Customer Dis-satisfaction Part Deux

Bad service happens, I know, and a lot of my friends are servers so I understand that shit happens. But shit can happen in a good way or a bad way.
Case #1

We're at a bar that I won't name, but it rhymes with goners. We arrived around 12:30 and ordered a beer. We frequent this place and don't recognize our server. She serves us one beer and brings the bill at 1. We're all "hey, we're drinking more, we don't want the bill." She says "Oh, sometimes people leave without paying so I thought I'd bring it just in case." Again, we frequent this bar, the other servers know us. We're not going to dash and even if we weren't regulars, she shouldn't just make that assumption. And even if she does, she shouldn't fucking tell us.

Anyway, small offense, no biggie. 2am rolls around and we have half a beer left, we've paid and tipped well. She comes by and says "If you guys aren't done your beer in a few minutes I'm going to take it from you." Not "could you finish up, we're closing", not "guys, sorry but you gotta leave soon." Not any of that. She freaking challenged us. Bad idea.

We sit around staring at our beer and the clock waiting to see what she'll do. She pops by again and I say "the bar is full, people still have beer, let us finish and we'll go." It's 2:15. She sighs and rolls her eyes then storms off. 10 minutes later, she yanks the beer from Greg, while others in the bar are still drinking.

I don't mind being asked to leave. But there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Case #2

(recounted perfectly by Rachelle, but I'll try anyway)

We went out for dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown that I won't name but it rhymes with Bang-guy. A couple of us were there early and it was empty. That didn't stop the server from taking her good old time to serve us. She was obviously new, so I wasn't really holding it against her. In fact, I felt for her because she seemed to be on her own with the exception of the bartender. Anyway, the night goes on and things get worse. I won't duplicate what Rachelle said, but I'll summarize in case you haven't checked her site:

• Appetizers do not get delivered
• Orders get mixed up
• It takes 30 t0 6o minutes to get drinks/apps/mains
• The server spills a beer in an entree and says "do you want me to do something about that?"
• The server, after spilling the beer says "it will taste like beer now."
• The server does not return to clear our table.
• The server does not return with our bill.
• The place fills up with people to see a strip spelling bee and the emcee says "I know people are eating and finishing up, we're doing a spelling bee so finish up." as we're begging the bartender to get us our bill so we can leave.
• The server returns, after being called by the bartender, with the bill and a plate full of fortune cookies (Rachelle put it best, and I'm paraphrasing, "It's much too late for that.")

I've never considered dining and dashing, but I felt like it would have been the right thing to do that night. No apologies from the staff, no discount, nothing.

Thankfully the nights in between at the Pump and the Murray Street were phenomenal as always. There is great service in this city, which is why bad service sticks out like a sore thumb.

Superheroes Without the Power and Motivation

I'm back!

I was uninspired for some time and this weekend an event occurred that I have to write about. But before I do that, I have to give all y'all some background.

I've been robbed a few times. At first it was somebody breaking into my car in Montreal and stealing all my CDs. Then, it was crackheads breaking into my car in my parking garage on a fairly regular basis. In fact, at one point the lock on my car door was busted and I decided not to lock it anymore to make sure my windows were never busted (side note - my uncle cracks up over one particular robbery. I called the police and told them about a break in. They asked me when it happened. I rarely drive my car so I say sometime in the past three months). The final (I think) theft was my bicycle, which wasn't even 6 months old at the time. So I've got a pretty negative outlook towards thieves.

Fast forward to Saturday night. It was starting off as a pretty low key night. We went out for food and drinks and then back to the good doctor's place to hang with the newlyweds. As we left I convinced Greg (or was it the other way around) to grab a drink downtown before calling it a night. We were walking on Lewis Street towards Elgin (here's a map for the out of towners) and about halfway between O'Connor and Metcalfe there is a parking lot and you can see the next Street up, Gilmour. As we get to the parking lot we see a disturbance. Some guy is shoving this girl around and yanking at her purse. I point it out to Greg and he says "you go that way (straight through the parking lot) and I'll go this way (around the corner and up O'Connor)." So I beat it. I beat it like I've never beaten it before. (side note - my ankle held up great, I hadn't really tested it until then and I didn't even think about it until a day or so later). I get straight through the lot and run past the girl, who is still on the ground, following the purse snatcher when I hear her yell for help. So I stop, turn around, help her up, and ask if she's OK. She seems to be and says "get my purse." So, I turn back around and see the guy in the distance. I beat it again, but know this time he's out of my reach. But, as luck would have it, he turns left on O'Connor, running right into Greg. I slow my pace and continue on, hoping this doesn't turn ugly. Then I see Greg come around the corner with a huge smile on his face and the purse in his hands.

The rest of the story is from Greg, I've asked him to review and edit the following:

The guy runs down the middle of O'Connor Street and straight towards Greg. Greg stands there (Greg is a tall guy and can be imposing, unless you know him) arms spread wide and says "I got you, where you going, I got you. Let's do this. Come on." The guy tries to deke him a couple of times without success. Greg is matching his every move. Then he drops the purse and runs in the other direction. Superfrickinhero.

So Greg returns the purse to the girl and she is ecstatic. She's doing fine, although she has a few bruises on her arm from the incident. I ask her where she lives and she says just the other side of Elgin, which is where we were heading anyway so we tell her we'll walk her home. Greg recommends that she call the cops and she decides to go straight to the police station to report it ASAP. We walk her down Elgin to the Pump and suggest following her all the way to the police station but she declines as Elgin is a pretty busy and safe street.

So Greg and I finish our initial plan and grab a few pints and celebratory shots. Greg's a hero and worth rebooting the blog for.

Also, the girl was hammered and she had a full bottle of wine in the purse. I love centretown.

The Last Post - 2 Wilco Shows in 3 Nights

I'm horrible at blogging lately. I just can't find the time or something that ticks me off enough to make a curmudgeonly post. So I'm giving this blog up. That's not to say I'll never blog again, in fact I want to, but I think it'll be without a curmudgeonly twist. Rather, I'll just blog about my life in general, maybe some concert reviews, things like that.

So I'm ending this baby the way I started it; with a concert review. But this time you get a two for one deal. I saw two Wilco shows in 3 nights last week. Don't know who Wilco is? For shame. Go to YouTube and check some shit out. Jesus etc. may be the best song of the 2000s.

We showed up late for the first show that was at the Olympia in Montreal. It's such a beautiful venue, with red and gold trim on the inside. It reminds me of an old theater, most likely because it is (built in 1925). As we walk in I can hear "Bull Black Nova", a song off the new album "Wilco". They apparently started with "Wilco (the Song)", which isn't one of my favourites anyway and followed that with "I am Trying to Break Your Heart", a song I'm upset I missed but I'll live.

So, I wasn't pleased about showing up late, but we didn't really miss much. We walk into the theater and have to settle for a spot at the back. No problems there, I generally like the back, though it's not tough to get to the front at a Wilco show, people are pretty mellow. But the crowd was buzzing. There was an excitement in the air, although it could have been just me being in MTL or the 4 shots of Jagermeister.

The show progressed as follows:

You Are My Face
One Wing
A Shot In The Arm
Muzzle Of Bees
Pot Kettle Black
Deeper Down

At this point, I'm thinking they don't have it tonight. The band wasn't tight and I wasn't feeling it, even after hearing my favourite song "A Shot in the Arm". Then they played "Impossible Germany". Now this song has one of the greatest solos in the world and Nels Cline nailed it. I almost bought a Jazzmaster because of him. I still think it wouldn't have been a bad idea, but I'm more than happy with my Tele.

Needless to say I was won over instantly. His guitar solo changed the whole complexion of the show like a fight can change momentum in a hockey game. And it was all gravy from there. The rest of the show went like this:

Impossible Germany
She's A Jar
California Stars
Summer Teeth
Jesus, Etc.
Handshake Drugs
You Never Know
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore:
Broken Arrow (Neil Young cover)
Via Chicago
The Late Greats (dedicated "tonight, and always, to Anvil")
Heavy Metal Drummer
Red-Eyed And Blue
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
Casino Queen
Hoodoo Voodoo
I'm A Wheel

Tweedy, a well known curmudgeon, was even in a good mood. Congratulating us on all of our gold medals and inviting us to sing "Jesus etc." He then said that it was the best he's ever heard (it wasn't, the crowd sang the first chorus twice). I also got a kick out of him dedicating "The Late Greats" to Anvil. Good stuff.

All in all, a good show. It started slowly, but hit high gear after "Impossible Germany".

I had a well deserved day of rest on Sunday, though I stayed up long enough to see that hockey game that a whole lot of people watched. The next day I was well rested, but fighting a cold. No matter, it wasn't going to keep me from the National Arts Centre to see Wilco.

We arrived very early, right before the opening act started. So we grabbed a beer and checked out the merchandise. Nice stuff, but nothing I really needed to add to my collection.

The opening act (Bahamas) starts and we head down to our seats. The NAC is a theater where you get all sorts of stuff; opera, theater, rock shows. I was concerned because it's seated. Seated places tend to have seated people. You don't sit at a Wilco show.

So we walk down to our seats and notice that we'd walk in front of half the row to get there. We weren't prepared to do that and the opener, while good, wasn't really something we wanted to check out. "Want to go back to the bar?" "Do I?!"

In all fairness, the opener was talented, it was just too quiet for my liking.

So, immediately after the opening act is done we make our way to our seats. There's no way we're missing any of this. We get to our seats, chat up some folks we know and then the lights go down. Here we go. The crowd stands right away as Wilco starts with "Wilco (the song)". So far the band seems much tighter than on Saturday night. Good sign.

They follow it up with "Bull Black Nova" and the crowd starts to sit. I say to Dino "Do not sit down; this is a rock show not an opera." Yet we sit anyway. The crowd rises again when "Company in my Back" starts next and I say "I don't care what happens, I'm not sitting again. This isn't church; you don't rise and sit and rise and sit." And we didn't.

The rest of the show progressed like this:

I am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Shot In The Arm
Side With The Seeds
Deeper Down
California Stars
Impossible Germany
Blue Eyed Soul
Handshake Drugs
You Never Know
Jesus, Etc
Poor Places
Reservations
Spiders
Hummingbird

Encore:
Broken Arrow
Via Chicago
Passenger Side
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Another great show and the band was better on this night than Saturday. However, they still picked it up a notch during "Impossible Germany". Tweedy was genial again, though there were a couple of instances that I thought we'd be in for trouble. He noted how happy we all were and asked if we had won some major sporting event. Someone in the crowd yelled "entertain us" which made me cringe. I suspect he heard, though he said "I can't hear you, but it doesn't matter" and broke into whatever song was next. Things could have turned then and I suspect he's mellowed out (ahem).

He also asked us to sing Jesus etc. and noted that the crowd in MTL had done it better than anyone. He challenged us to top it. I suspect he knows nothing of Ottawa crowds. Anyway, we did fine, though he pointed out that we messed up the second verse (we did).

The guy beside me thought it'd be fun to guess every song before it was played. He'd been following them around for a bit and was in MTL too. So before every song he yells "Heavy Metal Drummer" or "Via Chicago" and then proceeds to sing whatever song they are playing. I don't like this. I came to hear Wilco, not drunk dude next to me. But I wasn't about to let that spoil my night. I let it go and it was all good from there. In fact, he was a good guy and he was just having his fun.

I was lucky enough to see two great shows in three nights. I also read online that my friend had two tickets to the show in Halifax and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about flying down. I hope you ladies had as much fun as I had.

Well, the curmudgeon is signing off. Follow me on Twitter for microblogs and I'll post something new someday without the curmudgeon twist. Hope you had as much fun as I did.

RIP Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard's show was short and sparse. He may have played for a total of 30 or 45 minutes but they were the greatest 30 or 45 minutes I've ever spent at the Babylon night club. I don't recall him saying a word between songs but I do recall the vigor with which he strummed the chords to My Shadow and his long, curly red hair flying around violently.

Jay Reatard died earlier this week and many of you don't know who he is. Who he was was one of North America best young punk rockers. And by punk, this is what I mean:

If you are unfamiliar with the incident or the widely circulated YouTube video that came out afterward, the story goes something like this: Reatard (real name Jay Lindsey) hit the stage at Toronto's Silver Dollar at about 11 p.m. He and his band were in the middle of their fourth song when one audience member sauntered on stage and managed to disconnect Reatard's microphone. Reatard swung the concert goer around by the shirt and landed a punch square in the young man's face. Then he promptly packed up his things and walked out of the venue.

Apparently Jay didn't fuck around. I recall someone mentioning that he looked a bit like Carrot Top and I suddenly expected that person to end up with a fist or boot in the face. Sadly I was disappointed.

If you haven't heard Jay's music you should. I recently read he was on the cusp of greatness. Bullshit. He was great. The fact that the rest of the world didn't know it yet changes nothing.

Bluesfest Day One

My first band at Bluesfest was the Black Keys, not Flash Lightning as I had initially intended. The rain kept me off my schedule for the first act, but there was no way I was missing the Black Keys.

I arrived before the start of the show and grabbed a spot near the sound tent. This is my favourite spot to see a show. I always figure the best sound is near the sound engineers. The band started and I immediately loved that Bluesfest was back when I felt the beat of the bass drum on my chest.

The start of the show was a half good, half bad. Patrick, the drummer was amazing. The key can really beat the skins (ba dum bum). The singer, I forget his name but he looks like Charlie from Lost (but not Merry from Lord of the Rings), was fiddling around with gear a lot to get the sound of the guitar right. This is an important step for a band like the Black Keys since, like the White Stripes, they are only a two piece band. Also like the White Stripes, they put out a big sound that amazes you they there are only two of them. But after a few songs they had it and were awesome. No complaints here. This was the band I went to see this night and they didn’t disappoint.

I had no idea what I was going to do next. Jeff Beck was playing and I feel like I should like Jeff Beck. I don’t. So we perused the artists playing on other stages; Eric Lindell, John Campbell John, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Sergent Garcia. We hadn’t heard of any of them so decided to choose by best name. So, it was down to Van Der Graaf Generator and Sergent Garcia. Sergent Garcia was playing at the Black Sheep stage, a stage that generally hosts great, eclectic, up and coming bands.

Sergent Garcia was ok. I had fun, but I really wanted to see two other acts; Ibrahim Ferrer and Manu Chao. You see, if Ibrahim Ferrer and Manu Chao had a bunch of kids that formed a band, it would be Sergent Garcia. Not a bad thing per se, but not great either. At one point I said to my girlfriend “I bet they play Guantanamera”. Sure enough, when the string player picked up the Cuban Tres, he began Guantanamera and turned it into a sing along. I suspect Guantanamera is to Cuban bands as Barrett’s Privateers is to Maritime bands. You have to have it on your set list even though you don’t want to (and the crowd usually doesn’t either, unless they’re tourists).

All in all it was a good start to the festival. I’m glad I went and didn’t get wet.

Also, I am very impressed with Bluesfest’s green initiatives. Here’s what the media release:

For the past three years, the Ottawa Bluesfest organization has been recognized by the Recycling Council of Ontario with an Award for Waste Minimization'. The festival is asking all patrons to help make this festival the greenest event in Ontario. The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest is the use of an innovative recycling receptacle, known as the ClearStream CycleMax. Field studies have proven that the ClearStream is extremely successful in the recovery of recyclable materials and greatly reduces the amount of litter sent to landfill sites. The ClearStream CycleMax utilizes a clear bag that is re-usable. As well, we have a new composting program onsite. Everything from food scraps to serving ware is compostable and can be placed in the new green bins. Please help us divert as much garbage to landfill by composting.

Don't forget to use the very popular and successful Cupsuckers. In conjunction with Molson Canada, Bluesfest continues to utilize compostable beer cups made from corn. Of the more than 200,000 cups that are used, 99% are separately disposed of without harming the environment. Please place your cups in the Cupsuckers located next to each garbage can. Bluesfest organizers will also encourage people to bicycle to the event by providing supervised bike parking.

Kudos to all the Bluesfest organizers on your green initiatives and awards. Shame on all you attendees for not using the cupsuckers, recycle bins, compost bins, and garbage bins.

Bye bye Joe

This post is a bit of a reversal. I will be praising someone, specifically Joe Sakic. Joe Sakic is one of the greatest hockey players of my lifetime. He doesn't hold the record for most goals, assists, or points (though he is 14th, 8th and 11th respectively), but he was a consummate professional, never once involved in any type of scandal or me first scenario and he played his entire career with the same franchise, the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche.

It is a rarity in sports today where you have an athlete spend their entire career with the same team. To me, this says a lot about Joe. Joe chose to be loyal to his team, even through the recent bad years. But if you look at it another way, his team chose to be loyal to him. Why did Joe stay when Forsberg left, Foote left, Tanguay left, etc. To me, this says even more about Joe. Even as his skills were declining (sorry but it's true) the Avs wanted Joe to stay and you never once heard his name in any trade rumours and always sort of knew he'd retire with his team.

So cheers to Joe. We'll miss you, especially this February in Vancouver.