Before leaving the house, of course I had to make at least one trip back inside to actually retrieve the tickets, because it's me and it's probably nothing short of a miracle that I didn't leave them at work. So I freaked out a bit when we got down to Barrie and I couldn't bloody find them! Fack! We searched the car up and down and finally located them in the visor where I never put anything ever.
Getting inside we pretty much got a drink and then moved as close to the stage as we could get without my claustrophobia kicking in. We arrived a few songs before the end of the opening act, a band by the name of Riding Shotgun, who didn't impress me greatly at first but earned a number of cool points by pulling out a pretty nifty cover of Nazareth's "This Flight Tonight" which is, I might add, my favourite Nazareth tune.
Within minutes of finding out place we were approached by a couple of vaguely older dudes, early 40s I'd guess. Poor Amber. As my oldest and dearest friend, I can say that she has the unfortunate trouble of being Douchebait for idiot guys with no concept of boundaries. I have to say that in my old age and since hooking up with The Well Travelled One, I've never been so appreciative that drunken assholes tend to leave me alone out in public.
Some of us are not so lucky, which is how I found myself trying to defend my friend from Grabby McGropeyHands, to no avail. This guy was with his brother, who was decent and fairly respectful, but not quite cool enough to tell his brother to keeps his hands off this obviously uncomfortable girl who is opening cringing each time he tries to put his arm around her.
So I offered my services to play angry c*ckblocking friend, but this guy was oblivious enough that even telling him to fuck right off didn't get the message across. So, the best choice seemed to be to abandon our post at stage right and head for one of The Ranch's Go-Go cages. At previous shows, I've found them handy for getting a good view of the stage while catering to my claustrophobic tendencies. It's also a good place to inadvertently injure yourself or flash hundreds of people at a time,but those are stories for another day.
We made our way over and started climbing and THAT'S WHEN THE COOLEST THING HAPPENED, YOU GUYS!
As I was struggling to get through the floor of the cage without strangling myself with my purse, which did not want to fit through the trapdoor with me, I hear Hugh Dillon himself, from the stage say "What's this fucking chick doing?? She's going to fall and break her fucking ass!!"
You guys, that was me! I was going to fall and break my ass! I didn't, but holy hell was I ever stoked! I got called out in the middle of the show. And we escaped the category five clinger, to boot! A song or two later Hugh pointed back up to our cage and said something to the effect of "You two look good up there!" At least that's what Amber told me.. I couldn't quite make it out, my ears were ringing and I was too busy grinning ear-to-ear.
Near the end of the show, we decided to climb back down and try to get right up in front for the encore but sure enough as so as we hit the ground running, Grabby McGrabass was back and at it again. Amber and I rolled our eyes at each other and tried to get deep enough into the crowd that he couldn't follow us but this was one determined and like I said, oblivious dude. At one point I made like I was all dancing wildly and pushed him off balance, "accidentally". It made no impression on the guy and I gave amber a "I'm trying, friend, I really am" and she kind of shrugged helplessly at me. Meanwhile a guy behind who had seen what happened, tapped me on the shoulder and high-fived me.
The band played a good mixed of new and old stuff and it was, overall, a highly energetic and entertaining show. We left during the third encore, a rendition of Three Angels because I had to work this morning and it's a bit of a drive.
Did I mention they covered ABBA? I shit you not. ABBA. be still my 70's cheese-loving heart.