Where did my weekend go? - Friday.

Gah.. monday night of a long weekend, and I don't feel like I've stopped. The weekend has been both physically/emotionally exhausting one... the highest of highs, the lowest of lows.

Friday afternoon I was lucky enough to win some free passes to see The Schomberg Fair and the United Steelworkers of Montreal through Twitter and Exclaim magazine. I found out I had won at about 3pm, while the show was at 9pm that night. I made some calls around and ended up bringing a friend of mine whom I don't hang out with often, but when we do, we tend to have a lot of fun. After waiting for three hours for Rogers cable to show up, getting bitchy on the phone with them ("7:53? REally?") then feeling really bad when the technician showed up and it was a guy I used to hang out with back in the day.. after all that we headed down to Toronto to the Horseshoe Tavern, an incredibly cool venue I have not had the pleasure of being to before. It's one of those fun places that looks kind of 'dive-y' but it's really just for show, the main clientele seemed to be a lot of hipsters.. Apparently the place is legendary for new up and coming bands.

We arrived in time for the second opener, a very talented group, Great Bloomers. I'm not great with describing musical genres, but I bought their CD (I actually spent about 40 bucks worth on CDs and T-Shirts) and it's a very, oh.. I don't know.. it's mellow in that dirt-concession backroads sunny-day road trip kind of way.. lots of acoustic guitar and soft piano and alt-country type tempos.

I was very excited to see the Schomberg Fair. They're actually named after a fair that is held each year in their hometown, which is not far from where I grew up, and I remember my dad when he was with the Era Banner, taking me to the Schomberg Fair as a small child. On their bio they're self-described as 'Speed Gospel' which is A) pretty accurate and B) possibly the neatest genre name I've ever encountered (with the exception of Midget Porn Groove). Lots of fancy guitar work, banjos (<3), heavy bass, twang and baritone and references to angels and satan.. and did I mention speed? I have to be careful listening to the CD in the car lest I get pulled over for reckless driving. Small venue/band shows are fantastic because there's little security and up-and-comers will actually take the time to chat with fans after the show. I had a chance to chat with Matt Bahen, Nate Sidon and Peter Garthside as they broke down the equipment after their set. I was super-thrilled that Nate actually recognized me as 'the girl who won the twitter contest'. Matt was cool enough to chat with Cory and I and let us be geeky fan-girls and get our pictures taken.



We didn't end up staying for USWM, as I was planning to get up early to assist the most-recent-ex with his move. They're a decent band, from what I have heard of them, which honestly is not a lot. It's probably a good thing we left when we did though, because getting out of the city was kind of a bitch. For reasons unknown, whenever I venture to downtown toronto, I can never seem to get back the same way I came.

I don't trust GPS. They only serve to confuse me.

We had attempted heading straight up Yonge, but being Caribana weekend, downtown traffic was not co-operating with that idea. We decided to take another whack at the Gardiner Expressway, heading west again (which still makes little sense to me, since we went west to GET there) this time towards the 427. I was iffy on this, given my track record of getting lost and ending up at Woodbine Racetrack. ("YOu can't fool me Cory! I know where the 427 goes.. WOODBINE!")

At any rate, got home about 4am, in one piece. More to come...