So we've arrived in good hands in winnipeg. Tuesday seemed to take forever, as we waited and waited for our van to get fixed. By 7 we'd had dinner at the Fischer and Lynch residences and we were off on the road for Saskatoon. The weather had finally gotten better. sunny and clear, unlike the cloudy rain for the 3 days previous, that the locals all claimed we brought from Van city.
The setting was ideal for my introduction to the prairies. Clear sunny skies that would later set up a perfect sunset. Stopping for gas in Drumheller, we decided to climb a Hoo Doo. Josh originally recommended that we make the ascent, but as I got to the top i noticed that we had lost josh at the bottom and it was only Shane and I who remained on the top of the beast. The view was intense, that's all i can say.
As we were leaving a group of youth were staring at our van as we crossed the parking lot. I noticed that one girl was eagerly gripping the bottom of her t-shirt as she waited for us to pass by. Surely enough, as i'd expected, the girl flashed us and man... was that a privelidge? This is the life of a travelling musician perhaps.
Our trip through the prairies was filled with buffalo sightings (real buffalo, not drumheller 'buffalo'), long open flat fields, the unofficial naming of our tour (GUYS MONTH OUT!) and our van (yet to be released as we are still arguing about it) and a stop in Saskatoon where April, an old acquaintance of mine from high school took us in for the night. We are very lucky to have so many people across the country helping us out.
We arrived in Winnipeg late last night where Corey's friends Mike and Sarah and their lovely children Finn and Nolan took us in. Their hospitality, like everywhere we've stayed so far, has been awesome. One thing i've noticed though, is that it seems that everywhere we go people want to load us up with booze. It's like "oh the band is here, time to party". Which i love, though i don't know how long this will last as every where we are people want to party. When do we get a rest? No scratch that. We're fine,
Keep it coming,
Dom
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Mechanical Problems in Cow Town
we've been delayed here in calgary and it's been rather expensive. we'd been noticing some steering issues on our recently purchased Ram Van since we bought it a couple weeks ago but we figured it was just that the steering needed to be aligned. So before we brave the prairies we figured we should get that fixed. We dropped the van off at Canadian Tire (good business) yesterday for it to be fixed first thing this morning.
i wake up today to find out from shane that our ball joints are shot and need to be replaced. not my favourite way of waking up considering that's a whole whack of cash more to throw down on a venture that is already losing money. feel my bitterness and stay clear of SEA FUN ENTERPRISES in Victoria. It's the little that i can do in my anger. They'd provided me with all this proof that they'd had the car fully checked over but somehow they'd skipped over the alignment and the ball joints.
Well actually the blame should be placed more on myself for not taking the van to a mechanic myself to have it looked at, but heck, i was rushed. We had to get back from the island for music video meetings and work etc... and they claimed it didn't need to be checked. So lessons learned here in full, never trust a used car salesman (oh my god that's even one of the 10 commandments... or it should be), always go through with checking things over yourself, and never make any big purchases in a hurry.
We're now waiting to head off to saskatoon on our way to Winnipeg where we play our next show and meet up with shawn. He is in Vancouver working his last couple shifts, waiting for me to call him with good news for once.
dom
i wake up today to find out from shane that our ball joints are shot and need to be replaced. not my favourite way of waking up considering that's a whole whack of cash more to throw down on a venture that is already losing money. feel my bitterness and stay clear of SEA FUN ENTERPRISES in Victoria. It's the little that i can do in my anger. They'd provided me with all this proof that they'd had the car fully checked over but somehow they'd skipped over the alignment and the ball joints.
Well actually the blame should be placed more on myself for not taking the van to a mechanic myself to have it looked at, but heck, i was rushed. We had to get back from the island for music video meetings and work etc... and they claimed it didn't need to be checked. So lessons learned here in full, never trust a used car salesman (oh my god that's even one of the 10 commandments... or it should be), always go through with checking things over yourself, and never make any big purchases in a hurry.
We're now waiting to head off to saskatoon on our way to Winnipeg where we play our next show and meet up with shawn. He is in Vancouver working his last couple shifts, waiting for me to call him with good news for once.
dom
Sunday, May 25, 2008
TPB live at SAIT
We always seem to be making the long trip from kamloops to calgary and arriving late for our load in and soundcheck. something about the hour time difference and those rockies i tell you. or maybe it's the fact that we end up partying like maniacs at the Marshall's residence until 3 or 4 in the morning, enjoying the sauna and parading around their house in a towel, (just some members of the band that is, please Cathi don't post pictures of such tom foolery on the web).
i also shouldn't talk about being late for a gig on here. a promoter in whitehorse told us not to post such things on our blog because it showed that we were unprofessional, but you know what, he can shove it. i'm trying to tell some form of a story here.
anyways, calgary this time was kind of like our last show in calgary where we weren't too well matched with the bands we played with. not that i have anything against such heavy metal or screamo, i just don't think our fans can really make the leap to the other bands and vice versa of course. but every one was positive, and all the bands and fans were really nice and receptive, so it ended up being a good night.
highlight of my night was definitely hearing from Shane's friends about how much they were pissed off that shane wasn't in the first 6 or 7 podcasts, and how they love us live but just wish our CD sounded as good as our live show. Great feedback, and yes we are attempting to one or two or three up ourselves next time around. recording is an interesting skill that we're still working on really hard. just waiting for the time and money to do it over again
Dom
i also shouldn't talk about being late for a gig on here. a promoter in whitehorse told us not to post such things on our blog because it showed that we were unprofessional, but you know what, he can shove it. i'm trying to tell some form of a story here.
anyways, calgary this time was kind of like our last show in calgary where we weren't too well matched with the bands we played with. not that i have anything against such heavy metal or screamo, i just don't think our fans can really make the leap to the other bands and vice versa of course. but every one was positive, and all the bands and fans were really nice and receptive, so it ended up being a good night.
highlight of my night was definitely hearing from Shane's friends about how much they were pissed off that shane wasn't in the first 6 or 7 podcasts, and how they love us live but just wish our CD sounded as good as our live show. Great feedback, and yes we are attempting to one or two or three up ourselves next time around. recording is an interesting skill that we're still working on really hard. just waiting for the time and money to do it over again
Dom
we love kamloops
I don't know why, but every time we come here, it's great. Actually i have a good idea of why we love it here. The Marshalls, Mike Turner, and a host of their friends and other fans, who come to the leisure loft, (the great little venue that we love to call home) and totally listen and enjoy our music.
We kicked off the tour wonderfully, short drive, followed by a great show with Adaline. i'm pulling her up for more songs, now. who knows how long until she's so huge, that sony or nettwerk or whatever won't allow her to appear on stage for less than several thousand dollars.
she's truly lovely, and pulling her up for sidewalk without having it preplanned, felt truly like music. for the moment, and a spontaneous as it all should be sometimes.
we go on alone to calgary today. come one come all
dom
We kicked off the tour wonderfully, short drive, followed by a great show with Adaline. i'm pulling her up for more songs, now. who knows how long until she's so huge, that sony or nettwerk or whatever won't allow her to appear on stage for less than several thousand dollars.
she's truly lovely, and pulling her up for sidewalk without having it preplanned, felt truly like music. for the moment, and a spontaneous as it all should be sometimes.
we go on alone to calgary today. come one come all
dom
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Music Video Shoot!
So we spent mother's day cooped up in an office space converted into a 50's style prom sauna. i say 50's prom because the video is shot in a 50's style with us wearing very classy vintage suits with the hair to match. i say sauna because man was it hot in there. i guess that's what happens when you block all the light and air from coming in the windows with dark blankets, light subjects with state of the art film lighting and have the smoke machine going full blast before every shot.
i am perhaps telling you too much info, giving away the surprise, and i may also sound whiny. i have nothing to whine about, however, because the experience was awesome to say the least. we were all extremely glad to have chosen our good friends to complete the task: Corey Fischer who produced the video (corey does so much for the band, our podcasts, our epk, our myspace page among many other things, and he's also coming on tour with us in may and june, selling merch, filming fights and taking part in the cruelest of hijinx), Lindsay George who filmed the whole thing, i believe they call her a DP or director of photography but i'm probably wrong as i understand little to nothing about the film world, and Mark Ratzlaff who directed the video. We have to send our sincerest of thanks to these three, who's professionalism was astounding to all of us. The 10 or 11 hours of filming in the 50's prom sauna and waiting around to film went by super fast and was tonnes of fun.
We're also extremely grateful for all the other people who took part doing hair, makeup, costumes, the girls who were in the video with us and the long list of gaffers, grips and other people behind the camera who worked their butts off all day doing a great list of things i could never truly comprehend. So again thank you all so much, i was extremely skeptical going in, but you have exceeded my expectations and i hope that we can all work together again in the future.
As for you others out there, we should have a lovely music video for your viewing pleasure very soon. Shall i tell you which song it is for?? mmmm... i may just leave that out for you to guess, or perhaps you have already heard rumours. In other news we will be running a facebook contest for our cross canada tour that we hope will be good fun to take part in and will also have some good prizes for the contestants who want to win it bad enough. Check out our tour Dates below
Dom
FULL TOUR DATES:
May
23 - Kamloops - The Leisure Loft
24 - Calgary - The Gateway (SAIT)
29 - Winnipeg - The Lo Pub
31 - Sault Ste Marie - LopLop Lounge & Gallery
June
3 - Toronto - Horseshoe Tavern
4 - London - Bristol Pub
5 - Guelph - Jimmy Jazz
6 - Sarnia - Paddy Flaherty's
7 - Windsor - Phog Lounge
10 - Burlington - Red Rooster Vintage Cafe
11 - Waterloo - Trepid House
12-14 - Toronto (NXNE) - TBA
15 - Montreal - Bar Spectacle L'Escogriffe
16 - Ottawa - Zaphod Beeblebrox
19 - Winnipeg - Royal Albert Arms
20 - Regina - O'Hanlon's
22 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
24 - Grande Prairie - Better Than Freds
25 - Edmonton - Urban Lounge
26 - Calgary - Sled Island Festival
27 - Kelowna - Doc Willoughby's
28 - Salmon Arm - Salmar Classic Theatre
30 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret
i am perhaps telling you too much info, giving away the surprise, and i may also sound whiny. i have nothing to whine about, however, because the experience was awesome to say the least. we were all extremely glad to have chosen our good friends to complete the task: Corey Fischer who produced the video (corey does so much for the band, our podcasts, our epk, our myspace page among many other things, and he's also coming on tour with us in may and june, selling merch, filming fights and taking part in the cruelest of hijinx), Lindsay George who filmed the whole thing, i believe they call her a DP or director of photography but i'm probably wrong as i understand little to nothing about the film world, and Mark Ratzlaff who directed the video. We have to send our sincerest of thanks to these three, who's professionalism was astounding to all of us. The 10 or 11 hours of filming in the 50's prom sauna and waiting around to film went by super fast and was tonnes of fun.
We're also extremely grateful for all the other people who took part doing hair, makeup, costumes, the girls who were in the video with us and the long list of gaffers, grips and other people behind the camera who worked their butts off all day doing a great list of things i could never truly comprehend. So again thank you all so much, i was extremely skeptical going in, but you have exceeded my expectations and i hope that we can all work together again in the future.
As for you others out there, we should have a lovely music video for your viewing pleasure very soon. Shall i tell you which song it is for?? mmmm... i may just leave that out for you to guess, or perhaps you have already heard rumours. In other news we will be running a facebook contest for our cross canada tour that we hope will be good fun to take part in and will also have some good prizes for the contestants who want to win it bad enough. Check out our tour Dates below
Dom
FULL TOUR DATES:
May
23 - Kamloops - The Leisure Loft
24 - Calgary - The Gateway (SAIT)
29 - Winnipeg - The Lo Pub
31 - Sault Ste Marie - LopLop Lounge & Gallery
June
3 - Toronto - Horseshoe Tavern
4 - London - Bristol Pub
5 - Guelph - Jimmy Jazz
6 - Sarnia - Paddy Flaherty's
7 - Windsor - Phog Lounge
10 - Burlington - Red Rooster Vintage Cafe
11 - Waterloo - Trepid House
12-14 - Toronto (NXNE) - TBA
15 - Montreal - Bar Spectacle L'Escogriffe
16 - Ottawa - Zaphod Beeblebrox
19 - Winnipeg - Royal Albert Arms
20 - Regina - O'Hanlon's
22 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
24 - Grande Prairie - Better Than Freds
25 - Edmonton - Urban Lounge
26 - Calgary - Sled Island Festival
27 - Kelowna - Doc Willoughby's
28 - Salmon Arm - Salmar Classic Theatre
30 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)