Molson Park Memories

On the way to an appointment the other day I drove by the de-grassed slightly cratorish entity of what used to be Molson Park and it made me a little sad.

For those of you outside of Ontario and under 25, Molson Park probably doesn't mean a heck of a lot to you.

But when I was in high school, it was the mecca of my musical youth because every major musical festival with the exception of Lilithfare, ended up at Molson Park and I went to a crap load of them.

City kids had a ton of destinations for music; all ages venues, big ampithatres, hockey arenas, etc. When you live in the sticks and don't drive with very little in the way of public transportation, a place like Molson Park was a godsend. Festival comes through, you team up with a bunch of friends and buy tickets. Because it was only twenety minutes away from where most of my friends and I, one friend could usually get a parent to drive there as long as another came to pick us up and vice versa.

It's weird trying to discuss concerts with kids younger then I am because festivals don't happen as much anymore. If I list the amount of bands I've seen from my high school era alone, it's huge and kids wonder how the hell you were able to afford it but truth be told, for forty bucks I could go to Lollapalooza and see fifteen bands minimum.

And it's too bad, a lot of these kids won't get the fun experience of this style of concert going.

Let's take a look at one of my favorites, Lollapalooza 1995.

While that year's line of bands was the best out of all of them, it was a concert that tipified the Molson park experience.

This concert was a little different as we went with our buddy Dave's older sister who also had tickets and offered to drive. There was Dave, myself, Darryl, Gavin, Linda (Dave's older sister), Rocko (her friend) and some dude (who's name is lost to time. He was friends with Rocko).

We park in this industrial plaza about four minutes walk away from the line up to get into the park.

The first thing we see is the clouds getting somewhat overcast and threatening to rain.

We get in line and suddenly we hear from the road:

"Attention Canada! The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have invaded!"

We turn to see what looked to be an Oldsmobile or 70's era caddy that somewhere along the line took a left turn in front of the wreckers and ended up in the hands of some holigans. It had been painted purple and almost plaid.

Out one of the windows was Bosstones lead vocalist and future Jimmy Kimmel band leader, Dicky Barret with a megaphone, proclaiming how the Bosstones were there to take over our country.

As soon as the car was out of sight, it began to rain.

Come to think of it, I think I only ever went to one concert at Molson Park where it didn't rain while I was in line, but this particular concert taught me a bit of outdoor concert prep that I keep to this day... more on that later.

So as we got closer into the park itself, some one starts talking to a security guard that looked a crap load like pro wrestler Kevin Nash.

Idiot: "Why don't you carry a gun?"

Would-Be-Nash: "Don't need to. I've got this."

Pulls out the big cop flashlight.

Idiot: "What could you do with that?"

Would-Be-Nash: "You can drop a man to his knees just by hitting him here."

And for whatever reason, he chose me to do a slow motion demonstration by bringing the flashlight down slowly into my collar bone.

Now my friends, while I look like the bad ass, I'm a very law abiding citizen. And while I had never planned to do anything criminal at the concert, the action of this giant of a man bringing down a flashlight on my shoulders made any vague notion of wrong doing disappear instantly.

We then enter the park and Rocko and some dude head straight towards the beer tent and we never see them again.

Now the rain has made the grass fields of Molson Park muddy.

And this happens to be the year AFTER Woodstock 94.

So what do impressionable youths who couldn't make it to Woodstock the year before start doing?

Throwing mud.

Gavin was decked out in a white York t-shirt. He was in the middle of a conversation (as The Bosstones who were first on stage had yet to start) his back turned to the stage and majority of the crowd.

I swear the hunk of sod made the sound of a bomb whistle as it headed towards Gavin.

All of us: "Gavin! Look out!"

And as if scripted by Hollywood, he turned just in time to see the cannon ball sized mud ball headed straight towards him.

But not enough time to do anything about it.

The mud clod whacked Gavin in the shoulder, splattering his white shirt with mud.

Two seconds later, The Bosstones started.

The rest of the concert was pretty awesome but some of my memory of who played when is a little foggy. Up next was The Jesus Lizard who none of us had even heard of but were impressed by their show. They were followed by Beck who had just recently became a star of sorts (Mellow Gold had just became a big hit a year before) and was doing a pretty kick ass job.

The middle is really blurry. I know we saw Pavement, pretty sure we saw Coolio and we took a dinner break during Cypres Hill, who were surprisingly good in our minds... until one of them got beaned in the head with a bottle of water.

Then we moved down the hill, knocking people out of the way before Hole started.

We were all pretty big guys at the time, so no one said shit to us.

By the end of Hole's set we were right at the front, just in time for Sonic Youth's set which was amazing.

And that's where I learned another lesson.

So to end the post, here are the two things I came away with that year:

1) Garbage bag rain coats. After suffering through the down pour in line and I think at another concert directly following it, I began bringing a new garbage bag with me each outdoor concert. They could go into your pocket and when it began to rain, rip a few holes and boom, disposable rain coat.

2) Ear plugs are your friend. My first year of college, one of my teachers mentioned he can pinpoint a concert that did hearing damage and asked us if we could. I could not only pinpoint the concert but the act, where I was, what song and even what part did the most. During Sonic Youth's set, not only were we up front but we were also near a huge monitor stack. During the feedback solo in Diamond Sea (from Washing Machine), I know, without a doubt, I lost hearing. Ever since, I very rarely go to shows without ear plugs.

I miss Molson Park.