On dragons and dry cleaning
Aussie rocker shares memories of summer tour
Nick Cave “partied with some comely Canadian fur-traders, like it was 1791” and saved a dying dragon from the North Saskatchewan during his visit to Edmonton last summer.
At least that’s what the Australian rocker wrote in his new book, The Sick Bag Song. In preparation for writing, he jotted down his thoughts on airsickness bags as he toured Canada and the U.S. with his latest album, Push the Sky Away.
He performed at the Jubilee Auditoria in Calgary and Edmonton last June. After the Calgary gig, according to his book, he swam in the river, smoked a cigarette on the bank, and cried over “mislaid” memories. He found a small, pale and sick dragon in the reeds under a bridge.
“I kneel down and wrap the dragon in the jacket of my suit, then with some difficulty carry her up the slope to the majestic Fairmont Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton,” Cave wrote as part of his three-and-a-halfpage chapter on our city.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t entirely happy with the hotel’s dry-cleaning service, which, he wrote, “Chernobyled my suit enough to make me gag, which I wore to the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.” (In his original sick-bag scribblings, he used the phrase “crop dusted” instead of “Chernobyled.”)
The Hotel Macdonald’s director of sales and marketing, Steven Walton, is flattered if not a little frustrated by Cave’s comments.
“We are proud to host so many guests from past and present and are honoured each and every time we are mentioned in these stories as we have a strong connection to Edmonton and feel that we are an extension of the city’s first impression and overall feel,” he wrote in an email.
“I think Cave’s comments were truly genuine, unedited and from the heart, which is what we have found this hotel and this city tends to bring out in the most well-travelled and even the most famous of people. It speaks to the genuine nature of our city and its citizens. We’re not ‘in your face’ and Edmontonians do not try to be anything more than they are — down-to-- Earth, genuine people. That seems to be emulated by those that stay with us and guards are let down and people are truly able to relax. No matter what their background or status. I thought the dry-cleaning comment was funny — even in luxury you can’t get it right 100 per cent of the time, all the time, and as we have 100-plus VVIP’s on any given day, it’s unfortunate when we miss the mark.”
As for Cave’s time in Calgary? He enjoyed a day off in the “bright and pretty spot” by strolling the “fabulous” Chevron Learning Path, watching a family of ducks, and writing a song, King-Sized Nick Cave Blues.
“The next night, the airconditioning is set to polar at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, ” he wrote. “By polar, I mean that when I try to enter the band-room, I find that it has frozen solid, a great block of barely transparent ice, and trapped inside, Warren (Ellis) like a psychedelic Early Man, crouches over his violin and bow, a cake of pine rosin in his hand.”
The novel is available at thesickbagsong.com. ssperounes@ edmontonjournal.com Twitter.com/Sperounes