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Published: August 16th 2012
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2nd August ’12 Jasper to Edmonton, Alberta
Just outside of Jasper we took the turn off up to Maligne Lake, we weren’t far along before we saw our first bear! Then we passed caribou and reached the toe of a long thin lake, which was very pretty with mountains all around.
Eventually (it was a long road) we reached Maligne Lake and from what we could see it must be a stunning area when the mountains aren’t covered in mist, but they were. It soon started raining so after a quick look around we backtracked to the main highway.
We carried on towards Edmonton and passed signs for the scenic highway to Alaska (about 1800 miles away!). The weather got better as we approached Edmonton, which is obviously a large city but we were just heading for the south area where we are going to the Anvil gig.
We stayed at the Hostelling International Hostel and fortunately we found somewhere to park just opposite. It’s amazing how the hostel standards vary within the same chain, this one was certainly basic but at least it was only a block from the venue.
After getting ready we went
out to grab some tea and found a cheap Indian fast food place. This area of Edmonton is like a little English town centre, with a high street lined with shops, restaurants and bars – except the shops are in business and there aren’t any charity shops.
We had a couple of drinks in a couple of bars and had a good chat with an Irish lad who had been living and working in the States and was up visiting his brother. He was due to fly back to Ireland soon but reckoned he would be heading back to the States again asap. He gave us lots of good suggestions for places to see in the Deep South.
The gig was in a place called The Pawn Shop – a brilliant venue with a great crowd. Unknowingly we chatted to the lead singer of one of the support bands – Titans Eve, who was a really nice bloke, it was only when he said ‘we’ll put on one hell of a show for you’ that we twigged!
The first band on were Bad Acid, a group of local lads who were excellent and clearly loved every second
they were on stage. After their set I told them how much we had enjoyed their set and then when we were outside having a smoke we saw them again and we ended up chatting to the lead singer and his mates. There was a long debate about who was best Motorhead or Iron Maiden and I think I convinced them it was Motorhead in the end. We assumed they would be playing the Calgary gig but sadly not so I asked to buy one of their t shirts, this led to much larking around and a sale for them. What a great bunch of lads, check them out! They would be perfect for HRH.
Anvil were very good, playing to a crowd that loved them and they put on a great show, afterwards they came out and were chatting to everyone. By sheer chance I also found one of the girls I had been messaging about the show, it was great to meet her and she messaged me after to say how pleased she was that we had made it to the gig.
What a fantastic night!
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