The Stills in the Canadian Rockies (Apr. 22-27, 2009)
Day 1, travel to Whistler, Apr 22
Back on the road today after about 2 weeks off. It feels a little bizarre; I've kind of settled into a couple routines, etc... so I have to get my road chops back up to par. Today is a good way to ease into it though - just a couple flights to get out to Vancouver and then drive up to Whistler.
The highlight of the travel was, by far, my first use of an airport lounge. I finally got certified as Air Canada Elite a couple weeks ago, so I now get to do fun things like hang out in the lounge and enjoy free food, drinks (even hard booze) and internet in the comfort of leather chairs. I'm in. Love it. It makes things so much easier, but I will say that I don't have much in common with their regular PC-toting, Powerpoint-prepping clientele...
When I finally landed in Vancouver, I met up with the other guys who had come in from Montreal, landing at about the same time. We grabbed our bags and stuffed ourselves in to a van for the short-ish drive up the coast to Whistler. Once we got in, we were all pretty wiped from the day in the air, so we just had a quick drink at the hotel bar and called it. Early morning tomorrow anyways...
Day 2, Whistler, BC
It's gonna be a long one... 2 shows today, an outdoors one in the afternoon and a small club at night. We had to show up for soundcheck for the early show at 10am, so that was a little painful, but not so bad as our hotel was about 100 meters from the stage. We went through everything pretty painlessly and had a break for a little while. I went to grab a bite to eat, then took the guys around to do various interviews for the afternoon. Before long it was time for the first show, which was at the base of Blackcomb. It actually went fairly well. Decent crowd, seemed like there were some fans, which is a little odd for a show like this. After it was over, we got our stuff together and had it shipped over to the club for the night show.
We didn't really soundcheck for the night show at Moe Joe's. Just made sure it all worked and broke for dinner. I got some food at the pub upstairs and went back down to the club to work for a bit. We picked up the guys around 10:45pm and pretty much put them right onstage after the Kokanee Beer douchebag tried giving away free samples. That was awesome... The night didn't drag on too long because we have another early morning... Drive back to Van to fly to Calgary and drive to Banff. Can't wait.
Day 3, travel to Banff
This morning hurt a bit more. Up at 7:30am to get things going for a day of long travel. We eventually got organized in the lobby, filled the van with our gear, hung out for a few minutes with some friends from Metric who we ran into in the lobby and made our way down to Vancouver. Overall it was pretty smooth. Got to the airport, no problems checking in or anything and waited to get on the flight, which was quite uneventful.
Once we got in to Calgary, I went off to pick up our rental van for the weekend, and went back and got all the gear and people. Once loaded we made the quick drive up to Banff.
We checked in to the hotel and didn't wait too long before heading out to the Saltlik. It's only the best steakhouse in Canada and we make a point of going every time we're in town. I think it's the 6th or 7th time I've been to this one, but who's counting... We pretty much stayed there all night and it was great. Another early morning tomorrow prevented us from pushing things...
Day 4, Banff, AB
Today is our first of two shows mid-way up Sunshine mountain in Banff. It's interesting because it's the only show I've ever done, and will likely ever do, where you have to send your gear up a gondola, and then ride up yourself. Pretty unique.
We got up to the stage, set up quickly and went inside to the hotel room (on a mountain) that they set up for us and watched hockey most of the afternoon while waiting to play. It was a good setup though, full rider is always nice. The afternoon went by fairly quickly and before long they were hosting the lamest bikini contest ever on stage right before the guys started the show. They actually had guys in the contest which prompted snowballs to fly onstage, some of which hit some of our gear... It was kind of pathetic, but whatever...
This was a the typical crowd we expected for a ski show. No one really seemed to care, there were skidoos driving by the front of the stage with trailers full of garbage, it ended up being more of a glorified rehearsal. When all was said and done, we went back down to the hotel in Banff. I did a little bit of work and then tried to head out and find a place to eat, which for some reason was sort of challenging. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of action on a Saturday night. I settled for some take-out and went back to hotel and just kept working. Good times rock n roll...
Day 5, Banff, AB
Our second show on the mountain seemed to be a bit better. There were a few more people hanging around and watching today. No pathetic bikini contest. We went up to the hill just a couple hours or so before the show, watched some hockey, played and got out. Loading out with a gondola is almost as fun as loading in with one. At least that was interesting.
After all that we started driving back to Calgary, where we're staying tonight to make it easier on our flight schedule tomorrow. Once in town, we stopped at Earl's, which is actually a decent restaurant chain, where we had a long dinner and watched hockey on the big screens. The rest of the night was spent in the hotel. I finished up the tour management side of my job, went to the fitness centre and crashed. Flying back to NYC tomorrow for another week or so off, then we fly right back out here to start a Western Canadian run. Why not, eh?
Back on the road today after about 2 weeks off. It feels a little bizarre; I've kind of settled into a couple routines, etc... so I have to get my road chops back up to par. Today is a good way to ease into it though - just a couple flights to get out to Vancouver and then drive up to Whistler.
The highlight of the travel was, by far, my first use of an airport lounge. I finally got certified as Air Canada Elite a couple weeks ago, so I now get to do fun things like hang out in the lounge and enjoy free food, drinks (even hard booze) and internet in the comfort of leather chairs. I'm in. Love it. It makes things so much easier, but I will say that I don't have much in common with their regular PC-toting, Powerpoint-prepping clientele...
When I finally landed in Vancouver, I met up with the other guys who had come in from Montreal, landing at about the same time. We grabbed our bags and stuffed ourselves in to a van for the short-ish drive up the coast to Whistler. Once we got in, we were all pretty wiped from the day in the air, so we just had a quick drink at the hotel bar and called it. Early morning tomorrow anyways...
Day 2, Whistler, BC
It's gonna be a long one... 2 shows today, an outdoors one in the afternoon and a small club at night. We had to show up for soundcheck for the early show at 10am, so that was a little painful, but not so bad as our hotel was about 100 meters from the stage. We went through everything pretty painlessly and had a break for a little while. I went to grab a bite to eat, then took the guys around to do various interviews for the afternoon. Before long it was time for the first show, which was at the base of Blackcomb. It actually went fairly well. Decent crowd, seemed like there were some fans, which is a little odd for a show like this. After it was over, we got our stuff together and had it shipped over to the club for the night show.
We didn't really soundcheck for the night show at Moe Joe's. Just made sure it all worked and broke for dinner. I got some food at the pub upstairs and went back down to the club to work for a bit. We picked up the guys around 10:45pm and pretty much put them right onstage after the Kokanee Beer douchebag tried giving away free samples. That was awesome... The night didn't drag on too long because we have another early morning... Drive back to Van to fly to Calgary and drive to Banff. Can't wait.
Day 3, travel to Banff
This morning hurt a bit more. Up at 7:30am to get things going for a day of long travel. We eventually got organized in the lobby, filled the van with our gear, hung out for a few minutes with some friends from Metric who we ran into in the lobby and made our way down to Vancouver. Overall it was pretty smooth. Got to the airport, no problems checking in or anything and waited to get on the flight, which was quite uneventful.
Once we got in to Calgary, I went off to pick up our rental van for the weekend, and went back and got all the gear and people. Once loaded we made the quick drive up to Banff.
We checked in to the hotel and didn't wait too long before heading out to the Saltlik. It's only the best steakhouse in Canada and we make a point of going every time we're in town. I think it's the 6th or 7th time I've been to this one, but who's counting... We pretty much stayed there all night and it was great. Another early morning tomorrow prevented us from pushing things...
Day 4, Banff, AB
Today is our first of two shows mid-way up Sunshine mountain in Banff. It's interesting because it's the only show I've ever done, and will likely ever do, where you have to send your gear up a gondola, and then ride up yourself. Pretty unique.
We got up to the stage, set up quickly and went inside to the hotel room (on a mountain) that they set up for us and watched hockey most of the afternoon while waiting to play. It was a good setup though, full rider is always nice. The afternoon went by fairly quickly and before long they were hosting the lamest bikini contest ever on stage right before the guys started the show. They actually had guys in the contest which prompted snowballs to fly onstage, some of which hit some of our gear... It was kind of pathetic, but whatever...
This was a the typical crowd we expected for a ski show. No one really seemed to care, there were skidoos driving by the front of the stage with trailers full of garbage, it ended up being more of a glorified rehearsal. When all was said and done, we went back down to the hotel in Banff. I did a little bit of work and then tried to head out and find a place to eat, which for some reason was sort of challenging. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of action on a Saturday night. I settled for some take-out and went back to hotel and just kept working. Good times rock n roll...
Day 5, Banff, AB
Our second show on the mountain seemed to be a bit better. There were a few more people hanging around and watching today. No pathetic bikini contest. We went up to the hill just a couple hours or so before the show, watched some hockey, played and got out. Loading out with a gondola is almost as fun as loading in with one. At least that was interesting.
After all that we started driving back to Calgary, where we're staying tonight to make it easier on our flight schedule tomorrow. Once in town, we stopped at Earl's, which is actually a decent restaurant chain, where we had a long dinner and watched hockey on the big screens. The rest of the night was spent in the hotel. I finished up the tour management side of my job, went to the fitness centre and crashed. Flying back to NYC tomorrow for another week or so off, then we fly right back out here to start a Western Canadian run. Why not, eh?
posted by t. at 1:45 AM
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