What’s In Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Adrian Chalifour

Who are you

My name is Adrian Chalifour (pronounced "Shall-if-or" not "cauliflower" despite popular opinion) and I'm an indie artist from Victoria BC. Some folks will know me from my project Towers and Trees, which 7-years and one-reality-TV-show later I decided to drop in favour of releasing new music as... well... ME! My newest single is called "Open Heart". It's an ode to the givers of the world and comes with a kick-ass music video starring Victoria drag queen sensation Jimbo and the women of Raino Dance!

First concert

In 1994 Victoria hosted the Commonwealth Games. It was a pretty big deal (2nd only to the "Blizzard of '96" in terms of Victoria's 'big deals from the 90s' ). The Crash Test Dummies played a free show on the legislature lawns and 60,000 people showed up. My 6-year-old little sister got lost in the crowd until she was miraculously scooped up by a family friend who happened to spot her. I also remember everyone standing up for the "Superman" song, which was a bummer as a kid because I couldn't see anything.

Life-changing concert

I saw Hawksley Workman at a small club in Victoria in the late 90's because I'd heard his song "Strip Tease" on the radio and it was $12 bucks, so why not? Instead of  the standard CanCon rock show I expected, he strutted out wearing a feather boa, absolutely shredded his guitar on several extended solos, crooned piano ballads while tossing plastic flowers to the crowd, dropped into impromptu mid-song covers of 80's pop hits, and otherwise blew the roof off the place. That show redrew the map for me in terms of what you were 'allowed' to do live and I spent a lot of years after just trying to be my best version of that show.

Top three records

U2 Joshua Tree  The first time I heard Joshua Tree as a middle-schooler, you could say I finally 'found what I was looking for' (oh god... sorry). But seriously, I found the kind of music I knew some day I wanted to make. To this day I'm hard-pressed to find a front-to-back album with more heart.

Paul Simon Graceland  Anyone who can write a brilliant song about being a single dad on a road trip with his 9-year-old son gets a big pass in my books. I jam this record HARD.

Leonard Cohen Greatest Hits  Is it cheating to include a Greatest Hits album? I don't care because this was a Christmas gift from my mom and the first time I ever heard Leonard Cohen. It opens with "Suzanne" and ends with "Take This Longing" and somewhere in between you have to realize you're listening the greatest songwriter of all time. I finally saw him live in 2009 and wept like a baby.

All-time favourite video

I'll dedicate my answer to the weird and wonderful 90's Can-Con pop scene that filled my after-school MuchMusic binge sessions, thus declaring it a 4-way tie between Len-"Steal My Sunshine", B44-"Get Down", Wave-"California" and every video by Sky. Runner up Honours go to Jimmy Ray-"Are You Jimmy Ray and Ricky J-"No Means No". If you lived it, you get it. If you didn't, I'm sorry.

What’s in your fridge

Yop (Costco-size flat). Or "Yoger-fink" as my two year old daughter affectionately calls it. She lives for this shit. She'll slam a few of these puppies on the daily if we let her. I won't lie, I sneak the occasional hit too, especially on a late-night snack sesh.

Beer (Corona). I hit these with comparable enthusiasm to my daughter and her "yoger-finks." Also, to address the elephant in the room: yes, I'm aware that we live near the epicentre of the North American craft brew scene. But after turning 30 and becoming a dad I've decided to welcome simplicity in my life wherever I can - starting with my beer palette. Thank you but I don't need my beer to taste like a herb garden. My only 3 criteria these days are 1. cold 2. smooth 3. drinkable.

Various Tupperware with questionable contents. An old dinner? A half-used avocado? The remnants of a toddler snack? At this point they represent good intentions gone awry more than anything. But why acknowledge your failings when you can just push it back a few more inches, keep the lid fastened and hit snooze on dealing with the fallout for a few more months.

Adrian Chalifour plays Guilt and Co on August 21.