I had gotten through at around 6:05 which I figured about mathematically probably placed my in the mid-40's. I had tried it every which way and as the minute hand moved around the clock I was scribbling on the back of my history homework some new formulas to justify waiting so long. There the clock went 3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:05, 4:20, 4:35, 4:43....I had just about given up and headed downstairs to get ready for a mad dash to work at 5. When a ring filled the house...everything from that point turned to slow motion as I dropped evreything I was carrying and moved like a speed popping squirrel towards the telephone. I picked up and said 'Hello' and a female voice on the other line asked "Is Michael Paris there?" and I go "Right here". So it turns out I was #36 after all, so much for formulas...I now had two passes to check out OLP tomorrow night!

Now many of my friends had already secured blueline passes for the show. The only way to get was to win and because I am notoriously unlucky I had never been at the bar the night they won their passes. Days before the show and before I knew I had passes everybody I knew seemed to be going. Including one girl who didn't know what the hell Naveed was and only wanted to hear the 'Superman' song! I was pissed off...how could these people get passes and "I" be left out!? But I didn't get left out and heres my story:

Happiness...

I made quick arrangments to head up there with my friend Daryl in his parents' 1999 Pontiac Sunfire. Now Daryl was the right guy to go with because he drives like maniac. Really fast, I knew Toronto was only about 45 minutes away in Daryl's car. We decided to leave for TO around 1:30 or so. So I left school at 12 and went home to get my camera ready and my wallet and of course...pick the new album up from my Mailbox! Soon Daryl and my friend Trev and my other friend Mike piled in and headed out for the show! We wandered around the Sherbrooke mall just outside TO for a while, and I spent $40 in HMV picking up the new NIN and a Blink 182 CD that I now regret purchasing. We then travelled into Toronto and found parking in the nearest 'ghetto'.

We walked around Yongue street and up and down the Eaton centre for about 2 hours, we even got to bargain with one of the many street vendors for authentic 'Oakey' sunglasses. Me and Mik scored 2 for $25! So me and my new sunglasses started making our way back to the car. We were passing HMV on Yongue when a familiar batch of Red hair caught the corner of my eye. I slightly tilted my head and exclaimed: "Hey that's Christian!!" The drummer for IME turned his head slightly and continued to walk while I stopped and said: "Hey Christian!" He stopped and squinted at me as if to figure out who I was and walked up to us. We stood there and basically shot the shit for about 5 minutes and then we parted ways not before informing him about the 'big' OLP show at the dome. He didn't even know about it! He elt really dumb because his tour manager apparently helps run that beer promotion.

Lineups and free beer..

Now having been serenaded and enthralled by OLP's new album all the way up to Toronto the bllod in my veins felt like it was moving at the speed of light. I was a walking ball of anticipation as we approached the mammoth Toronto SkyDome. We circled the dome and were shocked at the lineup we saw! Lineups over 100 metres long! We saw security ask people for ID all over the place which made Mike and Daryl nervous because they had to wait in these lines and get carded. But as we found out later security was pretty lax and Daryl and Mike had no trouble getting in apart from the freezing winds and the long line.

So Trev and I apprached gate 3 which we were told was the place to go. There was no lineup and in fact we got to walk right in to this warm lounge area where Stacy and Melissa from the PPU checked names on the guestlist. As we had our names checked off the list we wandered over to get our wristbands which we were actually drinking passes! We weren't even supposed to have them! But its not like we wanted any beer anyway...whats a rock concert all drunk with beer!?

They took us up one elevator load at a time to the green room, being a baseball fan the way there was sooo interesting. We got to walk right behind the bullpen, and behind the wall out in left field! They took us up to the green room, I was with Sara, Trevor and Rich and Shelley at this point. We were discussing the liner notes on the new album and what we thought they would open with...we arrived at a 'One Man Army' prediction that would turn out to be right later on!

The PPU I must stress was extremely good to us! They had food arranged for us, and free drinks and tables where we all sat and just chilled for about 40 minutes or so when we all got up and rushed for the door! They were now taking us down to the floor to catch the concert!! It was about 8:35...

On to part 2 of Mike's review...

Setlist
One Man Army/ Automatic Flowers/ Supersatellite/ Naveed/ Blister/ Is Anybody Home?/ Potato Girl/ Lying Awake/ 4am/ Clumsy/ Stealing Babies/ Beer Jam/ Starseed

Encore and Soundcheck info available in setlists.