Who: The Hairfarmers
Where: Private parties and sunny patios all over Whistler
Next show: Uli’s in Creekside, May 16
They’ve played with some of the biggest names on the Canadian music scene including Our Lady Peace, Swollen Members, Great Big Sea, Biff Naked, Econoline Crush and Wide Mouth Mason. They’ve played some of the craziest festivals you could ever hear about and played some private parties they could never speak of, and they’ve got fans all over the world.
They are Guitar Doug and Grateful Greg, two of the hardest-working and hairiest musicians in Whistler, collectively known as the Hairfarmers. They’re regulars at apres’ both on stage and at the bar. They’ve played Dusty’s, the GLC, Black’s, Citta’s and everywhere in between, especially Merlin’s as hosts of Friday’s bi-monthly Pay Day parties.
They’re about to embark on a short U.K. tour at the end of this month but before they go, we challenged the hairy ones to pool their creative input into remembering the winter that was. Here’s what they can recall:
Some of the crazier moments:
Doug
: A Team Scotland member showed up one night in a kilt. He got up on the surfboard facing the stage and took the socks off a rather tanned and lithe Colorado apres skier with his teeth while dancing in ski boots.Greg
: A bare butt bongo contest at Merlin's during WSSF.We thought we’d seen everything until:
Doug
: A 250 pound Aussie rugby player ran up to the stage and threw all his clothes into a pile one night. He turned to me, tucked his bits between his legs and spun around to face the audience with a book of matches in his hands. He proceeded to light his chest hair on fire then headed right south and whoa the stink and look of absolute shock in the audience. Then a week later he manages to dance with two knock-out beautiful twins who happened to be in town on a model shoot.Greg
: Hands down the funniest thing I've seen done this season was the Barely Zen sushi dinner party, truly you had to be there. I won't tell here, but ask me sometime in person, ha ha ha.The female species can be just as eye-opening:
Doug
: An English girl got up, unzipped her top on stage and bent backward into a Limbo, placed a full beer in her cleavage and emptied it without spilling a drop.Greg
: Oh yes, the Canadian girl that won the beer swilling contest against 10 guys from around the world. Amazing!Requests – any you couldn’t do?
Doug/Greg
: We refuse to do I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher.Highlight of the season:
Doug
: A GLC gig late in March. If you were there, you saw it! The entire place went completely off the walls. Best dancing, loudest audience, the most nudity and a striking yoga manoeuvre from one lady. After two full hours of encores, they still would not let us leave. The next day one of the staff walked me through the furniture they were dancing on. Sketchy – it will never happen again. Sorry GLC.Greg
: On tour with Bif Naked for the Kokanee summit party in Creston. That’s where the "fungus rumours" surrounding Bif's prized poodles started. Way too funny! Biff's road manager even asked us to "please stop partying," which was also hilarious.Lowlight:
Doug
: A Newfy did a cartwheel off the surfboard in his ski boots and with his momentum crashed over the other side into a table and knocked himself unconscious nicking a bit of skin off the tip of his nose and crashing into a table full of drinks.Greg
: Having to cancel the Banff to Fernie tour due to circumstances beyond our control. Bummer.Greg shocked me when…
Doug
: A frenzied female audience member in the middle of an insanely packed dance floor onstage decided to dance in front of, behind of and all over Greg, who never missed a beat or flubbed a note – even when she tried to play an instrument. He just laughed, turned sideways and we ended the set narrowly averting tragedy.Doug shocked me when…
Greg
: That same crazy girl that was tormenting me wiped out dancing behind us, crashed into Doug, knocking him over. Doug was lying on the ground still playing his guitar laughing his ass off. He never missed a chord the whole time.Want to know when the next Hairfarmers gig is? Head to Uli’s in Creekside on May 16 for a benefit show and keep an eye on Pique’s events listings for any extras. Grateful Greg can be seen in his other band, Cold Snap, on Thursdays at the Boot. Guitar Doug is playing with Kyla the fiddler at Dubh Linn Gate’s fifth anniversary weekend May 9 and 10. They take off for England May 27 and will be back for the summer apres season from June 6.
