And now for the other half of the Fruvous weekend.

Today I went to the Taste of the Danforth Festival with a different batch of people. Ugh. What an uncomfortable experience. To begin with, it was blisteringly hot outside and the humidity was horrendous. This was at 4pm. I was so glad we did not get there earlier.

I knew 3 of the 5 people I was with. I had invited a co-worker and a couple of old school chums. My schools friends had, in turn, invited a couple who were friends of one girl's boyfriend. This couple said practically nothing to us the entire afternoon. This left the four of us. It was almost impossible to bridge the gap between my co-worker and my other 2 friends, even though all 3 are very nice people. I am usually able to mix and match friends. I don't know why this went wrong. I do have my theories, however. 1) The heat made us all less talkative. 2) All 4 of us are prone to attacks of shyness, especially my co-worker.

It didn't take long before I knew this was a big, bad mistake. I began to see the concert as the only way to set me free. The time for the concert finally did roll around and by then we were in a spot with a decent view. (Still very little interaction going on.) After a 15 minute Thank-you-for-coming-to-the-Festival-and-let's-give-a-hand-for-every-last-one-of-our-sponsors speech, the Frufour came on. They took the stage with...banter. For the life of me, I cannot remember what their first song was.

The selection of music was not, in my humble opinion, as good as Fri. night. For one thing, they played "Video Bargainville". Now, there are few Fruvous songs that I dislike, but that would be one of them. I think that one was a bit too wordy for the crowd. Not that they couldn't handle it intellectually, but I think they were not big into concentration this afternoon. (In a way, Moxy is not the best band to be having at this Festival--I think people attending it are more in the mood for noise than for thought.) The crowd did take well to "Boss", though. I think the highlight for me was Minnie the Moocher. I've never heard it before! The band was so "on" for that one. It was great. That song was a real crowd-pleaser. Mike later commented on the excellent level of audience participation.

It was during "I Will Hold On" that the rain decided that it could no longer hold off. At the beginning of the song, it was just spitting, but, by the end, it was pouring. I thought the thunder and lightning were a nice touch. Jian thanked us for coming and made a quick exit off the stage that was lightning attractor of the world. I don't know if it ever cleared up enough for the lads to finish the set. My companions took off in different directions with quick goodbyes. My co-worker & I took off in the wrong direction for the subway under the protection of an umbrella that was meant for only 1 1/2 people; we were both soaked by the time we got to Pape station.

What a weekend! I had an *amazing* time Fri. night, and I certainly had quite the adventure today.

A final note: I have a modest proposal for the Fruheads of Toronto and the surrounding area, but I will have to present it tomorrow or Tues. I've run out of steam (high bloody time, eh?).

From Fiona:

We didn't get all of the show today. As Jian put it afterwards.. "It was like, "..refuse yoouu.." PSHHHT " They had to stop for fear of killing the guys.

Anyway, it was a good, if short show. My first time seeing Grandpa Fruvous and Minnie the Moocher. And as I Will Hold On has become my fave Fruvous song already (despite the fact i usually prefer the fast ones) the fact that it was the only new song scheduled... well it went like this Jian: This is a short set so we're mostly playing songs from our new live album, but we're going to play one new song (Or words to that effect) Me (crossing my fingers, under my breath) I Will Hold On, I Will Hold On Jian: and it's called I Will Hold On Me: Yes!

It's becoming well known, I heard several other than me (and one person rather loudly and off-key although Goddess only knows if i was on key but if I couldn't hear myself few others could) singing it already. Like I said last time.. guys market that song bigtime and it will explode.

Other than IWHO, the set was pretty fast and upbeat. BJ, Jockey, bargainville, boss,(when Jian got off some very bump'n'grind moves!) Moon, Minnie (nice rhymes Mike), Hold, then Rain. If they hadn't been delayed 15 mins by a raffle or something onstage we would have gotten more.

Anyway, most of us didn't mind the rain, as it was REALLY hot prior to that. People stood around waiting to see if they'd come back, but other than Jian, who again stood around talking for hours (we left before he did and then he stopped to chat when he was walking home past our patio-side table a few blocks from the venue) it didn't happen.

So pictures were taken, stamps were gotten, many hugs were given and people eventually went on their merry ways. As I said, Rosemary, Miriam (who was eventually rescued from the bus terminal) Rob, Bill, Catherine, Ingrid, Doug, Sandy, Novac and 3 other people but I'm already running out of names, walked around for a bit and then hit Christina's where we waited ages for food, looked at pictures (those who haven't seen, Rob and Tobey are.. well it's scary) and did some plotting re FruCon2.

In summary, it rained but I got to see _some_ Fruvous and hung out majorly with other Fruheads, so I didn't care much. Hanging out with Fruheads is really an addictive thing have you noticed? Especially in large groups. So I'm planning on coming to Iron Horse somehow to see another large group of Fruheads.

The Neilds were also awesome at harbourfront. :)

Thanks to Christine for these:
• Close up of Murray
• Mike and Dave
• Dave on accordion
  Thanks to Marie-Claude for these:
• I Love My Boss
• Mikey, mid-air!

Some other tidbits from the performance include:

• Feel free to help contribute to this section!