All Toque’d Up for Edmonton’s Grey Cup Festival

What do you get when a bunch of boys from the Canadian prairies that have made it big and tour the world with the likes of Shania Twain, Slash, Gene Simmons, and Kelly Clarkson decide they wanna form a band to perform nothing but covers of their favorite Canadian classic rock music?! Toque had two shows plus a meet & greet spread out over three days of the 106th Grey Cup festivities in Edmonton we were on hand for it all.

Usually when we send someone out on assignment to cover a concert or music festival they’re expected to include a bit of a write up on it … rather than re-write it, here are my notes …

Friday was COLD!  I couldn’t finish shooting the set because my fingers LITERALLY wouldn’t move enough to push the shutter button on the camera! …  I tried warming them on the propane heater after but my hands were SO NUMB my mitts literally started burning/melting and I didn’t feel a thing. Hands OK, gloves are trashed!

NO idea how Cory Churcko and Shane Gaalaas made it through that without any mittens!

 

 

Todd coordinated his fingerless mittens with his guitar … and no one wore toques!  I get that it impedes with the hair flailing but did I mention it was COLD?!   I didn’t bring a toque because I was going to buy a Toque toque but they didn’t have merch!

 

I think I got some good shots – it was too cold for them to really move quickly to be blurry … there was some good light but a LOT of green!  Green only works on the hulk! SOO tempted to make em black and white!

 

Saturday. Meet & Greet INSIDE Boston Pizza tent. Next to the heat vent!!  I didn’t take photos. Sorry! I somehow started selling merch in between holding up a portable light so fans could get decent lighting for pics with the band.  Turns out they DID have some for Friday but after the set I guess they were just too cold and bolted for the heated dressing room!  Unfortunately no Toque toques … they sold out in Winnipeg … UGH

 

Sunday’s set for the Boston Pizza tailgate party, I thought, started at 12:15pm so I got there a little too early (started 12:55!)… luckily it was MUCH warmer than Friday AND I scored catching sound check!

 

There was definitely a lot more movement from the stage – not as cold! … every show’s had a different set list along with some fairly unique antics  … don’t aske me to explain … I don’t know!

 

Starting to anticipate Todd’s hair flailing, STILL shooting to tight for it but now Cory and Brent have hair long enough to do that too!

 

 

What’s funny is I had to RUN (literally) to shoot Aaron Pritchett at the indoor tailgate party because the set ran late and the first thing I see is on stage is a Toque shirt on the bass player … THEN Toque’s bass player shows up! … Then Aaron gives Toque a shout out … turns out it WAS him at the Toque set … yup, all Toque’d up for the Grey Cup this year!  Except for the Toque toque! … Think maybe next time I cover one of their shows it can be inside? … or summer again?!