Quote of the day: “You guys want an encore? I’ll play you anything. I’ll even play you Lady G’GAH if you want.” – Craig Thursday, November 24th, 9:30 am, Montreal We sleep for 3.5 hours at Lucas and Mel’s apartment and split. The drive is very tedious and sad, leaving the city and leaving our old friends. We hit all kinds of construction and heavy traffic on the way to London and end up being 1.5 hours late for our load-in and sound-check schedule. We each consume well over 500 ml of coffee this morning, in an effort to plow through the daunting free-way heading south from Toronto, to stay alert and stay safe. We have discovered the usefulness of Ontario’s “On-Route” road-side fast food oasis (plural?) There is literally >> read more

Quote of the day: Dan Ball selects “Ted Nugent” on an old juke-box, people start exiting the bar. “Hash-Tag, I learned all my moves from my dad.” Wednesday, November 23rd, 10:00 am, Toronto I wake up confused and shattered. Last night’s celebration, an after-show party at Sneaky Dee’s, “My Friends Over You,” a pop-punk dj set including Edmonton’s finest, Craig and Sandy from Ten Second Epic, ended in a haze of Toronto friends, fajitas and the invention of “The Sprack” which is a shitty grilled cheese sandwich with jalepenos, and late night beers at our pals Tristan and Dean’s house, where I somehow managed to score a bed in the basement of their roommate, who apparently was out for the evening, hence my confusion. Quite often on tour I wake >> read more

Quote of the day: “Hey guys, I checked the weather for our trip today. It calls for alcohol, poor decisions and low standards.” – Dan Ball Tuesday, November 22nd, 5:00 pm, Toronto The trip through the shield and further into Ontario took 16 hours. It wasn’t the worst drive. There’s some pretty magical scenery to take in along the way, but also in turn, miles of factories and strip malls. Hooray. We stay in another cheap motel when we arrive in Sudbury the night before, called the “sketchy shade inn” or something along those lines. Trip Advisor told us there had been vehicle and room break-ins in the past so we slept with our instruments of defense under our pillows, a tire iron and a whiskey bottle, they do the >> read more

Quote of the day: “It sounds like the van is playing ‘Hot For Teacher.'” – Dan Ball’s famous last words Sunday, November 20th, 10:00 am, Winnipeg The road through Manitoba is never really that forgiving. It’s jagged, long, desolate, fraught with night dangers, which I have yet to, and hopefully, will never encounter. It’s a beautiful piece of Canada, but the 9 hour drive to Thunder Bay is never something you truly look forward to, even if you say it is and try to be relentlessly positive, like me on this tour. I won’t lie, I’m a pretty bitter guy most of the time, all the time really, just ask my friends, but it never stops me from exhuming some good cheer once in awhile, when it is needed, and >> read more

Quote of the day: “Dan, the only battle-axe you will ever wield is a malformed sentence.” – Tyson, on the subject of Dan’s fighting skills Saturday, November 19th, 7:00 am, Yorkton I wake up with frost in my moustache, if I can call it that for a moment (It’s MOvember, right?) The heater went out in the over-priced shack we rented for a night to sleep in, so I spend 15 minutes in the dark hitting it with my shoe until it kicks back in. I shower but it doesn’t take, unfortunately, and I change my strings as the rest of the boys get ready to go. It’s cold one out today, for sure. When we get on the road we get texts from the boys in TSE saying that >> read more