Spring Tour (first leg)
We recently returned home after a week on the road. We’re going to rest up for a few days and get back at it later this week. We head to Red Deer, Lloydminster and Saskatoon. Here's a recap of our past week:
Monday - The Ironwood, Calgary - Our first order of business in Calgary was a radio performance at UP 97.7. This one was a solo acoustic performance. We played one cover (Mrs. Robinson), and one of ours (Bring It On Home). We haven’t done too many of these so it felt pretty good to get some airtime. Next order of business was loading in at the venue.. When we walked into this venue we were all like, “Oh yeah!” There’s just nothing bad about this place. The room is beautiful, and the sound is second to none. Our sound guy JT was an absolute pro. He’s been doing sound for as long as we’ve been alive, mixing for bands like Nazareth back in the day. The room was full and we were thrilled to play to a crowd that was there to hear and enjoy music. This show became one of our most memorable to date, a great we to kick off the week!
Tuesday & Wednesday – Rose & Crown, Banff – Pulling into Banff is always a great feeling. The place just puts you at ease. The big difference with these shows was the absence of our bass player, James. Unfortunately he couldn’t make these dates due to work. We were happy to have good friend Dallas Ference step in to play bass with us for both of these shows. There was a decent amount of people at these shows, but it was totally opposite of Ironwood. They listened, but their #1 priority was getting wasted.. We just stuck to our guns, had fun, and played a ton of songs. About 45 each night. Dallas did an awesome job. Huge props to him for stepping in like that! Playing 2 nights allowed for lots of time to enjoy the mountains. We hit the hot springs, ate good meals and watched the Leaf’s first playoff game in 9 years!! I (Justin) am the only Leafs fan but come on it’s been forever!
Thursday – Day off, Calgary – The group was narrowed down to 3 guys on this day. Dallas went back to Edmonton early this morning, and took Meryll and Danielle with him (Justin & Colin’s ladies). The two girls came along for a few days of fun, but returned home for work. Calgary was really hot so obviously we decided to spend some time on Wurst’s patio. Colin actually suited up and put in some hours at a law firm earlier in the day. What a keener. That evening we just sat back, ate a home cooked meal courtesy of friend Andrew Webster, and watched playoff hockey. Andrew put us up twice on this trip, so big thanks to him!
Friday – The Slice, Lethbridge – The drive to Lethbridge was pretty quick and easy. We had another in studio performance to make at Rock 106. We did a quick interview and performed ‘Bring it on home’ again. After that we had a lot of down time. Lucky for us our hotel had a waterslide! Need I say more? We were reunited with James early that evening. He bussed from Edmonton to Lethbridge to make the show. The Slice is a pretty cool venue and the show went well. We made some new friends and fans.. mission accomplished! The strangest thing happened that night in the hotel room. When James was setting up the fold out bed, he touched something and jumped back in the dark. When we turned on the lights we saw OLD roast beef that had basically become jerky in the sheets. We were grossed out, and went on to find half eaten chicken rotting in our fridge. We were looking for out best sleep in days and didn’t get it after this. Of course there wasn’t a manager on duty that night, or the whole weekend for that matter. We are still fighting for a refund.
Saturday – Kergano’s, Moose Jaw – This was a big drive. We had to make a 3pm Radio interview with Mix 103, and just got there in time. We were all getting a little nutty in the tour van. Teagan interviewed us and recorded an acoustic verion of ‘Bring it on home.’ At the time we thought the performance was live, but as we were driving around town, we heard our interview on air, and pulled over with excitement to listen to the recorded performance. I don’t exactly know how to explain what we felt at that moment, but it was one of my highlights of music in general. We do receive some radio play around Edmonton, but to hear something like that 8 hours from home, in a town that’s foreign to you was pretty special. To us that was a little taste of what all those big bands get every day. We were buzzing after that. The show at Kergano’s was a full band, acoustic performance. It’s a classy place and called for a more intimate sound. The place wasn’t too busy, but those who were there responded well. Thanks to our friend Kerri who brought out her friends! She also spoiled us with comfortable beds (roast beef free), nachos, and brunch the following morning. Thank you Kerri, and thank you Moose Jaw. We all really enjoyed the charm this place has.
Sunday was a long, tiring drive. We unloaded all of our gear at the jam space, returned the tour van and headed home. It was a great week, full of fun and fatigue.. However, fun always outweighs the fatigue. We just wanted to keep going!