If you’ve noticed a preponderance of middle-age couples wearing fleece jackets, stonewash Kirkland jeans from Costco and white Velcro runners with good arch support milling about downtown with a thirst for Labatts Blue and Palm Bay in their bloodshot eyes, don’t be alarmed — a bridge to Nanaimo hasn’t been built. It’s just the 102nd Grey Cup. Despite not having a team in this year’s final, Vancouver hosts the five-day powwow, culminating in the Calgary Stampeders taking on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday in a historic rivalry of the two places in Canada the majority of Vancouverites would least like to move to.
Of course, the Grey Cup isn’t just about football. It’s a weeklong party where tribes of poorly dressed football fans from across the country congregate once a year, and a reason for the band Trooper to exist. As one of our colleagues astutely pointed out, it’s ironic that a band which declares in song “We’re here for a good time, not a long time,” has continued to slog along for nearly 40 years. The durable rock band will be, ahem, “raising a little hell” Saturday night along with fellow CanCon fogies 54-40, Sass Jordan and young local whippersnappers Pigeon Park, who fittingly chose to name themselves after an increasingly gentrified area of the Downtown Eastside. Call us old-fashioned, but where’s Bootsauce, Alannah Myles, Glass Tiger, Frozen Ghost, Parachute Club, Honeymoon Suite, Haywire, Platinum Blonde… Mitsou? You can’t tell us the Calgary Stampeders don’t listen to “Bye Bye Mon Cowboy” before every game to pump themselves up. Or maybe that’s just how we’re able to get through the day.
