Friday night, I decided to follow the yellow brick road to the Railway Club. One of my favourite bands, Sekoya was scheduled to play. I got there a bit early, though, apparently, 9PM wasn’t their start time so I headed out to Kitanoya GUU in Gastown for a bite. My buddy Josh from The Office Journal joined me after putting his little ones to sleep. After my late dinner, we returned to the Club.
The opening act, Kia Kidiri, was already in session. Her sound was old school – very talented, quick thinking vocalist. I’d go see her again. We had a couple drinks, hung out towards the back of the front room and just listened. Sekoya came on and hit the room. Amelia’s high-energy style is always great to watch. We enjoyed her wicked “bounce bounce” energy throughout the night. After the first set, most of the room cleared out and we were able to get a better seat up front where I was able to get the clip featured on the right. Sometimes the camera phone comes in handy.
During the set, I was reminiscing to Josh about my party times in Tokyo and how I emerged from a bar in Roppongi one day at around noon. We were joined by a passer-by who turned out to be the the manager of the band, Susan, who worked for Freedom to Groove. I guess she found the prospect of partying in Japan like a nut to be enthralling. At least I can say I met some nice people that night. One thing I like about the party atmosphere at the Railway Club is that the people were always nice.
I missed (well, more realistically, I wasn’t able to attend) the Sekoya CD Release Party due to my late appearance and a crazily booked and over-full Ironworks (I think I might have blogged about this – it was the day before I was scheduled to go to France) but I was able to pick up a CD at the Railway Club. I’m listening to it and loving it.
Saturday night was another spectactular night. I was dragging my ass a bit early in the afternoon as I didn’t have much sleep between the 2am finish of the Sekoya act and my alarm going off at 8am on Saturday. After grabbing my tux, running around doing errands, giving the winner of the Urban Mixer contest, Kelly Bourque, her tickets, I was really feeling sluggish so I decided to head to Sugar Mountain on Denman for some Red Bull. To my chagrin, the door bore a back in 5 minutes sign. Of course, with my luck and being pressed for time, I was going to have to wait 5 minutes. Luckily for me, Booster Juice, next door, was open. Not quite Red Bull but I enjoyed (well as much as one could enjoy) a Wheatgrass. Within seconds I was ready to go again. Next time if I ever have time, I’ll just pop by Shine and have the boys whip up a bottle for me.
After getting my boost, I went and had dinner at Cactus Club. It wasn’t my choice to go eat there but my dinner guests insisted on it. I enjoyed the Bellinis which kept flowing but nothing else as I was more interested in having a sit down dinner somewhere civilized. All ranting aside, dinner met my expectations. Thereafter, we headed out to the Vancouver Club where the festivities continued.
This year, as in most years that I have attended, there was Bond Girl contest with a diamond ring prize (provided by Diamonds Direct). The winner of the contest was Stephanie Sansalone (Brave New World Travel) who sported a Traditional Chinese Dress. What made her distinctive over all the other girls, however, was both her demeanor and her matching parasol. It’s all about attitude and in her case, it worked.
The chocolate fondue and other assorted dessert bar was also to die for – I’m glad all my friends who showed up had a good time. Next year, it’ll be bigger and better. Look forward to seeing new faces.
BTW – the last pictures with Jake and Cecilia totally crack me up. They totally picked the afro dude as their mark and wanted to pose with the poor guy in a pic. He really didn’t know what he was getting into!
