didn’t seem to have much patience for this arty noise rock stuff and just wanted to see Todd. And they were being very vocal about it. The Hoodwinks put on a fun set. I like them a lot. The Accident had already played, which is a shame, but how was I to know?

As I was standing around at the back of the room watching this performance, Todd strolled by and leaned down to me to say, “It's like this every time we play in Regina.” He was referring to the ridiculously small crowd that was hovering around, mostly clustered under the balcony overhang on the fringes. Just before the set, I walked to the back lounge area where the band was seeking some refuge on worn sofas and cheap plastic lawn chairs. Dave called me over to him and asked if I wouldn’t mind videotaping some of the performance. He had bought a digital camcorder before the tour and wanted to get a few minutes of each set on tape. I agreed, and he showed me a few of the features. Nifty little contraption.

Soon enough, the show began. I was able to request the lights I wanted for the gig. It didn’t help much, as the club was pretty darn dark, but it felt nice to have control. The whole time, I had been thinking, “oh, people will show up in time for Todd’s set. Come on, this is Todd Kerns we’re talking about!” But no one showed up. It was simply ludicrous. Apparently the show hadn't been advertised fairly well, but I would have imagined that people who are fans of Todd Kerns keep up with what he's doing pretty closely. Even in the face of such adversity, Todd and crew put on a great show. They quite publicly looked at it as a rehearsal for the rest of the tour, and really gave it their all. Squid sorta hung in the shadows, which was bordering on creepy at times under the wet blue light, and Dave was neat to watch. I had forgotten what a fun drummer he is. Todd is a flurry of energy. He makes good use of his stage space, tosses his thick, black locks around his face, purses those famously pouty lips, and throws in the occasional high rock kick for good measure.

I alternated between the digicam and my camera for the whole set, until the batteries died on the digicam. I had a ton of fun with the video thing, and I hope I get to do that again! The only thing that really bothered me was this incredibly ill-placed pole that’s a couple feet from the front of the stage. I kept smashing into it while trying to look through various viewfinders. Who’s bright idea was that? There has to be a better way to hold the roof up in that place. Apparently the stage used to be tucked away under one side of the balcony. So this is at least an improvement, but nonetheless… And not until the last quarter of the set or so did a mere three girls come out and start dancing on the floor. Argh!

At one point between tunes, Todd held his guitar aloft and stated simply, “If any of you out there have a guitar, just know that mine is better. I’m not trying to gloat; I’m just stating a fact.” His guitar sounds great. No arguments there. The set was a hodgepodge of material from his musical history. All chapters were touched on, from Age of Electric, to Static In Stereo, to a bunch of good old rock covers, to, of course, some of his new solo material. And in the middle of the set he even pointed out that I was there with them from Vancouver to photograph the show, before making sure that I wasn’t getting any shots of stuff up their noses.

The Flying V made an appearance in the encore, at which point the guys were joined onstage by a fellow named Kyle Botcher, from a Regina band called Parlor Trixx. An old friend of Todd’s, and donning an AOE shirt, they did a KISS song together. On that happy-fun note, after approximately an hour, the show was over.

After a pretty quick load-out, Todd made the rounds to the stragglers in the club, catching up with old friends. Dave and Squid were engaged in a conversation about how many beers they could snag from the bar to take back to the hotel, and were soon joined by a couple of girls who were waiting for Todd to finish up his conversation at the back of the room. I had planned a little group shot, but by the time I managed to get everyone in the same place, the club had turned off the light I needed to really make it work. So, as we filed out to the van, I attempted the shot under a sickly orange light in the back alley behind the club. After that, me, the band, and the two gals, who were friends of Todd’s as well, headed back to the hotel with an armload of beer.

Continue to Part III : Post-Show