Canadian Nights

December 14th 2008

we'll here we are in canada. we've been here a week and we've come more than half way across the country. we have the night off and are in kapuskasing ontario. for those who don't know what and where that is let me just tell you it's extra special. but i'll get back to that, first allow me to recap the week. brad and i arrived in vancouver on the 25th of november and rested up for a few days. we stayed at a nice enough hotel and had some great japanese and korean food. very rejuvenating.
matt and oren joined us a couple days later and we played the commodore on the 28th. it was a really fun show for us. i forgot that we had left my little amp in england and brad found a great little red fender blues junior for sale across the street which we purchased within hours of the show. that night we traveled to kamloops british columbia were we had another day off! joy. oren and i found an asian goods shop and we bought a butane gas range to cook on the bus. gas poisoning on the bus! yeah.oren made a great japanese stew and we bought vegetables for soup. 
our domestic bliss was not to last though.
we departed for calgary around 5 in the morning and we were all comfy and cosy in our bunks when we left. one is usually awoken when a bus starts up and begins it's journey in the middle of the night and this night was no exemption. it was very clear very soon that something was wrong with the bus. needless to say we ended up making the decision to charter a passenger bus, load all the gear into it and drive the 8 hours to calgary. getting us in just in time to do a quick soundcheck. i didn't enjoy the calgary show that much. nor the next night in edmonton. i think this band works best in a big club and the theaters can be a bit stiff feeling. or maybe it was us but the energy felt a little low. next we played saskatoon which was really fun again. that's a nice town and the audience were very groovy.

december 14th, montreal
 it's been a crazy week and i cant get onto it right now. let me just say that i've never been so stressed and tired in my life! it was worth it though. the family had there biennial christmas show at carnegie hall on the 10th and it went really well. the band and i arrived from toronto on the 7th to start rehearsals. it was complete insanity but we learnt and performed 34 songs with guests such as emmylou harris, lou reed, laurie anderson, jimmy fallon and justin bond. now that that is over with the band are back out on the road to finish this tour. we have 5 more dates and then it's over. what a whirlwind. we played montreal a couple of days ago and it was really fun. we were so exhausted but it worked because i just didn't care. off to joliette now and the i have to prepare the cassoulet. i'll tell you all about it later.