The Stills, Hoboken, NJ

After a few days off to rest, I made it in to New York last night surviving a repeatedly delayed flight. At 1:30am, there's wasn't a whole lot to do around our hotel in Brooklyn, so I just crashed at the hotel.

I got up this morning with the will to do something meaningful, so I took a train into the city thinking I could pick up a couple things. I desperately need a new phone, but they didn't have the one I want anywhere, I wanted to get some shoes, but they didn't have the ones I liked in my size, I wanted to spend some cash at the Mac store, but it was so packed with people trying to get in to buy an iPhone that I couldn't even get in the store. There were people lined up outside, there were cops patrolling, and some guys were even selling their spots in line. Nuts.

So, I went back to the hotel with nothing to show but an empty Starbucks cup, and we started the 7 mile drive to Hoboken. We got there 2.5 hrs later. Fortunately there was a pretzel stand at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, so one of the guys was able to hop out and get us some food while we waited to get through.

Maxwell's is one of those classic places you have to go to maybe 7 times over the course of your touring career. Just a standard dirty old rock bar, but everyone's played there over the years. It was a sold out show, so it went really well, the kids loved it, and we survived another stop on the road. Around 3am, we were finally able to get all our stuff out and sometime near 5 we made it back to the hotel to crash. It'll be a short night though, early load in tomorrow, sometime around noon. Ouch...

The Stills Day 22, Chicago, IL

We got to Chicago a little late today. Soundcheck was set for 1pm, we got to the Switchyard Festival at 7pm. Not the end of the world, we just got held up in some traffic. Toll roads have a way of creating traffic jams...

So we get there, unload the gear, and they ask us to move the RV a little because we were parked to far into the street. No problem we say and I go move the RV. I pull it in a little closer, but surprise surprise, something happens... There's a barricade on the street with a metal foot. That has a point on it. That the tire hits. And then it explodes. Good times. So we get on the phone with the RV place, and they start working on sending a mechanic out to help us switch the tire. The guy actually shows up right when the show starts, so we figure that's great cause the tire will be fixed by the time we're done, but the dumb*ss doesn't bring any tools! And he even called before hand to make sure he brought the right size wrench for the lug nuts! As soon as the show is done, we get back on the phone, because dude never came back with tools like he said he would, so they tell us they'll send someone else. A new guy, with tools, eventually showed up, switched the tire, and it actually worked out to be done right about the time we would have been leaving anyways.

All in all, things worked out. The show was good, the tire was switched, we found the hotel, parked the RV and this leg of the tour is done. Now there's 5 days off, the boys are going back to Montreal tomorrow and I'm staying in Chicago for a few days. I'll meet them in NYC later this week for the last couple shows, then I start with Sean Lennon again, going back to Europe very soon...

The Stills Day 21, Cleveland, OH

The plan today was to get up early and head to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, but that didn't work out at all. We had some unforseen circumstances involving a hotel clerk and a police officer that kept us in the suburbs for most of the morning and afternoon. We eventually had to head straight to The Grog Shop, but at least we got there a little early so we had a chance to eat.

The show was a bit of a surprise. The club was packed. No one called it, but it was really cool. We didn't really have a chance to stick around because we had a two hour drive after the show, but our stay in Cleveland turned out to be ok.

The Stills Day 20, Cleveland, OH

Today we got up early and headed into Cleveland for a day off. The guys have a good friend there, so we met up with him at Guitar Center, where we attempted to get an amp fixed. That didn't work out so well. We came to the conclusion that GC is the McDonalds of music shops. They can put a pickle on your Big Mac, but it's not always fresh... So we went for food, made plans for the night and then headed to the hotel to rest for a bit.

We had some good plans for the night. We were able to score a boat so we spent the evening in the lake staring at the skyline while the sun set. And we had a cooler of beer. All was good, it felt like the first time we were actually able to relax. We stopped at a restaurant on the waterfront for dinner, and then made our way back into town where we stopped at a pub for a nightcap. All in all, it made for a pretty good day off.

The Stills Day 19, Columbus, OH

Today we drove from Lawrence to Columbus. We stopped for food and gas. I watched lots of episodes of The Wire on my laptop. The RV smells like 7 guys have been living in it for 3 weeks. The drive lasted about 13 hours. That is all.

The Stills Day 18, Lawrence, KS

We got up a little early today for the 5 hour drive to Lawrence. We had to make a food stop and we saw a Cracker Barrel, which has become the official breakfast provider of the tour. Seemed like a good idea, so we got off the highway.

Or at least we thought we did. There were three exits clustered together and we got the wrong one. Instead of a quick stop, we ended up on the Tulsa Turnpike and there was no exit for about 30 miles. That put a dent in our travel plans to say the least. So, nearly an hour later, we end up at the Cracker Barrel which was only 4 exits from our hotel the night before. We basically drove for an hour and made about 5 miles of progress. Good times.

After some quick take out, and training the store parrot to speak French (much to the dismay of the locals), we head back out on the drive to Lawrence. It was actually pretty nice and scenic, and it was punctuated by signs that proved we were in the Bible Belt. Here's some of the classics:

-Accept Jesus as your saviour or regret it forever!
-RIGHTEOUSNESS is what makes a nation great, sin is the cancer of all people.

And, my personal favourite, that included a profile picture of a cow with it's head turned to look at you: BEEF! It's what's for dinner!

And so, after enjoying the scenery, we entered the college town that is Lawrence. It was actually pretty nice. Everything went pretty smoothly, the show was great and we were able to hang out again after the show as we were staying in town. We hung out with one of the other bands, a handful of locals, had a couple drinks and slowly made our way to the hotel for another full night of rest, which is miraculous really, but we need it for our 12 hour drive to Columbus tomorrow...

The Stills Day 17, Oklahoma City, OK

No rush to go anywhere today as we actually woke up in the town we had to be in. So, around noon I dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs for food. I was able to charm the kitchen staff into making me a late breakfast, and after that I just kept a low profile til it was time to head to The Conservatory, which was a rather dismal club, but the people were cool, so things were fine.

After the soundchecks, we met up with some friends who took us out to a Thai place for dinner, which was actually pretty good, and after getting lost on the way back to the club the show happened, and it went pretty well. The cool thing was that there was a big window right beside the stage and there was a major lightning storm happening while the guys were playing. Made for some cool visuals.

What it didn't do, however, was help the load out. With lightning, there also comes rain. Fortunately the trailer was parked about 3 feet from the door, but that wasn't good enough. There was merely light drizzle when we started loading, but by the end, about 30 minutes later, I was literally knee deep in water and the club was flooding, I kid you not. It was incredible. I don't think I've ever been that wet in my life. It was a minor miracle that we got the RV out of the swamp of a parking lot.

So, we make it back to the hotel, all our clothes go in the dryer, and because it was an earlier show, we actually had time to just sit back, so we ordered some food and for the first time on the tour, three weeks in, we finally got to just hang out for a night.

The Stills Day 16, Oklahoma City, OK

Today was just a drive day to get to Oklahoma City, which was about 6 hours away. Got up, went out to the RV and we started making our way. The drive was pretty uneventful, just the usual gas and food stops. We actually got to the hotel at a respectable hour, like 9pm or something, but we were so tired from the last week or so that we pretty much just crashed. I had dinner in the hotel and went back to my room for the night. It was good to just be able to sit and do nothing for once.

The Stills Day 15, Austin, TX

Austin, as you can imagine, is really hot in June. You break a sweat just by standing outside, so it was with great pleasure that the crew at Emo's greeted us with cold beer. It made the set up and soundcheck go by really smoothly.

Once we were done with that, we headed over to the legendary Stubbs BBQ for dinner, home of some insane ribs and general BBQ fare. It was every bit as good as I've heard, and I've heard great things about it for years. You need to understand that Austin is one of the music capitals of North America, if not the world, and it's sort of like a pilgrimage to go there. Mine was long overdue and I've been told forever how incredible it is and how much I'd love it. I think it's all true. The only thing I was missing was another day off there and a good cup of coffee.

Anyways. After dinner, I walked around for a bit to check things out, and slowly headed back to the club for the 12am set time, which seemed a little insane, but being in Austin, it works. People stay out to see bands; almost every club or bar has live music all the time, and there's an endless strip of these places downtown. It's kind of like the opposite of every other city around. So the show went really well, but it being so late, by the time I had the trailer packed and the RV parked, it was 3:30am, so I headed back to the hotel to crash.

The Stills Day 14, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Dallas, TX

Today is nothing but driving. We started in Alabama, went through Mississippi and Louisiana with Dallas as our final destination.

We started off pretty leisurely, stopping for gas, but no less than 30 minutes into the drive, while I was driving, we were pulled over by Alabama state troopers. Apparently, I had run off the road (though I'm pretty sure I would've noticed that...) and they stopped us to see if we were ok. I had the honour of standing outside getting grilled about where we're from, what we're doing, do we have guns, drugs, paperwork for the RV, have I ever had any problems with the police, etc... Then they asked again if we had any guns or drugs, and proceeded to name just about every drug you could think of, right down to Sudafed and Advil, they wanted a complete inventory of our 4 bottles of beer and 1 bottle of wine, and then asked if we would object if they wanted to search the vehicle. I passed all the tests, they never did search the vehicle, but they thought it was pretty funny that we were nervous about getting pulled over in Alabama for no reason whatsoever. They reassured us that they were just like cops anywhere else, regardless of all the stuff we see on tv, and that they're really just trying to control drug trafficking on the interstate system. So, having received my warning for running off the road and "failing to maintain a lane", we were on our way. It was classic, really. We were fully expecting to get pulled over at some point, so at least it was out of the way now...

Our stop in Mississippi for gas led us in to a Subway for lunch, where they probably never had 7 people come in at the same time, cause it really blew them away. It took almost 30 minutes for our subs to get made.

In Louisiana, we stopped at a campground to empty all our tanks and talked to a local about gators, and we were disappointed to find out we were too far north to really see any unless we went to a gator farm. No time for that, so we hit the highway again, next stop is just outside Shreveport, LA, for food, which was pretty uneventful, and we eventually landed at the hotel sometime just before 2am. We'll sleep for a few hours, then drive to Austin for a show tomorrow night...

The Stills Day 13, Atlanta, GA

We left Columbia around noon to start driving towards Lenny's Bar in Atlanta, and for the third day in a row, we were actually on time! It's kind of miraculous really...

So as we rolled in to town, we were a little surprised by our surroundings. The club happens to be in an area going through "urban renewal", ie, they had too many crackheads and various other types and they're trying to clean up the neighbourhood, and it's pretty special. Fortunately, there were two decent restaurants and a coffee shop less than a block away, so we could travel safely in the hood.

The club was a typical dirty old rock club, classic vibe for sure. There was actually a pretty sizable crowd though, and it looked like there was a pretty good party starting right when we left. Though we really wanted to stay, the next show is in Austin, TX in 2 days, so we have about 15 hours of driving to do, so we had to hit the road. We eventually stopped in Oxford, Alabama to spend the night.

The Stills Day 12, Columbia, SC

We got to the hotel after the show last night, and for the first time this tour, we don't have to rush in the morning. Another first is that we're staying in the same hotel two nights in a row, so we finally don't have to do a long drive after the show, a definite bonus and a chance to really rest.

So, with time on our side, we started our day with a leisurely trip to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and a stop at CVS for supplies. We casually made our way to Headliners, which is in a decent part of town, all things considered. It's part of a restaurant/nightlife sort of complex, and there was a decent restaurant called Tsunami's where we sat down for dinner for a while.

I took a walk down to the state capitol building to kill some time, went back and did the show and we got out as fast as possible so we could actually get some kind of rest before heading to Atlanta. I also got to do laundry at the hotel, which after two weeks, was a major bonus...

The Stills Day 11, Charlotte, NC

Today was a pretty smooth ride down the interstate to Charlotte. Amos' South End is a pretty cool venue, we had a good show. For dinner we went to a tiny hole-in-the-wall style Mexican place that was actually pretty good, and found some decent coffee at an Italian restaurant around the corner. The neighbourhood we were in actually looked like it'll be pretty cool in a couple years. It's like an old industrial area that's getting a massive facelift with new stores, condos, etc... It'll probably be a pretty trendy part of town.

So, overall, today was pretty laid back... didn't end up with any crazy adventures or anything, just a standard day at the office...

The Stills Day 10, Raleigh, NC

We finally had a breakfast at Cracker Barrel today. Love the CB breakfast... We got in to Raleigh on time, which is a pretty significant even on this tour, loaded in at the Lincoln Theater, checked and went for dinner. We went to a little Italian place where the food was actually decent, but we got hit by the first round of southern fare.

We learned on previous tours that when you get to a certain point in the US, a lot of the food has extra grease or corn syrup or something, and it really doesn't agree with our systems. North Carolina is that point. Usually it's easy to eat in bigger cities, like NYC, LA, Chicago, etc... but when you get to the more average places, all bets are off. And it's painful. It made for a really long night. This is the point where we switch to the Asian food diet, cause at least it's usually "healthy" and safe...

The show was good though, the room sounded great, the fans loved it, etc...

After the show we were finally able to just crash. It was the first night we were staying more or less in town, so we only had to drive for 20mins instead of 2 hours. It was a nice change, a good chance to rest...

The Stills Day 9, Baltimore, MD

I flew in to Baltimore this morning after spending my weekend off in Chicago, stopped for food and a good coffee and made my way to Sonar.

It was the smaller of the two rooms, not too bad, but we didn't soundcheck today. One of the guys messed up his foot and had to go for x-rays, we were running behind schedule, etc... so we skipped everything and just got some takeout for dinner.

Overall it was a rather uneventful day. After the show we drove to Fredericksburg to sleep, and when we stopped for gas we had another minor RV problem (shocking). It wouldn't start. Two blocks from the hotel. So after messing around with it for a few minutes, we finally got it to go, went to the hotel and passed out.

The Stills Day 6, Philadelphia, PA

Ok. It's official. I hate RV's. For the third day in a row, we were totally pooched because of size and propane. We were rerouted in NYC, right before we got to the GW bridge, which would've been home free driving to Philly, and we got stuck crawling along the BQE. It took us 8 hours to do 30 miles!!!!! Easily the worst traffic I've ever driven in. This is becoming a daily headache of insane proportions. Things should be a bit better once we get out of the northeast, but this is really getting painful.

Anyways... We got to Philly 7 hours late, after doors were opened, so we rushed in and set up as fast as possible. Tom n Jerry's is kind of a surreal place. It's like a Hooters restaurant, so, in other words, no place for a rock show. The lights were bright, the tv's stayed on so people could watch baseball, there were red, yellow and green jalapeno pepper lights hanging from the ceiling, etc... just plain weird. No one really knew what was going on, maybe 6 people had heard of the band, and we got out as fast as possible after the show.

We had to drive to Aberdeen, MD, after, and on the way we found a late night diner to eat at. We needed the stop because we didn't have a chance to stop for food all day. It was a total 50's style roadside diner, jukeboxes as every table and even the token local at the bar singing along to every song, and he even had light sticks and was "dancing" in his seat. We picked some classics, like Piano Man, Bad Moon Rising, When You Wish Upon A Star, The Bear Necessities..., it was a good time. After our quick meal, it was back in the @#%?% RV and we made our way to the Super 8 in Aberdeen, which was a fair step up from the disaster in West Haven, so we were actually able to sleep...

The Stills Day 5, Boston, MA

Today we ran into the same problem we had getting into New York. A couple of the roads we wanted to take couldn't take the size of our traveling behemoth, so we had the good fortune of learning to navigate the crazy streets of Boston. We only got there 1 hour late today...

Great Scott's is a smaller place, like a cross between a pub and a sports bar, but it was ok. There was a pretty good crowd, show went well, etc...

After the show we had to drive two hours to West Haven, CT, to spend the night in order break up the drive for the next day. It was fairly painless, until we saw the hotel. The Super 8 West Haven is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, bar none. The building reeks in general, there's a pile of ripped garbage bags outside the door, the stairwell smelled like dead, rotting cats, there were piles of dirty laundry up and down the hallways, the room smelled like it hadn't been aired out in years, the towels had blood stains, the water was undrinkable, etc... At least the toilet flushed. I didn't even think about a shower last night; who knows what's living in the bathtub...

The Stills Day 4, New York, NY

The thing about driving an RV is that you can't always go where you need to due to it's massive size, and that's the problem we ran into when we were on our way to New York. Don Hill's is right at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, but we can't take the tunnels because there's propane on board, so we need to take the George Washington Bridge. No problem there. But, the exits we need to take are a) only for cars and b) have low overpasses that we can't fit under, and that's how we got lost in the Bronx. Good times. So instead of getting to the island in lower Manhattan, we ended up at 176th St. and had to make our way down from there. The cool part was we saw Tom's Restaurant, which is infamous as it is aka the Seinfeld Restaurant where they always meet and have things like big salads.

So. We get to the club, everything is fine, we set up, go for dinner, come back for the show which goes quite well, and at 2:30am we leave to drive to Bridgeport, CT where we spent the night to break up the drive to Boston. At 4am we were finally checked in and we could rest for the early call for the next drive to Boston...

The Stills Day 3, Toronto to Dunsmore, PA

RV servicing 101: It's a massive pain. I left at 10am with our guitar tech, Frenchie, to bring in the RV to a place in Bolton, which is about 45 mins north of Toronto. We get there, explain the problem and the guy says they can't fix it, so they'll give us a new one. Alright, no big deal, we kind of expected that, so we spent about 2 hours transferring all our stuff and doing paperwork and we were on our way.

We didn't get very far. About 200 yards from the RV shop, we hit a bump on the road and the trailer popped off the hitch! In traffic! NOT GOOD!! Fortunately, the safety chains worked and the emergency brake on the trailer kicked in and we made it to the shoulder without killing anyone, which was a legitimate possibility. It was pretty freaky.

We went out to look at it, and nothing was damaged, so we used our own raw power to life the loaded trailer back onto the hitch, fixed all the wiring, re-secured the damn thing, but we couldn't reset the emergency brake, so the trailer wouldn't move at all. I spent about an hour on the phone with U-Haul HQ and the local rep, CAA, independent mechanics, etc... and no one was able to come out and help us in a reasonable time and/or price range. Then we noticed a truck shop a little ways down the street and figured, hey, they work on trucks, they can fix a trailer. At least they could if they were cool people. They politely refused to even look at it.

At that point we were about 3 hours behind schedule, and we still had to do a border crossing today, so we called another shop to ask some questions and basically figured it wasn't the end of the world if we dragged the trailer back down the road to the RV place, as they were our last hope. They were cool, helpful and, most importantly, successful. It took all of 5 mins to sort it out, and they didn't even have the right tools to do it. A little resourcefulness can go a long way... Finally, we could get back on the road.

So we make our next stop in Mississauga where we had to stop by Simple Plan's warehouse to pick up Frenchie's tool kit (he usually works for them), and we get back on the highway to go pick up the guys at the hotel, where they've been waiting in the lobby for hours, so we can make our way to the US.

That didn't last long. I had to take the 427 south, and guess what? It was closed and I got rerouted north. Not good. I get off the highway and get back on south, but the road ends up being blocked so we're stuck in traffic. We were stuck so long that the road eventually reopened and we actually made some headway. So, at 4:45 pm we finally get back, when we expected to be back at about 12:30pm.

We hit the road, manage to get out of Toronto in decent time and get to Buffalo to do immigration, which was remarkably painless, almost too easy. That was the bonus of the day I suppose, because we figured if anything was going to go wrong, it would be at the border. So we cross, we're on our way and we stop for food, at a Tim Horton's ironically, and the stupid atm machine won't read the bank cards so we can't get the cash we need. Somehow we worked it out, got some food and right now we're on the road to Dunsmore, PA where we'll spend the night before playing NYC tomorrow. Nothing says class like the roadside Super 8...

The Stills Day 2, Toronto, ON

We had most of the day off before we had to load in, so I took advantage of it to pick up a few more supplies I didn't have the chance to get at home.

We went over to the Harbourfront Centre around 4:30, setup and soundchecked, but the thing was there was a weird catch today. There was great gear at the venue, except the problem was that some white collar city hall lifer decided that there should be a sound level limit at the venue. They picked 90 dB. That's about the volume of a conversation at a pub, not at all proper for a rock show. Add to that that the band itself is 110 dB on stage alone, with no sound reinforcement, and I had my work cut out for me. After laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation and briefly considering playing a show with banjos, we finally turned everything down, and, as one frustrated fan put it, "it's like watching them play in a basement".

But, when all was said and done, the show happened, the kids liked it and we got out unscathed. After the show we went out to a place called the Embassy with K-OS and some folks from Broken Social Scene, and I met a friend of mine who I toured with last summer with Sam Roberts and more recently with Sean Lennon. I also met up with Sam's manager at the show, and I received my first gold record, which I have to say is quite cool. I actually like going to Toronto now that I know a few people there... So, I had a good time catching up, and the night ended a little earlier than the last because I had to get up to bring in the RV for servicing the next morning.

The Stills Day 1, Toronto, ON

I got up this morning at around 10am, which was stunningly early since I worked 20 hours last night and got home around 2am. It's a good thing I got up early cause I needed every second of the day to run all my errands and do all my packing. In fact, if the band hadn't been an hour or so late to pick me up, I would've had some problems...

Anyways, it all came together and we ended up pulling into Toronto at around 11:30pm, dropped our bags and headed out. We went to check out an incredible studio run by Jimmy Shaw from Metric and then walked down the block to a place called the Dakota Tavern for a couple drinks and at 3am we went back to the hotel. And just like that, Day 1 is done.

The Stills Day -1, home...

Ok, so here we go again. There are 7 weeks of daily updates coming your way.

I just finished a 6 day job working rehearsals which led up to a live tv show I did tonight, with about 10 different artists, kind of like a festival. It was minimum 12 hours a day, today was 19, and so, as a result, I have not yet begun to pack. This is a problem.

I need to sleep first of all, and I'm on the road as of about 4:30pm tomorrow. That's not too far away. I need to run a pile of errands, make sure I have laundry done and clothes for 7 weeks that will cover me for different climates. I'll need to get supplies too. Funny how buying something stupid like razor blades or toothpaste can become a big issue. And that's the simple stuff. I have to sort out work permits for 5 or 6 different countries, get some flight info, foreign currencies, etc... And it's Sunday, so I'm willing to bet half the places I have to go to will be closed. It'll be amazing.

But, it's all good. I'll finally be on the road again. 4 weeks off (the road) was a bit weird. I'm almost used to sleeping in the same bed every night. I even have a morning routine based on a newspaper, breakfast and coffee. That's about to get shot to hell...

I'm figuring that it'll take about 3 mins for my road chops to set in. That's stuff like the ability to sleep in a moving vehicle, ability to sleep in a hotel, how to find decent food, driving stamina, etc...

It could sound pretty insane to some of you, but then I can't stand the idea of going to work in the same place every day, and I do enjoy the travel and the craziness of the whole thing, so I guess we're even. Anyways, I still have to throw things together pretty fast today so that when I finally get picked up, I'll be able to relax and all will be good in the world. And then I just have to concentrate on sharing my daily happenings with the rest of you... Stay tuned...