BC Road Trip: No Love for Courtenay

My companion and I hit Courtenay, BC, around mid-day Thursday and Courtenay, much like the singer of similar name, hit back. I have to admit, I should have seen it coming.

On the ferry to Nanaimo, I got into the most cordial throw-down of all time with a lovely woman who was herself going to Courtenay. The woman asked to buy a cigarette from me. I offered her the cigarette free of charge. She insisted that she couldn't possibly. I protested that as I was not a licensed tobacco vendor, it would be illegal, as well as unethical, for me to accept her money...et cetera.

Eventually, my nameless new friend took the cigarette and kept her money, and I spent the next ten minutes hearing about her various offspring. Mixed in there somewhere was a brief mention of something called the Seniors Games. We parted on good terms, but I should have Googled "Seniors Games."

The BC Seniors Games are an annual competition in which members of the hip-replacement set come together to compete in events ranging from archery to Whist. (My ferry friend was competing in the Bridge tournament.) The games are held in a different location each year. This year, the silvered thousands descended on Courtenay for the weekend, vehicles circling downtown in a Miltonian search for free parking. Belligerent old men were knocking people over to get first into queue for restaurant tables (I have the bruises to prove it), and every hotel, motel, B&B, guesthouse, and RV park in the Comox/Campbell River Valley was reported to be booked solid.

So, of course, the B&B we'd booked (and confirmed twice) had been double-booked by the flaky reflexologist (is that redundant?) who owns the place, and the other couple had arrived first. Vera greeted us with a blank stare, followed quickly by horror, a rapid search for alternate accommodations, and the offer to pay for said accommodations. This time, I accepted an offer to pay without hesitation. I have no idea what our very nice room in a chain hotel ended up costing, nor do I particularly care. By the time we settled in, we were tired, cranky, stinky, hungry, and feeling very, very ugly-American, though trying hard not to show it.

Courtenay is basically a tourist town, catering to skiers, hikers, golfers, and the like. Even the highway "danger" signs warn not of falling rocks, tsunamis, or logging trucks, but of tipsy downhill enthusiasts, stray balls, and hikers losing their way on paths less traveled by. Locals mostly work in the service industry, and we noticed that in contrast to previous, less eventful visits, interactions with various staff devolved pretty quickly towards the surly end of the emo-spectrum.

As far as venues go, I have to say that Joe's Garage is not my favorite place to see a show. The owner needs to figure out how to sell tickets to out-of-town customers without inspiring fantasies of cross-border mayhem (important when so much of the town's revenue comes from tourism); the waitress needed a sandwich; the bartender needed at least a calculator, if not a cash register; and the audience needed alcohol. My companion mentioned that she was unable to detect the rum in her alleged rum and coke, and tables nearby echoed the complaint, switching quickly to beer when the mixed drinks proved inadequate to get even a mild buzz on.

Despite all of this, Danny Michel's actual set at Joe's Garage was excellent. He played basically the same mix of songs from his new album, Sunset Sea, and older albums as he'd performed for the previous night's show at the Duncan Garage (and why are so many Canadian venues called Something Garage? I've been in more garages in two nights than I have in the previous two months), but was more energetic, for an equally enthusiastic crowd.

There was a definitely feeling among the attendees of beleaguered survivors banding together to have a good time--no matter what, and Devil take the hindmost. Between numbers, Michel worked his patter, telling stories related to various songs, giving Christopher Walken impression lessons, and generally goofing around in entertaining ways (ref. The Clash and Raffi). It was an extremely interactive performance, and the audience ate it up with a spoon.

On a side note, Danny Michel's song "Feather, Fur, and Fin," from his 2008 album Feather, Fur, and Fin, will be featured on David Suzuki's Playlist for the Planet CD, due out this October (probably).