The Plot Sickens

You may have heard me tell the story - either in person or on the late-great Cosmic Slop show on Radio K - about Aldo Nova opening for Blue Oyster Cult in West Fargo, North Dakota in September of 1982. Aldo was trying to warm up the crowd and said:

"North Dakota is a great town!"

For almost a quarter century now, I've chalked this up to rock-star-dumbness, some north-of-the-border-flash-in-the-pan just not getting it. And come to think of, relating the story on the Slop show in January of 2001 may have been the first time I had told it since the eighties. The anecdote had grown legs as the years went on ... Aldo Nova, Blue Oyster Cult, a fairgrounds in West Fargo - all these elements seemed to add to the ridiculousness of it.

But this week, I related the tale on an email list I'm on with some fellow musicheads. Dan chipped in with this Aldo Nova onstage quote, also from September of 1982 but this time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota:

"Alright, Sioux City!"

Upon reading this, at first I was gleeful - taken with my experience, it's rock-star-dumbness squared. But as usual, I gave such a thing too much thought. And what's been bothering me for almost 72 hours now is this theory: Nova said these things as an inside joke with his Canadian bandmate buddies as a way to get some laughs while out on the weary road in heartland America as an opener for an American smart-metal band who was hanging onto its last act of stardom. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I might be right: Canadians know a lot more about our country than we do about theirs, no doubt including the states and towns that make up the Dakotas. Damn!