The first of the "Music Scrapbook" series can be read here:
What is your favorite concert story? The time you were invited backstage to meet the band? The night you had your nose broken in the mosh pit by the individual you would later spend the rest of your life with? My favorite concert story involves a few thousand people at an outdoor music festival, a gas leak, and a missing person's report.
Back in 99', I was working for the summer before my senior year at High School at the 'greatest outdoor show on earth': the Calgary Stampede. After being cramped in an ice cream float stand the year before, I realized how much I hated customer service and decided instead to apply for a behind-the-scenes stock boy job this year. Now stock boy is a great summer job. I would say 75% of my time was spend either walking leisurely around the fair grounds or asleep in the stock room.
Since it was a 2 hour transit ride every morning to and from the grounds, and my friend Mike who was also working the stampede that year lived much closer, he was nice enough to let me crash at his place for the week.
Besides being a pretty lax job, the stampede is a pretty sweet gig because every night they have a mainstream artist play free concerts in the park. I have many good memories of those concerts, from 'Matthew Good' setting fire to stuffed animals to 'Len' cheerfully racking up $2,000 in fines for swearing.
1999 was also the last year Edgefest, a large outdoor music festival, toured the country. The amazing line-up that year included Hole, Moist, Big Wreck, Silverchair, Matthew Good Band, Edwin, Wide Mouth Mason, Rascalz, Len, Treble Charger, Finger Eleven, Vertical Horizon, GOB, and Serial Joe. There was no way Mike and I were going to miss it. We booked the day off work, bought our tickets, and headed down to Race City Speedway where the festival was being held.
It was a scorcher that day. Since it was all being held outdoors, if you didn't have the proper sun screen your skin would be sizzling like pork rinds by the end of the day. To fight sun stroke, they had a free water station in the centre of the complex. It wasn't long before there was a moat of mud surrounding the water tap, and a line up to roll around in the muck to stay cool.
There were two stages set up, the Village stage where the lesser known bands played between performances on the Main stage where the big names played. While the first bands played on the Village stage, Mike and I made our way to the Main stage to get a good spot. By the time the Rascalz were ready to take the stage, Mike and I had maneuvered ourselves within spitting distance of the band.
The excitement had peaked as Red Dog, a local radio personality, took the mike to introduce the first main stage band. As he rushed through all the usual legal house-keeping of thanking the sponsors, and a short band bio, the crowd was a buzz with anticipation. Just before announcing the band and rushing off the stage, he said "...and will Daniel Oldfield please phone home." At first, I thought I had heard wrong. Mike and I looked at each other in shock and the audience were working up into a frenzy.
"Did he just say my name?" I yelled to Mike.
"I think he did!" Mike yelled back.
All I could think was 'well, there's my 15 seconds of fame I guess'. I told Mike I would meet up with him at the water station once Rascals finished their set and made my way out of the mosh pit. Once I found a pay phone, I phoned my housed to find my Mom in a panic.
"Are you OK?" She screamed. I had the receiver pressed firmly against my ear, and my other ear covered, but still it was difficult to hear anything over the sound of the crowd.
"Yeah! What's wrong?" I yelled back, still unsure what was going on.
"I've been worried sick! I thought you were dead!"
"What?" I couldn't believe my ears.
"I hadn't heard from you since yesterday, there was no answer at Mike's. I thought something horrible had happened."
A few days before my Mom had watched a story on the news about apartment complexes that had faulty gas lines that would crack and release gas until residents start getting sick. After not hearing from me, the scenario had developed in my Mom's mind that Mike and I were passed out in his room as poisonous gas filled the apartment. Since neither Mike or I had cell phones, my Mom was frantic to get a hold of us. She phoned the police and told them it had been 24 hours since she had last heard from me, and filed a missing person's report. The police then phoned the organizers of Edgefest and asked that they announce my name in case we had made it out of Mike's place alive.
There wasn't a gas leak, but the bands were great, the mosh pits were spirited, and I was a missing persons for a full 3 hours. Needless to say, it was an eventful day.
Attached is the track 'Blown Wide Open' by Big Wreck. When they played this live, I remember all you could see around you was a mass of bodies swaying in unison. It was a great experience.
My Trusted MOGs
that's awesome...
HERE'S MINE
At Coachella (another favorite experience for me - for ALL OF IT) I told this story & pretty much everyone had chills at the end of it... especially Blair who is as (well, almost as) obsessed with The Frames as I am !!!