Views From Stage Left

Chromeo in NZ/Australia, Dec. 25-Jan 9, 2010/11

2011-01-16T00:05:00.000-05:00

Chromeo in Australia, Dec 25-Jan 9

Dec. 25, Day 1

It's Christmas Day. What better way to celebrate than to leave all behind and fly out on tour? Apparently there is none, so this is what I do... At least I'm going to New Zealand and Australia, so sun and beaches await, warm weather and hours of sunshine.

I got to the Ottawa airport around 12:45pm, more than enough time until my first of four flights, scheduled to depart at 2:17pm. Go through security, customs, all good, waiting around. Waiting. Waiting some more... Around 2pm, they still haven't announced anything so I start looking around, and shockingly there's no plane at our gate. This isn't good. I only have a 30min connection in Washington, and if this plane is more than 10mins late, my entire trip is screwed.

After trying to find out what's going on, I overheard a pilot say they were leaving and only coming back at 2:46pm. Not good, not good at all! This is more time than I can spare. If I miss my connection in Washington, I miss my flight to LA, and then miss my flights to New Zealand. I got on the phone right away with United (better than Delta anyways...) and found out that the computer had already re-routed me through London and Hong Kong!? I told the woman there was no way I was flying through London with all the storms they've been having, and to find me a hub in the US and find one fast, time was of the essence.

After about 30mins, she barely had a workable solution that would send me to Chicago, but I'd have to stay there for the night. Awful! Unfortunately, still better than London... So I had to go to the gate, ask them to remove my bag from the plane (which had since arrived, no help to me), and then I had to go check in again, where I found out I wasn't properly re-booked and faced being stranded in Auckland, when in fact I had to make it to Gisborne (I've never heard of it either). So about 20mins at the check-in counter solved that, I went back through customs, chatted with the officer who wondered why he was seeing me again, and continued to wait 2 more hours to go to Chicago. At least I was able to get a hotel room at the airport...

Once I landed at O'Hare, I made a last-ditch effort to see if I could even get to LA, but no love tonight... That 40min delay cost me 36hrs of extra travel time. An unexpected Xmas night at the Chicago airport. Can't get that under the tree...

Turns out I had stuff to take up my time. One of the band guys was flying out of NYC the next day and the city was about to get pounded by blizzards and up to 2 feet of snow. All the airports were preparing to shut down. It took almost 5 hrs of phone calls and emails to travel agents and airlines, but I was finally able to snag a seat on an early flight that *just might* make it out on time... I had a crew guy scheduled to fly out of Boston, hoping we can sort something for him too...

Day 2/3

I woke up extra early today to make sure I could get the band member out of NYC on time, before the crazy blizzard hits. I checked all sorts of sites for flight and weather updates, and one site even said the flight was canceled! Couldn't believe it! By this time he was already on his way to the airport, so it was too late, but the airline website and the airport site both said the flight was still on, so I chose to keep my mouth shut and wait and see...

He was able to check in, so that was good, and there was no delay posted at the airport, also good, and it was with great relief that I finally got word he was sitting on the plane, heading toward the runway. I celebrated the miraculous escape from NYC by sleeping. You have to understand, this is huge. I know a number of other bands who got stuck for days, had to cancel shows, etc...

Our crew member in Boston was not so lucky, unfortunately... The storm go there faster than expected and the airport shut down. We lost a good man for at least 3 days and one show... Can't win 'em all I guess...

My flights looked good at least. I made the easy walk across the street to the terminal, my flight to LA was on time, all was good. The biggest thing is just getting away from the snow right now, and it seems to be coming together. I don't think I've ever been happier to get to LAX. Now I just have to kill 6hrs. Argh. To the lounge...

The Air NZ lounge is slightly antiquated, but decent. They have all the standard amenities - internet, plugs, alcohol, etc... They even attempted to help me track someone else's missing bag from a flight yesterday. One of the guys was traveling with a keyboard that mysteriously disappeared (and somehow ended up getting shipped back to Montreal!). The time went by a little slowly, but it went, and it was with great happiness that I finally boarded my flight to NZ. Only been delayed about 36hrs, but I'll actually make it on time...

The nice thing about this flight is that I'm in pseudo-business class. Get the meals, wine, etc... but the seats aren't quite as nice. The real bonus though, is that I was able to get a seat on the upper deck of a 747. This is gold. The plane seats 300+ people, but the upper deck only has about 20 seats. It might actually be a quiet, serene experience. And I've never been on the upper deck. I was really excited to board the plane and be directed towards the staircase. And then I saw it. My seat. Beside a 2yr old.

DAMN. Why??? Who the hell gets a small child a seat like this? They haven't earned it. They don't fly 100 times a year, hoping that just once a flight like this will be fun. ARGH. The kid was even crying already when I got in... But what can you do? I sat down, ordered a beverage and waited for dinner. I will say one thing though, the kid was quiet most of the flight... Speaking to the father at the end, he told me it was her 5th round trip between London and Auckland. 5th! Two years old! Crazy.

So I got to Auckland, adjusted my next flight a bit to make it direct, and off to the domestic lounge. I had another 5hrs to kill on a layover. I walked around outside for a bit, it was nice after the long flight, had a coffee, chatted with the barista, and eventually made my way back inside, locked away till flight time.

The guy we got out of NYC just before the blizzard ended up meeting me there and we sat around till ti was time for the next and final flight in the journey. It was a small prop plane, about 40 seats. We didn't even have to go through security to board. I guess they figure that it's so insignificant, no one would care to do anything to it... So the flight is fairly smooth, and then with about 10mins to go, the pilot announces the ride down will be a bit bumpy.

Well. That was the most epic understatement in the history of aviation. I fly 100,000+ miles per year, I'm used to turbulence, doesn't really phase me. The last 10mins of this flight were *the scariest 10mins of my life*. It was absolutely terrifying, I thought we were done. We were getting thrown left and right, hitting air pockets, falling onto updrafts and bouncing back up, fishtailing in the air, falling sideways, people were screaming, the flight attendant looked terrified (the *ultimate* red flag of flying), I was white-knuckled clutching the seat in front of me. If you can name it, we had it happen on this flight. I don't know how we landed. It mystifies me. When we were finally on the ground, I tried to reply to some emails on the Blackberry, but I was shaking so much that I couldn't type. No words could ever adequately describe what happened on that descent. I really think there's no way that plane should've been in the air, period.

But, we had landed. I was very happy to be on the ground, and also, but not quite as happy, to get to the hotel and finally be able to shower after about 48hrs of travel. Now that was an actual good feeling. After the quick shower, it was out on the town to get a quick bite. Turns out Gizzy (as the locals call it) is so small, that it took no time at all to find the only option, which thankfully was quite good. After that, back to the hotel for a couple business meetings, then out to dinner (where the waitress was slightly starstruck. haha), and then back to the hotel to rest a bit.

It's been a long 3 days, and we haven't even done a show yet!

Day 4, Gisborne, NZ

Today is going to be a little bit crazy. First show after about a month off, making sure our gear makes it from halfway around the world, etc... We still have a crew member who got stuck in Boston because of blizzards and will miss the show... It's basically going to be a rehearsal.

But, first thing's first, we need breakfast. Went out wandering a bit, tried to get into a coffee shop with a Maori reggae band playing super loudly at the doorway, only to find out that there was a 45min wait just to get a bagel. (!?) Tried a couple other spots only to find out that it was a holiday (on a Tuesday) so most places were closed anyways. Eventually found a spot that was relatively quick, had decent coffee, all is good.

One thing we realized that would make the day interesting is that we found out some of our gear got shipped to the wrong destinations. A keyboard somehow got removed from a plane and sent back to Montreal, and two other cases had a few bits and pieces we needed in New Zealand, but the cases ended up in Melbourne. So, a could of us went out to the festival site early to see what they had there that we could use, then had to go through the nightmare of getting all our gear sent to our hotel so we could actually see what we had, and then we had to find a music store open on a holiday in a tiny town. Fortunately there was a music store, is was more like a Radio Shack really, and had nothing we needed. We did however get the owner to sell us parts of his friends drum kit while said friend was away on vacation... Happy we're not there to see how that turns out... Haha.

With things somewhat under control, we headed back to the festival for the show. Simple things like ordering food were fairly difficult, but there was a duck pond, so we had that going for us... Things are a little slow in these parts, a little backwards... At least everyone here is really nice.

Eventually we get to showtime. We had a substitute lighting guy for this one (our guy was the one snowed in in Boston), so I had to give him a quick training session, and we were off. We knew it was one for the books when there was a power surge in the first song and the PA shut down. That was pretty awesome... It all came back near the end of the first song thankfully, but it made for a long night. Hopefully we got all the demons out tonight and we can move on...

Afterwards we had an interesting ride back to the hotel with a driver making detours and picking up people at other stages, getting caught in the crowds a couple times, etc... But finally made it back, had a glass of wine and called it a day. Off to Oz tomorrow.

Day 5, Melbourne, AU

Today was supposed to be pretty simple. Fly to Melbourne, get picked up at the airport and drive to Philip Island. Well, not so much...

The first flight back to Auckland was fine. Auckland however, was interesting. They have this bizarre regulation about carry-on baggage that the staff themselves don't even understand. They pulled us all out of line, made us weigh bags, repack, recheck, etc... for about 30mins, and we were already rushing for the next flight. It was ridiculous. They couldn't tell us what they were looking for, what they were checking, what the rules were. It seemed there was a 10kg limit, but not including electronics or medication. We had to take all those thing out of our bags (I had 20kg of electronics alone, and I travel light!), they were weighing things individually, together, etc... It was a total mess. At the end of it, after a few yelling matches (which is not good at an airport) we just left and went back downstairs and tried to check in our bags. Even the staff down there didn't know what to do about it. It was pretty ridiculous, just a small thing that can really ruin a day. Some of the guys in the other band we were traveling with just started throwing out a bunch of books and souvenirs. And even if all our bags were under 10kg, we could still go buy loads of souvenirs and duty free stuff on the other side of security and get the extra weight there. What would they do?

So we get on the plane, fly to Melbourne, our driver meets us and we hit the road to Philip Island. The show is there tomorrow night, so we get in the night before and have all day to rest. Makes sense on paper. Thing is, reality is often quite different.

After 2hrs of driving, we pull up to this resort we're supposed to stay at. It's about 10pm, we've been flying allllll day. Exhausted. We go to the reception counter, no one there. Just a phone number for after hours arrivals. So we call the number, there's a key left for us in a little safe, we crack it open and go to check the place out. Turns out it's a tiny 2 room cabin in the woods with 3 beds. We're 6 people. This obviously doesn't work. So we start trying to get in touch with people, no one is helpful, everyone's trying to brush us off, it's pretty nasty. No one will even give us the number for the night manager to come sort it out. After about 30 mins I called the promoter and told them to get me 6 rooms in Melbourne immediately because we're turning around and coming back. Unreal, never been through anything like this.

It gets better.

So while we're making phone calls trying to sort out this accommodation disaster, our driver took the guys to get a quick bite to eat, and while doing so, wandered off and smoked a joint which, in and of itself, I don't really care about. Whatever. The problems in this instance are that A) he's our driver and B) it made him pass out, so he couldn't drive us back to Melbourne. Our local crew guy had to take the keys from him and drive us back. Insane. The driver was fired the next morning.

Finally back in Melbourne 2hrs later, around 12:30am at this point, thankfully the rooms were there as promised so we could finally relax after an epic travel day. A couple of us met up at one of the hotel bars downstairs for drink, made casual observations about the local nightlife, even had one guy give us $100 to buy a round (he had just won at the casino and was drunk), and called it a night. Can't win 'em all...

Day 6, Philip Island

After last night's drama, I spent most of the day on the phone with the promoters trying to settle our differences, of which there are now many. It took a few hours, but we reached some conclusions and the show will go on. It kind of sucked because it used up most of my free time in Melbourne, but what can you do... I am here to work after all...

So at 6pm we get in the van and start heading back down to Philip Island. They sorted out the mess from last night, so tonight we'll each get a cabin and then in the morning we get helicopters to Melbourne. (There's a much larger background to this story, but I'll spare you the details. I don't think I can even talk about this one anyways...). Tonight, the owner of the resort is supposed to meet us to personally show us the rooms, make sure all is good, etc...

Well, that didn't happen. At least we had a number to call him today, but he still brushed us off. Fortunately everything was ok this time.

Then we go over to the festival, everyone knows we're on our way. We get there, they don't have a dressing room for us (which was promised). So we take over someone else's trailer. Fun.

Then I go to the stage to check in and meet all the necessary people. The stage manager asks me to leave the stage because apparently I'm too early to check in and she refuses to let anyone watch the bands who are currently playing. I've never of something so retarded in my life of festival-going. They don't even want us to check that all our gear got delivered properly. And she specifically told me we weren't allowed to watch the band before us at all, and when I told their tour manager about that, he had a field day going off on her... Even when we started setting up in the wings while they were playing, she tried to keep us behind curtains and backdrops. It got to the point where I had to tell her she was no longer allowed to speak to my crew and I didn't want to see her near our show.

And throughout all this, the total douchebag of a local promoter who had screwed us the night before (as well as doing other things I can't speak about), didn't even come by to say hello, apologize for any drama, try to make anything right. I can't stand these people sometimes!

So the show is finally over, we're all packed up, we get rides back to our cabin at 3am and try to put it all behind us. Our crew only gets 3hrs sleep tonight before having to head off to Sydney, whereas I'll get about 5hrs as I'll travel with the band. It's not necessarily a bonus, just a different set of problems... sigh...

Day 7, Sydney, Melbourne

So this is the long one. by the end of the day, we'll have done 3 shows in 3 cities, 2 flights, 2 helicopter rides, etc... Long.

Our crew got 3hrs of sleep last night. They had to get the early chopper ride back to Melbourne to then fly to Sydney and begin setup for our early afternoon show. They're travel was relatively ok. They made it one piece, and got the job done.

I got a couple extra hours of sleep, but I also had to get the band through the same thing. We got to the helipad on time and things were looking good. As an aside, the helicopter ride was awesome. I've never done anything like it. Cruising at 110mph across the sky at a low level is pretty awesome, and I got great pics and video I'll post soon.

So, we land at the Melbourne helipad and there's supposed to be a driver to take us to the Melbourne domestic airport. No car in sight. I start calling, no answer. Many times. Nothing. I call the promoter rep, wake her up, she can't get the guy. Fortunately there's a vet down the street that's open, so I run down there and they have a number for a cab I can call. Get one on the way, and sure enough, moments later, our hero comes zooming around the corner. He was obviously sleeping because when he opened the door, his seat was in a fully reclined position. Oops.

So we barely make it to the airport on time, find out there's a problem with our reservation, and somehow it all gets fixed and we board at the last possible second. That's a little too much so far. As it is, we only land in Sydney one hour before the show.

And so we land. And the transport people have no record of us coming in because apparently the message didn't get through that we were traveling in 2 separate groups. They don't have a ride for us. This, obviously, is a problem. Thankfully, through sheer luck, A-Trak was on the same flight as us, and for those of you keeping track at home, you know that I also work with him and that his brother is in Chromeo. A-Trak has a ride and he's a good dude, so he let's us hijack it to make it to the show on time. His karma is later repaid when he's presented with a platinum plaque for his Duck Sauce record. Well deserved.

We get to the show, everything is good. It's all coming together. The production is rock solid, the kids are loving it, I can finally take a deep breathe. Everything was made 1000 times better by running into friends there who I hadn't seen in ages, one of whom spent the show in monitor world with me, which made the day worthwhile. Sadly, we have to leave right after the set to fly back to Melbourne for show #3 of the NYE Spectacular.

Show's over, pack up, load out, off we go, back to the airport. This one was fairly painless. Again, the booking was messed up somehow, but we sorted it. Got on the plane, flew to Melbourne. At least this time there was someone there to meet us and drive us straight to the show. It was even tighter on this end because we couldn't send the crew in advance; we had 90 mins from airport to show time. Nuts.

We arrive at the festival, find our stage, and are hit with the realization that the highlight of the day was Sydney, for many reasons. One of which was that because it wasn't set up properly, we actually had to build our rig on stage while other acts were playing. That didn't go over so well, but what can you do... Just have to make the best of this one and get through it...

Finally done, we head back to the hotel for the night. I had grandiose plans of going out and partying in the lovely city we were in, but those plans disintegrated almost instantly. The last 24hrs were an absolute mess, but we survived, and sleep is of great importance tonight.

Day 8, Gold Coast

Why mess with a plan that works? Woke up, went downstairs to get our ride to the airport, and of course, no van, no ride. Amazing. We tried calling everyone again, no love, so we started our day hopping in cabs to head to the airport. Awesome. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you have to travel like this every single day, this single pre-arranged car that never appears becomes a rather large headache. Especially when it happens 3 times in a row.

So we get to the airport, get our flight, everything is ok, thankfully. Get to Gold Coast, have a ride (!) and begin the long drive to the festival. The drive itself isn't actually long in the physical sense, but with all the traffic, it took almost 2hrs. Should've been about 30min. At least we were early, so we had a chance to stop by the hotel for a bit to chill out and have a quick bite to eat.

And so we go to the festival, and lo and behold, it all makes sense. Rock solid. Same people that ran our stage in Sydney yesterday. Everything is really a million times better when you don't have to argue with people over details that should've been looked after in the first place. And, with all this going for us, the show was actually great.

We had some time tonight, and a lot of friends playing at this festival, so we hung around for a long time. It was good too. We made our escape before the throngs of Gold Coast mutants (if you've been, you know what I mean), and in no time at all, I was sitting in the jaccuzzi in my room with a bottle of wine. Nice.

Tomorrow, off to Sydney for 5 days. Awesome.

Day 9, Sydney

Today is a nice, easy travel day to Sydney. Got up for breakfast at the hotel, was served by a Canadian ex-pat who was thrilled to talk hockey, made our way to the airport, all was good. Even the flight went well.

When we arrived, we went out for a quick bite, then decided it was band movie night. There wasn't much to see, so we hit Tron 3D. It was awful, don't waste your time or money. Most of it isn't even in 3D anyways.

Afterwards, I took a couple of the guys around the town trying to find a cool pub to hang in. Turns out Sydney is pretty slow on Mondays, so it wasn't a smashing success, but we did find a Irish bar where a dude in a pink shirt took off his belt and started whipping the floor. Interesting approach, made better when he took off his shirt and displayed some of the worst tattoos any of us had ever seen. Sigh...

Day 10, Sydney

Today is press day. Usually I hate press, but today is great because our PR person is a dear friend who I never get to see given that we live halfway around the world from each other. We were able to make the time count by getting breakfast before we had to work, and the schedule itself was actually quite easy. A couple quick things in the morning, a long lunch and then the afternoon outlets even canceled. Bonus!

Found a great wine bar to get through the evening, followed by a great restaurant and then a dive bar with incredible people watching. All in all, exactly the kind of day I needed after the craziness of the last 3 days.

Day 11, Sydney

Today is press day #2. It's easy though, only one live interview in the afternoon. I spent the morning working, with breakfast and coffee interludes, before heading off to the radio station. It went quickly, barely even noticed.

Afterwards, we were invited to a bbq by some friends at one of the local promoter companies. We went over for a couple hours, had a great time time with all sorts of people. Once we left, we stopped by the wine bar I had hit the night before, then up to a place call the Clock Hotel (where the bouncer asked us if our parents knew we were out late) and then slowly made our way back to the hotel.

Day 12, Sydney

Almost a day off today. The only real event is a boat cruise in the evening. I have mixed feelings about it as I've done a number of them before, this is 4hrs, can't bring a couple friends and I'm a bit tired and would just like a full day with nothing on the sched. Anyways, I went, it was fine. It's hard to complain about getting driven around in a boat in Sydney harbor with free booze and food.

Once we got off, I tried to hook up with a friend, it fell through, so I ended up at the Metro. The Rapture and Erol Alkan were playing there tonight, it was sort of the feature event for the touring folks. Always good to make an appearance. The AC in the venue was broken though, so it was insanely hot and sticky. I survived a couple drinks before I'd had enough and just had to get out. An early night wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Day 13, Sydney

Alas, back to work today. We had most of the day to chill though, so a couple of us hopped in a cab to go to a good breakfast spot, then went for a wonderful round of coffees and started making our way back to the hotel for the inevitable. It was a great day to walk around, even added a nice long tour of the botanical gardens, and got more than our fair share of sun.

And so the momentary freedom comes to an end, back to work we go. Today is more like a normal show though, we're supporting NERD at the Hordern Pavillion, no festival craziness for once, nice to get back to normal. The show was reasonably smooth, seemed to go well by all accounts. We were done nice and early too, which is good because we have an early-ish flight to Perth tomorrow, and also because it gives us time to hang out in Sydney.

Though no one else went, I did meet up with other friends at a club for 90's night that went a little longer than planned, but fun. Quote of the tour, from the bouncer who checked my ID upon entry: "F*ck you're old!". Great way to end our stand in Sydney.

Day 14, Perth

One final show in Oz, and of course it's a 5hr flight away. So we get our stuff together and make our way to the airport. Personally, I could've used a little more sleep, but whatever...

The flight was uneventful, always good, and before we knew it we were in the most remote capital city in the world. Or something to that effect. Either way, it's Perf. We didn't have a whole lot of time, stopped at the hotel for a few mins to drop our bags, and then off to the site. It was what it was, nothing to crazy, not bad, show happened. We were all just happy to have it done.

And of course, as soon as I started to taste a bit of freedom, I heard that one of the guys' flights home the next day had been canceled. Argh. So I had a quick bit to eat at the festival (they graciously served me leftovers as catering closed at 8pm ?!), and went straight back to the hotel to start calling airlines, etc... Took a while, but it worked out, and I just started relaxing for the rest of the night. I'm staying in Oz for another week, in Sydney, for relaxation purposes. Can't wait, getting started right away...

Yoko Ono, Reykjavik, IS, Oct. 9, 2010 - John Lennon's 70th Birthday Celebrations

2010-12-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Oct. 9, 2010, Reykjavik, IS

Today started off in a pretty standard fashion, save for the fact we were out till 4:30am in various bars in Reykjavik... After 4hrs sleep we awoke in our boutique-style apartments, ran across the street to get some amazing coffee at Kaffatir, and it was off to load in at the theater, whose name I still don't know. The morning and early afternoon were really smooth. If anything, I was shocked that I had better gear in Iceland than I did in Los Angeles. What's the deal with that? Anyways... the band came in to soundcheck around 2pm, ran a few songs, and by 4:30pm we were going back to our rooms to relax for a bit.

One of the main reasons we even came to Reykjavik in the first place was for the yearly lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower, which is a tribute in part to John Lennon. This would've been his 70th birthday, so it was a little extra special this year, hence the show. It's also Sean's birthday (they share the same day!), so there's no shortage of events for the weekend... So at 7pm, we all meet up to go to the reception/ceremony to light the tower, which is essentially high-powered beams of light that will stay on until Dec. 8th, the anniversary of John's death. The reception was a smallish number of people - the band, Yoko, various friends, local politicians, Ringo Starr... etc... I had heard rumours he would be coming, but it was still a bit of a shock to see him walk in the door. He greeted everyone he met with a standard line: "I'm Ringo, I'm the drummer!" It was good that he cleared up any confusion... So we hung around for a while, eating hord d'oeuvres, drinking wine, mingling, and eventually it was time to light the tower. Someone made a speech, Yoko read a poem, and they shut the lights out so we could see clearly. (We were actually in a building about 2 miles form the tower site - it's cold in Iceland, so we were all inside.) While the tower lit up, they played "Imagine" (of course), and once that was done everyone sang Happy Birthday to Sean. We mingled a few more minutes and then it was off to the theater, time to work!

It was a little different this time around as there were no plans for special guests, but in a way that's more relieving... Fewer things to worry about, fewer people to please. Everything went really smoothly, and for the last encore of the evening, Give Peace A Chance, they called up a few of their friends to sing along, notables were Mark Ronson and Ringo. Quite a way to finish the night, never thought in a million years that I'd mix Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and Sean Lennon at the same time.

After the show, there was a surprise birthday party for Sean, so we all stopped by that for a little while. Once that started winding down, we hit the town again, specifically our favourite spot - Boston Bar. We spent a good chunk of the night there, met the owner, she brought us around to a couple other places that stayed open after the 3am last call and finished off the night hopping around to a few different bars, hot dog stands, waffle stands, meeting people and staying entertained along the way. It was almost 6:30am by the time we got in. Success!

We knew there would only be about 4hrs of sleep, but that was ok as we have the Blue Lagoon on the schedule tomorrow. Relaxation for a couple hours anyways...

Oct. 10.

Fours hours of sleep go by pretty quickly. We rushed to get our bags packed, grab some coffee (priorities) and head out the door. We were on our way to the airport to fly home, but via the Blue Lagoon.

It's quite the spot - cold outside, freezing mark, but the water was 40 C (about 105 F). Very weird sensation to be in the water, body completely warm and comfortable, head and shoulders freezing. Nevertheless, it was a very relaxing way to get ready for a flight home. We spent about 90mins in the water, got some sort of fruit energy drink at the swim up bar, stood in a waterfall, very enjoyable.

And with that, our time in Iceland was up. 4 days in Reykjavik just flew by. Looking forward to coming back one day...

The Stills @ 2010 Winter Olympics, Feb. 26-28, 2010

2010-12-08T22:46:00.002-05:00

The Stills @ Olympics Day 1, Feb 26 2010

After one day back in NY, I'm flying right back to Vancouver for round 2 at the Olympics, this time with The Stills. Haven't seen the guys in a little while, so I'm looking forward to it.

I just don't know if I'll see them! The weather in NY today is brutal, we got pounded with snow. Almost every flight out got canceled, no flights are coming in, it just looks bad. When I got to the airport and looked out at the runways, I didn't think there was a chance. It was a little reassuring when the security folks told me that Air Canada was the only airline flying out today, only one that could deal with snow! So I patiently waited out a couple delays, and about 90mins late, we were finally airborne.

Fortunately I had time between flights, so I wasn't too worried when I got to Montreal. I got through customs and everything really easily and before I knew it, I had met up with the guys and a couple of us went up to the lounge to chill before the flights to Van. I was also a bit more relaxed because I was able to get my seat upgraded, so I was in business class for the long one. Always a nice touch.

It was a smooth one, we got in a bit early, our ride was waiting for us, it was all coming together. And to top it off, I found out one of my old friends from Ottawa was also in town and out that night, and I actually had time to head in and meet up for a couple drinks. A couple of us went in together and stopped for food on the way, then we split up with plans to meet up again later. I ended up at the Sutton Place hotel bar and I ran into loads of people I knew but rarely see. This whole Olympics thing is like a reunion for touring guys. It's awesome. I ended up being out later than I wanted to be, missed the last SeaBus back to the hotel, but I was able to split a cab back and all was good.

Day 2

Today is show day, but we're actually free till about 5:30pm. I woke up a little early due to the ridiculous time zone changes I've gone through in the last week, but that was good because it gave me time to hit the gym and meet up with a couple of the others for coffee across the street. Good times had by all. After all that we went in to town as a group, I gave a bit of a guided tour from my experience last week, but we still had to miss out on visiting a couple of the provincial houses and Russia House because of ridiculous lineups to get in. I'm sorry, but 7hrs is not worth it. I don't care what's inside. I ended up getting in touch with my cousin again, and with perfect timing we all met up and went for a big lunch together. I hit Wicked Cafe on my way back to the hotel after before we had to head down to Richmond for the show.

The venue is actually really nice. It's on a great athletic field near the Olympic Oval for speed skating, huge stage, great PA, and then I find out there's a ridiculously low sound level limit, but it's the last night and no one seems to care so I didn't worry about it.

The show was actually a lot of fun, and it sounded really good. We tried to get into the Holland Heineken House during our dinner break, but that didn't go so well and there wasn't much else to do. Saw some hockey on a big screen outdoors and that was pretty much our night. It took an eternity for our ride to come pick us up afterwards, but eventually we made it out. There was no going out tonight. We were all beat and we have to head to the airport at 9:30am. Painful.

Day 3

And so my Olympic experience comes to an end today. I briefly considered changing my flights to stay for the men's hockey gold medal game, but flying out tomorrow would be a nightmare. Instead I settle for watching it in the lounge at the airport, which was actually a really interesting experience. There were dozens of people crowded around the lone tv, screaming and yelling for either team, and everyone looked disappointed when it was their turn to leave for their flight. Interesting, but fun experience. I ended up watching with a bunch of NBC guys, but didn't feel sorry for them at the end...

I had to head down to the gates with about 5 mins left, which really hurt, but my plane was late so I was able to watch the end of the 3rd near the gate, and we all cursed Luongo together. It was the most alive I've ever seen an airport. Overtime was really painful because I had to go about 7 mins in, but at least I heard the good news of Canada winning right when we walked on the plane. I really wish I had waited an extra 90 seconds before boarding... Oh well... At least I have a fairly unique story for the whole thing...

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Oakland, CA, Feb. 23, 2010

2010-12-08T22:45:00.003-05:00

Yoko Ono, Oakland, CA Feb 23 2010

Show in Oakland with Yoko today. When I landed I went straight to the train to ride into Oakland. I was told that was the only surefire way to get there quickly, as all the bridges down there have ridiculous amounts of construction all the time. It was pretty easy, and once I got there I hadn't missed too much and was able to get right into it.

The show today wasn't as involved as the ones last week. Only 2 special guests, Jaron Lanier (dude literally plays over 1000 instruments), and once again, Harper Simon. The soundcheck was alright, got through some last minute surprises, but everything worked out. We didn't have a whole lot of time to kill, so I just ended up staying at the venue till showtime. Today is the Fox Theater.

The Fox Theater is stunning. It's a beautiful vaudeville era building, maintained perfectly. It's amazing. Backstage is a xanadu of the touring world. The bathrooms all had showers, and they were better than most hotels I've stayed in. And that's saying something. You could live down there and feel at home. And the catering was great. I will always look forward to seeing "Fox Theater" on my itineraries from now on. Great crew too. Turns out one of the audio guys did monitors for Prince for 2yrs. That's impressive, especially given that he didn't even mention it himself and there was zero ego. Love this place.

The show went really smoothly tonight. It was more of a standard show, i.e. set + encore, as opposed to acts, and it seemed to fly by. Once done, I went out to the lobby bar where a friend of mine from the area was waiting. Sometimes things work out and you can hook up with people just when you think there's no chance, which is always nice when you're in so many cities all the time. Familiar faces always make you feel a little more at home. Unfortunately we had missed last call though, but there was a place down the street where we were able to get a quick one before I had to go.

I got back to the venue just in time for our shuttle to the hotel, really looking forward to crashing after such a loooong day. So, naturally, it was fitting that the front desk was closed when we got there, no one on duty to check me in. Awesome. And, a couple of the band members were locked out of their rooms, and one didn't have electricity! Boutique hotels aren't always what they're cracked up to be. We started dialing every phone number we could find, we were knocking on the doors and windows in the lobby, no answers anywhere. Finally, after about 10mins, one of the band members got through to someone, and sure enough, a guy pops out from one of the back rooms of one of the doors we had been pounding on. Would it have so hard to just show up in the first place? Sigh... So anyways, I got my room key, the band members who were locked had already climbed into their rooms through the fire escape and a window, and the power was back on for #3. Wild way to end a night.

Yoko Ono Day 2, flying home

I tired to get up early enough today to go for coffee at Blue Bottle, etc... but I was warped. Just dead from the last few days. About 30 min before we were supposed to go, I pushed everything back a few so I could at least caffeinate myself. We weren't that far away from the Blue Bottle Kiosk, so I had to make the trip. I needed beans for home anyways, so it all made sense. I power walked there and back, felt a million times better after the whole thing and hopped in a cab to go to SFO for an uneventful flight. I made it home by midnight, had a small bite to eat and I was out.

Chromeo @ 2010 Winter Olympics, Feb 19-23, 2010

2010-12-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

Chromeo @ Olympics, Day 1, Feb 19

Back with the Chromeo kids again, and their tendency to do cool shows does not disappoint. I'm flying to the Winter Olympics today, going for gold in the category of "Monitor Engineering for an Electro-Funk Two-Step Band". It should be pretty amazing.

And of course, some things never change. The day started out with us getting pooched by Air Canada with canceled and re-scheduled flights. It didn't make a huge difference, but annoying nonetheless. But - and this is groundbreaking - Air Canada actually did something right today. When we got off our first flight (NYC-TO), there was actually and Olympic Games escort waiting for us! Unbelievable! Then we went through all the security stuff in priority lanes (but I do that anyways with my status... ha, pretentious!) and she arranged for an upgrade to first class for me and priority seating for everyone else (again, I had the status... still pretentious...). For the first time EVER, Air Canada made me happy. Incredible. (I don't expect this to last very long...)

And so on to Vancouver, the flight was pretty good, and once we landed we were literally at the hotel, staying at the Fairmont in the airport. The view from the window was an airplane, nose to nose. Wild. It was fairly late at this point, definitely on the tired side, so it was an early night. Not like there's anywhere to hang out in an airport anyways...

Day 2

First thing's first. It's time for me to get back to the gym, and given that the gym here is directly across the hall from my room, I have no excuse. So after a bit of time there, we got some guys together and hopped on the SkyTrain to go into the city and check out what Olympic Fever is all about.

Turns out it's just a load of people wearing Canadian flags. It's like walking around Ottawa on Canada Day. It was a good vibe, everyone was happy, but to be honest, not a whole lot happening. We did see the Olympic flame, that was cool, stopped for amazing coffee at a couple of my regular haunts, also cool, and aside from that we just walked around for a couple hours. Eventually we had to head back so we could get ready for the show tonight.

Tonight we're at a place called Code 1, which is unfortunately at the end of the world, in the warehouse district on the east side. Once we got there, we were there for the night. Soundcheck was nice and quick, then we had 4 hrs to kill with nowhere to go, so we just hung out, got some food delivered and waited it out. Apparently this is one of the first shows that sold out during the Olympics, and tickets were being scalped for as high as $1,200. This could be a good show...

And it was. The kids were crazy, tons of crowdsurfing (which never happens at a Chromeo show), and it all went off without a hitch. At the end of it all we just went back to the hotel and called it. Given that we're staying at the airport, it's a little hard to go out and do stuff, and we figured we may as well save ourselves for a day off tomorrow anyways.

Day 3

Full day off in Van. I like it. Did the gym thing again today, and then back to the city to hold court at Wicked Cafe and Templeton diner. It all went brilliantly, just as planned. After eating I walked around for a bit to check out what was happening, hopefully find a couple things going on, and eventually met up with my cousin. We were hoping to go find a bar to watch the Canada-US men's hockey game today (only the most important game of the whole thing), so we went a little out of our way to find a quieter part of town where the odds were better.

Not so much, turns out... We thought we were being a little eager going to places a couple hours before game time. Seems we should've reserved some spaces 2 days before! We walked for about 2hrs, tried countless places, and eventually gave up. The lineups everywhere were ridiculous, unlike anything I've ever seen. We even had to wait in line at a liquour store to get beer to drink at home. After a bit of time, it all came together and we were no doubt more comfortable sitting on couches instead of standing in bars. Disappointing game, but whatever... wait for a rematch. Afterwards we went to the Delta hotel for dinner. I had a $200 credit for their restaurant and we did out best to max it out. Fantastic.

Day 4, Whistler

Today hurt a little bit right from the start. We had to be up at 6am to get on a shuttle bus to head up to Whistler. It was the only time the Olympics would send us. Bastards! It was not what I would call fun... So we all piled in a bus, picked up a couple other groups on the way, and 4hrs later we arrive (that's twice as long as usual). The nice part was that we pretty much had the day off - the guys just had a dj set at 9pm, and we don't really have to do anything for that.

When we got there, our rooms weren't ready yet (shocking), so we all went for breakfast, and then just wandered around the village. I asked around and found out that we were right at the foot of the bobsled track, so I went and tried to get tickets to see that only to find out that this is the only day of the whole thing that there's no scheduled events. So basically the only thing I can do all day is walk back and forth across the village, which really only takes about 10mins. Nice. I was able to kill some time by taking a couple pictures of things like Olympic logos, trying to jump in the background of live CTV broadcasts, trying to find coffee (though I already knew that was futile).... It was a nice day though, so it was pleasant being outside checking stuff out. Later in the evening I saw a medal ceremony (I don't know what event, but Austria won gold, Norway silver, Germany bronze), saw Devo play live (weird) and then went over to the Chromeo dj set. The guys were spinning with skiers doing tricks on the mountain behind them, jumping through flaming Olympic rings, etc... and there were about 5,000 kids there, and they eventually broke through the barricade. Nice. After all that, I stopped for a pint at the local brewhouse, appropriately named Brew House, and then crashed. Have to be up at 3am to drive to YVR (thanks Olympic Committee).

Day 5

Wow this sucks. Up at 3am to drive 3 hrs to wait 3 hrs in an airport to fly 3 hrs to San Francisco. PAIN. Thankfully I slept a bit in the van on the way down, and once there just groggily went through the motions. I slept through most of the flight, thank god, and landed in SF to go do a....

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Feb. 15-16, 2010

2010-12-08T22:44:00.000-05:00

Yoko Ono Feb 15, Brooklyn, NY

So after 5 days of being locked up on a rehearsal space, we finally moved into the theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music today. The last few days have been interesting watching things come together, as a number of the special guests for the show came through to try stuff out, and it was cool to see how some of them worked. Bette Midler is particular is something else. She whipped that band together like nothing I've seen before. No bullshit, to the point, get in get out. It was gold.

Anyways, after all that, here we are. It's a long one today as we're really building the show for the first time, not only on the audio end, but there all kinds of lighting and video as well. It's probably the biggest production I've been a part of. Of course, with all this going on, things feel behind a little bit, and it was a bit stressful because there was a dress rehearsal tonight with an audience. Who bought tickets. Interesting. Whatever, right? It's called a "rehearsal" for a reason... There was lots of stress over it though, some justified, some silly, but what can you do? Sometimes shit happens during a show that you can't prepare for, so you run out and fix it. It's not rocket science. I wish people could chill out a bit more...

And so the show goes on. Oddly enough, everything worked, and thankfully everyone relaxed. It wasn't the full show today though, some guests are only coming in for the "real" show tomorrow. Tonight we had Scissor Sisters, Justin Bond, Sonic Youth, and some of the original Plastic Ono Band. We were all pretty beat, so we got out of there pretty fast afterwards to try and get some sleep before heading back early in the morning.

Feb 16, BKLN, NY

Today is the big one. I came in early to check and re-check everything. It's all going up a notch and I want to be ready for what gets thrown at me. Yesterday was a bit on the intense side, but things will get interesting when Eric Clapton, Paul Simon and Bette Midler come in. I think this might be the biggest lineup I've ever worked with, so it's gotta be good.

With everything in order, we open the flood gates and start an afternoon of random soundchecks. To say this is a technical nightmare is an understatement. I had to pull out some tricks I haven't needed in years. Had to add a console in monitor world as well in order to handle all the extras that kept popping up. All said, it was really cool to see Eric Clapton playing a couple feet away, Paul Simon was amazing (and really short!) and Aaron Ween was a surprise favorite. It's a massive lineup.

We got through the afternoon unscathed and the show starts with a 15min movie, and then it's on. It's in 2 acts, the first is the new Plastic Ono Band playing the new CD, and the second act is all the special guests. So crazy to see all these huge names one after the other. All said, it went pretty smoothly, and it was in no part thanks to the number of house crew we had that were able to run around the stage moving mics, monitors, etc... for us. We were about 30 people working on this production, and we needed every single one. Could've even used more.

Once the show was over we sat around for a couple minutes, packed up our stuff and bailed. We were just too tired to really go out and do anything or go to the afterparty. I'm really looking forward to sleeping tomorrow.

We Are Scientists, Jan 20-23, 2010

2010-12-08T22:42:00.002-05:00

We Are Scientists Jan 20-23

Day 1, Jan 20, Philadelphia, PA

I'm starting a new one today and I'm looking forward to it. A couple years ago I met these guys in Paris, had a couple drinks, and then about a year ago, we (The Stills) were on tour with them and Kings of Leon across the US, and we all had a great time. So I'm looking forward to working with We Are Scientists the next few days.

Today we're off to Philly, to the classic Johnny Brenda's (just when you thought you couldn't get a small place, there's JB's)... We all met up at their rehearsal space in Brooklyn, packed the van, hit a deli and hit the road, stopping en route to grab some merch. The drive down was painless, and the load in sucked, but it didn't seem quite as bad as I remembered...

Once in the room, nothing was really as I remembered. There was a proper front of house booth, the PA was better, green room cleaner, just overall kind of improved. They even had a lighting guy with a couple real lights to use (and it did look pretty good). I was especially surprised when I walked away from soundcheck thinking that it sounded pretty good in there.

The dinner part was good, that was normal, as they do have a really good restaurant downstairs. After eating we had a fair bit of time to kill, so a couple of us went walking in search of coffee. I pulled up a couple places on Google Maps and decided to proceed cautiously as the last time I was there, the staff told me not to walk further than a block away. Anywhere past that was risking serious danger. Awesome. So with eyes wide open, we began the trek.

We weren't ready for what we came across... It was an actual livable neighborhood! This wasn't what we were expecting at all. The whole area's been gentrified, restaurants and coffee shops everywhere, yuppie central it has become. Crazy. So our spirits lifted and all of a sudden we were enjoying the area. We even found a cool little spot called Aroma that stayed open late for us, just wish the coffee wasn't wretched cause everything else about it was great.

Back to the show we go and the place is pretty full, which is a really nice way to start. It ended up sounding better than I ever remembered that room sounding, and the guys played a pretty good show. We were all pretty happy after, but tired nonetheless, so we didn't waste much time before getting to the hotel.

Day 2, Washington, DC

I tired to get up early enough today to run for a coffee before we left town, especially since we were right near the Reading Market. It's easily my favorite food area, and they have Old Town Espresso, which is a solid brew. So I dragged myself up and power-walked there and back, very happy for having done so. I tried to make sure I was back on time because having not toured with these guys before, I was unsure of their lobby call routines and timings. Of course, when I got back to the hotel, it turned out that the others were all just getting up and needed food, so I suggested the Reading Market and back we went! Really nice way to start a day, and I'm really into the relaxed vibe.

After eating we were off to Washington, a short hop down the 95. We're at the Black Cat tonight, which, legend has it, is co-owned by Dave Grohl. I'll have to get back to you on that. Anyways. Decent room. Sort of a warehouse style place on the second floor, but it was setup reasonably well and sound alright. In-house catering for dinner was fine, no coffee in the area though, so we had to default to Starbucks (ugh!). Show was smooth again tonight, and again we wasted little time getting out and heading to the hotel. Tonight was a luxurious Days Inn which included used soap in the shower. Nice.

Day 3, State College, PA

Today we all woke up hungry about the same time and we had no options. Our hotel was in a weird area, only thing there was Subway. After everyone swore up and down we'd never eat there again, we drove around the block, found nothing, so gave up and went to Subway. Incidentally, the ordering area at this particular Subway was enclosed by bullet-proof glass. Only place I've ever seen that. It was impossible to hear the "sandwich artists" speaking, so it took about 4 tries to get it right. Somehow my 6" whole wheat started out as a 12" on white, but we worked through our differences and soon enough we were on the road to Upper Darby, PA.

I was surprised to find out that the show wasn't actually in Upper Darby. Oops (happy I'm not TM'ing this one...). We were actually going to State College, PA, a small town, home of the Nittanny Lions, where I had actually been before, about 3 yrs ago almost to the day. I remembered a decent theater with a 24hr diner next door. But we were playing the acoustically awful ballroom on campus. Oh well... At least we had hoards of volunteer "loaders" so we didn't really have to touch anything. We survived the brutality of the room only to find out we were miles from any food, so we had to eat in the cafeteria downstairs. $6 for a slice, eh...? Nice.

The show actually did go well though, and it wasn't so bad after all. When we did get out, we were pretty hungry, so after checking in to the hotel for the night, we went out and found the 24hr diner I remembered. Still there, still open, waitresses were playing with hula hoops. Ok... We had been invited to a house party thrown by the student union, and we were tempted, but really skeptical. We are after all about 10yrs older than these kids, and from what we saw during the day, we weren't sure what to expect. After eating, we actually walked all the way over to the door of the building, stopped and talked about what we were doing. Our plan was to bail.

So we did the opposite and went right in. We found an apartment filled with kids, Jungle Juice, cans of Coors Light, strobe lights, neon lights, etc... It was a step back in time for sure... But, against all odds, it was actually alright and we had a good time. Before we knew it, it was about 4am. Once we did know that, we got the hell out because we have to get up and drive 5hrs to the next gig...

Day 4, Hoboken, NJ

And so, feeling like conquered warriors, we got up and did the only thing one could do in our situation. We headed straight for a waffle joint. And it was good. I think it was actually called the Waffle Palace, but I can't be sure... And then we drove 5hrs to lovely Hoboken to throw a party at Maxwell's. Another place I don't remember being too fond of, but really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. Definitely a dive bar vibe though, but at least they had good food. Had to default to Starbucks again for coffee though...

Afternoon was smooth, show was really good. Lots of kids singing along, crowdsurfing, etc... This time we really wanted to get out because we could all go home tonight. We packed the van, drove back to BK to unload at the rehearsal space, had a quick beverage and hopped in cabs.

All things considered, it was a really good 4 day run. Look forward to working with these kids again.

Noah and the Whale, Oct. 17-Nov. 6, 2009

2010-12-08T22:41:00.000-05:00

Noah and the Whale, US/Canada, Oct 17-Nov 6

Day 1 LA

Today is a schelp. I finished a Chromeo show in NYC at 4am, and I have a 7:30am flight to LA to start a new tour with Noah and the Whale, a British band I've met a couple times. Usually it's a friend of mine that looks after them, but he's out with Pete Yorn right now, so I'm stepping in. And so far it hurts just a little bit.

After about 90mins of sleep I find myself in the familiar confines of LaGuardia airport, waiting for the fun to unfold. The flight through Denver to LA was alright, all things considered, and I got to our hotel fairly easily. Turns out that my friend who I'm covering on this run is actually in LA today, so after dropping my bags, I hooked up with him and we made a drive out to Silver Lake for coffee and food. It was great. Love the Intelligentsia cafes. After a couple hours of good times, I was back at the hotel to work for a bit while I waiting for the Brits to arrive on their late flight from London.

They were suitably jet-lagged when they got in, but I thought they should go for dinner to a classic Mexican joint called El Compadre. I told them a friend of mine would give them a lift, but neglected to mention that friend was their former ™. They loved it, great surprise to start the trip. We had a great meal to kick things off.

After it was all done, I was actually able to meet up with someone who I had been meaning to meet for some time. A few months ago, a common close friend passed away. We had always heard stories of each other through this friend but only met for the first time at the funeral, sadly. Anyways, this guy lives in LA and we were able to make it work so we could finally hook up and have a couple drinks at the end of the night. Had a great time at the classic Barney's Beanery, shared stories, drinks, games of pool, etc... Felt good.

Day 2 LA

Today is a full day off, and as such, will be treated leisurely. We started with an amazing breakfast down the street at the Urth Cafe, which has incredible coffee, thank god. Way to ease into it.

They guys all went out guitar shopping for the day, and I sort of stuck around the hotel to do some work. Somehow over the course of the day, I found out that a friend of mine was in town with Snow Patrol. We always try and meet up but it never quite works out, so we made plans to hook up for drinks after dinner.

We found ourselves at some little courtyard jazz gig in Hollywood, but before long we were at a house party. Their tour had just ended, so the buses all pulled up in front of one of the crew members' places and emptied all the extra booze in to the fridge. 2 buses with 20+ people carry lots of booze, and makes for a large party. It ended up being a really good time. When that started dying down, we made our way back to the hotel (we were staying in the same one!) and hung out on a balcony for a bit before calling it a night.

Day 3 LA

Another start at the Urth Cafe. Don't fix what isn't broken after all... Again after food, the guys went out guitar shopping for a while. It's important to note that all their gear had recently been stolen in the UK, right before they came over, so they were replacing a fair amount of gear. They came back early afternoon for press at the hotel, a photo shoot, and then we had to go to a movie screening.

When they released their latest record, they also made a film to accompany it, i.e., the music is the soundtrack that runs the course of the film. As part of the promo, the record label has set up a couple screenings in LA and NY, so here we are at the LA one. The guys were kind of dreading it, but it turns out that it's in a really cool little open air courtyard area. And there's a good restaurant attached so we can sit and have dinner while we watch. At the end of it all there was a quick Q&A with a couple of the guys.

After we were done work, the label took us out to the El Rey to see La Roux (who I've seen at festivals almost every 3 days for the last 3 months!) and then we went out to Barney's for a couple drinks to kill the night.

Day 4 LA

Well, it was bound to happen. After 3 days in LA there had to be a show, and tonight it's at the Roxy, an absolutely classic venue. We got everything together, spent some time on the rooftop patio at the hotel where we ran into Dog the Bounty Hunter. Weird. He has a rather large bald spot I think you should know about. I didn't try and get a picture. He could kill me.

So we head to the venue, set up, soundcheck, etc... back in the groove. We had some dinner next door at the Rainbow, also legendary. Unfortunately Lemmy wasn't hanging out tonight. Pizza was ok though.

Next up is show time, and the place is packed. It actually went really well for the first time with a new band playing on all new gear. We considered it a pretty serious success, and a large monkey off the back. After the show everyone scattered to meet friends. I met up with my new friend from the first night. He came to the show and we ended up back at the Rainbow. We only had time for a couple before our bus showed up to pick us up.

We've done a show, we have gear, crew, a bus... it's official: we're on tour.

Day 5 San Diego

I woke up this morning in the scenic Greyhound parking lot in downtown San Diego. Amazing. I've got a good cafe nearby, so that saved my morale. After a quick trip over there, I met up with a couple of the others and went for a weak lunch at the Hard Rock. Why I don't know... there are so many better places in the area. The afternoon was a fairly leisurely walk around, shower, etc...

The show tonight is at the Casbah. Equally legendary but for very different reasons. Everyone was cool and they treated us really well, so we overlooked the decrepit nature of the club in which we found ourselves. It wasn't so bad at the end of it all. I managed to squeeze in a decent dinner nearby too, so all was not lost. We didn't stick around long after this one; 10hr overnight drive to San Fran. Nice.

Day 6 SF

We actually got in at a decent hour which I was really happy about. That meant time to walk over to the Blue Bottle Cafe for some serious coffee with one of the guys. (Ok, I know this sounds like such a lame thing to talk about on tour. It's just necessary is all...). On the way back to the venue, we walked by a cool little rockabilly bar called Lucky 13 that I know and love. We stopped by and sampled a couple fine local brews, cause, well, why not? And then it was off to load in.

Today was a bit of a weird one. It was sort of like playing a church. It was an older building, microscopic stage, definitely not meant for a rock show. The guys re-tooled a bit and played a more acoustic style show and the crowd went nuts for it. It was sold out, on their feet all night. Definitely not what we expected.

After it was done, we all headed back to Lucky 13 where we were able to set up an after-show party that included free booze for us. Sweet deal. Then we hopped on the bus to drive overnight to Seattle...

Day 7 Seattle

The last couple days have been a little heavy, so we were happy to pull into Seattle and have a night off. We had quick showers and then a handful of us regrouped for dinner. My travel agent is based in Seattle and she recommended an awesome French place in the market. Good food, good wine, good relaxing night off.

Then, as luck would have it, my travel agent was across the street at the Showbox, so we made plans to hook up for a drink after dinner. Only a couple of us went over and before we knew it, we had our drink and we were inside watching the end of the Gossip show with a new group of friends. When it was done, we went around the corner to a bistro for a nightcap, and that led to a million dollar condo on the waterfront where we had someone else's drinks. Good night overall...

Day 8 Seattle

Tonight is show night in Seattle. We woke up slowly and went to a place called Lola's for a quick breakfast before I had to take a couple guys to do some press. That kind of kills the afternoon vibe a bit, but what can you do? Gotta do some work sometimes...

After the radio, I was starving, and somehow stumbled across an amazing wood burning pizza joint in a weird part of town. I had a great pre-load meal, then it was off to work at the Crocodile Cafe, another legendary venue that recently re-opened after renovations.

We got throughout the soundcheck and I disappeared to the hotel for a bit to chill out and shower. Back to the venue and we had another really good show. It's been a good streak so far. Afterwards we went around the corner to some bar that looked like it was straight out of Coney Island with weird clowns, decorations, etc... Weird vibe, but alright. We had time for a couple drinks before everything shut down. We had nowhere else to go really, so it was just back on the bus where there was already a classic rock bus party underway, which (embarrassingly) featured Rush Live in Rio and some sort of Journey dvd... Departure time for Portland couldn't come soon enough...

Day 9 Portland

We pulled in to town right in time for lunch, which was at the always good Doug Fir Lounge. We spend some time lounging, showering, etc... and then a couple of us made the walk in to town to hit Stumptown coffee. Have to take advantage of all the west coast has to offer, naturally.

Back at the club, we found out that there we were the early show on a two-show night. Interesting. Glad they told us about that. Surprises are always fun. Either way it went well. Afterwards everyone scattered and went out to a local haunt, and I was actually able to meet up with my buddy who works for Snow Patrol for the second time in a week. He came over and met me at the venue and we went out to a cool little underground bar for a couple drinks. After a little while it was time to hit the road again. The long cross-country drive starts tonight. It's a 3 day drive to lovely Madison, WI.

Day 10 Evanston, WY

Today we drove. And drove. And drove some more. It was fairly late by the time we actually pulled into Evanston for our first stop on the epic voyage. We were barely out of the bus and going for dinner when the driver called me. He had looked into the weather for the next couple days as we're right in the middle of storm country for this time of year. It turns out we have a huge one right on our tails. So much for a leisurely dinner and drinks night. We figured we had to be out within 4hrs to miss the storm. We had a quick bite at the Best Western down the road (which is sadly the best meal in town), and then a couple incredibly cheap pints at their hotel bar. Back to the bus, back on the road. Next stop, Lincoln, NE.

Day 11 Lincoln, NE

Well, we made it. We're a cranky, smelly, somewhat depressed bunch at the moment, but we made it. There was a quick stop on the way in to town to drop a trailer we hauled for the bus company, and then we set up at the hotel for the night. Pretty nasty area though. The highlights were the laundromat and the pawn shop where you could buy used guns. Awesome. We did find out that there was a Fun Center though, and that sounded like the only real option, so we went for it. We could eat there too, so it seemed like it was all coming together.

The first sign was on the way over when I stepped into a knee-deep puddle. That was fun. And I had just put on fresh clothes. But whatever, I shake it off and we go inside to what is the weirdest, most messed up family fun center any of us had ever seen. It was like Chucky Cheese did forty lines of coke and woke up with a terrible hangover. Our options being limited, we head to the restaurant in the back thinking we'll have a drink to drown our sorrows over dinner. But they don't serve alcohol. It's a family place. We order anyways, most of us get hot dogs, and then they tell us they ran out of buns. (Not done yet...) So they offer us a choice of anything else for free, but they still serve us the dogs. One guy got a single dog on a paper plate. I was given 2 dogs in a plastic basket sitting on roughly 18 fries (photo is on my twitter page). It hurts. Not only does it look bad, but it tastes worse. So we move on to the bowling lanes.

What a mess. The balls are warped, the lanes randomly reset themselves, it's just awful. And there are kids playing there thinking it was the greatest thing they'd ever seen. I felt so bad for those kids... We played a couple rounds and go the hell out. Even sitting on the damn bus was better than this. Thankfully on the way back, we found a lame little hole in the wall called the Tack Bar and Grill and we stopped by. Apparently we were the only ones with that idea tonight. We sat a the bar like weird locals and took turns selecting tracks on the jukebox. We basically shut the place down.

We were still a little hungry though, and the only thing around was a MacDonalds, so we went over to try and grab a bite. The "restaurant" itself was closed, so we went up to the drive through, but the girl refused to serve us because we didn't have a vehicle. We tried to explain that we had a bus, we just can't drive it, we're a band, etc... but there was no love. They threatened to call the cops because "we were just a bunch of stoners looking for a high". Well I never. Completely insulted, we went back to the bus and sulked. And then decided to try again.

We went back with a different lineup. In fact, I was the only repeat offender. And apparently I was, because as soon as they saw me they actually did call the cops. During this time, we had also found a guy driving through who would place our order for us, so we said we'd pay for his in return. Perfect plan. And then the cops showed up. We had to tell our whole story, they took our ID's and ran our names through the system. It was so weird. Getting stopped trying to get McDicks. There's something inherently wrong about that. Anyways, in the end, the cop laughed about the whole thing and told them to serve us. Nice.

So, cardiac arrests waiting to happen, we went back to the bus and waited for it to roll away to Madison.

Day 12 Madison, WI

Today started off right, with a stop at Cracker Barrel for a classic CB breakfast. It's been a while since I've hit this and I was really happy. We all were. And it was exactly what we expected. American grease at it's finest.

After breakfast we rolled into Madison. I spent most of my afternoon picking up supplies (like toothpaste), showering at the hotel, etc... then back to the venue to soundcheck. We found a really good place for dinner after too and it seemed like things were really falling into place for us after a couple rough days in the bus.

The show tonight, at the Majestic, wasn't too bad. Good amount of people, but it was a really oddly-shaped ancient theatre and it sounded bizarre at best. We fought through it and went straight to the brew pub across the street when done. We didn't stick around too long. We're going to Chicago tomorrow, one of my favourite cities ever, and everyone wants to have most of the day there.

Day 13 Chicago

It was with extreme pleasure that not only did I wake up in Chicago, but I woke up across the street from an Intelligentsia cafe! There's only about 6 of them, they're my favorite, and we were parked right across the street! Incredible! There is no way this day can go wrong.

After starting the day that nicely, I spent most of it wandering my old haunts, checking out some old faves and doing a bit of work somewhere in the middle. So far so good.

We were getting through soundcheck when things changed a little. I got a call from the tour manager for our support act that there were some cops staring at the bus, with a weird look in their eyes. So I had to stop and run over and see what was up. I didn't think it would be too bad; earlier in the day a couple traffic cops asked to see our permit and were a little surprised to see that the city of Chicago had given us a permit to park in a no parking/bus zone. They laughed it off and that was it. This was a little more intense. The shift supervisor was here and he wanted the bus moved.

The last thing I wanted to do was piss these guys off, so I tried to be as pleasant and helpful as possible, but I still had to call the driver, wake him up and come move the bus. Turns out the guy in the diner across the street didn't like the bus blocking his view all day. He called some high-up friends at city hall, and before I knew it, I was bargaining with the alderman, police chief and a couple other positions I had never heard of. It was full on Chicago politics, and it was sort of fun to be honest. I sort of ended up winning too. They were going to put our bus in a lot further down the street, but my new police friend (who's cell number I have incase of emergencies), said to park anywhere I wanted (I chose directly in front of the venue in a no parking zone), and he would make any problem disappear. I like!

So that solved, we went back to doing a show. Quickly finished up soundchecks and for dinner I took one of the guys a few blocks away to Giordano's to give him a taste of a classic deep dish pizza. It was awesome.

And to top it off, the show is sold out tonight. Lake Shore Theater. Never heard of the place, but it's a nice little community style theater and it was full, so that's what counts. The show was really good, the kids ate it up, and my bus was parked in front of the venue, which was also next door to the bar we would go to after the show. Perfect. And then it turns out the Chromeo guys got to town today for a show tomorrow night, so one of my good touring friends was able to make it over to have a couple pints as well.

Love Chicago.

Day 14 Ponitac, MI

After the high of Chicago, it's only fitting that we come crashing down, hard... Welcome to Pontiac, MI. Home of, well... nothing. It's essentially a deserted car town outside of Detroit, but somehow they have a real venue. Weird.

Make no mistake though, it was awful. There was absolutely nothing to do all day, and I looked. And it was raining. By some stroke of luck there was a coffee shop across the street that didn't suck, and we were able to do laundry at the venue, so all is not lost...

Oddly enough, the show at the Pike Room was packed. So weird! We obviously had nowhere to go after the show, but there was some entertainment. While we were waiting to load out, a huge hip hop night ended next door. Night before Hallowe'en, so everyone is in costumes. All the guys were pimps and all the girls were ho's. It was hilarious in the worst way possible. They were all pushing each other around, guy were groping the girls, the cops were out shutting down streets, just crazy. There may have been a knife fight, but it could also just be heresay. I'd believe it though.... It was with extreme pleasure that we got the hell out of Pontiac and made the drive up to Toronto. They woke us all up at the border, but it was a small price to pay...

Day 15 Toronto, ON

We got in early this morning as our day started with a lovely in-store performance at Criminal Records. I hate in-stores, and so does the band. Thankfully it's so small that everything had to get scaled back and it didn't end up being too bad, at least we got it done. We parked the bus behind the Horseshoe, where our night show was, and I promptly got the guys in cabs to go to Aunties & Uncles for breakfast with a couple stops around the corner at Manic Coffee. Wicked.

It took a while to get the food but it was so worth it. And the coffee made it even better. And I was really happy to be back in Canada; it's been months and it feels good, even if it's only for about 16hrs. I was hoping to hook up with a couple friends, but turns out everyone was out on the road already, oh well...

So it ended up being a really good afternoon and we eased into the load in and soundcheck, etc... We didn't have time for a real dinner tonight as the guys were going to get makeup done for their Hallowe'en costumes. Tonight is the night after all... That took a serious chunk of time, and we basically had to rush back and get on stage as soon as it was done. It all went fairly well and we stuck around the 'Shoe for a couple drinks after. Every now and then it's nice to do something familiar. When they shut down we found a place a couple blocks away that was taking advantage of the time change tonight, so we indulged for a last one, and I was able to squeeze in a Sleeman's. What a Canadian day.

When we finally hit the road again, we made it through the border fairly easily, and then the guys wanted to make a McDicks stop for food. And then it happened again. They refused us because we couldn't drive through. And this time we had the bus right there!! It took some convincing, but we were able to work something out eventually. I had to take everyone's cash, approach the counter alone, leave the cash and walk away. They made it more like a stick up than it could ever have been. So insane. Anyways, it worked out and before long we were back on the road towards NYC. Going home, nice.

Day 16 NYC

It was good to be home, even with all the work coming up. We got to the hotel, got the guys checked in and set up, and then I finished up all the bus paperwork, got the driver paid and on his way. And I got to go home for a couple hours. Amazing. It was good, but still a bit short-lived. We had another one of those movie screenings tonight so I had to turn around and head back to meet the guys and head over to the screening at Piano's.

We got there a little early, so we went next door to the Living Room so the guys could build up some courage. Once back at the movie, it actually went fairly well and it was over before we knew it. We all went for dinner after with some label people, stopping at Smeltzers, and then went random bar hopping for a bit. Somewhere in the middle of it a couple of us ducked out and we ran into Sean Lennon, who I had toured with for most of 2007. Amazing. A quick chat on the sidewalk and we went our separate ways. We went back and had a couple drinks with the others and called it a night.

Day 17 NYC

Today is multi-show day in NY. We have an early recording session for this thing called Fearless TV, so it's an early call to head over to Crash Mansion for the taping. Once we were there and in, it wasn't so bad. It kind of ran itself. Out on the sidewalk I ran into another friend I used to tour with, so it's 2 random run-in's in 2 days. Love this city. Aside from that, most of the afternoon just moved along at it's own pace and soon enough we were heading over to the Mercury Lounge to set up for the 3 night stand. We had a little time once we got over there so we went over to Katz's to get the guys a classic overrated deli sandwich, and managed to stick in a coffee stop in there too.

After soundcheck we went to dinner a few blocks over to Il Posto Canto, an Italian wine bar I really like, we took our time, enjoyed a great meal, and then back for show #1 of 3. It was packed, a really great way to start a string of shows is with a sellout, and it was a great show. And the best part is that there's no load out! Amazing. After the show we headed a few blocks over to Black & White and had a couple drinks to cap a successful night.

Day 18 NYC

Another early session today, this time at CBS Radio. I go meet the guys, grab the pair I need for the session and we head over. It's all fairly painless, actually filmed in Howard Stern's old studio (ha!), and then we even had an hour or so once we were done. We were able to find a cool little sandwich shop, which actually isn't that hard in Greenwich Village, had a bite and went over to the venue. After soundcheck we went to dinner at an Italian place our guitar tech really liked, went for a coffee afterwards at Ost Cafe and slowly made our way back to the show.

Again, it's slammed, way over sold, and it's great. We're having a really good streak here in NY. After the show tonight, everyone was a little tired, so to keep things in check, we just went back to the hotel bar. They were staying at the Jane, which is where some Titanic survivors actually stayed back in the day, and they had just finished renovating the bar/lounge area the day before. It looks really incredible, and we were meaning to stop by for a drink, so it all made sense. It was a cool little vibe we had going and a good way to end the night.

Day 19 NYC

Another day, another afternoon press event. This time I went down to meet the guys and we had to go all the way back up to the Bronx to Fordham University to do their radio show. That was a trek through parts of the city I'd never seen, nor care to go back to. The show itself was cool though, the interviewer actually had a clue, which was a nice change. We made our way back asap and had a bit of time to kill, so we walked around the village a bit and ended up stopping at a place called Amy's Bakery where we had great sandwiches and even crazier cakes. Then back to the real world of soundchecks, etc...

The guys had a business dinner tonight, so I went out with our guitar tech and the TM for our support act. We ended up finding a really cool little Italian place on 2nd or 3rd and we had a really good meal. And then back for the show.

This one was off the charts. By far the biggest crowd, and that's saying something when the first two nights were over capacity as it is. Really great way to end a tour. 3 sold out shows, everything went really well, the guys were really happy. And then we still didn't have to load out! The club let us keep our gear there overnight so we could just pick it up on the way to the airport tomorrow. Probably a good thing too because our guitar techs truck got towed so he was indisposed for a while trying to get it back... Oops... Should've paid attention to those parking signs...

So we ended up at The Spotted Pig in the west village, right by their hotel. They kept the place open for us, I had a couple friends come over, the food was amazing, the bar was open, what more do you need? But, like most places, they too must close, and I walked the guys back to their hotel where we spent a little more time reminiscing before I hopped in a cab and went home.

Day 20 NYC

Finally a day with no press at all. The only thing we have to do is get to the airport. So I go down and meet up with the guys, throw everyone in the vans and we make our way to JFK stopping en route to grab the gear at the club. It was all rather painless, which was nice, and in no time at all I had the Brits checked in and through security, goodbyes said, promises to reunite exchanged. I hopped in a cab and headed home.

Oddly enough, after spending 3 nights this week at the Mercury (and that's also where I ran into Sean a few nights ago, so 4 nights really), I had more friends in town who were playing there tonight. So back I was, the staff knew me well at this point, I was treated amazingly well by all involved. I think it just might become my hangout when I'm in town these days...

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A-Trak in Australia, Sept. 21 - Oct. 6, 2009

2009-10-09T03:21:00.000-04:00

A-Trak in Australia, Day 1- 2 (Sept. 21 09)

Back again. Going down under for the 3rd time in 6 months. How crazy is that? I love it, but it looks like I'm going to have to earn this one...

I woke up early enough to finish all my packing and preparation, but just barely. I needed every single minute before I ran down and jumped in my car. Once at the airport, all was good. Had time for a good meal, sit in the lounge for a bit, relax and prepare to fly. So I go down to board at the requested time, get on the plane, I'm ready.

Turns out the plane wasn't. We got off the ground on time, but about an hour in, the pilot made an announcement that there was a problem with the cabin pressure and we had to make an emergency landing in Washington, DC. Great. Better to land than stay in the sky, but definitely inconvenient. When we landed, we were surrounded by fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and emergency service vehicle you could think of that would be at an airport. It was a little surreal and pretty bizarre. They made us stay on the runway for a little while to make sure we were safe before they let us taxi to the gate, and even then, the whole group of vehicles followed us along, and there were more at the gate. Once we pulled up, firefighters got on board to check stuff out. The captain (thankfully) neglected to tell us that the front end of the plane was filling with smoke and that there was a small fire in the cockpit. That would've caused a little panic I think...

So we're at IAD, sitting around, no one can tell us anything for about 2hrs. They actually came out and said "We don't know what to do." I'm pretty worried about making my connection to Sydney now. My 5hr stopover is evaporating before my eyes. When they finally start boarding the new plane they got us, it's a bit of a mess as it's a different model, the seats don't line up, etc... so they start handwriting some new boarding passes because the system won't let them create new passes for a flight that technically already took off. Amazing. I finally got on the plane, commandeered an exit row seat and waited. By the time it was all said and done, we had a 3.5hr delay, and I think I'm screwed for my next flight. At least they gave us free booze and meals on the new flight (not at all normal), so I can try and dull the pain a little… The highlight was the captain announcing on the PA that "Long story short, suffice to say that our first plane wasn't airworthy and it's a good thing we landed when we did. This plane should be fine." Thanks United.

Once in the air I start calculating how I'm going to make my next flight, doesn't look good. The captain confirmed that when he announced we were going to land about 20mins before my next and final flight to Sydney. To top it off, the cabin crew had no info at all about connections. So once we landed, I figured even if my bag doesn't make it, I've got to. I'm not staying at the San Francisco airport overnight. I grab my stuff before anyone else is even out of their seats and I run off the plane and keep running through the whole damn airport to the international terminal. I find the gate, there's nobody there. Except one person holding the door open for me. Incredible. I'm actually making the flight. Turns out they decided to hold it for me and a couple others, and they even waited for our bags! Unreal.

It's all starting to make sense, I get settled beside the screaming baby (which has become a regular flight fixture for me this month), have a drink and do my best to sleep for a bit. I woke up with a couple hours left, everything looked smooth. Then, about 30mins out, captain comes on "Folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news...". We end up having to divert to Brisbane because of the crazy dust storm that hit Sydney. It was right in the thick of it. So we land in Brisbane, we have to stay on the plane, and we end up sitting there for almost 3 hrs. Could this day get any longer??? They finally let us go to "take a shot" at getting in to Sydney, and when I saw the storm from above, I understood. All the clouds were brown and orange. I've never seen anything like it. We finally made the smoothest landing ever after making the scariest descent ever and I was thrilled to finally get off the plane and go to the hotel.

When we were pulling into the city, everything was a huge cloud of red dust. Couldn't see any of the skyscrapers, traffic lights, nothing. Everything was covered in a layer of dirt. Wild. I checked in to the hotel and pretty much stayed there for most of the afternoon until it started to clear up in the evening. Then I went for coffee and sat in Hyde Park for a bit and chilled out. Eventually walked down Oxford to get some mediocre asian food and slowly went back to the hotel to relax before crashing. So happy the trek is over, but because of all the randomness and inconsistencies, my jet lag seems to be in good shape so far...

Day 3, Canberra

I woke up at one of my favourite hotels this morning, the Sheraton-on-the-Park, so already things are off to a good start. I walked down the street to my new favourite coffee spot, which I discovered yesterday, and went across the street to sit in the amazing sunshine for a little while before I had to go. With some sadness, I eventually went back to the hotel to pack quickly and get my ride to the airport. Off to Canberra.

At the airport, I met up with A-Trak as he just flew in from some dates in Japan. We hopped on the little turboprop to Canberra and in no time we were at the hotel. There's not a whole lot to do in this town (all government), so after coming to terms with the reality of that, I went to the gym and did some work in my (lame) room at the Diamant. After the gym I was feeling pretty hungry, took a look at the 4 restaurants in the hotel and just had a mild crisis moment. I can't eat in another restaurant right now. To hell with it. I want normal food. So I go off in search of a grocery store.

The first one I find killed me. I walked around the aisles for a bit, didn't recognize any brands, the wine was shit and I realized that I can't do this while living in a hotel. I had to abort... it was pretty disappointing. I kept walking around and I actually found a bigger and better grocery store. I walked in to scout it a bit and the wine selection was really good, so I walked through the aisles and I found stuff I could recognize. This is good, hopes are rising. I start making some selections, this is going well. I even ended up talking to some random guy about philosophy, religion, Shakespeare, sociology and various contradictory points of view within Darwin's publications. I'm supposed to go read chapter 5 of "The Dissent of Man". I think I actually will.

Anyways, I buy some stuff, including a really solid bottle of wine (d'Arenberg Custodian if you must know), and head back to the hotel to enjoy my little appetizer feast. After a little while, we met up for dinner in the hotel. I ordered the Spatchcock. I highly recommend it. After dinner we called it a night.

Day 4, Canberra

Woke up today with nothing to serious to take care of. Filtered through the emails and we met in the hotel cafe for breakfast. This morning I had the Savoury Pancakes. 3 thick pancakes stacked in the middle of the plate with a pile of back bacon on top. And it was all sitting in a plate full of maple syrup. It was a Canadian heart attack waiting to happen, but it was really good. The macchiato was mediocre. After food, I hit the gym, did a little work and went walking around the bustling downtown core for a little while. Found better coffee, and observed countless government lemmings going about their daily business running the capital.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly computer work, and then meeting a bunch of the festival people for dinner at the hotel. I will be sure to recommend the Spatchcock.

Tonight is also the first show of this run. It's at a university hall with Mstrkrft and Tiga, sort of out of the way, but it's also the only place anybody was out. That has to count for something. Weird crowd though… it was a 15+ show (never heard of that one…), and it was obviously one of the first shows any of these kids had ever gone to. They had no idea what they were doing or how to dance. It was sort of funny. Only downside was that it went pretty late, and we were more than ready to get out when the set was done. We stuck around for a short while, but when we got back to the hotel we crashed pretty quickly.

Day 5, Brisbane

We start getting in the swing of things now. The funny part about touring Australia is that you have to fly to every show. Cities are too far apart and you'd never make it if you were driving. So today, up early and off to the airport to fly to Brisbane. That part was pretty painless. The airport was pretty awful though. It was the equivalent of something you'd find in Gary, Indiana. Or maybe Windsor, ON. Tiny, no food, no lounge. Nasty.

The flight itself was fine, and once we landed we had a fair amount of time to kill before we had to head to the festival site. I took the opportunity to walk around and find some coffee, sat on a cafe patio for a while, talked with the locals, etc… Brisbane is an alright place actually, I don't mind it at all.

Anyways. The festival site was conveniently located across the street from the hotel, so it was no problem getting there. We walked around for a while, checked out some of the other acts, ran in to tonnes of people we knew. Good afternoon. The show went fairly well. Turns out A-Trak is headlining the main stage, so that's kind of cool. What sucked was that during the set we got hit by a dust storm. No good. It left a layer of shit on everything, and we were covered in it, inside and out. We were coughing up dust for hours after. It was really disgusting.

But the best had yet to come... Even though we were pretty tired after the show, we still had a late one to go. There was an afterparty he was scheduled to play at 1:30am. That hurts. So we eventually dragged ourselves to the club, had a terrible slice of pizza across the street before going in, and spend the rest of the night locked in a tiny hole in the wall with so much bass I couldn't see straight. It was awful. When that show was over, we made the quickest exit of all time to get back to the hotel. Tomorrow's another early one to Perth...

Day 6, Perth

So today we drag ourselves out of bed on no sleep and run to the airport for the 6hr flight to Perrrth. Or Perf. Depends on your interpretation of the accent. Our day was spent trying to fine tune our pronunciation.

When we got in we didn't have much time at all, so it was a pretty quick turnaround and off to the site again. Today we checked out a couple other acts we wanted to see, ran in to a few more friends, and before we knew it, it was showtime. And this was a good one. There were about 15,000 kids who came to check out his set and they were really over the top. It made for a great show, much better than the dustfest that was Brisbane.

We left pretty quickly after so we could get off the site before the kids did, and once back at the hotel, we just stuck around there. There was a perfectly good hotel bar that a lot of the festival folks were hanging out at, so we just joined the party.

Day 7, To Sydney

Today is just a travel day back to Sydney where we'll be for the next 4 days, just chilling. I got up a little early to go get coffee, and I had found the perfect place to check out. It was with much dismay and anger that I awoke only to discover that today is a public holiday and everything is closed! !$#@%#? I actually had time too... I went out and walked around for a while, hoping that I'd come across something but it was all pretty dismal. Back to the hotel, off to the airport and a crappy airport breakfast would have to do it. I'm really starting to hit the breaking point with airports, btw... Too many, too often. Even if I stopped flying today, I'll have averaged a flight every 5 days this year.

So we get to Sydney later in the evening, almost 9pm, and before we even get out of the airport we have plans for dinner. We got our driver to drop us at a place called Toko in Surry Hills and take our bags to the hotel for us. Gold. We ended up spending most of the night there, hanging out with Tiga, Beni, Busy P and a few other friends. Good time, good welcome to Sydney. I'm so happy.

Day 8, Sydney

Today is sort of a day off. No flight, no show, no press. Just have loads of work to catch up on from the last few days and some festival events later on. First though, I had to prioritize. I found a coffee shop not too far away so I went out for a walk, got lost for a bit but eventually found my target, Cherubini's. It was pretty solid, good bean. I sat there for a little while just reading a paper, pretending I was a local and was up date on all the news... After that it was off to the gym, then I finally got down to business.

For dinner that night there was one of many "festival bonding" events, where they just get everyone together and throw around free drinks and food. It was ok. I didn't stick around too long though. These things are always a little awkward and I just wanted to get some sleep.

Day 9, Sydney

So again, as usual, priority was getting coffee. When I was out trying to find the other place yesterday, I walked by a place that I was curious about. It was a bit closer so I decided to at least look in the door today. And it looked good. It was actually amazing, a place called The Bunker. I ended up hanging out there with people for a couple hours, talked local stuff, Canadian bands, all kinds of shit. It was great. So happy I made the decision to go in. After that it was off to the gym again, then I went out to shop a bit but came back empty handed.

For the evening, I was able to make plans with someone I hadn't seen since my first trip down under, definitely looking forward to hanging out with some great non-tour people. We ended up at a cool little wine bar that was impossible to find. I had to wait to get directions because they weren't even sure where it was, and once I somehow found the door, I had to text a password to the manager to get in. That was pretty awesome. There's some sort of prohibition era backroom covert operations going on here... Great dinner, great wine, great time. Afterwards the plan was to check out one of the side shows put on by the festival but ended up just heading back to the hotel. Figured the last thing I needed was to see another show, need a night off from festival stuff...

Day 10, Sydney

After tentative plans for breakfast with a friend fell through, the first thing I deed was head back to the cafe I discovered yesterday. I love it, feels like home - in a coffee shop sort of way. On my way over, I got a random call fro ma radio station in New Zealand that I had been dealing with to set up an A-Trak interview to support our show on Friday. Turns out the dj mis-dialed the phone number he was looking for and all of a sudden I was live on-air in Auckland, live from The Bunker in Kings Cross. Sounds sort of epic in a radio interview sort of way. That didn't last too long, but I finally made my big NZ debut. After that, while sitting down in the coffee shop, a camera crew showed up. Turns out they're filming the Australian version of Beauty and the Geek right outside the front door, and guess who's in the background, drinking coffee? That's right. I'm killing it in the South Pacific today. They disappeared after shooting a few scenes, but I stayed a the shop a little longer, shared a table with some locals, had a couple conversations. All good. One of the staff guys even brought me free samples of an insane green tea they have that costs $250/kg. It was unreal, so full of flavour. It tasted and smelled like fresh cut grass.

And then the work begins. Today we have to run over to a tv station and a radio station to record some stuff for upcoming episodes. It wasn't too painful, actually sort of fun. And we got amazing fruit smoothies across the street. The whole thing only took a couple hours and before long we were back at the hotel for a quick stop before heading out to more "festival bonding" events.

The first one was the Sydney Wildlife Park, which I had been to before. It was ok. Always fun to see kangaroos and koalas. After a terrible guide took us on a quick run through that, we stopped for a drink next door while we waited for a Harbour Cruise. I love the Harbour Cruises. This one was the most elaborate that I'd been on to date, going west of Darling Harbour, not just the standard round-the-opera-house routine. They had really good food onboard also, it was alright. After the cruise was over, there was a party at a place called Cargo. Before heading in there I disappeared to go down the street and meet a friend and a couple others for a quick bite, a quick drink and then we all headed over to the festival party for free drinks.

Well, that didn't last long. Not really the vibe we were looking for. It's been a long time since I've gone to a bar where I've had to elbow people out of the way and fight for position to order drinks. I want my rider back. It was a one drink and out scenario. We made new plans once we got out and ended up at a place called Low Bar in Surry Hills (and I actually surprised my local friends by telling them about it!). We stayed there for the rest of the night in a more normal, really cool and relaxed atmosphere, with various visitors coming in and out while we held court in the corner.

It hurt to get back to the hotel and have to pack to fly to Auckland tomorrow. I could stay here another week, feels like it's just getting started...

Day 11, Auckland, NZ

Pain is waking up at 7am to get a flight to New Zealand. This is not what I want to be doing at 7am, but hey, guess you gotta work sometimes... I sort of get everything together, we meet downstairs and get our ride to the airport. Go through everything, then the flight gets delayed for an hour and a half, but whatever. What're you gonna do? Well, I'll tell you what I did. I was so bored that I let someone from Tourism Australia interview me about my Australian experiences. There was no way I wanted to get in to why I'm here, how I travel, etc... so half my answers were made up. Nothing that would shake up the data too much I don't think... the options for multiple choice questions were fairly limited... The flight got delayed a little longer, so I was able to get some food and what turned out to be great coffee, and then finally we get on board the plane and make our way across the Tasman Sea. I think. I'll have to look a map...

Anyways, we make the fight, it's not too bad, only three hours, and go grab our bags to clear customs, etc... And this is where the fun starts. New Zealand has extremely strict laws to govern the import of food and vegetation, etc... in their country. You can't do things like bring in meat, vegetables, used bicycles, scuba tanks, you know, the obvious stuff. I had a chocolate bar with me. I put it on the counter with my stuff when I walked up to the desk. I was kindly informed that I had to declare it. So, I declared my chocolate bar. So that puts a little red mark on my declaration card which leads me to Lane #1. Lane #1 was being looked after by a gentleman who proceeded to take up the next 30 mins of our lives as we gave up our entire life stories, where we were the last few days (specifics), where we were going, what a dj show is, why dj's play late, why we were leaving after a day, who booked our flights, what led us to this point in our lives, why we both been to NZ before, the whole damn thing. If I ever publish an autobiography, I'll just get a copy of my NZ immigration file and send it to the printers. It was really insane. Fortunately no strip search or anything crazy. Just extra x-rays and swab tests.

So we get out of that mess, the promoter meets us on the other side after a worried wait, and he gets us to the hotel where we're able to chill out for a bit. An hour later, we meet with people from Serato (a dj software company) who take us to their head offices for A-Trak to check out some new products (he consults for them). To put this in perspective, Serato invented software that has allowed dj's to eliminate vinyl from touring. All music is on laptops now, and they carry vinyl control discs that are encoded to control the music on the laptop, everything goes through a hub connected by USB to the laptop. It completely revolutionized turntablism, so this is big. It's so big that we had to sign non-disclosure forms before we entered the office. We were told that we're the only 2 people that have been allowed to enter their offices since they started working on these projects about a year ago. I have no idea what's going (I'm not a dj - surprise!), but A-Trak was completely blown away by what they're up to, so that's probably a good sign. Afterwards we all went to dinner with the promoter and a couple contest winners, club staff, the usual suspects at a dinner of this nature, then back to the hotel to chill til showtime, which tonight is 2am.

After a couple hours we head to the show, which is at the Coherent bar. Small place, but good vibe, except for the jackass who kept unplugging some speakers. Caught him, got him kicked out, rest of the night was fine. We got out pretty fast after it was done because we have another early flight tomorrow.

Day 12, Melbourne

After some 4hrs of sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the cab to go to the airport. It hurt. But the flight was alright, got decent food at the airport, whatever. So we land in Melbourne, go through customs, get our bags and proceed to exit the customs area. I hand in my customs card and then I'm asked to go to Lane #1. What is it with these lanes? So I go over, a guy looks at my card and tells me I went the wrong way and to exit, so I go on my way, but then he calls back and tells me to come back. Someone else saw the card and then everything changed. I was sent down another lane where I was asked to wait for a customs agent by the interrogation room. Ok, here we go... So the agent eventually shows up, asks me what I'm doing here, tell the story and I'm brought to an examination area. Awesome. Bags on the counter, opened up, searched through, I'm patted down, touched by swabs all over. Then they ask me to take out all my bank cards and everything similar and they swab each one, so I finally ask what's going on. They tell me that they suspect me as a drug trafficker. Incredible. They swabbed all my cards looking for cocaine residue. So I see this is going down a very bad road so I start talking to them about all the travel I do, point out all the stamps in my passport, etc, etc... They tell me that in my line of work I must have to deal with drugs, which I counter by saying I tour the world, not seedy rock bars and then I explain all the stamps in my passport and how important it is for me to stay clean. After a few minutes they finally buy my story and tell me to pack up and get out. That one was a little too close. I got out, hopped in the car and we were off to the helipad.

Yes, helipad. Today before the show, A-Trak is doing promo with MSTRKRFT from a helicopter. They did a loop around the festival site and came back about 20mins later, then we went to the hotel to chill out before the show. And it's a nice one tonight. I highly recommend the Intercontintental Melbourne. It's really amazing.

Once at the site, the day became normal again. Had dinner, rebooked a couple flights for tomorrow, did the show (after driving to the stage through the crowd) and all was well. We got out really fast as we were beat after two long days in a row. We had to worry about laptop problems, which is why I had to rebook flights to fly to Sydney early tomorrow, and just needed sleep in general.

Day 13, Sydney

Flying to Sydney almost feels like I'm flying home. I've spent more time there this year than any other city but New York. I'm loving it. But there is some work to do. We came in early because we have to get a laptop repaired, it's fairly important. I've got ProCare at the Apple store, so we figure we'll show up, jump the line and be out in a hour, have the afternoon off to meet up with friends, etc... Well, turns out they don't have ProCare in Australia. This day just got really long. We were put on a standby list and it took almost 2hrs before someone saw us. Then we were sitting there for another 2hrs while the guy (who looked exactly like PC from the Mac commercials) looked at it. During this time, I got a call from the promoter who asked if we could swap set times with La Roux today (due to a medical problem). We talked it over, agreed to do it, but that meant I had to have my guy on stage in less than 2hrs. So he went back to the hotel to get his stuff and head to the festival while I waited on the laptop repair. Eventually it got sorted and I bolted to the site where I arrived about 5mins before the start of the show.

Today was pretty amazing. Even at 6pm there were well over 20,000 people watching the set. Looking out from the stage, the only thing we could see was people, all the way out to the horizon. Insane. It went really well. With the early set that day, we were actually able to hang out and see some other shows that we normally miss because they're at the same time. Checked out Erol Alkan, Tiga, The Rapture and had time leftover to go on an amusement park style ride (which I stayed off of).

After the all that we went back to the hotel to chill for a while before hitting one or two of the afterparties. I managed to squeeze in a drink in Hyde Park during that time. I love drinking in the park, nice, quiet, awesome. Eventually we headed back out, but stopped first at a place called La Campana, so I got a couple friends to come meet up with us there before we went out again. Turned out to be a pretty good time, and we should've stayed there... We went to check out one party at the Metro, which was a little lame, so we left to go to the Oxford Art Factory. There just happened to be a festival shuttle right be the door when we walked out, and I knew the guy who was already riding in it, so he held it for a minute while we got organized. Quick drive over to the Art Factory and it was surrounded by cops.

This is interesting. We get out, look around a bit and find out that a few minutes before we arrived, a cop got hit by a car when he ran across the street to break up a fight. He was still lying on the street when we got there. It was a really bad scene, and it really put a damper on the evening. We tried to get in to the club, not happening, so we decided to call it. So I said a weird goodbye to my friends and went back to the hotel feeling strangely empty and cheated of a night out. I hate leaving Sydney.

Day 14, Adelaide

Not much sleep again, so it was hard to get out and head to the airport. Just a quick flight and then straight to the hotel in Adelaide. It was actually a place I've stayed before, so I was happy that I knew the area and where to go for my coffee fix. I met up with a couple friends and we made the walk over only to find it was closed for the day as it was a public holiday in Australia. Oi. Fortunately there was a perfectly good place right down the street. After sorting that out, I went back to the hotel to work for a bit in my room, which, for some reason, had a crib in it. That's a new one...

So then out to the site. It was pretty relaxed today as it was the last show of the festival. Everyone was hanging out on stage during each other's sets, we watched sets from the crowd, it was a good time. Our set tonight was interesting... The mixer started dying almost as soon as he started, first the crossfader, then the headphone jack, and then, with 5 mins left, the laptop went schizophrenic and he had to pop in a CD to finish the show. Totally bizarre, but he handled it and no one in the crowd had a clue what was up. We got out really fast after that one and went back to the hotel.

There was a huge end of tour party tonight, which was the plan. It started out with a hotel lobby hang, then people slowly started heading over. The plan was one drink and out because of painfully early flights again, but that went south. I got out around 4:30am. It was a good one.

Day 15, 16 Travel home...

Wow. This is painful. 7am wake up call. I really wanted to curl up and die. Get to the airport, I get checked at security which has become the norm, and we go through to the flight. Simple 2hrs to Sydney, then we have to pick up our bags to recheck at a different airline. That was actually the highlight. I've been in a fight with United lately to try and get better compensation for my disastrous flights down, and they've been stonewalling me. One thing I asked for was to switch one of my flights home so I could get in earlier, which they steadfastly refused. I spoke very nicely with the woman at the counter, and less than a minute later, I was on all the flights I wanted, no charge. I guess that's a minor victory, but it was a nice touch. It wiped out a 4hr layover in San Francisco.

So we go to the lounge to kill a couple hours, take advantage of the make-your-own hot dog facilities and make our way to the flight. The 14hr leg went reasonably well, as far 14hr flights go... Once we landed, it was pick up bags, recheck, and run to another terminal. We made the next flight while it was boarding. It was a little tight, but all good. The best part was that thanks to tailwinds it was only 4h33m instead of 6hrs. Gold. Dodged a couple fake cab guys on the way out of the airport and I was in the cab going home. Sweet.

And so another trip to Australia comes to an end. Always hate to leave because it's always such a good time, but that just means I'll have to get back asap...

Chromeo Festivals, Sept. 9-14, 2009

2009-09-19T01:34:00.003-04:00

Chromeo Day 1, to Quebec City, QC

I knew going in to it that today was going to be a long one. It started with an early flight to Montreal, then a trip to pick up a van, then a trailer, then some rental gear, etc, etc… til the van and trailer were full around 7pm. Then we decided it was time for some pizza before we hit the road. Then, once on the road, we made the mandatory Tim Horton's stop and eventually kept on going to Quebec City. When we got it, we went to a classic poutine joint and that pretty much wrapped up the day. Nothing overly exciting, but it just took time…

Day 2, Quebec City, QC

Another day, another festival. Envol et MacAdam today, we're headlining, so it should be ok for us. We went over around 11:30am to load in and do a quick soundcheck and it was all pretty painless. Nice and smooth. What to do with an afternoon off?

Well, on an amazing sunny day in old Quebec, a patio seems like a great idea, so we all met up and went with that. Definitely the right decision. Great day to sit outside and we had time to relax. We casually walked back to the hotel after eating, I stopped by an SAQ (liquor store) and found a nice bottle of wine… It was nice to have some time.

We eventually regrouped and went back to the festival. It was moving along, right on time. It was a pretty good festival for us. The show went really well, some lyrics were switched to French and everyone was happy. After we were done, we went across the street to the poutine place again and finished off the night in style. Not too bad at all…

Day 3, Montreal, QC

We had to get up early today. First step was drop a couple guys at the airport for an early flight, then we drove back to Montreal to drop the gear, the van, the trailer, etc… By the time it was all said and done, it was close to 5pm. On my way to the hotel, I swung through the Plateau, got a coffee and just walked back to the hotel. Nice afternoon for a walk.

I kept things pretty light for the evening, as tomorrow is going to be another long one, but that was a good thing. I got a call late in the evening that one of the roadcases was lost by an airline this morning, so I had to go to one of the guys' places, meet his sister to let me in and pick up some spare gear. It was late, but at least it was painless… After that I went to crash fairly quickly. 5am comes early.

Day 4, Denver, CO

I thought I had long days until now. Got up at 5am, head to the airport for my 7:45am flight. When I got there, the US Airways check in guy refused to check me in for my flight! Unreal! He moved me to a later flight at 1:25pm! That meant I had 6hrs to wait in the airport. I fought over it but nothing gave, no love. Another reminder of why I hate US Airways. They're the worst. So I had enough, I just got in line and waited to drop my bags, go through customs, go through security. A whopping 3hrs later, I was finally relaxing in the Air Canada lounge, which I had all to myself for another 3 hrs after that…

This is painful already. At least since no one was in the lounge, I was able to sleep for a bit. That was nice. By the time people started coming in, it was time for me to go catch my flight. And lo and behold, while sitting at the gate, I saw my old friend Brad Albetta and his wife Martha Wainwright down the hall, so I went and spent some time with my touring friends from a year ago. I love running into people in airports. So much fun, always have a story.

The rest of my flying day went fairly well. Planes took off, planes landed, all you can hope for really. When I got to Denver, I went straight to the Thrifty lot to pick up my rental van only to find out they had given it away! And they had all my updated travel info and everything! So I complained about that until they started calling the other companies to find me a van. Eventually the girl says "Go to Enterprise, talk to Matt. They have a van for you." So I go to Enterprise and ask for Matt and a van, and the answer is "No one named Matt here, and we have no vans." Awesome. Thrifty screwed me. At least these guys were willing to help out. After a few minutes, they found an SUV for me and a little after that I was on my way, making the 40min drive to the hotel. Just cause the day wasn't long enough. Thankfully, once I got in, one of the guys had a line on a Mexican place that was still open so we went across the street for food and drink. That pretty much killed the rest of the night.

Day 5, Morisson, CO

Another day, another festival. Again. Today is different though. Today is Red Rocks Amphitheater, one of the most legendary venues in America. It's really amazing to be here.

Everything started out well too. On a trip back to the airport to pick up someone else, we were able to stop at the Denver Art Museum for some awesome coffee at Novo. Soooo good, really what I needed after yesterday. Airport trip was a success, so back to the hotel and then to the festival site. Once we got there, we checked out our gear really quickly, made sure all was good, and it was back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon.

The nice thing about having the afternoon off is that it was opening weekend for the NFL, and there just happened to be a sports bar showing a dozen games near the hotel. Gold has been struck, and that was the afternoon. Amazing.

Later in the evening we headed back, and even ran into a guy from the Morcheeba crew last year. Sweet deal. We had some time to kill, so we walked around the site, checked out the backstage area and generally just got our fill of red rocks until it was showtime.

Changeover and set up went really well, we were ready to go. Once the show actually started though, nothing but problems. The power distro was put in a bad spot when they set up the stage, and almost every song, somebody in the pit was unplugging power going to something onstage. I don't think it was the type of stuff that the crowd noticed at all, but I ended up spending more time on stage than in monitor world because of all the problems. Once it was over, we got out fast, rocking the load out to the Mars Volta soundtrack coming from the main stage. That was cool.

When we left the site, we all met up at the sports bar again for a night cap and a quick snack. We were all beat and had to worry about early flights, so it didn't get crazy, but it was nice to sit down with everyone. Good way to end the weekend.

Grizzly Bear, Brooklyn, NY, Aug. 30, 2009

2009-09-19T01:34:00.001-04:00

Grizzly Bear in Brooklyn

Aug. 30

It's only been a week but it already feels like a year since I've seen the GB guys. It's a beautiful day for an outdoor show though, and I headed out to the Williamsburg waterfront to meet up and soundcheck. The afternoon went fairly smoothly, got it dialled in, and I even had time to head back home and relax before the show.

I got back a little bit before show time, wasn't much going on, but the park was slammed. Maybe 8,000 people. More than any of us expected. The guys ended up playing a great show, they even said it might have been their best ever. It turns out that Jay-Z and Beyonce were hanging out at front of house for the show, and Jay was freestyling to himself during the set. Wild! Once it was over, there wasn't a whole lot happening. We wrapped up and bailed, that was pretty much it…

Chromeo in San Diego, Aug 27/28, 2009

2009-09-19T01:31:00.001-04:00

Chromeo in San Diego

Aug. 27

Today ends my 3 days off after the A-Trak/Grizzly Bear non-stop summer. I fly to San Diego to meet up with Chromeo for a one-off tomorrow. Today was pretty simple, all I have to do is fly. Once I got in to San Diego, I touched base with the guys and I met up with one of them for dinner at Los Panchos de Charly, our regular San Diego hang we discovered on tour with Morcheeba last year. We had a good talk with the people beside us and eventually just went back to the hotel. Pretty lame for a bunch of touring guys…

Aug 28

Show day starts with coffee. Rule #1. So we found coffee a couple blocks away and sat down for a bit, enjoyed, then went back to meet up with the rest and go to the stage to load in. It was kind of a cool concept. The festival is called StreetScene and they shut down a huge chunk of downtown and put stages all over the place. Ours was ok, normal enough stage, good gear. We showed up, checked the backline and bailed. When we got back to the hotel, 3 of us went out for lunch, and another friend who was in town with another band joined up as well. After eating it was back to the hotel, sit by the pool and wait for showtime…

We got in a bit early because we were dying to see the band before us. Not every day a legendary death metal band like Mastodon plays before Chromeo. It was amazing for all the weirdest reasons. Our show was going really well tonight. Huge crowd, just loving it, then about halfway through, the generator for the light rig died! The guys ended up playing a couple songs in total darkness, and in some ways it actually made the show a lot cooler.

Afterwards, a couple of us met up with someone else that was our tour manager back in the Sean Lennon days and we went out for a couple drinks. It's always nice to catch up with old friends. We called it when the bars kicked us out and went back to crash. Fly home tomorrow, then another show with Grizzly Bear…

Grizzly Bear in Europe, Aug 11-23, 2009

2009-09-19T01:26:00.002-04:00

Grizzly Bear Day 1 & 2, to Norway

Today I start a new gig mixing monitors for Grizzly Bear. It starts with a trip to the lovely Newark airport after finishing up all the paperwork from the A-Trak tour that finished on Sunday. Getting to Newark is an adventure in the best of times, and 2hrs after walking out the door, I got dropped off at the terminal. I was flying Continental today, which means a) none of my status applies, and b) I have to get the band to fire their travel agent. After braving the guidos and the incredibly bad attitudes checking in and going through security, I finally found a small cantina-type place to sit down and have a bite to eat before my flight. One good thing though, their was one nice customer service person (probably the only one) who made my day and re-arranged some seating so I could get an exit row aisle seat. Killer.

The flight itself was uneventful, which is always a good thing. Once I landed (the next morning), it didn't take any time at all before I was through customs, security, had my bags and was in my ride to the hotel. It might have even been a record. My driver was giving me all sorts of pointers on what to check out in town. It's been some time since I've been to a new place where I didn't speak the language, so I made sure to take advantage of the help. I shared the ride with a Malawi-born rapper dude, but I can't remember his name for the life of me. Nice guy though.

Once at the hotel, I met up with my new people quickly, got the introductions out of the way. They had just flown in from some shows in Japan, so they went to crash pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, had to go through my typical jet lag busting routine of staying up as late as possible so I could eventually sleep through the night. I started with some standards, like just trying to find a good espresso and the local Hard Rock Cafe (because I somehow started collecting the pins over the years...). Armed with that info, I made my way out into Oslo with one of the others.

The first little bit was pretty standard old European, but we found out what separates Oslo is both parks and sculptures. They're everywhere. It's kind of insane how many sculptures there are, and they're cool too. Lots of optical illusion stuff going on. After getting my first couple stops out of the way, we just started wandering. The waterfront area was nice, there was a new neighbourhood that was being developed. Interesting buildings all incorporating the theme of shipbuilding (can you say "vikings"...?). Eventually we ended up walking out towards a local neighbourhood recommended by the driver, which was supposed to be the "cool" part of town. We did find some restaurants, cafes, etc... a couple more parks and sculptures and ended up sitting down for lunch. After eating, some more random wandering brought us up to a little creek/canal that meandered through town that was actually pretty nice. Lots of bridges and parks along that route. It also led us to a hidden venue of the Oslo Jazz Festival where we stopped for a bit to listen to some music and have a drink.

By this point it was mid-afternoon, so still lots of time to kill. We started walking back towards the hotel but decided to go back by the waterfront to check out the restaurants for dinner ideas, maybe find some coffee (which we did, and it was quality stuff). While we were there, we saw ads for a boatride through the fjords, which sounded like a fantastic idea given we were in Norway. It was leaving in 5 mins, so we grabbed some tickets and hopped on. I think it was nice, but I started nodding off a couple times... I think I missed most of it. After that we went back to the hotel for a bit.

Feeling rested, it was time to hunt for dinner. All the stuff near us was ridiculously expensive so we ended up going back up to the "cool" hood and ended up eating at a Mexican joint of all places. Not the meal I expected to have my first night in Oslo.

Day 2, Oslo, Norway

Today is mostly a day off before going over to the Oya Festival, which is actually less than a 5 min drive away. Gold. So I got up early enough to make sure I had time for food and coffee. Started by going to the sure thing we found yesterday, and then on the way back, I found an even better spot, Stockfleth's, for those of you keeping track at home. Before I got back to the hotel, I stopped by the brand new opera house (which was conveniently across the street) so I could go up and walk on the roof, which is apparently what they consider to be quite the tourist attraction. Did it, not too crazy... Back to the hotel to go to the festival.

Once at the festival, we checked quickly to make sure all the gear was there, and then we had a couple more hours to kill, so we walked around the grounds a little bit, stopped and sat by a lake. It was actually a really nice setting. Had dinner, catering was mediocre. Went back out to the food stalls and was better off.

Before long it was show time, and it's pretty special getting thrown in to a new gig at a festival in the best of times. Turns out this is a pretty heavy maintenance gig, and it was something of a workout. I had to pull a lot of tricks out of my hat on this one, but thankfully it all went well. The intro to Grizzly Bear was a success for all intents and purposes. I don't think the first gig could've gone much better.

After the show we had a few hours to kill before heading off, so I did what I would normally do in a weird city, in the middle of the night, where I don't speak the language. I started randomly wandering around through the neighbourhoods, just checking stuff out. The first highlight was trying to order a slice of pizza and ending up with what was quite possible the worst cheese pizza (full pie) I've ever had. Most of it got left in the box on a park bench by a sculpture. Then I started wandering a bit further, got into some really cool areas, saw some amazing buildings, local hangouts, etc... It was fun. And right when I was going by a house party I was going to crash, I got the call that the bus was leaving early and I had to head back...

Day 3, Gothenburg, Sweden

Another new city today. I woke up in a nice park in Gothenburg for another festival show, this time the Way Out West Festival. Feeling somewhat groggy, I was disappointed there was no espresso around and settled for some cereal in catering. We then went in to town to check out the hotel and have a quick shower, I found the Hard Rock two blocks over, but still no coffee. When we got back to the festival site, I wandered around the grounds for a bit and eventually sorted myself out. It was actually a really nice site. Would've like to spend the afternoon there lying in the sun, but alas, we have a show to do.

Back at our tent we started setting up everything, getting ready for the show. While doing this, I got a tap on the back and surprise run in with the keyboardist that was in Martha Wainwright's band when I worked with them last year. Always fun to run in to people like that. And then we had the stage, set up, played, loaded the bus and waited to head out. The show seemed to go well again, everyone seemed happy. Before we headed out, I had a chance to see my friend play with Antony and the Johnsons, but not for long... Loooong overnight drive to Germany for the next show was starting asap...

Day 4, Haldern, Germany

Another day, another wake up at a festival. This time we were really out in the middle of nowhere at the Haldern Pop Festival. We couldn't even get a hotel close by for shower rooms. Not so bad though, the site had it's own lake and it was actually really nice. It was a smaller one today, only two stages, but it was full and there were good vendors all around. I went over and sampled some local delicacies of course.

The show was late-afternoon today, so we were getting going pretty shortly after arriving, but it also meant we got most of the night off. The show was good again today. We've got a good little streak under our belts now... After us, we stuck around to watch Bon Iver (we've seen them 3 days in a row now), and I went out and had some more local food. Much easier ordering pizza in German than Norwegian, and the result is much better. Also ran in to another old touring friend, a TM from a Chromeo tour last summer. Good times. Left before the end of the night though, overnight to the west coast of France for the next one.

Day 5, St-Malo, FR

So today was a little different in terms of wake up settings. We woke up at a festival, again, but this time we were inside a medieval fortress. It was insane. These people know where to put a stage. The site was incredible. And after a quick trip to catering for breakfast, I can certify that the food was incredible too. No espresso though, which I found shocking. We actually had a soundcheck this morning, which went as well as anything at 9:30am can go. Happy to have that out of the way. Then a quick trip to the hotel for showers, then back to the site, and then I somehow managed to get myself a ride in to the old fortified city to walk around for a while before the show.

It was pretty insane. It was ancient. Most buildings seemed to be about 500 yrs old. Stunning. Unfortunately there were loads of tourists, so every time they followed each other like lemmings around a corner, I went the other way. Turned out to be a lot more fun, saw much more interesting things and places. Even found a local coffee shop that had it together. Other highlights include finding the spot where Jacques Cartier's was blessed before going on the voyage during which he discovered Canada, and finding La maison du Quebec, which turned out to be a lame tourism thing, but I shocked the people working there when I walked in and spoke with them. It's run by Quebecers who were quite happy to hear an accent from home.

I looked around for a bite to eat, but didn't find much, which was probably ok since I knew the catering back at La Route du Rock would be great. I met up with a couple of my other people at a festival stage by the city and we got a ride back to the festival together. Straight to catering, great dinner, great table wine, and we were ready to start the show. That ended up being great as well, maybe the best so far. The French love their Grizzly Bear.

We didn't stay long after this one. Tomorrow's a day off and we were ready to get to London to relax.

Day 6, London, UK

The first time I woke up today was when we were all called out of bed to cross the border. That's always fun. Quickly back to sleep, through the Chunnel, and then I woke up for real a little later on when we pulled up to our hotel. Somehow the impossible was achieved: we had a nice hotel in a cool neighbourhood in London. That never happens. And to take it a step further, it was bright and sunny. Insane. First order of business was a quick minute of research followed by a ten minute walk to the next level of happiness: incredible espresso and good food. This is beginning to feel apocalyptic. London isn't supposed to be this way, but I love it. Sign me up.

So after being properly energized for the afternoon, we ventured out for a meeting with the London Symphony Orchestra. Yes, that's right. The LSO. We're coming back in October and we're actually doing a show with them, so it was convenient that we had a day off here when we could meet them and go over logistics. Nice people, nice hall, really looking forward to it. After the meeting we rested a bit at the hotel where we met up with everyone else for a couple drinks at the bar. We all made various dinner plans and a couple of us ended up on Brick Lane for some great Indian food at a place I was actually taken to by an Indian guy the last time I was in town. It was great. After dinner the plan was to just crash, but I went out for what was going to be a short walk in the hood but I ran in to a few of the others and tagged along to a pub for a final drink of the night.

Day 7, London, UK

Today is going to be a long one, all the more reason for me to get up early and head back to the amazing coffee shop. And they cemented their place as my #1 in London when I walked in and the just served me without asking my order. I've been to this place once, the day before, and they already have me sorted. Incredible. I didn't want to leave. (It's called Nude Espresso, btw...)

But alas, duty calls, and at 10:30am I was abandoning a beautiful sunny day (in London?!) and loading in to Koko's. In a way it was nice to have all the time in the world to get it together, but I really would've liked to have some time outdoors. I ended up getting a little bit after soundcheck, and went out and walked around Camden for a bit.

Back for the show, and everything was running along smoothy. It was a little different doing a club show with these guys as it's a really technically demanding setup, and really audio-sensitive, for lack of a better term. Having walls doesn't help too much, things work much better outdoors with these guys. It was sort of challenging, but according the reviews it was a spectacular show, and the BBC actually called it the show to see that night - in all of the UK. Crazy.

After we were packed up and back at the hotel, I randomly got a phone call from another old tour friend from Morcheeba who was already with the guitar tech from that tour, a guy from Portland who was in town with Snow Patrol. Amazing. So I quickly went out and hooked up with them at what turned out to be a pretty lame bar. We ended up going to back to my hotel bar to kill the night, and then out to a food stand where the guy gave us most of the leftover fried chicken and fries. Not the best food ever, but at 3am it was awesome.

Day 8, London, UK

Almost a full day off with nothing going on today. We just have to leave town at 11pm to go back to the mainland for the next show tomorrow. Naturally, I started the day at my favourite local coffee shop and had a good breakfast there as well. Feeling properly set up for the day, I went back to the hotel to catch up on some work. The big downside of the day was that we only had the rooms til 2pm, so I tried to get in as much as possible before then. I didn't want to just end up sitting in the lobby all day...

Shockingly, it was the 3rd day in a row of bright and sunny skies in Londontown. I couldn't believe it. In fact, it was actually too much... I went out wandering to kill some of my afternoon, and the heat was unbearable. I think I heard it actually hit 35 C at one point. No good. I eventually stopped by a random cafe to get something iced and just sat on their patio for a little while. I ended up doing a little bit of shopping too and found a great clothing store that was actually right beside my great coffee shop. I'm absolutely staying in this neighbourhood every time I come to London from now on, or until I find something better, which doesn't seem likely...

So after my afternoon of wandering I went back to the hotel where we had actually kept one room for showers. There were already 6 people in there just hanging out when I got in. I ended up hearing from another friend in town and we made plans to hook up that evening for drinks, so I only hung around long enough to take a quick shower and I got out again. I met up with my friend and a group of people at an outdoor patio on Brick Lane, had a couple drinks, a good time, and then we went to a bar, that was actually right next door to my hotel, to attend the Calvin Harris CD Release Party. I know, I don't know who he is either, but I'm assured that it's not a big deal. The free drinks we were promised were non-existant, but at least we were able to get a table in some sort of vip area (fancy, I know), and we sat down with our pints and had a great time. It was with much sadness that I had to run away at 11pm to hop on the bus...

Day 9, Hasselt, Belgium

Back on the mainland, waking up at yet another festival site. This time it's Pukkelpop, one of the largest festivals in Europe. They know how to run it, I'll say that. Really nice backstage area, great catering, solid production, overall sweetness. First thing was a quick trip to catering for coffee, which was actually decent, and then before I was even awake, I found out yet another old touring friend was in the area with The Offspring, so I stopped by and had a chat with him for a bit.

Our set was a little later tonight, so I had some time to wander the site, check out the other stages, etc... I also had time to leave the site and wander through the village that was right nearby. Turned out to be a great idea as I found a fantastic little mom and pop chip stand. We somehow sorted out my order and moments later I walked away with a cone of some of the best fries ever. I've had some pretty good luck with the locals on this run...

Back at the festival, walked around some more, killed more time. Ran into a couple other guys I knew, one with Thursday, one with Wilco, good times. Had dinner a couple tables over from Dave Grohl and then it was time to get to work. We were in a weird tent with aluminum sides. I've never actually seen that before, but if nothing else, it was interesting. Turns out the Belgians love their Grizzly Bear too. In fact, everywhere we've gone, the response has been incredible. Packed shows each time.

We stuck around a little longer tonight as some of the guys wanted to see Faith No More, I went out and got some festival food, and a little after that set was over we were on the road to The Netherlands.

Day 10, Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands

So far we've made it through this whole run with no rain and no mud. That's unheard of for festival season in Europe. Today would be no different. We pulled up at Lowlands Festival, not expecting much, so it was quite the surprise to see it was a pretty amazing site. The coffee however, was definitely not amazing. Downright undrinkable. No time to complain though as before I spit out the first sip we were shuttled off to our hotel for showers. It was an interesting 30 min drive through the countryside and through a small town on the way back. Really nice scenery and old buildings and houses.

Back at the festival, I went straight to catering for lunch, and it was amazing. I only had a sandwich and it was great. Decent table wine too. I spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the site. It was one of the best festival sites I think I've been to. Great food, which I sampled after figuring out the complex "festival currency system", and the vendors actually had things I wanted to buy. It wasn't just festival merch, there were really good local artisans, designers, etc... All the exploring tired me out a bit, so I crashed on the bus for a little while, and then went for dinner, which again was amazing.

I had another surprise run in again today with someone I had worked with a couple summers ago with Sean Lennon. It's been the ultimate hook up week for me. It's really cool not only to see all these people again, but also because it gets you out of touring mode for a little while each day. You actually hang out and forget that you sleep on a bus every night and that showers are a luxury. It's a nice break. Anyways, after that little run in, it was back to reality, back to work on another show, which again had a packed tent. It's been a crazy run.

We had a quick escape after this one. Tonight is an overnight back to the UK, out to Wales, with another fun border crossing coming up...

Day 11, Powys, UK

6am hurts alot when you walk up to the UK border patrol. It was hard to fall asleep again after this one too, but eventually it sort of came together and I got a couple more hours before we got to the Green Man Festival. And so the 2nd time I woke up today, you guessed it, was at a festival site. Actually, in all fairness, it was at a gas station we stopped at right before we rolled in, but you get the idea... There was an advantage to this though, and that's that I got to see the incredible countryside as we pulled up. It's an absolutely beautiful part of England.

The festival wasn't slacking either. This might have been my favourite so far. Best coffee on site, best food vendors. It was a little frustrating at first that they gave us food tickets for the vendors instead of having catering, but it turns out that was the best thing that could've happened. It really got us out there exploring the site and there was a lot that was worth taking in. I ended up sticking around and talking with some of the vendors and had a great time. I also ran into more people I knew, the boys from Noah and the Whale. A good friend is their TM in North America so I'd hung out with them a few times on my side of the pond, and it was good to run into them on their turf.

It was also the best festival programming for this type of band. It had a really folk-pop feel, really laid back, easygoing, great crowd. It ended up being the best show of the whole run, and again, no rain or mud. Unheard of. After it was done we had a good hang with the Bon Iver guys (they played pretty much every festival with us), said our good byes and that was it. We slept in the bus, on site, til about 6am, then we slowly started making our way back to London. Fly home tomorrow.

Day 12, LHR-NYC

I woke up in a very different setting today. A worn out, dilapidated industrial park. Turns out that's where some of the main shipping warehouses are for Heathrow, but it didn't look fit for rats to live in. Anyways, we ditched the gear there and made our way to the airport. Slowly made the rounds of the terminals dropping everyone off, saying goodbyes, but not for long as we have another show next week in Brooklyn.

I killed 4 hrs in the terminal fairly painlessly, mostly watching airplanes go down the runway. Saw two A380's, which was really cool. Had a quick bite and boarded the plane. For some reason it's taking 8hrs to get to NYC, which I find a little weird, but whatever. I had one freaky moment during which I was asleep, and I heard the flight attendant say "water" rather loudly in my direction. Being asleep, it sounded like a yell, and I awoke staring out the window at the Atlantic Ocean. In my sleep deprived state I thought he was warning me that we were going down, crashing in to the water. I almost shit my pants. But I saw Greenland up close and personal when we flew over, so that has to count for something... and I actually have 3 days off after this. Can't wait.

A-Trak in North America, July 2-Aug. 10, 2009

2009-09-19T01:15:00.003-04:00

A-Trak in North America, Day 1, Charlotte, NC

So it's the first day of a new tour. It's been a little while since I've toured with someone new as most of the last year has been spent with The Stills, so it's pretty weird to jump in to something like this. We've spoken on the phone a few times, had lunch, etc... and I've worked with his brother in Chromeo for some time, so I think we're comfortable enough to get started and head off to the airport today.

Getting in to LaGuardia was business as usual. The lady at the check in counter mislabeled one of A-Trak's bags though, thankfully I caught it before it hit the belt, otherwise it would have made a nice trip to Pittsburgh... Everything was fine after that, got on the plane, ready to go, only to hear that all flights are delayed due to a weather system that just passed through and we're 35th in line on the runway. That means we sit and wait for 45 minutes before we can take off. I slept through most of that, the flight itself was ok, and eventually we land in Charlotte about 45 mins late.

So we wait for our bags, and 2 of 3 show up. Awesome. At least we're getting the shit out of the way on the first day. We wait around awhile, file the missing bag info and they tell us that it was just held back in NY and it's on the next flight. At least it's not lost, which is great. I call our bus driver who comes up to the gate to greet us and we're off to the hotel.

When we got in, I took a couple minutes to run over to the venue to meet everyone (we weren't going to soundcheck), got a bite to eat and then just went back to the hotel to work for a bit before we had to go to the show. It was pretty smooth until A-Trak realized that some of his necessary dj gear was in the missing bag, which by this point had arrived at the Charlotte airport, but still hadn't made its way to us... So we scramble a little bit, but everything comes together at the last minute, right before his set started...

Thankfully it all worked out and the set at The Forum was great. The highlight was when a bunch of people in the front row tried to grab the front of the dj booth, and to their horror, all of a sudden it started falling in to the crowd. I was standing at the side of the stage so I jumped out and we both grabbed it before it tipped too far and pulled it back. And through it all the music didn't even skip a beat.

After the set we hung around a bit and met some of the other people working on the Bacardi shows (the first few shows are sponsored by Bacardi) and then went back to crash. It's been a long enough day already, need to sleep...

Day 2, Atlanta, GA

There was no rush to get up today, so I leisurely got up around 10:30am (first time I've slept that late in weeks!), went for food and coffee and hopped on the bus to go to Atlanta. Fortunately we were also carrying the bag that US Airways "delayed" on our behalf; they finally managed to get it to us...

So we get to Atlanta, pull up at the lovely W Hotel, and go to park the bus behind the venue a couple blocks away. Parking a bus is complicated at best, and this one was not easy. I understand why parking lot attendants get replaced by machines sometimes... Anyways, it works out, go back to the hotel, then go we soundcheck, etc... During this whole time I was also on the phone with the hotel in Charlotte trying to find some items that were left behind. 2 days in, 2 days of mild drama...

Also, right before soundcheck, back at the hotel the mild drama suddenly escalated. I got a phone call letting me know that Rye Rye, the support act on our headline dates for the next 6 weeks, is backing out of the tour. 2 days before the first show. Amazing. That'll make the next couple days pretty interesting...

So that's about all I need for today, so I went out for a short walk to find some dinner, check out the neighbourhood, etc... That took up about an hour and then I just went back to the hotel to work for a while before we had to head back for the show.

We walked over a little while later and it pretty much time for the set to start. There was no booth-tipping today, but there were a number of people trying to get on stage most of the night. Felt bad for the dude doing security. Every once in a while there was a smoke machine that would go off and fill the crowd, more than I've ever seen, to the point where you literally couldn't see 2 ft. in front of you. That was kind of an open door for people to try and jump up, grab things on the booth, etc... Good times.

After it was all over, I just hung out on the patio with the Bacardi people for the rest of the night. Eventually went back to the hotel, worked a little longer and passed out.

Day 3, Orlando, FL

I woke up early today to catch up on some paperwork before we had to leave at 9:30am to drive to Orlando. I pulled open the curtains and saw sun, so that was good. Also saw a bunch of people running a marathon. Not on my list of things to do...

So I go to the business office, get some photocopies made, go back to my room to grab my stuff and check out. I go downstairs and as soon as I walk out the elevator I see our bus driver and he says "Man, we can't leave yet.". My initial though was someone probably broke in to the bus or something, but it actually comes back to the damn marathon. Turns out they were going down the street where the bus was parked, and the police wouldn't let the bus leave the lot until the last group of runners went by, which they expected to be at 11am. Awesome. Thankfully we didn't really have to be anywhere at a specific time, so we chilled out at the hotel, had a bite to eat (I got an Odwalla smoothie and a croissant for $3! At a W!) and after a while we decided to just drag our stuff to the bus and wait there so we could leave asap.

Just after 11am we were finally able to hit the road and we were on our way to Orlando. I slept through the first part of the trip; so nice not having to drive... When we pulled in to town, we stopped by the hotel quickly and then I went down to the House of Blues to check out the club. I can't believe how hot it is down here. It's been a while since I've been in the south and it's really intense. You really have to readjust your pace to keep it together... Anyways, after walking through the venue, I got a ride back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner. Just going to relax for a bit before going back at 11:30pm for the show...

So the show was good. The highlight for me was that DJ Jazzy Jeff of Fresh Prince fame was on right before A-Trak. He didn't do anything particularly crazy, but it was just cool to actually see him spin after being aware of him for so long. Then A-Trak did his thing, which seemed to go well, but overall it was just a weird crowd. 4th of July, 35 miles out of town at DisneyWorld... not the best combination for a DJ show. Oh well.

After the set we hung out a bit with Matt & Kim before heading back to the hotel.

Day 4, Tampa, FL

So we got up and left around 10am so we could get to Tampa for an early soundcheck, pick up packages, etc... When we pulled in, the part of town we were in, called Ybor, was sort of a ghost town, not all that weird for a Sunday after 4th of July I guess... Parked the bus, picked up some parcels at the hotel, went to the venue and started setting up.

Things were moving along well enough, just a little slower in the heat down here. It really hits you. Just took our time and worked through the afternoon. T-shirts were counted, iced coffee consumed, sound was checked. Cool (not in the temperature kind of way).

Around dinner time, we wanted to go back to the venue because they were having a free bbq on the patio. We never get to bbq in NYC, so this seemed like an amazing thing to do. One of the support acts on the tour, Treasure Fingers, arrived today, and we were all set to meet at the venue. The two of them went over before me and were horrified to find out that the bbq was done before 6pm. Before we even had a chance. That hurt. So they came over and met me at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company where I had been having a quick pint to cool off.

After dinner we went back to the hotel quickly, and then walked back over to the venue. There were some dj's already spinning when we got in, and I have to say it's become incredibly apparent to me what a bad dj is now that I see one of the best in the world almost every night. Most of them are pretty shitty, it's pretty funny. But very painful... Anyways, the crowd tonight was pretty incredible. A-Trak was killing them and they loved every second of it.

After the show I gathered up the merch and bailed pretty quickly. Late nights and early mornings are catching up, and I don't have to get up too early tomorrow so I want to take advantage.

Day 5, Miami, FL

I got to sleep in today and I loved it. I took my time, went and got some food and then waited for the others before we hopped on the bus to head to Miami. It was a relatively short trip, only about 5hrs, and I spent most of it working. I wanted to make sure I didn't have to worry about too much once we got in.

The hotel we're staying at for the next couple days is really more like a resort. It's on the beach, on the Atlantic Ocean, and it's nothing but pools, beach chairs, bars, etc... all over the compound. It's like being on vacation in Mexico all over again. It's so nice to have a beach. It's the first place I went when we arrived, walked up and down for a bit, then a little around the neighbourhood. I'm staying at the beach...

The rest of the night was pretty relaxing. Got some food, watched some baseball, just general chilling out. Gotta save some energy for the beach after all...

Day 6, Miami, FL

Today, the priority was hitting the beach, which I was able to do after sleeping in. Amazing. I got up around 11am and slowly headed down to work on my non-existant tan. On my way down, I stopped for a decent coffee, and before I knew it I was lying on the beach. I went in the water for a while too and it was the perfect temperature, matched almost evenly with the air.

After my swim in the ocean and lying under the sun, we had to go out and pick up some supplies for the tour. The hotel/resort was sort of in the middle of nowhere, so we rented a car and headed out. First stop was Guitar Center, which was pretty standard, and then we hit up Toys R Us for some general stage stuff. We went in looking for some various props, but we came out with much more than that. We looked all over the store, and we had really seen the best thing right at the entrance, so we went back to the start and picked up our new friend Mustard the Tour Horse. Mustard is awesome, best horse ever. He looks great everywhere he goes.

After our wildly successful shopping trip, we went back to the hotel, and then I went out again quickly to hit up Staples and the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up a pin (cause I collect them). On the way back, I stopped at a Mexican joint for dinner. When I was done with that, I grabbed a couple things at the bus and brought back the rental car. The rest of the night was pretty laid back.

Day 7, Miami, FL

Ah yes, today I must work again. But first, the beach. How could I not? It's right there, I really have to do it, so I spent a little bit more time lounging, swimming in the ocean, lounging some more... After some of that, I went back inside, went for some food, worked for a while, etc...

Eventually it came time for soundcheck, which was fairly easy. Got everything happening and we were out. I did a little bit of paperwork and then went downstairs to one of the resort restaurants where we met with a promoter and a couple friends for dinner. It was good, and then it was time to go up for the show.

So the show tonight is in this weird nightclub called LIV which is part of the hotel complex. It's bottle service only, and every table has their own gogo-dancing waitress. Very bizarre. The cheapest booze on the menu was a bottle of Jager for $300. It topped out at the Dom Perignon for $40,000. Unreal. Definitely not my world...

Everything was going pretty well until the last 5 minutes or so of the set. There was a guy that came up on stage, stood there talking to someone for a minute, and then went right up to A-Trak while he was spinning. Dude tells him he has to play stuff that's more commercial and less shitty. Turns out the guy was the bar manager. Telling one of the world's top DJ's what to play. Crazy. So I go up to the guy, I say "Hey man, I'm the tour manager, what's the problem here?". His response was to push me, tell me to "Back the f**k off or regret it". He was obviously on coke, I told him to chill out and he got livid. The security guy standing there had to get him to back off and just asked me to stay out of his way. So that was all pretty awesome. At least the guy left after that. The set ended, we loaded out.

When I checked out of our hotel, the staff asked if I enjoyed myself tonight, so I told them the story, they were horrified. Whatever. We packed the bus and at 5am we started the drive to Austin.

Day 8, Pensacola, FL

Today is just a drive day, and we stopped in Pensacola to break it up and give our driver a chance to rest. We pulled in to town and it looked pretty, well, lame. There was a mall across the street, so I went to check that out. I walked in the JC Penny, looked around for a minute, had enough and walked in to the rest of mall. Wow. 45 or so stores, all boarded up. There was a Sears at the other end. Hurting. I walked up and down the hall, actually ended up grabbing a couple things at JCP, and then went back to the bus.

Desperate not to have highway food for dinner, we hopped in a cab and headed for downtown Pensacola. That turned out to be along the same lines. ¨Pretty deserted... After walking around for a few minutes, we settled on a tapas bar called Global Grill, and it actually ended up being really good. The place was packed and they had live music that didn't suck. Crazy! We were there for about 3hrs and it was a really solid all around experience. Once wrapped, it was back to the bus, waiting to continue the drive to Austin...

Day 9, Austin, TX

So we drove most of the day to get in to Austin, finally arriving around 4pm. Checked in to the hotel, got the bus parked and went to get a quick soundcheck out of the way. Once that was done, we went to check out a couple record stores to get some supplies and went back to the hotel.

For dinner tonight, one of my longtime touring friends who now lives in Austin came to pick me up, we stopped for coffee, and we went waaayyyy out of town to a bbq joint called the Saltlick, which I found appropriate as my favourite steakhouse in Canada is called Saltlik. Anyways. We drove for about 30mins and finally pulled up to a compound of farmhouse-style structures in the middle of nowhere. The place gets so busy that they actually have cops directing traffic to get in and out, and good luck if you stop to drop someone where you're not supposed to - they don't take kindly to that. Of the 3 main buildings, one seemed to be the kitchen, and the other 2 were for seating. We got a place fairly quickly and within moments we were served what was easily some of the best bbq I've ever had. It was so good I bought a t-shirt.

After dinner we made the trek back and just hung out at the hotel until it was time for the show. Tonight we're at a place called Speakeasy. Originally it was supposed to be Austin Music Hall, which is a great venue, but they had to switch it at the last minute because of some sort of liquor sponsorship law, and the show is put on by Bacardi, etc, etc... So we go to this place that's 1/5 of the size, and they crammed in just as many people. Hot and sweaty doesn't even begin to describe it. It was really intense. Really hard to take. For the most part, I hung out in a back corner of the artist area only because no one else was around so it was about 10 degrees cooler. The show itself was pretty nuts though. The kids loved it.

After it was done, I pretty much went straight back to the hotel to crash. Always nice to get some sleep in when you can, maybe get up early and have a chance to grab a bite to eat and a coffee.

Day 10, Houston, TX

Today was a smooth start, got to sleep in a bit and slowly make my way down to the bus to hit the road. Today marks the final drive of 2 guys on a bus. We pick up our lighting guy and a new opening act today, so we'll have 3 more on board. Have to say the 2 guys on a bus with a horse vibe was pretty good.

So we get to Houston, check in to the hotel and head over to the venue. We pull up right beside it and our lighting guy pulls up right behind us with the lighting rig we'll be carrying. So far so good. We go inside, promoter brings us to the room we're in (it's a multi-room venue) and it's time to load in, but the loaders haven't shown up. Awesome. One of the guys at the clubs helps us out, so that's cool, and it all gets in the door. Everything gets set up, moving right along. Then A-Trak comes in to soundcheck, looks at the room and asks "What are we doing here?". To which my response is: "Huh?". Turns out the show was supposed to be in a smaller room where bands were already set up and playing. It turns out that the promoter switched the rooms without telling anyone on our end. Awesome. So that unleashed an avalanche of phone calls with various colourful opinions flying through the air... Eventually we stuck with the room we were in. There was no way to switch rooms with the other show so late in the game... So we got through the check and I walked down the street for a dinner break.

Thankfully once people showed up it started coming together and was actually alright. The show ended up being fine, despite the fact that the promoter douched out on the loaders. That was fun. We had just enough time to run to the hotel for a shower once we were done. We were leaving pretty soon after to drive to El Paso for our day off.

Day 11, El Paso, TX

So after driving all night and most of the day, we pulled in to scenic (?) El Paso. By scenic, I mean deserted. At least the downtown area anyways. It was pretty dark. The hotel was decent though, so the first thing we did was grab a bucket of Corona at the bar and sat on the patio. It was the absolute best way to deal with the Texas heat, and there was absolutely nothing else to do. After killing some time doing that, I went back to the bus to enjoy the air conditioning while I worked for a bit.

Our plan for the evening was to go see a movie. One of the guys even went and bought us all tickets online. So that being decided for us, we ordered a couple cabs only to find out that the theatre we were going to was at the far east end of town, ie a $35 cab each way. Awesome. Whatever, it was something to do. Got to the theatre, had dinner there, and oddly enough got the exact same cab back to the hotel. I think the guy just waited there because he knew it would be a sure thing...

Once back, we took quick showers before heading to the bus to drive the rest of the night. Before we left though, I noticed that the border with Juarez was only about 6 blocks away. It's probably the most dangerous border crossing in this hemisphere, so I thought I should go take a closer look, just cause... Well, I got about a block in before I turned and ran back to the bus. I saw enough shit going down in the first alley I walked by to keep me far away from there for life. On to the bus, drive to Tempe, AZ.

Day 12, Tempe, AZ

Oh my God. 114 degrees. What the hell?! It's hard to take 5 steps without getting drenched in sweat. This is intense. We pulled in mid-afternoon, stopped at the hotel for a minute and then headed over to Club Red to park the bus. It was a bit of an ordeal, punctuated by being outside in the sun, but eventually it worked out. The highlight was being offered lawnmower cable for shore power. If you've ever had to plug in a bus, you can appreciate the humour of the situation.

So we got in the room, set up, everything was going well. In fact, the whole show was pretty smooth and the crowd was great. It was nice after the disaster in Houston. We got out fairly quickly after it was all done and I just went straight to the hotel to crash. Have an early drive in the morning to go to San Diego.

Day 13, San Diego, CA

So this was a good one. The drive itself was ok, went through a couple Homeland Security checkpoints but we were all good. We pulled in to San Diego on time, again stopped at the hotel for a few minutes and waited for the promoter to meet us so he could show us the bus parking. He didn't have a spot earlier that day, so I was eager to find out what his plan was…

He found a spot, a loading zone right beside the venue, Voyeur. This seems ok, but there's a catch: "It's only free after 6pm, so if you could get your driver to sit in the bus for 4hrs til then…" I almost clubbed the guy. The douchebag alarm hit the highest levels. I told him to forget it, I'd figure it out and we went to check out the venue before loading in. This was also a bit worrisome as our lighting guy took a walk over while we were at the hotel. When he got back, he was less than optimistic. When I walked in, I instantly saw why. There was no stage. Despite the douchbag telling me there was an 18'x10', more than enough room for our lighting, there was a just a glorified dj booth. Unbelievable. Back on the phone with the agent, more colourful expressions shared, and we made the decision to do the show without the light rig. Insane. I sent the bus to the baseball stadium to park.

The highlight of the afternoon was meeting one of the club owners, a guy named John Shockey who used to play in the NHL. That was kind of cool. He told me a few stories about the guys and teams he played with, loved it. Really good guy. The club itself was amazing, it was just the promoter who messed it all up. The food was ridiculous (in a good way). If if Iived in SD, I'd eat there every day.

So anyways, all things said and done, the show happened with a number of headaches, but we made it through. When it was over, we roamed the streets for a bit to find some pizza. Everything else was shut down by the time we were done. After finding success in that department, it was time to crash. Looong day tomorrow.

Day 14, to SF via Hollywood

We have a day off today and we're heading up to San Francisco, but we have to make a stop in Hollywood so the boss can check out a new recording program. So we eventually make it through the LA traffic, park the bus and we have a couple hours to check out the hood. I had to some stuff to take care of, only took 4 trips to UPS (why can't the world just use Fedex?), and then I had time to find some good coffee and food. It was a great afternoon to sit down on the concrete and have a bite.

Back on the bus for the rest of the day after that. We got into SF fairly late, around 10:30pm. I ended up meeting a friend for food and drinks and called it around 12. Sitting around in a bus all day kind of sucks the life out of you…

Day 15, SF

This is my favourite morning of the tour so far. Today I get to go to the Blue Bottle Cafe, home of arguably the best coffee on the west coast. I can't wait, and it doesn't disappoint. In fact, it was far better than the other times I've been there. The elitist attitude seems to have taken a back seat. Nice.

I went back to the hotel to work for a bit after that, got my laundry done, tracked a package, went to the gym, went back to the Blue Bottle… This time they even made me a single origin with the hand pump machine after they shut it down! (I know you don't care, but it's amazing.)

And so off to the venue, The Independent. I knew it was going to be a good show when I walked in the door and there was a big picture of The Stills on the wall. My boys. It was so good to be in a real venue. They just know how to run a show, and it was amazing. The lights looked great, it sounded great, it was sold out, everything went right for us tonight. After the show a super fan named Spencer hung out around the bus and provided us with some amusement, and we ended up staying up till about 5am. Best day of the tour so far.

Day 16, Portland, OR

Back to reality again today… Another promoter who just didn't get it. Pulled up in Portland, and the venue, Rotture, is in an industrial park. I was told we had parking and load in was ground level. The parking was another business' lot, and I quote "Just wait for them to leave, then you can use their lot and we don't have to pay em", and the load in was up 20 stairs. Amazing. And the guy pissed off our booking agent, so we're off to a flying start.

Eventually it all gets in the door, somehow gets set up on the excuse of a stage, and we wait for dinner. We're told there's going to be an awesome bbq, so we were definitely looking forward to it. About 2hrs late the food is finally ready, and it's lacklustre at best. Wicked. Just going to be another one of those days. The show itself was good, the kids loved it, but everything around it was just wrong. I was pretty happy to get out of there at the end of the night.

Day 17, Seattle, WA

Here's hoping today is better. To celebrate my hope, I rented a bike from the front desk at the hotel and took a ride in to town to Stumptown Coffee, the other contender for Best in the West. And it was so worth it. Amazing bean. I had to get back pretty quickly though, so I didn't have time to sit and enjoy as much as I'd have liked. Dropped the bike, grabbed my bags, and jumped on the bus for the short ride up to Seattle.

This is going to be hard to summarize, so I'll just say that my Seattle-based travel agent recommended an incredible restaurant for dinner, and a couple great coffee spots. One of them, Cafe Vita I think it was, had an in-house roasting operation that they let me check out. Very cool. I also found another Stumptown, so I had 2 Stumptowns in 2 cities in 1 day. Love it! I really like Seattle a lot. It was just the promoter that killed me, and I think I summarized it nicely in this email I sent to the agent, the names have been changed in some cases to protect the innocent, in others to avoid libel or slander charges. I also forgot to mention that every time this douche came up to me, he'd slap my ass like we were football players. And he tried to pour beer on the horse numerous times...

The show itself actually went well. The crowd was really enjoying it and Alain had a great set. Everyone who worked at the venue itself was totally cool, no problems at all, but the promoter rep, "Hank McGee"… wow. This guy is a piece of work.

I advanced two loaders for 6pm load in. Dude shows up at 6:45pm, no loaders. By then we had already given up and loaded in ourselves. He had actually called me in the afternoon and asked if I was sure I wanted to load in before doors.

I advanced 7:30pm soundcheck. The rented gear was barely in the door by the time Alain walked in.

I advanced 9pm doors. Venue thought they were at 8pm. Our friend obviously had a lack of communication in that department.

Had to pester to get our dinner buyouts.

Serato box he provided was shit, died during local opener's set. Thank god we had one on the bus.

I advanced a merch person to arrive 30mins before doors, he stalled and made pathetic excuses til 11pm., then he had his girlfriend come over to do it. At least the crowd was a little light until then anyways, otherwise I would've made him sit back there and deal with it.

He bought beer tickets from the bar instead of actual bottles at the store. Whatever, that's fine. Then near the end of the night, he asked if he could have some of them back so he could get drinks for his girlfriend. Turns out that him and his dj buddy who was the local opener also had a fair bit of our vodka.

At various points throughout the night he complained to both me and Alain about how no one else was allowed to use our lighting rig. He thought we should share it and it would make for a better show.

During settlement, he kept whining about how he only made $XX on the gig and we made $XX, wouldn't let it go. It was like he was trying to hint that he wanted me to settle for less and shoot him some cash to help ease his pain.

After the load in shitfest, I made him swear up and down, promise on his mother's life that I'd have 4 loaders for the out. Nothing. Him and his buddies were drinking in the back hall through which we had to load out, I had to scream at them to get out of the way numerous times. He actually told me Alain took away his loaders to go party. At the time, Alain was getting food at a hot dog stand outside the club.

He pestered me for free shirts all day, told me if I knew anything about branding that I'd give him one because he's in clubs all the time and people would see it. I finally told him I'd throw him a shirt if he helped load out, he grabbed one light and bailed. I didn't give him a shirt.

He found Alain at some after party, said "I don't know what's up with your guy Tom. He said he'd give me a shirt if I helped load out, but I didn't really feel like it. I wanted a Fool's Gold shirt to help you out and market." (or something to that effect). Alain said "So you didn't help him load out? You just left him there alone?" Dude turned and walked away.

Then he started texting me til 4am trying to find out where we were, asking if we were still loading out, undoubtedly to try and snag a shirt. I was already in bed and made sure he knew. Then he started texting this morning trying to find out where we were. Thankfully we were already on the road.

One thing I'm noticing on this tour is that promoters who do dj/electronic stuff really don't have a clue about what we're doing, even though I've spoken to them all and advanced every detail. I have all the emails. They can't get it through their heads that we're not just flying in and walking on stage, and that we actually have a fair sized production that requires time and effort to put together. Schedules and details matter a great deal for us. Aside from the Bacardi shows, the only promoter that had it together was the one in SF, at the Independent, probably because they deal with bands and production requirements all the time so this was just another day at the office for them. Also, the guy in Tempe, "John Bell", was really good. This is a tour that has to run like a band, not like a dj, and none of these guys know how to handle it. It's so far out of their league it's not even funny.

I'm really calm, easygoing, nothing really gets to me that much (sometimes to a fault), but by the end I was ready to slug this guy.

Day 18, Vancouver, BC

Oh Canada. I can taste it already. I got up early enough to get my last taste of Seattle coffee for the foreseeable future and we hopped on the bus and headed north. I haven't been "home" in a month, but it feels like a year, really looking forward to this one.

The border crossing was a little long, but overall not too bad, fairly smooth given all the paperwork we had for everyone. We pulled in to Van a little later than I was hoping, but I still had time to go meet my cousin and her husband and chill for a bit outside the tour vibe. Nice change of pace. Kept this one pretty early, the last couple days were a little tiring and tomorrow's gonna be a long one…

Day 19, Vancouver, BC

Today is technically a day off, but there's lots to do. First and foremost, I need to head over to Wicked Cafe, my favourite spot in Vancouver. Great bean (Black Cat), great baristas. I sat there for a long, long time. Back to the hotel, hit the gym, then had to start doing real stuff. Made various trips to Staples, shipping companies, etc… Just doing what I gotta do.

For dinner I met up with my cousin again, then we went and walked around the harbour. There's this whole other side of Van that I never knew, and sort of like. The place is starting to grow on me a bit. Don't know if I want to move there or anything, but it's taking a few steps in the right direction.

Day 20, Victoria, BC

Tonight there's a show in Victoria, ending our quick break. First thing first, I went to Wicked and chilled for a while. I got to talking with one of the guys there. Turns out he's a judge at the Barista World Championships and he gave me 4 pages of recommendations for coffee shops around the world. Absolutely incredible. I would move in to this place if I lived in Vancouver. With some regret, I had to go hop on the bus so we could ride the ferry over to Victoria.

It was a pretty relaxed afternoon. I don't think any of the others had ever taken the ferry across to Victoria, and they all seemed to enjoy it a fair bit. I had a completely reasonable meal on board, which is kind of a miracle in the ferry food world. Once we got over, we went to the hotel which was conveniently located in the same building as the venue, Element. Gold. I can hang out in my room instead of on the bus for a day.

Everything at the venue was smooth today, which was amazing after the last show in Seattle. Hopefully this will be a trend for the Canadian shows. Everything was nice and smooth. The highlight of the evening was a crazy dude on the street who started screaming at me for leaving the bus running. It was just the generator but he didn't seem to understand, so I just walked away laughing. It was pretty hilarious. Another load out and crash scenario. Back to Van tomorrow.

Day 21, Vancouver, BC

Before heading back to the ferry, I made sure I got up early enough to check out a coffee shop that my dude from Wicked recommended a couple days ago. One of the places he mentioned, Street Level Espresso, was conveniently located about a block from the hotel, so I went straight there and pulled up a stool at the bar. It was good, but definitely not Wicked. Ended up talking with the staff for a while, good people. I'd go back.

The ferry ride back to Van was just as smooth as the one over, and before long we were at the venue, conveniently called Venue, loading in. I tried to make it over to Wicked before they closed, but I just missed… Anyways, aside from the fact that the house lighting person didn't have a clue, and the sound console was beside the stage, I think everything went alright. It was just the 2nd show at this place since it got renovated so it wasn't all finished up, so I have to give them a little bit of a grace period for that…

After this one, we had to head straight out, so I took a minute to grab a slice and we jumped on the bus. Somehow we all managed to get there on time and we started the overnight drive through the Rockies.

Day 22, Calgary, AB

It was pretty cool to wake up, walk to the front lounge and just see the mountains flying by. The best part of touring Canada is driving through the Rockies. Just not in winter. We made a stop for food and I tried to hit up a Tim Horton's for the first time on this run, but the lineup said otherwise. It would have to wait…

And so we drive in to Calgary. The customary quick stop at the hotel, then over to the HiFi. This one had it together as well. Nice big lot to park the bus, loaders, clued in crew… So far so good. After a painless afternoon, I walked over to the Saltlik for dinner, my favourite steakhouse in Canada. Well, technically the Banff location is my favourite, but I have no problems with this one. It was good, and I discovered a great wine, the d'Arenberg Footbolt. Nice.

And the show was good too. Packed, slammed, etc… Even found some Chromeo graffiti on the wall. This was a late one, so I didn't hang out longer than I had to. Unfortunately it was a little longer than I'd have liked. When we were going to the leave, we walked out the front door and saw that the street was filled with cops, their cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Total of maybe 15+ vehicles. It was intense. All because a meathead threw a few punches. When it was cleared up a bit, I just hopped in a cab and went back to the hotel.

Day 23, Edmonton, AB

Today started with a bit of a lengthy walk to DeVille's Coffee, another Black Cat brewer, where I was able to sit an enjoy a not-too-long, not-too-short, breakfast. I had to head back a little quickly to get on the bus to head to Edmonton. This has sort of been the theme of the week I guess. Go for coffee, run back, ride bus to next town. Could be worse…

Today was also our last day on the bus, so it took a little longer to make it over. We had to stop for the last gas fill up, to get a bus wash, grab a couple supplies to ship the gear after the show, etc… We ended up getting in rather late, but whatever. It wouldn't have changed the fact that the promoter didn't really have any loaders, the house tech wasn't there so I had to run the soundcheck, and there was no house lighting tech. So much for the Canadian run being flawless… At least the pub downstairs had good food for dinner.

At least the show was good. It was at the Starlite Room, where I had been just a few weeks ago with The Stills, and it was a good venue for this type of show. Lots of room to set up the lights, big impact. Turns out the Sam Roberts guys were in town tonight too, so a couple of them made it over to hang out and it was good to chill and have a drink with a couple old friends.

The load out took a little longer than I'd have liked given the lack of help, but the more pressing situation was that our shipping guy wasn't here to pick up the gear and we had to get to the airport. I waited about 30 minutes before deciding I had to call my head guy back in Toronto, and I felt bad about waking him up at 3am, but it had to be done. After tracking everyone down, we figured out that the guy who was supposed to meet us slept through his alarm. Sweet. So I had to haul major ass to get to the airport, I was really late by the time the gear was gone. Thankfully the bouncers at the club were cool enough to stick around and help load out. By the time I got to the airport, I had no time to spare. I pretty much went straight through everything (thank you Star Alliance Gold status), got searched, and walked right up on to the plane as it was boarding. A little tight for my taste, but I made it… On to Toronto for a show tomorrow night.

Day 24, Toronto, ON

So I didn't sleep on the flight. That was awesome. I've only been up for 27hrs now.

So we landed, went straight to the hotel and I had to work for a bit. I also gave up on trying to sleep so I hopped in a cab and headed for Manic, my favourite TO coffee spot. Spent some time there, then it was time to head back and go over to the venue to soundcheck. That was fairly painless, and I was happy to see I knew most of the people there. Once that was done we made some dinner plans and met up a bit later to hang out at Terroni's, a great Italian spot on the east side.

Back to the venue later on, the set time got changed, so we only had to be there around 1am. I still haven't slept, I'm feeling the pain. The show was fairly smooth, it was a big rave-like party, whatever. Once it was over and we headed out, it was past 4am, but at least I headed out with my brand new pair of Nike hip hop kicks (like I'll ever wear 'em, but nice gesture…). I didn't bother going to sleep after either. I had to leave at 6am to head to the airport to fly to Ottawa. 4 days off and I'm trying to get back fast enough so I can see the family before they leave on vacation. As if they're actually leaving when I'm coming home… Such is life…

(I ended up being awake for 49hrs and slept through most of the time I was there before they left, next time I'll be in town will be Xmas…)

Day 25-28, Off in Ottawa.

I did fun things like go to the dentist and get a haircut. I also stayed home and did nothing and it was great.

Day 29, Ottawa, ON

So I never thought I'd have a homecoming show with a DJ and a hip hop club. Weird. And naturally, today was a long one. It started with an early trip to Montreal to pick up a van and trailer. The nice part about that was that I was able to squeeze in a coffee break at the lo' ArtJava with a couple of my Stills guys. Always good to sit down and have breakfast with them. I picked up Alain at his folks place (it's visit the parents week in our world), grabbed our LD at the airport and made the drive back to Ottawa for the show. Made a quick stop at my parents place to grab the merch that got shipped over and we went to Ritual, a new venue in town. So weird to come back not with a DJ at a hip hop club, but a club I've never worked at before…

Anyways. We got there, the lights had been delivered, the horse survived the shipping (remember Mustard? He has a facebook page too…), and we started putting it together. It was a little interesting as the owner was having sound issues with the restaurant upstairs. I think they actually had to pay them off to close for the night… Weird. For dinner I went to a Vietnamese place I used to go to a lot, and I had a friend come out and take some photos and it was cool to hang out beforehand too. Anyways, the show happened, it was alright. Again, once it was done, no loaders, and that made it rough. It was 4am by the time we were totally done and we had to leave to drive to NYC at 9am. Awesome. Thanks for nothing, promoter who shall remain nameless… Loaders make a difference.

Day 30, New York, NY

So weird to be in my home town for a show one night, then a show in new home the next. Webster Hall tonight. At least it's going to be smooth. My biggest problem will be parking the van. I couldn't be bothered to care about that.

We got in late, of course, but it didn't matter. Everything was hammered together. I eventually ditched the van in a no parking zone, it's an eat-the-ticket kind of day. It was going to be a long one… NY shows always are. The guest list was a massive 88 people (the limit was 50), backstage was completely out of control (in a fun way) and that was pretty much the night. The show was great, it was the right size for the lighting, it looked awesome. It took a little while to get out, but we had help. It was with great pleasure that I delegated the van parking for the night and went home to sleep in my own bed.

Day 31, Montreal, QC

So from hometown, to home, to adopted home in 3 days. That's kind of fun, just wish the order was reversed to avoid the long drives. It barely felt like I was home when I pulled myself out of bed and ran down to hop in a cab to go meet the van in Brooklyn. Everyone was on time, which was nice, so I took a minute to stop at Second Stop Cafe in Williamsburg to grab a brown one before we hit the road. The brew Stumptown coffee and they do good work. And so the drive back up to Montreal begins.

It was ok. Slight delay at the border for the requisite paperwork and we were on our way. Usual stop at the hotel and then over to SAT, where again, it was a smooth night, hammered together. That was a nice touch for the boss' hometown show. We got off to a bit of a rough start when the mixer died during his intro, but thankfully we had another one sitting in the van. It was brand new, just sitting around the whole tour. We were about to return it but today it saved us. He told jokes while I switched mixers, gave it a quick check and we were back in the game. Ended up being a really solid show. Best part is tomorrow we get to sleep in a bit. Only have to drive 3hrs to Quebec.

Day 32, Quebec City, QC

So it is upon us. The last day of the headline shows. After this, just two festivals next weekend and we're done. I start today with a trip up to ArtJava, of course, to meet my Stills guys, have some coffee, have some breakfast, have good times. It was done before I knew it and I went back to pick up everyone else. We stopped at Alain's folks place on the way out of town, and before we knew it, we were sitting around the kitchen table having bagels talking about the neighbourhood. Nice. And then we hit the road.

The show itself is actually in a suburb, Ste. Foy, at a place called Ozone. Interesting venue, but no room for our lights! Again! On the last show! It's sort of a repeat of the San Diego situation. That was a disappointment, but at least we were staying at the Chateau Frontenac, which was always a place we all wanted to stay at, so that was cool. We had a decent dinner, threw the show together, and that's all folks. The shipping guy came and picked up the lights we didn't have to use (at least that was sort of convenient in that sense…), and we headed back to the Castle to sleep. Tomorrow won't be too bad. Just have to drop the van in Montreal and then we fly home. 4 more days off. Nice.

Day 33-36, Off in NYC

Dropped the van in Monty, flew home. Mixed a band called Hollerado at the Music Hall in Williamsburg, kick ass show. Hung with friends, drank coffee, wine, etc… NICE.

Day 37, Chicago, IL

Back in the saddle, off we go again. Trusty horse packed and ready to move, we hopped on a plane and headed for Chicago. We have 2 shows today, an evening slot at Lollapalooza, then an afterparty at Sonotheque. It's going to be long…

So the flight is alright, it landed, which is all you can really ask for. We get the rental car and head for the city. Traffic was a disaster and it took about 2hrs til we go to the hotel. By this time we missed our scheduled pick ups to go to the festival, we couldn't catch a cab to save our lives, but the hotel came to the rescue. One of the guys had access to the hotel suv, so he pulled it around, we piled in and headed for the site. We missed some press by the time we got there, but it wasn't the end of the world. It was a little rainy and our unconventional stage had no walls. Weird. Thankfully we decided not to bring out our lighting rig this weekend. He ended up playing under a little tent erected on stage to keep the gear dry. It was hilarious but the kids love that kind of thing.

After the set, we ran over to do a signing at the site music store, and then we had some time to kill before moving on, so I went to say hi to some friends. The Kings of Leon were headliners tonight so I had to go. I couldn't be at the same festival as them and not stop by after all the touring we've done together. It was brief, but it was fun. One of the promoters from our Aussie tour was there too, which was a nice surprise. Solid group of people. But it was over before I knew it and I had to run back for settlement and to move on to more press.

We had an MTV interview that just wouldn't end, and when it did we were happy to get back to the hotel for some dinner before heading to Sonotheque. It was a quick break and we ended up getting there a little later than we'd hoped, but it was all good. The show was just a low key thing in a dj booth, no stress. I ran in to people I knew from Ottawa, which was fun, and we all had a good night. Didn't push it much longer though as we had to get an early flight to LA for a show tomorrow.

Day 38, Los Angeles, CA

It started off fairly regularly. We went to the airport, flew to LA, all good. Once we landed, we went to grab our rental car, upgraded to a sick Volvo, and made our way to the Custom Hotel. Well, that booking was a mistake. We got in, it was early still, so we understood when they said our rooms weren't ready yet. So we asked where we could get some food and the woman at the desk said to check out the restaurant in the back of the lobby. So we go down the hall, to the restaurant and it's nothing but high bar tables and pool tables. No menus, no servers, no clients, nothing. So we go back to the front desk, ask what the deal is and she says, "Oh it's after 10am. It's closed." Wha?!?!? So we ask for a recommendation in the area and she says, "You *have* to go to Bristol Farms. It's just a couple blocks away and everybody we send there loves it." Ok ,cool. We walk a couple blocks, find the place, walk in and….. it's a grocery store. Awesome. What the hell are we going to do at a grocery store? Stock up, fill the fridge and cook in our hotel room? Idiots… Thankfully we found an Italian place that was just opening up for the day, so we stopped there and it was good.

Then, moving right along, we go back and our rooms are finally ready, so we drop our bags and then I went straight to the Great Western Forum to soundcheck for Chromeo (I'm working for Chromeo and A-Trak today). I arrive, find out soundcheck is delayed by about 2hrs, so I just do some work, get stuff set up for A-Trak on the other stage and just go about daily business. Eventually we soundcheck Chromeo, it's fine, I take care of A-Trak's concerns, all is good. I then go to set up merch only to find out there's no vendors. An outdoor artisan offers to sell our shirts, I pass…

So doors open, show starts and it comes up to Chromeo's set time. We only had 15mins to changeover and we killed it. Possibly the best changeover ever, we are set to go, nothing can stop us now. Except the promoter. He ran onstage and told us to wait, there was a problem. I go up on stage and look out at the crowd and I understood completely. There were kids jumping from the upper decks of the arena down in to the lower bowls and then to the floor. They were landing on others, there were injuries, etc… and the fire marshall said he was going to shut it down. So the promoter was up there trying to clear out parts of the floor, gets kids to chill out and sit down and just try and restore order to try and save the show.This went on for about 2hrs. It was long and painful. Every few minutes we'd get updates from the show staff saying "Show is on!" or "Show is off!" or "Fire Marshall freaking out!" or "Police are here!" all kinds of stuff. It was really wild. The kids calmed down after a bit, but apparently not enough…

About 100mins in, I was told to grab the 2 most important things on stage and get them off, so I did it very calmly, didn't want to get the kids worked up and start a riot, which was a legitimate concern at the time. About 20 mins later, I was told to find all my people (Chromeo and A-Trak) and get them the hell out of the building as fast as possible. I ran around, found everyone, made calls to get vans out back, and a couple minutes later there was just me and one other guy waiting to grab a couple more things from the stage before we bailed. It turns out the whole time things were going back and forth, and being delayed, the LAPD Riot Squad called in all their people and were slowly surrounding and locking down the building. We had no idea at the time, then one of my guys sent me a message when they left that the building was surrounded. It was getting really tense. Then the stage manager came up to me and said "Get out. Now. We have insurance. F**k your gear, save yourself." It was pretty blatant, I was pretty surprised, my jaw hit the floor and the two of us that were left ran out the back door and up the loading ramp. As we were leaving, the Riot Squad was marching down the ramp and into the arena. I've never seen anything like it. It was like a crazy CNN video.

When we got to the top of the ramp, one of our vans was waiting for us. We had to flash our passes so the cops surrounding the building would even let us out. We got in the van and bolted back to the hotel to wait for news. While waiting, we figured it would be a good idea to hit the hotel bar and try to relax; we were all a little frazzled. No one ever has a show shut down by the LAPD Riot Squad. Eventually I started getting calls from the promoters that all was ok and we could go back in the morning and get our gear. The kids were cleared out, without incident, relatively… Just a few arrests. Google "LA Hard Festival" and see what pops up. It's really wild.

A little later on, we met a promoter in the lobby at the hotel and had a glass of wine. That pretty much wrapped up the most unusual day I've ever had on tour.

Day 39, Los Angeles, CA

Woke up this morning and went to deal with the aftermath of last night. When I showed up at the arena, it seemed pretty normal, day after the show kind of stuff… I found out right away that all A-Trak's t-shirts were stolen, but that was the worst of it. All the Chromeo gear was fine. We loaded out and got out quickly. I went back to the hotel and then drove A-Trak to a lunch thing and I had the afternoon off.

The first thing I did was check out of the disaster of a hotel, then I went for coffee. Not just anywhere, but the mothership. I went to the Intelligentsia Coffee Bar in Venice. It was as space age as a coffee shop can get and it was incredible. I spoke with the barista for a bit, he had cool NYC tattoos on his fingers and arms so that was the starter. He gave me a spectacular single origin from Honduras. It was a coffee break and a half. And then, before long, it was back to normal.

I went to check in to the hotel for the night, met P-Thugg from Chromeo for a great lunch by the pool on a killer afternoon, and A-Trak arrived and it was time to go to the gig. It was a pretty chill gig today too - just dj'ing on a patio for a Sunday afternoon party in Hollywood. Nice. Really good vibe, and one of the best shows of the last 2 months. Ironically, the easiest, most low maintenance as well.

After the show, we all got together and had a birthday dinner for P at Japanese joint in Hollywood. Not bad at all. By the end of it we were all exhausted and stuffed, so it was back to the hotel and crash.

And so ends my 6 weeks in the dj world. It was a crazy trip, lots of highs, a few lows, but through it all we had a blast. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the people I was with were the best in their world, nothing but class, which is hard to maintain among so many losers. It was a pleasure when all was said and done. And with that, I call it a night. Early flight back to NYC tomorrow as I have lots of work to do before flying right to Norway to start a couple weeks with Grizzly Bear. Never stops...

The Stills in Quebec (May 25, 27, 2009)

2009-06-03T02:09:00.001-04:00

Quebec City, May 25

Today is a radio show in Quebec City. Win to get in sort of thing. Usually these shows are pretty brutal, especially on a Monday. It was going to be a long day too. I started with a meeting at 9:30am at Holt Renfrew about an in-store we have in a couple days, then the van rental was delayed which pushed everything back.... We were supposed to be in QC at 2pm. We left Montreal at 1pm. This doesn't work, but at least there are no other bands on the bill and we have lots of soundcheck time, so all should be good...

When we do finally get there, everything is fine, lots of time, no one's worried, it all comes together. Except we suffer from missing-promoter syndrome, just like in Regina a couple weeks ago. Great. Eventually I got the guy on the phone and convinced him that we actually did need the wine we asked for, as well as the beer, whiskey, money, etc... Fun.

After we finally got everything, I got the show started and it was actually great. There was a near full house of people that were actually into it, which is bizarre for a show where all the tickets are free. They stayed the whole time. The guys played great, partly because they didn't care at all, and everyone had a good night.

After it was all said and done, a couple of us went out for wings, got our orders in just before the kitchen closed and then went back to the hotel. Again, another surprise - old dump turned new and cool. We had a bottle of whiskey from the show, so we poured a couple shots and just sat back listening to jazz for the rest of the night.

Montreal, May 27

For the last month now, I've been working closely with people at Holt Renfrew in Montreal and the marketing team for John Varvatos, a men's clothing designer who does great things. Like get the old CBGB's and make it a store and have shows there every week. Amazing. So it's been fun putting it all together and today is the day.

When we got in, Varvatos himself was already there doing interviews, and once all that was done and we had soundchecked, everyone got to meet, hang out, have a couple drinks, etc... and everyone got along famously. Really nice people, all from NY, so it was cool for me to hang out with people I could actually see around town when I'm home.

The show was awesome. Everyone involved loved the band, thought it sounded amazing (nice), loved the the show. Everybody wins. As soon as it was done, we started organizing everyone to go out for dinner with all the Varvatos folks. We ended up at a place in the old port called Le Local, great food, great wine. It was pretty nice to sit back and just talk with everyone I'd been working with over the last few weeks. They treated us really well throughout the whole process and made life easy.

After dinner most people sort of scattered as they had early flights back to NY in the morning, but we got a couple of them to stick it out and go for drinks with us at Tokyo. Despite the fact it was not at all a bar that any of us wanted to be at, good times were had by all, everyone's keeping in touch, and we called it a night. I walked back to my hotel and crashed. No early flight for me, but I do have to make sure I'm up early enough for brunch at ArtJava before I have to go to the airport....

The Stills in Western Canada (May 6-20, 2009)

2009-06-03T01:51:00.002-04:00

Day 1, To Vancouver, May 6/09

I left my place at 10am today for a 12:45pm flight. Even in NY traffic I figured I should be fine, but after only going about 30 blocks in an hour, I had a slight feeling of worry brewing... Serves me right for booking a flight out of Newark. Never again. It took 1h45m to get to the airport. Absolutely ridiculous. At least I made it I guess...

And then the flight was delayed a little while, not big deal, waited it out. Eventually got on and had an uneventful flight to Chicago. Once in Chicago, I had a 90 min stopover, so I figured the best thing for me to do is use the lounge (I love lounge access). So I find it and stop outside the door to find my Star Alliance card before going in and there's this guy near the entrance obviously trying to hook up to the free internet they have inside the lounge. While I'm getting my card out, I look at him for a split second and he just happens to look right up at me, and it turns out it's one of the guys I toured with about a year ago with Morcheeba. More ironic is that we'd been emailing each other recently to try and figure out when we'd cross paths again, and here we are at O'Hare, totally randomly running in to each other. Awesome. So we go inside the lounge and have a couple drinks before I had to run and catch my next flight to Vancouver. He still had a couple hours before flying out to the UK...

The flight to Van was delayed, of course, and even once we finally boarded, we sat on the runway for another hour. This tour is off to a flying start. Hahaha... ha... sorry. I slept through most of it, and most of the flight, so it was all rather painless. Once I finally did land, I met one of the guys at the airport and we headed into town to check in to our hotel. Chilled out for a bit, grabbed a bite at the hotel restaurant and then went out to meet friends at the Railway Club.

The night wasn't too long or crazy. I started to feel the time zone a little bit so I went back to the hotel before it got too late. Got lots to do tomorrow, have to keep it together a little bit anyways...

Day 2, Vancouver

Today was random supply pick up day. It started well with a trip to Wicked Cafe, which is by far the best in Vancouver, and breakfast at Templeton, which is amazing. Then our van was dropped off by a poor soul who had to drive it up from Portland, OR, leaving at 5:30am. He was a trooper though, a good man. After picking up random supplies at Home Depot, we got the trailer and we're now officially road-ready.

To celebrate, we made use of some gift certificates received at the Juno Awards back in March. They were for a restaurant downtown, for a rather large chunk of cash. There were only two of us in town at dinner, so we splurged. When the bottle of wine is $150, you know you're in for a good meal. It was a place called Diva at the Met hotel, the food was spectacular. The best tour meal I've had in Canada.

As soon as we were done, we had to head out to the airport to pick up the rest of the guys who had just flown in. Once we got back to the hotel, we went to a place a couple blocks away called Morrisey's to kill the rest of the night. We had a few friends come out, I had a couple family members make an appearance, and overall it was a good, laid back evening. Again, not a late one. Tomorrow is the first show, also the biggest, and it's going to be a long day...

Day 3 Vancouver

When you have a day that starts well and you have the opportunity to duplicate it, you just have to go with it so that's what we did. Wicked Cafe first thing, followed by breakfast at Templeton and all made sense. I went back to the hotel to do a little work after, spent some time in the hotel gym. I was foolish enough to try some new leg exercises that burnt out all the muscles, so for the rest of the day just standing and walking was rather uncomfortable and pretty annoying...

Anyways, before we know it, it was time to head to the Commodore. It's a great venue and a great way to start a tour. We took our time getting everything settled during soundcheck. First day, so we had to piece it together a little bit. We had dinner at the club, the catering is top notch there, and show time just came up without us even noticing.

It was a packed house and it made for a really cool show. The crowds are getting more "interesting", let's say, with the recent radio success and Juno wins. People that normally wouldn't come to a Stills show. It takes them a couple songs to figure it out, but it all comes together at the end. The mutants are getting it.

After the show I had a brief minute to say hi to a couple friends and family, but I had paperwork to catch up on and money to count. By the time I actually got out it was close to 1:30am, worked at the hotel til about 3am, then crashed. I started passing out on my laptop, so that was the sign. Have to get up early tomorrow to make sure we can get coffee before catching the ferry to Victoria...

Day 4, Victoria

An early start to the day... Well, not too bad... 10am, but after a long day and late night, it felt like 7am. So we went to the only place we knew could help. The Wicked Cafe. Sick. One last visit before we leave the neighbourhood. Over the last 3 days, we filled two "buy 10 get 1 free" cards. Insanity.

So with caffeine in our systems, we hit the road and hopped on the ferry. It's pretty nice as far as ferries go, better than the UK ones anyways. Painless ride, and in no time we were at the hotel killing a bit of time before soundcheck. Oddly enough, we were able to watch hockey at 4pm. That's a little weird, seeing Hockey Night in Canada in the afternoon like that, but we'll take it.

Soundcheck went by pretty quickly, had a quick rider sandwich and the show crept up... It was pretty decent tonight, Sugar is pretty good as far as dirty rock clubs go, staff was cool, crowd was good.

After it was all over we went back to the bar at the hotel, which was called Big Bad John's. It didn't have much going in its favour aside from the fact that it was open, so we sat in the corner with a couple friends til they shut it down. That wasn't too long since we got there so late. At least it was something.

Day 5, to Calgary

Today is the classic Canadian drive day. We left the hotel at 9:30am to catch a ferry back to the mainland. That was a little painful, as any early morning can be. Maybe this one more so as there was no coffee to be had... While we were waiting we all took a couple minutes to phone home for Mother's Day.

We made it across to the mainland, and it wasn't long before we stopped in Chilliwack for Starbucks and food. After that we just kept on trucking. It's a long one, expecting 14hrs by the end of it. The other highlight was stopping for dinner in Revelstoke at a family restaurant where we claimed to be traveling doctors. I don't think they believed us. It was a short break, still have 400km to go and it was past 10pm by the time we got out... We pulled in late, tired and crashed instantly.

Day 6, Calgary

Today started slowly. We all slept in as late as we could and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Before long it was time to head over to The Den to load in and soundcheck. It was a pretty standard day, no drama.

It was a good show tonight. The western kids like the rock concerts. They packed the place and it was hot, sweaty, loud, etc... Everything you need for a good show. Once everything was wrapped for the night I just went back to the hotel to try and get some sleep. It's not painfully early tomorrow, but early enough that I want to get some sleep.

Day 7, Edmonton

We left Calgary around 11am and made the classic Canadian roadside Tim Horton's stop on the way out of town. We made good time to Edmonton and stopped to ditch 3 of the guys at a radio station before heading to the hotel to chill out for a bit before going to the venue. I took this time to run a couple blocks over to Three Bananas, my Edmonton coffee shop, to properly caffeinate, and then I ran back to the hotel *in a snowstorm* to hop in the van and head over to the Starlite. By the way, I'm really not cool with the snow halfway through May. This is brutal.

The Starlite is actually a pretty good place. The PA could use a light upgrade, but it's got a cool vibe and good people. The show tonight was pretty full and everyone had a blast. Really good night. I had a little bit of drama at the end trying to work out some missing merch money, but everyone was cool about it, there was no wrongdoing (probably just a counting error), but by the time it was all wrapped up, I only got out around 2am. That's a little long, so I skipped the afterparty and went straight back to the hotel to crash. At least tomorrow is easy, just have to drive to Saskatoon for a day off.

Day 8, Saskatoon

To get ready for the long drive, the first thing I did was go to Three Bananas for coffee and breakfast. Had a cool talk with the baristas, got another one to go and went back to the hotel to meet everyone and start up. No one else had eaten yet, so we went back to the coffee shop, got some gas and hit the road. The prairies make for long drives. Nothing to see, nothing to do, you just spend the whole day waiting. At least in other parts of the country there's things to look at. We saw some bison at one point. That was a highlight.

When we got to Saskatoon I went straight to the hotel gym. It had been a few days since I've had the chance to do that, so I was on it right away. I stayed in for dinner, and later on in the evening 5 of us met up to go see a movie. We picked Wolverine, which was sort of a mistake. It was pretty bad. Should've gone for Star Trek... Next time I guess.

After the movie, 3 of us stopped at a pub on the way back for a couple pints to relax on the night off and that pretty much wrapped it up.

Day 9, Saskatoon

I took the opportunity to sleep in again today. Tour managing takes a lot of extra time and an extra toll on you and you have to catch up when you can. And this is a small tour. Part of the problem is spending most of each day driving in a van; it's a lot easier in a bus when you can work all day while driving...

Anyways. Started by meeting a few of the guys for breakfast downstairs, then I ran out to the mall down the street. In the snow. Again. When I woke up this morning and looked outside I couldn't believe it. The ground was coated in snow, and now I'm running down the street in it and it's cold and I hate it. Send me back to Australia. I at least went to Starbucks for coffee and was able to find a Shoppers Drug Mart for some toiletries. Then I ran back to the hotel through the snow. Damn it.

Before we went to Louis' Pub, I spent some time at the gym yet again. Gotta do it whenever it's possible... Then we all went over to the club for the afternoon soundcheck. Louis' is a decent place at least. I've been there a bunch of times and I know what to expect, and it's actually ok. I don't mind going there at all. Another good show tonight, which included a crazy fan screaming for a song the guys haven't played in about 5 years. Made for some interesting banter back and forth. I got a kick out of it anyways. My personal highlight was when I walked backstage after the show, a couple Vern's Pizza's were sitting on the counter waiting for us. I love it. It's a really good pie if you're looking for a heart attack, and they only have it out west so I had to make sure I had some before we left.

That pretty much wrapped up the night. Didn't seem like there was a whole lot happening, so I just spent some time doing some paperwork and crashed.

Day 10, Regina

Ah, Regina. Rarely do I find a place on earth more magically, majestically, magnificently, monumentally and completely messed up. I hate this town. It's really no wonder why nobody ever stops here on tour, except us, of course...

At least our day started properly. Last time we were in Saskatoon, we spent an hour trying to locate a coffee shop that turned out to be in a museum lobby, and once we finally found it, it was incredible. This time, with knowledge on our side, we went straight there when we woke up and spent a leisurely couple of hours enjoying various coffees and food. It was great. And then we began our trek to hell.

The drive itself wasn't bad, got in to town, ditched a couple of the guys at a radio station to do an interview (which we later listened to on-air, and they called the city "The Gina", amazing) and checked in to the hotel. We made a quick turnaround and headed back up to the club for load-in. Usually while the gear is getting loaded in, I take a couple minutes to meet the promoter, go over details for the day, get the rider set up, etc... On this particular occasion, said promoter couldn't wait to get out the door. Shook my hand, showed me the dressing room and left. Apparently he had a family event and would return later in the evening...

So that's the kind of day it's gonna be. Welcome to the Gina. So we go through the motions, get everything ready to go. I had to harass the bar manager a few times to get things the promoter should've been there for, but it sort of worked itself out. So we left and went for dinner. Just down the street from the aptly named "The Drink", there was a beer hall-type place called "Bushwakkers" that was recommended, so we checked it out. There was nothing else around, so it was really the only choice... And I can't believe it, but it was actually really good, and their microbrews were great. I finally found a glimmer of hope for this place after coming here and hating it countless times.

So back to the club after dinner, 10pm approaches and the opening act is supposed to go on. To their credit, they're ready and waiting, and they've been awesome the whole tour so far. Unfortunately, there was no staff/techs to get the show started. Apparently my set times never got from the promoter to the club. This is one of those times when it's nice to have the promoter actually present at the gig. Minor details, right? So we wait 30 mins, and eventually they all show up and we get the show going, all is good.

Along comes changeover, we get set for our set, I go to the console to start the show and lo and behold, a promoter appears. Drunk as hell. And starts trying to do lights. This is brilliant. Fortunately he just doesn't have it in him to pay attention for more than 2 songs, and a few minutes later I see him in the corner of the bar with his buddies trying to punch out a mechanical punching bag. At least he's not in my way... Other than that, the show goes pretty well, the kids love it, guys play great, show ends, we pack up to start heading back to the hotel because we have a painfully early day tomorrow.

After the guys are settled I track down the man of the day to try and get paid. He walks me back to the office raving about how amazing the show was, sits down in his chair and gets the "paperwork" ready. I take a look, tell him how much he owes me and he goes to the safe to get the money. Except he can't open it. He tried maybe a dozen times while staring at the combination on his phone and just couldn't get it to open. So he finally calls in the bar manager who, thankfully, is sober enough to get the job done. I grab the cash and get the hell out. I'm done with this guy, don't need to see him again. I go upstairs, grab my bags, round up the troops and we head outside to the van to leave, only to find our poor guitar tech all alone surrounded by roadcases. Apparently the loaders decided it was enough to just get the cases out the door and they didn't feel like packing the trailer. Amazing. So we all help getting things together and a few minutes later we're on the road back to the hotel. Finally. At least the hotel was nice...

Day 11, Winnipeg

Tonight is the final show of the tour, and probably the longest day. We got up to leave the Gina at 9am and it hurt. The bonus was that we were getting the hell out. It'll be too soon if I ever get back to this dump. And so we drive for hours, the lovely flatness of the prairies entertaining us the entire way.

We actually got in a little earlier than we had planned, so we stopped by the hotel. We were a little apprehensive about this one, Place Louis-Riel. It has a reputation of being a dump in a bad part of town, but the manager recently got in touch with me full of promises about renovations, etc... and gave me a rate I just couldn't say no to, so I took the rooms thinking worst case, it's only one night. We pull up, get out of the van, go inside and the lobby is actually pretty nice. Ok, score one for them. Get the keys, which incidentally was the easiest check-in ever, and go up to our rooms. We open the door and are blown away. It's incredible. It's furnished with new leather couches, chairs, a full kitchen, new beds, etc, etc... It's better than most apartments any of us have lived in. Awesome. It's going to be ok after all. After relaxing for a bit, we dragged ourselves up to go load-in.

The Pyramid Cabaret is a dirty old rock club, but it has vibe and the people there are pretty nice. And the promoter is a pro, which was very welcome after last night in hell. The evening went really smoothly, we got doors open just a little late and then a few of us went for dinner a few blocks away at a place called MonDragon. They made great vegetarian food that satisfied even the pickiest carnivores among us, ie. me. I stopped for a coffee on the way back to the club, and then, finding that I was a little ahead of schedule, went back to the hotel for a bit to enjoy the great living room I had.

After my little break in the evening, I went back to the club to see that all was running on schedule. Nice. The show was really good, really good crowd too. The tour has officially ended on a high note. After the show, we have a painless load out (what a difference a day makes) and we go back to our amazing hotel suites. We picked one of them, packed it with all our leftover beer and drinks and invited the opening act over for an end-of-tour party. Great people in that band, we had a really good night, said our goodbyes and crashed. Some of our guys are flying home tomorrow, but 3 of us are cursed with the drive back to Montreal...

Day 12, to Thunder Bay

With some sadness, we pulled ourselves away from our amazing rooms, hopped in the van and prepared for the 3 day drive we were undertaking. We started by stopping for food and coffee at what was supposed to be a real coffee shop, but it was sort of mediocre, oh well... Then we tried to get an oil change but couldn't find the Canadian Tire, so we hit the road and drove to Thunder Bay. And that's how we spent our day. The highlight was a stop in Kenora where there was an old school chip stand where we got great fries. And then we ended up in Thunder Bay.

We tried to go out for wings and beer when we got in and were directed to the most depressing "bar" we'd ever been to. We walked in and there was smoke from the kitchen filling the place and about a dozen locals sitting around drinking Blue Light as though nothing was wrong. Wow. We got the hell out and thankfully found a Pizza Pizza that was still open for another 20 mins. That's a pretty major score for Thunder Bay...

Day 13, to Sudbury

We knew there would be no indie coffee shops here, but we were holding out hope for a Starbucks. Eventually, after driving through a marathon (that was popular), we eventually ended up at a Chapters with a Starbucks in it, only to discover that it was closed because it was a civic holiday. Damn Queen's birthday. So we went across the street for yet another Tim Hortons. This trend is getting a little painful...

And so we drive to Sudbury. Nothing exciting today, but at least our phones started working again. There's kind of a vortex in Northern Ontario where no phones work unless you're on the Thunder Bay Mobility network. Like that's convenient...

When we got in to Sudbury we tried to go out again for food, but this time we were successful. There was a pub less than a block away and it was wing night. Amazing. So we sit down, get a couple pints and wait for our 4 lbs of wings to show up. And they were good. We sat for a bit and watched hockey highlights. Then the bar closed and we crashed.

Day 14, to Montreal

Today was an early one. The guys just wanted to get home and they could smell it. So we hit a Tim Hortons and hit the road. Today's highlight was a brief 10min stop at my parents place when we went through Ottawa. It was a sort of bizarre, kamikaze-like mission. Stopped in front, ran in, said hi, talked for a couple minutes, grabbed mail and ran. Next time I'll have to stay a little longer. We did have to get to Montreal though... Time was moving quickly and we had to unload gear and ditch the trailer by 5pm.

We got all that fun stuff done and by 6pm or so I was in my hotel relaxing for a bit. I went back out again a little later on to watch the hockey game at Pistol with a couple of the guys, and then we headed over to Rockettes for what's supposed to be crazy Tuesdays, but it was really a more low key vibe. Either way, we knew everybody there so it ended up being a good time. We didn't even notice it was 4am when we left, and on the way back to the hotel, we stopped for pizza and called it. Tomorrow I drive to New York, sit there for a couple days, then back to Montreal for another week of good times, rock n roll.

The Stills in the Canadian Rockies (Apr. 22-27, 2009)

2009-06-03T01:45:00.002-04:00

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?

The Stills in Australia w/Kings of Leon (Mar. 4-28, 2009)

2009-06-03T00:56:00.003-04:00

The Stills Day 1/2, NYC to Perth, Mar. 4 2009

I'm still reeling from the jet lag coming back from Australia 10 days ago. I'm a complete wreck, passing out at 7pm, waking up at 4 or 5am, it makes no sense whatsoever. I've tried to beat it but I just keep digging a bigger hole. So, in order to solve this colossal problem, I'm flying back to Perth today. Oh, and I start another tour there too, so it's probably good for me to fly back. Back-to-back shows in Perth with a break in New York. So weird...

So today is the flight down. I didn't really unpack from the last trip, so getting things together wasn't so hard. I hopped in the car and headed out to JFK. I had the same driver and had to try and explain why I didn't call his son when I was down there last month... Anyways, I got through everything and relaxed at my regular airport bar waiting for the first flight to LA. Just trying to stay as relaxed as possible now that I know how epic a 34hr travel day can be.

The first flight was smooth... 6hrs across the US feels like a joke now. I met up with everyone else at the airport in LA, and oddly enough, most of the Kings of Leon crew too. They were all on the same flights as us the rest of way. Wild coincidence. We had a good little party at the bar before getting on the plane to fly to Sydney. And while I'm talking about flights, let's hear it for Qantas, best long-haul airline ever. Real food, free drinks, comfortable enough seats. Definitely the way to go if you head to Oz. But don't sit near the galley. I usually don't mind being near washrooms at the back of the plane, but on this one I was beside the kitchen. Non-stop noise and action. Not so fun, but survivable... Anyways.

Once we landed in Sydney, it was a bit of a hassle waiting to clear customs, get bags and gear, switch terminals, etc... It was sort of a long stopover. Once we got to the domestic terminal we did have some time to relax a bit though, and we actually met one of the promoters for our tour who was there with another band. Running in to people in airports all over the world today... After a quick bite and a coffee we got on the last plane to go across the country to Perth.

The flight was ok and I started to finally feel like I was back on schedule. When we got in we were met by our driver to take us to the hotel, we packed up and left. We didn't stay at the hotel too long; beautiful day on the Indian Ocean means hit the beach. So we got a cab right away and within 2hrs of landing we were working on our tans, watching people train to be surf rescue crew and lifeguards. It felt so good to be back. The brief tinge of winter I felt over the last 10 days was more than I could bear.

We had dinner at the beach too and just took our time heading back to the hotel. We didn't do much else the rest of the night, just tried to stay awake and eventually crashed.

Day 3, Perth

I was up early today and headed down to the lobby restaurant for breakfast. I really enjoy the lifestyle I started getting used to in Australia. I met a couple other people while eating and I ended up hanging out for about 3 hrs as people came and went, just drinking coffee, catching up... It was another amazing day and we wanted to head out again, so we figured why not the beach?

Instead of spending a fortune on cabs today, we rented a van (which was interesting to drive on the wrong side of the road with a right-hand drive). We headed back out to the same beach, Cottesloe, where the KoL guys & co were waiting. We spent a couple hours down by the water, had some food at a beachfront restaurant, got some ice cream. Really touristy kind of stuff I guess. We split up to head back to our respective hotels and made plans to meet up for dinner later.

After relaxing a bit at the hotel, we all met up again at a Japanese place and that was pretty much the rest of the night, just sitting around talking, catching up, etc... After a long dinner we were all pretty wiped, so back to the hotel to crash.

Day 4, Perth

Today is the first show, and it feels a little weird to have to work after sitting on a beach for 2 days. It was a festival though, so it was pretty laid-back, easy to deal with. Just show up, set up, play and hang out. The downside is that the site is about 45mins from our hotel, so we had to leave a little early.

Our driver picked us up and off we went. When we were almost there, we realized we had a little bit of time to spare, so our driver decided to take us on a little detour. To a cemetery. What was cool about this particular cemetery is that it's populated by kangaroos! They don't have that where we come from. The reason the 'roos are there is because they come out at night to eat all the flowers that people leave on the graves. So we drove in a little bit until we found a clearing where about a dozen kangaroos were lounging in the grass, eating, fighting, hopping. All kinds of things that seemed completely amazing to us. We hung out there for about 15mins before we kept going the rest of the way to the site.

Everything at the festival was just like any other festival. Big stage, big crowd (27,000 by the end of the night...) good weather, good times. We got all our stuff sorted out and killed some time before playing. We ended up sharing a dressing room with the KoL folks, so we had access to a ping pong table, which was gold. After our set, which went pretty well for the first show in Oz, we killed time at the ping pong table, hung out in catering (where most of us had kangaroo for dinner) etc... Just a laid back festival afternoon. We left a few songs in to the KoL set to avoid getting stuck in traffic with 27,000 kids.

On the way back, our driver took us down a coastal road, by the Indian Ocean. It was a pretty amazing drive. When we got back we didn't stay out because we have an early flight in the morning to head to Adelaide.

Day 5, Adelaide

After rising early, we grabbed a couple late risers from the KoL crew and headed to the airport to fly to Adelaide. Pretty basic deal, fly for a couple hours, land and get picked up to go to the hotel. The rest of the day was free, so I just kind of wandered around a bit, looking for places to eat, hang out, etc... It was a little quiet because it was some sort of civic holiday, but I found a festival happening, a few places worth returning to for coffee and food, etc... Later in the evening I hooked up with all my people again, but it didn't seem like much was happening. Then, out of the blue, we got a call from one of them who was at some kind of indie art gallery that was apparently worth hanging out at.

The place was almost impossible to find, but we eventually made it in. They had some drinks going around, weird arty films being projected on walls, paintings, sculptures, things I never thought I'd see, etc... It made for an interesting evening if nothing else, definitely better than sitting at the hotel.

Day 6, Adelaide

Another day off, can't complain. Some of the guys went out on a wine tour but I decided to stay back; had a bit of work to do as someone realized there was a missing passport and we had to get it replaced asap... After a full morning of laptopping, I walked around a couple different neighbourhoods I hadn't seen yet. I found a pretty crazy indoor market in Chinatown where I stopped for lunch, and on the way back I stumbled upon a great coffee shop near the hotel, aptly named Short Black, which is what they call an espresso down there. By the end of it, I had probably been walking for about 6hrs so I was pretty wiped. I met up with the guys after their wine tour and we sat by the pool for a bit before meeting up with a couple other people to head out for dinner.

We ended up heading back towards Chinatown but ate at a pretty good tapas place. The walk back was cool; lots of clouds and weird ambient moonlight. It made for a couple interesting pictures.

Day 7, Adelaide

It's the seventh day on the tour and only the 2nd show. I like those numbers. As soon as I was up, a couple of us went for breakfast at a 24hr pancake place by the hotel. We were thinking we'd get something at least on par with Cracker Barrel. Turned out to be much worse, it was a big mistake. I went straight to the Short Black to cleanse my palate. For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, I went for another walk, this time along a river behind the hotel. Saw some great wildlife, which probably isn't so wild to them, and was able to just sit for a while basking in the sunshine.

And then it was time to work. The show today is in a huge outdoor tennis stadium. I've never done a tennis stadium before, but it was pretty cool. It sort of set the tone for what we'd expect the rest of this tour. It's kind of fun being on the biggest tour in the country. The place was pretty full by our set time, and it was pretty crazy. The crowd was wild the entire night.

After the set, we hung out playing ping pong for a little while and then headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow is another early flight.

Day 8, Melbourne

First order of the day was getting to the airport, which we did successfully, and then we had another flight. Today we landed in Melbourne. We're here for a couple days, which I'm happy about because when I came in and out last month, we had no time to see anything and I'm told it's a great place.

Once we got in, we went straight to the hotel, and then a couple of us went straight to the gym. When we got back to our rooms afterwards, I had messages from the Kings tour manager inviting us to a private screening of a new movie called The Brothers Bloom, which was to be hosted by the producer. Sounds like a plan to me.

So, we showered up really quickly and ran across the street to the KoL hotel where we were directed to meet everyone at the penthouse lounge for refreshments before the screening. After a few minutes we were rounded up to head to the theatre. The security escorts they sent us took us through so many back hallways and elevators that we weren't even sure that we were still in Melbourne by the time we got to the theatre. There was a cool little lobby with all kinds of food waiting for us when we got there, and, of course, an open bar. This is the best movie experience I've ever had.

And it got better. Once we went in to the actual theatre, which had a full-size screen, we had a choice of where to sit - in one of the 20 or so huge recliners. And each one had a table for your food and drinks and a buzzer to call the waiter over. Full dinner service during the movie. Sick. The movie itself was actually decent. Starred Adrian Brody, Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo. You'll have to go see it; I won't give it away.

After the movie we went out to a patio a couple floors up where we saw a crazy fireball display at 11pm. Once that was done, people started splitting up, some went to the casino in the same building (where they ended up being joined by Kylie Minogue and Zac Efron), but I went out to meet a friend of a friend. A "blind date" of sorts I guess. It was highly recommended that I hook up with this person in order to have the best time in Melbourne, so I went for it. We met up at Ding Dong Lounge, had a couple drinks there, and then went a couple blocks over to a great wine bar called The Supper Club. It was only going to be one quick drink and out, but we ended up there for a couple hours. And after you get through that threshold, you're pretty much up all night, so we went over to a legendary Melbourne rock bar called the Cherry Bar. That's where people like the Stones have end-of-tour parties. It's nothing crazy, just a classic dirty old rock club. We hung out there for a while with the staff after hours and it was a really good time. It was also on AC/DC Lane. That's cool. To finish off the night, as the sun came up, we went to a 24hr greek restaurant for some pretty amazing late night food. Then back to the hotel to crash. I do have to work soon after all...

Day 9, Melbourne

3hrs sleep. I just can't beat the lag right now. I felt surprisingly good though. Three of us met up and walked over to a cafe called Cervo for coffee and breakfast. I had soup though... We were eventually joined by fourth and then we watched a helicopter land and take off across the canal from where we were sitting. I don't get the science of the helicopter. It's a bizarre machine. Anyways. After breakfast we went back to the hotel. I went to the gym for a bit and took it easy until it was time to go to the venue for the first of our 2 Melbs shows.

Today we're in the Rod Laver Arena, which is an indoor tennis stadium. Arenas here are not hockey rinks, which is a little weird to get used to. All tennis. Still huge though, and still have crazy crowds. 15,000 tonight. I'm really into the arena shows, love 'em. After it was all done, we hung out backstage for a little while, played some ping pong, etc... A few guys went back to the casino, I went back out to Ding Dong Lounge. There was actually a show there tonight that was supposed to be pretty good, the drummer from Nick Cave's band, but unfortunately I had just missed it when I got there. The promoter from our show was already there though, so I had a drink with him, and then someone I knew from years ago in Ottawa came out, then one of my Stills guys showed up. Made for a cool little party. We hung out at the Ding Dong for a bit, and then went back to The Supper Club for some wine and food. By the time we got there it was probably close to 2am already and we were just getting started. We were there for about 3hrs, great dinners, great cheeses, great wine. We splurged a little tonight and got some really nice bottles. When we left there we had a hard time finding somewhere else to go, so we just hung out on the street. Turns out one of the people with us was a former gymnast, so we got to see a cartwheel display up and down the streets of Melbourne at 5:30 in the morning. Cool. Then we crashed. Have to work again tomorrow...

Day 10, Melbourne

At some point I'll have to sleep, just not today... I'm still amazed at how well I've been doing on no sleep for most of the last month. I think being in the sun and near beaches all the time goes a long way to help with that. After about 3hrs, again, we were up and heading back to Cervo for a quick bite. Today we have to go to a show before doing ours, so it's sort of a full one.

The show we're going to is the Sound Relief benefit show. It's to raise money for all the people in Melbourne that lost everything in the bush fires last month. It's also at a cricket stadium which seats about 85,000 people. It's absolutely massive. When we got there, Coldplay was being broadcast on the jumbotron, live from Sydney, where another benefit was happening simultaneously. The promoter for our tour was also in charge of this show, so we got hooked up with all the passes we needed, got to eat at catering, the whole deal. It was like we were playing the show, except that we weren't playing... The main reason we came out is because the Kings were playing. It's a pretty big deal, so we were happy to get to check it out. Standing on the side of the stage in front of a crowd that huge was incredible. It's really hard to put it in perspective. Easily the biggest production I've ever seen.

The Kings went back to their hotel right after their brief 4 song set, and we had some time to kill before going to the venue for our actual show. We wanted to check out a cool neighbourhood, and someone told us Brunswick St. was the place to go, so we went. It was alright I guess. I got a coffee at a cool little shop that had an old school hand pump machine from Italy. It was pretty damn good. We checked out a few clothing shops, but overall nothing too crazy. Right at the end of our little trip it started pouring rain, so we got a taxi as soon as we could and went back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the venue.

It's nice to play the same place on multiple nights. Makes things so much easier. The show went well again, and we stuck around backstage for a good chunk of the evening. Eventually people went back to the casino, again... I did not. I met up with some of the new friends I'd made a couple nights ago and hosted (an extremely rare) hotel room party. I never host hotel parties. I like my room for my privacy, but I had to pack before we headed out early in the morning for another flight and it just seemed like the easiest way to hang out with people I wouldn't see again for a while, and to get all my stuff done. So I did it. Have to live once in a while, right?

Day 11, Brisbane

Most of today was spent at airports and flying to Brisbane. It's so weird to be in some of these airports 3 or 4 times in 3 or 4 weeks when you live halfway around the world... Anyways, once we were at the hotel I went straight to the gym for a bit. It's started to become routine for me, which is pretty weird considering I've avoided gyms like crazy my whole life. Never like the idea of the workout, but I'm becoming accustomed to it... I tried to get some food after as I'd worked up an appetite, and it was quite the challenge even though we were at a Sofitel. Incidentally, it's the shittiest Sofitel I've ever stayed at, which is a shame because the best hotel I've ever stayed in was a Sofitel in Munich. The wait staff here is terrible (but the front desk people are good). They wouldn't serve us a salad at first, and then tried to charge us $30 for a Caeser salad. Spoke to a manager, no love, so we went to a corner store and got some overpriced chips.

A little while later, we hooked up with a few people from the KoL crew and went for a real dinner. We found a cool little Italian place down by the waterfront. Had to wait a little bit for a table, but they had a bar so we were able to get in to the wine while we waited. The meal ended up being really good and once we were done eating we went straight back to their bar for a couple more drinks as the restaurant was shutting down for the night. Eventually they asked us why we were in town (we kind of stick out when people hear us speaking), and when the story got out, they got so excited that they started giving us complementary bottles of wine. Sweet deal. The next day we mailed them some shirts and CD's, and got a couple of them some tickets for the show. It turns out that a large number of the staff had tickets already, so many that the owner had to tell some of them that they couldn't have the night off because he wouldn't have enough staff to operate the restaurant for the night! It was a little bittersweet for them I guess. Made for a really good night though. When we left the bar, I went back to the hotel to crash. Gotta try and get some sleep, and with Sydney still coming, I need all the sleep I can get...

Day 12, Brisbane

Today started with a slow walk to Alan's Espresso, which had great reviews but in reality was quite disappointing. The people were nice though. I like the Aussies. They're a good bunch. If nothing else, at least I was caffeinated and went back to the hotel to work for a bit, spend a few minutes at the gym, and then make the trek out to the show.

It was a little far today... The venue is a 40min drive from the hotel. We wondered why we stayed in the city centre when we found that out, but it was instantly obvious when we made the drive. Not a very nice neighbourhood out near the Entertainment Centre and the only hotels were the equivalent of a bad Motel 6. When we finally did get in, we had a quick check, I brought the guys out to do a couple interviews, had some dinner and we put on another rock show.

The highlight tonight was after the show. The Kings made arrangements to have a wild animal trainer come out, so when we were done, there were a bunch of crazy snakes backstage. It was pretty insane. I don't feel the need to ever be that close to a python again. It was sort of freaky, but pretty awesome at the same time.

We didn't hang out much longer than that given the long drive back to the hotel. Once we got in, we sat down at the bar and had a couple glasses of wine, talked for a bit and called it a night. I'm saving my energy for Sydney now, and it's coming up fast...

Day 12, Sydney

Back in Sydney today. This I like very much. It's one of the few cities where I've felt at home right away, and I have a couple friends here now, so I'm looking forward to a good time over the next few days.

Again it was straight to the hotel once we landed. We're staying down by the Circ. Q this time, which is nice for ferries, so our first outing of note was hopping on the ferry and heading out to Manly. I made arrangements to take the guys to the restaurant owned by my brother-in-laws parents. The ferry ride was amazing, as usual, and when we got off we walked over to the beach and stopped by a bottleshop to pick up some wine for dinner. We were all pretty hungry and the long walk up to the hill intensified it. It was worth the wait and the walk though; another great meal was had. We must've been there for about 3hrs and too many courses to count before walking back down to the ferry docks.

Once back in the city, we walked around the Harbour wharves to get to the Park Hyatt hotel, where the bar was closed down for our touring party. We met up with everyone there, the promoters were there too, and we enjoyed the hotel's generous offerings for a little while before heading back to crash.

Day 13, Sydney

It's really nice to be in a place you already sort of know. A little bit anyways. I won't pretend to be an expert on Sydney, but I've found a few places I like alot. So, first thing today I walked out to Mecca Espresso bar for a couple macchiato's to start the day properly. I went back to the hotel after for a quick round in the gym, and then I took a couple of the guys for a short walk down to Hyde Park to relax a bit before heading off to the show at the Haymarket Entertainment Centre. So far, an amazing day. Unfortunately there was no one playing chess in the park... maybe that only happens on certain days, I dunno, but the good little coffee stand was still there so I was ok with that.

The show tonight was the first of 3 in Sydney, and the venue is huge. 16,000 tonight. It was filling up fast so we had a really good crowd for this one, and the kids ate it up. Great vibe tonight. After this one, we had an after party set up for a place called the Q Bar which was a short walk from our hotel, so we headed over after dropping off some stuff in our rooms. It was a really good night. Most of the KoL crew came out, which is rare for them because their days are always so long, so it was fun to hang for once, to see everyone wearing clothes that were a colour other than black. I ended up talking with a couple of their Aussie record label people for most of the night, one of whom had Lebanese roots like myself, but who still has family there and has visited. Crazy. I don't think I'll ever go to the motherland, but then I never thought I'd go to Turkey, Israel or Russia either, so who knows... Time will tell. Anyways, all that to say it was a really good night, topped off by a french fry dispensing machine. I've never seen anything like it. It's like a regular vending machine, except it sells fries, and they're actually good. Take 90 seconds and a little bowl pops out, nice and fresh. A quick stop in the photo booth for memories of the evening and we were heading back to the hotel.

Day 14, Sydney

I got up at a semi-reasonable hour today, got a little bit of sleep anyways... Went out to get some food and some coffee and all was good in the world. Back to the hotel, to the gym again, and my start-of-day routine was complete.

We went to the venue, did our quick check and show and all was good in the world. Tonight my craziness begins. After I escaped from my duties around midnight, I met up with the local tour manager I had on the Chromeo tour last month. We started out with a couple drinks at a place on Oxford St right under the Q Bar, where I was last night. One of her roommates showed up too (who I had also met last time through) and he stuck around for a couple more with us. It was a crazy scene tonight, the whole street was rammed with people, but somehow we found the one little place that wasn't crowded and had room to sit. Maybe it's because the place playing the weirdest variety of music, totally random going back and forth between 80s dance tunes and techno. After we had had enough of that we went over to the ultimate dive bar called the Courthouse, open 24hrs for your convenience. It was the only place that was still serving that late, so there's no way it could be bad, right? On the way we ran in to someone else I knew from the tour last month, so we stopped and talked for a minute before continuing on our mission.

The thing about the Courthouse is that it reeks. It smells like a combination of wet dog and puke. But whatever. We'll get through it. It was a fairly friendly place if nothing else. We met a couple kids who we were certain had run away from home, though they claimed they were just in town for the KoL show... All kinds of talkative locals. At 3am in a place like that, most of them would be... Eventually the roommate admitted defeat, and attempted to bike home, which was a whole other story... We stuck around a little longer, partied with whoever was left and before we knew it, the sun was coming up. It was about 6:30am when they cleared the bar to clean up for breakfast. I knew I'd have a late night, but I wasn't expecting that... We sat around for a few minutes outside before I hopped in a cab and went to the hotel to crash... Even that had it's moments. The cabbie was on something, don't know what, but he was all over the road, stopping 10 feet short of stop lines, zigzagging everywhere.... Every time he said something he'd lean over and get right in my face. It was messed up. I made it though, I suppose that's what matters...

Day 15, Sydney

I did not wake up early today. I did go to bed after the sun was up after all... It was about 11am when I got out of bed. That's late for this tour though, so it has to count for something... Me and one of the guys met up and went for a short walk to get some food. Found a good little sidewalk cafe where we were able to sit for a bit, have a coffee, etc... I will admit to moving a little slowly however... When we went back to the hotel, I went to gym again to try and get the juices flowing, muster up some energy. And then we went to the beach.

The guys wanted to hang out at Bondi for the afternoon. I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I'm getting it now. These people abuse themselves every night but survive because of the beaches and water. It's really rejuvenating. I went in to the water a few times, trying to perfect my body-surfing technique. Got a couple good waves but for the most part I was eaten alive, thankfully not by the sharks. It was a great way to spend a couple hours. Getting smashed by huge waves actually makes you feel alive. It's a pretty powerful feeling being beaten up by nature like that. That doesn't happen where I come from... Before we went back we stopped at a beach front restaurant where our server was actually from France and delighted to speak french with us. We sat there for a little over an hour before making our way back to the city.

We all cleaned up for the evening once we got back. The guys went to meet the KoL folks for a dinner at their hotel, I went out to meet my Aus. TM friend for round 2. It started with 3 of us having dinner at a place in Chinatown, followed by a couple stops at local pubs on our way to who knows where... One place we stopped at, called Hollywood Cafe, was exactly the type of place I'd be at every night if I lived here. Love this town.

So we carry on and eventually end up back on Oxford St going up and down, looking for places, club hopping a little bit. Went to a weird arty place in the basement of the Q Bar (where they had a drink called the Maggie Trudeau - that was my Canadian moment). We tried going to a place across the street where another guy I met last time through was hosting a hip hop night, except that was actually scheduled for tomorrow... we're a day early... So we head out to a different neighbourhood altogether and settle at a place called World Bar.

During the time we were doing this, my guys were looking for stuff to do after their dinner, so we made some suggestions but none of them really panned out. So they came to meet us. We somehow wrangled a table for 10 on the patio and my friend managed to get the bar manager to give us a tab. Amazing. So the guys show up and we hang there for a while, at least until the tab is maxed out. We thank the bar for their hospitality and try to find other places to hang out. By this time it was probably around 3 or 4am. I just don't know anymore. All but one of the guys bailed at that point, just 4 of us left.

Anyways, we end up at the worst dance bar serving the worst beer ever. It was open, so that counted for something, but we never thought bottled beer could be that bad, so we bailed and went back to the lovely Courthouse. Somehow on the way over one of the people managed to bail (against our advice) so we were down to 3. It started to become a bit of a repeat of last night. After about an hour, the last Still bailed and we were 2 to deal with the locals. Cool. And then the sun starts coming up. It is what it is sometimes and you just have to embrace it. No point fighting it now so we keep going. A couple of middle-aged men tried hanging out with us, which got a little awkward after a few minutes due to their "friendliness", so it was with great relief that the bar got cleared at 6:30am again to get ready for the breakfast crowd. We managed to shake the men and were just sitting in a small grassy area finishing up, about to leave when a wired dude with purple hair walked over...

We had seen him lying down earlier and had written him off as passed out. Well, now he was up and talking to himself and his imaginary friends and having a chat with us. The guy was fried. Probably crystal meth. He didn't really know where he was, almost jumped in to traffic a couple times and was just generally messed up. We gave him some water and tried to calm him down but he was on a whole other level. After what was probably about 30 minutes, he started walking away and we sort of followed him for a couple blocks because he was in no shape to take care of himself. Eventually he stopped walking and tried to withdraw money and order food from a brick post. Right by the brick post, there was an old homeless guy hanging out, and my friend stopped and talked to him for a bit, try and figure out his deal. I sort of babysat purple hair dude during this time. We got him a real slice of pizza and at some point he just decided it was all too much and ran away. Oh well, tried to help...

It was a pretty weird experience for me because anywhere I've ever lived, that dude would've been ignored by everyone, no one would have even pretended to notice him. I never thought I'd be up all night and end up helping someone like that, especially in his state, but I guess that's my life lesson for the tour - it's ok to care and to stop and help someone out. (Ed. - It still runs through my mind every time I walk by someone sitting on a sidewalk...)

We were both a little worn out after the entire thing so, it being breakfast time for most, we went over to a coffee stand in Hyde Park that had recently opened and while everyone else was starting their day, we got a couple coffees and sat in the park for a while to chill out and decompress before calling it a night. I got back to the hotel at 10:30am.

Day 16, Sydney

I slept til 2:30pm today. I was warped. And there's a show today. And the venue is different. This one is a 40 min drive from our hotel, out at the Olympic Park. And of course I ended up riding shotgun in our van which meant I had to somehow manage to talk to the driver the whole way when I just wanted to curl up and die. Thank God I was able to get a couple shots of espresso before we left the hotel.

Somehow I started feeling human again once we got through the soundcheck and had dinner. The venue today is amazing, which definitely helps pick up your spirits. Acer Arena, 21,000 people. It's huge. One of the biggest arenas I've been in, and I've been to a lot of hockey games... The crowd tonight was insane too, the show was awesome, definitely our best night of the tour. Unfortunately we didn't hang out too much after this one given the drive back, so we enjoyed what we could and left.

I had planned to meet up with my friend for round 3 tonight, but she called it off citing exhaustion, which I understood and decided to let her off the hook. I ended up grabbing some leftover beer from our rider and went out and sat in the Harbour by the Opera House, under the bridge. It was pretty chilled out. I sort of crashed a wedding, maybe even got in to a couple pics, but generally just enjoyed the quiet serenity of the harbour at 1am. The lights on the bridge and the Opera House were awesome and it was just great to be able to sit in that particular spot and relax. It's pretty cool to be able to even have the opportunity to do that. After about an hour I went back to the hotel to crash.

Day 17, Newcastle

I thought 40 mins was a long drive to the venue. Today was 2hrs. This means being ready earlier than we're used to at this point, but whatever. It'll be our only real drive through the Australian countryside. It'll be an experience if nothing else.

Before we left though, I went out to have breakfast with my friend out near her place. Good little breakfast/cafe type place. Outdoor patio, astroturf on the ground, it was like sitting in your backyard. Good coffee too. There wasn't a whole lot of time left before I had to hit the road after that, so we went to a corner store, grabbed a couple newspapers and sat in a park across the street for a while. I got a lift back to the hotel, we said our goodbyes and I had to hit the road almost immediately...

The drive up to Newcastle was nice, great scenery, etc... The most interesting thing was probably the road signs, which warned of things like kangaroo crossings, deadly snakes and poisonous spiders. Not anything I've ever seen before, and nothing I really want to experience on a personal level. Turns out our driver works as an environmental scientist, so we got all the details about everything around us, which was actually kind of interesting.

And then we pulled up to Newcastle. Talk about a hole. It's like the Flint, MI, of Australia. Pretty nasty. The venue was kind of funny - again an old indoor tennis stadium, but this one had multi-coloured brown, orange and yellow seats from the 70s. It also had terrible catering. We ended up eating habanero peppers for the most part, cause everything else was horrifyingly bad, and waiting to see who could handle the fire. It wasn't pretty...

Anyways, we did our soundcheck while the KoL crew practiced their cricket skills, and it was sounding surprisingly good for a hole. After soundcheck, we had a couple impromptu photo shoots with the legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin. If you haven't heard of him, he's best known for being Metallica's official tour photographer for many years, and has also shot The Who, Jimmy Page, Def Leppard, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, name it... he's the man. The first shots were of the entire touring party outside beside the trucks, and then we went back in and he took a few shots of The Stills in the dressing room right before we started. Still hoping to get my hands on those, but I'm just happy to say I got my picture taken by Ross Halfin.

So... The show actually wasn't bad, in fact it was really good. I think Newcastle was really happy to have a rock show in town. After it was done we didn't stick around for long though because of the ridiculous drive back to the hotel.

It was pretty late and no one was really doing anything once we got back because we have a flight to New Zealand tomorrow. I didn't feel like sitting around the hotel, especially on my last night in Sydney for the foreseeable future, so I grabbed some leftover beers and walked down to Hyde Park and sat by the fountain for a little while, then went down to the King George fountain at the south end of the park. Just sat, watched, observed and generally relaxed. I didn't want to leave so I appreciated these last few moments, not caring at all that I looked like a wino drinking in the park at 2am...

Day 18, to New Zealand

It's always fun to go to a new country, so despite the fact that I was sad to leave Sydney, I was looking forward to landing in New Zealand. We got our shuttle to the airport fairly early so we would have extra time to check in our gear, and it all worked out and was fairly smooth. When we landed we had to do all the immigration stuff. We were a little nervous because we heard that Coldplay almost got turned away a few weeks ago, and if it can happen to them, who knows what'll happen to us... Apparently the Kiwis are pretty sensitive about who they let in to their country. Fortunately there was no drama for us, although I think the border guard was disappointed when I said I wasn't a drummer (I think he wanted to "bond"). We picked up all our gear, made sure we had no meat or nuts and went through the exit screening and we were in. One more stamp in the passport. Nice.

We went straight to the hotel again, which was a really nice Hyatt. We had a minor problem with the rooms that got sorted out after a few minutes and we ended up with a killer suite that overlooked the Auckland harbour. Sweet deal. I made a quick trip to the gym, and then we all met up and tried to make it out to a beach.

Turns out that there's a beach only a 15 min drive, so we got a cab and made our way down. It was with great disappointment that we arrived on the beach. It was pretty nasty. Not the beautiful sand and waves that we were accustomed to from Australia. The sand was grey, dirty and hard, the water freezing. And as soon as we got there, the sun decided to disappear. It was obvious we weren't going to win, so we just decided to roll with it, threw down our towels and tried to get the last little bit of a tan we'd get in the South Pacific. Really made me want to go back to Bondi...

So after the beach, we walked over to a little strip of restaurants and cafes across the street. We found a good little Italian place so we sat down and had a bite before going back to the hotel. We wanted to get back soon though because there was a party planned for the whole touring party. There were a couple birthdays to celebrate, so someone arranged to get a local pub shut down for us and we all ended up there a little later on in the evening. It ended up being a lot of fun, and it was also the last chance we really had to hang out because there was just one show left. Everyone was out, pictures were taken, cake was eaten. All was good.

Day 19, Auckland, NZ

First order of business: coffee and food. Me and one of the guys went on a hunt, initially ended up empty handed, but then stumbled upon a cool little cafe that had good coffee and a menu. I ordered a bagel, which they claimed to have run out of, but then when we told them how far we traveled to have breakfast in Auckland, the girl admitted that they just hated making them and sheepishly pulled one out and threw it in the toaster for me. Busted. At least it was good. Then back to the hotel and to the gym.

At the gym, I ran in to one of the Kings and we had a short work out session together and started outlining some plans for the night. Rooftop BBQ in the penthouse suite seemed to be the way to go. Nice. Staying in good hotels with huge bands has a couple perks...

After the gym I stayed in for a while to do a little bit of work and ended up having dinner in my room. By the time I was done everything, the bbq was well underway but I decided to wait a while before heading up. I wanted to get out and walk around the town a bit and try and figure it out. Turns out there's not a whole lot going on... The downtown area was mainly ferry docks and a small area of restaurants where people eat before going out in their schooners. (It's definitely a boating town). So I walked in to the city a little more, went through the tourist trap area and ended up on "K Road", which is supposed to be the cool place to hang out. I didn't see anything worth doing. Most of it was closed for the night, except for a couple bars, and once I got a couple blocks down the street, I had one of those moments where you know you've gone too far as soon as you crossed the street. It was sketchy. I felt really weird right away, started looking over my shoulder after almost every step and quickly crossed the street, doubled back and got the hell out. On my way back to the hotel, I passed the Auckland equivalent of the CN Tower or the Space Needle. It was weak. So all in all, I was not impressed by this town at all. It's too bad. I had high hopes, but at least I can say I've been there. That counts for something.

When I got back to the hotel, everything was pretty much wrapped for the night. I missed what was left of the bbq, but I wasn't too worried. At least I got out to do what I wanted to do.

Day 20, Auckland, NZ

So this is it. The final day of the tour, my final day in the South Pacific. This is a hard one to walk away from. I've met so many people down here and had such a great time. Can't wait to get back. This tour in particular was amazing. When you're out with one of the biggest bands in the world, things go really well and you get to do a lot of things that would otherwise never happen. But alas, such is life, hopefully something like this will come up again in the future...

I started the day with a trip back to the cafe we found yesterday. I ordered a bagel again, but this time they were genuinely sold out, so I just got coffee and some sort of pastry thing. On my way back, I walked by a post office, so I went in and sent a couple postcards to the folks waiting back home. Not everyday you get a postcard from New Zealand.

Back at the hotel, I had time for a quick trip to the gym before heading over to the venue, which was the lovely Vector Arena just a few blocks away. It's a pretty new place and it's sounds pretty incredible for an arena. I think it was actually the best sounding show of the tour, until a couple techs started experimenting with the PA... Sometimes as the opening act, you're reduced to being the guinea pigs of the night. Such is life.

After the show we had our official farewell party. There are actually a couple shows left on the tour, but we have to leave early to fly back to Vancouver for the Juno Awards, where the guys are nominated in 2 categories. Anyways, it all started when we got backstage after our show. There was a huge card signed by all the KoL touring party sitting on top of a case of wine. Amazing. We each got a bottle of something undoubtedly nice to bring home with us. Classy people. We spent some time playing some ping pong backstage, then the guys in The Fray stopped by and played a couple rounds. When we were done with all that, we went back to the hotel where they kept the bar open late for us, and we just sat outside on the patio til about 4am. This was good because we have a stupid early flight to Vancouver and we have to go to the airport at 4:30am. Damn.

Day 21, to Vancouver

So we stayed up all night in order to sleep on the flights, same concept as the last time I left a month ago. So far so good... We got our stuff in to the chartered bus to the airport, got to the airport, got checked in, no problems. Then, right before security, some dude (who in his defense is just doing his job...) tried to confiscate my carry-on bag. It only has my laptop, printer, various accessories, etc... that are absolutely necessary for me to work. So I put up a fight. He said the reason is that the bag is overweight. Ridiculous. I've already had about 30 flights this year alone, no problem with any airline. I eventually talked the guy out of it, but he called the gate to warn them I was coming with an oversize bag. LAME. When we eventually did get there, no one cared. Like it makes a difference if the bag is over my head or under my seat. Either way it's 20lbs on a plane. Whatever...

So our first flight is back to Sydney (wish I could've stayed), and we had about 2hrs to switch planes. We had a quick bite to eat and I somehow managed to resist getting some coffee, knowing that if I drank some now, my plan to sleep on the plane would be shot to hell. We spent most of our time trying to upgrade our seats, to no avail. Guess it didn't really matter in the long run; I don't remember much from the flight, which I guess is a good thing, means that I slept.

When we finally did land in Vancouver, cold weather was waiting and it became brutally real that my winter spent in the sun of the southern hemisphere was over. I'm a little sad about it, but at least I got the chance, which is more than most others can say... We spent the rest of the day doing typical stuff to beat jetlag. This included coffee at Wicked Cafe, shopping for jeans and a scarf, going to the gym, dinner at the hotel, meeting up with friends at a couple different places, etc... We ended up being a pretty big group of people by the end of the night. I hung out with a few people I hadn't seen in a while which was pretty cool. I pushed it all the way til 1 am, which was pretty awesome. It was also pretty nasty because I have to get a flight to Alaska in the morning to go do a show with Brand New...

Day 22, to Alaska w/Brand New

Today promises to be an adventure. I'm supposed to fly up to Alaska to do a show with Brand New, but there's been some volcanic eruptions near the airport in Anchorage. The tour manager called me yesterday when most of the crew was flying up to let me know that all their flights had been canceled and that they were stuck in Minneapolis for the night. Interesting. And to top it off, when I got to the airport this morning, the woman at the check in counter asked me if I really wanted to go through with it because the flight would likely get canned. I thought about it, but decided to go forward. What do I have to lose?

So I got on the first flight to Seattle and began the wait for the next flight to Anchorage. The first 2 flights of the day were canceled, so this did not bode well. I sat around the gate area for a while and watched while everything was delayed, and some flights were re-routed to Fairbanks, but they would not be responsible to get you out of Fairbanks once you got there. Interesting. My flight got pushed back a couple times, but not re-routed or canceled, so I held on to my slowly fading feeling of hope. Eventually all the guys that were stuck in Minneapolis last night showed up. Their new flights were routed through Seattle. At least while all this was going on, I got to meet them all for the first time and hang out for a bit.

This stuff went on for about 3 hours when it was finally announced that all our flights were being re-routed. Fairbanks is no good for us as the show is in Anchorage. All the roads up there are closed, there's no way out, so there was some discussion and the final outcome was that we actually canceled a show due to volcanic activity. It was too bad... Who gets to go to Alaska? We were looking forward to it, and I was especially looking forward to going up near the North Pole after being at the South Pole a couple days before. I thought that was going to be pretty cool.

All this being said, we went back outside security to the ticket counter and we all got flights back to where we came from. I just went back to Vancouver for the night, but not before stopping for a drink at the Alaska Bar in the airport lobby. It was symbolic if nothing else.

When I got back to Vancouver, I went to Air Canada to try and switch my flight back to NYC to tomorrow instead of being stuck here for 3 days. Incredibly, for the first time in history, Air Canada helped me out. No service fee, no charge of any kind and even an offer to drive me back in to town. The guy I spoke with was a real champion. His company could learn from him.

When I got back in to the city, I went out to meet a couple of the Stills guys at a bar where K-OS was DJing. We stayed for a bit before going to a couple Juno parties where I ended up running in to a boat load of people I knew from all over the country. It was a pretty cool night. Ended up at a Greek restaurant at 3am getting a pizza before heading back to my hotel. Tomorrow I fly back to NYC. What a whirlwind.

Chromeo in Australia, Feb. 10-24, 2009

2009-06-03T00:18:00.002-04:00

Day 1, 2 - to Sydney, NSW (Feb 10/11)

And so the epic journey begins... I was a little behind today and I had to pack quickly before my car service came and picked me up. After triple checking everything I figured I was alright (at least I knew I had my passport), I headed downstairs, hopped in the car and headed to JFK. My driver was particularly happy to hear I was going to Australia; he has a son that lives there and he insisted that I call him. For what, I'm not too sure, but I took the number anyways and we'll see...

I met up with the rest of the guys at the airport. It's kind of funny in a way... Most friends meet up at a bar or a house or something. We meet at airport bars. And we enjoy what the bar has to offer. I'm really skeptical about airplane food, so I always try to eat before I get on a long flight. I also pound a couple airport-sized pints to dull the pain and hopefully fall asleep before we even hit the runway. While we were doing all this I also tried calling my bank because I realized earlier today that I lost my client card. Not a good thing when going halfway around the world.

Anyways. The flight was actually ok. The first leg got us to San Francisco where we had to switch planes. Not a bad thing, gave us a chance to get a bit of real food before boarding again. The rest of the way to Sydney really wasn't that bad. I slept through most of it. By the time we got on the 2nd plane, it was something like 3am for my body so I was getting a little tired anyways. Thankfully there were no babies on this flight. Turns out the flight down under is alright.

Somewhere before landing, Feb. 11 disappeared into a kind of cosmic vortex. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices to get out of winter a little early...

Day 3, Sydney

We arrived in Sydney a little after 9am local time. The goal today is to make it past 10pm to try and beat the jet lag as best we can. Never having been this far away, who knows what'll happen...

We were met at the airport by our Australian TM who deftly guided us to our waiting vehicle to bring us to the hotel. Love the waiting vehicle concept. And it got us to the very nice Sheraton-on-the-Park rather painlessly. So far so good. Taking things a step further, all our rooms were ready! Unreal, this is unheard of for a check-in this early. And the rooms are really nice. This could be a good week.

More important matters are at hand though - jet lag must be defeated. It is our enemy and as such must be put to death as quickly as possible. Fortunately our North American TM (yes, I know, we have 2 TM's) has been here a couple times and he knew just what to do. We started out with a walk through the Harbour, by the Opera House and up to the Gumnut Cafe where we sat in a beautiful courtyard area for lunch. Once we were done, the waiter recommended we head over to a rooftop bar beside the Harbour Bridge, which we did, of course. Stayed there for a couple, then when walking around we found the oldest pub in Sydney, so naturally we had to stop in. It was also educational. We learned all about recommended alcohol intake from the signs on the wall. (Ed.- I had pics but lost them all in a hard drive crash...).

After leaving the oldest pub in Sydney (can't remember the name at this point), we found a lovely German beer garden. This has become a very successful day. Suitably primed to combat our enemy, we figured it was time for a walk, so we spent some time going through the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were right by the hotel. On the other side, get this, we found a pub. Awesome. By this point, we've done a pretty good job getting through the day. It's just about dinner time, but this place doesn't serve food. But there's a chip stand right across the street. Killer. Gotta love the street meat. After that quick bite, we went back in to the Gardens to check out the bats.

Yes, bats. And they're huge. Every day at dusk, the fruit bats fly out of the trees in search of food. I couldn't believe how big they were. Literally like cats with wings. It was amazing. There must have been a couple hundred, maybe more. Never seen anything like it.

At this point there wasn't much energy left to see or do much more. We slowly started making our way back to the hotel, exhausted and completely satisfied. We stayed up as late as we could. We did everything possible to kill the jet lag. We should now be able to sleep til a reasonable hour, get up, have breakfast, have a normal-ish day with some minor fatigue. Love it.

Day 4, Sydney

Oh my God I am in pain. So much for jet lag theories. I have never been hit by anything like this. I woke up at 5:30am, which is technically 1:30pm yesterday for me, so it's not that weird I guess. But the clock says 5:30am and I don't like it. I'm not in. Not gonna beat this one, that's for sure...

So we go for breakfast downstairs. The beauty of this festival is that they're paying for our breakfast at the hotel every day. Amazing. We took our time, trying to get our bearings. It was also quite possibly the largest breakfast I've ever eaten. In terms of biological clocks, it was pretty much dinner time for me, so I guess it's not weird that I had a big meal, just that it was breakfast foods. Bizarre... This place has quite the effect on you...

So, coming to terms with the reality of the situation, we head out and randomly walk around neighbourhoods. It went fairly well. Found some coffee places, a few cool shops, ventured where no outsider has gone before, I'm sure... The highlight was early afternoon, we found a small Italian place where we decided to stop for a glass of wine. They didn't do it by the glass, so we got a bottle. Then we found out that you actually have to buy food in order to be served alcohol, by law. So we get a small appetizer platter to split. All good. Sit around with the Italians, drink some wine, have some carpaccio. I'm in. As it gets a little later into the afternoon, the lunch time crowd leaves and eventually there's just the 2 of us sitting in the restaurant. Then they lock the doors. With us inside. Ok, not that weird, they just don't want anyone else coming in. Cool. Then they start setting tables, which we figure is for the dinner crowd. Then the entire restaurant staff sits down and starts eating their lunch, completely oblivious to the fact we're still sitting there. We didn't really know what to do. This is a little funny. Kind of hilarious actually. After we're done our food, wine and the jug of water on the table, we can't take it anymore so we decide to leave a pile of cash on the table and just walk out. As soon as we stood up, they came rushing over to give us the bill, etc... slightly awkward moment; we felt bad for disturbing lunch, they felt bad for making us wait. So they offered us another bottle of wine. We politely declined and bolted out the door, straight back to the hotel. It's not even 4pm and our day has been slammed.

We only had a couple hours to chill out though. There's an artist reception tonight at a place called Ivy, which is a bar complex owned by the guy who puts on the festival. So we head over for the free drinks and food. It was a little weird. It didn't really seem like anyone wanted to be there, but the free drinks helped with that. Met a few people, stared at others, walked around the complex, etc... This particular party was being hosted in the ridiculous penthouse suite. It has 4 showers, a full bar, and an elevator. Need I say more? It started getting weird later on when it was obvious certain "talent" was being paid to be there to provide certain "services", so we rounded up, confirmed our suspicions amongst ourselves, laughed about it and bailed.

We managed to stay up til midnight, which is awesome. Hopefully that will translate into sleep.

Day 5, Sydney

We have to leave the hotel at 11am to go to the show today (1 of 4 shows over 2 weeks!!), and usually that means I get up at 10, run through the shower and grab a coffee in the lobby on my way out the door. Again, that's what I usually do. I was up at 5:30am again. This is not good. I have a full day ahead of me before I even have to think about going to a show. So down to the restaurant I go for another massive breakfast. I eat, and have time to go out and check out the coffee place I found online, Mecca Espresso Bar. It's pretty solid. I like.

Back at the hotel in time for 11am to go to the gig. Crazy. It was a little early to head in today, but we had to given that it was the first day and we had to check that all the gear was ok, etc... Extra time is not a bad thing. It was all good, which was nice, so we were sort of ready for the show. It's been about 5 months since we've done a show though, so the changeover was a little rough, but everything got up and running and it ended up being ok. Crazy crowd, especially in the rain. They loved it. Not bad at all...

So the bonus is that our set was at 4:10pm, so we were back at the hotel by 6pm. Amazing. A whole day before and after the show. This is alright. Given that we had time, we decided we'd try and figure out the subway system and head out to Newtown, which is supposed to be a sort of happening neighbourhood, and it's Saturday night, so why not?

Well, I'll tell you why not. The subway system is absolutely pathetic. Brutal. The trains only come every 30 mins. That's really hard to deal with after living in New York. We were really tired after waiting and almost gave up, but we stuck it out and made it to Newtown eventually. We got off the train and asked a local for directions to the place we wanted to eat at, and of course the guy didn't have a clue. It's not hard, do we go right or left? In which direction do the numbers go? Apparently this is hard. Whatever. We figure it out on our own after a minute or two, and walk down to the address only to find out that the place just shut down. Permanently. That was a little deflating, but there was a good looking Thai place across the street, and it was pretty full, which is a good sign, so we headed in. And it was amazing. Really cheap too, overall a great find. Talked with the owner for a bit afterwards. He wasn't Thai, but he was a good guy so we let it slide...

We decided not to fight with the subway on the way back to the hotel and just hopped in to a cab. Got back around 11pm, which isn't bad, except that we have to get up early to fly to Melbourne in the morning for a show tomorrow afternoon. At least I probably don't have to worry about being up on time...

Day 6, Melbourne

So today was an early one, but we were awake and had time for breakfast. We headed to the airport for an early flight to Melbourne to play an afternoon show and then fly back. I suppose overall it was pretty painless. Once we landed, we were driven straight to the show. We were so early that the backstage area wasn't even set up yet. That was odd. Catering wasn't open either so we waited a while to get lunch. Ended up starting to set up a little bit, taking our time, nice and easy. And before we knew it, we were starting the show. Today was a lot smoother and better than yesterday, it went really well and as soon as it was done we were on a shuttle back to the airport.

This is possibly the first time I've done a round trip for a show in a single day (by plane), but I'm not complaining. It's good way to get there and back, and we had a good hotel in Sydney, so why mess with it? The actual reason we're going back though it that the guys have a DJ set at the Ivy Bar tonight at which we all ended up hanging out. It was pretty wild. The guys got picked up by a Bentley at the hotel. The rest of us got in a cab and I finally got to tell a cabbie to "Follow that car!". After going through back doors and down back hallways, we got in to the main party area and I observed all the classics: dancing on tables, flashing credit cards, waving bottles around, people pouring vodka on other people, VIP areas, lax security etc... It made for a pretty entertaining evening... We left before it got crazy.

Day 7, Sydney

Today is a full day off, weather is beautiful, there's a city to explore. The first thing we did after breakfast was get out of the city. We went down to the Quay and hopped on a ferry to Watson's Bay, an area right at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. The ride itself was amazing. Incredible views, spectacular scenery, amazing. When we got to Watson's, we went across a small beach with a view of the skyline (ie. paradise) and then through an almost tropical forest with flora and fauna I've never seen. On the way back we cut through what seemed to be a colonial-era neighbourhood with beautiful houses made from all kinds of different materials, really unique designs. (I lost all the pics in a hard drive crash... sigh). We then walked up a hill and along the edge of the cliffs and saw the South Pacific on the other side of the bay. Amazing. Stopped by an old church on the way down and stopped for lunch in a pub by the wharf. As soon as we sat down it started pouring rain outside, so we stayed for a while, had a couple extra drinks...

Back in the city, it was band dinner night so we all met up in the evening and went on a search for a restaurant. That proved to be a little challenging on a Monday, and we ended up in a tourist trap in Darling Harbour. The good side of this, however, was that they had kangaroo on the menu. So I ordered it. And it was great. Kind of like venison. After dinner we were all pretty wiped because we haven't fully adjusted to the time zones, so we just headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 8, Sydney

Another full day off... There was supposed to be a harbour cruise for everyone that's part of the festival, but the weather was so bad that it got canceled. So our whole group got together and went to a wildlife park and aquarium in Darling Harbour. It was pretty wild... Crocodiles, kangaroos, koalas, creatures I couldn't name if my life depended on it, snakes, spiders, etc... Really crazy stuff. And the shark tank. Nothing like having a huge shark swim by 2 feet above your head, seeing the teeth... Nuts.

To make up for the canceled cruise, we were all invited to a place called Sushi Choo for dinner. Basic premise is that the chefs just make generic servings and it comes around on a conveyor belt and you take what you want. There's an excellent video of the experience here, courtesy of Mike Relm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56Rpeg--H5o

After dinner, we went to another bar in the building for some free drinks (all this is in the same complex as Ivy), hung out for a bit and then ended up at a Salsa dancing place called The Esplanade. I did not dance. I stayed close to the bar - the place was so packed that if you dared to walk away, you'd never get back for another drink. Priorities after all... After an hour or so of fighting crowds at the bar, we decided to head back to the hotel. We stopped along the way at an all-night convenience/souvenir store to correct spelling mistakes on some of their signs and products and went back to crash.

Day 9, Sydney

Guess what? Day off in Sydney. Best paid vacation ever. Today we took it easy, just hung around Hyde Park for a bit, it's right across the street after all, and walked over to the cathedral across the park. A visit to a foreign city is not complete without a cathedral visit. Took some pics of religious stuff, and then stumbled upon a Thai place for lunch. It was kind of hidden in the yard of the cathedral, thought that was a little weird... Anyways, it was really good. It was sort of like a dim sum; they just kept bringing the food... On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a coffee stand in the park and sat for a while longer (You can stop for coffee anywhere here; the minimum standard is quite high). They have a chess game in the park with human-size pieces, and I have to say it's pretty cool. We had to check it out.The rest of the afternoon was spent doing real work on the computer...

For the evening, I made good on a family promise. My brother-in-law is originally from Sydney, and his folks own a French restaurant up near Manly. So, a couple of us hopped on the ferry and made our way out. Another spectacular ferry ride. Love the harbour. We got to Manly and had a little time to spare, so we walked down to the beach, watched the surfers for a while and slowly made our way up the hill.

The restaurant was packed when we got there, but we squeezed in, only after I got reprimanded for not bringing my niece. We spent the rest of the night there, long after everyone else had left, had an amazing meal, lots of wine, cheese, chocolate, etc... Fantastic. We caught the last ferry back to the city and called it a night. There were penguins at the ferry dock in Manly by the way... Kind of cool...

Day 10, Sydney

So today I have to find a way to deal with another day off in Sydney. How am I ever going to go back to real life after this? It's too good. After another hotel breakfast, we went out and walked around our immediate neighbourhood for a while. Still hadn't done this, so it was about time. Being in the CBD (Central Business District), finding something cool can be a little hard. We didn't win, but we didn't lose either. We found what claims to be the first jail in Sydney. It dates back to 18??. Not quite as old as Europe, but whatever. The exhibit had a typewriter, so that gives you an idea of its age... Our morning pretty much consisted of things like that.

The afternoon consisted of the Harbour Cruise. It's really awesome that they were able to reschedule this. We headed over to the Opera House where a small yacht was waiting for us. All aboard, down to the bar, life is good. What an amazing way to spend an afternoon. Weather was perfect too. Highlights include watching a float plane take off from the water right beside us.

Once we got back to shore, we relaxed at the hotel for a bit before, get this, going to the Ivy bar. Tonight the goal was to check out the Cuban Brothers, another act of the festival, who were doing a short set at the bar tonight. To say they're highly entertaining is an understatement. You have to see them if they come near you. After they were done, we hung around til our complementary tab was closed. Our Aussie TM was able to sneak a bottle of vodka away, so bonus points for that, but we didn't stay around there to drink it.

Well, not too long anyways. We went back to the hotel, emptied the mini-bars and a small group of us headed in to the park at 3am. There's a cool little fountain area at the south end where we camped out for a couple hours and had a great time. One of the guys tried to run through the fountain and fell flat on his face, in the process sacrificing his Blackberry for our entertainment. One guy fell asleep on the steps and was summarily covered in Sharpie tattoos. Can't wait to hear about the reaction in the morning... Ah, memories...

Day 11, Sydney

And another day off in Sydney is upon us. It's the last one though, tomorrow we actually have a show.

We spent our last afternoon relaxing on the beach in Bondi, which is known around the world not only for its surfing, but also for its shark attacks. Fortunately we did not experience the latter. That happened the week before... We just hung out on the beach, worked on our tans, spent some time in the ocean, spent some time searching for a lost necklace in the ocean that was ripped off by a wave, and generally had a good time. There was also a BBQ pit that we took over for lunch. It's a pretty good set up out there.

After we got back from the beach, we freshened up and prepared to head out for the evening. We all headed out for a final group dinner at a restaurant called Nepalese Kitchen, which was great. We sat on a patio out back, which had a wall that was controlled by massive cockroaches. A couple people in our party were a little worried about that, but our local friends were just casually batting them out of the way. You don't really do that where we come from - it's more of a run and hide reaction... I thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but then none of the roaches flew on to my plate...

Once that was all taken care of, we shockingly returned to the Ivy bar one last time for one last open bar. Just more of the same really. We hung out for a while, laughed at the whole situation (none of us would normally be caught dead in a place like this), and eventually headed back to crash. Tomorrow starts with an early flight and has lots of driving... Can't wait.

Day 12, Brisbane / Gold Coast

Back to work. What a weird feeling. It's really hard to walk away from the amazing "vacation" we just had in Sydney over the last week, but alas, it had to happen at some point... And reality hit with the early flight combined with a bad hotel check-in followed by a 2 hr drive to the festival site in Gold Coast. Good times.

The show itself went by quickly and all went well. Then we had another drive back in to Brisbane for the night. I slept through most of that one... Once we got in to town, we had the rest of the night off with nothing to do, but there was another festival in town that night, Soundwaves, and our TM happened to know some people, so we grabbed a couple passes for that. A short cab ride later we were watching Nine Inch Nails, and oddly enough, running in to people we both knew - in Brisbane?! Wild! We stuck around for a little while after the show before grabbing a shuttle back to our hotel. Didn't push things too much... We're about to start a 50 some odd hour day...

Day 13/14, Perth to NYC - halfway around the world.

Today will literally be the uncontested longest day of my life. The after-show travel time alone is 34hrs. So, just cause, we got up at 5am so we could fly from Brisbane to Perth. That was the short flight of the day, only about 5hrs. No big deal... Just going to fly across Australia twice today...

Once we got to Perth, they took us straight to the hotel to check in to rooms we won't even sleep in. That's not a bad thing, it's not the nicest Sheraton I've ever seen... Anyways. I digress. We then get shuttled to the festival site where, once again, we show up painfully early. We killed time by playing ping pong and staring at a security guard who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator. I can't make that up. It was incredible.

Eventually the show happens, all is good in the world. Afterwards, for the first time, we had time to hang around backstage and actually hang out with some of the other bands. The quality of ping pong competition was surprisingly high. Who knew?

There was also an after-party planned for tonight, as it's the last night of the festival and everyone goes their separate ways tomorrow. This is a contributing factor to the longest day ever. You see, when we go our separate ways, we do so at 3:30am. Our flight info was posted on our dressing room door as a subtle reminder to be responsible, and everyone that saw it had a good laugh at our expense. So, that being said, no point going to sleep. That's what the flights are for. So we head to the after-party around 11pm, hang out, have a couple last drinks with people, a couple goodbye moments and at 3:20am I hopped in a cab (which our Aussie TM helped commandeer from someone else) to rush to the hotel and pack. Not the best plan, but it worked out somehow...

I had no time to spare at the hotel, and got a couple more quick goodbyes taken care of on my way down to the airport shuttle. And so begins the travel... We got to the airport and boarded flight #1 to Sydney. I slept the whole flight on the worst airline *ever*, Virgin Blue (not the same as Virgin Atlantic, or the British one...). The seats didn't recline and the flight attendants were the worst in history. I'm really happy I slept. When we landed in Sydney, we had about 2hrs, so we sat down for a quick bite and surprisingly didn't feel all that bad given the lack of sleep, but I was far from good.... Flight #2 was on to LA, and to the envy of all those I travel with, I slept the entire flight. Literally. 14hrs. When I got off that plane I felt great. And then we had to catch the 3rd plane to NYC.

We got off our LA flight and because we were entering the US, we had to claim our bags, clear customs and go through security again - in another terminal. So we run off the flight, wait forever in line at customs, get through and go to get our bags. It took forever. After waiting what felt like an hour, but was maybe 30mins, our bags finally showed up right when we were about to give up hope. We grabbed them and ran. Thankfully the next flight was only one terminal away, but we still had to go through security and there were probably 200 people in line. No good. So we beg security to let us through, which they actually did, and then we noticed we were missing a guy. Man down. Unfortunately for him, we're not the US Marines, we left our man behind. We cleared security and sprinted to the gate which was closing when we ran up. We tried to get them to hold the plane for our missing man, but no love from United. The plane was pushing back from the gate before we even sat down. (Turns out our man was detained as part of random screening and actually got a better flight home from the whole ordeal...)

Eventually we land in NYC and I hop in a cab and go the final leg back to the apartment. What a day. We figured out that Feb. 23rd lasted 46 hrs for us, plus the 19hrs we were awake on the 22nd. 65hr day people. That's insane. Good thing I'm flying back to Perth in 10 days...

The Stills, Canada Jan.10-Feb.3, 2009

2009-02-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

Jan 10, Stills. Day 1, To Vancouver.

Yesterday I woke up in Mexico. Today I woke up in Brooklyn, and now, after 3 hrs of sleep, I'm flying to Vancouver to start the next leg of The Stills Canadian Tour with Sam Roberts.

I hate getting up early, but sometimes it just has to be done, so by 6:30am I'm in the car heading to LaGuardia. The bonus of flying so early is that there's very few people, very little going on, so it was painless to get through everything and the plane even left on time, which is a miracle in and of itself for LaGuardia. I had a stopover in Toronto where I was able to sit for a bit and do some work and soon after I was on the next flight to Vancouver.

I landed just after 3pm, waited for my bags for a little while and caught a cab to the Orpheum Theatre. Not even a break after my vacation. I basically flew straight from the beach to the show in the last 30 hours (26 of which airports and flying).

It was good to get back in to it though; I was ready to start doing the rock shows again. There was no time wasted as things started happening the second I walked in the door. The whole evening just flowed and before I knew it we were heading back to the hotel for the night.

To celebrate the first day back on tour, and to show how my tour chops have all but disappeared over the last 3 weeks, I backed the van into a tree when parking at the hotel and smashed a window. That was fun. It also killed the possibility of sleeping in the next couple days as I know have to find a way to get it repaired. Amazing.

Day 2, Whistler

I woke up early today to try and get the van window fixed, made a couple hours of phone calls only to find out that no one in Vancouver could help me. Every single place was either closed or didn't have the piece in stock. I had thought that the only saving grace of the whole thing was that at least it happened in a major city and I should be able to get it taken care of quickly, but how wrong I was...

So, instead sitting around and getting stressed about it, I went to Staples, got some copies made, and, while walking back to the hotel, I accidentally discovered an amazing little coffee shop called Wicked Cafe that serves my favourite espresso. At least I had that going for me. I sat down for a while and pumped myself full of fantastic coffee nectar and the day got much better.

And so we start the drive to Whistler. It was only a couple hours and it's some of the most incredible scenery in the country on the most dangerous highway. It went well, thankfully.

We got in to the club and soundchecked, didn't have to rush at all, went to the hotel to chill for a bit, and went back to Garfinkel's for the show a little later. For a Sunday night in Whistler, it was really good. Not much hang time afterwards because we have to leave at 10am (show finished at 1am, only got back to the hotel at 2:30am). And again, I have to get up early to try and sort out the wonders of the van window... This is going to be a thorn in my side for days...

Day 3, Kamloops

I almost got the window fixed today... There was a guy who was willing to do it, but alas, the part has to be special ordered and can take a week to get in. At least I know I don't have to think about it for a few more days now and can plan a repair later in the week.

So we start driving to Kamloops. This one will take us even further north, and much higher in altitude, through the Rockies. Sitting in the van as I type, the view is ridiculous, very surreal, very Lord of the Rings. The road, Hwy. 99, is insanely dangerous, but it's clear and visibility is good. So far, moving according to plan...

And a little later we make it to the Interior Savings Centre, home of the WHL's Kamloops Blazers. To celebrate playing in a hockey arena, I went up to the concession stand for dinner and ordered a couple hot dogs. It seemed to be quite a challenge though... dogs cooked in a bagel toaster, buns catching fire, mustard and ketchup pumps that didn't work... Alas... It was not the classic meal I was looking for...

In the end it was all good. Arena shows are always fun, it's a different class of rock show altogether. After we loaded up the van, we hit the road right away. 3hr drive to Revelstoke with a Tim Horton's stop coming up...

Day 4, Banff, AB

Ah, Banff. Lovely scenic town nestled among mountains. The very mountains that attempted to hinder our progress on this beautiful winter day.

We had been moving along quite well, negotiating fearsome hairpin turns along the highway that was somehow built on to the sides of the Rockies. After getting through a particularly harrowing stretch, we stopped for food and gas in Golden, BC, only to be told by the locals that the highway was closed past this point as there was an avalanche control team working to clean up the roads. It only delayed us for about an hour, but it was a reminder that we were lucky to have made it so far without incident.

We finally made it through and arrived at Wild Bill's only shortly after the Sam Roberts bus. It turns out that they had blown not one, not two but 3 (!) tires on their bus and trailer on the overnight drive they did. We were feeling a little more lucky. We took the extra time with which we found ourselves and went to the Saltlik Steakhouse, my all-time favourite steakhouse, for a quick dinner before soundcheck. And it was fantastic.

The show was a little funny tonight. Banff being a ski resort town attracts only the finest tequila swilling teenagers. I had never seen a tequila dispenser at a bar before tonight. Maybe they like it, maybe they were indifferent, but they were definitely intoxicated. We decided it wasn't necessary to hang out with that crowd and headed straight to the hotel after the show. I went straight to bed, I have an early morning...

Day 5, Banff, AB

Sometimes on tour it's very easy to get caught up in things and forget that there's a real world outside the rock show and all that it entails. Today was my reality check. I had to get up early to fly back to my hometown of Ottawa, ON, to attend a funeral for one of my uncles who passed away last week. Definitely not my favourite homecoming, or excuse to return. All I really care to say about it is that you should all go for regular, annual physicals and pay attention to your medical history.

I won't be writing tomorrow. I have more important things to think about...

Day 6, Ottawa, ON

See yesterday.

Day 7, Red Deer, AB

So today I woke up in Ottawa at 5am to get in a taxi and head to the airport. At 10am local time, I was waiting in Calgary for the boys to pick me up on their way through to Red Deer. I had a couple hours to kill at the airport, so I just used the time to catch up on some work and try and get ahead.

Once in the van, we stopped at a music store for supplies, where the salesman tried to instruct us on the proper use of a mic stand (seriously), and we then hit the road for the short drive up north.

The Red Deer Memorial Centre. Sounds like it should be an arena. It's really more like a high school auditorium. It looks like it's straight out of the 70s. It was ok, I guess. It was packed and the kids loved it. Just didn't really feel like a rock show.

We hung out after this one for a little while, had a couple drinks with the SRB guys and just chilled out. Nothing really happened afterwards, we were in Red Deer after all. I just went to the hotel to try and catch up on sleep. In the last week I've crossed the continent 5 times and have been through 6 time zone changes. I'm burnt.

Day 8, Edmonton, AB

Thankfully Edmonton is only a couple hours from Red Deer, so we were in no serious rush today. Got up, took our time, went to the hotel first and we were even able to find some spectacular coffee courtesy of Intelligentsia and the Three Bananas Cafe. Awesome.

So we were feeling pretty relaxed when we went over to the Jubilee, an incredible theater on the university campus. It's like a smaller version of the Nokia Theater in LA, or even the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, just a lot more modern. However, as a result of the beauty of the theater, it seemed a little hard to get the kids to rock out tonight. It seemed as though everyone thought they'd be misbehaving if they had a good time in such a nice place. Weird, but whatever. What are you going to do? We sold t-shirts, and lots of 'em.

We stuck around for a while after the show to have some face time with people, and the guys signed t-shirts at the merch booth for a while, but that was about it. This tour is shaping up to be pretty tame overall. In no time, I was in bed in the hotel.

Day 9, Edmonton/Calgary, AB

Today we have a radio session. Basically the full band gets stuffed in a room with 30 people and they play 4 songs. There's no way this room was bigger than an average bedroom, so it was pretty wild. Everyone there was cool and the kids had a great time. After it was over, we spent the rest of the day driving to Calgary. It was pretty uneventful. Had dinner when we got it, at the Saltlik of course, but I spent most of the day working on budgets for the Australian tour we have coming up in March with Kings of Leon. It's not cheap to fly down there, I'll say that much...

Day 10, Calgary, AB

Finally a chance to sleep in and it was great. We were hoping the hotel would let us stick around a little later than planned so we could take full advantage, but alas, it was not to be... At least we had the option of going for some fantastic Intelligentsia coffee, so we indulged.

We went to the venue soon after as we had lots to take care of today, on the biz side of things anyways... It was a little twilight zone-ish as well; the Southern Alberta Jubilee is a carbon copy of the Northern Alberta Jubilee we played in Edmonton a couple nights ago. Every room, hallway, seat, etc... It was like we never left.

After the show we had to leave though, to start the long drive to Saskatoon for the show tomorrow night. We made our stop in Drumheller, AB, home of the dinosaurs, and looked forward to waking up to a new US President in the morning...

Day 11, Saskatoon, SK

Today is a glorious day. Bush is gone, Obama is in, and it's official. The world can breathe a little more easily and start feeling optimistic and hopeful that the world we live in can finally start becoming a better place. We enjoyed the ride today as we listened to the inaugural speech, etc...

We arrive in Saskatoon a little early, which is something of a miracle for us. The venue was special though - we're playing in a church auditorium today. Usually that means the day will be nothing but nightmares, but they have it pretty together at the ol' Lakeview Auditorium. I thought it actually ended up being the best show of the tour so far, which was completely unexpected. We hung around til the end of the night and then slowly made our way to the hotel, a Best Western straight out of the 70s going through major renovations. Interesting...

Day 12, Regina, SK

We all got to sleep in today, which was absolutely necessary. We're all a little tired from all the driving. Because we were only a couple hours away from our final destination, we were even able to take time to go to a nice cafe for a meal, and we even had time to get lost 4 times as they kept giving us the wrong directions and spinning us around in circles while we tried to get directions over the phone... But it was all worth it.

So we took our time going to Regina. If you know my feelings about the city, magnify it by 6 and you have the feeling in our van. Whatever, eh? The crowd actually seemed to really be into it, which was pretty cool. It was a funny venue though, in the basement of the Conexus Arts Centre, and it sounded and looked really weird. At one point, I had to get Sam's tour manager to help push a speaker back on to the PA stack before it fell off and landed on a security guard.

We didn't stay long tonight as we had to start the drive to Winnipeg. We were supposed to stop in Whitewood, SK, where we had reservations at the Whitewood Inn and arrangements for a late check in. When we got there, we went through all the motions, and after half an hour of repeated phone calls to multiple numbers, no one had come to let us in. Somehow one of the doors to the hotel was open though, so we went inside and sat by the pool to warm up a bit while we tried to find other hotels on our route. It was pretty weird. We kept thinking we were going to walk around a corner and find a crime scene of some sort. It's not wonder half their sign was burnt out... you can't make money if you don't let people stay at the hotel.

We eventually found a place in the metropolis of Moosomin, SK, so we stopped there for the night before heading to Winterpeg in the morning...

Day 13 Winnipeg, MB

Ah, Winnipeg, how you freeze me. We stayed with the heat wave as long as possible, but today it finally outran us, and it got *cold*. Like -40C cold. The only redeeming factor about today was that we were finally getting our rear window fixed. The good people at Headingley Auto Glass tracked down the one and only piece of glass in the entire country that would do the job for us. So, on the way in to town, we stopped at the shop, picked up one of the guys, he came with us to load in and then left with the van to fix it during our show. We couldn't have had better service.

We were playing the Burton Cummings Theatre today, and for some reason, I had illusions of grandeur and beauty because of everything I had heard about the place. Turns out it's kind of a run down dump. The only difference between this "theatre" and a club is the fact that there's seating. That being said, it wasn't so bad... There was some character in the wall that was signed by all kinds of bands, and the toilets worked... Right on.

After the show we had our first after party of the whole tour. It was our last show with the promoter who put on all the west coast shows, so we had to send him off in style. It was actually the first night I went out after a show.

Tomorrow's sort of a day off, we just have press and a drive to Thunder Bay. Not so bad...

Day 14, Drive to TBay

So today started off in fine fashion. Got the guys up for their press, I was going to drive them to the CBC station, but the van wouldn't start. It was awesome. Played with it for a bit, but no love, so I threw the guys in a cab and called CAA. An hour later, after we had time to eat and the guys got back from their interview, the CAA guy showed up, played with the van a bit and decided he didn't have enough juice to boost us, so he called another truck. He said it could take another hour or so, so I went for a (freezing cold) walk and got a terrible coffee, stopped at Staples for some supplies, and by the time I got back the van was running. Turns out they linked the two trucks together to get enough power for the boost. Awesome.

The rest of the day was pretty tame. We drove til we hit Thunder Bay and that was it. Checked in late and chilled out for a bit before we crashed.

Day 15, Thunder Bay

I slept in today. That hasn't happened in months. Literally. I got up at 1pm and it was awesome. Part of the reason I could do that is that none of my phones work in Thunder Bay. They have full reception, but neither Verizon nor Bell have roaming agreements with the brutal monopoly of Thunder Bay Mobility or whatever the hell they are. Mixed blessing I guess, but it definitely affects my productivity.

So we took our time, went to a nasty restaurant for breakfast, and went to start the van to go to the gig, but alas, no start. We did a little research and found out that our model doesn't have a block heater! Coming from Canada, we didn't even know vehicles could come without block heaters. And it's the last time we get an American vehicle for a winter tour... I was right about to call CAA again when somehow it kicked to life. We left it running the rest of the night.

We got to the theatre, today it was a real one, did a quick check and sat down for two hours and watched the NHL Skills Competition for the All-Star weekend. We had to take a break to play a show that was a little weird due to a reluctant audience (I don't think they knew it was ok to have fun), and sat back down to watch a documentary about the history of the Habs. It was particularly cool because both The Stills and Sam Roberts were featured in it and we were all watching it together.

We ended up sticking around the venue for a while after the show (they had a nice backstage) before going back to the hotel. we tried to take some precautions to make sure the van would start in the morning, but we'll see...

Day 16, Drive towards Montreal, stop in Sudbury, ON

Day one of our drive towards Montreal. We made sure to have a full tank of gas in the van and parked it close to the hotel hoping the heat from the building would rub off. It was all we could really do. So, with fingers crossed we went out to start it. No go. At all. I pulled out my CAA card and made the call. It wasn't long before the guy showed up, played with it for a bit and pronounced it seriously wounded, but not quite dead... Solution: find a warm place to park it inside for a couple hours to thaw out. On a Sunday afternoon, this seemed like a longshot, but we hit the jackpot on the first try. Canadian Tire was open, so we had the van towed there and they made room for it inside the garage. They didn't even charge me for it. I threw around some CD's and got a round of coffee for everyone and they were all pretty happy. After 2 hours, we were roadworthy, so we piled in and made our way down the 17. The plan is to make it to Sudbury tonight, then the rest of the way tomorrow. Seems reasonable, it'll just be a late arrival, especially with the weather... It's very reminiscent of my driving across eastern Canada last December, and precisely why I never wanted to tour Canada in the winter ever again. Next year, this is a promise I keep. I'm done with winter. The point was driven home when we made a gas stop just outside Sault Ste. Marie and the highway was closed going in the other direction, towards what we had just gone through. The cop was surprised to see us. F*%k it, not worth it anymore...

When we eventually did get to Sudbury, it was about 3:30am. We briefly considered leaving the van running all night, but with all the gear we decided it wasn't worth the risk. I found a warmish place to park it and I'll just have to get up at 9am to go try and start it.

Day 17, Driving... to Ottawa?

So at 9am I get up to try and start the van. Shockingly it did nothing. Turned over a couple times and died. It was pathetic. So I made the call to CAA and waited. So much for leaving at noon...

The first guy (rookie) shows up with a regular tow truck, looks at the van and doesn't really know what to do. He tried to lift it from the back and quickly realized he had met his match. Not knowing what to do, I got him to call for a flatbed. I continue to wait. An hour goes by and the flatbed shows up. The seasoned driver knows what's up and how to move it, just there's a slight problem in that the flatbed isn't long enough for the van. So, he moves it into a slightly better position and calls for a wrecker. An hour goes by, the wrecker shows up. The guy had the van picked up and ready to go by the time I met him in the parking lot. Awesome.

While all this was going on, I was also making arrangements with Canadian Tire, hoping to get a similar deal as yesterday as far as the storage price. The Regent St. Canadian Tire in Sudbury proceeded to rip me off. They insisted on charging for a service bay, logiv being we were taking up workable space, but the garage was virtually empty. They charged me $166 to let it sit there for just over an hour. I didn't feel the need to buy a round of coffee or hand out CD's today. Regardless, the thing warmed up enough to start and finally, at 4pm, we got ready to leave Sudbury. And so we drove.

I think I got the lucky end up the stick today. Around 9:30pm I got dropped off in Ottawa, so I didn't have to go to Montreal and deal with parking the van. Killer deal. 3 days off now til the last 2 shows this weekend...

Day 18, 19, 20, Ottawa, ON

I slept.

Day 21, Ottawa, ON

Tonight is the first of 2 shows in Ottawa that will bring an end to the January tour. I went to meet the guys at their hotel downtown around 2:30pm to get in the van and head over to the venue. I grabbed the keys and hoped in the seat, cautiously optimistic about the dame thing starting up.

First try, no good. It was hurting. It's plus 3 C and it still won't start. I decided to wait a couple minutes before trying again, and I started telling people there was a good chance we'd be late, even though we were only 8 blocks from the venue. Good times. So I try again, fail, and then on the 3rd shot it finally kicked in. Incredible. I had all but given up when the thing sputtered to life. I let it run for a while to warm up and then drove over to load in.

Ah, the Bronson Centre. Home of so many memories of shows past from when I worked solely in Ottawa. Thank God bands tour... It was nice to walk in to familiar surroundings though, and see some familiar faces, use familiar gear. I think it was also the first time I've come through Ottawa on an actual tour too... Weird... Interesting. My first real hometown show on a tour. And it went really well. The guys played a great set and it sounded amazing. I guess I had an advantage walking into my old stomping grounds.

After the show tonight we had the end of tour afterparty. It was happening tonight as opposed to after the actual final show because we didn't have to tear down, pack up and load out tonight. Tomorrow's going to be a long one... We all headed over to Babylon after, but I didn't stay out too late, maybe 45 mins. I've spent more than enough time in bars on Bank St. in my life, and I'm still recovering and catching up on sleep from a pretty hectic month...

Day 22, Ottawa, ON

Same thing today, headed over to the hotel around 2:30pm to get the van, only this time it didn't work out. After trying to start it for half an hour, we gave up. We went to the venue in a rental car. This did pose a problem about how we were going to deal with our gear though, but thankfully we were able to strike a deal with the Sam Roberts guys to carry our gear back to the rehearsal space in Montreal. We were very lucky that they were going home tomorrow too, and there was space in their truck.

The show tonight may have actually been better than last night, both shows definitely in the Top 5 of the tour. Maybe the Top 2. Imagine that...

It was a little more tame after the show tonight. Some went out, some crashed, I did the latter. I just don't feel the need to party in Ottawa, and I'm tired in general. I need a break. It's coming soon though, just have to go to Montreal tomorrow, then Brooklyn, then Lancaster, PA to ditch the van.

Day 23, Montreal, QC

So today it was supposed to be +4C, which translates into van-starting weather. The reality was -10C, which translates into van-towing weather, and so we did just that. I got to the hotel at 11am, the thing didn't even whimper. I called CAA and began to wait. This time the guy got it up and out on the first shot, and I had it sent to the Canadian Tire just over on Coventry, not far from us. Today's advantage is that having grown up in the city, it's a lot easier to deal with things like this and the logistics of it...

We went with the van to wait, because at least there's a Best Buy and a Starbucks there so we could kill time. It went by pretty fast, I guess. It was still almost 5pm by the time we got out of town though. Thankfully we have a short drive today. Once we were on the road things were good, and we even had indoor parking tonight courtesy of Olympic Stadium. And the Canadian Tire guys didn't charge me a penny to store my vehicle. The Sudbury guys need to take a lesson in kindness from their counterparts.

Once the van was parked and I was in the hotel it was 8:35pm. The longest Ottawa-Montreal drive ever. It took almost 9 hours from the time I left the house til I sat down again. I missed the first half of the Super Bowl, but at least I got to see the 2nd and most importantly the crazy 4th quarter. I had to spend the rest of the night working though, so no time to party in Monty.

Day 24, Montreal to Brooklyn

Damned van I curseth thee! Even with indoor parking and plus temperatures the damn thing put up a fight. It took forever, but finally it got going under the impending threat of a CAA visit and started making my way to Brooklyn. The drive it self was pretty good. Spent a little more time than I would've liked at the border, but more than anything it was because they were curious about the big black van with an Xbox inside and how we could play while driving. Also, at the first gas stop I made in Champlain, the station owner was pretty impressed by the beast, asked for a quick look at it and ended up walking away with a Stills CD he put up on the wall, beside all the other eclectic decorations he had amassed over the years. His station doubled as a thrift shop, pretty wild place...

And I continued driving for the rest of the day. Once I got in, I went to park the van in front of the local Dodge dealer, thinking that at least if I have trouble in the morning, it won't have to go far. Walking back to the apartment, a stop for Indian food was in order. And then I went and sat down at home.

Day 25, Brooklyn to Lancaster

Today is the day! The van goes away! I just have to get it to start one last time and then drive it 3 hours. Again, despite everything being in my favour, the bugger put up a final fight. In the end victory was mine, however, and after 30 minutes of convincing, I had it moving down the interstate. I can't begin to say how happy I was that it started today. Because I got out on time, relatively, that means I'll also get the afternoon train back to NYC and I'll have a full night.

The drive was great, dropping it off was even better, and within minutes I was on the train. I started making calls to let everyone know the deed was done and we could start celebrating, and got news that we could celebrate a little more. The boys got nominated for 2 Juno Awards this morning (Canadian Grammy's), for Best Alt. Album and Best New Group. Don't tell anyone they've been around for 6 years... And so it is a fantastic day in Stills land. 3 more days off and one final show in Toronto, then I'm off for my first of 2 trips to Australia over the next 2 months.

The Stills, Europe Nov. 24-Dec. 6, 2008

2009-02-18T20:47:00.001-05:00

Day 41/42, to Europe

Today started as most days, well, all days, have started in Montreal. Artjava. Today was pretty cool because we ran into a lot of friends, it was a nice way to head off. Tim, in particular, bid farewell in the form of 4 double macchiatos in less than 20mins. Yes, the man is insane.

After food and coffee, we hopped in the van and went to the rehearsal space to repack the gear for flight, and to try and stuff as much merchandise as possible in to our cases to avoid bringing actual merch boxes with us. It took a little bit of time, maybe 3 hours or so, which is what we sort of expected, and then we headed to the airport.

When we got there, the line was insanely long. So, we played the "we're a band" card. It was pretty obvious with all the roadcases anyways, but it can help sometimes. They took us out of the line and opened up a separate check in counter for us, and even our overages somehow never made it on the bill... huh. Wonder how that happened...?

The flight over was pretty painless. We all had lots of room and no screaming children. That was the first one in a while for me during which I could actually sleep. Love it.

When we got in, I went straight to my regular coffee bar in Heathrow. Hasn't changed a bit. It's a solid Starbucks quality bean. For the UK, that's saying alot. When we got out of the terminal, we were met by our Euro crew member and our sprinter van, which we were all happy to see that it had lots of space and kicked ass. Even had a bunk. Awesome.

We went straight to the hotel, checked in, and then set about the only way we know how to beat jetlag. Stay up all day. We went for a quick lunch in the hood, then hopped a train in to SoHo, shopped a bit, picked up some supplies and just did some general wandering. By the time it was all said and done, we were pushing 6pm. We went back to the hotel to drop some stuff off, and started looking for a restaurant for dinner. We eventually settled on a chinese place that wasn't bad, and that's damn near impossible in the UK.

After a good meal, we set about killing the rest of the night with pints of beer. We found a quiet local pub, had a couple local friends come and hang out with us and got to meet our new touring friend. It ended up being a pretty good day, and we made it all the way through. We were really happy to get to bed tonight.

Day 43, London, UK

I had to get up early today to put money in the meter for the van parking. The hotel claimed to have parking for us, but they were full of it and didn't really care to help us out, so we just parked on the street. I didn't have the right change, so I went walking around to get it, and by the time I got back, about 9:06am (pay parking starts at 9am), I already had a ticket! I was two minutes late, and for that the city of London, borough of Camden, wanted to charge me £80! Forget it! I'm fighting this one. In no time at all, I registered my complaint to fight the ticket, and now I wait...

Today is also the first show. It's at Cargo, supposedly only a few minutes away from us, but that can be an eternity in London traffic. We somehow ended up relatively on time, so it wasn't so bad. It felt a little weird setting up for our own show though, we haven't headlined in over a month. It was a nice change though, to have a bit more control of things. We got a good soundcheck in, made sure everything was good, and sat down for dinner. I was running around with my head cut off though, so I didn't really eat.

I thought hometown shows were bad for guestlists, but London takes it. Doesn't help that we only go over once a year, so it's kind of a big deal. The band was big there a few years ago, and they still have the power. The UK shows are all sold out and everyone wants to get in. Juggled as usual, pulled a couple rabbits out of the hat and somehow made it all work. I think I sat down for about 5 minutes before changeover.

Even that went to hell. Somehow while we were resetting, one of our power converters blew up. This is not good. We have amps and lighting running off the converter and we were scrambling for a minute. Not helping matters is that in London, there's an 11pm curfew for live music clubs, so we can't afford to go on late. Miraculously the club had a spare converter and I had a spare power bar, so we were able to put a good chunk of it back together and the show only started about 10 minutes late. Not the end of the world.

It ended up going really well, the Londoners really like their Stills action. It was a great way to start off our Euro tour and get some good vibes going right from the beginning.

We all had friends there that we wanted to hang with, and we were able to get the bar to leave us alone for a bit in a corner. They didn't care at all about the fact they made loads of cash off us, they just wanted us out and we stretched it as long as we could... There were some people going out to another place after, but I chose to head back to the hotel with my piles of British Pounds. Figured it wasn't best to walk around clubs with a lot of cash. One of them ended up calling me and I just spoke to them all on the phone, so it was kind of cool anyways.

Day 44, Manchester, UK

We headed off around noon to Manchester. We got out of London easily enough, but the traffic was a nightmare. We were late, but so was everyone else for some reason so it didn't really matter. I did have to run to the hotel to get a package though, so that delayed things a little more than I'd have liked. But let's hear it for Sennheiser sending us a power supply for an in-ear unit. They really came through for us on this one.

Because everything was running late, I didn't have time to go for food and just ended up munching on the rider food. The show came up pretty fast and it was another sold out show. It's pretty cool to come across the ocean and have people pack clubs to see you. It was a really good time. The venue tonight, Night and Day, also doubles as a cafe, so they were able to stay open for a while after the show. We hung out there for a while, we met a guy with the new touchscreen Blackberry, which I'm very excited about, and eventually made our way back to the hotel. Parking was a bit of a problem again though... I have a feeling this is going to be the theme of the tour... We did find a gated lot after a while, so it sort of worked out...

Day 45, Glasgow, UK

Up and in to Scotland we go. Glasgow is a beautiful city, but unfortunately by the time we got there it was dark, so we didn't see much. We just went ahead and did the painful downstairs load in to Stereo and made it through the soundcheck relatively painlessly. The club provided dinner for us after and it was actually quite good. Also, the Simple Plan guys are in town tonight and one of them came over to eat with us.

Back down for the show and it seems the Scots like the band as much as the English. There is something kind of cool about playing small, packed clubs and the atmosphere and vibe it creates. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get back on a bus/truck tour, but these shows have been pretty fun so far. Again with the 11pm curfew, but we didn't fight it tonight. We just went back to the hotel. A little while later, a handful of the SP guys and crew came over and we took over the hotel bar, and then a room. So wild to hang with Montreal guys in Scotland...

Day 46, London, UK

Today is a long one. We have to drive almost the whole length of the UK to get back to London for a late show at Koko's, a killer 5 story club with crazy balconies and an insane PA and lighting rig. It's a show for NME magazine, so it is pretty important, and it's festival-style, so no soundchecks. Just throw the gear on stage and play.

We got in to London early enough to stop at the hotel and check in first, but only stayed for an hour or so before heading to the club. Again with the London guestlists, but this one got a little crazy. The Kings of Leon and their crew are in town rehearsing for their upcoming UK tour and they wanted to come out to the show. They're only the biggest band in the UK right now. It was quite the feat of logistics to sort out security and roping off sections, etc... for them to see the show and not be bothered by anyone. In the end it was pretty painless. Just one of them showed up with his fiancee, their (awesome) tour manager and his personal bodyguard. I don't know many people that have personal bodyguards. It's kind of cool. Anyways, they stuck around for most of the show before they had to go. They had just flown in day of and were pretty beat, but their presence speaks volumes. We're really looking forward to going to Oz with them in March... Always great to see them.

As for the rest of the night, the guys absolutely killed the show, it was awesome. One of their best ever. If only every night was like that... The label and radio guys were there and they were completely blown away and couldn't stop talking about getting us back asap.

We hit the hotel pretty soon after. We have to get up early tomorrow to catch a ferry to the mainland and start the Euro dates. Tomorrow is Utrecht in the Netherlands. I can't wait, I love touring Europe.

Day 47, Utrecht, NL

It was an early one and it hurt a little bit. We drove out to Dover to catch the 1pm ferry. We even got there a little early and managed to have some time for lunch before getting on and earlier ferry than the one we had booked. Total bonus.

The ride over was good, and I was so happy to finally get back to the mainland. I love it there. The people are amazing, the scenery is stunning, the food is spectacular, the wine, the drink, my favourite places on earth are in western Europe. The first gas stop in France was awesome. Gas station snack bars over there are such a different story. Real food. They don't have junk. You can eat perfectly well at gas stations. It just doesn't happen back home.

Anyways, we drove through France, Belgium and most of the Netherlands on our way to Utrecht. We're playing a festival tonight, and it features Montreal bands, oddly enough. Never thought I'd run into some good friends in Utrecht. Great night overall. The one thing about Europe though is that they have sound level limits in all the bars, and the band is a little on the loud side on stage, so it take a little work and creativity on my part to make it work. We had really great gear today though so it ended up being ok by the end of it all.

After the show we went back to the hotel to drop our bags, and then find some van parking. After walking back from finding a parking spot, I went to see a couple of the guys and we were just sitting around for a little while when I decided "screw this, I'm going out". We started a long walk to find a bar to have a drink. We had a place in mind, went the wrong way initially, and we walked in the cold for over an hour. It was amazing though. I've always liked random walks in Europe; there's so much to discover...

Anyways, it was getting a little long, we were getting a little tired. We came across a bar that was still open, and the street numbers weren't really making much sense, so we went in to ask directions. The guy inside didn't speak any English, and when we started speaking French to each other to try and figure out what to do, he answered us! The man spoke French and instantly our search was over, we didn't care to find the other place.

There was just the one guy there, he was the owner, and three of his friends. Before we even had our coats off, he had them bring us glasses of wine, trays of appetizers including Mediterranean olives (he's from Morocco originally) and lamb skewers. And a shisha pipe. Amazing. It was about 3am by this time, and it ended up being the perfect way to spend the rest of the night. His friends didn't speak English or French, so we just had conversations with lots of translation about all kinds of things. It was great and just what we needed. By far the highlight of the tour to date.

Day 48, To Koln, DE

Today is a day off. Awesome. We started with breakfast in Utrecht, and we found a great cafe. It was snowing really lightly today as well, and it was pretty stunning combined with the centuries-old architecture. It was really like stepping back in time about 300 years and completely jaw-dropping. Even those of us who don't really care for such things (I obviously do...) were taken aback. If I were ever stranded in a place like this, I would not complain.

After our fabulous meal, we hit the road to Germany. Once we got in, checked in, parked, etc... I took care of some work and then we went out to explore. Not for too long though... We got in a little late and it was already dark. Most of the exploring will wait til tomorrow.

After all that, I still had a little bit of work to do, and while I was working the guys went out to find a place to spend the night. I was really happy to catch up with them at Päffgen, a 100+ year old bierhaus just blocks from the hotel. I caught up, sat down and ordered a bratwurst, which was awesome and came with a great selection of mustards. Killer meal. And the beer. Damn. They served a local brew in 3 oz glasses, it was really light and went down smooth. They kept our tab by putting a mark on a coaster every time we ordered. It was always a round at a time, and the server would usually have one with us. We got a few free ones in there, and by the time we settled, we paid for 85 beers. Wild! After that, we went around the town a bit checking out some local sites to wind down and eventually made our way back to the hotel. We can sleep in tomorrow as the show is in town, so we didn't feel bad about staying out late. In fact, we needed the break after the first week being so hectic...

Day 49, Koln, DE

Today I got up relatively early I guess, just used to rising early these days... I would've like to sleep more, but whatever... I had stuff to do. First up, find a laundromat. I did, they didn't speak English, I don't speak German, but it was actually kind of fun to figure out what was going on. It's been a while since I've hit a language barrier and I had sort of forgotten how to deal with it properly, so it was a good refresher for me. After a little walking, I gave up my search for the day and went back to the hotel to round up a couple guys to go out and explore with me.

The highlight was the Dom, the ancient two-spire cathedral dominating the city. We walked around inside for a while and it's just mindblowing to see these pieces of art and architecture still standing, healthily, after hundreds of years. Outside the cathedral, there was a Christmas market, which is a hugely popular tradition at this time of year. Lots of vendors, everything from jewelry to woodworking items to beer to coffee. We had a really good espresso.

Also, forgot to mention, that we ended up having a great lunch at an Italian cafe. It was kind of a spread with cheeses, olives, meats, vegetables and so incredible. It was recommended by our Euro tour friend who we just happened to run in to while exploring. Great find. We had to cut it short after a while though. We do have a show tonight after all...

So we hop in the van and head to Gebaude 9, which is sadly in an industrial area away from the area we wanted to check out. Ah, whatever, we are here to play shows. We'll deal. The club is a little special though. Sort of an old bunker, concrete-type place. They gave us a great dinner though, that made up for the harsh cement sounding room.

There weren't a whole lot of people tonight. Definitely under 100, and they were hard to read. Really reserved. The show was good though, and we found out afterwards that the Germans thought so too. Though not vocal with their opinion during the show, the merch table told a different story. We had a great merch night, they bought a lot. The next day, all the reviews online were great.

After the show, while we were going back to the hotel, I got a call from a friend of mind from Ottawa who was in town with Kathleen Edwards. Crazy small world. I wanted to take him to the bierhaus we were at last night, but who knew they'd be closed on Monday? We found a place across the street, had a few mini-beers and called it a night.

Oh, and I found a laundromat.

Day 50, Paris

Today I am happy. Not only because we're going to Paris, but because I'm doing my laundry. I'm not happy about the circumstances, but I'm thrilled at the prospect of having clean clothes. I had to get up at 7am to make it happen, but it's so worth it. The hotel breakfast not so much, but I have clean clothes. It was a little funny as the language barrier tried to shut me down through print communication. It was a do-it-yourself place, and all the instructions were in German. I'm not even going to pretend I understand the first thing about it. There were 8 or 9 different wash modes and I didn't have a clue what was going on. I stood in front of the instructions for 20 minutes with my Blackberry doing translations online. I'm sure it looked pretty weird, and no doubt hilarious. I got a kick out of it. It was actually kind of fun finding a way though. No matter what happens, I will get by.

And so, clean clothes on my back, we hopped in the van and made our way to Paris. The GPS was a little sketchy and took us on a detour, but it was kind of cool because we ended up seeing a really cool Belgian village. It was nice. After sorting out the routing, we got back on track and went in. The sad part was that we ended up running late and we weren't going to have much time to hang out. It was pretty disappointing for me because the club, Divan du Monde, is in my favourite neighbourhood in the city.

Anyways, we got in, soundchecked, miraculously had a parking spot on the tiny Parisian streets, and the club got us a great dinnner at a cafe next door. I'm really into the European hospitality. They take us really seriously here and treat us with loads of respect, quite the opposite of a lot of North American venues...

So, we eat, go back to the club and put on a show. Again, few in number, but large in enthusiasm. It was fun. I also really enjoy speaking French with the French. It's a really different language, highly entertaining. I was really hoping to have time to hang out after the show, but it ended up taking us about an hour and a half to find a parking spot, and even then we knew we would get a ticket. It was really frustrating to lose time like that, especially in Paris, and also because three different hotels were telling us about this magical parking lot for oversized vehicles that we never ended up finding...

By the time we got back to the hotel, the evening was shot. A couple guys happened to be sitting in the lobby at the bar, so I sat down with them for a glass of wine and in no time we were joined by a "lively" Brit. It was kind of cool because it turned out that he was a record label exec, so it led to some interesting conversation, I didn't stick around too long though, been burning the candle too much, need some sleep. And, more importantly, I have to get up in the morning, No way I'm coming to Paris and not talking a walk for a couple hours.

Day 51, Gent, BE

Before we left town to go to Gent, I had to check out Paris for a while. I love the city too much to just do an in and out. I do that in places like Regina. This is a different ball game, a city deserving of time and respect. So I got up early to walk around.

Just my luck, it was pouring rain. Rain be damned, I'm going out. First stop was a fresh foods market across the street, I saw chickens butchered in ways I've never seen before. I don't know if I could buy a chicken that still had the feet... That market was sort of the highlight. Walked around a few blocks, down a few alleys, and eventually stopped at a cafe beside the hotel for breakfast. It was brutal. It was a real shame, but I didn't care, I was in Paris.

And, more importantly, going to Gent, another one of my absolute favourite cities. Two in one day. Amazing. We got in with very little time to explore, but I was determined to make that up later.

We went straight to the club when we arrived. Today was another festival type day, all Montreal bands oddly enough, and we had to get our gear in asap to get checked and make way for the others. We were the only band getting a soundcheck today, and we intended to use it. After the check I made sure to tell the guys about how amazing the city is, and I even got them to go out and explore. They came back stunned, minds blown and happy they took the time.

The show was a little on the weird side. The crowd was really quiet and reserved, but apparently that's not a bad thing. Again, they spoke more with their wallets than with their applause. It's really weird to play shows like that with little response, and the best way to deal with it is to go out and experience the city. So we did.

We got directed to a great little pub that had spectacular beers and the best little snack ever: little pieces of cheese served with stone mustard. It was amazing. I also experienced the Hoegarden Grand Cru, totally different and much better than the regular stuff. We hung out there for quite a while before leaving, and when we left we didn't go home. I convinced a couple of the guys to come out with me while I walked around. They loved it, it was awesome. We found another small little pub in the basement of a centuries-old building with original brick walls and wood rafters. The ambience was incredible. The air filled with smoke I could do without, but I'd deal for a night.

We ended up walking around more after, just having our minds blown one building after another, taking loads of pictures. A couple hours later we headed in for some well-deserved rest.

Day 52, Hamburg, DE

We woke up a little tired from last night and headed back to the venue to pick up our gear. We had been advised that leaving everything inside overnight might be our best bet, and we could leave the van parked there too, so good deal all around. The rest of the day we spent driving to Hamburg.

Once in town, we had no time, so we went to the venue, Molotow. It was a little hard to find, even harder to park at, but it all sorted itself out soon enough... We loaded in quickly, skipped our soundcheck, and sat down to eat the glorious rider food. The main dinner was at a restaurant a couple blocks away, but we just didn't have the time tonight.

The club was a tiny little place, so it was pretty full with the 50 or so people that showed up, and it actually sounded pretty good. Not bad at all. It was also webcast on their MySpace site, and we found out that the label was having a little party watching back home in their office.

Afterwards we loaded out as fast as possible. We still hadn't eaten and we were starving, so we wanted to check in to the hotel and get out for food asap. That sort of went according to plan and a short while later we were sitting down at a higher end Turkish kebab shop. The servings were enormous and I could barely make it through half my meal. It was pretty good though, so totally worth the effort. And now I will sleep.

Day 53, Berlin

Today we just have to get to Berlin. It's as real a day off as we're going to get. It was a little late in the afternoon by the time we got there, so as soon as we dropped our bags, we headed out for food. There were a couple places in mind, but they either weren't open, or we needed reservations. An on-the-spot reservation didn't work out... We eventually settled at a pretty bad Japanese place. Oh well, can't win 'em all... After the meal, we walked back to the hotel to relax for a bit before heading out for the night. On the way, we stopped for espresso at a little French cafe. It was alright... much better than actual French cafes.

The rest of the evening started later on, first at a really cool little joint called 8mm. The thing was that it was too small, so when it started filling up we bailed and went on the hunt for another place. We ended up walking in to CCCP, a Soviet-style place that was awesome. Run by Russians for sure. They had all the good vodkas I remember from my trip there and they also had authentic absinthe, which I had on the bar in front of me in no time at all. It was a really small, authentically decorated place, even filled with authentic smoke from authentic Russians. It was pretty heavy and breathtaking, literally... I've found it really hard to be in smokey places since all the various smoke-bylaws kicked in around the world (which I think is great), but I stuck it out anyways. This place was just too cool. Eventually it started getting crowded as well, and just too full. I'm wondering about capacity laws in Germany right now... There don't seem to be any... We stopped at one more place, which was a really weird dance club where the music was really quiet. Bizarre, but an experience nonetheless. I didn't stick around at that one too long. Went back to the hotel soon after arriving. On the way, I found a place that specialized in dark chocolates from around the world, so I picked up a couple pieces for tomorrow...

Day 54, Berlin

Alas, our final day in Europe. Today started with a search for breakfast, and we found a winner, all-around champion on the first shot. Even the coffee was good. They served us great little pastry, meat and fruit plates and everything was really fresh and insanely delicious. It's on my list of places to go back to.

We still had a little bit of time to kill before going to the club, so a couple guys went to a museum, I went Berlin Wall-ing. There was an area right behind our hotel where the wall used to be, so there were some memorials and landmarks that I went to check out for a little while. It was a little surprising though because the whole area was sort of run down. Not the image of freedom I had in mind...

A little later on we finally went over to the Bang Bang Klub for the last show of the tour. Another smaller place, but once filled with Berliners it was a pretty good time. The promoters were great, fed us well and took care of our every need. The sound system sort of sucked, but the house tech was really nice and ultimately we had a really good time. Somehow the guys actually had friends that live there now and found out about the show, so we ended up having a bit of a hang once it was done. Also adding to the fun was that there was no real load-out tonight. We had all our gear picked up by a shipping company so we could travel home with just our suitcases. I like.

Day 55, Berlin to Montreal

This is it, the last flight. We were at the airport at the painful hour of 6am. Getting everyone up was a little hard, but that was expected. Getting them to return all their keys to the front desk to avoid a €10 charge per key was more challenging, but it got done... Once we got there, it was pretty straightforward, just a fun-filled day of flying. We had a quick stop in Frankfurt and then flew in to Montreal. It was on the longer side coming from Germany, but what can you do. We fly so often to London before going anywhere else, that psychologically any flight across the Atlantic is really only 6hrs. Not true, obviously. 9hrs took some mental prep work, but we did it.

We were settled in Montreal by 3pm local time and the first thing we did was meet at ArtJava, the best cafe in town, for food and coffee. Awesome. Exactly what we needed after a long day of flying.

And that's it for the year. I'll be in Monty for a couple more days to wrap up all the biz stuff, but nothing crazy is happening. Just going to end up taking a train to Ottawa for the holidays. Stay tuned for upcoming tours featuring a cross-Canada January trek and 2 trips to Australia in 6 weeks. It'll be amazing...

The Stills, Canada Nov. 1-23, 2008

2009-02-18T20:46:00.000-05:00

Day 19, Hamilton, ON

With great pain, we rose early to make our way to Hamilton for show number one of the Sam Roberts tour. It kind of hurt. At least once we got there, it was good to see the guys again and the promoter was a really good guy, so our adjustment was relatively easy. It was a little weird to go from a full-on truck and bus tour to understaffed van and trailers, but we just worked a little harder with the SRB guys and everything started to come together. It felt pretty natural being around all the guys anyways...

It seemed to go pretty well tonight. It was our first test of the Canadian market while having a Top 10 single and the show went over really well, really good response. We kept it on the short side tonight. We were staying in Toronto, so we didn't wait too long before getting out of there so we could get in and crash asap. Tomorrow is our first real day off in forever. Can't wait to sleep...

Day 20, Toronto, ON

Day off. Insane. Love it. Slept as long as possible, and then a little more. We made no serious plans, other than to go for dinner with the SRB guys. We ended up at the Keg with them and some other friends, and then made our way to Sweaty Betty's for the end of the night. Nothing crazy, just a night off to hang out.

Day 21, Chatham, ON

Leaving at noon seemed reasonable, so that's what we did. We headed down to Chatham to play at the River Rock Club. Classy place, let me tell you... I guess it wasn't so bad, just a small rock club show, almost like playing at Barrymore's just with a worse PA and light system. We found a decent place for dinner down the only street in town and that pretty much wrapped it up. After the show we drove down to Windsor. We're staying there for a couple nights as we have a show in Detroit tomorrow. Election Day...

Day 22, Detroit, MI

We were only about 10 minutes from the venue in Detroit, so we left about an hour early to cross the border, etc... Usually painless, but this time, for the first time ever, we got turned back. Turns out you're not allowed to carry "textile goods for resale", ie. t-shirts, across the border. It was the first time any of us had ever heard of this, so not wanting to make a scene at the US border on Election Day of all days, we turned back, tried to find a broker to fill out the paperwork for us to bring our t-shirts over, failed, so dropped it all at the hotel and went back for round 2.

Round 2 was a little more successful and we got by without a hitch. This guy didn't even ask about shirts. Figures... So we got through, drove through a couple decrepit Detroit neighbourhoods and showed up at the Magic Stick only about an hour late after it was all said and done. Fortunately there was no real rush, we had lots of time. We just wanted to set up quickly and get the sound check over with so we could sit down and watch the election coverage. It only has the potential to be the most historical day in US history...

There's a pretty good restaurant downstairs from the venue, so some of us went down there to eat while we watched CNN. There was a woman walking around the bar handing out Obama buttons, which we gladly accepted and wore, hoping for the outcome. We had about three hours to kill, so there was a good chance we'd know by the time the show started. After we ate, we went back upstairs and we set up our merch right under a tv so we could watch and sell at the same time. It turned out to be a good idea because everyone else wanted to watch too.

There were a few nervewracking moments, especially when McCain took a couple states, but the club erupted in cheers when they announced Obama won, right before we took the stage. It was pretty awesome to be surrounded by Americans at that time. They really needed the boost in morale, and living in Brooklyn, I'm really happy they got it. I'd have seriously considered leaving had McCain won.

It gave the show a pretty amazing vibe, and it became a massive celebration. Such a crazy experience, I don't think I've ever been surrounded by such whole-hearted, all-in enthusiasm.

Driving back to Canada after the show was a little wild. There were streets closed everywhere, state troopers on patrol at every corner. Coming in, the border was pretty locked down, even going back to Canada it was pretty tight. We got a little bit of attitude and some minor threats, but nothing I hadn't seen before. We got back to the hotel and turned on CNN right away and watched the world celebrate for a couple hours before falling asleep, more hopeful than ever before for the future.

Day 23, London, ON

Today felt so incredibly boring and normal after last night. We drove to London, stayed at the same hotel as a few nights ago and played at Centennial Hall. It was a good night. It's definitely a college town, and we always do better in school zones, so to speak.

We went to a small hole-in-the-wall pub to hang out after. Apostle of Hustle were playing there tonight, so all friends for us to hang out with. I couldn't really wind down after that, so I went for a walk to find a slice of pizza. Took a while, but Pizza Pizza came to the rescue, eventually. Got there 5 mins before they closed. I've been trying not to have late meals, but once in a while you just gotta do it...

Day 24, Kitchener, ON

We had a quick breakfast in London before heading over to Kitchener for the show tonight. Another theatre. We thought we left those behind in the US, but apparently not. I don't get the rock-show-in-a-theatre theme this year. So weird. Beautiful rooms, but so weird.

It went well again tonight, pretty straightforward. We have this tour pretty much worked out and the show has become pretty smooth. As soon as we were done tonight, we headed right out, back to Toronto. The Kings of Leon are in town tonight and we're hoping to get back to have a chance to hang out.

We actually did pretty good time making it back to TO, but by the time we got there, their whole gang had called it a night. They were pretty worn from a painfully long travel day with lots of press. Being the understanding people we are, we forgave them, rescheduled for tomorrow, and called it a night.

Day 25, Belleville, ON

Another day, another 2hr drive to a city in Ontario. After going for breakfast and coffee (at Auntie's and Manic, of course), we got to Belleville a little early, which was nice, always takes off a little pressure when that happens. The promoter tonight was a really good friend, so that made things a little better.

Oddly enough, today was another rock-show-in-a-theatre, I think I'll start calling it rock-in-a-box. The kids were really into it though, a little more than usual and it helped make it a really great night for the ol' Empire Theatre. Again after the show tonight, we didn't stick around. It's show night for the Kings in Toronto and we were hoping to make it back in time to catch some of it.

After a couple hours, we realized that wasn't going to happen, so we just tried to coordinate a night out. It took some effort, we made lots of changes to the plan, but it did eventually come together. Everyone went out to a place called The Communist's Daughter. I had to go by the Kool Haus first though. The Kings had a mic we forgot on the last day of our tour last week. Turns out it was good for me to go. The whole crew was really happy that I stopped by, I ended up hanging out for quite a while with them, right up until the bus rolled actually. It was really nice to be around them again, we became pretty tight on the October tour. It looks like they'll be in London (UK) at the same time as us later this month, so we're already looking forward to that hang.

After all that, I made my way over to the club where they all were. The Scientists and their crew were there too, so it was a huge reunion for everyone. It was a pretty great way to spend a night. Hard to leave it all behind at the end...

Day 26, Sarnia ON

And another day, another 2hr drive to a city in Ontario. The classic Industry Theatre tonight. But it's not really a theatre. It's a rock club. A badly run club by a slimy club owner. I was warned to be on the lookout for this one, how true it is...

The show itself was fine. That part went well and the kids were really into it. The problems were afterwards when I tried to get paid. I had to chase the owner around for a bit, he kept saying he'd meet me in 5 mins but never showed up at any time. Finally after about an hour, Sam's tour manager brought me the cheque, thankfully in the full amount. He thought he'd do me a favour by grabbing it while he was getting paid, he had no idea how much it helped... But I still had to get some cash from the guy for dinner buyouts, which was worked out in advance, agreed upon and, as yet, unpaid. I was eventually able to corner the guy, he gave me a sob story that I was bleeding him dry, but I didn't care about him anymore. I tried being nice. I got him to give in, I followed him to the office so he couldn't run away and took some cash. And, even then, after everything else, he shorted me. $15. I mean, why even bother? What's the point? I was so sick of dealing with him that I just took it and left, and hopefully I'll never be back (of course writing this means I will, at least 6 times)...

By a twist of fate, the night turned out alright. We were all staying in the same hotel. We got the front desk guy to reopen the pool and hot tub for us. Poor guy just didn't know... Within minutes, we had about 25 people and two coolers of beer by the side of the pool. The complaints started rolling in about an hour later, by which point everyone was sitting on deck chair, but in the pool itself... Good times rock n roll... Didn't take long to shut this one down. At least they let us keep our rooms...

Day 27, Toronto

Day off. Sweet deal, nice! 2nd one in a week. Unbelievable. And tomorrow's a day off too! Back-to-back hasn't happened in weeks! We took our time driving back today and got in late afternoon. Nothing much happened tonight. I did alot of work for our upcoming European run, but took a quick time out to go for dinner with a couple of the guys. Kept it pretty low key today.

Day 28, Toronto

Today was another slow one. I went for coffee at Manic, breakfast at Auntie's and Uncles, and that was all I needed for my day. Lots of advance work, went to hang out for a little while with some local friends at the end of the night, and that was it. Nice, easy, relaxing. Good times.

Day 29, Toronto

So continues our week-long reign in Toronto, but today we actually have to work! Of course, we have the usual breakfast and coffee, and of course, it's amazing. Back to the hotel to rest for a bit, and around 3:30pm, we make our way to the Danforth. Rock-in-a-box yet again.

At least this time it's a little different. the crowd is definitely worthy. We could do 1000 people a night in Toronto on our own, so it's no wonder that this has become a 4-night stand. The kids love it, show is great. And the best part is we don't even have to load out after! All the gear stays in the theatre for 5 days. So awesome.

No after-show hang tonight, just a run to the Big Slice. We're saving it all for the last night of this run.

Day 30, Toronto

Guess what? Toronto again. Breakfast and coffee as usual. Fantastic, as usual. Again, kept it low-key today, just working. Did a little shopping, nothing crazy. I've begun keeping the days off to myself. Personal time is at a premium, and I need what I can get.

Day 31, Toronto

Tonight is the 2nd night of our Toronto stand, show 2 of 4. We went through the usual daily motions leading up to the show. There was something about tonight though. For some reason it was easily the best show of the entire tour so far. The best performance, the best crowd, the best lights, the best sound, the best vibe. Everything just seemed to come together. Good timing too... All the management, agents, label and radio people were there, and we made a great showing. We owned it tonight. We went to a pub a couple doors down to celebrate and actually hang with people, and it ended up being a pretty good time. Somehow I ended up being there a lot later than I had planned. We didn't have the van with us, so I had to catch a ride home. Somehow a stranger got in with me and split the ride. I guess that was a bonus...

Day 32, Toronto

Show 3 of 4. Well, it's just like going to work everyday at this point. Walk in, everything is there, same people, same room, same guestlist juggling, etc... The guestlists have easily become the #1 issue of this run. Everyone is in Toronto, it's a pretty big bill for Canadian rock, and everyone wants to come. Our lists have been full for days and there's always a couple last minute requests from the label or a radio station or something hoping to get passes. We've been really lucky so far in that we've been able to make it work. There's been some serious strings pulled and some serious favours done. But, somehow, it always works. It comes together somehow at the last second, literally. Guess that's why I get paid the ok bucks...

Day 33, Toronto

Finally, the last night in Toronto. It's nice walking in and having everything there and ready to go, but I'm ready for a new town. Toronto isn't really my favourite place, and I'm definitely ready to leave after staying here for most of the last 2 weeks.

Tonight was another incredible show, almost as good as the 2nd night here. Crazy vibe. More and more people are making sure they catch our set, the work is paying off.

It's also after-party night. There's a place across the street reserved for us, but it's really small, really packed, can't even get to the bar to order a drink. I bypassed that problem by getting some of the left-over beer from our van and bringing that in. I don't have hours to waste waiting in line for one drink. It got a little uncomfortable pretty quickly and just got wilder as the night went on. I didn't stick around longer than I had to. Too bad because when I finally had enough and psychologically needed to bail, a couple good friends showed up and wanted to hang. I had to get out though. Not just because I was sick of the place, but I did have lots to do in the morning for Europe. Oh well... can't win 'em all...

Day 34, Montreal

Today is a simple drive day to Monty. Really easy, took our time, no pressure. We got in to town, ditched all the gear, ditched the van and I went and checked-in at the hotel. You'd think after the last 5 weeks I'd want to stay in my room alone for a night, but somehow I ended up walking up to see a couple of the guys (who actually live in the same building), went for dinner with one of them and met a third while we were there! The night didn't last that long though. We ate and got out. We were all beat and we all wanted to sleep.

Day 35, Montreal

So this is the 2nd day of a week in Montreal. This makes me happy, but also sad that one of the days is already over... I love it here, and if I move back to Canada full-time, I'm coming to Monty.

The daily Toronto run of Manic Coffee and Auntie's & Uncles is now replaced with the incredible Artjava. Every day this week, 3 of us will meet at Artjava at 10am and sit there for about 3 hours drinking macchiatos and eating unreal breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Mere blocks from where we all live (I use the term loosely, in my case...). There is not a better place to spend a week enjoying coffee. Added to that is that we always run into loads of people we know. It's the local hangout for all the muso's and artists of the area. Of course, we are in the French Plateau, so I guess it's kind of expected.

After spending a chunk of the day there, then going to do some work at the hotel, I went back to the guys place at night for dinner and to drink some fine wines, as we are all wine snobs. Fantastic. Love Monty..

Day 36, Montreal

Day 3 in Monty, day 3 spent at Artjava. 3rd day spent advancing tour stuff for Europe and wrapping Canada. Nothing beyond the ordinary today, just good times in Monty.

Day 37, Montreal

Today is the last day off before things start getting a little crazy. I mean, we'll still have the daily ArtJava meetings (it's become a ritual in no time), but work will soon ensue. I've tried to get all of Europe taken care before tomorrow, and I'm pretty close. I don't want to have to worry about that during the show days, and we're flying over the afternoon after the last show, so there's not really any time to mess around.

The main thing I did today was pick up a rental van for the next few days. We'll need to get our gear to the show, back to the rehearsal space after the last show, and then we'll be using it to get to the airport on Sunday. If that's my biggest issue for the day, things are ok. It was just a little challenging as it's Grey Cup weekend here so a lot of the rentals are taken up and the city is starting to get a little crazy. My 4 star hotel has been infiltrated by cowboy-hat-wearing, Labatt-drinking, full-on Canadian hosers. It's kind of killed the atmosphere a little, but it just gives me another reason to get out and spend more time at Artjava...

Day 38, Montreal

Here's a crazy concept. We have a show today. Usual morning ritual, but then we have to work. We all head over to the space to pick up the gear and make our way back to Le National. It's a pretty nice venue, the promoter is a good friend, so everything should be fine. Again, the biggest issue is the guestlist stuff, but that was to be expected, especially in the hometown. Somehow, everybody's happy though, so that's a positive thing.

Tonight is a good one because the Sennheiser guys are out and they've recently put us on their endorsee list, and I'm listed on their website in the Audio Engineer section. I have to say that's pretty cool. Little bit of networking can go a long way. They've been treating us really well, and we're really happy to use their mics.

The show itself is really good, which is a big relief for the guys. It's always a little hard to do the hometown thing, with all the friends and family, but it went off without a hitch, really smooth. There were a couple small hangs afterwards, but I didn't partake. I have too much coming up for Europe right now that I need to think about and stay on top of. My mornings are really early these days so I can work during Euro business hours and that can take a toll on you. Always fun to wake up and see 20+ new emails on your Blackberry at 7am...

Day 39, Montreal

Another day in the life. I don't mean it to sound boring, because I'm loving the time in Montreal. Just nothing too crazy to report. The highlight was taking a pair of pants to the tailors to get a tear fixed. I brushed up against an open roadcase latch last night and it ripped my jeans. Not so exciting for those of you who have a full wardrobe to choose from everyday, but for me, with a total of 2 pairs of pants on the road, it's an issue. It was a pretty big thing for me to find a place that could do it for me on really short notice, and that they're next door to Artjava, and that they asked if it was ok to charge a total of $5, including the rush fee. Amazing.

Oh, and the show. Great. The guys have really hit their stride. It's the perfect time for us to go to the UK. It seems the hometown factor isn't fazing them right now, which was a big thing to overcome. We're in really good shape...

Day 40. Montreal.

So this is day 40 with The Stills this fall. Not to mention everything else that's been going on. I've been on the road since May 26th, when I did Sam Roberts CD Release Party. It seems like decades ago now. I've been across North America about 10 times (seriously), went to 7 countries in Europe, and this is the last Canadian (North American even...) date for the year. One last show in Monty and tomorrow we fly to the UK, so we have to head out on a high note. It's been a really full year. Not bad, especially since I was worried if I'd get enough work back in February...

So, last night in Monty. The guys stepped it up tonight and bid the town a proper farewell. It's been a blast with the SRB boys, but alas, it's come to an end. No one really hung out tonight after the show though. We all have a really long day of packing and airporting to deal with, so most of us just went home and crashed. It's going to be an early and long day tomorrow...