Party Animals From Hell pt.4

As I write this, I realize I made an error in the story. I thought it was the Friday night that Craig lost his car keys, but it was actually the Saturday night. With that being noted, let us move on.

I made my way back to our cottages and it was still quite early in the morning. Although the music was bumping and the fire was still dancing, majority of my friends were asleep. There was a small group of guys sitting around drinking, so naturally I joined them. It was a fairly chill morning in more ways than one, we were taking it easy, but it was also overcast and windy. It had been beautiful all weekend but it looked like our luck had run out, as I could tell it was definitely going to rain.

Our troop slowly started coming back from the dead, and by noon everything was back in full swing. My suspicions were correct, as it had started raining, but it wasn't coming down too badly. It was however a grey day and nowhere nearly as warm as the rest of the weekend had been. I was officially out of 151 rum now, so I was using the old barter system once again, trading meats for alcohol. I was definitely drinking a bit moderately though as I hadn't slept the previous night. Everyone assumed I had had sex with Leah, and I didn't deny nor confirm their assumptions from what I recall. I hadn't been sober or logical enough to stop and remember that a few of Michael Campbell's friends who were with us were also friends of my new love interest Tara. I figured there'd be drama to follow.

Shortly after lunchtime I saw what I thought was a mirage, as I was still hallucinating slightly, but this manifestation was real. It was Craig walking down the beach back towards our area. He had been gone for over 14 hours or so by now. I walked down the beach to meet him and see what was up. He had gone looking for his keys the night before and he remembered walking down the beach looking for them. From there all he remembered was two police officers waking him up and he was standing on the beach. Somehow he had passed out standing up, or perhaps they stood him up while he was still asleep. Craig explained his situation and they thankfully had sent him on his way. Before he left he had asked the officers if they knew where Whites Bungalows were. They had pointed him in the proper direction and he'd been walking for close to three hours before he arrived. Absolute madness I proclaimed. I was just relieved my pal was back and in one piece.

As the afternoon rolled on things started to get a bit grim. We were running low on alcohol, we were running out of things to keep the fire going, and the weather was putting a whole damper on the situation as well. One of Michael's friends found a 24 of beer in one of the cottages, and as he excitedly ran out to tell us all, the bottom of the damp box gave out. The ground was all sand except for a stone doorstep into the cottage, and by some freak act of nature that's exactly where all the beers fell. I think maybe 8 survived the incident. Oh the horror.

I wasn't in much of a drinking mood to be honest, so I really didn't care, but for the guys on a bender it was a grim situation. Jay Dove had made a funnel out of a pink flamingo he'd stolen from someone's property, and he'd ran out of things to fill it with. Jay had an uncanny of slamming back large amounts of beer or booze in the blink of an eye, it was quite remarkable. Only he wasn't ready to stop now, so a few of us got in cahoots and devised a master plan. 

We headed to the villa of high schoolers behind us and  began going cottage to cottage. Jay would belligerently knock on the door, and when answered he'd stick the flamingo funnel in their faces and demand "FILL BLUBBER DUCKY!!!" Everyone seemed to be amazed by this, so they'd willingly grab whatever alcohol was within arms reach and fill the funnel. Sometimes as much as 3-4 beers were going in at once, multiple brands of beers and various mixed drinks, even liquor straight out the bottle. Jay would slam it back in a heartbeat and leave them all in awe, and as his one man show kept them amused, me and a few other guys would go into the bedrooms and take the plywood out from between the mattresses of the beds. 

We ran this racket on everyone and anyone who'd answer the door, the whole time we'd have troops running the wood back to our site, and needless to say Jay wasn't going to need many more drinks. The wood we were taking was about an inch thick and was literally the size of a mattress. We constructed a giant teepee like structure with them, and before you knew it the flames were close to 20 feet in the air. I'd never seen a fire so immense, and we'd had some pretty huge fires that weekend, but this beast was so enormous that it kept you warm and it seemed to cancel out the rain. The tunes were cranking and everyone was back in their happy place, but not for long.

A group of Police officers showed up, the music dropped to a very quiet level, and the cops declared it was illegal to have a fire in the rain. We were all dumbfounded as none of us had ever heard of such a law, and it really didn't seem to make sense considering water puts fires out. We eventually started pulling our teepee apart until it was a shadow of what it once was. Then an amazing revelation was discovered. Someone actually took a moment to read the officers jackets and realized the back of the coats said "LAW ENFORCEMENT STUDENT" These weren't real cops, they were kids in training. Everyone started spreading word of their true rankings, and within seconds the music was back up to full volume and the fire teepee was being reconstructed. The law students stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, then turned tail and walked away in defeat.

Unfortunately during all of the madness, the only person with hash left had ditched it in the sand when the "cops" showed up. Jay ripped a screen window out of the closest cottage and commenced sifting through the sand with it like an old miner panning for gold. I can't remember if they found it or not, but in the process Craig's keys were discovered....literally a couple of feet from the fire! I couldn't believed he'd walked for endless hours looking for them and they were here the entire time. This was really great though as he could now get himself and his car back home, although as Craig's ongoing affair with lady-luck would have it, he actually lost his wallet the previous night looking for his keys. Remarkably, some random stranger found it weeks later and mailed it back to him.

It had been an amazing weekend all in all, and a great first May 24 experience. I was feeling fine, I was happy as hell, and me and all of my friends were having a great time together. The night was starting to grow late, and random folks were starting to make their way back to party with us "crazy people" We were once again back in full swing bender mode. I was starting to burnout running on no sleep, and I knew I'd be calling it early on my final night here. No sooner than I was having these thoughts, I noticed something, or someone. It was Leah and her group of friends, and they were all giving me nasty cut eye, clearly pissed off that I'd destroyed their bathroom and their belongings. I cracked a smile at her and got no reciprocation, only a scowl. My thoughts of retiring early seemed to come at the right moment, as I figured if I didn't disappear soon some form of altercation was going to occur. 

I headed into the cottage but low and behold I found dropped bodies everywhere. There was absolutely nowhere left to sleep. I went to find my buddy Shane aka Foxy Bano, who I'd come up with, and asked him if I could crash in his car. Bano let me in, and I flopped out on the backseat and drifted into slumber. Shane eventually came and slept in the front seat of the car shortly after I'd passed out.

We both ended up waking at about 7am on the Monday morning. Not a soul was in sight, and you could hear a pin drop in the sand. We decided to make our exit stealthily and beat the traffic, so we hit the road in a flash without even attempting to say our goodbyes, we just wanted our own beds by his point. Shane pulled a cassette tape out of his pocket and popped it in the car stereo... It was Jay's reggae mix I'd been tripping on all weekend. Somehow Bano had convinced Jay to lend him the tape so he could dub it, and you damn well know I had to get a dub of that shit! We listened to that tape over and over for the entire drive home and Foxy even had some secret stash he'd been saving, which made the ride back even much more sweeter. Without a doubt, the myths, stories, and legends I had heard about May 24 had lived up to their full potential and then some. I was already anxiously awaiting the next one...

Party Animals From Hell pt.3

It was a bit chilly when we arrived at Wasaga Beach on the Thursday eve, but after that the weather was beautiful, and this late Saturday morning was no exception. One of my friends had fallen asleep on the beach the previous night and the poor guy was now burnt to a crisp. It was a relaxing morning to say the least. Light drinking and smoking and of course our music blaring. The beach was starting to fill up with people and I could only imagine how horrified some of these families would be when we kicked the party back into high gear.

A few of the guys went into town to pick up a few things and do some sight seeing. I decided to stay behind and chill. A few random strangers visited the site from time to time, most of whom had been there partying with us the night before. Most of them generally wanted to stop by and say hello and thank us for the great time. During some of my conversations with these random strangers, there was a reoccurring theme that kept coming up. Folks who had joined us the previous night were now warning others to stay away from "the crazy people" Even the punk ass high school kids staying behind us had apparently warned a few people to steer clear of us as we were crazy. When the guys got back from town they shared similar stories of "the crazy people" I thought it was hilarious that folks were so intimidated by our wild ways.

As if there wasn't enough of us crazies already, even MORE friends were showing up now, most of whom made the commute just for the Saturday. Our group just kept getting bigger. We must of had about 40-60 of our close friends together now. We all sat in the sun drinking and socializing while others were playing games on the beach. Our music in full bloom, our uniqueness in full bloom, the beach goers couldn't keep their attentions off of us.

Later in the day one of the guys stumbled upon someone who was selling LSD, so a bunch of the guys decided to drop acid. I wanted to partake, but truth be told I didn't have a penny to my name. I had paid my portion for the cottage ahead of time, but I literally came with food and alcohol. Realizing I still had a small cooler full of prime cuts, I decided to try and haggle for a hit. Sure enough the dealer was happy to take a high quality steak in exchange for a $5.00 blotter. One could only ponder how wild things would get now with us crazy people.

As the sun set the party livened, yet it seemed like a small gathering compared to the previous night. Someone mentioned in passing that the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing a hockey game, and if they lost they'd be out of the playoffs. It all made sense now why nobody was around. Despite that we kept the party going. At one point I went into my buddy Gooch's tent and realized he was harboring the mother load of fireworks. I asked him if we could shoot some off and he quickly said no, as he was saving them for Sunday.

Someone ended up getting the Leafs game on a radio, so that folks could keep in the loop. I for one just wanted this game to end already so we could really get the party going. Things weren't looking good for Toronto, and as fate would have it they lost the game and were eliminated from the playoffs. Right when the game ended I snuck into Gooch's tent and snagged a massive firework. I stepped out of the tent, lit it, and held it like a machine gun, as I blasted colourful fireballs towards the cottages behind us. It seemed like the firework hadn't even finished yet, and all the high school kids came pouring out of their cottages and joined our festivities. Apparently we weren't THAT crazy considering they were all coming to party with us again.

The night raged on, the music was louder than ever, and our fire was dancing high in the sky once again. Just like the precious night, people were walking miles to our site to see what all of the commotion was. I swear there was twice as many people as the night before, anywhere from 200-400 people. Jay Dove had put in a reggae mixtape and I was absolutely loving it. I'd never really been into reggae much, asides from a bit of Marley, Tosh, and Bad Brains, but i couldn't get enough of this mixtape. We must of played it a few times over. It consisted of songs mostly from Supercat, NinjaMan, Cutty Ranks, and Shabba Ranks, just to name a few. I don't know if the acid had something to do I with it, but this was all I wanted to listen to.

Things really started to get crazy as the night progressed. We had ran out of firewood, so now we were burning anything in sight. Pick nick tables, chairs, you name it. At some point I was even sitting on a burning chair in the middle of the fire. I remember someone taking a picture of me, that I saw at a later date, but I can't remember which of my friends it was. There was a small storage shed beside the cottage, and even that was ripped apart board by board and thrown into the flames. Nothing was safe, and that became evident when a few of the guys pulled a two seater couch out of the cottage and tossed it on the fire.

There were tons of people around who we didn't know, so we tried to stick together in groups just in case any shit popped off. As expected, there was an obnoxiously drunk guy getting on everyone's nerves. Some girl ended up laying the guy out with a few punches and kicks. You'd think he'd learn a lesson, but no, instead he foolishly ventured into the kitchen of our cottage where the sound system was. He was in the wolves den now. 

The stereo was set up on the kitchen counter right beside the sink, which was full of water, dirty dishes and empty beer bottles. Obnoxious guy tried to change the music without asking, which led to a scuffle, which led to him ALMOST knocking the stereo into the sink. This sparked my friend Shayne, who immediately grabbed the guy and started grappling with him. Shayne smashed the dudes head into the fridge so hard that it almost fell over. He then tackled him to the floor, which was now about an inch thick of beer, mud, and broken glass. Shayne literally rubbed this poor bastard's face into the floor declaring "YOU'RE NOT A TRUE PARTIER!!!!!" After his second ass kicking of the evening, we ejected him and decided that no more outsiders would be allowed inside our cottage.

Apparently this guy didn't know when to quit, as he was still stumbling around talking shit and trying to pick fights. A few of us were just getting the BBQ ready for a late night snack, when you know who came along looking for trouble. As soon as he walked around the corner and opened his mouth, my friend Mike Lomas punched him square in the face. The blow literally sent the guy flying off his feet and he crash landed into the BBQ. Someone dragged his sorry carcass away from the wreckage and that was the last of him.

Amongst all the chaos and hundreds of people, some random guy came up to me and asked if I was the drummer for Grasshopper. Even though I no longer was, the guy totally blew me away. I asked him how he knew about Grasshopper and he replied "I don't, that girl over there asked me to ask you" I looked over in the direction he pointed to see a familiar face. A young girl named Leah, the sister of a hardcore skate punk named Rob from Brampton who used to come to all of our gigs with his buddy Duncan. Leah wasn't so young anymore mind you, and she had developed quite amazingly. 

I walked over to her and said hello. We got to chatting, and I was surprised to learn that neither Rob or Duncan was here, she had came up with friends of hers from school. Leah was always nice and respectful, as was I to her, but it was apparent she wanted to get a bit naughty on this particular night, constantly flirting with me and showering me with kisses. Eventually she brought me back to her cottage, it was getting close to sunrise.

I was still totally awake due to the acid, but not even five minutes after crawling into bed Leah passed out in a drunken mess. Needless to say I was slightly disappointed. The room she was staying in had sliding glass doors that led out to the beach. I had to pee really bad so I quietly slid the door open and slipped outside. I don't know if it was the drugs, but I had major stage fright. There wasn't a soul in sight for miles, but for the life of me I just couldn't go. I finally found a secluded area where I felt comfortable, but as I started to unzip, my bowels informed me that a number two was on deck. Crap! There was no way I could poop on the beach. I decided to head back into Leah's cottage and find a bathroom. 

It was probably about 7-8am by this point, so I figured everyone would be asleep. As I tiptoed through the cottage, I passed a living room area that was full of people on couches and in sleeping bags. Most of them were awake, and they all stopped mid convo to eyeball me as I passed by. I said "Hey" with a quick wave of the hand, then headed to the can. I don't think I'd had a movement the entire weekend, so needless to say I destroyed that toilet. Finally relaxed and relieved, I finished up and flushed the toilet. Then the horror....

I guess the cottage and plumbing were very old, because as soon as I flushed the toilet the water level started rising, and it didn't stop. Before I even knew what was happening there was sewage spewing over the seat and onto the floor, which was covered in all of these people's clothes, towels, and personal belongings. I backed away in shock as the shit storm slowly cornered me. My back hit the door, so I turned around, opened the door quickly and shut it behind me. 

I passed by the group of people in the living room, and smiled and waved as if nothing had happened, from there I headed back into Leah's room and made my great escape out the back door before her fiends realized what I had left behind for them. Talk about embarrassing. 

It was now morning and I had no idea where the hell I was. Thankfully I remembered which way we walked the previous night, so I made my way back down the beach towards our cottages. I had only been walking maybe 5-10 minutes when something caught my attention. The glint of a fire and the sound of music. I strained my eyes and my ears, then quickly realized it was "Party" by Ice T that was playing. I followed the flame and the sound of Ice, and within minutes I was "home" again...

Party Animals From Hell pt.2

I had passed out somewhere between 12 and 1 o'clock a.m. When I awoke it was somewhere between 8 and 9 o'clock am. The place looked like a war zone. Empty beer bottles and cans were scattered about all over the place. Everyone was passed out, some in beds, some on couches, some on the floor, and some were even sleeping on the beach. I was literally the only soul awake, so I decided it was time to start the party up again.

I quietly crept over to the stereo and cued up side two of Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys. The first song "Five Piece Chicken Dinner" kicked in, a little diddly with lots of fast strumming banjos accompanied by redneck style hooting and hollering. Of course I cranked the volume up very high. 

People immediately started rising from the dead, some of whom who had only been sleeping for a mere couple of hours. By the time the next song "Looking down the barrel of a gun" kicked in, everybody was awake and back in party mode. I took it easy that morning, only having a few puffs, but by the time noon hit, the party was back in full swing. 

I decided it was time to make myself a drink. I took a can of frozen lemonade and mixed it into a pitcher with half the bottle of 151 rum my father had given me. The pitcher had a lid with a built in plastic straw, so this would serve as my cup for the day...and night.

As the afternoon rolled into early evening, we were greeted by even more friends. Some of the guys had to work the Friday, so they couldn't make it up until the early evening. There was also a group of outsiders who had now shown up. Our cottage was right on the beach, but it stepped up a about a foot and was surrounded by wooden planks. Behind our cottage the land stepped up about 2-3 feet and it was full of a small villa of little cottages, probably about 20 or so. These cottages had been empty since we arrived, but they were now being inhabited by a large group of high school kids who had booked them. "Oh great" I thought to myself "Just what we need, a group of dumbass school kids" Naturally they were intimidated by us, so they kept their distance and avoided eye contact.

As the sun went down, we decided to get a fire going, and it was a big fire indeed. There was a lot of drift wood around the beach so it was easy to keep the flames high. The music was blasting at full volume, and our party seemed to keep getting bigger and bigger. Jay Dove had fired up the BBQ and he was serving Jamaican jerk bear. It was interesting to say the least. I tossed some pizza pops on the barbie once again and got my munch on.

By now there were at least 100-200 people partying at our site, a lot of whom I had never seen before in my life. I started talking to random strangers to find out who they were and where they came from. I seemed to get the same answer from everyone "Our cottage is a few miles up the beach. We could hear your music and see your huge fire so we decided to check it out" Even the snooty high school kids had finally grown brazen enough to come join our party. We got them to try Jay's homemade electric pipe, which ended up generating many sales for my friends who were peddling weed.

My old grade school chum Craig Beattie even showed up with a couple of dudes, so we drank and caught up. By midnight Craig was blacked out drunk stumbling around kicking sand everywhere. I asked him what was up and he told me he'd lost his car keys. Talk about a bad trip. Craig had taken a walk down the beach earlier, so he decided to retrace his steps. I watched him wander down the beach until he was out of my sight. I was slightly worried about him and I really hoped he'd find his keys. After all, how the hell would he get himself and his car home?

It was now about 3-4 a.m. and our party of hundreds was still going strong, however I was fading fast. My drink was finally done, and I could barely stand up, so I decided to call it a night. I went into my cottage but there were already people occupying all the beds. I went into one of the other cottages that was attached to ours and I found an empty bed. I plopped down and was out like a light in no time. 

At some point though, I found myself extremely uncomfortable and I woke up. I couldn't feel or move my legs. As I examined the situation I realized there were 3 or 4 other guys now passed out in the bed, and one of them, Mark Fantini, was lying horizontally across the bed on top of my legs, which were completely numb and asleep. I managed to pull myself from out under him, snagged a pillow, and moved to the floor to continue my slumber. I could still hear music, talking, yelling, and the crackling of the fire. Despite all of these noisy distractions, the Sandman came to visit quickly and I was back off to LaLa Land...

Party Animals From Hell pt.1

I was highly excited for my first May 24 long weekend experience. I had never been away for one of these, but I had heard epic stories from my older buddies of all the wacky antics and hi jinks that took place. Despite the fact that my new sweetheart was heading to a different destination than me, I was eagerly awaiting this party of the year. We had rented a large cottage that was actually 3 cottages in one on a nice private piece of Wasaga Beach. There was quite a large group of us going, so the cost was quite cheap divvied up amongst us. I had covered my cost of the cottage, but now as the long weekend approached I realized I had no money for food or party favours.

I approached my mom and dad on the subject and they were more than happy to help. I never relied on my folks for financial help, and I wasn't about to start now, but they helped me in other ways. My father donated a 26 ounce bottle of 151 Jamaican rum, and my mother offered some cans of frozen lemonade as mix. My parents also told me I could take some meat from the deep freeze in our garage as well as some food from the fridge and pantry. The deep freeze was full of high grade packaged meat. My folks had literally boughten an entire cow that year, so I loaded up my cooler with an assortment of cuts. I was now officially ready to rock.

Since it was a long weekend we headed up to Wasaga on the Thursday evening. My friend Jay Dove had rented a serious sound system that was sure to blast any opposing music into the dust. We loaded it up along with our gear and hit the road. We arrived around sundown, unpacked, settled into our rooms, then started hooking up the sound system. We ended up putting it on the kitchen counter in our cottage with the speakers set up in front of a screen window. The music was now in effect and it was LOUD.

I only had two cans of lemonade, so I decided I'd use half my bottle of rum Friday and the other half on Saturday, but what would I drink tonight? Thankfully I ended up getting a few beers from friends, and I took a couple swigs of the 151. That was more than enough to get me feeling good for the night, not to mention the endless supply of dope that was being passed around. Jay had also brought his BBQ with him, and we ended up firing it up later into the night. I threw some pizza pops on the Barbie and surprisingly they turned out amazing. They tasted ten times better than they did when cooked in an oven or microwave.

As the night rolled on, more and more friends started arriving, some of which I didn't even know were coming, as they hadn't split the costs with us. Our cottages were on a fairly decent sized lot, so most of the extra attendees had brought tents to sleep in. Some simply had decided to sleep in their cars. Needless to say I was kind of stoked that our group of 15-20 people had now doubled to about 40 friends, and word on the beach was even more of our homies would be arriving as the weekend progressed. 

I was having a grand old time, but I was exhausted as it had been a very long day. I was half in the bag, my legs were like rubber, and my mind was starting to shutdown. I figured it was time to goto sleep, but I felt like somewhat of a lightweight being the first one to hit the hay. I quietly slinked off to my room without anyone noticing and crawled in bed. It was roughly midnight and the music was still cranking, but somehow I managed to block it out and slip off into dreamland. As I faded away I thought to myself "I might be the first one in bed, but I'm going to be the first one up to bring this party back to life in the morning..."

Tara

I didn't know her name, I didn't know who she was, but I was glad Mike Campbell had brought us to this party. I spent the night admiring her from a distance, waiting for her eyes to meet mine, but they never did. As the night progressed I found myself more and more attracted to her, and the fact that she hadn't really noticed me just fueled the fire of my desires. She was short and curvy, with curly long dirty blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes that sparkled like diamonds. "She will be mine" I said to myself.

As the night started to wind down, a lot of the party goers had made their way outside. We were now partying on the front lawn, and some people were getting ready to head home. She was giving the business to some guy, friendly jokes, punches in the arm, etc. then the guy in question got in a car a left. I decided it was time to make my move.

I approached her to say hello and we exchanged pleasantries. After a few minutes of small talk I asked her "How come your boyfriend left?" to which she replied "Oh he's not my boyfriend" followed by a cute laugh. I then asked her "So where is your boyfriend then?" She went on to tell me she didn't have a boyfriend. I told her I found that hard to believe considering how beautiful she was. She blushed and smiled, and we sat on the curb and continued to chat. I ended up leaving with her number and her name, Tara.

The next day I called her and we talked on the phone for what seemed like endless hours. We made plans to go hang out at my friend Noel's. A few of my buddies were there, we drank, smoked, joked, listened to music and played cards. She loved crazy eights, my favourite card game. Tara was in her last year of high school, and she had class the next day, so we skipped out fairly early and she drove me home. I did my usual first date nice guy routine and didn't attempt to kiss her goodnight. I thanked her for a great evening and then headed inside the house.

Not even 10 minutes later my phone rang, and it was Tara. She proceeded to tell me how she had a really good time and how she wished I had kissed her goodnight. We ended up talking on the phone all night until the sun was almost up, and we both fell asleep while on the phone. When we both woke up and realized what had happened we were right back in our conversation. She decided she was going to skip school and come see me. We spent the morning in bed together and I'm not going to get into details but I'm sure you can do the math.

We continued to see each other for the next week or so whenever we had the chance. If we couldn't get together we would be on the phone chatting for hours. Everything was going great. I was digging her, she was digging me, and magic was in the air, but our first test was upon us. May 24 long weekend was coming up and we both already had separate plans. She would be going to Sauble Beach with her girlfriends and I would be going to Wasaga Beach with my boys, for what would be my first May Two Four excursion. This meant 3-4 days of us not seeing, talking, touching, or having any form of contact with each other. 

I was interested to see how this would all play out...

Serial Business

Even though Grasshopper had come to pass, I sill had quite a few friends down in the city. I wasn't getting downtown as often as I used to, but I strived to maintain these connections and friendships. Guys from bands, radio people, club owners, promoters, record store dudes, the list went on and on. 3 n' Pass were playing the odd shows in the city, so I always encouraged my Toronto peeps to come and check us out.

Of all the friends I had downtown, the one I cherished the most was Dallas from The Satanatras. I was still going out of my way to hang out at his place for a couple of days whenever I had the chance. We'd mainly just hang out and talk rock, puff some ganja, and listen to music or watch movies. Dallas had gotten into Geto Boys big time, and the members had all released solo albums by this point, which had become his choice cuts. We both loved Willie D and Scarface, but Bushwick Bill was our main muthafucka. There was just something so cool and unique about a little person rapping with such a larger than life attitude and persona. Dallas had also became a big fan of "Lords of the Underground" so needless to say we were bumping that album a lot too.

Dallas had a older brother named Travis, and he lived in a sweet studio type loft where the party never seemed to stop. We'd hang out there quite frequently, and there always seemed to be an abundance of psilocybin being passed around freely. Travis and his roomies had a stage area set up, and there was always some form of jam going on, be it bands performing or just an open stage concept. I'd often hop on the drum kit and jam with random people, some of whom I didn't even know. 

I remember the cops showed up one time because someone in the neighborhood had filed a noise complaint. It must have been about 5:30-6:00 am in the morning when the cops came knocking. They were surprisingly very friendly and interested in the music we were making. Despite tripping balls, we stood at the doorway talking music with these two police officers for what felt like hours. Eventually the sun was up and the morning was in bloom. The cops proceeded to tell us we could go back to jamming and making noise, since it was now morning. Amazing I thought to myself. No cops in Peel Region would ever be that cool. I definitely developed a new respect for Metro Police that day.

The Satanatras bassist Bernie, was also a very kick ass cool cat and I always enjoyed chatting with him. Bernie had a shindig at his place one night, so naturally Dallas and I headed over. That night Bernard taught me the true powers and magic of psilocybin, proclaiming it didn't matter if you took a tiny nibble or ate a whole bag, it was all about opening your mind up to it. We sat and had seriously deep conversation on the subject, and many others, and somehow Bernie sent me on my way the following morning with a shitload of the coolest underground comics and even serial killer trading cards. He was truly the bees knees in my books. 

Jughead was another band out on the scene at the time and they were all buddies and affiliated with The Satanatra crew, I think Travis may have even been in the band at the time but I can't quite remember. Anyhow, one of their members Mike was having a party at his place, and once again Dallas brought me along with him. The place Mike lived in was very cool. It was full of studio type lofts similar to Travis' place, but the building was actually a square, and the hallway was a square perimeter, with apartment doors on both sides of the hallway. 

Practically everyone who lived here had their doors open and you could literally just walk around party hopping from apartment to apartment. Early in the night I had made eyes with an attractive young lady who suddenly vanished, so I spent the evening going from room to room trying to find her. Hours had passed, and I had pretty much given up, when from out of nowhere she appeared again. I made my move and started talking to her, and before long we were in a janitors closet smoking weed and talking. The next thing I knew we were in a taxi cab en route to her place. You don't need much of an imagination to figure out what happened next.

Her name was Tammi, and she was a very cool chick. We had quite a bit of fun over the next few weeks, and I was spending quite a bit of time at her place. She had a male roommate who was gay, and he made no qualms about throwing it in your face. I was still fairly young and somewhat homophobic to say the least, but I quickly got over that, as he was always saying and doing things to try and get a rise out of me or make me uncomfortable, but I never gave in. Looking back it was truly a great experience and part of growing up in life, as I was no longer homophobic nor did I hold any ill will towards gay people. Tammi ended up moving to Vancouver not long after I met her, and that was the end of our little fling. 

The timing really couldn't have been any more perfect, as it was not long after this that Michael Campbell brought Shayne and myself to the party I mentioned a couple posts back. The night that I met her...

New & improved for 93'

Although our 3 n' Pass demo sounded somewhat simple and basic, we had evolved with our songs. When we initially created them we would write our lyrics on the spot and then record them, which meant we had to read off of paper as we did so. We didn't have them memorized, which resulted in a lack of flow and delivery. Now that we were jamming on occasion and playing gigs, we had our lyrics down pat which gave our songs an entirely different dynamic. Our live performances definitely had more impact and energy in comparison to our demo tape.

We had played a few shows by this point, including Tremors in Brampton, as well as the 1150 club and the Edgewater Hotel in Toronto. We generally got great reception from the audience, mainly because they weren't accustomed to seeing a rap band perform live, so I assume they appreciated a different change of pace and a different form of music.

Things were going great and I wouldn't of changed it for anything....except Mike & Mike. "Mikes squared" as I used to refer to them as, approached me one day with a new vision for the band. They had collectively agreed that I was the best rapper out of the three of us, and they thought it would be a wise move for me to become the main vocalist and for them to start playing instruments to bring a new live feel to our sound.

I was a bit taken back at first, but I was totally on board with their idea. I gather they had been inspired by The Beastie Boys playing instruments on their latest album "Check Yer Head" and since the B-Boys were our biggest influence, it made sense to me. The only issue now was who would supply the beats? Enter John McCuish, former drummer of Epileptic Brain Surgeons. 

John hadn't been doing much music wise since EBS folded, and his drum set was just sitting around collecting dust. "Cushal" as we used to call him, agreed to give it a shot, so we decided to get together for a jam at Mike Myers. It was quite a trip to me, jamming with three former members of EBS, the guys solely responsible for me starting my band "Social Disorder" in my early years of high school. I felt like a student who had now become a teacher.

The first practice went pretty well. John was on drums, Chapman was on guitars, Myers was on bass, and yours truly held the microphone. We just kind of went with the flow, the boys made improv music and I busted freestyle rhymes. It was great fun, it sounded cool, and the energy was definitely there. 

Over the next few weeks we ended up writing three songs, "Wonton Soup'd", "Hurricane Theo" and "Weed Don". We were all totally stoked with what we had come up with. They (the songs) were a splendid mix of funk, rap, rock, punk and reggae. It brought a whole new feel to the band, and we weren't so limited with what we could do production wise anymore. We also knew it would make for an easier and better sounding live show.

We made some rough recordings of the songs so we wouldn't forget what we had come up with. At our rehearsals we continued to refine these three songs, as well as just winging it with live freestyle jam sessions which never disappointed. I was really happy with this new version of 3 n' Pass, and I believe the guys were very happy to be playing their instruments again. After all, they were highly talented players, so it only made sense. Why waste all that talent to simply be a mediocre rapper? Mike & Mike had a great idea, they had made a great call, and I felt like we had come full circle.

I had told Paul from Demon Barf about our new and improved version of 3 n' Pass and I played the songs for him. Needless to say he loved it and was very intrigued to attend one of our jam sessions. I ran it past the guys and they were cool with it, so we decided Paul could come sit in on our next practice. Little did I know at that time a simple jam session would change his life, and our lives forever...