Tuesday, August 11/09, Burnsy O’Flanagan’s, Leduc AB

I’m a big fan of Coffee, even on facebook, perhaps you’ve heard of this magical beverage. It’s a crutch I have, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I drink it most days on tour, whenever we stop at a gas station, although it’s usually pretty bad, it’s still there for me to consume. I try to avoid Starbucks if I can, but hey, it’s cheap and they’re everywhere and the dude who puts a million of them in 4 city blocks was probably on to something, sickening, but effective. When we play at a venue in a bigger city, it’s great. There’s usually alot of great coffee bars and cafes and such and I don’t have to go to Starbucks. We’ve had the luxury of having great coffee available to us at the places we’ve been staying. And our hats and love go off to the people and families that have been putting us up and just plain putting up with our silly antics, which are many, but I think are a little bit more tolerable than others. We’re a quiet sort, who like to sit and converse whilst partying. And I will tell you, there is really nothing better than waking up on tour and actually having coffee waiting for you. That dark, rich, caffeinated, aromatic substance, sometimes thicker than usual, or “chewy” as we call it, brewing away. I admit, I am a fiend, and I really can’t handle the mispronunciation of the word “espresso.” I mean it, if I see one more advertisement for “EX-presso,” I am just going to snap.

We returned to Leduc, to Burnsy O’Flanagan’s, and it was great. Gary, the promoter and the staff were ever so accommodating. We rolled in at about 7:00 pm ready to go. Mapping The Escape, busy as worker drones they are, had the sound already set up for the night, and they do it so well. The crowd was great and it sounded good, and both bands did well… aside from our train-wreck of an introduction, it was just fine (we’re still confused about it) Our friends from Edmonton, Andie and Victoria (weird, that’s where I’m from) came down to witness how lame we were once again, so we hung out with them and had some great conversations with some of the locals. I mainly hung out at the merch-tables, writing this stupid thing, selling stuff and warming up. Dan was doing his usual PR routine, which entails 24 drink tickets and rousting up every possible fan in the area. Tyson spent a great deal of time with our bros from Drive By Punch (good band) and Lewis wandered, attempting to eat pizza and talking about Guns’n’Roses, his favorite band, playing his favorite song on the stereo, in his favorite bar, with his favorite person. A little inside, I know.

The night was over late and we decided to drive to Calgary to attend the Vans (or AT&T) Warped Tour in the morning. I drove tonight, something I haven’t been doing very often. Not that I’m lazy, it just hasn’t happened yet. I contemplated many things on the late night drive, deep and heavy things, things that would drive a sane man mad and a mad man insane, ridiculous thoughts that crossed my mind, like being so hungry I could actually eat at Arbys, or an entire horse, like how many JBC’s I would eat if I was in a JBC eating contest, things like being certain for at least 1 minute that Dan Ball had something to do with Michael Jackson’s untimely death and fearing his next bowel movement convinced it would be dark matter or have the gravitational pull of Jupiter. My mind wandered to how great an Americano would be at that very moment and how I miss my parents and before I knew it, we were in Calgary.