Can You Hear Me Now?

Shhhh don’t tell anyone I’m here, I’m really in bed!! I always think of things to write about right before sleep…

So I spent a good portion of my day procrastinating a business plan I was supposed to be writing (and DID finally finish at 10:00 p.m.) by fiddling around in Google. I love to Google!! You can find out ANYTHING. Today’s project was to locate a drummer. A drummer I met about 10 years ago that left a lasting impression on me, and when the name of his old band suddenly hit me today while chatting with a friend about it, I decided to try to find him.

Background
It’s 10 years ago (or so?), and I head up to the Highwood Music Festival outside of Leduc, Alberta for the weekend. I’m traveling with “Virtual Insanity”, a side show act with a sword swallower, fire eater, worm/maggot eater, broken glass eater, impaler, etc. Which one am I? Ha ha ha well, aside from the fact I did try fire eating a couple times, I did none of it on stage. I was always behind the scenes with these guys, this time to work in “the tent” selling merchandise and getting people to sign a petition to lift the ban the Alberta Liquor board had put on Virtual Insanity, preventing them from performing in bars in Alberta. They thought drunk people would go home and hammer spikes up their noses and take darts in their back because they saw people do it on stage. M’kay.

It was a wet weekend… and we were knee deep in mud the entire time. No running water, no mirrors, sleeping in our tents, and I forgot my f***ing cigarettes (yes I smoked at the time) in the car that dropped us off and left us. Nowhere near any sort of store or anything

Looking and feeling just lovely after that first night of camping, I went to spend the day in the tent at our table. Along came this scary lookin’ dude… I think his spiky hair was pink, maybe green (orange??)… shirtless and wearing a studded leather jacket that hung open revealing his skinny chest… ripped jeans, Doc Martens, sunglasses, piercings and of course a cigarette… he swaggered towards my table and I expected him to pull a knife on me (hee!). Instead, he very nicely asked about the petition. During our discussion that most likely was about the bloody government squashing our freedom, he removed his sunglasses and looked me right in the eyes. You could have knocked me over with a feather at that moment. His eyes were AMAZING. I will never, ever forget the beauty and sparkle of his eyes as long as I live!! All of a sudden my impression of him changed. He went from hardcore punk scary drummer bad boy to soulful, gentle beautiful man in a split second. While talking I also found out he had a day job (or volunteered?) working with disabled kids. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover, and I was immediately drawn to this person. He was SO nice. He played drums for a hardcore punk rock band from Toronto called “Random Killing” that were also performing that weekend, and when he signed the petition I made note of his name… Sean. (I probably had the full name and address memorized back then too, but I forgot everything eventually). I saw him a couple times over the weekend, and I do dare to say he was flirting with me, a muddy fat girl in sweatpants, no make up, who had not showered or combed her hair in 2 days. That takes a special kind of person, no?

Today
I have never forgotten those piercing, beautiful eyes. I think about him once in awhile, what an impression he left on me. Over the years I did forget his name, the name of his band and everything… I just never forgot his eyes. Today when the name of his band suddenly hit me, I typed it into Google. All I knew was Random Killing, and figured as soon as I saw his name I would know. I found one website that showed all their CDs and the lineup on each one (these guys went through drummers like Spinal Tap). Then I saw it… a mid-90’s recording with drummer “Sean”. No last name. But I knew that was him. So I kept googling… now I could add “Sean” to the mix. I rifled through tons of results… it looked like he left Random Killing in the mid 90’s to join another punk outfit, Suckerpunch… and over the years, it looks like he has moved from Suckerpunch to bands like The Heatseekers, The Sin-Tones, The Sadies, Dodge Fiasco, and most recently (and currently?) The Shovels. An alternative country band in Toronto. Alternative country?

My, how things change.

So I have no idea if I’ve got the right Sean-former-drummer-with-Random-Killing or not. I e-mailed a couple of these bands to see if I’m on the right track (and made sure to note that no, I do not have his kid here and want child support now). I think it would be REALLY cool if we got in touch.

I know I’m just a little strange to go digging to find a guy I had eye contact with for 30 seconds 10 years ago. Hee! It’s fun though. I’m the first to admit I enjoy going “backwards” sometimes… I love to talk about my past and re-live moments of it. I’m not expecting anything at all… just an email would be cool, because this was a project to find him, and I like to complete projects!