Starting my show on a warm summer Tuesday night. Photo by Kat.
What The Fuck Is Canada Day?
It celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867. That's when the three separate colonies of the United Province of Canada (Canada West — which became Ontario, and Canada East — which became Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada.
Fun Canada Fact: July 1 is not Canada's Independence Day in the same way July 4 is to the USA. In fact, some of you might not know that Canada didn't formally become its own country with it s own constitution fully separate from British rule until 1982, when they passed their Constitution Act. True story.
I do love me some Canada.
Does Canada still have a direct attachment to England? Absolutely yes. They are what's called a Commonwealth realm — a sovereign nation that has the same constitutional monarch and head of state as the other realms. There are 15 of them: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom.
So is Canada in any way ruled by King Charles III? No, not really. The relationship between the King of England and the realms is purely voluntary and mostly symbolic, as far as I can tell. Charles is nominally the head of state, but Canada is a democratic country with a prime minister... currently Mark Carney as of March 2025.
Okay, Enough on Canada, Sheesh
Listen pal, you asked. I just didn't want to give you an incomplete answer. Anyway, the point is that I found myself having a show on Canada Day, and I am very fond of Canada. Or at least conceptually fond of Canada; I don't like the cold very much, and Canada has the disadvantage of being... north. To be fair, I feel the same way about Minnesota, a lovely state with wonderful people that just gets fucking cold sometimes. I live at the beach in Southern California. I'm not made for any place above the 40th parallel.
Didn't You Just Do A Show?
Yeah, the Saturday before, I played at Hotel Chelsea's 16th anniversary party. That was indeed a special event. As I've mentioned before, back around 2011 or so, I often played 3+ shows in SL per week, every week. And I did that for a few years. And it turned out to not be my favorite way to perform, like a tour that never ends. Some musicians are totally cool with that; I'm just not one of them.
So yeah, despite having done a show some 72 hours beforehand, I was back onstage for my usual slot at Hotel Chelsea, which is the first Tuesday of every month.
How Was It?
Well, much better than I was expecting. It was one of those days where it just didn't seem like I was going to be able to round up a crowd, for a bunch of factors that I'd just chalk up to lots of past experience under similar circumstances. All of us musicians — in SL and real life and otherwise — know the sensation of starting a show with like three people there, along with the staff of the venue.
Me, rocking, which is what I do. Photo by Kat.
People having fun, which is what they do. Photo by Kat.
Someone who rarely gets featured in this blog, even though she's mentioned in every single report because she takes all of my excellent gig photos: Kat Claxton! Photo by Kat. See?
But that's not what happened at all. A couple of songs in, and we had a fine crowd, and people seemed to be enjoying the tunes. I ask for nothing more than that. But now, back to Canada.
It was the day of the show when I realized, pretty belatedly, that it was Canada Day. I'd built a set list, and the weird thing was that I already had planned to do tunes by a couple of Canadian artists. Actually, ha ha, that's not weird at all; a good number of my favorite singer-songwriters and bands are Canadian, and it's very rare that a show goes by where I don't do some music written and performed by a fine Canadian person. So I just added a few more pieces of music in honor of our northern friends, and blammo... a musical homage to Canada was ready.
Obligatory gratuitous summer post-show sweaty guy pic.
Hotel Chelsea set list...
Say Goodbye (Beck)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
Something Else (Zak Claxton)
Leggy Blonde (Flight of the Conchords)
Low Key (Tweedy)
Nowhere Man (The Beatles)
It's Good to be King (Tom Petty)
She's Always A Woman (Billy Joel)
O Canada (Calixa Lavallée/Robert Stanley Weir)
Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)
Thank U (Alanis Morissette)
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
Don't Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)
Help Me (Joni Mitchell)
Thanks to everyone who hung out at the show, with super maple syrup thanks to the following who helped support it, eh?
dhrua Resident, Solanghe Sarlo, Jazz Lagmore, Mithrilweaver Resident, cristoofarr Resident, Trouble Streeter, Sonitus Randt, Kat Claxton, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko, and Chelsea's great staff!
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