EdgeFest 2012
We’re very excited to announce that Acres Of Lions will be performing at Edgefest 2012! Other performers include: Billy Talent, Death from Above 1979, Silversun Pickups, The Pack A.D., The Sheepdogs, Young The Giant, The Dirty Heads, The Darcys, Said the Whale, Library Voices, the Balconies, The Coppertone, Hacienda, Indian Handcrafts and Whale Tooth. The event takes place on July 14 at Downsview Park in Toronto. Tickets go on sale to the public starting December 16 via Ticketmaster. Early Bird tickets will cost $39.50 while supplies last, and when these run out, standard issue tickets will cost $49.50 a pop. VIP tickets are $72.50 each, and include access to a special section at the front of the stage, exclusive food vendors, bars, restrooms, and an Edgefest T-shirt.
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 17
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
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 16
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
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 15
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
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 14
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
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 13
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
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 12
Quote of the day: Jeff: “Have you ever seen Ferngully? It’s actually pretty rad.” Dan: “Ferngully? Like the prequel to Avatar?” Friday, November 18th, 9:00 am, Regina We spend the morning in our friend Erin’s house, abusing her facilities, making her dogs crazy, Lewis and I have a beer for breakfast. It’s pretty rough. The night before we watch the grand finale of the Peak Performance Project streamed live from the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver and it is the most heart-wrenching event so far on the tour. Watching all our friends in The Boom Booms, Current Swell and The Matinee kill it without us there makes us slightly homesick, but when the winners are crowned we celebrate loudly with whiskey and crush our twitter feed with drunken praise. After texting
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 11
Quote of the day: “We appreciate women and what they do for us, and without women, we wouldn’t have anywhere to put our penises, really.” – Lead singer of Steel Panther Thursday, November 17th, 10:00 am, Saskatoon A hangover is a truly beautiful thing. I find that 9 times out of 10, it reminds you of how you are still alive, still as human as you’ll ever be, like falling in love or whatever for the first time or hiking up a big goddam mountain, surrounded by nature. But the remaining 1 time out of that 10 makes you wish you were never born, screaming in agony, the cliche, “I’ll never drink again.” Rising early in the morning with a goal in mind can snap you out of that hungover
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 10
Quote of the day: “Beers for years!” – Acres/TSE tour salute/cheers Wednesday, November 16th, 9:00 am, Calgary We spend a night in Calgary after driving all day Tuesday from Nelson. We left early in the morning and were more than surprised when we didn’t hit any snow. The day was a beauty, for sure. We hang out with Kelly and Jayme again, drinking tequila and watching “Hoarders” while trying to book a few more shows along the way of the tour. It is colder than I am used to and make subtle complaints to the boys all day. You know, like “Man, it’s crisp out, hey?” or “I think I need better gloves.” or “My feet are taking forever to warm up!” When, really, all I’m saying with those characteristically
Acres Tour Journal, Entry 9
Quote of the day: “F**k you, pay me.” – Dan’s answer to Tyson when asking to switch seats. Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, November 13th/14th/15th, Nelson We leave Vancouver Sunday morning after sleeping for 3 hours at our friend Christine’s. She is awesome and gives us homemade trail mix bars for the road. We decide to go back to the old homestead, in the Kootenays, where Dan and I became the stalwart gentleman we are today, reliable and savvy! We have 3 days to kill before we are in Saskatchewan so we spend them with our parents, a quick visit and re-charge for the impending doom that is the rest of the cross-tundra tour, which we are now calling the “Beers For Years” tour, 2011. After getting a good sleep, we spend monday in
