Rockin' In Aruba, Canadian Style!

This is us last night, Rockin' In Aruba. That's Rennie on the left, and me on the right, wearing a hat given to me by a family who works here in the hotel. There's a serious shortage of musicians over here that can actually play 'Real Rock & Roll', and the hotel owners want us to stay because of the demands from guests who are having plenty of fun. We are totally happy to play here, all I have to do is ask the crowds, "Do you want to hear some more Rock & Roll?!", and they go over the top letting us know that they sure do want us to play the songs they only hear on the American and Canadian radio stations. They are amazed at the fact that we can play their requests right away, since most local musicians usually play along or lip-sync to pre-recorded tracks, something we'll never do. I played an Elvis Presley styled 'Happy Birthday' for my twin sisters Lise and Linda, who live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and everyone joined in the singing, which was great.

What a fun family!

Some of the people who are having a great time were also having a birthday last evening. The guy in the yellow shirt kept yelling his favorite rock songs out to us and we'd play most of them right away, which made him extremely happy. His whole family carried him around on their shoulders after he got loaded on rum and we had him up on stage for one song, which was AC/DC's 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and he was hilarious! He started singing the lyrics in Spanish and he'd lose his place with the words to the song, so we'd jump right in with the English lyrics and he was just having the time of his life. His family said it was the best birthday he's ever had, and judging by some of the photos they took of him later when he passed out, I'd say they were right. They also painted his face up with some seriously bright makeup when he was passed out and then they paraded him around the hotel parking lot on one of the bar seats while he was passed out. They said they took a picture of him with every person who went by. They also took a movie of him with his face all painted up that they uploaded to Youtube at breakfast this morning.

(Isn't technology wonderful?!)

This is the Aruba Hotel 'Banana Fun Bus' which takes hotel guests and friends all through the streets and to the neighbouring bars and clubs around this beautiful place. It's got a state of the art sound system on it, which we can plug our guitars and microphones into and play music as we're hauled around by the very friendly and capable staff here at the hotel. This bus was painted and decorated by artists who also work as tour guides and bar staff, and they've done an excellent job on this 'Banana Bus'! We're just about in the mddile of this trip and are really enjoying ourselves.

Aruba Rocks!