Jam!

Sometimes I wish I had a single musical bone in my body. Sometimes, I wish I could beam my cute single girlfriends into my life, on a whim. Twinkle, Twinkle, little star...

We lived the life of unemployed musicians for a day and a half: basically, the lives of the other four members of the band, and now ours. Tyler called yesterday. What? A night an hour north of Toronto, in a cabin in the trees with nothing more than music and BBQ and libations? Yes, please. It was a Monday night, and thus usually out of the question for us. But alas, we're still jobless, and we might as well enjoy it in between days on end of stressing over money. Right?

[ "Don't leave me behind!" ]

We hitched a ride out of the city and enjoyed a night of serious jamming. This was no campfire singalong, my friends. These boys were serious - at times, 5 guitars were involved and the amps were pumping music too loud for the tiny space. 

[ fresh air & cheap beer...ahhh; owen braves the sun; BBQ! ]

The group was disproportionately male and consisted of members of Sweet Thing, Arkells, The Dusin Bentall Outfit, New Twigs (cover band featuring members of the previous bands), Dan Griffin, and Sarah Burton. With almost everyone on an instrument or mic, it was like my very own little concert. I suppose I didn't quite appreciate the rare opportunity until now; to be witness to the musical collaboration of so many talented (and even Juno winning) people was truly amazing.

 [ Del; Dan & Dustin; Morgan ]

Oh, and hello, a cabin full of cute musicians. Where were all the single ladies, all the single ladies...? Had I not already snagged the cutest of the bunch, I'd have fallen in love at least 6 times.

[ Nick croons, ladies swoon ]

But in a way, not being a part of the music-making was a bit of a bummer. Even Alex found it tough to keep up - he doesn't have many covers in his repertoire. A 7-hour jam session may be too much, even for the most music-loving of spectators. Clearly my attempts to sing along from the sidelines were drowned out by a ridiculous number of competing instruments (even if I did get props for knowing the lyrics to an Inner Circle number). 

I was even too intimidated to take the tambourine. I did have my 15 seconds of fame when I grabbed the mic for a verse of Bust a Move during an impromptu freestyle/rap session. Of course the room had mostly cleared by that point. I was feeling brave. It made me want to attend Hip Hop Karaoke again. Soon.

[ the morning after ]

We're back home now, with ringing ears and pounding heads, grateful for the fresh air and sweet prelude to camping season.