Because I had an early afternoon meeting, I really needed to get back to the Bramalea GO Station to catch the 12:16 train. I asked around and really no one was heading back there directly, but one planner thought she could drop me off on the way back. So I was watching the clock quite intently. At about halfway through, we were 10 minutes ahead of schedule, and then things went disastrously off-track. And the meeting organizer added an unscheduled 5 minute break (that quickly devolved into 10). In the end, the meeting went until 12:15. I was fairly pissed. I decided that since Brampton taxis are rumoured to be fairly poor, it just wasn't worth trying to order one and have it show up in the park.
Instead, I went with the planner all the way to Islington station, but then this was a much longer and definitely slower trip. I didn't get back to the office until 1:50 (instead of 1) and I totally missed my next meeting. All I can say is I will object much more strongly the next time I am expected to go to one of these meetings in a location that isn't actually served by transit. Then the next two meetings (after the missed meeting) went long, which ruined my lunch and put me in a fairly foul mood for the rest of the work day.
Ideally, I would have just gone home and slept, but I had tickets to see 54-40 at the Horseshoe Tavern. I went over on the Spadina streetcar, which got hung up for quite a while at the foot of Spadina. Then I had so much trouble finding anything to eat. The first pizza place didn't have any vegetarian slices ready. The second did have some vegan slices, which really isn't my thing. Plus, there was a persistent fly that managed to land on several slices of pizza, and I just couldn't imaging eating anything from that pizza place. Then Subway didn't have any veggie patties, only falafel. While I often like falafel, I don't want to eat it at Subway. I finally found something decent on my fourth try.
Then I went over to the Horseshoe fairly early. I did get a seat towards the back, which wasn't a problem for the opening act (Joydrop*), but during the headliner, many people stood up, but I just wasn't willing to, so I generally could only see glimpses of the band (mostly the lead singer). I guess one good thing about the crowd being old was about 4 or 5 songs into the set, people got tired and eventually mostly did sit down. I was pretty unhappy about 54-40 not actually starting until 10:45! They opened with "Blame Your Parents," which is one of my favourite songs, but one that they are only singing sporadically on the tour. Unfortunately, the lead singer kind of started a bit weak (or maybe they just doesn't practice this as much), but the band definitely got stronger as the set progressed. This set-list seems fairly accurate. They finally wrapped at just after midnight with a strong version of "Since When" and then the band led two sing-alongs: "Casual Viewin'" and "Ocean Pearl." I was so exhausted I skipped the encore (most likely incorporating "I Go Blind"), but I just needed to get home. I'm actually supposed to be out doing something tomorrow evening as well, but I may just have to skip it.
* I did manage to track down Joydrop's 2 albums, though I am not particularly familiar with the band. I'll probably have to listen to them again to try to reconstruct their set, but I know they played "American Dreamgirl," "Beautiful" and "All Too Well" (probably the best song in their set) though in very different versions from the albums. They also played a cover of Bowie's "Suffragette City." I was surprised that someone in the audience seemed to know their material well.
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