Tour Recovery

I am in a state of mild shock: being home from a six-week tour is disorientating. Not to mention catching a cold, which is a classic way for my body to react. Like I gotta keep it together for the shows (despite the conditions: never enough sleep, eating badly, boozing out of boredom, dehydrated, breathing nasty bus air) and as soon as tour’s done my body crashes hard. Invariably.

Anyhow, I do have a lot to say. I’ve been working on a tour wrap-up blog with lots of thoughts, photos and memories I wanted to share. But I’m barely able to stay awake so will need a few more days of post-tour recovery.

Until then see what the blogosphere had to say about it:

Photos from Winnipeg by Stephanie Willer

Poetry review and photos of Winnipeg by Eugene Osudar

Painting over silence (Winnipeg) show review

Pics from San Francisco by Andria Lo

Show review ans pics from Where The Sidewalk Ends blog (Vancouver)

Impressions by My Favourite Adventure blog (Vancouver)

A photo by John Carlow (Victoria, I think)

Review from 3AM Revelations blog (Vancouver)

Review in NME.com (Los Angeles)

Anyway, there are tons more…these are just the last few that came up. Feel free to post links in the comments section below. Thanks to all who came out and shared the love with us. There was lots of it going around on this tour. Massive love first of all to my band mates and crew: Benvie, Tanya, Renaud, Laura, Jason, Yann (rhymes with “done”), Chris, Maya, Neptune and of course my personal fave, Murray. Also thanks to new touring BFFs Eulogies, Great Northern, Jets Overhead and Black Diamond Bay for the great times. And for drinking our rider. LOL indeed.

Beaches and Burnouts

Touring can propose a tough dilemma: we go to all these places and yet have seen so little of them beyond the bus, hotel, a nearby restaurant and venue. Today we rolled into San Diego in the morning – its my first time in the city proper – and this may be our only chance to hit up the ocean. Murray, Neptune, Tanya, Laura and I rented a car and drove out to Mission Beach. We went to Belmont Park: Neptune was “so surprised to be at the fair!”

She made “fabulous” sand piles and dodged seaweed that floated up in the waves.

Usually after a long day, the family goes home, tired, sunned, winded, watches something on TV then everybody falls asleep after dinner. Well, not this family. After getting all tired, sunned, winded and oceaned out, this family heads back to the bus for load-in. The days are long, longer than they ever are at home. But after even just a few days, spending hours lingering (waiting, really) on a bus will give even the most patient soul a case of cabin fever. You’ve got to find a way out of the box.

So again, after finding an amusement park at Seattle Center earlier today, mom and dad are dead tired. My eyes are itchy, and although the ferris wheel was rejuvenating, it was also a little barfitating.

As far as sightseeing, Neptune’s needs give us purpose: forcing us to have a destination for the day. I am just too tired. That’s what happens at week 5: a burnout cloud hovers over us, choosing carefully which one it decides to take down next.

I started this post days ago in San Diego and am finishing it now in Victoria. One part of the tour has finished and the next is just beginning….Eulogies and Great Northern head home while we kind of do the same. Tomorrow we meet up with Black Diamond Bay and Jets Overhead to start something new.

And I think this new start with new bands in a new country will change the shows for sure. And I’m hoping to catch up on sleep, get back into feeling on top again.

5 Weeks to 6 Weeks

It’s five weeks until our next tour. We just announced our North American tour, and while we admittedly don’t hit all the places we should (East Coast Canada, some spots in Ontario, a bunch of Southeastern States, to name a few), it’s a pretty big tour. Six weeks long, in fact. On a bus, with our friends; playing some shows with Krief and George’s band Black Diamond Bay, too, which will be a lot of fun. A lot of people have started asking us if “that’s gonna be weird” but really there is not much weirdness between us…BDB are probably the best new band in Canada so it was an obvious decision for us. Any ex-Dears weirdness lies elsewhere.

And while it will be spring, I will be missing the top of planting season in Montreal, and may have to temporarily place my iris bulbs in some unfrozen soil before we leave. But anyways I always love going out West, and seeing all our buds at Dangerbird. It’s kind of nice seeing the people you talk with every day on the phone or on email. Hugs are an important part of the business relationship too, you know.

Here’s a full list of all the tour dates. Shows in the US are with two awesome West Coast bands: Eulogies and Great Northern. While Canadian dates are with Black Diamond Bay and Jets Overhead. Except Toronto, which we are playing with Lioness.

April 30 Toronto, ON – Mod Club
May 1 Brooklyn, NY – Bell House
May 2 Albany, NY – Valentines
May 4 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
May 5 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
May 7 Washington, DC – Black Cat
May 8 Pittsburgh, PA – Diesel
May 9 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
May 10 Columbus, OH – Skully’s
May 11 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
May 13 Chicago, IL – Lakeshore Theater
May 14 Columbia, MO – Mojo’s
May 16 Denton, TX – Hailey’s
May 17 Houston, TX – Warehouse
May 18 Austin, TX – Parish
May 21 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
May 22 San Diego, CA – The Casbah
May 23 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
May 24 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
May 26 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
May 27 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Lounge
May 29 Victoria, BC – Sugar
May 30 Vancouver, BC – Richards on Richards
May 31 Kelowna, BC – Habitat
June 2 Calgary, AB – Theatre Junction Grand
June 3 Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room
June 4 Saskatoon, SK – Amigos
June 5 Regina, SK – Distrikt
June 6 Winnipeg, MB – West End Cultural Center

Also, did I mention that Rob “Bench” Benvie is going to be playing bass on tour? How rad is that?