Making up for Mukwah

I couldn’t have imagined a better place to spend Canada Day then out in the wilderness of Canmore AB. There, along the banks of the mighty Bow, my friends and I were made privy to a three-band show and a festival atmosphere courtesy of Lord Reuben upon Skitownville. Hundreds attended this musical celebration of our beloved country’s 138th, and even more got to experience it through the echoing decibels that penetrated the awkward calm of the serene mountain valley. It was truly magical.

The first big event of the evening came when about twenty people showed up to the party in their canoes; they had paddled there from Banff (about two hours upstream.) This was big for me, as I rarely travel by this mode, and I had just recently highlighted a certain text which explicitly decreed us to be “a nation of canoeists.” Yes, I suppose one could say that these drunken rowdies managed to inspire and vindicate me, simultaneously.

The first band took to the stage at about 9 o’clock, and rocked-out with a seriously powerful set. So powerful in fact, that they caught the attention of the RCMP who’d been monitoring the action downtown (about three blocks away.) Once they arrived on scene, some cunning and/or patriotic young soul began to sing ‘Oh Canada,’ and others quickly followed suit. Before you could say “In All Thy Sons Command,” more than 150 people were standing in full attention, and singing like their lives depended on it. And I guess that satisfied the cops about as much as it satisfied me, ‘cause we didn’t see them again until after midnight when the death-metal band came on to close the show.

All in all it was a spectacular event, and I’m told that no-less-than 11 garbage bags full of smashed and stepped-on beer cans were collected off the grounds. Somehow though, despite the apparent volume of happiness-in-a-can that was consumed, I managed to wake up in a pretty darn good mood.

A birthday bash to remember for sooth!