MAJICAL CLOUDZ

August 19th – Vancouver – Electric Owl

The morning after the Calgary show we left at 7am and did the ~12 hour drive to Vancouver, through the Rocky Mountains. The night before I had stayed in a bedroom with gigantic windows in our friend Matt’s new apartment. I fell asleep with the glow of high-rise apartments and woke up with the sun.

                  We stopped halfway through the drive at a lake just past Salmon Arm to go swimming. The lake was very shallow and Neil walked what seemed like a 3^rd of the way across while holding our video camera. Swimming halfway made driving that distance feel a lot less physically taxing than it otherwise would have been. When we got into Vancouver I actually felt very good aside from being tired.

                  The other time we have played in Vancouver was also at the Electric Owl, when we opened for Autre Ne Veut. I was also there in the past to see a Grimes show and an Austra show, so I’ve been around that venue quite a bit. Someone wrote me on Tumblr to tell me that they thought Electric Owl was a bad venue. I actually have no other experience with venues in Vancouver, so I can’t really make a judgment. I have never had problems with Electric Owl. The space is slightly unusual (seating at the back that is sometimes full if you’re the opening act), but the sound-system is good and every time I’ve seen or played a show there has been a great turnout. I would love to do a show in a different space in Vancouver but it would be more for the purpose of seeing what is out there, because I personally have not had a bad experience with Electric Owl.

                  Before we played I did a really fun interview in the basement of the venue with a girl who has her own radio show on CiTR, UBC’s radio station. While we spoke her friend took pictures on his amazing (and old-looking) Polaroid camera. She mentioned that she was dropping out of school and the two of them were moving to Toronto to start shooting on a film they were making together, I told them that if they need any extras to send me an email, and they mentioned that there was a scene that takes place at a show. They jokingly suggested that Majical Cloudz could be the band that plays at the show, but I was seriously interested. And I still am, so I hope she emails me!

                  The show was one of the best so far on the tour in a certain sense. The early Midwest shows were a really good time but I still felt a little unsteady, as it was the beginning of the tour. By the time we played in Vancouver I felt more assured about our performance and the new circumstances of being a headliner. It’s not as much of a confounding experience as it was during the first few shows.

                  Before the show I found out my friend Trevor was there, and that it was his birthday. So after we played our first song, I called out his name to see if he was there. Someone shouted, “He’s outside smoking a joint!” but then right afterwards he came running inside. He came onstage and I got the audience to sing “Happy Birthday” with me in his honour. We hugged, he left the stage, and then we played another song. After that song, I asked the audience if it was anyone else’s birthday, either that day or a few days from now. Someone volunteered that their birthday was in a few days, so I got them to come up onstage, and the audience sang “Happy Birthday” in their honour, then we played another song. After that song, I asked again if it was anyone else’s birthday, and we did it again. And then we did it again. After a while, people were clearly lying about whether or not it was their birthday, but we sang for them anyway. I thought it was really fun!

                  Before we played “I Do Sing For You” I asked if it was anyone else’s birthday. The guy who had been taking Polaroids during the interview was volunteered. He came up onstage and I sang the entire song while we kept eye contact and sat on one knee facing each other. I didn’t know him at all but the moment was really intense. Looking someone in the eyes while singing onstage can be powerful in and of itself, even when there is no other relationship between the two people.

                  The Vancouver audience also did what I think was the most successful instance of pogoing to “Mister”. The entire audience appeared to be jumping up and down! The energy was very high by the end of the set, and people seemed to have had a good time. I felt very happy about the whole thing. My friends Mac and Dan came out to see us play as well, and it’s always nice to play for friends for the first time.