souls across canada #1

Sept 29, 2009

McDermott, Dubs and myself are currently driving in #2 following the White Castle heading west from Wawa, Ont towards Winnipeg, MB. We left Toronto yesterday, drove 12 hours-600 miles, and pulled over in Wawa for a quick snooze. Today we will do another 12 hours or so of driving and then do the remainder to Winnipeg tomorrow morning.

I am out here with the Bouncing Souls on their Canadian tour (w/ Youth Brigade, Saint Alvia, Off With Their Heads) which thus far is ruling hard. Its been about year since I last toured with the Souls so its super fun, and nice to be back in the family, driving in #2, and seeing another Souls show every night.

Usually with the Souls I head down to Jersey for a pre-tour adventures of packing, and organizing however due to our first show being in Montreal. With me living in Montreal it worked out logistically to just meet everyone at the hotel the morning of our first show.
I hopped in #2, gave her some love, and drove on over to the venue.

I have always enjoyed the Souls do their thing by having their own trucks, and being pretty self-sustained so it was actually pretty cool opening up the back of #2, and there everything was for the show to happen.

The venue in which the Souls played is a pretty cool punk bar located in downtown Montreal named Foufs Foufs Electriques. Years ago when I first visited Montreal I remember my friends Eric, Garth, and I going to that place thinking it was a pretty rad place. On some days the place actually has a ½ pipe set up on the 2nd floor for people to skateboard on. Crazy.

The Montreal show was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. First show of tour, the Bouncing Souls, Montreal, the venue it was at, and then I had most of my friends coming out to the show. Fun. The entire night was incredible. Kids were loosing their minds so much so that a couple of times Greg actually said “whoa you all are stoked!” I managed to see a good chunk of the set where there was a lot of rocking to be had and there was a lot of people stage diving. For a first show I would say Montreal was pretty incredible and the sentiment is felt by all.

Next we headed to Ottawa where we played the Opera House which the Souls played last time they came across and Propagandhi has just played there a couple months ago. A venue which has a pretty brutal load in (up stairs) and has very sticky floors. There is a neat little organic market next door so I picked up a couple of tour-vitamin- essentials for the travels.
The Ottawa show was definitely quite opposite of the Motnreal show. At first everything seemed okay and having been there before there was a comfortable/ familiar vibe to the place. Wrong. I know Lisi before the show got completely yelled at by the venue owner possibly for looking for the “backstage” room. Ha! Any venue which is not super hospitable at first always needs to be questioned. If someone is cruising around looking for something you either say “no, yes, or over there”. You do not be a prick to them.
Well then doors were opened and all seemed to be going good until Youth Brigade was on stage. I didn’t see what happened but in between songs Shawn had to say something to the security guards in regards to taking it easy, and relaxing. Youth Brigade finished so up came the Souls to do their thing. At first everything seemed okay again until half way through their set when they abrubtly stopped, and starting looking into the crowd yelling “relax, security chill the fuck out!!” This lasted for a couple minutes with Bryan, Pete, and Greg telling the security to chill out and to let the kid they had just kicked out back in. Then I see Bryan, and Pete both put down their instruments, walk off stage and go confront the security guards. I wasn’t their but supposedly the security guards then became that much more aggressive and got into Bryan/ Pete’s face and literally said “I don’t give the fuck who you are so get back on stage”. From what I hear the security guards went completely crazy on kids, and actually beat some of them up.

Okay…this should never ever happen at shows. NEVER! If you are playing, or doing a show at a venue all parties need to be on the same page, and have a relationship as such. The band did what they had to do by confronting security because no one else did but that shouldn’t have been the case. Everyone always need to be on the same page in these situations, this needs to be known, and this needs to happen before the show even begins. It sucked and it ruined the show. I did manage to get some good Indian though before all of the mayhem.

Net on the list was Guelph, ONT in a smaller venue then the first two named Vinyl. We arrived and there was already “sold out” signs posted which always leaves you thinking “cool!” This venue was super tiny with even a tinier stage so from what DJ was saying he had to take some gear cases to extend the stage. Ha. You have to love the good ol small staged punk shows especially with a band as the Souls. Nothing to crazy about that show except that for some reason the show had to be done at 10 pm sharp. I never get that stuff. Venues who have sold out shows but a strict curfew for a club night afterwards which usually leaves everyone rushing to eventually open their doors to ¼ the amount of people who were just in there. Scratch the curfew, and have a late show because you will make that money you would have with the club night in bar sales at the show. Oh well. Guelph was cool.

London, ONT was next on the list at thee ol Call the Office which is always a good time. A small venue with these weird beams throughout it which sometimes obstructs the view. London is always a pretty fun time as people there seem to get a little over the top wild. I have a few friends in Montreal from London who definitely always bring it one step up. Ha!

The drive above the Great Lakes is a long, very scenic drive which finds you driving for hours upon hours in the middle of nowhere not even seeing another car for 5 + mins or so. Its nice to be in an area as such with nothing but untouched nature however our view point is strictly from the highway. We have passed a couple of mines, big dirt roads, and logging trucks so you never know what is beyond what we are looking at. Most likely there are a couple of huge chunks of clear-cuts, and other industrial developments doing their part in destroying what’s left.

Its going to be pretty cool to arrive in Winnipeg tomorrow where I will get to hang out with some pretty good friends who I also share the traveling adventures with. I know non of them have seen the Souls before, so they are going to come to the show and hang.
And…the Royal Albert/ Mondragon Café which is always a nice vegan treats while in Winnipeg.

the killers- bell center

This past weekend i was able to catch the KILLERS at the Bell Center in Montreal. What a great band!
I really enjoyed the show but was seated in the back, up in the bleachers so was missing the "umph" of the sound and getting hit hard by the show.
Non the less it was still good but I must say that using confetti, and not re-using it- if that is the case- is lame!