From Craig

Serving the masses so that I could meet Chumbawamba

August 5, 2007.

It was an interesting day. Last week, Chumbawamba was at the Calgary Folk Festival. I was hoping to go see them, but I just couldn't fit their set into my schedule. I knew that they were going to play at the Canmore Folk festival, but I didn't think that I would have the opportunity to make it.

Well, on Saturday, I heard that James (one of the guys in my Calgary Taiko (http://www.midnight-taiko.com) group) had a stand at the Canmore Folk Festival. I didn't know what kind of stand it was, but I heard that he was looking for people to help out. So, I agreed.

I arrived in Canmore around 12:00pm. I waited at the vendor's entrance to receive my day pass for the festival. Once I received it, I started to walk to the tent but I was side tracked by the sounds of Chumbawamba coming from stage 2. I bee-lined it to stage 2 and watched a workshop with Chumbawamba and Martin Simpson. Because of the volume of people, I couldn't get a spot near the stage. However, the blessed rain then came and many people ran for shelter. I was able to get right up close near the centre of the stage.

At the workshop, Chumbawamba premiered a piece called Sack Me. It's all about a person who works at a job that he/she hates and wants the boss to sack him/her.

After the workshop, I headed to the stand where my fellow co-workers were wondering what the hell happened to me. I was immediately put to work.

It was at that time that I found out what the stand does. They have these bowls made out of different kinds of flatbread and they fill them with stuff. There were fruit bowls (cinnamon bread filled with strawberries, apples, and bananas topped off with one or more of: whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel, and vanilla yogurt). There were also chili bowls (cornbread filled with chili topped with cheese and jalapeno peppers), Greek Salad Bowls (Oregano bread filled with tomatoes and cucumbers topped with olives, feta and dressing) and apple pie bowls (cinnamon bread with apple pie filling topped with whipped cream and caramel).

The cashier was insane. She kept bellowing Fruit Bowl at mostly random times and we were expected to yell it back. Sometimes I did.

My first job was chopping tomatoes which was easy. Eventually, I was promoted to bowl manufacturing which involved a considerable amount of structural engineering so that the fruit didn't fall out of the bowl and could stand the enormous weight of the toppings. I had a couple of catastrophic events where the bowl fell over or some of the fruit tumbled down the sides of the tower, but my bowls were mostly a success. Some may even say they were masterpieces (well, actually, no one would really say that, but I can dream).

My favorite part was drizzling the chocolate sauce over the completed bowls. It allowed a certain flare and it was the most creative part of the day. It was nice to hear the people oooooh and ahhhhh as the chocolate phase was nearing completion. I suspect most people thought that we would be chintzy on the chocolate but as a chocoholic, I put on the amount of chocolate that I would have wanted if I were making it for myself.

Basically, I made bowls all day. The strangest bowl was a chili bowl with chocolate sauce on it. I guess they wanted to make it an Incan chili bowl.

At around 10:00, Chumbawamba took to the stage. They refer to themselves as acoustic Chumbawamba as it is not all of the original band members. Their set lasted around 45 minutes and they did several songs from their new Get on with it album. They started with one of my favourites, Jacob's Ladder, and ended with another of my favourites, Bella Ciao.

All in all, I have one word which can describe the whole performance: WOW!

I was completely blown away. They were awesome. Their rich and complex vocal harmonies complemented their earthy acoustic music accompaniment. I was able to find a spot right near the stage and the mix was just wonderful. I'm so glad that I saw the show.

Afterwards, the band came out to sign CDs. I had purchased 2 CDs earlier in the day and I was very happy that I was able to get them signed. When we thanked the group for their awesome performance they told us just how polite they thought Canadians are. I must admit, I'm pretty impressed with them!