(This post is coming a day later then when I finished it due to lack of Wi-fi) FREDERICTON FUN, SEAHORSE SHENANIGANS AND A HALIFAX HOLIDAY, QUEBEC REVISITED, A HORSESHOE OF LEGENDS, A NIGHT IN A MANSION, ROCK THE MERCURY, PLAYING LONDON, DINNER WITH THE RAVEN AND ONTARIO VOYAGES: DAYS 28 ½, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, AND 38.
Once again people of the Internet, it is time for another update on our activities.
I finished the last blog post outside of the Capital Complex in Fredericton. The venue was a long, dark room, with a big stage, and great staff. However, we were rather excited to meet our buddy band for the night and the next night, “She Roars!”. This was a local Fredericton group that we had chosen from our long list of bands across Canada that we liked the sounds of. We were going to open for them in Fredericton which was a show they coordinated, and we organized the show in Halifax where they would also be part of the bill. She Roars! was an indie-rock group full of amazingly nice guys. They were all so welcoming to us that we felt right at home. Kyle, their drummer, also had invited us to crash at his place for the night because driving back to James’ uncle’s place outside of Halifax would be far too long a drive after the show. We also got an offer from a local film student who wanted to film our set and put together some live videos for us! We gleefully accepted and those videos should be making an appearance on the Internet sometime soon. An old friend, Andrew Jarvis, showed up at our show! He has been training to be a battlefield engineer commander for the last several years and happened to be stationed nearby to Fredericton. It was so refreshing to catch up with him and he regaled us with several great stories about his training. Being a Vancouver band, we are so accustomed to early start times for gigs, and since reaching the East coast have marveled at how late the live music shows started. We were to begin at 11:00, and that quickly morphed to 11:30 and later. The place was packed! We were buoyed by the crowd, and the support of the local band, which caused us to play a blistering show. I am proud of this band’s ability to take each previous show and improve on whatever needs to be worked on while on the road. Each show seems to feel better than the last. The reception to our set was very favorable and we felt great. She Roars! proceeded to pack the place even more when their set started at 1:00am. Their brand of indie-rock took elements of rock, folk, and metal to make a really refreshing sound. I was very impressed and was so honored to share the stage with them. Our only incident of running out of gas occurred as we were loading up the van, and I found myself wandering the streets of Fredericton with the van jerry can. I found gas, brought it back, and we got the van moving again. We capped off the night with two slices of incredibly expensive pizza from a place in the alley out back. Although, to be fair, these slices were basically a quarter of a pizza each. We followed Kyle back to his home and we chatted over drinks for a while about music, jobs, and being young professionals trying to make it in this industry. Again, being from Vancouver, we were marveling at how a young man in his mid to late 20’s, out of college, with a job in the auto industry, could already afford his own home! A nice one at that. We slept, and rocketed back to Halifax.
We wanted to get to Halifax as early as possible because we had a little surprise in store for Jay. A couple of days previously, Marianne, our beloved road manager for the first ten days of tour and Jay’s girlfriend, had informed us that she was going to fly out to Halifax to surprise Jay, and stay with us for another few days. We were delighted to hear this news and were quite excited to surprise Jay. We quickly changed at our home base outside of Halifax, and drove into the city. I was interested in seeing Halifax since for most of the trip I was told how similar it was to Vancouver in some ways and how neat of a city it was. I was not disappointed! Halifax is stunning with gorgeous heritage buildings, and a port that is just brimming with food vendors, buskers, and happy tourists. Trying to get Jay to sit down in one place so that Marianne could surprise him was basically like herding cats. Jay was running around, not really keen on staying in one place as we tried desperately to corral him to sit down. Finally, we found a place that was selling lobster rolls and we all sat down on a bench facing the water, a perfect location to surprise Jay. After some frantic texting for Marianne to get over to us as fast as she could while he was still sitting, she appeared right behind Jay giving him quite a bit of a shock! It was wonderful to see the two of them reunited and Jay was left completely in the dark about the whole thing. Then, all six of us, once again together, made our way to Halifax’s Seahorse Tavern. This was going to be our second gig with our friends in She Roars! along with the groups The Odd Bit and The Devil’s Half-Acre. The Seahorse was an underground pub with stone walls, and a giant tree sculpture coming out of the roof in the back. It was an interesting place with a great vibe. The bands all put on a great show and we were rather happy with our set. It was particularly cool to be able to play our show at the other end of the country, and start making our way back towards the west coast. She Roars! finished off the night with a killer set like the night before. We bid farewell to our friends and went home for a well deserved sleep in on our day off the next day.
A day off. And not only that, a day off in Halifax! We had a nice long sleep in, rested from our late gig, and made plans to go see the city. James opted to visit with his cousins and relatives whom he hadn’t seen in a long time. So, Marianne, Jay, Andy, Keith and myself ventured forth towards Halifax in the mid-afternoon. Marianne and Jay wanted to go attend a mass while they could at a nearby church, leaving Andy, Keith and with an hour to kill. It just so happened that the Alexander Keith’s brewery was just down the street from us. We entered the brewery and it just so happened that they were starting a tour in five minutes! Perfect timing. We payed, and were brought along a journey through the brewery which still remains largely the same, and in the same building, as when it was founded. It was funny for us west coasters, who might look down on Keith’s as some mass market beer, to see is treated and behave like a little microbrewery. We were led through the brewery by historical actors who gave us all the information we could want to know about the brewery. The best part of the tour however was the beer sampling! Afterwards, we grabbed a snack at the tavern in the Keith’s brewery building, and Jay and Marianne joined up with us again. We wandered the boardwalk for a bit longer before we decided that it was time for us to get some lobster. We stopped at a big seafood restaurant by the water, and promptly ordered a pound and half lobster each. It was Keith’s first lobster and it was fun to experience that with him! We tore the food apart and concluded that if Vancouver had its sushi, Halifax had its lobster. The night done, we headed back home, aware that the next day would be one of our big traveling days, as we had to make it to Toronto in two days of driving with only a stop in Quebec for the night.
12 hours of driving. I can’t even begin to describe how being in the van on a journey for that long just numbs your mind. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove...Even after leaving the house at a pretty good time, we were still behind schedule and all we knew that day was being in the van. After what seemed like forever as we progressed across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we finally made it back into the province of Quebec. And a short while after that, we found ourselves back at my relatives Danielle and Yves’ home. My cousin Jasmine and her friend Caroline even had a hot dinner waiting for us when we got there! How comforting it is it to be in the presence of relatives on this journey. We also took advantage of the apartment’s amazing views on the Old City of Quebec and filmed a short little video of us playing a few acoustic songs for my relatives. Dinner was such an enjoyable experience as we were pampered and fed by Jasmine who did such a good job making us feel comfortable. We ventured off into the city once more, and passed by Jas’ school, and Les Ursulines, the first school in Canada. A quick sleep and we were off again the next day.
Another impossibly long day of driving was ahead of us, although mercifully not as long as the previous day had been. We trudged along Quebec, eager to make it to the gig in Toronto that evening. We made good time, and even had a bit of leeway to head over to Jay’s aunt’s place where an enormous feast was waiting for us. Pork adobo, lasagna, salad, seafood linguine, lemongrass soup...all was laid out for us, and after a 9 hour drive, we were MORE than grateful to tuck in. We feasted for an hour, before zipping off back to Uncle Bobette’s home where we changed, and then started in the direction of the absolutely legendary Horseshoe Tavern. Now when I say legendary, I truly mean legendary. The list of people who have played on this stage as they pass through Toronto is epic. Bryan Adams, Warren Zevon, the Foo Fighters, The Police, The Tragically Hip, Wilco, and Iggy Pop are just a small handful of giants who have set foot on that stage. It was such an honor to be a part of that evening of new music at the Horseshoe. We opened the night and had an abnormally early set. We started played at 8:35, which was kind of a blessing in disguise as many of Jay’s relatives were able to make it to the show, and having an early evening for them was kind of nice. The set was also extremely quick as there were five bands on the bill that evening. However, we played well, and we were rather content in the knowledge that we didn’t have to do yet another absolutely insane drive the next day. We were only making our way to Kingston and the drive was not excruciatingly long.
Kingston has long been a university town and I was curious to see the place where so many of my friends and loved ones had studied. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to see the place, but the venue where we played was one of the coolest we’d played at all tour. The Mansion in Kingston ON, was actually a mansion that I could only guessed has been built sometime in the early 1900’s, and was completely repurposed to be a restaurant/bar/music venue. We loaded in, got a free meal, and sat back to enjoy the opening band, Far From Venus’ set. The group was very interesting as they seemed to blend the sounds of two of Ontario’s greatest bands, Rush and The Tragically Hip. They were a great power trio and brought in a really nice crowd in the Mansion’s second floor venue. When we stepped on the stage, the intimacy of the room, and the kindness of the crowd was refreshing. We nailed the set with the sound guy just ranting and raving about our cover of Steely Dan’s, My Old School. Far From Venus was also extremely generous and donated all of their portion of the door money to us. The Mansion was very good to us, and the Kingston gig has gone up there for us as one of our gig highlights.
The nation’s capital was up next, and we started our drive to Ottawa in the early afternoon, rather excited for another gig in a big city. Our first stop however, would be to see my grandparents, Suzanne and Louis Marceau. It had been a bit over a year since I last saw my grandparents and seeing as I was in their neighborhood, it was imperative that I see them before the gig in the evening. Vague, cloudy memories of childhood visitations filled my mind as we entered their apartment, my grandparents warm and inviting as introductions were made and we all sat around the living room chatting. We regaled them with our tales of the tour, my grandfather asking, “all the right questions” as Jay mentioned later. It was such a joy to catch up. Also, my grandmother had bought a map of Canada, along with some felt pens, so that we may trace our journey across the country and back, a project we shall begin work on in the next few evenings. The rest of the guys left to go see Parliament, and I stayed behind with my grandparents to chat some more about the going-ons in my life. They were also kind enough to offer me a ride to my gig for load in time. The Mercury Lounge, our venue, was an impressive, high ceilinged club with enormous velvet drapes hanging behind the stage. This show was another one that we organized, hand selecting the bands and putting it all together. I hadn’t eaten, and was lucky enough to find a noodle house that made some of the best wonton soup I have ever had. Come the show, the Airliner Blues Band opened with a diverse selection of soulful r&b, closely followed by us. As I had said above, it is such a rewarding feeling to see improvements within our playing as a band from show to show. Our show at the Mercury Lounge was a loud, boisterous, and tight example of everything No Island is capable of. An added treat was to see my good friend from high school, Phil Ling, who came out to see us. Phil is now a producer at CTV and we had a lot of catching up to do having not seen each other in the previous two years. The show kept moving on with Patterson Hall’s indie antics beautifully executed by their large group, and then followed by the wonderfully eccentric Weird With Cats. Our night was capped off with a quick trip to a local diner where we enjoyed a nice late night meal. We made our way to a friend of James’ house where we were staying, and got ready for the voyage to London.
London, Ontario. The birthplace of Justin Bieber. Our next gig would be at the Eastside Bar and Grill in cozy little London. The place was pretty well stocked to host bands as we enjoyed being hosted in the bar’s band room on the second floor. Not much really to say about the gig save that the place was packed full of bar flies enjoying a night out. The tag team of sound guys did a really cool job of trying to give us a full light show along with our three set show. I will add though, that being able to just walk up a flight of stairs after playing instead of packing up and driving off to the next hotel is a pretty fantastic feeling.
We had a long drive ahead of us this morning in the direction of North Bay. We ventured forth with many people having told us there really wasn’t a whole lot in North Bay. We did discover however that our venue, The Raven and Republic was something to certainly know about in North Bay. The Raven and Republic was a nice little restaurant who somehow thought that we wouldn’t blow their customers completely out of their tables! Luckily, we deemed it appropriate to do a bit of an acoustic set for the evening. Our discounted meal at the restaurant was probably some of the best venue food we have had this entire tour. I had a sparerib ravioli in a cream base that was so beyond good. That meal, along with a nice glass of red wine, was quite a rewarding treat. Our “semi” acoustic set went well, and the next day beckoned the beginnings of our travels across Ontario to reach our gig in Kenora in two days. We rented out a college dorm room for the night with four rooms and a couch for an outrageously cheap price.
The last few days have been long drives, and no gigs. Yesterday, we ventured off towards Sault-Ste. Marie to stay the night. We didn’t have to rush off towards a gig so we were able to take our time getting there. We stayed at the same motel we stayed at when we first passed through the Sault and Jay outdid himself by cooking up an amazing garlic fried rice in the washroom of our motel room! We ate well and not very expensively at all. Today has been spent driving to Thunder Bay, where I am finishing this post right now in our hotel room, as Andy is cooking us up a big pot of KD. Real tour food right there.
Tomorrow we head to Kenora for a gig, and after that we head to Winnipeg. All is well in our camp as we make our way slowly but surely back to our beautiful city by the water.
See you soon beautiful people.
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