Over the years, we here at Panic Manual occasionally stray from our usual coverage of music and the arts in general and branch out to review other things, like dog shows, TIFF parties, and even actual earthquakes – we like to examine the full range of the human experience. So in that spirit, I took it upon myself to check out the launch party for PointsBet Canada, who were celebrating the occasion with a party at the El Mocambo featuring a performance by Windsor rockers Huttch and hosted by The Trailer Park Boys … or at least two of them. I guess Julian had a prior obligation.
“OK, so has everybody downloaded the fuckin’ app yet?” asked Bubbles as he and his fellow Sunnyvale Trailer park resident Ricky took to the stage to get the party officially started and to introduce the men who brought PointsBet to Canada.
Originally started in Australia, PointsBet launched this month in Canada after some success across the border in the U.S. and promises to deliver “an authentically Canadian product and gaming experience through unique partnerships deeply rooted in Canada’s sports landscape.” Apparently this notion of authentic Canadiana also includes hiring the Trailer Park Boys to host your party, something the PointsBet Canada guys described as being a bit of a hard sell to their overseas parent company.
A short while later in the evening, Windsor’s Huttch took to the stage and delivered a decent set of meat and potatoes, power-poppish rock that brought to mind Sam Roberts at times. The band just put out a new album this week and of course were playing songs from it for the occasion. The drummer made use of sports metaphors to appeal to the crowd with his comment about the album being a “home run” … although a hockey metaphor might have been more apt with the Leafs game playing on the big screen behind the bar. The day before this was Jays opening night though, so we’ll let that one slide.
As someone who doesn’t follow sports all that closely and has never really gambled on any sporting event before, I probably wasn’t exactly the target demographic for this event. But overall, it was a solid night out regardless. And while I may not be all that into betting on sports, the fact that I went out to a party in a bar during the sixth wave of Covid that we’re currently in shows that I am probably a bit of a gambler in some respects after all.