Sunday, August 16th/09, Thunder Lake ONT – Monday, August 17th/09, Black Pirate’s Pub, Thunder Bay ONT – Tuesday, August 18th/09, Highway 17

(or one long-ass drive where nothing really happened except for Dan Ball and his downright absurd antics)

I decided to make one big entry for this one, since there was not alot to document except for driving alot and the precious few events that took place the past 3 days. It was an amazing time.

Sunday was laundry day. We must’ve spent at least 3 hours in that damn place, doing a much needed wash, drinking coffee, establishing internet connections with each other, the rad part was that despite all the copious amounts of “stink-eye” we recieved from the proprietor, he did not ask us to leave, even though it is likely that we defiled that place for good, what a nice guy. There’s something comforting about a laundromat, I don’t know what it is. I’m guessing because it is warm and relatively quiet, the hum and drone of the machines working together to fix your clothes and lull you into a nap. I usually just read, do something that I will benefit from, like push-ups or something. Back home there is one particular laundromat I spent a great deal of time at when my machines at home were out of business, the “sparkle laundrette” at Kings road and Quadra street. The rad thing about it is, you can wash your clothes and get coffee from, as far as I am concerned, one of the best shops in the city, Caffe Fantastico, which is actually connected to laundry room and adjacent to an anarchist book store, and they also have fundraiser shows and special events, live music and such, in this joint. Not going to lie, probably my favorite place to hang out, I feel safe inside, pretty much everything I need under one roof, a wall of washers and dryers, amazing coffee and semi-unlimited reading material. You also meet alot of interesting people, with their own stories and paths to tell, sounds pretty ideal to me. I’m pretty weird though.

We drove about 4 hours towards Thunder Bay, where we were playing the following evening, decided to stop at a beautiful destination called “Thunder Lake.” We pulled the van up to a remote spot right beside the shore, cracked a few beverages and sat on the beach for quite awhile. There were some antics which I prefer not to disclose, some clean and some not so clean, but all in good fun and really lead me to believe this tour to be more of a road-trip (not like the awful film with Tom Green trying to feed a mouse to a snake, thank God) than an Acres of Lions tour, which is often sleep-depriving and stressful, has to be at times I think. This time it’s a little more relaxing and the shows have been good, for a summer tour I am very surprised, and thankful for them. There’s been less partying and more getting to everywhere on time and ready, and a lot more much-needed rest, for all of us. It’s kind of nice. We couldn’t have picked a better spot to randomly pull into, woke up to an intensely beautiful, if not picturesque, view of the lake and probably the most immaculate outhouse I have ever seen. Some chose to swim, others chose to sit on the sand and read Jamie Oliver. I regret it now after seeing the video footage, probably was the right thing to do, fail.

Before we got to Thunder Bay, we stopped for a light snack, for de dutch and nintendo rather, and noticed that we were leaking radiator fluid, our luck with our van had seemingly started to run out. We got a little nervous about it, but nothing cheers you up like an impression of a drunken Transformer, which, in all honesty, looks and smells alot more like a homeless contortionist, with no bones… alot like “Spud” in that Simpson’s epsiode where the carnie’s try to squat in their house. It scared the hell out of me, to tell you the truth. The leak turned out to be none too serious, of course, as we were able to get to Thunder Bay without any problems, the point where we are now keeping our fingers crossed that we have patched up the leak properly, none of us genuine mechanics but engine-savvy enough to ensure a proper procedure. We arrived at the Black Pirate’s Pub early, we thought we were late, but the show did not get underway until 8:30 pm, and we ran into a friend from the Winnipeg area, Mike Burnard, from a band called “Crisis Jane,” a pop-punk fellow who was playing solo the very next night and whom we played with 6 months ago and jacked his slot at an all-ages show in which he was happy to oblige… we get the feeling he’s not going to forgive us, but he’s still a bro and an amazing dude, so I am hoping we’re cool. All the bands were pretty great, alot of fancy guitar work and very interesting song-writing, kind of like “Led-Zeppelin with the passion of Rhinobucket,” it was all very exciting. The people here are awesome, they love music and live bands and a good portion carry knives and have knife scars. This was frightening but also very good to know, just in case there was a disagreement, I would know what to expect. We were well-recieved and played a good set to the locals and Tim, our loved one and an excellent promoter, did another great job. It was nice to see him again. It was also nice to see Dan Ball back in full form. For the last four days, he chose to eat nothing but crabohydrates, beer and cigarettes really, which I can only guess would make any normal person feel irratable, grumpy, like shit even, with maybe a head or stomach-ache, when you’re not working it off and not utilizing the functions of your colon. Pretty upsetting in all way imagineable.

We set out again, on our way to Ottawa now. I had been listening to a band called “Means,” a favorite and who ended far too soon, for days now, something I do when traveling, well, that’s a lie, all the time really. I find bands and songs that I love and can get really good and obsessed with and play the shit out of them, it’s a good feeling, to have that. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy obsession, one that’s clean, fun and safe, nothing at all. I do it all the time, obsess over strange things. I usually choose a band who’s music is unique and I have not become completely familiar with, do not know all the words or their intentions and meaning, and although I have listend to Means for a long time, I had yet to explore their newest album “to keep me from sinking,” and upon doing so, discovered a theme that really made sense to me, hit me in a good spot, and they are also probably some of the nicest dudes on the planet. Matt Goud, one of their vocalists, once played an amazing acoustic cover of Hot Water Music’s “Trusty Chords, a man after my own heart. We drove most of the night, down through Ontario, to find another good spot to shack up, jump in a body of water and perhaps suck back some vitamin P. We settled for Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, got lost more than a few times looking for a campground, tried to start a campfire, didn’t work out. We slept good that night though, and I decided to move on to a new band to be obsessed with, a band called “The Artist Life.”