Mini tour starts today

YAY!

After a year long hiatus while our singer conquered the Spartan Race circuit, we're playing again!

Instead of the long, long, long trek across Canada to the East, we've got friends (The Ripcordz) flying out to play shows over the couple weekends, starting tonight in Edmonton.

But I'm most looking forward to the new cover, No Way by Adolescents. Let me explain:
Our singer moved to Edmonton (a couple hours away) so we all learned it, got together rehearsed it, got it all locked in at the last rehearsal with the singer. Then we (the instrumentalists) decided we'd invite the guitar player from another local band that will be hitting the road with us and the 'Cordz to join in. He learned it, and we locked in about 3 run throughs at our last rehearsal without the singer.

Today, I realized that we never told the singer that we're bringing an extra guitar player on stage for the cover...
...no we're not telling him, it's just gonna happen.

Yes, I know pics or it didn't happen, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow's update.

 

Sorry guys, photos and such comming. Been stupid busy, playing host can be demanding.

 

OK, so three shows down, but unfortunately I only have photos from the first, long story, the Calgary show I was running around like a chicken with head cut off between co-workers who came to the show and playing host, so I didn't take too many on Saturday, last night I was better, but something went sideways with my phone and I lost a bunch of photos.

Anyways, Mandible Klaw, the other local band playing the first four shows:

 

And here we have The Lams, out of Edmonton:

 

Finally, out of Montreal, the Ripcordz:

 

So, I am a little annoyed with losing photos, last night's Venue was pretty fancy for a punk show. The menu was exceptional, I had a peanut butter and sriracha burger that was pretty amazing. It was also poorly attended, but not unexpected, punks have Mom's too. But it was an all ages show, and a couple/few kids were there, so happy on that score. I generally like playing all ages shows, but we don't do them a lot, pleased to find out we have another one coming up in July.

Edmonton was pretty well attended, the venue isn't huge, and the stage-side of the bar was a bit cozy at points, but it felt like a full room most of the night. I don't know the attendance figure, but it would have been ball park 100 or so. Calgary we were up against a festival and a bunch of other shows, but still managed to get over 100 through the door. Nothing staggering, but enough to cover the guarantees and such. Last night I figure maybe 20, that could be pushing it though. But, it's not like we haven't had one of 'those' shows every other tour, I see no reason for it to change just because we didn't drive 3000 km first...

Usually when we tour, being the out of town band we tend to get the headliner spot, which we've successfully foisted off on the Ripcordz this time around. So today I'm at work, with a bit of a hangover, since I had enough time after the set to get a few more down my neck than maybe was warranted...

Tonight it's off to Lethbridge, and a venue we've never played before, a BBQ joint apparently, I have a smoker at home, so I can be pretty fussy about BBQ, but we'll give 'em a shot. Going to be a little hectic, basically out the door at work, pick up the wife and band and go go go to make soundcheck.

Phone just went through an update, so I'm hoping we won't have any more photos lost! Let you know how it went tomorrow.

 

I love playing in Winnipeg, when we go east, it's about the only place we hit coming and going. Doesn't look like we'll make it out there this year though, but the year is still young(ish).

 

Alrighty, last night...

Well, let's start with the venue:

Kinda like a diner layout, long counter, booths everywhere. Yeah, almost got the angle on the pigs right..
So the place usually isn't open on Mondays, hence why the show on a Monday wasn't a problem, no clientèle to disturb, but the promoter kinda had relations with a member of the canine species and they weren't sure the show was going ahead, so no pork, no brisket, so no food shots, I had mini corn dogs, not worth the photo. Yes, basically quarter a hot dog lengthwise, than cut it the other way in thirds, batter and deep fry. The beer mustard was good, but all the food was pricey, good, but pricey.
Speaking of the promoter, we had to press gang these ladies into covering the door duties:

Which is entertaining, the young lady on the left is the sister of GG, who was doing sound reinforcement, and is also the drummer in the opening band. He's definitely good people, and a long time friend of our guitar player, who is wearing the tour manager hat. Pretty sure I took a picture of GG:

Tiny stage:

That's my rig on the left Sans Amp VT-RM feeding a Behringer iNuke 3000, driving a pair of Ampeg SVT-210AV's, stacked vertically, naturally. It was also the backline for the evening, excepting Mandible Klaw, who used a Traynor tube head. I've been back on the Squier VM 70's Jazz, but the VM Jag has made the trip, just in case...

The opening band, The Scallywags, are yet another long tenured act, in their case 15 years, first time I played with them they were a three piece, but recently added a second guitar. With the SRE as the drummer, it was not quite as polished as it was by the end of the night, but pretty good. The pics:

I got those as quickly as possible in the first song, small stage, small pit, lots of booths... Weird venue.
Onwards to Mandible Klaw:

Picture limit, so ends part 1 of 2!

 

And back.

One more picture of Mandible Klaw, actually just their front man:

I managed to be in the perfect spot at the perfect time. I keep pestering him to start up something, last year he got married, this year I am, but eventually I'm sure we'll figger it out.

Now the Ripcordz, starting with a shot of some of their merch:

Everywhere you go in Canada, if you go to a punk show, and stand at the back of the crowd, and drink one beer for every shirt that has Ripcordz across the shoulders in that cut-out letters, you will be anywhere from very drunk to ambulance bait.
Anyways, fun to narrate, but back to the salt mines, so here are the shots of their set:

And a few shots of folks outside smokin between sets:


I've got today to pack up, tomorrow I stay in the city, and off to Abbotsford at the crack of ungodly hour on Thursday!

 

Yup, I like it when the crowd is engaged and interacting and generally having fun, every venue that threshold is different, too often, that threshold is lower than the one required to cover costs.

Yeah, they've been fun, really looking forward to the dates this weekend, one of my favorites from Vancouver Island what split up aeons ago reformed to play again with the 'Cordz, so I'm going to enjoy that, and get out, meet old friends, make new ones.

 

We don't even bother crossing the border, I'm damnyankee (Ohio) and so is the singer (Chicago) the guitar player is Canadian, but the drummer is a Brit, just a bloody hassle, although there are signs that might be changing...

Extra Old Stock was my beer of choice up until Molson bought them, now I won't touch the stuff. But we bring beer back from Winnipeg now. "Standard Beer" is a big hit with our little circle, it looks like a Budweiser bottle and actually tastes closer to US Bud than the Canadian version, brewed predictably enough by Molson.

Yup, that's the challenge here, you have big drives between shows, Matty (our guitar player/tour manager) has really gotten the whole planning of tours down pat. The first year we had a 23 hour leg between shows, which meant a down day. The last time we went out, no down days other than one which we planned at the half way point, for a brewery tour and a show we wanted to see (read: couldn't get on the bill for...)

And I've got a photo of yours truly and the rest of the 6th word you can't say on television, just popped up in my FB feed today. This would be from the Krossing in Red Deer, nice stage, but not enough bodies in front of it. Tough to tell, but my socks have little mustachioed faces stitched on the sides of them. The best part of a kilt on stage is putting a little time and effort into the socks!