I was equally excited and nervous about today. They say you should never meet your heroes because they can’t possibly live up to your expectations. After this experience, I can only reply, “well, perhaps you just need different heroes.”

I had three things that I hoped would happen on my best-case-scenario version of how this day would go down:

1. I’d get to meet them and shake their hands and tell them ‘thank you’ for getting me through my cancer depression

2. I’d see the concert

3. I’d buy a new t-shirt and maybe get them to sign it

Every single one of those ‘best cases’ got blown right out of the water with much better versions.
I didn’t buy a new shirt to get signed, they gave me one.

As for the other two… that’s a longer story.
I got to the venue around 5pm, still dazed from lack of sleep (I got about an hour right before I went over there, but that’s all the sleep I had in the past two days) and found one of the workers there and told them that Bas left my name with someone so I could go backstage and meet them. He asked my name then said, “yes, we have a pink wristband for you to wear so security won’t give you any problems. Follow me.” I got my wristband and they led me to the concert room - the venue is a working brewery that has an events room. They pointed to a barstool for me to sit on while Pete and Bas finished doing their sound checks. And there they were.

Now, I’m an emotional person to begin with, but my cancer meds put my hormones into a blender and you never know what’s going to happen. The anticipation of this day was the source of lots of tears, thinking about the journey I’ve been on with my cancers and how these two old geezers have kept me positive in my outlook. I fretted over what I’d say and whether or not I’d break down into a blubbering mess when I finally met them, so this scenario - with me sitting in the back of the room, watching them work out their sound check - was perfect. By the time they were done, they were just normal people and I was fine. When they were done, Pete walked within earshot and I said, “Pete - I bring you greetings from Canada.”

He turned and said, “Jim! I’m glad you made it. We’re heading for the green room, follow me.” And now I’m in the ‘green room’ (which are almost never green) with both of my heroes in the most relaxed atmosphere imaginable.

The woman (and goddammit, her name escapes me now) is their DJ. She’s at the back of the stage playing the music and working the sound effects. I got my ‘thank you’ off early and that led to a fairly long conversation with Pete about the trials and tribulations of dealing with cancer.

I’ll say up front that much of what was discussed in that room will stay in that room. We covered the gamut of serious topics like cancer, songwriting, touring, nerves before a show, why Pete is never seen holding a gun or smoking in their videos, and the like… and we also had some wild tangents into every conceivable topic, the oddest of which was when a conversation about the stupidity of chickens led to Bas saying, “someone told me that you can clean the dust off your TV screen with a cat, is that true?” I suggested he not try it. There was also a point when I asked Pete for clarification on a lyric in “Sindhu Sesh.” I had my shirt custom made with what I thought the lyric was, but he assured me that it was actually something different, “but I like yours better.” Wow.

Speaking of the shirt, I wore my shirt with the lyrics to “Bish Bash Bosh” printed all over it and when I pointed it out to Bas, he nearly flipped. He loved it and asked where he could get one. I told him to send me his and Pete’s shirt sizes and a mailing address and I’d make sure they got one.

I told them that I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet them, but I didn’t want to overstay my welcome, so if they wanted me to go at any point, there were no hard feelings. They both assured me that they were happy for the company and I could stay up until the point they had to go onstage… which meant that instead of suffering through the two opening acts, I would be hanging out with the boys instead for another couple hours. Fantastic! We hung out for more than four hours back there, just talking about all kinds of things. They are both class acts and two of the nicest blokes you’d ever want to meet. They aren’t full of themselves, there’s no ego tripping, and aside from being 100% confident that their songs can stand up to anyone else’s in the game, they’re as humble as they come.

Obviously, we talked about tattoos as well. At some point, the conversation turned to writing again and I mentioned that I couldn’t find anywhere to watch the short film, “The Brazilian Investment”. Bas went to his phone and sent me a YouTube link, which is to an unlisted video on his personal account, so I can’t share it. I’ll watch it later when I’ve had some sleep. Pete and Bas not only star it in, but Bas was the screenwriter.

And that eventually led to my song about my cancer journey. I asked if they had seen the video. They hadn’t. I got a bit nervous, since the first half of the video is unabashedly about my relationship with Rob and I wasn’t sure how these two guys viewed that whole topic. After all, they are of a certain generation where such things were definitely looked down upon much more so than today. I wasn’t expecting them to be outright homophobic - after all, in a music genre that’s rife with anti-gay lyrics, they’ve never gone down that road. Racist lyrics? None of that, either. So I took a chance and pulled up the video on my phone and showed it to them. Their DJ watched as well.

To say that it was well-received is an understatement. Bas called it a “work of art” and asked if he could share that with others. I assured him that I was absolutely fine with that, so he sent the link out in some group chat and suddenly all his friends and family - as well as Pete’s friends and family - had my video pinging their phones. For the next hour or so, their phones would ping and they’d relay a message from someone who’d just watched it. All were positive. It gets even better, but that will have to wait a few paragraphs, until we get to the part about the concert.

The stage hand came back and said that they should be ready to go on at “half-nine” which I now know means “nine-thirty”. I said that as soon as the guy who was singing at the moment finished his set, I’d head into the venue so I could snag a good spot near the stage while the crowd headed to the back to get more drinks. They said, “nah, mate, just follow us out and you can stand just offstage. You can get good shots from there.” Before long, we were making the trek from the green room to the stage.

From my vantage point, I had absolutely unobstructed views of the show AND I was situated behind the amps, so it didn’t blow out my eardrums all night like it would’ve if I’d been on the other side of them. This was a small venue, but that crowd was louder than crowds in some much bigger arenas I’ve been to. Holy cow, they were into it.

And yes, Pete and Bas sing over recordings of themselves. But now that I’ve been to a show, I can’t fault them for that at all. When the crowd is that loud and they’re all yelling the songs back at the stage, it’s difficult to hear the beat you’re supposed to be singing to. Sometimes, you need to stop, listen for the vocals playing, then catch back up. It’s insane how loud that crowd was.

I mentioned a lack of ego. During “Mr Worldwide”, Pete noticed a particular fan in the crowd who was singing along to every word (and that’s not an easy one). When the song was over, he pointed the guy out and asked security to let him onstage. Then they started the song over and handed him a microphone. He did a good job!

Their shows feel less like a concert and more like a house party. Everyone is having a great time, rocking out to the music, singing along, dancing, and getting rowdy. And when I say ‘rowdy’, see the tall blonde in the front, standing between the short brunette in the cowboy hat and the bearded guy?

At one point between songs, she hiked up her top and exposed her bare breasts to Pete and Bas, obviously hoping for some kind of shocked reaction. Bas didn’t see her at first, so Pete said through the mic, “Bas! Bas!” and Bas turns around and Pete pointed at the woman and her bare chest and Pete said, “how much you think them cost?” The woman yelled back, “a lot!”

Later on, the opening of “Bish Bash Bosh”, my favourite song of theirs, came on and Bas looked over at me and motioned for me to come up on stage.

Bas introduces me with “this is our mate Jim. He’s come all the way from Canada just to see the show tonight.” The crowd applauds, then starts chanting, “Jim! Jim! Jim!” [that’s surreal, by the way, and I had to resist the urge to hide behind something. I think the crowd sensed my shyness and stopped the chanting fairly quickly]. Bas pointed to my shirt and said, “have a look at this. He’s got the lyrics to “Bish Bash Bosh” printed all over his shirt.

And then Pete told the crowd, “he’s written a song about us and it’s amazing and you should all go to YouTube and watch it” - WOW. That sucker-punched me right in the feels. Before I could even think about tearing up in front of all those people, though, Bas hands me a beer and Pete hands me a mic. “Bish Bash Bosh” starts up again and I know what’s about to happen. Holy shit. The timid guy who was embarrassed at having his name chanted by the crowd, the one who was about to get emotional when Pete lauded his song to the crowd, disappeared. Their music affects me in a lot of ways and apparently one of those ways is to get me out of my shell and just give’r. I figured that I’ve sung this song in the car a thousand times, I can do it here, too. Neither the crowd nor Pete and Bas were expecting what they saw and heard, as is evidenced by Bas’ face.

Their songs go back and forth between singers, so when I was singing Pete’s verses, I’d move over close to him on the stage, then move over near Bas when I sang his parts. In the last half of the song, there’s a notorious set of alliterative tongue-twister stanzas done at blistering speed, first featuring “P” sounds, then “B” sounds (for Pete and Bas, obviously). I got right up in Pete’s face so we could “spit those bars” together.

Pete looked me right in the eyes and halfway through the “P” stanza, he stopped singing and let me finish it solo. Lack of ego, like I mentioned before. When the song was done, Pete told the crowd to “give it up for Jim!” and they really showed their appreciation. I’ve never had that much fun on stage, ever. I had to give my respects where they were due, though. I didn’t write those bars, nor did I craft the delivery. I only mimicked what the master had already done. I gave him the “Wayne’s World” “I’m not worthy” bow.

After the show, both the lads complimented me on my performance and later in the queue for merch after the show, I had several audience members come up and tell me ‘good job’- a few even wanted selfies with me, which was weird, but I played along.

I mentioned early on that when the crowd is loud, you sometimes need to stop singing and listen for the pre-recorded track to see where you are in the song. Both Pete and Bas have earpieces in their ears to help them do that. During the soundcheck before the show, they were having problems with those earpiece systems and had to go to the back room and get replacements several times until they found some that worked properly.

The first half of the show went fine, but at some point in the second half, Pete’s earpieces stopped working. Then Bas’ did as well. When they’d need to stop for a second and listen for the backing track to get back on, they couldn’t hear the backing track, either. Some of their trickier numbers happen in the second half of the show, so the timing couldn’t have been worse. Songs fell apart mid-stream with the boys looking at each other like, “can you hear? I can’t.” They plowed through anyway, but by the time the third song in a row fell apart, Pete had to tell the crowd that they were having technical difficulties. The crowd was still very supportive and insisted they go on anyway. I really felt for both of them, having a good third of the show left to go and knowing that it wasn’t going to be up to their standards. Pete’s normally very high-energy delivery succumbed to his tiredness (he seemed quite exhausted before the show, probably from a recent chemo treatment). You could tell from his delivery and by the look on his face.

The crowd didn’t falter, though. It’s not the kind of show where the crowd says to the singer, “I paid for this ticket, now entertain me” but rather “I bought a ticket to be a part of this experience and we’re all in this together.” It was actually pretty amazing to watch, as much as I felt sorry for the boys up there with the mics, trying to make the most of an impossible situation.

An encore of “Mr Worldwide” brought the show to a close on a high-energy note with the audience providing their own vocals. I’m sure there were people at the show, like me, who were a bit disappointed that the technical glitches caused problems in the second half, but nobody who was there could say that they were not entertained. A Pete and Bas show is a one-of-a-kind experience, unlike any concert I’ve ever been to, and it was the perfect way to end a perfect day with “Big Bas and Internet Pete”. I can’t wait for the next one.

I’ll say again what I said up front. If you meet your heroes and they don’t live up to your expectations, then get yourself some new heroes.
As for me, I’m beyond happy with mine.

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