Tuesday 6th July:
Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th July:
Friday 9th July - The Brickyard, Gastown: Saturday 10th July - The Boot, Whistler: Tuesday 13th July - The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto: Wednesday 14th July - AJ's Hanger, Kingston: Thursday 15th July: Friday 16th July - Reverb Room, Toronto: Saturday 17th July - Call the Office, London, Ontario:
I woke with a feeling of excitment. We're off to Canada! Although it was early (5am) and last night's sleep had been short, I didn't feel at all tired. The anticipation of travelling across the Pacific had been building for weeks. After spending an eternity at the airport - well, four hours - we boarded our United Airlines jet and took to the skies.
Needless to say, as we arrived in San Francisco we were all humming the tune "Are you going to San Francisco?" We were in America! However, when attempting to get some real food, were shaken by the first culture shock. The cheese over there is orange, and bares no resemblance in either look nor taste to what we consider cheese!
A couple of days looking around Vancouver was spent shopping and sight-seeing. The city is surprisingly clean and the coffee, excellent. Horrendous freight charges for our gear meant that we had to leave it at home and hire all the backline gear here, which took some time to arrange in a foreign city. By the time Friday rolled along, we were well rested and eager to rock and roll. One thing I found awesome that hadn't been expected was the warm, sunny weather and the long days. When its still relatively light at 9pm, the nights have a very relaxing feeling and the beers flow smoothly.
Our first ig in Canada was rockin', and brought back feelings of the early days. We played first with four other Canadian bands. Mixing old Odway tunes with the newer ones like "Star Machine" and "Congratulations". We played hard and had a ball, impressing the appreciative crowd. A successful gig on the other side of the planet.
We had been given many encouraging words about Whistler and the ever-present contingent of Aussies who live there. Our agent's friend in Vancouver, a sweet man called Frank had organisaed a van and thankfully, a driver for us. A tour hour drive into the mountains gave us the best scenic drive of any tour we've done so far - thick pine forests blanketing snow-capped mountains, rushing streams and lakes with small shore-side towns. During a rest stop I unfortunately witnessed a woman have a heart attack/seizure and fall and split her head open. I think the ambulance came quick enough to save her.
Sure enough, the Whistler show was cool. Lots of Aussies and Canadians, a small pub (which Grinspoon had played only a couple of months earlier) and plenty of drinks made for a great gig in Whistler. The next day we drove back to Vancouver and I had time to visit the Vancouver Aquarium, an "Underworld" type place but of the best standard. It really was amazing. Two great shows and all the friendly, cool people we met has given us unforgettable memories of British Columbia and the ball is rolling in another country.
The first thing we found different on this side of Canada was the humidity! It was really, really warm and muggy. The city of Toronto is a sprawling metropolis, much dirtier and faster paced than Vancouver. We hooked up with a guy called Toby, organised to hir equipment and located the venue. The horseshoe is sort of a legendary club that's been cranking out rock since the '50s. It's a real musicians haunt - the walls layered with old and new posters, mementos and other such things of many of the bands that have played here over the decades (such as the Rolling Stones). We supported a band from Boston that were touring around Canada, and again we had a rockin' show. Again the crowd was hard to impress. We made good friends with another band on the bill. A local act called Del Griffith who played rock in the vein of a really raw Afgahn Wigs. Really cool band. Really cool guys. We got drunk with them and had a great night.
Kingston is about 2 hours north of Toronto on the edge of Lake Ontario. We smelt a skunk! Jesus, they stink, well not that bad, but the odour penetrates the car and we were travelling down the highway fast. We couldn't see the skunk but Toby told us that what we could smell was definately the cousin of Pepe le Pew.
AJ's Hangar is a big venue, appropriate for the popularity of the Canadian band we were supporting, Big Sugar by name, big loud dub/rock by nature. Our gig was awesome and our sound mightn't blow their eardrums out like Big Sugar but I could tell they were impressed. We did a great job of warming their cockles. No one in Canada had heard of us before, as we've received virtually no airplay or promotion, but tonight's show meant that we had a chance to do what we do best in front of a large unfamiliar crowd.
A day off in Toronto so we decided to go to the Museum. It's fascinating place but we don't get to go through the whole exhibition because we entered to late. No show tonight, so a chance to get a great feed and relax in the big city.
Our manager, Heath, took us into Sony HQ, a huge complex from where they not only run the labels of Sony but also press and manufacture CDs etc. Afterwards, we head back to the city to sound check. The headlining act, an appaling funk band called Up Yer Kilt were doing their soundcheck as we arrived. Not only was their music shit, their attitudes matched, and when it was time for us to soundcheck we had to begotiate and set up around their equipment which they refused to move. Taking it in our stride, we played a fun show and managed to go down well with the slowly filling room. Instead of sticking around to watch UYK after, we headed downstairs to a club and saw an awesome young band called Moneen. They reminded me a bit of Sunny Day Real Estate. We ended up hooking up with the bass player from Del Griffith who invited us back to his place. This night goes down as a big night, ending with the funniest cab ride of our lives, except for Brett who probably didn't enjoy the ride at all as he, by this stage of the morning, was a little bit ill. Great effort Brett!
For our last Canadian show we headed to London, Ontario which was about 2-3 hours away from Toronto. An Australian friend drove us as he was the only one willing to try and tackle the driving-on-the-right thing. Luckily we were following Toby and Heath or things could have been harder but we all arrived in one piece. All of the shows were fun and this one was no exception. We'd come half way around the world and played like we had nothing to lose.