It was a night I would remember for many reasons. Unlike many stories that will be posted for this contest, this experience revolved around being unable to go to the Pop Montreal Festival. It was the night that Islands and Miracle Fortress were to play together. I had not been immersed into the Montreal music scene at that point, and I had no idea of the connection between Miracle Fortress and Think About Life. Although, I had been introduced to Think About Life's kick-ass-electro-rock at Osheaga, and was immediately taken by it. I was also a huge Unicorns fan, and I had been listening to the Islands record constantly.

The plan was to meet up with Noah, a kid who I only knew because his school locker was parallel to mine. I was unable to find anyone to go to the show with, so I asked around and it turned out he was a big Islands fan too. We planned to meet each other in front of the venue before the start of the Islands set. Keep in mind that I had no idea whom Miracle Fortress was, or I would have never skipped his act. So, we all found each other as planned, with the exception that Noah had brought some friends along with him. Taking our places in line, we saw the bouncer do something unexpected. He was asking the people ahead of us for some ID. Looking at each other, we all immediately realized that we were fucked. Aside from myself, everyone was around 5'4, brace-faced and innocent looking. Trying our best to put on big boy faces, we faced the bouncer and he took one look at us and asked to see some identification. We were sent packing. Standing outside the venue, we began to hear music being played. Looking around for another way to get in; we watched the bouncer from a distance, and found out (I forget how) that he was about to change shifts. Just as that information hit us, I saw someone who looked familiar leaning against the wall near the entrance doors. "It was that red headed dude from Think About Life!” I remember thinking to myself. Daringly, I went up to him and gathered up the courage to ask him if he could help us out. As I approached him, an orange tour van pulled up and some of the passengers began to call for him to get in. He traded looks between the van and me, and told me to “hold tight.” He went inside to talk to the bouncer, saying "Hey, these kids are helping me carry gear into the truck, let them in!" The bouncer looked at us and immediately began to spew out some bullshit story about us needing to be on the list. Our red headed friend came back to us with a disappointed look on his face. He did what he could, but no luck. Apologetically, he waved goodbye to us and headed into the van. We made one last attempt to get in, but it was hopeless at that point. We spent the rest of night - Noah, Corey, and myself (Lukas) wandering the streets of The Plateau reminiscing of what had just happened. We talked of how kind and down-to-earth Graham was. Later that night, we all decided on going to the Think About Life concert that was happening the next day.

The next night we found ourselves in a similar situation. Waiting in line, we saw Graham eating at the downstairs restaurant, and I waved to him and jokingly said, "See you inside!" "For Sure!” he said waving back to us. As I made my way to the door, an overwhelming sense of dread came over me. When we entered the venue, which was already jam-packed, the ticket guy welcomed us and stamped our quivering hands. Relieved that the bad luck hadn’t carried over to the next night, we congratulated ourselves. We were in! Soon after, Think About Life took the stage and the crowd went nuts. We managed to position ourselves in the very front; to the dislike of some of the shorter fans (I can't help it if I'm 6'1!).

After tuning up and doing some final preparations before they began to play the first song, Graham spoke into the microphone and said, "Hey everybody, we're Think About Life and this song is dedicated to a couple of 14 year-old kids who couldn't get into the Islands show last night, because of some asshole bouncer!" It was truly awesome thing to do, and we were all stunned.

That night, I saw Think About Life play the best show I've ever seen them perform. At the end of the night I remember being so impressed that I went to the only familiar face in the crowd, who was Dan from Alien8 records, and said in a rushed and excited voice, "I was one of the kids he dedicated the song to!" I was psyched, we all were. The whole experience immediately made us the best of friends, and into the formidable concert-going-tag team that we are today.

That was my Pop Montreal experience, and it may be kind of cheesy; but I'll never forget it.