The Punters - The Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, ON - 11.26.98

OK, left Waterloo at about 5:30, traffic was pretty good, got to the Tavern 5 past 7. My friend Darrel was waiting outside. We waited there for about 10 minutes and sigrid came walking down the street. She had to walk all the way from Yonge, cause there didn't seem to be any streetcars coming. Well, the four of us (forgot to mention Deb) decided to go to Tortilla Flats for dinner. It was ok. Saw someone who was a dead ringer for Fleur from MacKeel. It was uncanny.

Anyhoo, we went back to the tavern and went inside. They had the back area roped off (that's where the stage is) as there was a Loggerhead party going on, it seemed. Saw part of the punters' sound check. Saw Larry, said, oh thank goodness, he doesn't look like a freak. He's wearing fairly normal clothing. well, they let us in and we had to wait for about 40 minutes for the opening band to start (btw, the stamps we got on our hands say 'I love Teddy" (???) )

Opening band starts. pretty good. they played something from most types of music. Quite interesting actually. They're finished. Punters come out to set up. Oh geez. Larry changed. He's wearing the freaky outfit. He apparently really likes those pants, I don't know.

Well, they played for not long enough, but them's the breaks. Courtney and Kristy imitated Larry's elvis impression at the end of Reena. It was hilarious. we yelled happy birthday to larry. Not too much to tell about the show itself. They played two new songs. I got 12 pics of them, including one of larry and his freaky (good word to describe him, eh?) hair that kristy took, i have no idea what it looks like.

They finish and Kilt sets up. Kilt was pretty good. We ended up being pushed towards the speakers, so I was kinda deaf in one ear pretty quickly and had to go sit down. they are a quite entertaining bunch. Most people seemed to be there to see Kilt, which I found strange, cause I thought that the punters were more well-known than Kilt here. Anyway, I got 10 pics of them.

I was sitting with my friend Darrel and Kilt played Farewell to Nova Scotia and since that's one of my all-time favourites, I had to get up to dance. So, I'm dancing right behind Pat (which i had just noticed) well, a little bit later, Courtney comes over (we had lost Kristy and Courtney for a while) and then Larry, then Darrel gets up and Sigrid and Deb come over, then Kristy. So, we were all in a group. Well, Kilt finished playing. We stood around not really knowing what to do. They were playing swing music so some people started dancing. (keep in mind, I had 2 pics left, turned out to be 4, you know how it is) Kristy and Courtney are having a conversation with Larry right in front of me, and I had to butt in and ask Larry if he remembered my name. He didn't. Like i thought he would. ;) So, I re-introduced myself. He apologized profusely for forgetting. He then took it upon himself, to introduce himself to Darrel, Sigrid (Larry:"i'll never remember that name.") and Deb. Sweet of him eh?

Ok, have to use up rest of film. Darrel took a pic of us: me, Kristy, Courtney, Deb and Sigrid) blinding us with the flash, I blinked. One more pic.... me with Pat. Film's not rewinding, one more pic. Ooooh, Kristy's swing dancing with Larry, "Sarrel take that one!". hmmm... not rewinding, looks like another one. Ooooh, now Kristy's swing dancing with Pat. "Darrel, take that one." ok, rewinding now.

Hung around a few minutes, realized that Deb was starting to crash (she was my ride back to waterloo), so decided we should go. Hugged Courtney, Sigrid, interrupted Kristy's dance (she's back dancing with Larry now) with a wave. We hugged. Waved bye to Larry, got another apology, and a hand shake and a pat on the back. I told him not to worry, as I told him before, I'm not easily offended. Waved bye to Pat, left and babbled all the way back to Waterloo to Deb.

Ooh, forgot to say that I nabbed one of the posters from out front. Love those purple and yellow posters.

And I meant to mention. Those freaky green pants of Larry's... he must never wear them while doing a show again. Did you know that his knees sweat? At first we kinda thought that maybe he had kneeled in something, but by the end of the night, there was this huge, huge dark patch covering his entire knees and a little behind the knees in patches. You would have had to be blind to miss that.

Fiona