ARCTIC Expeditions

The Road:

We left Fernie in the late morning to go to Nelson one day early, just to hang out. Once again the drive/ferry ride was absolutely beautiful. The ferry cuts across the top of Kootany Lake and is the best sightseeing bargain in the province (free!). One thing I like about Nelson is the fact that, barring chain restaurants, it is hard to have a bad meal here. We ate at three different restaurants (The Outer Clove, DJ's and Mazatlan) and each meal was very good.

"Other activities":

Before we went on the road, Marcus and I discussed the possibility of getting "road" tattoos. Well, only one of us did and that would be me. I stopped by Cats Tats to see if they could fit me in and luckily for me they had a cancellation that morning. As soon as I walked in, I got a good vibe about the place. It was open and airy feeling with lots of natural light. The artist/owner Ojas Cats is very easy to talk to and very good at her job, the bonus for me was that she liked to talk while working (keeps me from feeling too much pain) and had a lot of knowledge of Nelson. A good place to go if you want "ink".

The gig:

We arrived for sound check around 8 pm and by about 9 Marcus and the headlining act The Tuques were dialed in. The Royal is a nice place, great layout and a good sounding room plus lots of local brews on tap. Just before The Tuques got their sound check Marcus and I looked around the bar and noticed it was dead, we saw maybe 8 people - but by the time Marcus hit the stage 30 minutes later, the place was almost at capacity. Two songs in and the doorman did a head count!

The sound man had really done a great job because Marcus was on! The vocals were the best yet and the guitar was nice and rich sounding. Since Marcus was opening the set was a little shorter than some of the other shows, but it was one of the best so far. It was quite the contrast in style from The Tuques who I would describe as rock/bluegrass. During the last song Marcus had most of the room transfixed on him, it was a good crowd.

Well folks, Nelson is a nice town and it would be nice to stay another day but we are headed back to Fernie for one last show.
Arctic will be opening for Danny Michel at Eschwig's at the Northern Hotel. See you there!

Ian