Chromeo Day 9, Drive to San Francisco, CA

I woke up this morning feeling surprisingly rested, which was good given that we have to drive about 12 hrs to San Fran today. And to top it off, there was acceptable coffee across the street from the hotel, though we had an awkward moment when loudly criticizing how the coffee was made (improperly) while the maker was sitting right behind us... Oops.

Anyways, that was that. The rest of the day we spent in the van, driving, driving, driving... A couple inconsequential stops for food, and there was really nothing else that happened, but I suppose sometimes that's a good thing.

Tomorrow we play The Fillmore. Can't wait, I love that club. It's legendary after all, and everything there is top notch. Should be a good one. And I know where there's amazing coffee 4 blocks from our hotel. Good times.

Chromeo Day 8, Portland, OR

Today was a little less painful. We were able to take our time getting in to Portland, no rush at all. The show at Berbati's Pan tonight is a headline club show, so there's no festival madness to deal with. Just us doing our thing.

The afternoon was pretty smooth, had a decent dinner at the club, killed some time walking around. It was alright.

Show time came pretty quickly, it was crazy. The club was packed and it was hot. I was sweating buckets just standing still. They kids, they like the dance-rock-electro-tunes. A lot.

Afterwards, we got out as fast as possible to try and get to the hotel bar for last call. We all made it except for one (showed up only 10mins after us), and the bouncer wouldn't even let him in to the bar, and we just wanted to hang out, it wasn't even about drinks or last call. It was really lame, they escalated things, tried to get physical with us a pick a fight, and that's the main reason why none of want to stay at the uber-lame Jupiter Hotel in Portland, OR, again. So we bailed from the hotel bar, got a couple drinks out of our vehicle and just hung out in the courtyard area trying to unwind.

It was all going pretty well. It was a pretty busy hotel for 2 am on a Sunday; definitely a couple parties going on elsewhere on the property. We were finally relaxing a bit when the fire alarm went off. That was fun. The cops showed up, made a quick drive-by through the parking lot near the outdoor rooms, and things became normal again after a bit. The party people scattered pretty quickly. A handful of them stopped by to hang out with us for a bit and that's pretty much where the night ended. We didn't want to push it much later because we have a 12 hr drive to San Francisco tomorrow. It's about time we try and rest...

Chromeo Day 7, Seattle, WA

We felt like shit today. The driving from the last week has added up and got multiplied by 1000 after yesterday. We only got up and out of bed at 4pm. Our schedules are shot.

Today we just have to do a small festival gig in downtown Seattle. It seemed fairly painless, but again, unorganized. Not as bad as yesterday, just different. like having to move the van and trailer every 20 minutes and load in through a packed beer garden. Good times. But whatever, we got through. The show was good, the kids loved it and just like that, it was over.

Our hotel was out by the airport, and that was the last place we wanted to stay, so we decided to hang out in the city and cab back. We had grandiose plans to go and visit our favourite clubs, restaurants and coffee shops, but we ended up just sitting in the dressing rooms hanging out with a bunch of locals. It was cool, had some street meat (they serve their dogs with cream cheese!) and eventually headed to the hotel to try and sleep a little and get back on some sort of schedule.

Chromeo Day 6, Pemberton, BC

On paper, the drive to the Pemberton Festival is 2.5 hrs. In practice, going up the slalom-like Sea to Sky Highway takes about 4 hrs, and we found out the long way. It was a beautiful drive up in to the mountains, but nerve-wracking. You can't really get above 50km/h, even if you push it... The highlight of today's drive was stopping in Squamish, where we discovered biodegradable doggie bag dispensers.

When we eventually made it up to the site, it quickly became obvious that this festival has some growing to do if they ever do it again. It was too bad because the line up was pretty cool, and knowing who was putting it together, it should have been good. the first problem was driving through the camping area to get to our stage and not being able to get driections because the security people didn't even know where our stage was on the site. Once we finally made it, we got our stuff set up and working and we wanted to go for lunch. Seems simple enough...

Well, it wasn't. They ran out of passes for the artists (!?!), so they gave me a pass that didn't actually give me access to the catering area, so I had to borrow a pass from someone else. Then we found out we needed meal tickets once we got there. The festival gave us 2 meal tickets. There were 7 of us. When me and a couple of the other crew guys went to ask for more, they told us food was for performers only, which, if you've worked a festival like this, you know is total and complete bullshit. So we made a bit of a scene over that until they agreed to feed us. They actually told us they wouldn't give us tickets because that's what we get per diems for, but when you're out in the mountains and there's not even a damned Tim Horton's, you can't buy a meal no matter how much money you have. We were getting pretty down pretty fast. So somehow we sorted that out and we went to the catering area, and it turns out my pass wouldn't have made a difference because there was no security anywhere to be seen. Bonus. So we eat, all is good, Bob Rock showed up, very cool, and we carry on.

On our way back to our stage, we were looking for something to do to kill 6 hours, and someone was smiling down on us because we found a *free* Bacardi mojito stand beside our stage! And that was the plan for the afternoon, and it worked out great. I left for a little while to walk around and ended up watching another band with Bob Rock and a guy from Nine Inch Nails. Kind of cool, I'd say. There was a bit of a rockstar moment too when a kid came up to talk to them and he quickly got dragged away by their bodyguards... Funny, but kind of sad at the same time.

Eventually we got to show time and that actually went pretty well. The start time was delayed a little but all that did was work the crowd in to a bit of a frenzy, and they went nuts for the whole set. It was pretty cool to watch from the stage.

After it was all over, we packed up pretty quickly because we had to drive to Seattle. It was with no regrets that we left the terribly organized dust and dirt festival and started the treacherous drive back down the highway that seemed to take forever and a day. It was by a long shot the most challenging non-winter drive I've ever done. It was pushed over the top when we drove by a car that was sparking underneath, no doubt about to catch fire, but we figure it wasn't worth sticking around to find out, there was help there already...

Anyways, we get down to the border, I roll down the window, say "Hi, how's it going?" to the guard, hand over our passports, and he doesn't say a single word. We figure we're shot, this is the next 5 hours of our lives. He took our stuff inside, scanned everything, gave us a look and said "Have a good night", and we were on our way. We finally got to Seattle at 6am, totally burnt out after a 23.5hr day and crashed. Hard.

Chromeo Day 5, Drive to Vancouver, BC

If nothing else, the drive through the Rockies was stunning as usual. It's one of the only drives that you actually want to stay awake for. Highlights included going through Salmon Arm, Sickamous (The Houseboat Capital of Canada), and dinner in Kamloops. We got in to our hotel fairly late, but the restaurant was still open so we were able to grab a late bite to eat. We wrapped it after that because we have to leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am to head up to Pemberton.

Chromeo Day 4, Drive to Banff, AB

Today is the only day that matters to us. We did all the long drives the last few days for the sole purpose of getting to Banff in time for dinner at the Saltlik, the best steakhouse I have ever eaten at in the world, period. I had been talking it up for everyone the last couple days, so we were all pumped for it. The whole drive went really smoothly, we were crossing the prairies after all, and we got in at 7:30pm, more than enough time. Checked in to the hotel, changed out of our driving clothes and hit the town.

As usual, the Saltlik was mindblowingly good. A better steak one cannot find. It's a mandatory stop on any western Canadian tour. After dinner, we went around to a couple local places for drinks but it was a little dead given that it was a Wednesday night. Whatever. It was just really good to be out of the van for a night. We really needed it to get refreshed for the drive to Vancouver tomorrow. At least driving through the rockies is pretty spectacular. It'll be a good drive...

Chromeo Day 3, Drive to Regina

The plan to leave at noon wasn't too far off today. We left at 1pm for the 14 hr drive. It was going well for a while. We stopped for lunch in Kekabee Falls (I think) where we ate in a diner that hadn't been painted since the 70's. The walls were a faded yellow, the ceiling brown and the carpet was some kind of red and yellow psychedelic mess. Attached to the diner, there was some sort of legion hall. The walls were covered in taxidermied animals and all the furniture was undoubtedly vintage 70s. The lights were straight out of a long forgotten disco bar in Thunder Bay, guaranteed. But, all that said, the food was actually decent.

We got back on the road and things were going well. Then we got the speeding ticket. I wasn't driving, thankfully. There was no way were going as fast as he said we were. Our van and trailer couldn't even handle it. But what are you gonna do...? We had to take it and proceed, albeit a little more paranoid. And so we drove. And drove. And drove... We hit some delays, lots of construction. When it was all said and done, we actually got in to Regina at a decent time. Just have a handful of hours to sleep, then back at it again.

Chromeo Day 2, Drive to Thunder Bay, ON

Toronto to Thunder Bay is a ridiculously long drive. About 17 hours or so. Our plan was to get out by noon, so we could have some sleep and it almost worked. We were up and had breakfast and were back at the hotel by 11am. Then we waited because some business stuff had to get taken care of. Then we realized the hitch on the trailer was damaged, so we had to get that fixed, which we could do with a quick trip to Canadian Tire, but it all added up and we didn't leave Toronto til about 1:30pm. Then we had to stop to get gas, pick up stuff like bottled water for the drive, and by the time we were moving for real, it was almost 3pm. Insane. Not good.

We spent the rest of the day just driving down the Trans-Canada. It was long and painful. Even more so for me. I started my driving shift at 11:30pm in Sault-Ste.-Marie. 8 hours later we pulled in to Thunder Bay. 7:30am. It hurt like hell. We got in to the hotel and there were people all over the lobby saying good morning and drinking their coffee, going to meetings. So weird. Being the consummate professionals we are, we crashed as fast as possible. Plan is to leave by noon to get to Regina next...

Chromeo Day 1, Toronto, ON (7-20-08)

I got up far too early at the Bala cottages today so I could drive back to Toronto to meet up with the Chromeo guys to start our North American tour. I actually made it to the site of the Rogers Picnic on time, at Historic Fort York, but we got stuck waiting in line for load in. It was getting a little crazy because it was raining all morning and the field became a massive mess. The main reason for the backup was that a sewage truck got stuck in the field and it took over an hour to get it out.

Eventually things cleared up, we got our stuff in and set up, etc... Show time rolled around and it went really well. The crowd was amazing, especially considering it was raining the whole time. The stuck through it...

After the show, we had to wait til 11pm to get out because the path to the outside was right through the middle of the crowd. Our set was done at 8. It was a long wait. Once the show was finally done, we had to wait even longer because the fencing guys didn't come in to tear town the fences around the backstage area. So after waiting for over an hour, we figured screw this, we're getting out. We started tearing down the fences and then without saying a word, one of the trucks from the sound company decided to make a break for it. They made it about 15' before the mud swallowed them whole. They were stuck and they were blocking the whole backstage exit area. We were not happy.

We started looking around for ways to get out and we saw that we had enough room to squeeze through on some dry land where the fences had been. There were still a couple soft spots though, so we took the pieces of fencing and threw them on the ground to make a road out. Before the last piece was in place our van was moving. We were sick of the place and we have to drive to Thunder Bay in the morning. We got out on the first shot and went straight to the hotel to crash.

Sam Roberts Band, Bala, ON (7-19-08)

I got up this morning and took my time easing in to the day. Made a quick trip in to town for a coffee, swung by the grocery store for food for the day and went back to the cottage to sit by the lake. And that was most of my day. Around 4pm I went in to the club to check a couple things that were weird the night before, then back to the cottage.

After stopping at the club, our Tour Manager and I went back to the grocery store to stock up for a crazy BBQ for dinner. We got back and cooked some 36 dogs and 48 burgers for everyone, with a couple steaks and chicken breasts thrown in for good measure. It was really hard to want to go to work after that, but it had to happen eventually...

The show tonight was even better that last night. The crowd wouldn't leave, so the guys did 2 encores, and we were actually about to start a 3rd. We were bringing the guys back on stage when the bar decided to shut down. The kids were crazy, off the charts.

We didn't hang out too much after the show tonight. The guys were going straight back to Montreal on the bus, and I had to head to Toronto at 9am to start the Chromeo tour. We said our brief goodbyes and that was it. Keep your eyes open for them in the fall, we have lots coming up...

Sam Roberts Band, Bala, ON (7-19-08)

I got up early in Toronto today to go pick up a rental car and drive down to Bala for a weekend at The Kee and the cottage. With the traffic, it took me about 3 hours to get there, but it was worth it. Bala is a small cottage town north of Toronto. There's a grocery store, a coffee shop, a Beer Store, LCBO and a couple local artisan places. And there's The Kee.

The Kee is an old roadhouse where they have shows all summer long. Pack in 1000 kids, sell 'em all the beer in town and voila, you have a party. We're there for 2 nights, and the deal is you get put up at some cottages down by the lake. It's pretty amazing. Basically set up and soundcheck on day one and spend the rest of the time sitting on the deck or the dock, beside the bbq with a cooler by your side. It's a great working vacation, and usually a bunch of the band's friends and family come up too so it can get pretty big. Tonight, one of the guys' friends cooked a great pasta dinner for us too. It was nice to actually have a home-cooked style meal after weeks and weeks of Subway and festival catering.

The show the first night was great. The kids loved it as usual. The place was packed, the humidity was ridiculous and it was hot. It was really nice to be able to go sit down by the water after it was over...

Blue Rodeo, Lewiston, NY (7/15/08)

A few days ago I got asked if I could go do a Blue Rodeo gig in Buffalo. I thought about it for a couple seconds and decided it wasn't such a bad thing to be able to add some Candian Musical Royalty to my CV. Duh. So, at 8am this morning, I hopped in cab, met a car downtown, and started the drive to Buffalo.

I was a pretty painless trip to get there, border was easy, which is always nice. We did get there a little late, but no big deal. The band wasn't actually coming for soundcheck, which can be nice sometimes, or a little scary. I wasn't too worried as the regular crew was there to help get things as close as possible, but it's always a little weird to do your first show with someone and not get a chance to go over things with them. 

The afternoon went pretty smoothly and we had a fair bit of downtime to relax. The Lewiston Artpark is in a pretty nice setting, along a cliff near Niagara Falls, so it was nice to sit along the edge and just look around. Before too long, the band did show up, and I literally only had a chance to say "Hi, nice to meet you" before the show started. 

Once it got going, it went pretty well. Everyone seemed pretty happy, there were no disasters, and before I knew it, it was all over and the band was heading back to Toronto. It's funny that I really didn't talk to them at all, but apparently that's a good thing.

We went back to the hotel and had a quick drink at the bar. Entertainment was provided by a rambling government worker from Las Vegas who knew all the answers to the most difficult questions in life. Among the topics covered was an attempt to explain Blue Rodeo's popularity in Canada and why it was different in the US, all the while not knowing that his audience was the tour manager and monitor engineer... It was pretty classic...