before the Unity tour….

‘…the bird would cease and be like other birds
but that he knows in singing not to sing
the question that he frames in all but words
in what to make of a diminishing thing.’
- Frost

Sunday morning at eight thirty a.m. we left to meet up with tour. It had been a late Saturday night and the wind in Regina was burly…made loading backpacks and piling into the van happen in record time. Todd drove us from Regina to Providence college in Otterburne Mb, an hour into nowhere south of Winnipeg….the location of our first show back from the break.
We passed towns along the way to Winnipeg that we had played over the years. Moosemin, Sk with the Reception and the Fortunate,….. when we toilet papered the Receptions van, and to this day they blamed it on drunk kids…Brandon, MB where we played countless goth shows…Brandon has a reputation with us as being the worst place to be for more than a couple hours. (am I wrong?)…Mcgregor .. where we played a drop in center a couple times and had many laughs...Portage,Mb where we played in the church hall basement (we rocked material from ‘more than watchmen’…I shredded the full stack….ha) Rivers, MB…where Todd played his second show with us…..we shared the stage with Anew and The Fortunate in a bingo hall…that show was just days before our first tour together as a four piece…in support of Rosesdead.
We pulled up the venue in Otterburne on a series of dirt roads…where the hell are we?....someone said…we made a joke that the venue was going to be refered to as ‘the superdome’ for the remainder of time. (the billy ray cyrus superdome!??!) It turned out we were playing in a large chapel named after Ben Affleck.. (not actually…but gotta give cred where its due)…I remembered a show we played in a chapel years ago and I had made a crack about covering an Aerosmith tune..(we actually didn’t)…..apparently after that joke the promoter got shit from staff for having a band perform with questionable influences….too good to be true!
We hung out upstairs at the superdome.....it had been a long drive and a short night before. We chatted with some friends…but for the most part worked on our guitars and chatted about set list ditties…typical first day of tour stuff…nerves…when I get nervous I just walk around the venue aimlessly....trying on every shirt in my backpack.
We got on stage a little after nine and immediately I felt like the show was going to be something special. The room had gotten pretty packed…I was recognizing many of the first few rows from the past 6 years of playing Winnipeg area shows. (Harper was stage driving immediately). When the chorus of the third song hit…the crowd was singing so loud I had to fight back a bit of emotion…we dance pretty hard... it was such a fun show.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the show at Prov….many Winnipeg people came out…and made it a great show to kick off this final tour. It was really neat for each of to play that show. Special thanks to Blair for coming to the show… Hailey for your kind words after the show….the guys for having us in the dorm and playing poker with us, and for your act in helping the family of your fallen friend.
We drove from Winnipeg to Chicago last night….all we had on our minds was watersliding!!! We haven’t gotten to it yet….but believe me… we will!! (unity tour…if your reading this…get your watersliding faces on!) Regarding watersliding: ‘A loaded gun can only sit so long before it goes off.’
We have a couple nights in Chicago area with family and friends until we head up to Guelph to join the Unity tour. (Lifestory monologue and Farewell to freeway…we want to see you!!!) We have done some shows with KTO…. And are looking forward to the tour…. We are super excited to meet and hang out with the Artists Life… I fully support you Dean!!…. and we are finally going to be tourists together buddy.
On the drive last night we pulled out some old letters that friends have given us on past tours for encouragement… we read them out loud….Avery K. (ex: The Fortunate…currently in LIFE IN HAND) took the cake for most hilarious note..! It was soooo funny dude…love you lots man…
That reminds me…..If you are coming out to any of these shows…. Bring notes..!!!!!.... We love them…. and we keep them and read them every once in awhile in the van…. Its hard to talk to everyone after these shows… and it would great to have a few mementos from you..
Ok…talk more later…
…looking over everything.
together,
matty means