Touring with Jay and Jimmie

Day Three, Edmonton

After most of a day’s work, I pick up Ken and we hit the road to Edmonton. About halfway through the drive we get tired of listening to CDs and decide to check out Red Deer’s New Country station which entertains us endlessly. We banter goo- naturedly back and forth about the makings of a good country song, and are shocked to hear a radio ad that compares missing a sale on pornography as worse than missing “Christmas, New Years and Easter combined”. Finally we arrive at Wunderbar just after the rest of the guys.

Wunderbar is a little hole in the wall off Whyte Ave with a tiny stage and a fantastic beer selection. The place is barely open when we arrive and we drag our gear in through Edmonton’s impressive snow drifts. Out back a bobcat is clearing great swaths of snow out of the parking lot and piling it against the building. We size up the little stage and make a plan of attack to deal with the lack of space and power outlets. Eventually however we find a workable solution to the show and manage to set our gear.

At this show, like the last, we’re working the door ourselves—some might find this a bit of a challenge, but it lets us greet people as they arrive and Jay and I amuse ourselves with a little contest keeping score on who’s sold the most CDs. He snaps a photo of the initial score: Jay Baird 1, everyone else 0. Eventually my old pal Mike arrives and we chat about how the shows have been and how great the beer selection is. The story is that Wunderbar used to be frequented by racists skinheads and the new owners were in the process of turning it around. It’s certainly run down, with graffiti covered washrooms, hand-me-down furniture and but it’s small size makes it intimate and it only takes a modest crowd to make it seem packed. Iit fills up impressively for our show, which turns out to be the best one of the tour despite the cramped stage and meagre PA system. Jay is just about joins us again on sax and Brendan makes a little introduction: “We’ve got Jay Baird here joining us on the saxophone... he’ll be taking some inspiration from the sounds coming out of Jim’s room last night.” There’s an awkward look from the crowd. Brendan continues: “Jim lost his virginity last night…” I see Shotgun Jimmy give us a smirk.

“What?!” exclaims Brian. Ken and I turn back, not sure if he’s playing along or legitimately confused. He gives us a questioning look.

“Are you guys fucking with me?” he asks, desperately looking back and forth between us.

Next up is an Edmonton band called the Mitts. According to Jim, their guitar player is allergic to nickel and has to wear a special glove in order to play guitar. It doesn’t hold him back and they play their catchy power pop songs with teenage enthusiasm, making us all jealous of their wild youth.

By the time Jim calls me up to play on “Province to Province” the bar is packed and I need to not only wrestle my stool away from a girl who’d decided to use it as a seat, but also literally push a young man back into the crowd in order to make enough space. Jim asks me to stay for an extra song and we go for it as the night turns over on itself into the best one of the trip.

There’s a lot to learn from the way Jim is able to handle a crowd, to make everyone feel welcome and how effortlessly he can invite strangers in to be a part of something. As Brendan remarked to me later, Jim frequently gets compared to the former Pavement singer Steve Malkmus and always takes it in stride. “That would drive me crazy after a while,” Brendan says, “But Jim is always just like ‘Steve Malkmus! He’s awesome!’ no matter how many times he hears it.”

Afterwards the show we let things settle out, catch up with old pals and make new ones and exchange contact info and CDs with Jim and Jay. I duck out on a round of shots to drive over to Mike’s place while the rest of the crew heads to some friends of Brendan’s for a few more drinks and an night in the chilliest room they’ve apparently ever slept in.