Archive for the ‘Tour Diary’ Category
Tour Diary – the Conquest of Quebec – Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, QC (Nov 26 and 27, 2009)
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, QC (Nov 26 and 27, 2009)
You might need a little help locating this one on the map: head NNE from Toronto and keep on going, past Algonquin Park, past where all of those pesky roads seem to end, way up there, a little to the East of a town named Timmins. This is the real deal: a frontier town, which, in North America, is very rare in this day an age. Up here there is precious little English spoken, even ordering a BLT from the local Tim Horton’s you best know a few key French words, like, oui, non, blanc, B L T. It’s not exactly the most scenic of towns, it’s functional, built to withstand the onslaught of winter, built to accommodate those in the business of extracting things from the earth. A very basic place.
Walking around these streets you really begin to understand what keeps the separatist movement going in Quebec. This is another country; the large Canada signs on the sides of the fortress like Federal buildings look very out of place. The Fleur-de-Lys flies a little prouder than the occasional Maple Leaf that you might come across. For the average guy on the street, Canada must seem a very fuzzy, distant and inconsequential concept. From my point of view, I love the idea that within my own country I can feel so “out-of-town”.
It was a very nice little theater tonight, beautiful sound on stage and excellent sound in the auditorium. Unfortunately there were very few people in attendance. I thought we played a really good show…one of those tightly played, snarling affairs. I’m not sure if we made much of an impression on Rouyn-Noranda. Hopefully there was at least one person in the audience who walked out of there thinking, ”….man, that was cool….”.
Val D’Or is a relatively short, ninety minute ride east from Rouyn-Noranda. It was a grey, wet day. The steady, cold drizzle, the theater being a bit too far out of town, made me think twice about hoofing it in to town. So I spent the day on the bus, a depressing way to spend a day. The alternate was to spend it in the rotting motel on the highway, the bus seemed the better choice. I watched seven episodes of an Australian comedy show called Summer High (or something like that). It was very disturbing and very funny.
We had what I would call a disheartened show tonight: which is probably the worst kind, from a performer’s point of view. It was a very decent little theater inside of a huge local high school, pretty decent production, a very helpful crew, but a tiny audience. I hope we gave them enough.
We head back tonight. I’m not sure if I’d call it a “Conquest”, more like a brief forage, but, overall, we had fun these past couple of weeks bouncing around the highways of Quebec. We have a gig in Miami next week for our friend Enrique Martinez Celaya and then we have some serious work to do in the studio. Have a great holiday. Keep your eyes on this blog for updates about the studio and for news on upcoming Latent stuff.
We’ll be back on the road in March.
Tags: Conquest of Quebec, Rouyn Noranda, Val d'Or
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Tour Diary – The Conquest of Quebec – Quebec City, QC (Nov 21, 2009)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
People in other parts of Canada tend to get pissed off at Quebec on a regular basis. It is such a different culture, a different attitude towards the way one lives a life, they are just so darn different from us: and people tend to get pissed off at things that are different from them. The thing about Quebec is that its mere presence, its simple confoundedness, is what makes Canada unique, different, special. It’s why we are who we are.
We are thinking about doing an album in French and touring though Quebec, exclusively, for the next couple of years. Leave North America without leaving the continent, come to Quebec.
Quebec City is such a beautiful and sophisticated place. If ever a city could be called “charming”, this is it. Even the overabundance of souvenir shops can’t take away from its charm. It’s the most unique city on this continent. If you are looking for a destination for that ever elusive romantic weekend getaway, look no further, you won’t be disappointed.
We had an amazing night. We played in a beautiful theater (La Palais Montcalm) and had a surprisingly large crowd (we’ve only played here once in the past twenty-five years and that was at a festival). The audience was not only large, but incredibly enthusiastic and attentive. We played two sets and they stuck with us through both.
Tomorrow we head back to Toronto for a couple of days before we climb on board a bus and head north into the real Quebec…north into the unknown…Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, here we come.
Tags: Conquest of Quebec, Quebec City
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Tour Diary – The Conquest of Quebec – Montreal and Sherbrooke, QC (November 18 – 20, 2009)
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Old Montreal
I had my morning coffee in a small café off of Sherbrooke Street, serenaded by that penultimate Quebec songbird, Celine Dion. If it’s Celine this must be Montreal.
Technically, this is our hometown…at least it’s where we grew up. Once a Montrealer, always a Montrealer. Its part of our genetic code. The thing about Montreal is that it never seems to change. It’s an old city and set in its ways; sophisticated, urbane and confident. Sherbrooke Street always maintains its old-world class; Ste Catherine never rises above its slightly sleezy strip-club chique; Old Montreal is always the perfectly preserved glimpse into a very distant past; Crescent Street is always hopping come nightfall; tight jeans and bad ‘70s rock never goes out of style; the Decarie Expressway is always jammed.
Another thing about Montreal that never changes is that it is always a great city in which to perform; the audiences are always knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I don’t think we’ve ever had a truly bad show in this city. This time through we had two shows over two nights at a new club in town, The Astral, which is run by the Montreal Jazz Festival and part of their new headquarters. It’s not a bad little club, a bit sterile, but that might change with time. It’s got great production and is intelligently laid out. We had two pretty good shows, the second night was a notch better than the first, and we debuted three new songs, Stranger Here, Staring Man and Little Dark Heart. Overall it was a nice way to start our Conquest of Quebec Tour, in a familiar environment, before we head deeper into the unknown.
Sherbrooke isn’t exactly heart-of-darkness territory, but it’s an introductory taste to small town Quebec. We have never played here. The town is located about two hours east of Montreal in the Eastern Townships, which is an area of lakes and ski hills that was, at one time, the play-land for English Montreal. Our grandparents had a cottage in Magog, about 20 minutes from Sherbrooke, where we spent a lot of time in the summer and winter. There is still a healthy mix of English and French in these parts, but the sophistication that one finds in Montreal does not travel off of the island. Our lodgings tonight were at La Payesanne Motel. The rooms had that 70’s porn flic décor and they smelled like…well…they smelled like old motel rooms.
The gig tonight was at Centennial Hall, located on the campus of Bishops University. A little run down, but not a bad venue. It was an odd night on stage. The audience felt kind of distant, both physically and mentally. We did a kind of low-revving, heavy, kind of show. It was hard to tell what it sounded like in the audience or how it was received.
Tags: Conquest of Quebec, Montreal, Sherbrooke
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South Orange, NJ and Easton, MD (Oct 11 – 13, 2009)
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
I don’t know exactly where we were today, somewhere on or near the Jersey shore. We could have been in any small town in America except we were apparently only about 15 minutes from Manhattan….you could have fooled me.
An odd venue tonight. Not a bad little room, very utilitarian, but with decent sound. It was a very slight audience, but the promoter was relatively pleased because it was the largest crowd they have had this season. We have been hearing this all over the country. It’s been a tough year for the live music biz (as it has been for most biz’zs). Hopefully these little community theaters are able to ride out these tough economic times….hopefully these little indy bands are able to ride out these tough economic times.
We had a really good night on stage. Jeff rejoined us and inserted another level of weird into the sound. It’s a shame that Jeff wasn’t with us from the start of the tour, it would have been interesting to hear the variations that he, Aaron and I could have created….maybe next time.
It was a bad day for our crew. Jared, Dave and Mike are all from Boston and today their Red Sox were swept from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Anheim Angels of Californialand (or something like that)and their Patriots suffered a surprising loss at the hands of the Denver Broncos.
We had a day off yesterday in Easton, Maryland. It also happened to be Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving….so we gave thanks and then went about spreading our disease. Easton isn’t a bad town to relax in for a day. A few square blocks of the downtown has been given enough of a facelift to entice tourists driving through to stop for lunch or to check out one of the many galleries in town. It’s not exactly a town bursting with energy but as a place for a day off it worked just fine.
The Avalon Theater is one of our favorite venues these days. This was our third time here in the last few years. It’s a beautifully reconditioned vaudeville theater that has warm sound and a great relationship between the stage and the audience.
We had a pretty good night. This was Aaron’s last show with us. He has added a really nice dimension to the sound. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back out here with us soon.
Tags: Easton, Patriots, Red Sox, South Orange
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Carrboro, NC and Lewisburg, WV (Oct 8 – 10, 2009)
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
We had a very welcome day off in Chapel Hill and then two shows over two nights in neighbouring Carrboro, so we had the luxury of staying in the same place for three full days. We also happened to be booked in to a very comfortable hotel (The Franklin), sometimes the stars align. Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina, which in turn, is home to those ass-kicking-basketball Tar Heels. It’s a very easy place to spend a few days, a classic University town with lots of used book stores, music stores, coffee shops, restaurants and co-eds strolling the strip. It’s hard to believe that these young people are college age; it’s hard to believe that I was that young when I was in University…. I am so old.
The two shows were at the Arts Center which could use a major retro-fit, at the very least they could spend a bit of cash and put a decent sound system in to the place. Despite that we had two very good nights, with two very good audiences.
David Wiffen, who wrote Lost My Driving Wheel and a whole mitt full of other great songs and who had one of the great baritones in folk music suffered a serious heart attack this weekend. We sent positive vibes his way with a closing version of Driving Wheel, as did Lee Harvey Osmond with their cover of Wiffen’s “Lucifer Blues”. We wish him a speedy recovery.
We used up all of our good hotel karma in Chapel Hill. We pulled in to our hotel (more like a motel) early this morning, the only things awake were Bobby our bus driver and the cockroaches running up and down the stairwells.
Never mind those West Virginia jokes, Lewisburg is located in a stunningly beautiful part of the world. It was one of those perfect Fall days, when simply inhaling is a pleasure. Stepping off the bus into the streets of this town (actually we stepped off the bus into a hundred and fifty year old graveyard) was like stepping in to another era. The church across the street from where we were parked was built in the late 1700’s. Even though the main street has been fully occupied by local retailers (coffee shops, art galleries, bakeries, antique shops, etc..) they have somehow figured out how too not swamp the street in cliché and overkill. Perhaps that day is somewhere down the line, but for now it’s a beautiful little town that has preserved much of its heritage. There was some kind of fund raising Fall festival on the main street today so the town had a special vibe.
Sitting above the town is a Civil War graveyard where the bodies of 95 unknown Confederate Soldiers where re-interned years after the end of the war. They were originally buried in an unmarked mass grave on the orders of an obviously, nasty Union general. The current site is also a mass grave laid out in the shape of a giant cross…very eerie…a very good location for the start of a Confederate soldier zombie movie. There must be so many ghosts wandering around this town: it was the site of a notable battle in the Civil War as well as the site of a major Shawnee Indian raid on the original settlement, which saw dozens of settler’s families slaughtered along with a subsequent slaughter of dozens of Shawnee families. There has been lots of blood spilt in these hills.
Tonight we played Carnegie Hall. There are three Carnegie Halls in the USA, and we have now played them all (ok, there might be four, but who’s counting). We played a very cool set of music: very low revving, simmering grooves. Aaron seems to be settling in to the music.
This is why one tours… even after 25 years on the road….for nights like this on stage and for occasionally running into special little towns like this one. A very good day.
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Ann Arbor, MI and Pittsburgh, PA (Oct 5 and 6, 2009)
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Ann Arbor is a very familiar stomping ground for us. Over the years we have performed dozens of times at various venues around this active little college town. These days we seemed to have settled into The Ark, which is one of the country’s more storied performance spaces. They could definitely do a bit of an upgrade on the back stage area and the in-house sound system could use an overhaul, but all of that can be overlooked, because the audience that turns out for these shows are always knowledgeable and enthusiastic. These shows are always fun and dynamic and tonight’s was no different. Our performance may have been a bit sloppy and loose but that isn’t always a bad thing, I thought it had an energetic edge.
****
Pittsburgh is the constant butt of those downtrodden-American-City jokes, but I have always had a soft spot for the place. For one thing it is one of the few American cities that really makes use of its waterfront. The rivers that cut through this town are a large part of its’ downtown life and profile. There is also a sense that no one is giving up on the place, there seems to be some optimism here, reflected in the ongoing downtown renewal projects. It’s also got a fascinating place in American history; it was home to some of the great builders that this country has produced; it is the birthplace of one of the country’s most revolutionary artists and is currently tops in the sporting world with the Penguins and Steelers the reigning champions in their sports. Even the lowly baseball Pirates have a place in my heart: growing up in Montreal I would tune in one of those megawatt radio stations which broadcast out of this area and I’d listen to the Pirate games as I fell asleep. I can still conjure images of Willie Stargell slowly sauntering to the plate; of Steve Blass commanding the game from his perch on the mound; and of Roberto Clemente picking them off at home plate from right field. Despite all that we have never really done that well, from an attendance point of view, in this town and tonight was no different. We were in a beautiful theater but attendance was a little light, but what they lacked in numbers they definitely made up for in enthusiasm and they did their best to spur us on. I think we were all a little tired tonight, I was particularly exhausted and so the show lacked a bit of focus. The four shows in three nights plus the flight to and from Vancouver have taken a bit of a toll. Tomorrow is a much needed day off.
Tags: Ann Arbour, Pittsburgh
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Lexington and Three Oaks, MI (Oct 3 and 4, 2009)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
I guess tonight was the “real” opening night…..in-stores and cocktail parties don’t really count.
We arrived back in Toronto around ten o’clock on Friday night and had to be at our studio at 6:45am the next day to load our gear out for an 8:30am departure: a four hour drive to Lexington (with a border crossing), two new crew guys to show the ropes, and two shows. It was a very long day. To add a little bit of extra stress, Jeff is not with us because of a family emergency (we hope that he’ll join us in a few days). Luckily Aaron Goldstein, who is playing pedal steel with Lee Harvey Osmond, was planning to sit in with us, so soundcheck was dedicated to getting Aaron integrated into the sound of the band.
This is, not surprisingly, our first time in Lexington. A very quaint little town located on the shore of Lake Huron (my favourite of the Great Lakes). A nicely renovated, quirky little theater (The Lexington Music Theater) and a well engaged audience for both shows. The only hic-up in the night was an over worked promoter who failed to understand that, yes, we like our dinner hot and serving it before we go on stage for the first show so that we can eat it 90 minutes later, just doesn’t work. Sometimes you can role with that type of thing, but when you have had the type of schedule that we have had for the past few days, all you really want is a semi-decent, relatively hot meal….a congealed quiche and stone cold grilled sandwich just doesn’t cut it. But, most importantly we had a pretty decent opening night on stage.
****
Another new town tonight, Three Oaks. I’m not quite sure where we are in the state, but I know it is very close to the Indiana border and Lake Michigan: a very weird little town with an obvious critical mass of like-minded residents, who have carved out this little artsy haven in the middle of nowhere Michigan. Some interesting shops on Main Street and the venue was in the old featherbone factory that is slowly finding a new life through creative renovations. By the way, if you are wondering what a feather bone is, it has something to do with the spine of a turkey feather used to make corsets back at the turn of the last century. It was a revolutionary design that apparently made the family that owned the factory, the richest family in Michigan at that time. In any case it is a beautiful old building and a very unique venue. We were treated royally tonight. A home cooked meal of barbeque steak, fresh vegetables, various pies….amazing.
We had a very good night. It’s a lot of fun playing with a pedal steel again. It’s been over fifteen years since we had one on stage with us.
Tags: Lake Huron, Lexington, Three Oaks
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Tour Diary – Vancouver, BC (Oct 1, 2009)
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
This was definitely a weird way to start a tour, but a welcome one. This gig dropped in our laps a few weeks ago along with a big bag of change. Today the Hudson Bay Company (which is a large Canadian retail chain) unveiled their line of Olympic wear for the upcoming 2010 Winter Games which are taking place here in Vancouver. They also held a party to celebrate the opening of their Olympic superstore in which all of their Olympic swag will be sold. We were part of the celebration and played a sixty minute set in the store along with a couple of other Canadian acts; Dan Mangan and Sam Roberts. It was a standard in-store performance under bright fluorescent lights with a hundred or so people milling about. Later that evening we were shuttled over to the cocktail party soiree where the company was schmoozing all of the sponsors. We played a fifteen minute set that was listened to by no one. There was polite applause after the first song, the DJ politely applauded after the second song (he was feeling sorry for us) and by the third song we might as well have gone home: of all the species of geese in the world the Canada goose is the most hardy and vocal. In any case this was your classic “crank and bank”, not the most satisfying type of gig to play but they help to fill in the financial gaps. We fly home tomorrow, get in around the kids bedtime and leave the next day on the bus before sun up. It’s a lot of hassle and travelling but, as I said, it’s well worth it, from a bottom line point of view.
These last two months have been off for the band. August was dedicated to family vacations and enjoying the final few weeks of Summer (which is a real necessity up here in the North). September was focused on outside projects and everyone getting their kids settled back in to school. I did a bit of writing and did some studio work with Mary Gauthier. It’s always hard to start up again…but always exciting and fun once you get back at it.
Tags: Hudson Bay Company, Mary Gauthier, Vancouver
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Tour Diary – Spokane, WA Eagle, ID and Missoula, MT (July 23, 24 and 25)
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
Spokane, WA, Eagle, ID and Missoula, MT (July 23, 24 and 25)
We have never been through Spokane before. We’re not quite sure why we’ve missed it because it seems to be a happening little city. The cab driver that I had today said that the city has had a healthy growth spurt in the past few years, picking off some of the corporations from Portland and Seattle that are trying to reduce some costs. The city has a very mid-western vibe to it; clean wide streets, solid four story brick buildings, a citizenry very aware of pedestrian signals. I’ve never gotten more consistent flack for walking against signals, even with no cars in sight. Cars come to a complete stop if you step off the curb when it’s not your turn; some old man threatened to run me down with his pick-up truck if I ever tried to walk against a light again. It must be a reaction to the methamphetamine problem in these parts, control what you can, come down hard on any and all law breakers. In any case, it seems like a decent place.
Tonight was our first true theater gig of this run, a beautifully renovated Fox Theater no less. We had great sound on stage, great sound in the theater, and a very receptive audience. It’s always fun to play the outdoor venues in the summer but they really aren’t the best venues for the type of music we perform. We usually end up fighting the sound on stage and the dynamics and subtleties of the performance are often lost. It takes a theater gig like this to remember what we are all about.
We are somewhere outside of Boise today, if you are interested in finding us on the map, because I’m not sure you’ll be able to find Eagle, Idaho. The venue is the Wood River Winery: a tract of land in the middle of potato country, on the edge of a housing development, that’s been turned into a vineyard…this ain’t the Napa Valley. But the owners are trying hard and have gussied the place up with a fountain, some arbours, lots of vegetation and a few Botchie Ball courts (go figure) and apparently the wine is pretty good too (although I suspect that it has been shipped in from California and rebottled…just kidding). We were treated extremely well and if it weren’t for the 97 degree temperature it would have been a decent place to hang out for the day. Despite the heat, Jeff and Al had a raging game of Botchie Ball, with Jeff coming out on top.
If the gig in Spokane was an example of sculpting a set of music with a set of fine carving tools then tonight was the equivalent of sculpting with a chainsaw. It was a Friday night crowd in the middle of July and they wanted to whoop it up and who can blame them…so we whooped it up. Not exactly my favourite type of set to play. Usually one just needs to give in to it and go with the flow, but tonight was difficult because of how tired we all are. One more show, one more very long drive.
This country gets very big out here. The drives get longer, more scenic, but longer. At least we are in a bus, which is difficult enough; the Son Volt band and crew are in a van, which is real dedication and real work.
I don’t think we’ve been to Missoula Montana before. We weren’t anywhere near the center of town today so I never really got a feel for the place, but it’s surrounded by a whole lot of beautiful open space. I wouldn’t want to live here, but every time we come through this part of the country it makes me want to start planning an extended road trip with my family. It’s just such a beautiful part of the world and it would be nice to take some time rolling through it.
Tonight was a nice way to end the tour: a sold out show in a decent, functional theater on the University of Montana campus. It’s been a grind and we are all running on fumes but we dug deep into our reserves tonight and had a decent show. By the end of it we were sputtering but we made it thanks to a very good audience. It’s been a fun run of dates and although the promoters would argue that the co-bill wasn’t as successful at the box office as they would have hoped, from our point of view it has been a good experience. It’s been a pleasure to listen to Son Volt every night and it’s always a pleasure to be on the West coast in the summer. We head home tomorrow to spend the rest of the summer with our families and to continue to chip away at the new album. There will be some intriguing offers being made through our website in the next month so check back in every now and then, better yet, get on our mailing list so that we can let you know what is going on. Keep safe and enjoy the rest of your summer.
Tags: Eagle, Missoula, spokane
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Tour Diary – Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA (July 20 – 22)
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA (July 20 -22)
I don’t think that this has ever happened to us before. Our Vancouver show was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. I am not completely surprised. We played a pretty big gig in Vancouver last summer in the same venue, we had a decent turnout for that show, but there wasn’t the type of demand that warrants a return just twelve months later, especially without a new album. It’s tough enough playing indoor gigs in the summer in Vancouver without overplaying the market. I guess the promoter felt that with the addition of Son Volt on the bill we could do the business, again. No such luck. We didn’t find out that the gig was cancelled until we had checked in to our Vancouver hotel; the promoter was desperately trying to make this work right up until the last minute. So what was to be one day off in Vancouver turned in to two. Fortunately we were booked in to the Wedgewood Hotel the nicest, plushest, most comfortable hotel of the tour and all for a decent price. The Wedgewood is also located right in the heart of all that is happening in downtown Vancouver; it has a great bar from which to watch all the street action, and, man, there is a lot of street action. We had perfect weather for our little sabbatical, we spent way too much money, went to way too many bad movies, paid way too much for too much bad food and drank way too much overprice booze. It was time well spent.
I’ve never really been able to get a handle on Vancouver, the seedy side of the place has always overshadowed everything else, but these couple of days spent in the city with nothing to do but wander around has given me a new appreciation. There is no doubting the beauty of the location; the BC coast is about as stunning as it gets. Over the past couple of decades the city planners have worked hard at opening up the city to the large natural harbor that it sits on and they have done a remarkable job, despite the ongoing battle against private developers and the condo mania. It’s a beautiful city and absolutely dripping with money….a few too many homeless people, drug addicts and sex workers on its streets, but that seems to be the norm for all of the coastal cities out here.
What a difference a couple of hundred miles and an international border makes. Tonight’s show was jammed packed, a 4000 people sell out. Oh well…these are the vicissitudes of touring.
Todays gig was at the Seattle Zoo. A day at the zoo is always a good way to spend some time no matter how old you are. What’s not to like when you can wander backstage and visit with the Sloth Bear, Snow Leopard and Humbolt Penguins. The downside to this type of gig is the limited amount of playing time. The animals need their sleep so curfews at these venues are very strict. Tonight we had an 8:30 curfew which meant each band only got an hour on stage. It was our turn to go on first tonight so we loaded in at 3:30, sound-checked at 4:30, hit the stage at 6 and were done by 7. A very focused day. We had a decent show, not the greatest sound on stage, but a very good audience especially for this type of venue, where a large chunk of the crowd is there because it’s an easy and inexpensive night out with the family and a fun way to check out some music that one might not be too familiar with.
After the show we were taken on a behind the scenes tour of the new penguin exhibit. The last time here we were treated to dinner with the Grizzly Bears, so the penguins were a bit of a letdown, but still pretty cool and very much appreciated…it’s just hard to beat six inch long claws and a head the size of a bean bag chair.
Tags: seattle, Vancouver
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