Our Lady Peace stumbles through the Much Music Video Awards
Day 7 - September 27 - Washington, D.C.

We're about an hour away from playing the Blocktober Fest for WHFS in downtown Washington. They closed off the streets right down by the F.B.I. building and we're playing one of the three stages set up. I'll update you later about the gig once we've finished playing it.

Just a few minutes ago while I was firing up the computer, Mike and Pat (two guys from HFS) came in and asked Mike (Turner, that is) and me to cut a few liners for the station, but enough of the mundane stuff. I want to tell you about our time at the Much Music Video Awards, which took place a few weeks ago in Toronto.

For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, Much Music is basically the Canadian equivalent of MTV and their award show is very different from other award shows, except it, too, is incredibly f---ing long! The show is actually held at the Much Music studios and the vibe is more like a big party, rather than an organized television program. We were nominated for a few awards and ended up winning two. The problem was that the awards that we won were presented at the end of the show just before we were slated to perform and the first one -- People's Choice Best Video -- was being presented on the opposite side of the building from where we were about to play live.

After we got the award, we were supposed to go straight to the stage on the other side of the building, but I thought this would be a good time to try and go to the can. On my way back to the stage, after an unsuccessful attempt at relieving myself (the line was too long), I rushed back to join the rest of the guys -- you see, I hadn't told them what I was up to -- and as I made my way to the stage I heard, "... and the winner is ... Our Lady Peace!"

The next thing I knew I was being yanked up on another stage to accept the award for People's Choice Best Group. Okay, so at that point all I could think was: a) where are the rest of the guys? and, b) what award is this anyway? Somehow I managed to guess what it was for and I think I pulled it off without looking too much like a goof. I then finally made it to the stage, rejoined my band mates and played "Superman's Dead" to end the show. I guess, all in all, it was pretty cool, but now we have to go do this HFS set.

(A few hours later) Okay, back again. The show was pretty cool, except for the fact that a big fight broke out and Raine handled the situation fairly astutely -- he basically just asked the crowd to vote for the fight or for the music.

The music won!

DUNCAN COUTTS