Last night I did my second show of the weekend performing at Mercury’s free Halloween party event over at Piranha Bar in Montreal.
It was a costume party, to which I did not really participate. As much as costume parties are dope, I rarely figure that part out on time. This year was no exception.
I dressed up as a guy who liked pickles and wore my normal shtick with the pro pickle tank top on.
Others were festive last night. Mercury put effort into setting up the ambiance. Literally putting up yellow caution tape and other classic staples.
Actually I’ve seen like 3 people try really hard to decorate Piranha Bar like that. Each time the extra ambiance efforts are appreciated. It makes the show feel more special.
The highlight of the show was honestly the candy.
As the night went on they through candy across the bar
When you walked in, you were handed a little trick or treat bag.
Then the candy started to fly. Lollipops, rockets, Airheads and all sorts of mini chocolate bars. Now despite what you may think, I saw every single person in the room start bending down to pick stuff up off the floor.
Finding two Caramilks felt like a huge win.
One lady had her purse open and was scooping up candy as though this was solving a problem in her life. Now she can just give out treats, or give her kids treats directly from the Piranha Bar floor. Judge if you like, but you’d be sitting there eating a fully wrapped floor candy too.
It was as if the nostalgia overpowered everyone in the room and we were forced to interact like trick or treaters. Plus when you are anywhere for hours, having dopamine hits in the form of treats are amazing. The candy went over really well with people.
For the cost of Halloween candy, it was a really good investment in enhancing the event. We achieved a similar thing with blueberries once. People like food.
The floor of the bar kind of looked like it had drugs all over it when you saw the crushed Rockets everywhere.
The music was fun and P.Flow Matics technically beat me in a second contest
Once upon a time back in 2012 or 2013 I participated in David Hodges “Uthinkucanrap” contest.
From what I can tell I was very close to ranking in the top 3, but I did not. I was told to keep my head up because I came in 4th. P.Flow Matics came in third however.
I don’t think I saw the dude again until yesterday. Now technically Mercury was on his bring you A-game shit. The best performance and the best costume were getting a loot bag of quality snacks.
Mercury has a SnackTown now. He has exotic snacks and has linked that to studio time. I got a 12-pack of exotic Soda in my room now. Good looks Mercury.
As the night ended and they announced P.Flow Matics was the winner I realized it was twice now this man got the best of me. I’m not stressing it, I legitimately messed up part of a verse. I didn’t deserve that win. I did enjoy the P.Flow Matics set so I humbly accept being 0-2 against P.Flow Matics in rap stats.
I enjoyed the music that came last night. The energy in the room was proper and it was an eclectic mix of sounds. It’s always amazing to see what our city has to offer.
The show mixed English and French and it was lovely.
A quick reminder to artists that sound check is a good time to arrive
It’s been a hott minute since I whined about artists missing sound checks but here we are.
We were asked to arrive at 6:00 PM. The flyer said the show (I took this as doors open) was 8:00 PM. Given there are a lot of performers 6:00 PM is a reasonable ask for artists to come.
I woke up in North York, Ontario yesterday. I drove my ass all the way home and wrote a blog. I had to do some of my job and somehow managed to walk into Piranha Bar around 6:10 PM.
By 7:30 PM only a handful of the performers had arrived. This kind of sucked a lot for us. For over an hour those of us that made the effort to come on time were penalized, waiting for those who chose to come later on.
Keep in mind your posse and fans aren’t even supposed to arrive until 8:00 so really if no one’s there, no one is there.
Now look, I'm sure every single person had a good reason. All I can say is as a promoter I respect it all case by case. I wasn’t the promoter though, I was the guy who drove 500 KM and made sure I was on time.
Whether or not you care, people like me pay attention to that sort of thing. If you can’t make it a priority to be on time, the next time I’m in a position to give out slots for a show, you are not going to be someone I think of. I’m not going to be critical of how many people anyone brought, only 3 people came to see me, but I can be critical of the artists who weren’t there to be hospitable.
If everyone had been there, on time, as expected, then as the people who may have popped in randomly and stayed appeared, they would have seen a much fuller room. As a performer, it’s literally your job to show up on time and make the show a success. Even if you aren’t getting paid.
That being said, by 9 PM the room filled out and the party was jumping.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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