Friday, August 21st/09, L3 Nightclub, St. Catherines ONT

In this industry, it is certainly who you know and the timing of when and where you are, something I’ve realized over time, beating my head against this, trying to make ends meet. Again, an infinite thanks and appreciation goes out from our hearts to the boys in The Artist Life, The Snips and Brights. Not only are they brilliant musicians, but are now some of our great friends and allies, and that is why I am in this for the most part, the networking aspect, and the unspoken love between seemingly random groups of people. It makes these tours a little more comfortable and you feel a little more able to carry on with whatever endeavor you are on. Make sure, everyone, that if you haven’t already, visit all the promotional pages these guys are featured on, it’s worth it, they are amazing at what they do.

What most touring bands know well, is that when you go on tour, some times things get fucked up. Shows fall through on you and the promoter you were working with disappears off the face of the Earth, and the farther you go, the harder it gets. Let’s not be delusional either, there are an infinite amount of bands, whatever genre, doing the exact same things as you are. Writing, recording, performing, touring new music, shamelessly self-promoting themselves, booking shows on the fly, going the same places you will be or were a day before. And as much as it is fantastic, it’s also alot of hard work and down-time. It’s not a competition at all, it’s just a schedule and expressed interest of people in the area, and I am happy to be a part of it. This happened to us today, we had shows booked for the next 2 days and they were cancelled on us, an unfortunate thing to happen. Instead of chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool, we decided to act alot like a pack or school of barracudas, or some kind of creature that attaches itself to other things for sustenance, and follow our friends on their tour to see if we could perhaps do something, play for 15 minutes, sell some albums, hand out some fliers in an area and atmosphere where this kind of thing is tolerated. And we were successful! With the help of these bands, and after talking to Pat, the promoter and a good dude, they let us open and play for a bunch of kids. We were happy and felt accomplished, and loved by our new friends. What was truly inspiring was the set delivered by The Artist Life and The Snips, I haven’t seen anything like that in a long time, two great punk bands bringing everyone in the crowd together and then later, on stage for the last song and lose their shit, it was insane. Afterward, there was some hanging out in an alley, the inevitable team power load-out and some Jameson passed around to make it go fasterThere was even talk of us all getting matching Hot Water Music tattoos, not the worst idea ever.

It’s really something you have to do, make the best of a messed up situation, especially this far away from home. There’s a reason you came here, well two reasons, to present yourself to the world and make some sort of impression through music, and also, maybe, to have a few beverages on the way, nothing too serious. Barty, from The Snips, put us and Brights up for the night at his parent’s house in Welland, where we sat around an outside table, with some Jameson, getting to know eachother better. We talked of beards and good times, about the work we all do, the people we have met and have back home, Kids in the Hall references and dudes who just fucking love Blind Melon. I fell asleep on the floor.