January 2012
2 posts
IN 24 HOURS THIS SHIT IS ON
(I’m trying to swear less, but it’s not working right now)
So, just a little announcement to say that all of this working and doing and building is coming to a head this weekend- my 4000 square foot baby is all grown up and open to the public TOMORROW! Hot Damn!
I promise this blog will return to normal rantings about life and travel and music and coffee and feelings and yoga and...
Blast!
I’ll tell you one thing, opening a yoga studio in NYC is A LOT more complicated than being on tour. There’s a pile of details eleven feet high in my skull- compacted like trash but oh so valuable- the department of buildings is in there, questions about old radiators, software systems, too much sawdust and lists lists lists. Are these things going to stay in there and prevent me from...
November 2011
1 post
Bridge School, Summer camp is over, Tears and Joy.
Oh my blog!
It seems as though I began writing an account of the Bridge School benefit, the actual last show of “the tour”, and I hijacked it with my flaky nomadic lifestyle pony. I’m sure it wasn’t the laziness pony, anyway, that’s more aged dog than pony.
Can we pretend this is a movie with a highly effective flashback sequence? Ready? Go:
(And remember, this is...
October 2011
2 posts
Here are some words
The culmination of the year and a half long tour cycle was brought home, so to speak. Montreal, still hot in the slow burn of September, POP Montreal madness (there are SO MANY amazing bands packed into a few days, it’s insanity). We were hoarse with it all. Rewinding a few days, there were similar moments of that epic, this is about to be the end of something, feeling. Austin Texas, my home...
In the absence of words, a video, words coming... →
September 2011
1 post
Final tour, the screaming Irish, airport yoga
That’s really it?! Our last round on the old tour bus for Suburbs. A scant 6 shows flies by and you forget to remember it’s the last night on the bus. One more re-packing of the dirty clothes, a final destination coffee stop (that one being Artisan Roast, Edinburgh), the last field, and boom. Airport time.
on coffee stop (that one being ArtisanRoast, Edinburgh), the last not so muddy...
August 2011
1 post
summersummersummer
OKOK there have been a few shows that haven’t been documented, I’m a slacker. I wish I was more of a slacker even. There have been sorely few true slack days in this season of should-be lazy river days. The river days of youth. These are the days of even more airports. I clocked 40 hours spent in air travel transit during that last week of Europe to North America and Around. Took a...
July 2011
10 posts
Benicassim
Writing from another airport in another week- realized that this last show post was not complete and time has already taken me to other cities on other airplanes. Our last days of tour in Spain seem pretty distant, though I have a spot of beach tan to prove the Mediterranean heat.
The end of tour was a hefty mile. Our set at Benicassim lasting until nearly 3am, then a series of bus and plane-ing...
Lisbon SUPER BOCK SUPER ROCK
Really just the name of the beer here, but it’s fun to say. Had a day off in this treasure of a city. Lisbon is bowl shaped, neighbourhoods creeping up the steep sides, the majority of the action sitting center. The buildings are so beautiful here. There’s a lot of decay (being the oldest city in Europe), but color tiled and sun bleached and viney. There really is a sense of the very...
Perpignan
AND there it is, the entire region surrounding Perpignan, explored in two days time. This area has always intrigued me. I am obsessed with the ocean and any kind of mountains. Day off a few of us took ourselves to the beach. I love how Floridian style much beach culture is, no matter where. Crowds, stuff for sale, rows of cheap restaurants and shops that look like they disappear come slow season. ...
Bilbao Spain
Today began bitterly. I felt a thousand years old, everything throbbing, not knowing where we were or when….
We were parked behind the Guggenheim, it was 2pm. So grumpy, so unwilling was I. This is not how I planned on feeling this week.
It was one of our teams birthday today and there was a large scale Spanish meal planned, the promoter here is a serious foodie. We rolled up up above the...
Montreux Festival, Switzerland
I have a hard time expressing Switzerland. Always we have these tepid feeling shows, technically fine, but leaving a cold, metallic taste. Perhaps that of a fine Swiss watch. Gleaming and perfect and….it hurts your teeth. HA! Did I mention it’s amazingly beautiful there?! Lake Geneva, the Alps, buildings that look like giant yellow wedding cakes. All fantastic visuals. I stared at them...
Lucca Italy
A random page of a Italian/English phrase book at a gas station somewhere in Italy:
Will you please give me the pen?
Yes I will give you the pen.
Will you shut the window?
No, shut the window yourself!
Will you never leave me?
No, I will never leave you! Ah ah ah like the devil!
For REAL! That’s the kind of thing that eases your pain when you’re stuck on the bus all night all...
Exit Festival, Novi Sad Serbia
This was probably our most exotic location to date- not in the nature and wildlife, just the feeling of the place. Warsaw and Zagreb felt quite European, while Novi Sad felt different. Being in a place for one day doesn’t allow you beyond the surface really, everything is first impressions. My impression here was that I had few reference points. The festival had us stay at a hotel on site,...
Milano
The bus day from Italy to Serbia. A jiggling office/coffee shop where you hang out in whatever you just slept in. A continuation of last nights conversation accompanied by breakfast at 2pm. The bodum cup is working hard today.
Last night’s show was in Parco Sempione, city center of Milan. One of the more beautiful venues I’ve seen. The epic Castello Sforzesco gracing one end of the...
Belfort Les Eurockeenes Festival
This was one of those wake up and you’re in it days. Thankfully Les Eurockeenes is pretty relaxed- not a seething mud pit of barfing festie faces. Well, not from where we stood anyhow. A long day of existing in tents and trailers backstage, from morning til….morning really. They made it cozy at least, airstream trailers and shady tables, grassy picnic zones. Except for the intermittent...
Paris Le Zenith, London Hyde Park
It had to be done. I did tell myself there’d be an entry for every place we travelled to. But sometimes there’s so much activity, too much to write. Backstage blogging is really about those hours spent in simulated environments- the cubicles with too many chairs or the “living room” on the bus. So Paris and London had to be combined. A habit I don’t want to get into....
June 2011
8 posts
Luxembourg!
A tiny marvellous place. I really had no idea how pretty it would be. And easy to get lost in. Lots of twists and turns and steep hills. A gorgeous run along the canal surrounded by trees and stone walls, scattered community gardens with families having barbecues. Had the delicious unfiltered beer at the Mousel Cantine, which has been there forever. And the tiny piano bar, Cafe des Artistes was...
Warsaw Poland
Not disappointed on the pierogi front at all. Although I am obsessed with the cabbage and mushroom variety and do not stray from there, thus not being a well rounded expert, I can safely say that these were boss. So crazy tender and tasting like the forest. And the clear beet broth that is prevalent, like savoury tea that’s bound to cure whatever ails you. Aah Poland, well done. What...
Wiesen, Austria
I decided to work up to 108 sun salutations this week, having missed the Yoga Mala in Montreal once again. I keep hearing about how much people love doing this, so it’s become somewhat of a summit I want to climb- an event isolated from my regular practice. Fighting the coma of bus sleep this morning, I found my way into the strangest and cutest backstage ever. The Wiesen festival sight has...
Zagreb, Croatia!
Above, Croatian rave styles.
This was a great touch down in a country I’ve never seen before. The whole surrounding area is intriguing, and we’ve never been east of Austria as a band. Bell Orchestre once toured the Baltics and it was mind blowing. More like the images of Europe I assumed as a kid, real crumbly old fairy tale places. Dramatic people and lands. So this tour is...
Southside Festival, somewhere further south in...
Round two for German festival times! This one is the full on day. We wake up in the stew of mud and buses and bands. Thankfully sleeping on the bus usually means sleeping late. Last night was a long time of strange dreams in the dark pod, body jostling across the autobahn. The last one this morning I’m swimming in a clear blue river with girlfriends, laughing. Then I wonder if it’s...
Hurricane Festival, Somewhere in Germany
Now we’re living the dream. Caught in traffic en route from Hamburg to Hurricane, the buses got separated. Apparently a horse truck had been overturned on the highway- so Old World! One bus got directed the right way, straight to the grounds, and our bus got diverted. For hours. Unknowingly we were trying to enter the festival from the wrong end. The end that would never ever let us through....
Nashville, the Bonaroooo
The flight back to NYC from Nashville at the end of the weekend was telling of the sheer force of party folks were having in that dustbowl mayhem. Me in one seat, face covered by scarf, I prefer to sleep in private. Everyone else was a mess of mini jack bottles, multiple drink spillings, loud re-counts of festy moments. I have to admit I’m not all love in those situations. Cover your...
At it again!
Leg number one of the next 6 weeks of life is underway. Charlottesville Virginia turned out to be a sweet little place. It’s one of those towns that most of us Canadians haven’t heard of, lumping the whole state of Virginia into something unknown and full of assumed American stereotypes. An interesting thing about Virginia is that it straddles the North-East and the South, having...
May 2011
6 posts
New Orleans
This was an epic tour ending!
New Orleans Jazz Festival is King. I can’t remember the last time we were all so happy to be out in the field amidst the rabble. Now, it might have been the lure of the food that first drew us to the festival on our day off before we played. But we came back everyday, because it felt really, really good to be there. This was not an indie rock festival with one...
Houston, Tx!
I’ll admit, I’m not really in Houston anymore- but one day off- it’s like the 5 second rule when eating something after dropping it on the floor. Or paying a bill late and back dating the check…. we all do that, right?
I think I wiped myself out with enthusiasm over Austin, tried to save up some juice for New Orleans, and in the middle sat Houston. Not that there was...
Austin, Tx!
My head is always spinning a bit after playing and hanging out in Austin. I’m super crushed out on this place!
The town couldn’t be more different from the wet coast island I grew on or the eternal winter of Montreal. I think somewhere within me lies a cactus, and I dig on the hotness. And the amazing extremes- Dive bars and yoga studios. Strip malls and design explosions. Fried...
Dallas, Tx
The end is near. Every time we tour, the end sneaks up. The middle of a tour is long and muddy, and then all of a sudden there are 3 shows left.
I’m having trouble feeling witty and descriptive about my time in Dallas, so I’ll make a list:
There are more people with dogs that match their outfits here than even London or NYC, or so it seems, from my vantage point of the coffee shop...
April 2011
6 posts
The Memphis
Another day of firsts. First show in Memphis. First time a long haired teen in a tux and sunglasses rocked out in front of me. Kind of Ferris Bueller meets David Lynch. First time I’ve seen sandals that are also flasks. That’s right, the lid’s on the heel. Good luck with that.
I didn’t make it to Graceland due to mild flu feelings. So I did the opposite thing, which is...
Indiana, il!
It turns out I’m more of a place writer than a day writer. Sometimes tour grinds to a halt, parking its busses and letting its passengers grow happy and complacent in hotel rooms. And it doesn’t feel right to write about tour from the vantage of all those pillows. Don’t get me wrong, hotel beds definitely win out over bus coffins. But I start losing touch with the rhythm and...
Chicago, IL!
Gone are the hot and dusty days of last week. That California plays tricks on the rest of us, and today Chicago is a cold, wet place. Stepping off the bus into the windy rain and into the ultra sports vibe UIC Pavillion, all weird smells, locker rooms, does not a happy morning person make. Since I woke up in the actual morning however, there was time to live out some simple dreams. Yoga, food,...
St. Louis, MO!
Ok,
This is years in the procrastinating. I’ve been a touring musician for some 8 years and have often felt like sharing, or at least commenting on the experience. I used to think I’d write about food on the road- foraging in cities and towns for healthy and delicious sustenance. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The more I toured, the less inspiring I found restaurants- a...