Thursday, August 6/09, The Taphouse, St.Albert, AB

Everyone eventually forgets to bring something when they are going on a trip, especially a long one.

I am notorious for putting things down and leaving them there.  Anything, really. The items could be very small or very large, I would still forget where I left them. We were tempted to name this tour the “Keys? Wallet? Phone?” tour, due to the amount of times I’ve already left my shit in random places… let’s just say I found my keys on the front lawn this morning and I was stone-cold sober last night. Now, I don’t think we have forgotten anything. What I own is minimal, a bed, a desk, a tv, a bookshelf, everything else usually comes with me, items I store or that are involved with those 4 things, and I try to pack light. Let’s be honest, nobody likes a dude who brings everything he owns on the road, the entire wardrobe, or has more than 4 bags. But, we all have our staples, crutches, must-haves, like for instance a bag full of books and envelopes and paper and cut-off shirts, or say $14 and a bag of rolling tobacco (Dan), drumsticks and an assortment of cadbury mini-egg soft-coloured v-necks (Lewis), or maybe you are wise beyond your years like Tyson, who was ready for this tour even before he booked it and will never forget a single thing, ever, something that comes with superior intelligence and a spotless reputation, or something. I’m sure there will be repercussions for writing this later when I post it, a noogie, or a charlie-horse or something light-hearted and fun (lol, fml)

We spent the day driving north, highway no.5, up through Jasper, a place that is beautiful all year, in every season, it doesn’t matter. It’s the kind of place I, one day, want to retire, as most of it is still untouched. I don’t care if I have a house, I am perfectly content with squatting… I just hope the Alberta government feels the same(?)

We arrived at The Taphouse in St. Albert around 7:00pm, Tyson drove the entire way and didn’t complain once. We even offered to share the load, what a guy. We finally met up with Mapping The Escape, a band who we have the pleasure of sharing the stage with for the next week or so, an amazing band with incredible everything, melodies, tones and especially gear. Still, on the subject of forgetting things, I somehow managed to misplace the power cord for my amplifier, causing embarassment and much dismay to myself, and also annoyance, because I loved that cable, I really did…sigh…We  endured the soundcheck and hit the stage around 10:00pm, playing to a crowd of about 40 people coming and going, locals and a few folks from the city. We made friends and ate free pizza at our merch table, a favorite past-time, especially for Dan, who set out to only eat large loaves of bread the whole tour on a budget of $1.60 a day and who loves pizza more than life itself, more than Hemispheres. MTE played a brilliant set, a great warm-up for tomorrow night’s cd release. The night went very well, we played a good set with minor difficulties. The promoter and the headlining band, however, refused to make their presence known, so we kind of ran the show with the help of a local bard, Gregory Mathews(?), who’s enthusiasm knows no bounds, and who told us to eat red corn flakes and jam with someone who knows Jimmy Page, also ?wtf?. We eventually made it to our friend’s and loved one’s, Trisha, to sleep and apparently, research all the greatest hits and videos of the late 90’s, which included Serial Joe, Sugar Ray, Orgy, Powerman 5000 and yes, even Kid Rock.

We had a great time.