Happy Holidays!

Here's an e-card that I put up, and wanted to share it with you all! (click to enlarge)

December 6th - Kenora - Shooter's

I was constantly paranoid while in Kenora, as my vehicle had a cardboard window. (For full details about my Winnipeg venture, check out this older blog entry). I also started a campaign as I was driving back home to Thunder Bay, and if more people had seen it, I'm sure they would've joined.


I was glad to be in Kenora, where life was at a slower pace. Fully embodied in this placque.


The show was a lot of fun, I opened for Mike Procyshyn and the Comfort of Ghosts, who delivered a set almost akin to Queen at times. We laughed throughout both sets, with all kinds of jokes about John Mayer and goats, and not always mutually exclusive. Both Mike and Guy were quite welcoming with their hospitality, and it was greatly appreciated after my Winnipeg adventures.

Instead of staying the night, I drove back right after the show, and ended up taking short naps every so often. It was a cold drive, but I managed to plug up the window quite well despite not having any tape. Here are some shots from that early morning, Northern Ontario drive.



Although I had a blast on this tour, I certainly was glad to be home.

December 5th - Winnipeg - FAIL

Winnipeg, you are a nightmare.

Here's the story, from the beginning of the day:

I woke up late in Saskatoon since my alarm didn't go off properly! Damn technology! I then got into my car as quickly as possible and took off for Winnipeg. I was going to stop in Regina, but due to time constraints, it just wasn't feasible so I skipped it. I got a speeding ticket in Manitoba and found out that that province has the highest fines in Canada, and almost in North America.

I got to the show in time, and set up quickly, only to have several things fall apart, resulting in my first ever no-show. I took my gear down and paid the rental fee for the space, and went to hang out with Bucky from the Liptonians, as I hoped it could cheer me up a fair bit.

We dropped by The Cavern for a bit, then headed to the Royal Albert. As we left the Royal Albert (we parked a couple streets over - a few blocks from Bucky's apartment) we noticed that the passenger window had been smashed and there was glass all over the seat. We got inside and I did a quick check to see what was missing. My laptop, one of Shannon's cameras and my theremin were all missing. Conveniently they all had carrying bags, but they took the time to put the laptop into the bag, after finding it in the back seat. I guess Ontario plates were the give away, as I didn't have anything lying out on the front seats at all.

Bucky was very helpful, watching the car as I filed a police report at 1:30 in the morning, and helping me to empty out my entire car into his apartment (on the 5th floor), so that I could park it in the Hospital parkade. I took a cab back to his place, and made some calls, barely sleeping. Of course it was a weekend, so no auto-glass shops would be open, so I covered it in cardboard (didn't have tape), and made due with that.

Again, I want to thank Bucky for being so friendly and helpful with everything, he even had hiccups for about 2 hours throughout the ordeal. Bucky does not approve of theft or the fact that my thoughts of Winnipeg may be temporarily tarnished.


Alternatively, I'm super excited about my car's new facelift, and the fact that Bucky found shopping carts to move all my gear with! I'm also thankful that I still have a car and gear, as the theft could have been much worse!

December 4th - Saskatoon - Lydia's Pub

I crashed in Saskatoon for 2 nights, hanging out with Joel Hryniuk from Volcanoless In Canada. We were to rock Lydia's Pub the 2nd night, as it was also the 'end of school' party for all the university students.

Kirk's Big Frat House started off the night, rapping about teen 'staches and all the 'biddy bullshit'. I went on right after that, and had a blast. After, Volcanoless took to the stage and wow, everyone just went berserk! I've circled the photo below, because I want you all to notice that there were people hanging from a beam that ran through the middle of the bar, sometimes having beers poured down their throat, and there was even crowd surfing mixed with more beers being thrown across the room!

The sound guy even said that they know it's a good show when they can measure the depth of broken glass on the stage.

But before the show ended, I was running a merch table for both myself and Volcanoless and encountered some true scum. Two girls ended up coming up to the table, and were chatting on their cell phones, nothing out of the ordinary. One of them mistook me for someone they knew, but they continued to hang out there (I was in a high traffic area). I looked toward the stage for a bit, then looked back, and noticed that there was a cd missing. Now, I wasn't 100% sure if I had accidentally failed to replace it from a previous sale, so I didn't say anything, but kept my eyes open. They continued to loiter, and then started to make out with one another. I kept my eye on the merch, and then a few minutes later one of them came up to me and kissed me on the cheek and said 'bye hun', possibly still misrecognizing me. As they left, the other girl reached out and grabbed a different CD from the table and put it in her purse. I was livid, so I yelled "hey!" after her but they scurried out of the bar. They returned a few minutes later, at which point I ran up to the most recent thief and our exchange went something like this:

Me: "I'd like to have the CD back"
Her: "What CD?"
Me: "The one you stole from me"
Her: "Oh, here you go" *returns the CD
Me: "And the other one too..."
Her: "What?"
Me: (I was getting a little cocky and thought I'd call her on a theft that I wasn't 100% certain of) "The other CD you took"
Her: *opens her purse* "I don't have any other CD's"
Me: "Well I'd like it back"
Her: "I don't have it, but we'll tell everyone about you!" *smile*
Me: "You're an incredibly dishonest person, and I'm sure karma will not be kind to you in the future. Have a good night"

If there's an argument against illegal downloading, this story fits in with it. Just because you 'promise to tell your friends' about the artist/album/song, doesn't make it right.

December 2nd - Lloydminster - The Singing Waitress

Lloydminster had a great sounding stage, and although there were some communication problems, the few people that were there made it count. Not only that, but this fellow (I forget his name!) did a hilarious cover (which again slips my mind). They put me up for the night and kept my belly full, for which I was very grateful!

November 29th - Edmonton - Avenue Theatre

The Avenue Theatre was a really neat show. It was in a theatre, whose stage had been extended in order to cover up some skateboard bowls for when it had been a skatepark. The entire show was held on the stage, as it was an intimate, acoustic style show. In fact, I was the loudest act of the night, an interesting change! I also made some really cool friends that play in hardcore bands and also run a screen printing shop out of one of the back offices. It's really great to see people being passionate about all ages concert spaces.

I made Edmonton a temporary home for 3 days, where I visited with old and new friends. I met Greg a few years ago when he was playing in a band called Mapping The Escape, and had booked them in Thunder Bay a few times. He opened up his place for a few nights, where we watched Saw 6, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and waited for pizza for hours, only to receive it and be completely shocked at the size of their 'medium' pizzas. He's in the process of putting together a new band, but in the meantime he does radio advertisements. I woke up one morning to the sounds of recording a new jingle for a funeral home. Pardon me. Funeral Homes. Connelly McKinley specifically. I wish I could link it, as it's fantastic, super peppy with some jazz, and makes me laugh at it's awesomeness every time.

Here's a picture of me being the antonym of awesome.


After that, I went and visited my friend Andriko, who used to play in Fractal Pattern and was also working on his MA at Lakehead with me. We partied hard. We watched a documentary on fonts, and went to a vegan restaurant, where he got the owner to purchase a CD of mine, and we listened to it on the spot. Awesome! That, and he introduced me to my new favorite instrument, the harmonium:

November 28th - Red Deer - Velvet Olive

Red Deer was pretty neat! It was a really small room, but it definitely filled up after a birthday party group showed up. I got a little scared for my life at one point in the evening, here's the story:

As I was playing, all of a sudden, the audience starts to go crazy! Coming in the main door, is a really buff looking guy...wearing nothing but the same type of g-string thing as Borat, except it was leopard print, and not bright green. So, he heads over to the party group, who are all squealing in hysterics. I definitely stumbled in my lyrics too! When I finished the song, the guy ended up leaving to go back to the bathroom to change, so I figured I'd be a comedian. "This next song goes out to the guy in the very revealing clothes, it's called Junior". Funny, n'est pas? However, one of his friends yelled out something along the lines of "better watch out, buddy!", meant in good fun, but still, I apologetically countered, saying that "that's why I didn't say it when he was in the room, because I saw the size of his arms!" The song repeats the word 'junior' fairly often, so I changed the lyrics half way through to avoid saying it, because my physique is more like that of Borat (although my moustache is less than glorious).

There's a next blog, so I lived!

November 27th - Calgary - That Empty Space/The Underground

Calgary is always a good time, and I was glad to be coming back to That Empty Space at the University of Calgary campus. I played with Jonathan Li once again, and managed to do an interview at CJSW right before my set! It was definitely set to be a really busy day.


Not only is Calgary always deadly, but anytime I play there, they always make cool posters. Unfortunately, as soon as I came out of the University show the weather had completely flipped. When I walked in at 2, I had socks and sandals (faux pas, I know), but when I left, there were dozens of vehicles every hundred feet along the side of the road with broken axles and stuck in ditches. It's like Calgarians don't know how to handle icy roads at all! (I jest, they were really slippery, even for my new wagon!). Sadly, the roads affected the turnout of the bar show that night, but Brandon and I went upstairs during the breaks to dance it up at a rave in The Warehouse!

November 26th - Cochrane - Java Jamboree

After hauling to Calgary from Kelowna, I took a quick nap before I headed out to cochrane to play at a coffee shop. Java Jamboree was having a 'cupping' which is coffee speak for 'tasting', and I was to play before it, and potentially after if the crowd so desired. They did, so I gladly obliged!

It was an interesting evening, because at one point I played a song called 'Pensando En Ti', which is sung in Spanish. Before beginning I asked if there were any Spanish speakers in the room, and surprisingly there was one (I say surprising because this was in Alberta - not none for that particular demographic). She understood and enjoyed the song, and was still around after the cupping, but had been joined by some new friends, so I offered to play it again for this new audience. Turns out, she's part of an Honduran - Canadian exchange program, and so were all her friends...all 15+ of them! I tried to think of other music I could play that was in my repertoire, but drew a blank so I asked for a style of music to improvise and a lyrical theme to start with. Someone called out blues while another yelled 'riding on a bus'. Everything was going well until the blues loop I had created started to truncate and was now missing part of a beat at the end of the phrase. I powered through, then asked for more lyrical inspiration. Although he said revolution, I definitely heard 'evolution', so for the next few minutes he sat there perplexed wondering why I was singing about Darwin instead of Che. Please note that I'm fluent in Spanish, but that doesn't take away from the fact that singing about evolution is difficult on it's own without having to worry about translating while keeping time over a dysfunctional blues loop.

Once that was over, they still wanted more, and requested La Bamba. 30 seconds later the latin dance party began, and didn't stop for 15 - 20 minutes! After that, the show was over, and I chatted with my new compadres and comadres, leaving the staff confused as to what the hell had been going on for the last half hour!

I was even invited to a feast the next evening! Had the weather not turned to garbage and I didn't have 2 shows the next day I definitely would have been there!

Rogers Pass

And now for a special 'show-unrelated' entry! After Kelowna I drove
to Cochrane, beginning at 1am. It was a long trip through the Rockies,
with lots of snow, slush, rain and fog throughout Rogers Pass.
This is the part of the trip when nostalgia really kicked in. AVS and
I have traveled this route a fair bit over the past few years. In
fact, we've taken a group photo everytime we pass a particular gas
station.

2005 - Woodpecker Tour



2006 - 40 days and nights tour


2007 - Rude to TOurDD


And even though it was 4:30am, terrible weather AND I was weather
sandals, I made sure to continue a photo tradition.

2009 - "Windows and Doors" national release tour



Now you can see why I'm sad, as I'm now the only one screaming through the subsequent
tunnels at the top of my lungs. I miss those guys.

November 25 - Kelowna - Grateful Fed

The Grateful Fed! I've met some interseting people there over the years, including Bucky from the Liptonians (he was touring by himself at the time). On this occasion, I met David Kopp at the open mic night. We discussed our own sounds then agreed that I'd back him up on one of his songs. I did and it went over quite well! Anyway, we got to talking after and he described a script he had written, and then informed me that he wanted me to do the music for it in a film adaptation! I graciously accepted, and the film won't be in production for a while yet. However, it's a great story and I'm really looking forward to reading the script! This opportunity comes at the perfect time as I've been wondering how I was going to get more film composition work!

The roads that afternoon were a little rough!

November 24th - Kamloops - Pogue Mahone

The roads through the mountains were not the best, and I encountered snow again.



In Kamloops I finally shared a stage with an artist similar to me. Devon (of DevonanKevin) was also a solo act, using an acoustic and a lap steel through an RC-2 loopstation. Pretty standard fare, except that he also had built a wooden box out of plywood and duct tape that he would mic up to create his own stomp box that truly mimiced a kick drum sound. Before the show I did an interview with Kyle for CFBX, and he asked about my sideburns: I suppose I have been growing them for a while! Last trimmed on September 22nd!

Pogue Mahone was a really nice bar, and the promoter.

Sean is one of those guys that really understands promotion and is also helping to foster music within the youth community of Kamloops. He put me up for the night, in his well setup basement meant for film watching. So I went to bed quite late after watching Jacob's Ladder.

November 23 - Vancouver - day off

Travis and I made plans to finish some recordings and to go see a show at the Biltmore on my day off. The song we were recording was coming along nicely, but we took a break to meet up with Kirsten from Arctic, and then made our way to the Biltmore to catch Ford Pier, as he opened for Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle. I was only slightly disappointed to find out Ford was
performing sans band, but I later started talking to the guy next to me (the only other person yelling along with Ford) discovering that he was the drummer for their band! Regardless, it was an awesome set, with there only being one track I didn't recognize. He even closed with 'My New Bar', which was exciting because of the intense screaming at the end. It was certainly a change of pace for the headlining act (Ford backed up on guitar).

They were alright, except that the material didn't seem as though it was being executed with much precision (despite being a collaboration album release party). They finished their first set, and Travis and I took off, having seen what we wanted to see (of course I gave Ford a
copy of my album to listen to), and feeling like we weren't going to miss much from the headlining second set. That night, I rediscovered Pho.

November 22 - Vancouver - day off

I went skiing finally! It's been since 2000, and it was definitely long overdue!

I met up with Juan and we hit up Mount Seymour.



There was tons of snow up there, apparently they've been getting dumped upon.



After the ski-sesh, we went back to his place to hang out with some TBay-ites, have some food, and check out his unreal view from the apartment patio.


That night, Travis and I met up again after he finished participating in a 'play-piercing' session.

Open mics are funny things, and you often meet some really interesting people. I played at Darby's Pub, and met two fellows from an open mic earlier that week: a finger-picking champion guitar player, and an actor (who did a lot of voice-work on Transformers Beastwars!). Not only that, but Travis and I had an encounter with a strange lady outside of the venue. All we heard was someone muttering "suck it! suck it!" over and over again, so we looked over, to see this lady wandering across the street. Nothing too intense, until we noticed that she had 2 knives in her left hand. Weird. Then as we criss-crossed each others paths, Travis noticed she had another, bigger knife in her right hand, which she happened to be twitching back and forth, apparently in his direction. It probably wasn't intentional, but you can never be too crazy with some crazies!

November 21 - Vancouver - The Purple Crab

I managed to have a really productive day on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. I worked on the soundtracks for Curtis Jensen's two new short films. I also managed to finally get on deck on the ferry, while it wasn't raining!








The Purple Crab was a great show! I shared the stage with a bunch of different and interesting acts! From the folk of Evan Symons to the 80's alternative sounds of The Rain and the Sidewalk. It was also really nice to have some TBay friends in the audience, making me feel really welcome, and at home.

November 20 - Victoria - CHLY and Solstice Cafe

The sun was seen briefly today! Very briefly.

Before heading to Victoria, I stopped in at CHLY and did a live to air interview and performance. Dylan the program director even joined me on two tracks playing saxophone. It was so good! Perhaps in the next while I'll put up some of the tracks.


I drove to Victoria. In the rain. BC is not surprising me anymore. At least the show at the Solstice Cafe was awesome! Pauline Edwards did two awesome sets, accompanied by Hon on drums.

At one point, this one fellow came into the cafe, and started to talk, sing and yell throughout my second set. After about 4 songs, it got to be enough, and he was finally removed. At that point, I said to the audience "normally I don't do this, but I'd like you all to give me a round of applause for having been able to play my songs while having someone yell counter rhythms and melodies into my left ear". A solid round of applause. It was a really fun night, as I met up with Cassandra, who had come out to my St Catharines show at the Strega Cafe. Then, I spent the night at the Kelly residence. I met Alyson Kelly in Sackville, and then she told her parents that I'd be coming through Victoria, so that's where I spent the night!

November 19 - Nanaimo - VIU Pub

I finally managed to get to the island! Unfortunately, the weather again was crap, so I didn't see the sun until the next day, and even then it was only for 15 minutes. I arrived at the VIU pub, just in time to get a parking ticket. Wow. 24 hour pay parking at VIU. Lame.



Ah well, the open mic was really happening! The pub was pretty small, but packed to the max with students. During my last song, I even had some foreign exchange students yelling something along with me. I have no idea what it was, but the melody worked!

I also got to give Greg his copy of the album too! He was having a good time, as he does every Thursday night.

November 18th - Vancouver - Nyala

I had wanted to go to the island a day before my show at the VIU pub, but because of the weather (winds of 70 km/hr) the ferries were canceled. So, technology served me well, as I posted on facebook about how I wasn't able to get to the island, and soon I got a response from the person at the Georgia Straight that reviewed my album (Miranda Nelson) inviting me to another show happening that night in Vancouver. So I showed up, met her in person, and even ended up getting an opening slot for the band Jackie Treehorn (made up of members of Distracticon). It was at an interesting little African restaurant called Nyala, and I was wearing a 'Wivestale' t-shirt, and ended up having several people recognize the shirt and make the Thunder Bay connection!

November 17th - Vancouver - Corduroy Lounge

Once I got to Vancouver (after another awesome mountain drive in the rain), I met with Travis, and Bam! We started making music! I'll have something to post quite soon I'm sure!

But in the meantime, we hit up the Corduroy Lounge for an open mic. It was great though, as all the performers were more professional musicians than amateurs, so needless to say the quality was amazing. I also left my power supply for my looper at Travis', so I had to bolt back to his place and grab it. Having to return to grab some of my gear is actually one of my only recurring nightmares. Terrifying, I know.

November 15th - Nelson - Velvet Underground

Nelson was a rough drive. I left Calgary late, so by the time I was really in the mountains, it was pitch black, and then it started to snow, with tons of wind. As I started to make my descent, the snow changed to rain, which definitely didn't make the drive overly enjoyable.

I arrived at the Velvet Underground (a day early) and found myself at an all ages dance party that would run until 4 am. Dave drove me back to their place (where I'd crash for 2 nights) earlier than the close of their event, and I slept for quite a while. The next day, I awoke to an awesome view, and a fire place that kept me warm all night!


Nelson was a pretty little town, and I was excited to play at the Velvet Undergound that night. Afte a little soundcheck, I played my set to a really excited audience. Everyone really appreciated the music I was making, and I was really excited that they had all taken the chance on a random Sunday night show at a venue most of them had never been to before. Dave and Simon were very kind, and gave me food for my entire stay there. That was great, as Dave was actually a culinary artist!

November 13th - Calgary - Dickens Pub

Ah, Calgary, the town that is always good to me. It's great showing up at a show to find this:


Also on the bill was Wivestale, who played awesomely! Their new sound blends rock with alternative/prog and even bluegrass beats, but Brandon still has that characteristic scream/yell which made me write songs specifically with him in mind as a vocalist a few years ago. After that I performed, and had a great time, followed by Silo, who played 'Nickelback-esque' rock. They're good at what they do, but it's just not my thing. BUT, I will give them props for having a tour bus that they brought a whole pile of friends to the show with. That's awesome!

November 12th - Lethbridge - The Slice

I woke up in Lethbridge again, and had a stressful day. I needed to have something mailed to Toronto by the next day at 5, so I was really stressed as I put together the package to be mailed and then proceeded to miss every single courier. Thankfully Shannon helped me out big time by mailing it out from Thunder Bay, saving me many hundred dollars! This is me being stressed (but also excited that the ridiculously has ended).

November 11th - Lethbridge - Henotic

I had a few cancellations on the western portion, but I was able to make them work. I drove from Regina to Lethbridge early so that I could play at an open mic and crash at the venue called Henotic. It was a really cool place, and because of a double booking for the next night, they were able to put me up for 2 nights. It was pretty cool, I met this one guy Matt Robinson, who was a fantastic guitar player, and he even invited me to play a show the next night at The Slice, which I graciously accepted. Afterwards though, there were some other eclectic acts, such as this beatboxer!

November 10 - Regina - The Club

Regina is where my uncle lives, so we ended up hanging out, catching up on family stuff, as well as discussing everything from magic equipment to stage lighting!

I was lucky to be added to a show at The Club, opening for Geronimo and Carpenter. I played with Carpenter earlier this year in Dryden just before I went to NXNE, and we've kept in touch. They were really excited that I got to play with them tonight, so I was pumped! I busted out the good camera and snapped some shots of their set, but it was really low light.






This last photo was taken when the lens was foggy. It had an interesting effect!

The promoter that night really enjoyed my set, which is always a great compliment, but everyone else enjoyed it too (especially Carpenter!).

November 8th - Bruno - All Citizens

Bruno is a tiny little town about an hour from Saskatoon. I found the place quite easily (I looked for streets that seemed like they'd be the 'main drag', and sure enough, I spotted the very iconic blue All Citizens building.

I had a very attentive audience, which began after receiving a little gift from Tyler, the owner/host. I won't say anymore, but it was very thoughtful, and made me really feel welcome in Bruno! I love small shows because everyone gets really into it, and I get to 'pretend' to be a comedian. There are links and more coming from Tyler, so I'll post those at a later time!

November 7th - Brandon - Lady of the Lake

Brandon didn't seem like an interesting place, but when I pulled into Lady of the Lake, wow, it was one hell of a gem! Here are some photos from the inside:




It's a mixture of a store, bar, cafe, restaurant, diner, and a bunch of other things! I played to a semi-attentive crowd (it's a supper-time thing), and I was able to crash at the owner's place (it's a family business!).