Tundra
01 May 1993
Tundra was a fun side project with myself on Bass and some vocals, Chris Wood of Flush and at that time the Raw Overtones on Drums and some vocals, and Sean...oh my....I forget his last name...anyway..he played guitar and sang as well.
We had one gig and we put everything into it....it was the prestigous Free Canada Day gig on the flatbed trailer in Victoria Park when Canada Day used to be cool on PEI. Oh yeah! The Glamour! The Glitz! We did tunes like "Break on Through", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Iron Man", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Rats (Pearl Jam)", "Guns in the Sky (INXS)", a handful of originals, and all three of us took the stage alone and did improv solos on our respective instruments - I think it was Mitch Tweel who said it was like Woodstock all over again. umm...well...anyway....
This is an infamous gig for many of my friends, family, and musical colleagues because....well....um....I hate even admitting this but....well...I sang two songs....in front of thousands of people....I sang "Iron Man" and "Rats".... okay....why do I hate admitting this? well...
1) I didn't then and still don't now have a voice like Ozzy or Eddie Vedder
2) This gig was the FIRST time I sang in front of anyone
3) I was TERRIBLE Now I don't mean I sang a few notes out of tune and forgot some lyrics..no no...I remembered all of my lyrics...that was my only saving grace....but like i said...I had NEVER sung in front of ANYONE...especially not a few thousand people......good God what was I thinking??!!
I really, really, really, really, really was completely 100% awful - my voice sounded like a chipmunk with a few of those large marshmallows stuck in his throat who drank too much whiskey in his early days, smoked too many cigarettes in his life and enjoyed the occaisional sip of battery acid on hot afternoons.
Oh man... When I heard the tape afterwards I wanted to leave PEI for somewhere hot....like the surface of the sun.....and YES there is a tape...and NO you may not hear it.
Only a select few have heard it. I.e. Mike Ross, who was temporarily incapacitated because of being injured from laughing at the tape, and my wife, who still looks at me strangely once in a while....she doesn't admit it but I can see it in her eyes....
"What were you thinking?"
