My colleague Harvey Métal has recently posted some helpful words of advice for the FME revelers of Rouyn.
It’s worth at least a half-assed translation…

1. Procure a supply of a Gatorade-type drink. You will inevitably risk dehydration during this weekend’s festivities and having a bottle by the bedside will replenish those much needed electrolytes and the sugar will provide the initial jolt to pickup where you left off the last night.

2. Try performing some « Nadeau Technique » (please search for it on YouTube!) Harvey swears that it’s what your body has been missing. It’s great for limbering up (and for keeping youthful and supple in general) before the shows start. It may also serve to impress that special someone at the end of the night…

3. Procure some kind of easy to carry rain gear. Harvey swears by Canadian Tire/Canadien Pouf brand Emergency Ponchos. The weather up here is notoriously unpredictable. And we all know that God is well known to be quite egalitarian with his wrath. (Maybe a bit overly egalitarian in these parts since the Quiet Revolution)…

4. Make sure to buy your re-useable FME 2012 plastic mugs. Very convenient and safe (and ecologically responsible) for venue to venue drinking. 
FYI: You can tell the real FME veterans by the large carabiners they use to secure their mugs to their person.

5. Save a contingency fund of at least $4 cash for a poutine at Chez Morasse. Your belly with thank you at the end of the night.

6. If you’re technologically inclined and have a smartphone surgically implanted in you or otherwise permanently attached, download the FMEAT 2012 app. It’s got everything, info on the artists, venues and a schedule… and most importantly an interactive map to keep us foreigners from wandering into the mine or smelter or whatever it is while stumbling to the next gig.

And with that my friends, you should be ready for anything the festival has to throw at you.

My tentative plan for tonight is to take in Alex and Kem at the 5-7 show, Timbre Timbre (I’d be all about seeing Radio Radio if I hadn’t seen their incredible show at the Opera House in Toronto a couple of months ago), and Qualité Hotel to cap off the night. But we’ll see how it goes. 

Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how things play out.

Cheers,

Dave, aka Zeus

Labour day weekend use to be a bitter sweet time for me (harbinger of summer’s end and all that). But I’m seeing this weekend through new eyes since discovering FME in 2010.
As over-the-top as it may sound, I find FME weekend to be a mini rebirth, or at very least, a cross cultural spa for the left brain. I am always physically exhausted afterward but also invigorated from the exfoliation of so much cultural dead skin accumulated over the last year.
I’m honored to be an official blogger for the festival this year, apparently the only Anglophone one they could find… and as such, FME takes on an extra aspect, one of mild terror. 
You see, there’s only so much Rosetta Stone can prepare a poor BC boy for the barrage of rapid-fire joual that awaits around every corner. 3 years on, my comprehension has soared, but by the end of any given festival night (after losing track of how many FME logoed-re-usable mug refills I’ve had) all I can do is wax poetic about my fat cat, Madame Oscar, after being asked what I thought of the last band.
All that being said, I’m itching with anticipation of what the weekend holds (maybe it’s just the dead cultural skin talking).

Dave, aka Zeus