Not the one on MTV...

On Tuesday I went on my own to see the Cribs at Lee's Palace. I walked up from the hotel, about a 45 minutes walk, and it pretty much rained for the whole journey....oh well.

It was a pretty small place, which I expected, but it never actually filled to capacity as both the Fratellis and Snow Patrol were playing in Toronto on the same day so I guess anybody who liked British music might have chosen them over this one. Didn't matter to me.

Support came from the in-joke spouting Hollerado, who it seems might not have actually played a proper concert before, or at least not many. They were OK, some songs sounding good, some sounding not-so-good.

Being so small, it seems there are no toilets backstage, which meant that the guys from the band actually had to come out and use the same ones as the rest of them. I spoke to Gary and Ryan Jarman whilst they were milling around, nothing exciting. They thought the venue was pretty cool (being so small), they asked me what I was up to in Toronto, and told me they never tell anyone (cab drivers etc.) what they are doing in town as if they tell them they are in a band it's highly likely they will not have heard of them anyway. I knew anyway, but they have pretty strong Yorkshire accents, which I struggled to understand a bit, so god knows what the Canadian public made of them.

I was speaking to some girls about the band, and one of them was a big fan, not just of the Cribs but of several other British bands (which meant we had a lot to talk about). I don't know if she had been drinking, but during the conversation she asked me if I'd seen them before about 4 times.....oh well. She also said that she doesn't really like any Canadian music, which makes sense I guess, and is coming to England to study (in Oxford, not at Oxford as it is too expensive) and work if possible and was hoping for a Libertines reunion....not too likely in my opinion but you never know.

Another weird thing that happened was in the toilets. I was going about my business when a man came in singing. But he wasn't singing anything in particular, just "Mens....Mens.....Meeeens......Mens......Meeeeeeeeens". It was a little disconcerting.

The concert itself was very good. I was just in front of the stage, in a pseudo mosh pit (I mean, it had about 4 people moshing), as there can't have been more than 50 odd people on the floor in front of the stage, the rest standing and sitting around the edge. I sang my heart out, danced around and waved and pointed like a weirdo....it was great.

Oh, and here's the conversation from the cab ride home...

Me: "Can you take me to the Marriott on Wellington?"
Cabbie: "There is no Marriott on Wellington"
Me: "Yes there is"
Cabbie: "No there isn't"
Me: "OK, just take me to the Soho Metropolitan then"
.
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Cabbie "I picked up a couple the other day and they took me to the new hotel on Wellington, and that's when I realised there was a Marriott on Wellington"

I couldn't reply.....the big freak....he was either lying or stupid or both