I don’t know how I did it, but I did it. I found my last reserve of energy and walked down to Ginger’s to see if I could find Christopher, then back up to The Attic to catch Chixdiggit.
I have seen Chixdiggit about a billion times, back when I lived out west. That first time I travelled to the Pop Explosion in 1995, they were on the road, too, and I got to know them a little bit. Really nice guys, very organized van. I felt it was my patriotic duty, both as a Canadian and as a (former) Calgarian, to put in an appearance at their festival-closing show.
I walked in and recognized “I Should Have Played Football In High School” and smiled.
They ripped through their Ramones-flavoured garage rock, doing what they do in their Chixdiggity way, pleasing the crowd at every turn by taking multiple requests.
I did notice one big change in this show: microphone heights. KJ pointed out that having your mic stand up nice and high is the new cool thing to do. I’m guessing maybe years of standing spread-eagled in front of the low mics has caused some sort of physical damage to their not-quite-so-young bodies anymore (though they’re still looking mighty fine, don’t get me wrong).
Crowd surfing, beer drinking, goofy song titles and lots of sweaty dudes: a perfect Chixdiggit set. I thought I might stay til the very end, but then…it happened.
I hit the wall. After three evenings straight of hiking all over town to catch shows til the early morning hours and full days of work in between, I realized if I didn’t get home in the next half hour, I risked falling asleep at The Attic, and nobody wants that.
This article appears in Oct 13-19, 2005.