What a week for your Man on the Scene to be out of commission! But don’t feel too sorry for me. I took a week off to bask in the warmth of the Cuban sun while learning to say “Un cerveza, por favor.” This is not to say the Scene was left unattended in my absence. My good friend Anna Zee from Q-104 took in concerts, hockey, and beer, oh my! She took one for the team, staying up late and putting her liver on the line so that the Halifax social scene would be documented.
Although the World Men’s Hockey Championship didn’t finish up quite the way we would have liked, it left Halifax with some great memories and amazing economic revenues. Some reports suggested over $22 million in spin-offs from hotels, bars and restaurants. One bar owner described the international hockey crowd as a bunch of “happy drunks.” One of the week’s highlights for many fans was running face to face into a hockey legend. Since the reunion luncheon of our 1976 Canada Cup winning Team, many of the players hung around our fair city for the duration of the tournament. Peter Mahovlich was able to take in a round of golf while in town. The man with the biggest hands I’ve ever shaken said he loved being in Halifax and catching up with his old teammates.
Before the final games moved on to Quebec City, there were some great pre-game parties to take in. Most notably was a Team Canada blast at The Split Crow. I also hear rumblings that many of the Team Canada players would enjoy a post game libation at Bubba Ray’s, the new sports bar on Spring Garden Road.
On Tuesday, a five man electrical band from Palm Desert, Calif., rocked the roof off the Cunard Centre. Soon after tickets went on sale, the Queens Of The Stone Age concert was SRO. Fans were most impressed with the loud, sweaty show. The band is quoted as saying they “want sex to bleed into the music. At our shows, we want to see half boys and half girls in a utopian world, dancing and drinking.” Mission accomplished … I think.
One of the events my wife was disappointed to miss was the Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEOs banquet at the World Trade and Convention Centre. She’s not a mogul in training, but she is a huge fan of “cute” luncheon host Seamus O’Regan from CTV’s Canada AM. K.C. Irving was honoured as entrepreneur of the century by some of the greatest business minds this region has ever produced, including John Risley.
By the time I was making my way home, sunburned and hung over, Leonard Cohen was gearing up to play a five night stand at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. Anna tells me Saturday night’s show was nothing short of spectacular, with fans losing track after the third encore. It was a show not to be missed.
