Canadian Music Week, 2001 Part 2...

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(continued from part one) So Shipwreck's got his video camera set up on a tripod on a table to record the night... He did a pretty good job, only in one song (End of the Road) I guess he was bored and spent most of the song playing around with the camera's special effects... At the end of the show I guess he was bored again, it appears that he took the camera off the tripod and was running all over the bar with it...



"End of the Road." (with Shipwreck's bad effects)

After the set, Ryan disappeared out to the suburbs to crash with his friend Chris Walton. Next morning after he got back, he thought he could entertain us with the news of the "Law and Order Marathon" he managed to find on tv... Ryan always seemed to find these TV marathons on the road!... Chris and Shipwreck took off to Shipwreck's. Cobe and I, without a game plan for anywhere to stay opted to hang around the bar as late as we could. My plan was to talk the bar staff into staying for afterhours, in Ottawa this was fairly common, and usually amounted in the bar staff forgetting to charge you for the drinks. But that's really and Ottawa tradition, not so much anything they do or even know about in Toronto. It didn't happen, no matter how many hints I dropped, it didn't happen. Dan Burke was the famous manager/booker of the Elmo, he was responsible for bringing us to the club several times, he was pretty drunk by the end of the night. It as pretty funny by then, I was hinting at afterhours and free drinks and staying up until the wee hours... Dan was blind drunk, he kept telling me that the Phantom Shifters really "Rocked" not realizing that I was in the band at all... Cobe just watched the whole thing, thinking we were both idiots... Cobe and I headed upstairs to the dance club that was upstairs, not much happened up there, but Cobe and I can both remember staring at some girl's behind alot, she was right in front of us... She seemed to love and encourage the attention, but the guy with her sure didn't.

Now there is an afterhours scene in Toronto, it's not sitting around in the dark drinking on the house like it is in Ottawa, it's cabbing off to one of the 3 or 4 afterhours "Boozecans" that operate throughout the city. The Madador was one Boozecan, The "Paintcan" was another. Cobe and I flagged a cab outside the Elmo (after being thrown out aound 2:45pm) and managed to slur something about the Paintcan to the driver. The driver told us we were already there and pointed at a lineup on the sidewalk right across the street... Seeing that, we then slurred something about the Matador to him, he'd had enough of us and told us to get out of his cab, which we refused. I can't speak for Cobe, but I know how I felt, I felt that since I flagged this cab, he should have to take us some place. He was refusing to take us across town to the Boozecan, so I insisted he take us directly across the street, not to the Paintcan's line, but to the 24 hour Doughnut show beside it. I thought that was hilarious, Cobe thought it was hilarious, the Cab driver didn't. But he took us across the street. I paid the 3 dollar fare and didn't tip. I can't remember if we went into the Doughnut shop or not, probably not.

Cobe and I hadn't planned a place to sleep that night. Our choice of spots to stay when we played Toronto was getting worse every time the band went down there. First time we played Toronto Chris sprung for a very decent hotel room. After that Chris usually stayed with Shipwreck, Ryan stayed with Chris Walton and Cobe and I were left to figure things out for ourselves. One night Cobe and I were put up by Pat, and an old Art School buddy of mine. It was pretty funny when he turned on (and up) a radio right beside Cobe's head so we couldn't hear him having sex with his girlfriend at the other end of the room... Another time Cobe and I rented a dirt-cheap room in a Skid Row Hotel, but that's a Blog entry all on it's own. This night, we didn't have a plan even that good, so we out to the van in the parking lot behind the Elmo, right at the corner of Spadina and College Street at the edge of Toronto's Chinatown district. Cobe sat up in a back seat crammed up against the gear, I sat up front in the 'Shotgun" seat. It was pretty cold, but I eventually fell asleep.

Pretty early, a little after 7am from what I recall, I woke up to someone tapping on the glass of the window I was leaning on. Cobe had been up for a bit, if he slept at all, so he was alert and able to talk to this Policeman!... Typically the Cop wanted to know what we were up to, Cobe explained that we were musician's sleeping in our van, watching the gear, which was a good idea considering the neighborhood. Once the Cop saw the gear piled up in the back, he accepted the explanation and left us alone. At this point Cobe explained to me what was going on in the parking lot that morning. First, Cobe was pretty sure he saw a Hooker and guy get it off in a car a few spaces down. Second, Cobe was very sure the cops were running some kind of "Drug Sting" in the parking lot. I didn't really believe him about the Drug Sting or the Hooker for that matter. Soon enough I saw Toronto's Finest in action. A shady looking Chinese guy walked into the lot from the narrow alley that acts as the lot's entrance and exit, he was carrying a gym bad and headed for his car, a pretty nice 2 seat coupe that looked pretty expensive. Before this guy was able to get in his car, the Police rolled in 2 cruisers to block the exit, and 2 Plain-cloth Cops and 3 or 4 Uniformed Cops (including the Cop who checked us out) grabbed the guy and his bag, and in an other second they were all gone. about 20 minutes later, another Chinese guy, and other bag, heading for another expensive sports car was nabbed the same way. I saw about 4 guys get popped, and Cobe saw 2 or 3 guys go down before I woke up. From what I recall, Cobe asked the Cop about their operation and the Cop explained that they were cleaning up a Crack, or Meth Lab that was operating down the street. I was too sleepy to have heard any of the conversation.

Around 11am, Ryan showed up in the Parking Lot, he told us about all the great Law and Order he'd watched, but Cobe and I had a better story for him. Shortly after that Shipwreck came flying into the Parking Lot with Chris, when we told them about the morning, Shipwreck turned pretty blue, jumped in his car, threw Chris's bag out the window and flew out of the lot 20 times faster than he flew in... Chris was doubled over on the ground, killing himself, Shipwreck it seemed was also a small-time dope dealer and a pretty paranoid one at that!... About 20 minutes later, we were icrammed in the van on the Don Valley, on our way back to Ottawa's own Chinatown. The Phantom Shifters only played one more show with Cobe and Chris, Phase one of the Phantom Shifter Story was pretty much over.


"Not Fragile" A pretty good version of our BTO cover. Members of "Sticky Rice" can be seen in front of the stage.

Canadian Music Week, 2001...

Now that the "New" show's outa the way, lets have a story about an old Show again... Chris Lee had had it with us. After 5 years and bout 50 shows, Chris decided it was time to move on... As a band we'd decided to continue, find a new drummer and practice space. So 2 Shows were set up to send Chris off. The first was back at the Dominion Tavern on the 30th of March (2001) with Toronto's Exploders. To be honest, i don't remember too much about that show. I remember I liked the Exploders, just like I liked the other bands those guys were in too, like the Tijuana Bibles. The Poster from that show was pretty good too... The Exploders were releasing a 7" that night. Next morning we met back at the Dominion to load up our gear and head out to Toronto for a show at The El Mocambo Club in Toronto's beautiful Chinatown...

We'd played the El Mo quite a few times. I've got a pretty good story from everytime we played there. This night as part of Canadian Music week, somehow we managed to score the headlining spot!... It looked like it was gonna be a real fun night... Chris has a friend who'd often meet us each time we were in Toronto. I forget the guy's name, but I remember nick-naming him "Ship Wreck" a couple of Toronto trips back. "Ship Wreck" was a name given to a drunk at a bar I used to work at, this guy reminded me of "Ship Wreck"... "Ship Wreck" brought a camcorder that night and capured the night for us...

"Sugar Bush"

A song that we used to play that was featured on our "Lost Album" We're currently working on a new arrangement of this song.

When the gig was arranged I remember filling in a form for the Canadian Music week people about the gear we were bringing. Pretty standard procedure when playing these planned events... What wasn't made clear however, was the fact that we were ordering our "backline" that the Organizers were planning to provide for us as headliners. I knew a backlines often provided for bands when they play festivals, but if you are planning to drive from Ottawa to Toronto to play a Saturday, it's pretty well understood that you're bringing your own gear. It was pretty funny when we arrived for sound check and found out someone had rented and delivered the exact gear we'd written on our form. Pearl drums, Marshal and HiWatt amps... It ewas all there! No one told us this was being provided for us and we could've save some money and effort by not bringing all our own gear to town in a rented van... That's what happens when you're not ready for the "Big Time" I guess...

"Rock 'n' Roll City"

Just another version of the song that caps off our record and closes most shows, even now... Pretty funny camera work here. At first the camera was on a tripod in the middle of the bar so the whole stage was in frame, at the end of the show "Ship Wreck" was running around getting shots from everywhere in the bar, missing most of the "Action" as a result..

Alot of funny things happened that night, we were playing with an all girl trio called "Sticky Rice" who were pretty bad, but made up for that by being a "Girl Band" I guess... They were pretty nice and actually helped us load out. We we the last band to arrive at the venue that night, and no one one the bill had heard of us before, So it was pretty funny to us when each all of the bands announced that "The Phantom Shifters are coming up next, they're from Florida"... Turns out there was a van parked behind the venue, all the other bands saw it and and assumed that it belonged to the Headliners (us)... Hilarious considering that it was "Canadian Music Week" in Toronto... I also remember the band that went on before us were from Sudbury and called "The New Town Animals" They weren't bad, but their Bass player decided to make a real big splash on all the Toronto Music Industry types that were possibly around by getting naked during their set... Daniel Cockburn and I were watching that mess from backstage and I remember turning to him and saying something like "Oh, great, we're going on after the band with the naked guy"...

to be continued...

Where the Wild Things Are...

No need to really explain this post... Just Comix, here are the 3 installments of the Comic where I put myself into Maurice Sendak's classic children's story...

The First Comic is Part 1, of a 3 part rewritten "Where the Wild Things Are..."



Part Two...





Part Three...





More to follow, about 8 years worth of Comix to follow to be exact...
Sometimes I kill myself, shortly after posting this Blog I decided I earned mention on Wikipedia's Where the Wild things Are page...!

Let's have a Comic, Finally (part One)

So I used draw a weekly comic strip weekly in the Ottawa XPress. It ran from 1998 until 2002, when the ownership and management of the paper transfered to Montreal and we didn't really see eye to eye about having Independent Comics in Independent Newspapers... Maybe they were right as there aren't too many Comix left in the publications I read, maybe it's the Internet...

A hard drive crash on my old Blueberry iMac coupled with Roger's selling off their private server's to Yahoo completely wiped out 4 years of scanned and optimized comix that were once available on this World Wide Web... I've got the originals and a scanner, but not all that much patience, scanning really sucks... Maybe I'll start shopping around the old comix for publication again, make it easier on myself to get my old comix back into circulation...

But for now, there's blogging, And I've got a few old comics already scanned, so back on the web for the first time n 4 years: Cur Comix... (in no particular order)

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The First Comic is kinda a tribute to the hits of Mr. Gordon Lightfoot...

Collection of "Axes..."

Over the year's, I've owned a number of Guitars, around 19, but I've never had more than 4 at any time, currently I have 3 guitars. So here is a bit of background on many of the guitar's I've owned over the years and used in alot of my bands... I've never had more than 4 at any time, currently I have 3 guitars. So here is a bit of background on many of the guitar's I've owned over the years and used in alot of my bands...

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1984 Takamine GZ300
$325, Dominic's Music, Ottawa ON.
Used: 1984-1989 and 1995-Present
Bands: All Bands Pre-Cowpint, Cowpint, Deadbeat Dads, Phantom Shifters, Reverend Daniel and the Hogwater

My first ever guitar and the only one I've managed to hang onto for more than 10 years straight. I bought it with money saved from working a real crappy job at a Ponderossa Steak house. Learned my first song on it... The Who's "Substitute". Originally this guitar sported a red finish and I bought it because it was the closet guitar I could find that looked like the Gibson SGs I saw hanging around the necks of Pete Townshend and Angus Young. After I sanded off the original finish the guitar was sprayed black and then stripped off again, and lathered with cheap varnish which also damaged the plastic pipping around the body's edges. Beginning around 1989, this guitar pretty much stayed in it's case in a closet, until about 1995 when I brought it out, got it working again and started to use it as a stage back-up or as a Open-Tuned Slide guitar with the Phantom Shifters. Over the years there have been 9 different pickups in this guitar, currently it has had a nice sounding Vintage Seymour Duncan in the bridge position. This guitar has a very thin set neck with very large frets and was featured on the Phantom Shifters first 2 recordings...

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1974 Gibson SG Special
$375, Privately
Used: 1988-1989 and 1996-2000
Bands: Cowpint, Deadbeat Dads, Phantom Shifters, Reverend Daniel and the Hogwater

In the late 1980's I worked at the Sunken Dory Cafe with a guy named Craig, who then played in a Mod band called The Orange Alert, and he currently plays in an Ottawa band called J&E Grocery. This SG was his back-up guitar at the time so it was pretty easy to convince him to sell it too me, and I got it cheap. Only he forgot to cash the cheque I gave him for a real long time, And I forgot to keep the money in my account for the same period of time. So I eventually returned it too him. At the time I was playing a custom built Strat with EMG Humbucker Pickups and a Floyd Rose Whammy bar (very 80's) as my main guitar, so even though I'd alway dreamed of owning a real Gibson SG, I wasn't playing it much. At the time my main Amp was a real shitty Peavey Bandit (everyone had one in the 80's) I shudder at the thought of that set-up!...

Skipping ahead to 1995, I'd recently moved back to Ottawa from Toronto and I was still playing that awful Custom Strat in a band called the Deadbeat Dads. Cousin Ryan was in that band too, it was a pretty bad combination of Grunge/Rap/Metal... (still shuddering) After 2 years of shows with the Deadbeats the old Stat just broke one day, literally in practice, it's Mahogany Body snapped in half in my hands. That was the end of my Whammy Bar playing. (Thank God) Without alot of options to get a playable guitar quickly, I phoned up Craig and asked him to lend me that old SG again. When the Deadbeats broke up I sent it back to him, but I finally bought it from him a short time later, and it became my main Shifters guitar for 2 years and is on all our recordings. Late in 2000 all the original electronics (70's Gibson PAF pickup in the neck position and a splittable Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup at the bridge) in the guitar just died, from too much beer, sweat and blood, I guess. So I replaced it all. I put in a Vintage Seymour Duncan Humbucker pickup in at the neck and a Seymour Duncan "Pearly Gates" pickup at the bridge. Soon after this overhaul I sold the SG to Greg "Daniel" Cockburn, then-Rhythm guitarist in the Phantom Shifters. He eventually sold the guitar to Song Bird Music when he moved to Los Angeles...

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1986 Gibson Les Paul Junior
$500, Privately
Used: 2000-2006
Bands: Phantom Shifters, Reverend Daniel and the Hogwater, Long Timers

A few days ago in this Blog I told a story about the SG getting Bloody at a show in Montreal and Mark Michaud of the Fiftymen lending me this Les Paul Junior. I liked it alot and asked to keep it. Eventually I bought it from him and he used the money I gave him to buy a real nice Epiphone Semi-Acoustic that became his main guitar for years. The Junior is featured on all the Long Timer's recordings and was my main Guitar for the last year of the Shifters or so. At one point I had the Tone Pot replaced with a "Cut-Switch" like Greg Ginn of Black Flag used to use, but eventually I replaced it with a disconnected Dummy Tone Pot. Another small Mod on this Guitar saw the Volume Pot Bypassed when the knob was turned to "10". This made the Guitar and it's "Dog Ear" P90 pickup really, really, Hot and Live. The main reason I decided to part with this guitar was the fact it as simply too noisy though my HiWatt half-stack. I sold it to Song Bird Music to buy a "proper" Les Paul. in 2003, Ryan a bartender at Babylon and an accomplished carpenter stripped of the thick Satin-Cherry finish and then added a clear coat of Finish to the bare Mahogany Body and Neck. The Guitar looked alot better after I did that...

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1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom
$1000, Privately
Used: 2004-2005
Bands: Long Timers

One day I was in Song Bird Music and for some reason, I was drooling over a Les Paul Standard they had in the shop for some ridicules price. Salesmen often have something going on, on the side and one the the "Bird Guys" had been in a band with a guy who was selling this 1979 Les Paul Custom pretty cheap, but not at the store, of course... I can see why it was cheap, the Maple Top had a pretty bad and very deep crack on it. (visible in the picture above) The guitar was also a victim of a few years of neglect and smelled like "Basement". It didn't bother me, the guitar did play very well and I kind of dug the rare Maple Top with a clear finish and the rarer Maple Neck and Fretboard. Gibson only made about 200 of these guitars in the late 70's (according to Zakk Wylde in some guitar magazine I once read). Although it wasn't ever featured on any of my recordings it was my main Guitar for about a year with the Long Timers. One night playing Mavericks, the guitar just wasn't "happening" for me. It felt dull and stiff, so after a few songs I put it down and picked up the Les Paul Junior, and the improvement was amazing, the Junior felt and sounded 100 times better, I don't think I ever played the Custom again after that night...

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1975 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
$1600, Song Bird Music, Ottawa ON.
Used: 2005-Present
Bands: Long Timers, Phantom Shifters

Back at Song Bird Music one day, they had a mid-70's Gibson Les Paul Deluxe on the wall. I was there helping the nephew of an ex-girlfriend pick out a guitar, but soon enough I was on my way out the door to get a load of cash and the now-never-used Les Paul Custom to trade for the Red Wine Finished Les Paul Deluxe. There are a few guitars I coveted for years. one was an SG, another was a Les Paul Junior... And the other one was a Les Paul Deluxe. Pete Townshend played hundreds of them throughout the 70's and Les Paul Standards and Customs never really did it for me anyways. It was always a Deluxe that I really wanted, but they're fairly rare these days. Deluxe's are different from a Standard or Custom because they have the smaller, more brittle sounding "Mini-Humbucker" Pickups instead of the larger "PAF" Humbucking style pickups. They also often have a unique 70's feature of a "Pancake" body made with an extra layer of Maple sandwiched between to thin layers of mahogany. Some consider the Deluxe's to be inferior to the other Les Paul's but I sure don't. There was a period in the 70's when the Deluxe was the only Les Paul Gibson made, I just think they're the 70's version of a great guitar line. After playing the guitar for a bit, I decided to try a pair of Seymour Duncan P90's to replace the stock Mini-Humbuckers, something I'm really glad I did, I liked the Mini-Humbuckers alot they gave the guitar a really smooth-thick sound, but P90's are my favourite pickup by far and this guitar sounds incredible with them! And because I never-ever use Tone Pots I've snipped the connection to them on this guitar, so 2 of the knobs are Volumes for the pickups and 2 of them are just Dummy Pots... It is and will probably always be my "go-to" guitar...

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(...in the hands of current owner Dave Martindale...)

1980 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
$1800, Song Bird Music, Ottawa ON.
Used: 2005
Bands: Long Timers

Since the other Les Paul Deluxe turned out to be so amazing, I didn't hesitate to find some more cash and brought in my old Les Paul Junior to trade the next time a Deluxe turned up at Song Bird. This was a 1980 Tobacco Sunburst version of the Deluxe, minus the pancake body and featuring a thicker neck than my other Deluxe to. Soon after purchase this guitar also sported a pair of Seymour Duncan P90s and snipped Tone Pots. My plan was to have an identical (or near identical) guitar to use on stage in case of a broken string or any other problem. I used this guitar as a back up for about 5 Long Timer Shows and also played it as the main guitar for 3 Long Timers shows...

Angie, my girlfriend, was born in 1980, the same year this guitar was built. And she looks alot like The Wonder Year's Winnie Cooper, so seeing as this guitar was very pretty too, I decided I'd call it "Winnie" as a nickname. I'd never named a guitar before that. It turned out to be a little bit of a mistake since I really, really like the other Deluxe more and couldn't part with it ever. When the Phantom Shifters started practicing again, Dave started playing "The Winnie" and couldn't put it down, I eventually just told Dave he could buy it from me. It's now his main guitar and has played it in more shows than I ever did. The guitar wasn't the right match for me, but I sure feel the other "Winnie" in my life sure is!...

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2006 Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi
$1600, Long & McQuade, Ottawa ON.
Used: 2006-Present
Bands: Long Timers, Phantom Shifters

Well it had actually been 21 years since I'd bought a new electric guitar, I figured it was time. Years ago when I lived in Toronto I bought a Fender Super Twin Amp at a Long and McQuade store in Brampton and was pretty impressed with their selection of Gibson's. Gibson's are my favouite electric guitar by far and I've only had 4 electrics that weren't Gibson's, so when I walked into the Ottawa Long and McQuade I had every intension of leaving with a new Gibson... I was hoping maybe for a Flying V!... Since I sold the 2nd Deluxe to Dave, I felt I needed another guitar to bring along to shows to back up the Red Les Paul Deluxe. Flying V's have the entire neck clear of the body, I thought that may be fun to play, I was fully intending on also replacing the pickups in the new guitar with Seymour Duncan P90's, I really dig those pickups!... When I initially walked into L&McQ I was pretty disappointed, I'd never been there before and it turns out that the Ottawa L&McQ is the only store in the whole chain that doesn't sell Gibson electrics. They have thousands of the cheaper Epiphone's, millions of Fender's but those aren't my style, they had a few very expensive Gretch's and a few PRS guitars that looked OK, but nothing stood out until I spoted the Dan Armstrong Ampeg!... Actually it caught my eye first thing when I entered the store, but I was pretty intent on finding a Gibson. My eye was always finding it's way back on the Ampeg though, alot. How couldn't it? It's very unique, and I know player's like Keith Richard, Ron Wood and Leslie West sure thought they were something way back in the early 70's. Oddly these Lucite bodied guitars look as "futuristic" and weird now as they did way back then... The Guitar also had a great neck with 24 frets clear of the body, and a Single Coil pickup very similar to my beloved P90s. (and another interchangeable Humbucking pickup came with the guitar too, very cool feature) What really sealed the deal for me was how quiet it sounded, it sounds great, alot like the Junior or the Deluxe but alot quieter than either guitar, the Lucite body resonates differently and the noise that has always plagued my set-up is practically nonexistent with this guitar. I haven't really put it down since I bought it. I wanted an American built Gibson with a set neck and pretty much ended up with the exact opposite, a Plastic Japanese guitar with a bolt-on neck!... I also came in the coolest guitar case I've ever owned as well. But oddly it's more like a Gibson that any other guitar I can think off... I just need to think of a name for her that suits her and my dear Angie as well... (read more about the Ampeg DA.)

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Currently my Set up includes the DA Ampeg, the '75 Les Paul Deluxe, and occasionally the Takamine. My Amp for the last 7 years has been a 1982 Hiwatt DR-504 50 Watt Head. It's one of the very first HiWatts made under the "Biacrown" name used after Dave Reeves died. The early Biacrown's still used the famous Partridge Transformers. It's played though a late sixties Dallas Arbiter 4x12 Cabinet. It's actually a Sound City amp but the Sound City badge is long missing, I replaced it with a "HiWatt" badge. Dave Reeves made Cabs and Amps for Dallas Arbiter/Sound City just before starting HiWatt in 1968) It has 2 Celestion Green Back Speakers and 2 original Sound City Speakers)

I don't use any effects to "doctor" the sound of the guitar, but I do use a system of effects for Fuzz and Lead Boost. I have 5 Effect Stomp Boxes bolted onto 2 boards. "On the Floor" The guitar plugs into a Boss TU-2 Guitar Tuner Pedal that then plugs into a Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz Pedal and then the signal hits the "A channel" of a Boss LS-2 Line Selector Pedal that then creates a Loop to two Stomp Boxes set on top of the Amp used for Lead Boost, a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster Pedal and a Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer Pedal Then the signal goes to the Amp.

The Reunion...

So after 2 posts about shows that took place 7 years ago, I thought maybe I should add some recent content. My memory's probably a little better about the events of last summer, hopefully...

The last Phantom Shifters show took place in the Dominion Tavern December 15th 2001, playing with Ottawa Hardcore Legends, Grave Concern. The show was thrown together by former Rhythm Guitarist Greg "Daniel" Cockburn so he could actually recoup any money the band owed him before he moved to California. In fact we all were able to recoup our losses with the band after this show... Seven years later, I hadn't talked to Ryan Kerr (Bass, Vocals) much, even though he's my cousin, we weren't really in touch. It was mostly the same with Chris Lee (drums) but for some reason, I'd been toying around with trying to get us all together again... Maybe for one show, maybe for more. Cockburn was in California and it was clear he wasn't going to be coming back to Ottawa anytime soon (or ever)... Even before I approached Ryan and Chris with the idea of a reunion, I spoke with Dave Martindale from Ottawa's Double Pumpers and Ukrania about jumping into the Shifter's second Guitar spot. Something that excited him very much...

By July 2006 everyone was on board and a date was booked for the 19th of August at the Babylon Night Club. A venue in Ottawa we'd actually never played before as the Shifters. Clubs like Bumpers and the illustrious Dominion Tavern were the regular stops in town back when we used to "gig". After about 6 practices we had 8 songs down from the old CD (Given Half a Chance We'll Wreck It for Everybody, GAS records) down solid, as well as BTO's "Not Fragile" a song the Shifter's have played so much alot of people think it's an original...

First Show in 5.5 years. Dave Martindale on the far right, photo by Andrew Carver...

It was a pretty good night at Babylon. The audience was fairly small but very enthusiastic. Also on the bill that night was my other "Big Rock" project The Long Timers as well as Ottawa bands The Army of St. Joan, and The Death March Volunteer's. There was a lot of band member carry-over that night. Justin Gobiel played Guitar in every band but the Phantom Shifters (and if he could've he would've) and Rene LeClair played Bass in for the Long Timers and Death March. And I played back to back sets as the Shifters followed the Long Timers...

The Long Timers, (L > R) Rene LeClair, Bass. Greg Kerr, Guitar. J.P. Sadek, Drums. John Nash, Vocals. Justin Gobeil, Guitar. Photo by Andrew Carver...

This show was also the first time I'd played my 1975 Wine Red Les Paul Deluxe with the Phantom Shifters. It had already been my main Guitar for Long Timer shows for about a year, I wish I'd had this guitar back when we recorded our CD, it's Seymour Duncan P90 pickups are perfect for the Phantom Shifters style of 70's influenced RAWK. I enjoyed this guitar so much I went straight out and bought a 1980 Sunburst Les Paul Deluxe and threw some more P90's into it too. As it turns out these guitars suited the Shifters so well that Dave started to play the Sunburst Les Paul in practice and I ended up selling it to him so he could play it in the band... The night also marked the end of Ryan's Purple Music Man copy Bass that pretty much fell apart at the end of the last song... Total shows played by Ryan with that Bass: 2!...

Dave with his '80 Les Paul, me with my '75 Les Paul and case of the sweats. Photo by Andrew Carver...

All in all it was a real fun night for the band, and from the response, the audience too. After playing all 9 songs we'd practiced and all the songs we knew, they were still screaming for more. Pretty tough spot to be in. We agreed to try and did a little blues jam in "E major" of everyone. My guitar was still in an open tuning from playing slide on the last few songs. In my attempt to tune the guitar back to standard I got a pretty big shock from my pedal board which was starting to fall apart from all the abuse that night... So I gave up on tuning and played some (probably terrible) Blues Slide Guitar... I'd managed to put back a numbers of beers down by then and really wanted to get some more, it was time to leave the stage...

Looks like we're playing the Bridge to "Not Fragile" here. Photo by Andrew Carver...