Upon my arrival in Montreal I was greeted with the oncoming threat of rain and cold weather. It was beautiful out when I arrived, but after peaking outside when I woke the next morning I saw a bleak gray concrete landscape. It's as if I had never left Vancouver!
The Devteach conference that I am attending starts at 8:00AM every morning and ends at around 5:00PM. Pretty much soaking up most of the time that I could have used wandering the city. The terrible weather was almost a good thing because I didn't feel like I was missing much.
For my first evening I was hoping to see Tapes 'n Tapes at Le National. I looked for tickets online and discovered that the show was sold out. Not letting that deter me I decide to walk to the venue. The rain had stopped and it warmed up a little too. I was hoping to get some tickets at the venue so I walked East on St. Catherine thinking that I would spot the venue. I kept on going until I reached Fullum St, thinking that I still had a long ways to go still I turned around and decided to get some food and call it a night. After grabbing a burger at Mister Steer I checked out where I was on Google Maps. Apparently I walked a dozen or so blocks past the venue! Along the way I discovered the gay district (not by choice). Good thing I didn't pop in any strips clubs because according to Isabelle I wouldn't have gotten the show I was expecting.
On Wednesday Isabelle invited me out to meet her at the CBC building and show me around a little bit. Of course this had to have been the worst day weather wise for a tour. She showed me around Bandeapart's office and gave me a t-shirt! We went downstairs in the building where there is a creepy little museum like area of all the puppets from old French children TV shows. I bet it's a freaky place to wander around when it's dark and you've had a few cocktails. The last time I saw Isabelle was at her going away party at DV8 (yup, that long ago) so we had lots of catching up to do. We headed to the subway and went to a funky electronica lounge. She then took me to a Spanish restaurant for some food. We ended up talking for hours on end catching up. We also used the time to practice my non-existent French skills. Just being here inspires me to learn the language. I sort of regret not taking my French classes seriously. It's sort of sad that after 11 years of French classes I can't hold a conversation.
Thursday night was a bit better with the rain. It was very chilly out, but that's ok for lots of walking. My first stop was to take the subway to Atom Heart Records. I needed to pick up some tickets for !!! (Chk chk chk) on Friday night. I managed to keep my bearings and found the store quickly. Not wanting to waste the decent weather I hopped back on the subway to old Montreal. Not knowing what the sites were I followed Rahim's advice and just meandered through the streets until I got to the riverside area. The night sky was pink and made for a cool backdrop for some photos. The tourist switch in me came on and I wandered the walkway by the river until I got back to Peel St. The walking worked up a bit of an appetite and I went to the Peel Pub to eat before retiring to the room to prepare for the workshop on Friday. I had a sandwich and a couple beers and was about to leave when along came Laura. Next thing I know I'm there til 3:00AM with her a her friends Lily and Steve. Laura is the second person on the trip that when she first thinks about Vancouver she thinks about the downtown eastside. Quite the impression we're making in Vancouver.
With only a couple hours of sleep the night before I was pretty exhausted. I had a short nap and headed out to St. Laurent to meet up with Isabelle for the !!! concert. The opening band was Holy Fuck who absolutely blew me away. The crowd at the Saints Club was dancing like crazy while I was waiting in line for what seemed like hours try to get a beverage. The bar seemed like it was made for people with alcohol problems and served drinks slowly as to not get the crowd drunk. The band !!! was amazing, but it was the dancing of the lead singer than entertained me the most. His look and dancing skills was like a mirror image of Napolean Dynamite.
At the show I met up with a huge group of Bandeapart people. Even Radio 3's Yuani Fragata and there! I also got to talk a lot with Elodie Gagnon who is a host for Bandeapart. A few of us stuck around and went to a small cafe near Sherbrooke and had one last drink before we packed it in. We were joined by ex CBC Radio 3 employee Sarah Efron who just got in town and was staying with Isabelle. I gave her the lowdown on the changes since she left. It was another 3AM night so I happily slept in til right before my checkout time and headed to the train terminal
I really wish I could have spent some more time during the day now that the weather is nice again. Despite the poor weather and all the time spent in the conference I still think I got the Montreal experience: Saw the source of the squegee kids that have come to Vancouver, three older gentleman in suits all throwing up into a garbage can, hearing people switch between English and French like it makes no difference to them, St. Catherine's street, people watching at the Peel Pub, going to an electronica lounge, Old Montreal, and going to a concert. Next time I'll have to checkout the billion churchs that occupy every block and see the museums and galleries.