Started the night off with some delicious lobster before heading down to Gus’ Pub to take in the wonderful Empire Lights (helmed by the handsome Tavo Diez De Bonilla) followed by Danger Bees, a great local band who was just about to make the big move to Toronto. We opted for a mellowish set of songs that we hadn’t really played in a while. An appropriate way to end a string of shows that started six weeks earlier on the West Coast. Thanks to all who supported us in one way or another.

Bit of a party night with Immaculate Machine and The Danks sharing the Saturday Hallowe’en bill at George’s Roadhouse.  Marshall dressed up as a pothead, Tavo was a Feline-Loving Superhero, and CL and I were dudes dressed up as ladies.  I realized at around 4:30am that I was the only still in costume...

Out audience was severely cut down by local heroes, Two Hours Traffic playing an all-ages show down the street, among other shows going on that night.  But it was worth the drive alone to share the Ampersands Cafe stage with our talented friend Andy Swan backed up by our own Tavo and Marshall.  The good times continued with a backyard bonfire back at Andy’s country home.

Drive day to stay at the Ritz in Edmunston.  At one point in the epic drive, Marshall mentioned he “needed some excitement”.  Tavo promptly took off his shirt in the backseat.

it’s nice having an excuse to drive down to nyc this time of year (or any for that matter).  an hour after arriving at our brooklyn hotel, we found ourselves at a quintessential williamsburg event: an rsvp only warehouse show featuring our vancouver friends, japandroids.  the next day tavo got a free haircut while i got a free massage at the cmj artist lounge.  that night we played a show that went from sparse to full by the end of the set.  the highlight of the whole weekend was hangin out at cony island before the long trek home.  we tried to find woody guthrie’s old house on mermaid avenue but it had been torn down to put up some crappy apartment building.

this was my first time in wakefield and it’s a pretty stunning time of year to be there…  i had a ‘moment’ down by the water as i dunked my bagel into cream cheese on a dock.  before the show got under way, Black Sheep Paul expressed a bit of concern about hosting a show on thanksgiving sunday by stating “any well-adjusted person is at home with their families this weekend.”  luckily there was a number of non-well-adjusted folks that made the trek to see the bands play.  winchester warm (jon and matt from poorfolk) were amazing, can’t wait to hear their record.  and the co-pilots put on a great set for their last show of their cross-canada tour. 

the long trafficky drive to montreal led to no time for dinner before our set at il motore, opening for our talented vancouver friends ford pier and co-pilots.  it was all worth it after the night ended with this:

on our way to london we tried to stop at chuck e. cheese to properly celebrate c.l.’s birthday . as we approached the hostess i asked her if it was ‘creepy’ that we were there with no children. she responded that yes, it was “a bit odd”. after explaining to her that it was c.l.’s big day she filled out his name and age on a giant chuck e. cheese sticker and wished him the best. she then she politely suggested we might prefer the burrito place across the street. we thanked her and were on our way, c.l. proudly sporting his badge of honour for the rest of the night.
the show was with the balconies. they had a lot of energy.
the night ended with us singing “tavo needs another gyro” to the tune of tina turner’s hit song from the 80’s outside a late-night donair stand. he responded by promptly ordering a second gyro.

this would be our third time playing the dakota in a year. the first time was when we were finishing up our tour with the fembots and the second was the white whale 5 year anniversary show. it’s always a bit scarier when it’s your own show though, especially when it’s your “release” party. earlier in the evening ryder mentioned to me that everyone he had talked to were either playing or attending other shows and that the night might be a bit of a bust. needless to say i was pretty stoked to hear the venue was full at 10:30pm with a big line-up outside. although the unfortunate part was that meant some of our friends couldn’t get in. betty burke opened the night and were great, as was eamon (with jeremy finkelstein on drums). c.l. turned 29* at midnight while we were on stage and the shots came out. i couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate.

peter bradley from cfru puts on house shows in his guelph attic.  the bill tonight was vincat from victoria, the toronto version of octoberman (c.l., tavo, shaun brodie, marshall bureau, randy lee and i), and eamon mcgrath from edmonton.  it was a tight squeeze up there but i was glad to be doing a house show again as it’s been a little while… vincat (pictured) were rad.  totally influenced by ron-era flaming lips.   eamon put together a last-second band consisting of ryder (mohawk lodge) on bass, his buddy peter on keys and our very own marshall and c.l on drums and lead shredtar, respectively.  thanks for not making me take my shoes off, peter.