the fall air

Oct 17th, 2010

The leaves on the tree’s here in Montreal have all changed colours by now in their cycle of death, falling to the ground where they will decompose even more, freeze when the winter comes, and by the time the ice thaws out next spring will be turned back into soil giving nutrients to new leaves which will be born.
I just got home from my recent adventures a couple days ago, coming back to a Montreal that is getting closer to winter every day now. You can feel, and smell it in the air. The extra layers of clothing, and jackets have been brought out and are being worn in full fashion. Most of this change I was away from home for so I usually took it in while on a flight looking out the window to the forests below. Fun times!
The last Propagandhi “run” (only 3 shows..ha..so more of a nice walk) was as fun as it always is, taking us to Minneapolis where we ate some incredible “cheese” bread, and mock meatball pasta at the incredible Pizza Luce. The show in Minneapolis was at the Triple Rock, which is always a good time due to good people, and good staff. It was Todd’s first time singing, and the bands first time playing certain songs live, which also ruled.
Des Moines, IA was next destination, which didn’t have the strongest turn out in people but was still fun over all. The last of the 3 shows was in Chicago at the Riot Fest to a packed show at the Metro. I personally thought that this was the best show as far as music, vibes, and the overall evening. After this show the “tour” was done so we all had a major hang out that evening and the next morning we saw Beaver leaving to go stay visit his significant other, and Barney left to drive the rental van/ gear back to Winnipeg. The rest of us stayed for a few days to hang in the city, go check out other bands at Riot fest, eat as many times as we could at the amazing Chicago diner, and celebrate Jords 40th.
One of the plans for staying included a trip to an amusement park outside of the city but this ended up falling through due to lack of motivation on all our parts. So another plan was in store.
The last day we were in Chicago was Jord’s actual 40th birthday so something major had to happen. Jord, Deedee, Chris, Eton and I ended up getting hockey tickets to the Chicago Blackhawks first home game since being the Stanley Cup Champions of 2010 while Todd, and Lia took off to do their thing around the city.
This hockey game was not just another hockey game, and our seats were not your typical (cheap) seats at a pro-sports game either. This game was where they would raise the Stanley Cup banner at the arena, which made for a big celebration and show. 2 of our tickets were in row#18, which ended up being very close to the ice, and 3 of our tickets were in row#3 DIRECTLY behind the Blackhawks bench. I mean you couldn’t get any closer unless you were on the team of course. Wild!! What we ended up doing was rotating our seats so each of us could experience the action on the Blackhawks bench. Fun times and staying in Chicago those extra days made it all worth it.
After the Propagandhi adventures were over I found myself flying to Toronto for the day to get things organized for the upcoming Metric tour which started the next day in Cincinnati, OH with Muse.
In the last week Metric did 2 shows (so far) with Muse, and did their own show in Nashville, TN because Muse took a week off so we will meet up with them in a couple more days in Quebec City.
Muse is definitely on the biggest level a band could possibly be. Every night they play inside a huge sports arena to thousands of people (I hear that the next show is 13000 pre sale) and have a major production to compliment this spectacle. There are rising risers-the band starts their set towering over the crowd 35 feet in the air-, crazy lights with lasers, state of the art audio, and video effects. Thus far I have counted 14 semi trucks, and 8 buses to transport this spectacle, and economy around in. Wild stuff! Their crew is massive by itself and then every show they have local crew on top of that. Muse has one person whose sole job is to work their pro-tools rig during the show. Its definitely been eye opening and something neat to witness.
I arrived at home the other day after these 2 recent adventures and will be here sleeping in my own bed, making my daily smoothie, cooking my own food, and doing yoga/ stretching in my room for the couple of days. It’s nice to be home. The air is crisp, and the fall smells that come with this crisp air which include the random smells of fires warming people’s homes are quite nice too.
The night after I arrived home the Bouncing Souls were in Montreal playing with Bad Religion. I had seen the Souls/ BR a week earlier at Riot fest which was fun but also a quick hello due to both of us going our own ways that evening. The tour that the Souls are on right now I was supposed to be on but the dates didn’t line up so I wasn’t able to do it, which is a bummer and up until a couple weeks ago I thought I was going to be in Mexico when the Souls were in Montreal. Mexico was cancelled so I was able to fly home, and hang out with some dear traveling buddies the following night which was a lot of fun. The dudes were even kind/ open enough to let me (attempt to) play a song with them, which I had done before once in the past but I knew I would do better the 2nd time which I did (my opinion..haha). In fact that day before the show I was definitely in my room practicing it all day. Hahaha.
We are all so lucky to be alive. Each of our lives make amazing stories.