Marillion Weekend 2011, April 8-10th, Montreal, Quebec - Part 4

Part 4 – Monday, April 11th

I woke up to the sound of rain hitting against my window. I fell back asleep and then awoke to a rather loud buzzing/vibrating sound, like when a bus parks outside and goes into hibernation mode. I guess people just don’t sleep at the Days Inn Centreville. Well, at least, people don’t sleep on the lower level floors. Or, maybe it’s just me…who knows.

All three mornings I woke up feeling like I had a hangover and yet I hadn’t had an ounce of alcohol. It just goes to show how much sweating I did at the venue each night. It took about an hour for my water intake to start to balance out again and then, shortly after that, I had coffee. Yeah, go figure.

I looked up alternate Delta flights online, just in case there was a chance of taking an earlier flight out. I was then reminded of how I ended up with this late flight in the first place…it’s one of only two non-stop flights to MSP with the other leaving too early in the morning for my taste. It appeared I was stuck with leaving at 6pm.

I wasn’t feeling the greatest, still experiencing that faux hangover feeling. Still, I didn’t want to sit around in the hotel lobby, Starbucks, or the airport for multiple hours. No, instead I decided to hoof it, as they say, once again towards the Basilique Notre Dame, the only other sight that I really had my heart set on seeing this time around. This meant venturing down from my hotel towards Vieux Montreal, the old original city area, a place I hadn’t yet ventured in to.

I feared that it would be yet another long walk that would completely tire me out. Instead, I actually got sort of rejuvenated by the walk and came alive more and more as I started to inch toward the old city. The weather was supposed to be 70 degrees but it looked much more like rain with a fierce wind blowing. I’d say the temperature was closer to 50 degrees when I left the hotel.

The Basilique Notre Dame

I found the Basilique Notre Dame and it was practically right next to Starbucks. It’s never a bad idea to know where the nearest Starbucks is after all, especially if it starts raining. I walked around the outside of the Basilique and was quite impressed. I wasn’t sure if it was “open”, per se, since the place was completely deserted. I then decided to try the door and voila! It opened! And so, I ventured in to find an older man sitting behind a counter reading a book, expecting payment. I paid the $5 admission fee and he politely said in a massive French accent, “…pictures okay…”. Ah, good to know!

The exterior of the Basilique was pretty impressive; the inside was even more grand. It was completely on par with the cathedrals that I had seen in England. This was definitely worth the price of admission and I ended up taking lots of my usual weird angle shots.

The inside of the Basilique Notre Dame

After leaving, I decided to walk around Old Montreal a bit more and perhaps find where the river runs along the port. The more I walked the more fascinated I became. Wow. It wasn’t long before I realized my biggest error of both trips to Montreal…not coming to freakin’ Old Montreal! Ugh! This was right up my alley and here I’ve spent both of my trips amongst 10 million college students, rushing around back and forth on the metro and surrounded with cigarette smoke!

Yes, here were all the adults! I HAD been wondering, after all, since practically everyone I passed was between the ages of 18 and 25. This was also evidently the area where all the good restaurants were. F***! No, make that a double! Here, I’ve eaten at all these goofy locations (minus Aux Vivres, which was quite awesome) when I could have been eating in REAL restaurants just a half mile from my stupid hotel! Ah, yes, my friends…the egg was on my face (no pun intended for you breakfast lovers).

A random street in Vieux Montreal

I continued my walk, looking at the various sights, taking weird pictures, and reading the various menus that I came across. Yes, I really had missed out. Sh*t, now I HAD to come back. If I do return, I most definitely will be spending my whole trip down in that area.

It was then that it started to rain (again). It just seemed to be my luck, really. At first, it wasn’t a big deal, just more or less the moderate drizzle from the day before. Then, it started to pick up and I started to notice the rain falling in streams off my hat. It was time to head back to the Starbuck’s for awhile. See what I mean? Always find a sanctuary, whatever sort you prefer.

A port at Vieux Montreal

No sooner did I enter Starbuck’s, order, sit down, etc., but the rain stopped and a bright yellow sun filled the sky. I truly felt that Montreal was somehow laughing at me but I’m usually a semi-decent sport. Heck, I laugh at myself all the time.

I ordered a very small dessert thing that looked interesting. The girl that took my order said, “Oh, you want the whoopee pie?” I looked at her with a silly look. “I don’t know…do I?! I guess I do!” I really wanted to make a crass joke but feared it wouldn't come out right so I kept it at that. The dessert basically consisted of what looked like two red velvet cookies with icing in the middle. After picking it up and eating it, it stained my fingers and napkin lipstick red. I became paranoid that my lips were now lipsticked as well. I decided to go to the restroom, just to make sure.

Another street view around Vieux Montreal

I debated about going to Chez Suzette, a crepe place that was supposed to be pretty good that I just happened to pass by unsuspectingly. I looked at the menu and it certainly sounded great. Why couldn’t I have found this place two days ago? I wondered if I should go in and eat rather than waiting to eat at the airport. It had only been a few hours since I had breakfast, though, so it would end up being more of a force feeding, if you know what I mean. But heck, the food was bound to be a million times better than the airport. I pondered but then resisted. Instead, I returned to the hotel, collected my suitcase, and headed off to the bus stop for the 747 Express bus.

When the bus arrived, I promptly boarded and swiped my card, all the time hoping my STM pass would still work (which it did), and walked two steps to the luggage rack. The bus driver immediately made a rocket start and I almost fell three rows down the aisle. Apparently he was in a major hurry.

The bus ride was incredible (again). If the metro doesn’t make you sick to your stomach, the bus most certainly will. I’m not sure where these drivers get their driving instruction but man, they simply must be instructed to drive as erratically as possible. The extremely rough pot-holed roads didn’t help either. Had I eaten at Chez Suzette, there would have been no guarantee that I would have been able to hold it down.

At one point, a young girl got on the bus and sat directly across from me. She had a mostly eaten apple in her mouth…not being held by a hand, mind you…just her mouth, kind of like a pig at a pig roast, but for some reason she looked more like a fish to me because of the way her eyes were bugging out. She held it in her mouth for at least 3 minutes, never making any gesture to grab it, all the while staring around with big eyes over the core at the people around her as if we were the ones with the apples in our mouths. I must say that in all my years I’ve never seen anyone do this before and I wasn’t sure if I should be afraid or laugh hysterically. Once she took the apple out, she took the last few bites of it and then promptly fell asleep. Bizarre!

It was then that the guy next to me started asking me questions in French. I tried to make it clear that I didn’t speak French and that just seemed to make him ask even more questions. On top of that, he started getting mildly angry. I was completely thrown off. Luckily, another guy stepped in to the one sided conversation and cleared things up.

Back at the airport, it was the usual hokey pokey trying to get through security. In Canada, you have to go through multiple check points for some reason and then you actually go through US Customs at the same time prior to boarding the plane. I never can understand why they make us hold so many different items and expect us not to lose anything. Mind you, you’re already holding your suitcase, probably a carry-on, and then you’ve got your passport, your customs form, your boarding pass, etc. It’s pretty freakin’ crazy.

In the customs line, there was a rather large recreation of the Statue of Liberty which made me giggle. It seemed kind of silly, like we needed a reminder that that’s where the statue was located. I couldn’t help but jokingly wonder why they didn’t have something like that on the US side for Canadian departures. Imagine a large moose beckoning you or some Canadian Mounted Policeman.

My dinner choices were as I expected: very slim. I had only $9 Canadian left and so that even further limited my options. Believe it or not, I went to Burger King for a BK Veggie meal. Bad choice! There was literally nobody there and only one woman working the registers. She was clearly upset about something having to do with work and I heard her yelling something about “…HR expects me to wear…!” When I walked up, she didn’t even acknowledge me. I ordered and she practically threw my drink cup at me. Motioning to her left, she said rather abruptly, “The soda fountain’s over there.” Yikes! Just think what they did to my food!

That left me with literally just change in my pocket in Canadian money. I went to the Currency Exchange and asked if he had a minimum. He said, “Let me see what you’ve got and I’ll tell you.” I laid out what amounted to about 85 cents. “No, no, there’s a five dollar minimum,” he barked. Maybe I was delirious but I would have sworn that was exactly what I had just asked him. “If you don’t want it, there’s a donation box over there,” he said, pointing down the hallway. And so, I donated my change to a cause that I couldn’t read since it was only in French. Hopefully it was something I agree with!

I sat down and waited to board my plane. Just then, who shows up and sits practically right next to me? Yes, it’s the Sasquatch guy from the previous night’s show. Apparently he lives in Minneapolis as well. I couldn’t help but think of those “Messin’ with Sasquatch” commercials for Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. I briefly debated about talking to him but every time I tried to catch his attention, he seemed to be looking away or right through me. He also seemed mildly annoyed and, well, it’s best not to tick off Sasquatch, based especially on those commercials.

After that, it was the usual flight home. You know, cramped seating, germ filled air, numb butt, you name it.

It was, again, one heck of a weekend, in one sort or another. It seemed like a really long weekend, actually, and it completely exhausted me in more ways than one. What can I say? Marillion are always amazing and they were nothing short this year, even if the crowd wasn’t always the greatest. As for Montreal, it really is a pretty interesting town that I do recommend visiting. If I do return, I hope to maybe finally eat at the right restaurants in the right part of town. Heck, third time’s a charm, right?

Marillion Weekend 2011, April 8-10th, Montreal, Quebec - Part 3

Part 3 – Sunday, April 10th

I woke up way too early the next morning to the sound of what I believed to be pounding feet on most likely stairs. Strangely, I couldn’t find a stairwell anywhere but that’s certainly what it sounded like. It sounded like a few kids running up and down on the stairs, making sure to firmly pound their feet on each step as they went. It was a fantastic way to awake (sarcasm, of course).

As usual, once I’m awake, I’m, well, pretty much awake. I tried to resist getting up but it wasn’t happening. And so, I got up, showered, dressed, and headed out for breakfast relatively close to an actual breakfast time which is a rarity for me.

Out in the street, I once again headed off to the nearest metro station. Every time I ventured to the metro it seemed to get further and further away. I passed, as usual, countless people outside smoking, some which looked like they were about to keel over at any moment. One thing I can definitely say about Montreal…they need a serious ‘stop smoking’ campaign.

I had decided to try breakfast at a restaurant called Burgers and Benedicts, a place that I had passed the previous day on my way out from the AMC Theater. I couldn’t resist since I’m a bit of a benedict fanatic. Like everything thus far, it was a bit of a haul to get there but, seriously, what can you do, right?

Upon arriving, the place was fairly deserted which was certainly fine by me. My breakfast ended up being quite nice. I ordered the weekend special which was a benedict of 2 eggs over avocado on, of all things, French toast. It had a mixture of flavors that really didn’t go together at all…and yet somehow they came back around to create a pleasing flavor. Their coffee ended up being about the strongest coffee I’ve ever had in my life, so much so that I stopped after two cups. I like strong coffee but this was a bit extraordinary.

After paying for breakfast, I decided to take the metro quite a ways in the opposite direction in order to see Parc Olympique. This location has a few “famous” landmarks including the Botanical Gardens, the Biodome, etc. After exiting the metro, I was a bit confused since it basically dumped us in a completely deserted chamber. A few other people got off the metro as well and so I simply decided to follow them. It was quite bizarre. We were walking through this area that had nothing but old run down looking concrete in all directions. We finally reached a door and then began a trek outside, still encapsulated more or less with concrete all around us. At times, it looked like we were walking through a service area, or perhaps a backstage sort of area where you’d usually see roadies loading and unloading gear…except there was no one in sight. I had serious doubts if we were walking in the right direction.


Parc Olympique (notice the cable car ride)

We finally made a turn and, sure enough, there’s the Biodome, shoved in the middle of this concrete. It seemed a bit ironic, really. There were finally other people around as well including quite a few screaming kids running in all directions. I briefly looked through the windows of the Biodome and decided to pass on going in. Instead, I figured I’d do something free, like walking through the botanical gardens.

Getting to the gardens was just as weird. There were a few concrete barriers setup that I had to walk through. Again, it looked like an area where only people with a “pass” would be allowed. There was even a guard sitting in a little booth. He looked at me as I passed by but didn’t ask any questions nor did he attempt to stop me. I could only guess that I was headed in the right direction.

...Part of the Japanese Pavillion at the Botanical Gardens

It was a rather steep hill but I eventually arrived outside a gate to what I believed to be the Botanical Gardens. The gate, however, was open. Hmm. I waited a bit for someone else to walk through first. I eventually deduced that it was okay although I was under the impression that there was a nominal fee for touring the gardens.

Walking around the grounds was nice but nothing was really growing yet since it was still rather cold outside. There were also patches of snow still on the ground, the last remnants of a fairly harsh winter. I was particularly fascinated by the Japanese garden/pavilion area and ended up taking quite a few pictures there.

I stayed perhaps a little over a half hour and then made my way back down the long bizarre concrete path to the metro station. At this point, I was getting pretty exhausted again from all of the walking. I boarded the metro and rode it back to the usual Berri-UQAM station. I exited the metro, flashed my metro pass through the turnstyle, and to my complete amazement…I was standing in front of a small Dunkin Donuts shop. Um..where did this come from?! Now, a bit of history here… I’ve had this thing for Dunkin Donuts for quite some time and since there are none in Minnesota, it’s sort of become a bit blown out of proportion. Still, last time I was in Montreal, I specifically searched for a DD and there were none. On top of that, I’d been in this metro station countless times on this trip and had never seen it. It was like it had materialized out of nowhere! I was completely dumbfounded! Unfortunately, I wasn’t even the least bit hungry.

I went back to my hotel and simply veg’d for awhile. It wasn’t long before the clock was approaching 2pm and so I ventured out once again, this time for the Marillion “day session”. This was the first time that Marillion decided to do some sort of free day session consisting of things like Q&A with the band, “swap the band”, etc. It sounded interesting enough and so I couldn’t resist.

I was really quite impressed with how many people showed up. In my rough estimate, I’d have to say that 50% of the “normal” audience was there. The day session was really quite extraordinary and gave me a glimpse of the band in a way that I had not seen before. There were also a few contests held for some of the banner artwork that displayed in the theater and the winners were allowed to come on stage, briefly meet the band, and then have their pictures taken with the band with the audience cheering behind them. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of guys, presumably from France, holding up a “The Web France” banner (“The Web” is an old Marillion song that became the name of the various Marillion fan clubs around the world) that pretty much blocked out everyone behind them from the shots, of which I was one of them.

There were also two people whose birthdays happened to be on that very day and so the band invited them to come up and get their pictures taken as well. Pretty cool stuff!

The real “coolness”, though, was the “swap the band” session. I believe this contest was held online earlier in the year, where Marillion fans were invited to send in some sort of demo of them posing as any one of the band members of Marillion by playing/singing any song they wish. The winners were then invited to the convention and asked to perform their chosen song live on stage! I mean, how incredibly cool is that? There was a young guy who played guitar on the song “Kayleigh” while, bizarrely enough, a young girl named Kayleigh sang it. Later on, yet another girl named Kayleigh sang the track “Afraid of Sunlight”. She was incredibly in to it and clearly really loving the audience’s reaction, so much so that she got a bit American Idol on us.

One of the best parts was listening to the various band members trying to read the handwritten names of people on index cards. Pete, the bassist, tried to read one extremely French name: “Um…it’s..um…Serge somebody…?” He couldn’t help but laugh at himself. “I’m sorry…um…Serge…wherever you are!”

During the Q&A portion, someone had asked the question, “Why Montreal?” H handled this question. “I’m assuming you’re meaning why have the North American convention here versus the USA…” He went on to explain how Montreal has always had a special vibe for the band which he’s stated before. He also added, though, how the US has made it both time consuming and expensive when trying to get a visa, and how it’s hard to justify. He ended by saying, “So, for the Americans in the audience…you may want to tell your elected officials to lighten up the restrictions since it’s turning many people away from touring there.” It was slightly harsh but, alas, very true. I’ve seen firsthand how the number of non-US resident tours has gone done greatly since 2001 and it’s been quite unfortunate.

The good news, though, was that H added that a US tour was indeed already in the works for the next album and, in his words, “…would be happening within the next 14 months.” So, all you US Marillion fans out there, start preparing now since this could be your last chance!

Marillion during the 'Swap the Band' session

The day session in general really was quite amazing. I know I keep saying this over and over but there’s simply no other band out there like this one. You really can’t help but love them. They are true role models for what other artists should be when it comes to their fans.

Here are the songs that were played during the “swap the band” portion:

Kayleigh (sung by Kayleigh #1)
The Party
Cover My Eyes
Afraid of Sunlight (sung by Kayleigh #2)

After the session was over, on the way out of the venue, I passed a guy in the street who was gently singing “Afraid of Sunlight” to himself with a rather thick French accent. It both warmed my heart and made me slightly giggle at the same time. Music really does bring people together.

I trekked back again to the hotel. I flipped on the TV, hoping to find something to watch for a little while. The best I could find was “Jaws” in French. I don’t know but something was just lost in the translation, I think.

I started preparing mentally for dinner, meaning where I was going to eat, etc. After a bit of thinking, I decided upon Aux Vivres (http://www.auxvivres.com/en/home/), a seemingly well known place billed as the “original” vegan restaurant of Montreal which, of course, was quite a ways from my hotel. Walking a ton more was the last thing I wanted to do but there really wasn’t much of an alternative. And so, I set off again to the metro station.

After a short ride, I exited the metro and started my walk through a nice hip looking neighborhood in search of the restaurant. I barely got a few blocks into it and it started to lightly rain. By the time I reached the café, it was just starting to rain pretty hard, enough to soak my hat very thoroughly.

Inside, Aux Vivres was pretty close to fully packed. I couldn’t believe how busy the restaurant was. The place was clearly popular! I looked over the menu and while it wasn’t exactly a glamorous selection of food, it was definitely a large one with tons of variety. There were tons of sandwich-like options to choose from and it made it a bit difficult to actually come to a decision.

The food was excellent! I ended up having a Mekong sandwich on chapatti that was simply a burst of flavor to my taste buds. I also had a Bombay Banana smoothie and some sort of soup that I can’t remember. Overall, it was absolutely the best food I had eaten in Montreal. It was obvious why the place was so packed. I was also extremely impressed by the wide variety of people who were eating there. Usually, you think of vegans as a particular type of hipster but there were entire families with little kids, older adults, etc., all seemingly enjoying the food.

Upon paying my bill, I had a hard time getting out the door since the place was even more crowded now than previously with many people waiting for a table. I made my way out the door and back in to the rain which had now thankfully lightened up. Upon walking back to the metro station, I debated…do I really dare? I thought about it and then figured what the heck.

I started making my way out to a small dessert café called, ironically, Calories, which I had visited on my previous trip. Calories is way on the other end of town, again, kind of back by where I had breakfast. The worst thing about this café is that you do have to walk outside a bit to get there and it’s kind of a drag in the rain.

I can’t say for sure but it looked like the café had changed owners. None of the cheesecake selections really appealed to me but, well, I was there and figured I needed to get something. I settled upon a slice of the turtle cheesecake and a coffee. Thankfully, the coffee was much lighter than what I had at the beginning of the day at Burgers and Benedicts. The cheesecake, though, was of the soft kind, almost with a texture not unlike firm whipped cream, and all I could really taste was a ton of sugar and no real actual flavor. Needless to say, it wasn’t my favorite. I prefer traditional plain hard cheesecake which they seem to advertise in their picture and yet haven’t had either time I’ve been there. I think next time I think I’ll try elsewhere and hopefully closer!

I once again returned to my hotel completely and totally exhausted. I got back a bit later than was I expecting and it left me only one hour until the evening’s performance. I couldn’t help but wonder how I would ever make it through. The previous night had so much energy that I didn’t think I could ever get to that point again!

3rd Show

Well, it became a non-issue of sorts. It was during this third and last performance that my luck finally completely ran out. It ended up being a pretty lame evening for me, much, much worse than the first show, and pretty much the entire show was ruined by audience members around me. The idiot quotient in the venue seemed to be at an all time high that evening.

I’m sure Marillion themselves were fantastic as always, of course, but I wouldn’t know since no matter who I stood near, they apparently seemed more in to holding a loud conversation rather than watching or listening to the band. It was quite maddening. I moved multiple times throughout the audience but there wasn’t much room to be had so I ended up drifting back and forth between four different spots. Three were filled with constant talkers and laughers; one had a guy I dubbed as Sasquatch, someone so tall that I couldn’t see a blasted thing around his head and hair. Worse yet, there was a younger kid with an upright brimmed baseball hat right behind him who was also fairly tall and insisted on waving his head from side to side so that his head acted like a pendulum to the bigger/hairier Sasquatch, completely blocking my few every few seconds, first left, then right, and so on. Some show!

Something very unfortunate happened pretty early on in the show. During the “Mad” portion of “Goodbye to All That”, H was holding a small crystal ball in his hands on stage. He suddenly decided to chuck it into the audience, which immediately seemed like a big mistake in my eyes, and of course the audience members started hitting it around as if it was a beachball. Well, I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. Now, mind you, this was a small mirrorball, probably with a hollow or styrofoam center so that it was fairly light, but it still had the mirrors on the outside so at least the outer core was fairly solid and potentially sharp. I kept my eye on the thing, fearing an accident was about to happen and I can sometimes be a magnet for such a thing. Sure enough, someone punched the tiny mirrorball way up into the air and it fell and hit some poor unsuspecting guy on the other side of the venue a couple feet in front of me. It hit him with a terrible smack on the side of the head and he bent over, in obvious pain, holding his right ear for a very long time. People started asking him if he was okay and he simply kept holding his ear. I couldn’t hear him but I think he asked the guy next to him if there was any blood, which there didn’t appear to be. I think, with the way the ball hit him, that it might have either affected his hearing for awhile or perhaps it could have fractured the cartilage in his ear. I’m not sure but I felt very sorry for the guy who didn’t even see the thing coming at him. It was a really poor choice of H to toss the ball into the audience. Hopefully, lesson learned.

Marillion played again for about 3 hours. They played a great set too, filled with some songs that I had always wanted to hear live. It was too bad that the sound of talking overpowered the songs. Ugh.

The theme of the evening was “the Glo must Go On”. This ended up meaning that we were all handed Glo Sticks on our way in, and the idea was that the audience was to vote between two different songs for which they preferred to hear. The band would then take a quick count of people holding up sticks and then play the appropriate song. It was quite a cool idea. Eventually, when the band posed a really hard choice between two songs that everyone wanted to hear, a chant began of “Both! Both! Both!!!” The whole place more or less rang out in protest, wanting to hear both tracks. In the end, they caved in on at least one of them.

Yet another cool photo of Marillion hard at work...

There were a couple of flubs in the show. During “Estonia”, a true fan favorite, Steve Rothery’s guitar refused to work and the majority of the song went without him while he frantically tried to communicate with his guitar tech.

Also, before “Easter”, H told the story of how they first played the song as a band. H had apparently just joined the band and had the main body of the song more or less already written out. He had pointed out how the middle of the track needed something in it and thought Steve Rothery could maybe play something during that part. Supposedly, the very first time they ran through the track as a band, Rothery played the solo that was eventually recorded almost verbatim. In the words of H with the usual English accent, “…so yeah, Rothery literally blew it out of his ass…” Rothery’s eyes widened as he glanced over at H, clearly mouthing a “What?!!” and smiling just the same.

Here’s the set list to the best of my memory. I’m sure there are errors here, considering the circumstances, so, as usual, don’t take it verbatim:

Goodbye to All That
Hard as Love (more or less the Less is More version)
Afraid of Sunlight
One Fine Day
Beyond You
Go!
Brave
Estonia
Between You and Me
Ocean Cloud
Happiness is the Road

Neverland

The Great Escape
Easter

This Strange Engine

The band actually closed with “Easter” and I thought they were most certainly done for the night. Everyone was heading out of the theater when they decided to come back and start into “This Strange Engine”. I decided to simply stand way in the back by the soundboard and listen/watch uninterrupted. It was lame being that far back but it had been even more lame being up close. Sigh.

With that, I returned to my hotel room and did my best not to brood about it too much. You win some, you lose some, and this was clearly a loss.