It seems that a lot of people thought we had moved to Toronto for good, but we’re back in Vancouver for the whole summer now! Our tour back across from Toronto was quick and dirty but we had some great shows along the way.

We played a benefit show in Sudbury on June 5th for the River and Sky Festival and it was a super fun party. The festival takes place this summer with bands like obijou and our friends Yukon Blonde, so if you’re in the Toronto area I recommend you check it out and go for the weekend. I met the organizer and hopefully we can come out next summer to play the festival. We played Winnipeg on the following Monday after the grueling 2 day drive across Northern Ontario.

We pulled an all-nighter from Sudbury and just as the sun rose in the morning and I finished my shift and traded off to fall asleep, our muffler fell off. We were in the middle of nowhere so Joseph had to drive the next 3 hours til Marathon, Ontario with our van sounding louder then a Harley motorcycle the whole time. To our dismay the local Canadian Tire’s service department was closed, but luckily an old rocker tow truck driver saw us in distress and helped fix the muffler at his own shop. We were on our way a few hours later and made it to Dryden before crashing for the night.

It was only an easy 4 hour drive to Winnipeg the next day before our Monday night show at the Pyramid, which was actually better then expected, playing with a Weakerthans/Waking Eyes side project band called Imaginary Cities, who were great. We met up the next night with fellow Vancouverites the Buffaloswans for a solid Tuesday night Saskatoon show at Amigos, and the next day we were very excited to head to our friend Marc Greibel’s farm in Alberta for a day off and some tasty food. Unfortunately, as we were leaving Saskatoon, the van started to back fire like crazy and we thought our muffler had gone again. We took the van into the shop and 6 hours and $500 later we were again on our way after some sparkplug/engine block repairs. After a short stint getting lost without maps and relying to much on iPhone 3G actually getting reception, we made it to Marc’s farm at 11 at night. We hung out all the next day with a variety of farm animals before heading to Calgary for a show opening for Australian duo An Horse. The crowd was amazing and we sold record amounts of merch, especially our new EP.

  

The following night topped Calgary, however, when we played an almost sold-out Starlite Room in Edmonton opening for Young Rival and Born Ruffians. Both bands were great guys and good times, but we had to leave early to drive through the night back to Vancouver. I needed to get to Kelowna early to make a friends afternoon wedding and we pulled into Kelowna around 11am. I had just enough time for a quick nap before heading to the wedding. I had planned to spend the next week with my parents up at our family cabin but the day after the wedding I came down with a brutal stomach flu and was stuck to the toilet for the next 5 days. We still made it up to the cabin for a few nights but I couldn’t really eat or do much of anything. Anyway a somewhat sad end, but I’ll get over it, and I just flew into Vancouver three days ago.

  

Now we are going to start writing our new album and we have two shows left this weekend in Victoria and Vancouver opening for Minus The Bear which we are pretty excited about. After that I’ll keep you posted on any more shows, but we are going to lay pretty low and try to make a bit of money to get back on the road in September. It does feel good to be home sweet home though, and know that I am going to be hitting the beaches hard!

dan

So we are almost finished our tour with Young Galaxy. It was quite the quick run but it was definitely great to get back on the road, even though the money was tight and our van needed $850 of repairs before we headed out, eating up pretty much any extra merchandise cash we made. We had three shows on our way out to Winnipeg to meet up with Young Galaxy. First we hit Revelstoke which was Dana’s birthday… It was one of those funny shows where they want you to play multiple sets or be on stage for at least a couple hours. Even though there were maybe 20-40 people in the bar, we rocked two of the longest sets we have ever done as Dana proceeded to get more and more blitzed. The funniest part was as the set went on each song’s tempo creeped up and up and up… lol.

Our second show was in Olds, Alberta which was awesome. The guys at Tracks Pub treated us like royalty and after a nice dinner and some internet leisure time at the hotel, we came back to the venue where the basement of the bar was turned into a band room with fully stocked liquor. They recorded our whole set on pro-tools as well and I am excited to mix it down and post a song or two when the tour is over.

The next night we rolled into Amigos in Saskatoon, which happened to be my birthday!! The highlight of the day was a stop at A&W where, after being on a cleanse for 14 days, a burger and onion rings seemed like bliss… Though spending seven hours in a van on your birthday isn’t as much fun. I made Henry stop at 4 pm and pick me up a case of beer, which seemed fair for the birthday celebration, but I was the only one who wanted to celebrate as all the guys were hung over and burnt out from staying in the basement at Olds with the promoters until four in the morning…

Nevertheless, I casually mentioned to friends and fans all night that it was my birthday and continually got fed margaritas and shots of tequila. I then ate left over nachos and stayed up watching a brutal Schwarzenegger movie called Collateral Damage until four in the morning….

I won’t lie, the next day I was hurting and we had one of our longest drives to Winnipeg, almost nine hours straight… We arrived at the venue just before show time and they fed us a really nice home cooked meal. I avoided any alcohol and sipped lemon tea, my voice feeling pretty haggard. I tried a new trick of breathing in steam from a kettle for about ten minutes straight to sooth my vocal chords. The opening band in Winnipeg was amazing, a new project from the Waking Eyes camp called Royal Canoe. You should check them out.

The show would have been way better but Amy Millan was playing at the exact same time on a Sunday to a sold out crowd across town, so we only had around 50-75 folks show up. That always looks like no one in a big club (but it was still fun!). We didn’t meet Young Galaxy until after the show, but they dazzled us with fog, lasers, makeup, and hoods. It was impressive. Afterward, Steve from Young Galaxy and Dana realized they both grew up in Nanaimo and went to high school together, but had no idea until we met up.

No sooner did we hit Winnipeg did we then turn around and head back West. Our Regina show at the Exchange was fun and we got to know the Young Galaxy people better, but Regina is definitely hard on a Monday. Medicine Hat proved to be a wicked show, even though the bands had to work the door and do our own sound… When Young Galaxy brought out the fog machine, the entire bar become engulfed and it was rather amusing. Two days later we hit Calgary playing Broken City, which I think is my favourite spot there. As usual in Calgary it was a great packed show, and I made sure to wear my Calgary, Alberta shirt to represent.

Before heading back to island for the weekend shows in Nanaimo and Victoria, we played a middle school in Calgary on Friday where an old high school friend of mine, Jeremy Lang, teaches. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a gym packed with 700+ screaming teens turned out to be quite a fun time. We gave everyone a download card for free to direct them to our website and hopefully vote for us in the Peak Performance Project contest. Part of me just wants do a tour exclusively hitting Monday to Friday daytime schools now… You might not make much money or sell much merchandise, but we probably made about 300 Facebook fans overnight and I don’t think I’ve ever signed more autographs, lol.

Anyway, after some solid shows in Victoria and Nanimo, we had to come back on the 6 am Monday morning ferry so Dana could get to work on time at 8 am… We stayed at the club until 2 am and with no other option, we just slept in the van outside the club and in the ferry lineup for a few hours until we got on. I slept in the front seat upright, which is never the best time.

We played a great show in Vancouver at the Biltmore last night after I went back to work this week as well… And now I’m here at work until two when we’ll hop in the van and head to play the last few shows in Kelowna and Edmonton. The saddest part is we’ll have a 13 hour drive back home from Edmonton on Saturday on Halloween… Maybe we’ll steal some sheets from the hotel, cut some eye holes in them and get into the spirit in the van. Yep. To end, here is some funny video of Royal Canoe… A great Winnipeg band!