Montreal PART DEUX!

    I think I am hopeless, impossible. I got to the airport an hour before the flight AGAIN (it had been 2 days after I missed my flight to MTL hehe..) But this time, I got on the plane on time and took a sleeping pill and knocked out right away!! First I stopped over Vancouver and went through immigration. The Canadian immigration is harsher than US one I think. at least to me. They brought me into the small depressing room again for hard interview. They always ask same questions over and over.. like why are you here, what are you going to do in Canada, do you have relative in Canada, how much do you have in cash..blah blah fucking blah..I barely felt humiliation in my life but when I am in that fucking interview office, I couldn’t feel more humiliated without reasons. I hate to go through immigration even though I like travel so much. In my experience, the worst immigration experience goes like 1. Russia 2. Canada 3. US

   Ok, I got on the same plane and my second destination was Toronto. I stopped over in Toronto airport like 3 hours and then got on the plane to Montreal. My flight duration was total 17 hours from Korea to Montreal. If it weren’t for my sleeping pill, I wouldn’t have made it this trip hahaha. Anyway, finally I got to Montreal airport!! It was after midnight Friday. If I am lucky, I can catch up the last band AGE but If not, I will have to be at the venue after the show. I have reserved illegal cabbie thing which is ran by Korean ( I didn’t know Montreal has this shit too haha), and he was waiting for me out side of the gate. Thanks to him, I FINALLY arrived at Katacombes!!!! I was so surprised!
1. It has been a quite long time since I saw this many crusties.
2. The biggest punk venue I’ve ever seen (there is even second floor?????)
3. Last but not least, the smell part!! Since I live in Korea, I usually go to Japan to see crust gigs. Surprisingly, Japanese punks have shampoo fragrance rather than stinky smell! It was the biggest culture shock I had in Japan. Even though I love so-called ‘Shampoo Punks’ sometime I always miss crusty smell (something must be wrong with me hehe). But when I entered in to Katacombes, I smelled the crusty!!!! I was like “ohh yeah!! Long time no smell!!!”. This sounds kinda freaky but I actually enjoyed this part so much that I didn’t even need a cup of vodka to stick my nose in.

   I coat-checked my baggage and then first thing I always do?? Grabbing a beer!!! Thankfully the AGE show has not started yet. I met JTA..Meggon…Alex MTL..Alex Cleveland..Cece..Kid..and So many people this night! They were all super nice and kind. I was worried first but they were so funny and nice!! I am so glad that I got to meet these cool people. I think I was very lucky.

  Finally, AGE started to play! Actually, I was really disappointed to miss all those local bands that I really wanted to see on Friday. AGE is def one of my favorite bands in Japan and I went to Japan many times to see their gig. However, I kinda wanted to check out more North American bands than Japanese band for this time because of the travel distance matter. But fuck, it was the best AGE show I’ve ever seen!!!! Maybe I was too excited? I don’t know but I was really really enjoyed their show. Total metal punk assault!! They played so well and the atmosphere was amazing too. People seemed to have loads of fun during their show.

   After the show, I said hi to many friends and have been introduced to new people as well. They were very surprised that I came from so far away to see this festival. Janick seemed to be very surprised that I actually showed up haha!! I was little bit surprised that I actually made this trip kinda impulsively. Hahaha. Anyways, I mostly talked to people from Cleveland and they were probably the nicest people I’ve ever met!! Also very funny too (they said I am funny though..I don’t get it hehehe).
I left so many Nayoung’s quotation during my stay.. the first one started this night.
Usually Korean people aren’t really familiar with drug thing. Believe it or not, so am I. So when I saw my friend doing the hand gesture indicating cocaine, I thought he was fucking sick and have a runny nose. How stupid!! Haha!!! Sorry! 

Anyway, I was so happy to see Portland friends and nice people. I think we had a nice conversation even though my memory is blurred out due to massive amount of alcohol (^_^)V Megon and Alex kindly let me stay their apartment so couple of people headed back to their place! I had hard time sleeping because of jet leg but I couldn’t even fall asleep anyway cause I was super excited! My first night of Montreal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!

all photos in this post graciously received from CeCe Manning!

she rules!

Varning from Montreal

It was around September when I decided to go to Montreal for the Varning from Montreal fest.
I saw the pre-flyer from someone’s blog and totally thought I must go this show no matter how. I used to studied in Portland and have some very special affection for PDX bands in general. So I usually try to see the bands from Portland at least once in a year and try to buy many new releases from PDX. Anyway, other than Hellshock and Tragedy is playing, there were so many great bands I would be dying to see. So I waited my pay-day (It seemed to take fucking forever) and bought a ticket to Montreal right away!! I was already so excited.
My friend introduced some of MTL punks and I’ve been contact with them before I go to MTL. They’ve been very supportive and kind!!


Finally, the day has become November 3rd (Wednesday). I was at the office and couldn’t concentrate on work at all. Like in my mind I was already in the plane drinking beer like whales.
However, things get fucking screwed up. Ok, my flight was supposed to leave at 18:30 at least my e-ticket itinerary said that. When I was at the airport at 17:30, all ticket counters were shut down. I was so fucking shocked and head to the air-canada’s office right way (you can never imagine how I felt at this moment. I almost peed myself haha). After I had a conversation with them, I found out that the flight schedule was 17:30 and the flight has already left with 200 passengers (oh it should be 199 passengers except me). The reason why this shit happened is that my stupid travel agency failed to notify me the changed schedule and I missed the flight. And there was no flight to Canada next day so I had to wait for another day to fly to MTL. That means.. I was going to miss 2 nights of the fest. To make matters worse, the flight ticket to montreal on Friday was sold out so I might not even fly to Canada. It seemed like there was nothing I could do on that day. So I went to bar and drink too much gin&tonico with rage..fury..ect. I kept saying that ‘ fuck.. I should be in fucking plane watching stupid movie by now!! ‘ I couldn’t sleep until 6AM cause I was so angry and nervous. It is very rare that I cannot sleep with emotional reasons.


Next Morning, I got up with horrible hangover from last night and called to travel agency right away. They said it is totally my fault that I didn’t re-confirm the flight schedule so they are not responsible to do anything for me. Also they said I should pay for no-show penalty if I wanna get a refund. I was so fucking pissed off after hearing this. Every word what they said was so ridiculous and just bullshit. I couldn’t let them fuck around me so I used my annoying customer skill (It includes swearing, yelling, threatening, I want to speak to your manager shit..ect..). I gotta tell you, it wasn’t an easy fight even though I am kinda expert to make phone operator annoyed.
They said, there is no flight ticket to MTL available tomorrow so you will have to choose another date which will be after the fest or you can refund your ticket. I obviously didn’t want to refund my fucking ticket cuz I was eager to see this varning fest soo soooo bad. I almost gave up when they took a firm attitude until 4PM. Hey..7hours.. MG-43 mouth.. ain’t that easy.


I think that the old saying “If you want something really really bad, the wish will be come true is somehow working! When I was exhausted and gave up my travel, I got a phone call from AIR CANADA saying they found a seat on the plane departing tomorrow. I got this call around 5:30PM. So close. I was so happy and relieved even though I was going to miss 2 nights of the show. And I got back my appetite again!! haha I was just so happy.


Actually I am fully aware that I am to blame for this event, because I didn’t go to the airport 2 hours before the flight schedule. I don’t know what is wrong with me but I just can’t do that.
I guess I am natural born slacker. I am overly generous to myself. Shit.. Sometime I really hate myself haha. I still go to the airport only one hour before the flight even after this shitty accident.


Anyway luckily I was able to go to Montreal!!

-Nayoung (November 2010)