Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I’m writing this post from where I will call home for at least the next year. My wild and crazy travels have been temporarily put on hold so that I could get my life back in order in time for my return to the (dun, dun, dunnnn) real world in January. Luckily for me, this means I have no job encumbering me from getting everything finished in that time. In the past few weeks, I have found an apartment in Edmonton, arranged all my things in Saskatoon, packed them into a trailer, moved them all into my new apartment, unpacked and purchased all sorts of new things to fill out my place, and sorted out my return to work. The only major things left to complete are a few writing projects, a bit of decorating and I'll be ready to get back to what most would consider a normal life again.


That being said, I'm not finished traveling just yet. I'm back on the road next week to further my career as a photographer and then I would expect to find some mountains in my future.

In the meantime, I'm still in Edmonton and if you're in Canada you know that this is Grey Cup (Canadian football championship) weekend. One of the perks of my new apartment is that it's located downtown and this week that means I'm walking distance from one of the biggest parties in Canada. Last night I took advantage of the free concert stage that is part of the festivities. The band Big Wreck was playing last as part of their reunion tour and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them. This band created what I still hold as my favorite song of all time (That Song) and I'd never seen it live (mostly because the band had broken up by the time I heard the song). I really went to go see them just in case they played That Song (which they did and sprinkled in some Thornley too) but was overwhelmed with how solid their performance was and how great is was to feel live music again. And by feel, I mean having you're whole body shake every time the bass drum is struck. It was a great start to the night, but nowhere near the peak.




After that I walked home, got my car and picked up Andrea to go see my second show of the evening. Next up was the John Butler Trio which is a band Andrea introduced to me after she spent time in Australia (their native land) and inadvertently met John Butler. I had listened to this band for the last couple of years and really started to appreciate their music while in Australia when I realized how revered they are there. I remember listening to JBT while working in Australia and hearing stories about how he used to busk on the streets in WA and about how great his live performances are. Little did I know that I was about to see one of the greatest live shows I've ever experienced. The band came out and went through an astonishing number of great songs, while mixing in great crowd interaction and some jaw-dropping guitar performances. John Butler himself played 10+ different guitar-like instruments (including lapsteel, acoustic, electric, acoustic electric, 12 string, ukulele, banjo, etc, etc). I'm still in shock because how good the 2.5 hour show was. It's taking everything I've got not to drive to Calgary tonight to see them again.




I've got more of my own videos of JBT trio last night, but I found this clip online of a song I saw him perform last night. The clip is the closest thing to what the experience I had. This song raised the bar for what I thought was possible with music and I implore you to watch the entire clip. Then I dare you not to drive to see him in Calgary.