Elliott BROOD TOUR BLOG

Apr 13 - 16 last leg US spring tour

2011-05-15T04:04:00.005-04:00

the most boring drive ever

Wed Apr 13 Tulsa OK - UNIT D

The GPS guided us earnestly up to the driveway of UNIT D (pictured), but something felt wrong. Sometimes GPS does get it wrong, like when you type in Main St South instead of North for example, or if it takes you on a perilous journey throughout the back roads of Nevada.

As it turned out, we were in the right place. It is a hot day here in Tulsa, t-shirt weather. We are kind of beat from the long boring drive from Fort Collins (see map), so instead of driving off in search of the real club, we knock on the door of Unit D. A burly middle aged man opens the door. Bill is his name. "You boys ever been to Oklahoma?" , he asks. Right away we are welcomed in to the mysterious quasi underground world of Unit D. It's kind of an invite-only private club, a former car garage, featuring bands of Bill's choice for entertainment. He does about a half dozen shows a year. We felt instantly at ease. The BBQs out front get lit, and we are invited to spend the rest of afternoon drinking our own microbrews (see Colorado entry) with the Unit D inner circle, watching Bill slowcook ribs and chicken the "right way" in a smoker. After the show we are invited for a nitecap at a downtown club, Arnie's Pub, where the Unit D posse are regulars. Pretty soon, the house music changes to our "Mountain Meadows" album cranked up. I felt like a rock star. As we leave the club, I notice that we are right along old Route 66. Another famous milestone for the journey.

One thing that came up in our beer soaked conversations at Unit D was bible belt televangelists. We make it a point to visit Oral Roberts University on the way out of town the next day to see the fantastic Jetson's inspired campus. i got a shot of his praying hands statue. As a local joke goes, those hands once started to come apart, and after much deliberation how to glue them back together it was found that sticking a $20 bill in between them did the trick. The hands closed right up on it. Ha ha ha.

taken enroute

Thur Apr 14 Hot Springs AK - Maxine's

Maxine's is supposed to be the site of the oldest whorehouse in Arkansas, though that kind of sounds like their was a beginning to the oldest profession. Maybe it's the oldest in Hot Springs. Anyways, here we are in the hometown of Bill Clinton, and ex mobster resort town ready to slug it out. We have a big affinity for Kevin and Agnes, who own the joint, and basically discovered us on behalf of the state of Arkansas. They are a very hip and worldly couple who met in LA and migrated back here with a young son in tow and started up this super cool club. They found out about our Mountain Meadows album and took a chance on us during that album's US tour. The relationship has proven to be great between us, and the people we meet here are absolutely charming.

Agnes and Kevin. Such kind hearts. Kevin offered us his favourite bourbon, and Agnes put together enough much meat, buns and fruit the next day to feed an orphanage.

That night we witnessed the start of this years' grand tornado fest which ripped through the area as a wild and crazy hailstorm as we finished the show. The next day it hit a little to the East and killed about 50 people in the Carolinas and Virginia. Brings a new definition to the term "mobile home".

Fri. Apr 15 Denton TX - Dan's Silverleaf

We were about an hour late for soundcheck due to the long drive from Hot Springs. No matter. Dan the owner greeted us immediately with a smile and a beer. Talk about Southern Hospitality. Gotta capitalize those words.

About a half hour to the N/W of Dallas, Denton is a renowned town for producing some fine music. Bands that know how to sound good like Midlake and Centro-matic are from here. It is also home to North Texas University. The downtown is an interesting square block at the top of a hill around a grand courthouse, quite hip with NT students abounding, thrift and record stores, restaurants, music clubs. Paste magazine voted Denton as America's best music scene 2008. ok enough already.

I made a tweet noting that it is one of the only places to see street punks drinking lattes, and also bought a wonderful 4-cd Woody Guthrie box-set for 20 bucks.

And now ... the Six degrees of Stephen Bruton:

-Stephen Bruton was Kris Kristofferson's main guitarist for much of his career, until he passed away in 2008

- Our soundman at Dan's Silverleaf was scheduled to mix Stephen's band at a show in Denton the day that he died. His band played the show anyways.

- The movie "Crazy Heart" (2009) was dedicated to the memory of Stephen Bruton, who played a key role in the music writing for that film, and coaching Jeff Bridges on guitar.

- I was half way through watching "Crazy Heart" when we played at Dan's Silverleaf.

- As a studio engineer, I recorded Stephen Bruton, along with Kristofferson's keyboardist Donnie Fritz for a Canadian movie entitled "The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico" (2005).

- "Guy Terrifico" was, like it's antecessor "Crazy Heart", a film about a troubled alcoholic country singer.

-Kris Kristofferson has a Rhodes collar.

(sorry to the band for that one). There ya go. 6 degrees.

Driftwood TX

Old Settlers Music Fest

After Denton we kind of had to hightail it to Austin, about 6 hrs away. We left there at around 3AM after an obligatory stop at Whataburger (ask us), and ended up sleeping on the side of the highway somewhere near Waco. How roadlike.

A great festival this is, and our first of the season. It's a summer vibe, and very exciting for us to play in an area where we are getting known. There were some other bands there who are potential buddies as well. Shoutouts to KAOS pirate radio who took us to a semi secluded campsite for a real interview and a couple songs in the woods. Also to our pal Jimmy Stelling who came with his Gal and kid all the way from Virginia to see his buddies play. Jimmy is one of the best banjoists I've ever seen, and makes the darn things too. Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers plays one, and those fellers would have been there playing it the night before had it not been for a newborn in their midst, cancelling things and all.

Congratulations to Scott Avett and his wife on their second child.

Colorado

2011-05-14T10:26:00.007-04:00

Sat Apr 9 Breckenridge CO Beerfest
Located about 20 min from the more famous peaks of Aspen and Vale, Breckenridge is home to KSMT 102.1 "The Mountain", which was a top rated radio station in the US to break Elliott BROOD. We had to jump at the invitation to play their annual end of season BeerFest. Thanks to their Program Manager Stacy, plus Jen, Steve, Steve and anyone I might be missing here (likely named Steve). Also Momo, who jumped onstage right after with a gracious invitation to eat for free in his brother's 4 star restaurant, Taddeo's. We were dizzy most of the time because this place exists at 10,000 ft above sea level. Very mysterious in that sense. Nonetheless, people live up here, and even more, they are awesome and generous.
The beerfest is populated with free tasting tents from all the local microbrews, my favourite being Alaskan Amber, and Left Hand Pale Ale. Also I picked up a case of Morning Wood (beer) from a local liquor store called Summit Liquor, which boasts a very impressive collection of worldly wines and local brews.
I can't say enough about the beerfest. We had a great crowd, in spite of playing at the same time as The Wailers (yes, from Bob Marley), just about 500 metres away. Also we got to stay in a large time share condominium near the edge of the mountain for a couple of nights. There were pictures of the owners around (looking at you from other delectable places on the planet), and a guestbook. Good deterrents for anyone who might of thought of trashing the place.

Sun Apr 10 Denver CO Hi-DIve
YES. It is great to be in a big strange city and get appreciated. People know Elliott BROOD in Colorado, in part through radio. Nearly a dozen stations in Colorado have been playing us, both commercial and non-commercial radio. I think it may have something to do with the exorbitant amount of snowboard videos that keep popping up to our music. Colorado could be our biggest fanbase state yet, though Washington and Texas are also high contenders, thanks in part to stations in Seattle and Austin.

mon Apr 11 Ft. Collins CO
A total university town that has a "Pitkin Street" right on the University premisis (pictured). Remind me to enlist in Colorado State U someday. I could be the king of this place (especially at my advanced age). The kind promoters had printed a larger-than-life size poster of us, which we signed and gave to a fan (hey, I wanted that!). Their promotion paid off with students who came out in entire appreciation mode. When we get onstage they come right up close and circle around. Pretty impressive for a bunch of strangers.

Colorado to Texas APRIL 5 - 17

2011-05-14T09:54:00.009-04:00

Apr 4

We get a headstart on the tour and stay at family residence in the band's original hometown of Windsor ON. I am again a willing recipient of the grand hospitality of Mark's parents, who have graciously donated their basement whenever needed. I didn't realize that this would be my last night for netflix, as my Canadian subscription only lets me watch in Canada. Who would've known? I thought that you should be able to access their Canadian website from any country, with the same usage restrictions abroad. Nope. You are an American now Stephen Pitkin (though that should theoretically allow me more "freedom"). I get through about half of Crazy Heart, but start drifting off shortly after Jeff Bridges character Bad Blake begins his affair with the young interviewer. Maybe I can finish watching this with my wife when we return to CANADA.

Apr 5 Chicago IL

Schuba's - Builders and the Butcher, with Damian Suomi and the Minor Prophets

A great night for a Tuesday. We had several friends come to the show, including new acquaintances we had met during the Ships & Dip cruise hosted in February by Barenaked Ladies. Thanks, Will, Sallie and Meg! Plus a special shoutout to Thales Exoo, who managed to make the effort to come out while her partner took care of her 9 mo newborn, and dentist Kim, who had to get up early to drill out some teeth.

Apr 6 Carbondale IL - Hangar 9

about 4 hrs south of Chicago, Carbondale is a stop on a trainride to the "City of New Orleans" in the famous song by Arlo Guthrie. Kind of a college town, but also a trains are really loud here town. The trainblast sample at the end of "Chuckwagon" came as no surprise tonight. though it is the loudest part of our set, our audience remained unfazed. The crowd was a nutty contingent of drunken dancing football players and tattooed alt rockers who gave this town a signature cool in a club that was built to withstand any strong wind. The former one in this spot was blown down at some point by a tornado, somewhat of a foreshadow for us, as this tour we will be unknowingly be just ahead of a couple of deadly weather fronts.

Apr 7 Iowa City IA The MILL

Today's drive takes us up hwy 61 (the one "Revisited" by Dylan in 1965). It snakes up alongside the Mississippi river, which, anywhere south of St. Louis is already abloom with spring buds. The day is sunny, but by the time we hit the club in Iowa City it is raining. I enjoyed the downtown of this city, which has been saved with a creative pedestrians-only strip. Should be a sister city to Brisbane, AU, which shares a similar vibe. This one's a bit newer and nicer, but Brisbane has way more old character. The club was an older sort of jazz club, and will definitely make the tourbook again sometime. I imagine this town has potential for us, but with little or no radio support right now we're at the mercy of word-of-mouth. That kind of equals hand-to-mouth. Thanks for the spaghetti dinner!

Apr 8 drive west. we slowly climb across the prairies. Not apparent to us, the prairies are climbing higher and higher, and by the time we hit Denver we are "Mile High". Buckle your seatbelts because the next 90 minutes brings us up to 10,000 ft Breckenridge snowboard country.

"Research In Motion" - maybe not!

2011-01-18T12:59:00.008-05:00

This entry is a departure from it's usual highlights of touring with Elliott BROOD, but bears temporal relevance, and perhaps greater entertainment value: I hereby release my 2010 best-of Blackberry spellcheck list.

2010 was my first year with a smartphone. I am enamoured by the many benefits of owning a Blackberry 9700 BOLD, but equally amazed at it's sheerly retrograde spellcheck mechanism, especially in emails. One of my favourites is the reappropriation of it's own "bbm" (which stands for Blackberry Messenger) to "bum". Is that supposed to stand for "Blackberry Unmessenger"?

The BOLD 9700 spellcheck is quick exhibit it's inferiority by separating compound words, redirecting swearwords and generally being unhip to new jargon that most of it's users are applying en masse in their daily usage. The user then gets to affirm or deny if they really meant to type that word. Duh.

C'mon Research In Motion ! Live up to your name and invent an app to address the vernacular of the text-able !

And now the list :

blog = blob

tweets = sweets

tweeting = twee ting

texting = testing

Skype = Skye

bbm = bum

facebook = facebook

myspace = my space

Groupon = Group on

yay = nay

XO = SO

XOXO = SOCKS

meds = mess

strepthroat = streetcar

videographer = photographer

supermodel = super model

whateva = what eva

no probs = no props

rumours = rum ours

relist = relish

Tunisian = Tension

Congolese = Congress

Pakistanian = Pakistan ian

Latvian = Latin

Estonian = Estrogen

Belorussian = Beloved

Brisbane = Briskets

Cranulla = Granola

Thur = Thug

DeGrassi = Degrees

CSI = CPI

asshole = assume

shit = shot

fuck = duck

Melbourne and area Oct 14 - 17

2010-10-26T05:50:00.005-04:00

tall objects in a Melbourne garden

Oct 14 "Maple Syrup" showcase w/ The Trews and Final Flash at Ding Dong Lounge Melbourne

Both the other bands are great. The Trews are becoming somewhat of a household name in Canada, at least amongst families with indie rock cred. They require little introduction, and they are beginning what will likely be a great relationship with the land down under. Final Flash are entirely new to us. They've been together around 3 years, and have recently put out their new record, "homeless", which is really enjoyable, and was on the 2010 Polaris Prize long list. They have a 'prog rock' kind of sensibility, and are hot on the tail of the recent successes of other Montreal acts. I would describe them as a mix somewhere between the Besnard Lakes and Plants & Animals. As I write this (from Canada), Elliott BROOD just received an email from a new fan from this show raving about the performance, and commending our first EP "Tin Type", which she bought, and is unavailable otherwise in Australia. Thanks Kieren! Feedback like this makes everything worth it.

Sherwood Forest - Belgrave Victoria

Oct 15 Belgrave - in the mountains - radio interview through Sherwood Forest which I am comparing to the hilly drives through Mill Valley and Sausalito just North of San Francisco, if anyone has done that. The difference here is less real estate and more vegetation. Instead of California redwoods there are massive palmtrees, and open forest pervades still, as opposed to the impossibly hilly subdivisions you find in California. The road seems to be inviting development in a matter of time, though, and in some places this is already underway.

The club, "Ruby's", is inviting, with pleasant staff, but shortly we notice the signs. There is a repetitive posting that after 11PM the club will not serve redbull/vodka, shooters or pitchers. You must have your ID electronically scanned at the door. You cannot where a hat in the club, as the cameras can not accurately get your identity. What's wrong? Something serious must have happened here. I'm not going to ask.

Once our set is done at Ruby's, The Fumes kick up the intensity. It is around that said threshold hour of 11PM, and the freak flags begin to fly. It is a mountain town after all. We have such places in Canada too, but I don't think I've ever seen such a conglomerate of freaky dancers. There must be something in the water.

rain rain rain.... the rain storm has followed us to Melbourne from Brisbane it seems. Today the weather might best be described as 'shite'. So we stay inside all day at the Richmond Hill Hotel, and log on to internet, which is not particularly cheap.

Sat Oct 16 Melbourne - East Brunswick Hotel - what a great sounding club. This is where The Fumes are really hitting stride in the tour. We get to hear them in front of an urban audience and with great sound to boot. Great performances such as this one will happen again in Sydney (Notes Live), and Bulli, where we will end the tour.

Oct 12, 13 Adelaide - Mclaren Vale

2010-10-24T10:59:00.008-04:00

Oct 13 We had one day off in McLaren Vale, and our Aussie manager (and Vale resident) Alistair had a plan: take the band to some local wineries for wine tasting. Mclaren Vale is one of Australia's finest growing regions, and to boot. Al's wife Sally works at Samuel's Gorge winery , so we check that and some others. Amongst the excellent varieties and blends, particularly memorable for me were a Grenache, and a 40 yr old sparkling red.

Wine is so funny the way it encourages snobbery. For awhile in the band, we had started taping pilot episodes of what could have become a steady lampooning of wine snobbery, in a show dubbed "Drifters with Snifters". In my pipedreams of creating viral video, this one would become a series of shorts where Casey and I sip "single digit" wines (under $10/bottle), in outrageous settings, and rate them accordingly with spontaneous vulgar wine terminology. Mark would occasionally appear in the shot looking for beer. Hilarious stuff, at least at times to our toursoaked minds, and indeed that's where it will likely stay.

PS BTW we played another Canadian Showcase that evening with The Trews and Final Flash. The three of us bands have not a great deal in common, however our sounds compliment one another, and everybody quickly became friends with much respect for each other's music. More of these bands in an upcoming blog from Melbourne.

*editors note - I admit that at this point in the tourblog it seems that I've lost focus on the music

Mclaren Vale wineries we attended:

http://www.primoestate.com.au/

http://www.gorge.com.au/index.html

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/4/26/alpha-box-dice.html

Oct 9 - 11 Sunshine Coast

2010-10-24T10:07:00.005-04:00

The Sunshine Coast

Mooloolaba, Caloundra, Brisbane, The FUMES, Crocodile Hunter.

After a warm introduction to the beaches in Perth, we were prepped for the Northern Australia beach culture, and maybe get in a bit more surfing. But that wasn't going to happen, as a subtropical storm raged through the region the whole time. In Caloundra, this was to our benefit, since 95 km/hr winds pushed the weekend festival event indoors, giving us a much better and closely packed audience. Both of our shows ended up in packed mid-size clubs as opposed to the nearby park at King's Beach, which would have had people spaced widely apart, free to lose their focus.

Amidst these festival dates we drove down to Brisbane for our first date with the FUMES, a super excellent guitar/drums duo. I will write more on them later.

Oct 11 due to the cyclone like torrential rains, there will be no surfing on Mooloolaba beach, and consequently there will also be no Monday show in Brisbane @ The Shire. The Shire is a tiny club that is half outdoors. The appeal is that live music plays while people spill out upon the sidewalk. They have a free live music event every Monday, but if it rains they must cancel. Double bad, as we had left Mooloolaba at 6:30 AM to race into Brisbane to get an editorial photo done for that day's MX commuter magazine promoting the show.

I sure hope all 200,000 readers didn't commence upon The Shire that night.

PS everyone, Nov 15 in Mooloolaba is Steve Irwin Day. Crikey, you better get ready!

Oct 6, 7, 8 - One Movement Festival - Perth

2010-10-17T20:22:00.008-04:00

Perth is another seemingly laid back lazy city, kind of resembling Miami, but tempered with a bit of Victoria BC regalness. There are lots of construction cranes, which of course are evident of their booming economy. News just came on that the AU dollar went up another cent, and they have been adding jobs at a rate of roughly 50,000/month. Compare with US job losses of around 90,000/month. In your face America ! And of course, with things going so well here, you can pay $26 for a chicken caesar salad, and $16 for a cocktail. In our own face, Perth !

Spring break at Scarborough beach

We had the daytimes essentially free, so on the Friday we scooted over to Scarborough Beach, just North of Perth. It is one of the last days of Spring break, and a splend and cloudless 32' celcius to boot. This is the most crowded beach I have ever seen, It didn't take much for me to get into the water (with Mark in tow) and body surf the powerful waves.I was probably the oldest teen out there. We had also just ran into the Trews, who had been surfing with real surfboards amongst thousands of young people. Having been out there, I can't imagine where they would've found room to negotiate a board through the crowd. Besides, the surf was powerful enough that you could catch a wave without one. But to each their own.

And what's up with the high visibility outfits over here? It's as if there is a love affair with flourescent, so nearly every public worker now wears some kind of refective safety outfit. I took these photos within about 5 minutes of each other:

Oct 7 It's time to get down to business. We play the Canadian Showcase at One Movement w/ the Trews, Matthew Barber, Colin Moore, Final Flash, JP Hoe, and the next day in a Car Park with the incredible Melbourne based duo, Big Scary. check them out!

I should also point out that Perth is exactly 12 hours away from Toronto. Ya can't get much further from home than that. Hail the mighty Skype!

Oct 4 Sydney... let's wait

2010-10-14T22:55:00.004-04:00

Cronulla Beach at low tide

Oct 4 land in Sydney

Having left Toronto at 10AM Saturday, we touched down in Sydney at approx 7:30 AM on Monday. Yes, two days later. In addition to 20 hrs in the air we had also flown over the international dateline (into tomorrow). In contrast, the return flight will only be seven hours (on paper), landing in the evening of the same day we leave, including a stop in San Fran.

We rent a white Subaru outback, which will become the given rental car for each of our stops on this tour (for some reason white also is very much the colour of choice in Australia). We have five internal flights, each of which we are saddened to learn also tag on approx. $500 in overage fees, and they like to stick to their rules. Note to Australia fliers: book your entire itinerary at one time with one airline because the condensed paperwork will allow your international overages free onto your internal flights (instead of paying each time). For us the penalty will equal approx $2000 in extra fees. Qantas is very happy to keep these details buried in the fine print of their own wallet, unless you the customer are very diligent.

As a nod to saving money, we are fortunate to stay at our agent Geoff's place in a tiny hamlet called Yowie Bay in the South Shire of Sydney. Geoff is an agent, indie label maven and club owner. All around good guy to know.Yowie Bay is a beautiful lazy little town on the shore, near Cronulla, where we have a gig (at Geoff's club) later in the tour. As it turns out, his house is rather giant and includes a recording studio, swimming pool, and a number of bedrooms. This night other guests at the house include Canada's Matthew Barber and The Trews. We will all do a Canada showcase together in Perth in a few days.

We need a day or two to recover from flying, and in addition to the general 'waiting' game, do some pre tour interviews, pick up our Australian-made Mountain Meadows cd's, and do some localised dining with Geoff, who went out of his way one night to smoke some fresh red snapper for us.Mmmm yummy red snapper.

Australia tour Oct 2010

2010-10-14T22:47:00.003-04:00

waiting

Oct 2 Toronto - San Fran - Sydney.

"The road" for a band is paved with waiting. Let's add up a typical day on the road, when there is a show:

Soundcheck: 1 hr

Gig: 2 hrs

Meals: 3 hrs

Sleep: 8 hrs

Total: 14 hrs.

That leaves roughly 10 hours a day of pretty much waiting, whether it be travelling, or just waiting at some location. With no other real obligations, that's a lot of sitting around. One could write a book, or a bunch of songs, excercise or blog, but for many of us it means just simply sitting or standing like a turnip or some comparable vegetable. It's probably a miracle that we don't smoke.

During this flight, to add to the regular course of waiting, we had a ten hour layover in San Francisco. I could think of many worse cities to have such a predicament.

On this day, the SF Giants were playing the SD Padres, a tempting prospect especially for Mark, the band's biggest baseball fan. With a prohibitive pricepoint for tickets, especially at this point in the season (and our careers), we put down just $42, and rented a car (incl. complimentary AM/FM for baseball) and drove downtown. I convinced the boys to walk up around the Golden Gate Bridge itself, which was as usual covered in fog. Then we headed over to Twin Peaks, Mission and Castro districts, and finally settled for some mexican food before going back to the airport to wait some more.

BTW free internet at SF airport, yay! We will discover later that this is an incredible luxury, especially by Australian standards, where free internet is something you can only get when purchasing food at McDonald's.

Sept 10 End of the Road Festival - Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset UK

2010-10-08T05:50:00.007-04:00

This Euro tour started with a simple booking: an invitation to play the "End of the Road" festival in the county of Dorset, UK, not too far from Stonehenge. As is often the case with touring, you start with an "anchor date", then book everything else around it.

This anchor date is everything it was supposed to be and more. We get about 90 min SW of London, and the GPS begins to take us through smaller and smaller roads until it feels like we are practically on a bike path through a farmer's field (it turns out that we were). In the distance through the fields we would get glimpses of a massive blue tent, which we assumed was part of the festival, and indeed it even was the tent we would play under. Incredibly, those little farmer trails would have to accompany big tour buses as well, housing the likes of Modest Mouse, Wilco and several other big name headliners.

Like I mentioned, we were to play under the big blue tent that afternoon, a show which would ultimately be headlined that evening by fellow Canadians, New Pornographers. So here we were at our 'anchor date'. We hit the stage at around 5PM, and within a few songs the tent was pushing it's capacity, somewhere between 2500 - 3000 people (I wasn't exactly counting heads). The feeling coming back was tremendous. It kind of puts you on form when a large audience is conveying it's collective approval of your music.

As it turned out, the vibe here was quite sensational, and the event coordinators managed to commandeer the exquisite gardens into an interactive art/nature display as well, seemingly designed to enhance the expanding minds of some patrons. In the picture of us in that forest, Casey is donning a borrowed mohawk/viking helmet from one such patron. Fully enhancing! If you read any of my tweets (www.twitter.com/Doots_Mayhem) on the Pickathon Festival this past August in Portland OR, you will see that the End of the Road Festival is very much like that one, in it's use of nature and it's carefully selected artists.

So there. We have done our first big UK festival. For 2011 we hope for more. Green Man, Glastonbury, Reading, Isle of Man, Edinburgh ... look out, here we come !

After this fest we will play Paris FR and Middleburg NL (see below), then fly home only to immediately drive to Eastern Canada for some more festival and club dates. After one week off we will then head to Australia for the final leg of all touring for the Mountain Meadows album.

It will be high time after this to stay home for a few months, recoup and rekindle our home and family lives, and focus on another record, hopefully to be released sometime in the first half of 2011.

Thursday vs Saturday (or London vs Paris)

2010-10-08T05:06:00.003-04:00

Sept 9 - London UK

Sept 11 - Paris FR

Sept 12 - Middleburg NL

Flanking the End of the Road Festival date (see blog entry above), were the little cities of London and Paris respectively. Not a bad way to close out the tour.

In the lobby of the Borderline in London, I was proud to see our poster up beside Blue Rodeo's. Anyone from Canada knows how huge Blue Rodeo are, and any fan would be excited to see that they were going to play in such a small and intimate venue here. Last time we played the Borderline (on a Saturday night) we sold it out. I'm sure Blue Rodeo will pack a lineup down the streets of Soho to see them.

It is a Thursday, and slightly before school season, so this time it was close, but not a complete sellout. That's ok, we'll do it again, and next time it will be with a few more UK festivals and a new album under our belt. I'd imagine we could even jam a bigger room.

Ok lets contrast that with the Saturday show in Paris. Last winter, we came to France and did about 12 winter festival dates around the country. That really helped us out there, and on our only French date this tour, we received some of the payback. This Sept 11, BROOD fans came to Paris from as far away as Zurich, Lyon, Dijon and Grenoble to see us. We pretty much oversold the show. I tweeted a couple pics (www.twitter.com/Doots_Mayhem), one that showed the opening band's drummer playing essentially my old suitcase kick, another reflecting a tasteless but timely defacement of our poster. The club was packed like sardines in a can, and shortly there was no dry stitch of clothing within the band. People were singing along to our songs, which I find really validating especially in far away places.

Lastly, I can't neglect to mention Middleburg NL, the friendly town in a slightly more conservative province of the Netherlands (ie no 'coffeeshops'). We ended the tour here on a Sunday night. Our host here, Doug was a super dude, as were the rest of the staff. This night was a bit of a challenge, being literally our 12th in a row, and the next two days brought a massive undertaking: teardown/return-the-gear/fly home/drive-straight-to-Eastern-Canada-all-within-two-days. We had just rocked Paris, and End of The Road Fest in the two nights previous. How could Middleburg compete? Good question. Anyways, we closed out the night with a couple of drinks down the way at the only open bar in town, with many of the same people who we hung out with last time in Middleburg, back in Feb '09. That in itself made the last date really fun, and underscored our oversees friendship with those folks.

Sept 6 Leeds UK Brundenell Social Club

2010-10-04T10:08:00.008-04:00

Elliott BROOD --- Live at LEEDS !!

The GPS guides us once again through a largely Islamic section of town where the club is, like in Gent (and later Paris), It is a fairly run down neighborhood, reeking of deisel and oil, as there are many garages in the immediate vicinity. My favourite one is adjacent to the Brudenell Social Club and it is just a closed door with "Singz Garage" spraypainted roughly across it. Crude branding at it's free-market best. Once inside however, we take an immediate liking to the club, with it's great stage and sightlines, cozy atmosphere and good beers on tap.

The promoter here is Nathan, a early twenties former semi pro soccer player/coach. He has switched careers and to great effect, as he seems to live for promoting, putting his heart and soul into it. The man is always on facebook, and knows every band going right now. On the billboard out front are a certain bevy of Canadian talent: Black Mountain, Dan Mangan, Hot Hot Heat, Broken Social Scene, Woodpigeons. From the following night in Glasgow you can also add New Pornographers to that list, I feel as if there is a Canadian invasion going on here.

At one point, later in the evening our tourmanager Ryan joked that he could beat Nathan in a running race. The response was a challenging look that could have ended the race right there. "I'd F$%^& slaughter you!", or something similar came out of Nathan. All in jest, but also a great reflection of the truth, as our tourmanager was reduced back into his pack of cigarettes.

One more thing about Leeds. For dinner, Nathan said he knew of a pretty good place. He walked us around the corner to a little restaurant called 'Grove', Grove turns out to be a fantastic curry house, with traditional curries, and very friendly staff. I was beside myself, as I had been feeling a little under the weather and not really looking forward to a traditional English greasefest.

Sept 5 Winchester UK Railway SXSC

2010-10-02T22:38:00.005-04:00

Oliver Gray. Say no more. This tour it seems is all about promoters. They make or break the show. In the absence of a national marketing campaign for the band, it is all about what kind of work the promoter does. Many times (especially in the UK), we stay at the promoter's personal house, all in the interest of keeping costs low. It can be done on the cheap, it just requires a certain amount the promoter's energy.

This is where Oliver comes in. He is a fantastic music enthusiast, and has carved his way through the business by writing about music, managing bands and promoting shows. Oliver's life is a case study of success through doing. Records of his developing years as a music impresario can be found in his autobiographical history "VOLUME", written under the pseudonym Gary Revilo (spell oliver backwards).

This year we found ourselves headlining the first annual SXSC festival,a day long event on two stages at the Railway Inn in Winchester. And once again we have absorbed the promoter's good will in regard to accommodation.

Thank you Oliver.

A somewhat surprised Oliver (centre) entertaining road managers Ryan and Rebecca at home

Sept 3 Hoorn NL Huis Verloren

2010-09-26T22:41:00.003-04:00

This night we played in a 16th century town hall building that was built on an angle so that water would not run down and rot or otherwise destroy the walls. It looks freaky this way, but hey, it lasted this long. We were also told, to our amazement that this very building housed an exporting office for cattle, and there were these two mega famous cattle herders named "Jan" and "Cees" (pro. "kase"), that apparently were the first inspiration for that fond namesake used for and by Americans; "Yankees".
I hereby rest my Cees .
Our friends Jan and Henk (see Spiijkerboor entry) and their wives were also at this show, and it should be noted at this point that Casey made an inspired tour podcast featuring Henk and Casey DJing some fave tunes. It's available on our webpage, www.elliottbrood.com .

Sept 2 Antwerp BE Trix w/ Black Diamond Heavies

2010-09-26T22:26:00.003-04:00

John Wesley and Van as the "Black Diamond Heavies", Antwerpen Sept 2.

When we met "Black Diamond Heavies" and discovered it was a keyboard/drum duo I was expecting kind of a dance thing. or at least a few techno/dance tricks. Bottom line was that these guys are a dynamic blues duo that rock forth with full intensity. Even more a surprise that the drummer Van is also Bonnie Prince Billie's live drummer (I was blown away by BPB at Pickathon just a month ago in Portland OR). In this situation though, Van is a bombastic and energetic player, fully supporting keyboardist John Wesley and his sweat soaked blues rock. JW is a contender for THE most rocking keyboard player around. His distorted Fender Rhodes sound is much like an overdriven guitar, and he handles a really full bass sound on some Korg thing on his left hand. Incredible, and no need for additional bandmates with this duo.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy blowing my mind at Pickathon 2010 (Portland OR)

Hamburg Aug 30, 31

2010-09-17T18:43:00.015-04:00

On Monday a club called Astra Stube, we packed roughly 80 people or so into the tiny little room, with the help of "Mi and My Bubba", a tidy female trio hailing from Scandanavia who play minimalistic ballads of love, lost and found. Dinner and breakfast coffees were also included in a nearby bar.

We were also kind of blessed to have Hamburg for our one day off in the tour the following day. As a bonus, the promoter offered us an extra night for free at the artist's apartment, which is more or less a dormitory room with bunk beds. As a band guy I have slept in bunks before. Convenience and economy win quickly over the alternatives, despite the inadequate feelings one can get when confronted with a bunkbed. I always think there will be pee on the mattress somehow, which is totally unfounded. In fact in this apartment there is full washer/dryer and plenty of fresh sheets around. Otherwise though, the vibe is very "indie band": rock posters abound, and even a bit of graffiti on the bunks.

Speaking of graffiti, there is tons in this neighborhood (near St. Pauli station), as if it were every German's right of passage. As it turns out we are in a city block that features a prominent abandoned theatre that has been transformed into a squatters' haven. Apparently owned by some socialist pacifist who never had the wherewithal to remove squatters, it stands as a landmark and centrepiece to the neighborhood (even though there are nice restaurants all around). Twice a year they are said to have an anarchist fest that requires a G20 style police presence to quell. Otherwise, the community exists quite peacefully. Another example of a neighborhood is the abondoned block across the street which serves as one half - free [arking lot (yay!), and one half - sand filled outdoor homemade "bar" that is called "Central Park". Not the Central Park I am accustomed to (nor anyonelse it seems.. I only ever saw one patron sitting alone on one of the lawnchairs in the sand).

So on our day off, in addition to obligatory laundry, Mark and I decide to go for a tourists' walk. The journey was recommended by one of the promoters (can't remember names at this point), and he had recommended taking a walk around the harbour, including a trek through the turn of the century tunnel that runs from one side of the Elbe River to the other. That was perfect for us, because it also got us through the Reeperbaun area as well, and past the Beatles' first nightclubs (where they worked as houseband back in 1960 - '62). Pictured below are "Steve McCartney" on the Reeperbaun, and some unsespecting old man who didn't realize he was Ringo.

After the Beatles photoshoot, we stopped on my recommendation for "curry hotdogs" that had a thermometer out front for you to pick how spicy (mostly cayenne) you wanted your dog. I picked level 7, Mark picked level 8 (at which point the sign exclaims, "Achtung !!! Xtreme Scharf"). Sounds dangerous. His was virtually inedible, mine barely manageable. When we remarked about how hot they were, the confectionary owner stated that if we were to order an 11 or 12 gauge hotdog, he would have to see our passports.

After the meal, we headed over to the river elbe, saw a U boat, then descended a massive stairwell, complete with noisy large elevators, down to the newly refurbished Elbe tunnel.

Quite remarkable, and extremely well restored, it is at least a kilometre long, and completely fashioned in white glossy ceramic. Can you imagine the echo in that tube ? I immediately want to reserve this room to record future drum tracks.

Aug 29 Spiijkerboor NL

2010-09-12T04:11:00.004-04:00

Our friends Henk and Jan require mention here. We have been coming to Europe to tour since 2006, and no tour through the Netherlands has been complete without some visit by these two great guys. It all started at our very first show ever in Europe, at a tiny bar in Assen, NL, "Vittebal" which though being at capacity at around 80 people, is considered a place where music is discovered. Going back, I also remember a distinct Marlon Brando type character there. He was a local drunk who claimed to have been both very rich and very poor, gave us a fifty euro note after the show as a tip. And that's when the Euro was worth something!

Anyways, also at the Vittebal on that first night were Henk and Jan, who were very enthusiastic about the show. To this day they have seen close to a dozen of our Netherlands shows, and we now have an ongoing email dialog going with Henk. By 2008 we had met their wives Lia and Gepke too. This year, after a show in Spiijkeboor NL we were invited back to Henk's place, where we indulged in a special bottle of the national drink Jenever that he had set aside. They are great guys, and their enthusiasm is something that we look forward to on the often lonesome road trail. I couldn't imagine what an NL tour would be like without at least one show that featured Henk's enthusiastic cheers of "MAAN!!!!" or "OKAY !!!!" after certain songs.

Henk is the director of a children's special education school, and the photo here was painted by one of the students there. We didn't meet the boy, but it is an honour to have detailed work like this made based on our image.

Aug 27 Groningen NL Noorderzon Fest

2010-09-12T03:43:00.003-04:00

If there is one characteristic I can hopefully learn and keep from Elliott BROOD, it is the tendency to arrive early. Contrary to my DNA, the spirit of leaving and and arriving early is very BROODlike, and I will attribute this virtue to Casey, who dutifully leads the group through every wake up and drive, ensuring a timely arrival (as if we were one time zone to the East) at every destination.

This afternoon, we had hightailed it out of Köln, and made it to the Groningen venue, Platform Theatre about a half hour early. The immediate local city landscape (around the club) is underwhelming and desolate, to which my feelings give way, from cautious optimism to defeat. Why are we here? What are we doing? You have to understand that, although the road is generally a carefree zone of fun times and modest sightseeing, it can also present an undertow of personal insecurities, as one is away from the homelike affairs that can so conveniently anchor one's personality. Stripped of the usual daily responsibilities, and with a wife and family back home, I am susceptible to such questions of value. I need to be validated through audience response, or at least some good sightseeing. Left to my own devices in a desolate part of town brings me to a darker and lonelier place.

After that lengthy introduction, let me introduce Wopke Shoes. Located right next door to the Platform Theatre, is the eccentric shoemaker who let us in his little shop and managed to inspire us with examples of shoes, made from alligator or snake leather, that featured eyes on the side, and had horns attached. I snapped a photo for my wife of the shoes. Also impressive about Wopke was his Dali-esque waxed moustache. Wopke was put on our guestlist for the evening (+1), but never showed. Too bad.

Also shown are some cellphone pics from the Noorderzon Festival, which is a fantastic art and culture fest in a local park that is mostly free, and featured multiple forms of art. The park was full and the demographic was (enviously) everybody from very young to very old. Oh the Dutch, doing it right again.

Aug 26 Köln King Georg

2010-09-07T15:28:00.003-04:00

We arrive in Köln, affectionately known to Canadians and some other internationals as Cologne. This will be Elliott BROOD's first show ever in Germany, so there is excited anticipation, at least within the band. First off, the feel is a bit unnerving, at least for me, since I've been in the relative safety of Netherlands where most everyone will speak in English with you. We park and the storefronts all look strange and foreign. Places with names like "Hairkiller" and "Salz and Pfeffer". Everything feels so foreign, and the German tongue doesn't exactly sound friendly.

We are playing a club called the King Georg (evidently once a strip club) and the stage is centred near the back with tables all around (I wonder why). The promoter, Peter, is absolutely awesome, also a greet DJ, and manages to bring about 120 paid patrons on this Thursday night. Most of them smoke.

BROOD Euro Tour Fall 2010

2010-09-07T15:10:00.002-04:00

For the 3 days previous to this tour, I was able to take a holiday with my wife Beta in Amsterdam, on the occasion of our 10th anniversary (ten!) , which happened on Aug 12.

We left our beloved little children Kaspar and Stella with their grandmother back in Riga Latvia, and took off for what would be mine and Beta's first real holiday together in five years. Small children, in all of their belovedness, are naturals at wrestling away parents from mere thoughts of a holiday. For three days we walked around the 17th century city, map in hand, absorbing like a sponge whatever we could. A highlight for me was a revisit to the Van Gogh gallery. It was fascinating to take in what is as much a celebration of the man's determined lifestyle as his actual art. It is incredible that Van Gogh created virtually all of his work from age 27 until his suicidal death at age 37. Arguably his best work was done in his last year, when he was in his most tormented mode of self loathing. Chalk one up for the believers in suffering as a prerequisite for creativity.

Arrival of the band

after leaving Beta at the airport, I joined the band at our Dutch hotel of choice, the Etap Schiphol, located just across the highway from the Amsterdam Airport, this place has the most ironic feel of home, since the band has stayed here at least half a dozen times at beginnings and ends of tours. I notice that there are even more rabbits encircling the grounds. Even better, there is a bar in the neighbouring Ibis hotel that we charmingly refer to as the Cantina Bar (ala Star Wars). It's one of those places that is always full of world travellers. Not tourists though, but of the business/budget variety. Mostly male, and often in pairs or small groups, chatting of vague business pipedreams. It's a kind of British style sports bar pub, with a huge screen usually featuring 'football'. Being the only place of moderate interest in the whole complex, we also gravitate there, though this time we are met with a power outage from an incessant storm. Can't buy a drink, so fast track to sleep is in order.

2010 Vancouver Olympics

2010-02-18T14:15:00.013-05:00

Elliott BROOD audience at Ontario Pavillion

As a blogxperiment, I am starting this with just keywords from our recent trip to the Olympics (Feb 12 - 17, 2010). More verbals will probably come, but for now suffice to say that the BROOD's visit to the 2010 Winter Olympics was an experience not to forget.

5 days in Feb

Blue Rodeo

Whistler

Great Lake Swimmers and Elliott BROOD

Burnaby Hilton

rooftop pool

limo

Kriss's Gastown prospects

Elliott BROOD on Vancouver City Live stage

Katia from the Bell Cube

Railway with Romi Mays

North Vancouver Hotel

we are not Alexandre Belideau

Hockey House w/ Tyler Stewart, Hawksley Workman, Odds, Sean Cullen, Ed Robertson

Johnny Mac

Serena Ryder

VAG: Michelangelo's medical drawings

BC exhibition

Quachi, Sumi and Miga

Canada vs Norway, Latvia vs Russia

Ontario Pavillion - Elliott BROOD

Youtube

Future Ghost Towns tour recap

2010-01-10T23:09:00.005-05:00

Well the new decade has begun and Elliott BROOD settles into a warm fuzzy period of reflection and regeneration.
The "Future Ghost Towns" tour was more than a great success for us, being our first real complete North American tour (50 cities in 60 days), most of the Canadian dates sold out. Somehow we managed to enter the whole thing into this blog (West), and http://elliottbrood.exclaim.ca (East). You will notice that the Western portion (this one) is more pretty, mostly because of the inclusion of photos, before the camera was stolen. The East blog (Exclaim) is populated by more by links and archive shots, like the stock picture of the Asheville Hotel lobby for example.
Highlights:
Washington DC: A necessarily great show with Heavy Trash
St. John's NFLD: definitely worth the trip
St. George NB: Saturday night in a small town surprise factor
Toronto ON: best and biggest T.O. show ever, but a fateful night for Mark's guitar
Hot Springs AK: host promoters had all the funk. We shall return
San Francisco CA: strongest Monday night show of the tour. Lotsa people dancin'.
Victoria BC: got the whole church on their feet
Nelson BC: stupidly amazing Saturday Night in hippie ski country
Not so much...
L.A. CA, Campbirdge MA, Asheville NC. Nothing a little advance local promotion can't cure in these cases.
During our Eastern tour, especially in the US, our media publicist Angie kicked us into high gear with radio recordings and interviews. Hearya, "Your Roots Are Showing" with Franny Thomas The Loft XM Satellite radio, Americana music content at Radio City, Acoustic Cafe, Austin News at noon, KVRX Austin, a Lake Fever Session plus a slew of radio interviews in Nashville just prior to the tour. We also had a few media reviewers come to US shows, like SF Weekly Blog.
Being shortlisted for the Polaris Prize just prior to the tour certainly didn't hurt with ticketing for the concerts.
This was also the first time we took our man Ryan Fields on the road with us. Acting the true professional virtually at all times, Ryan made us feel cared for onstage, and I can't say we had any nights with bad sound. He mixed every show except one I think. Plus his enthusiasm made it almost all the way to the lights, helping to get us hooked in with the likes of Sabian, D'addario, SKB, and nearly the deadly Sennheiser.

Ok folks, this is it for a bit, unless you are going to be at the Vancouver Olympics in the middle of February. We are laying low until the spring, getting busy on domesticity and of course recording some new material to attack you with in the summer.

Be well and rest easy,

Elliott BROOD

New Blog at Exclaim magazine site

2009-11-18T19:54:00.002-05:00

Hi folks,

The good people at Exclaim magazine have offered to host the Elliott BROOD tourblog once again at http://elliottbrood.exclaim.ca.
So for the remainder of the "Future Ghost Towns" tour the BROOD will be posting the blog there.
They are linked, so you can toggle back and forth if you wish.
See you there....

Elliott BROOD

PS it has been slow to get started due to the inglorious theft of much of our electronic gear in Montreal, but we are now beginning to catch up.

CMJ music marathonot

2009-11-04T23:28:00.015-05:00

day 29 NYC The Living Room - Paste magazine showcase.

So there we sat at our motel in Stroudville PA, about 2 hrs West of NYC, just North of Philadelphia. We were watching a fantastic game 5 of the world series, and generally getting some well deserved R&R, until midnight, when our US publicist (from NYC) phones us from the club in Manhattan, "I'm here... where are you guys?". Oh oh.
On the CMJ website we are listed to play on Friday the 23rd at midnight (click on the picture). We had looked on their site to confirm that the show was on Friday. The website literally said, "12AM Friday... Elliott BROOD" (click on the picture above for close up). According to CMJ, Friday means anytime Thursday night from midnight on. We are pretty good at damage control, but this one got by all of us somehow.
After some quick phone calls to our agent and publicist, we decide that there will be no make-up show. My guess is that the best we would've received from CMJ with less than a days' notice is something like "Bill's Cafe at 2PM on the upper East side".
Thoroughly bummed out, Ryan and I went for a long walk and ended up at "Rudy's Tavern", an immaculate 1930's era bar that served pints for $1.25. Yes I said pints for $1.25. We had just made their last call, and that $1.25 pint was the perfect nightcap. Just the two of us lonely souls there, and a couple of locals. Then the door opens and in walks Casey. Perfect company for the brisk walk home, which was peppered by small groups of anxious young adults (or old kids?) out on the prowl in the pre-homecoming/halloween chilly night air. We should have been in Manhattan tonight, but something had conspired to keep us away. So be it.
The next morning we set off and pretty much surprised our loved ones by arriving a day early. To any New Yorkers who missed the Elliott BROOD show at the Living Room; hopefully you can make it down to Union Hall in Brooklyn on the 24th of November, where we will be rocking out like it's a make up show.

Cleveland - Beachland and the Waterloo district

2009-11-02T22:28:00.013-05:00

day 27 Oct 21 Cleveland OH - Beachland Cafe

We saw today a small but complimentary review of Mountain Meadows in November's Mojo Magazine, done by by Sylvie Simmons. Anyways, back to the heart of Rock and Roll.
Have a little look around the Waterloo district and you'll see that this might be the coolest neighborhood in Cleveland. within a block of the club is a Mason's Hall, a used record store (called "Music Saves"), a couple of local art stores... you get the picture (no pun). Speaking of pictures I took some photos of interesting views in the block: one of a van wrapped up in colored plastic bags and another of a place with the suspicious title, "R&D Sausage Co.". If they are still Researching and Developing the sausage, I think I'm not interested in making a purchase.
This will be our last show of the tour with The Wooden Sky, and it is sad because we are not really getting (or giving) a proper sendoff. Tomorrow we will each be going to the CMJ festival in New York, but to different venues. we are splitting up, and tonight's show on a Wednesday night is not exactly the blowout event that we would have hoped to end this tremendous tour with those boys. It is in the plans to make this up by getting together in either New York or Toronto and really send off the tour properly.
On this night we also find out about a friend of the BROOD's, a musician we toured with last year, has become ill. Our hearts are with you Dave, and we pray for a full recovery.
The next morning we split out separately only to reconvene by accident at some random truck stop. Hello and goodbye again.

Chicago - Schuba's Tavern

2009-11-02T22:01:00.009-05:00

day 26 Oct 20 Chicago Ill - Schuba's Tavern
Today we got a decent review in The Onion A.V Club. Being avid readers of this mag, it is awesome to see that they are writing about us. If you don't know The Onion, it's worth your bookmark, or follow them on Twitter. They will give you at least four gut laughs per month, with many other chuckles along the way. We also came in early to do a recording for a future videocast on Hearya dot com at producer Stephen Shirk's studio. Steve is a great guy and a fast engineer who we had the pleasure of working with on another occasion in the windy city.
Visiting Chicago this time was much like visiting LA this time: Get to the venue, set up eat, play, leave town. So much for the scenery. This time I hit a gag store across the street from Schuba's and picked up some gift toys for me kids. Ryan got to scoot over to the Chicago Music Exchange, which is the most extravagant guitar store I've ever been in (for example, in stock are no less than eight vintage Fender Jazz basses and sixteen P basses). But this store is still no Capsule Music (the band's personal favourite) from Toronto. Capsule has a great vibe and atmosphere and one can feel at home perusing their fantastic stock amongst a friendly staff who don't try to intimidate you are snob you out.
The show itself was a good one for a Tuesday night. Like LA too, none of my friends showed up, but they were well made up for by the enthusiastic crowd. One fellow who we know, named Paul, lives in Brooklyn , but has managed to see us now here, as well as in the past in Edmonton and Winnipeg (on the Wilco "Kicking Television" tour back in '06). Rock on.

Hot Springs AK - Maxine's

2009-10-26T00:12:00.000-04:00

Day 24 Oct 18 Hot Springs Arkansas - Maxine's

Wow. Where to start with this one. Let's start by giving Maxine's it's true props as formerly the premiere brothel in Hot Springs. Hot Springs is also touted as the childhood home to Bill Clinton, and a notorious former Chicago gangster hangout. All this information led me for some reason to google Ronnie Hawkins. Everyone in Canada knows Rompin' Ronnie as the one man party transplanted from Arkansas who molded an incredible back up band for himself up here ("The Hawks"), then famously lost them to Bob Dylan as Dylan was making his infamous switch to electric music.
Our show here coincided with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, though this was of little consequence to us. No famous directors were at the show, but their staff photographer Tim put in some quality time taking quality pictures .
Ultimately the Maxine's show was highly uplifting, as we had been trying our damndest since Portland OR to convert new audiences to our BROOD-like ways. Thanks Kevin, Agnes, Sarah and everyone else at the new Maxine's for preparing for and promoting this show with enthusiasm. There was high anticipatory energy thanks to these guys spreading the word around. South Arkansas could now easily become a stronghold for us in the central U.S.

Texas

2009-10-25T21:29:00.000-04:00

Day 22 Oct 16 "Keeping Austin Weird"

We have come to Austin three times already for SXSW conferences, but this is the first time we will play here on our own. I gathered that it would be pretty much a more sober town than what we're used to, but I'd say we were proven wrong.
There's something about Austin that is inherently nutty. For those who haven't been here, this city is known to be far more left wing (and artsy) than the rest of Texas. If you haven't seen it, "Keep Austin Weird" is the popular slogan sold on many t-shirts and bumper stickers. It really is a music town, as evidenced by it's ongoing country music and festival history. See the Broken Spoke Legend for example. The power of the Austin scene is aptly validated by the long running live music show, "Austin City Limits". A coveted exposure milestone for any music group, it requires little mention here.
We are not going to be so priveledged to appearance on that show, but we did manage to do a feature interview and performance out of the same building as A.C.L. on the U.T. campus on a show called "Folkways", which runs on Saturday afternoons on KUT 90.5 FM. Also we did an appearance on Austin News at Noon (NBC), right after Blanch from Golden Girls, with a host quite reminiscent of Ron Burgundy. The extra media didn't do a ton to boost attendance at our show, but the exposure no doubt has it's esoteric benefits.
At Emo's we had people come from as far as San Antonio (thanks Rachel et al), but I couldn't help but feel a little envious of the band called "Thursday" in the adjacent room at Emo's playing to a packed house of moshers. There's something to be said for gratuitous banter. To quote the singer of Thursday as he throated to their roaring audience; "People get on the stage and try to preach to you... but what I say is not to listen to those people... you should just do whatever the hell you want to do !!!". His contradictory rhetoric was swallowed up by fans, some of whom even hanging shirtless off the rafters so as to jump upon their fellow audience members. Impressive. Also impressed upon me was the general enthusiasm for chaos and rowdiness abounding in Austin that night. Within short time of arrival at the club we were advised of where to get hookers and cocaine. Austin should have no problem keeping "weird".

Day 23 Oct 17 Denton Texas - Hailey's
Denton is a fine, if boring University town with a nice old town square. There are no street people visible (or payphones) and even the punk clad kids are buying expensive coffees at Jupiter's.
There seems to be a veritable gay/lesbian presence here too. We see posters for Canadian faves and gay concomitants "The Hidden Cameras" in a local pizza place around the corner from our club. That might be a fun show to go to, but tonight this pizza place proves to be our nemesis: they are hosting a free all ages CD release party for a local band. I don't know if there could be any more disheartening news to a visiting band (us) trying to charge cover just around the corner. Even though it is Saturday night, our attendance is hit. Also there is a massive football championship game (UO vs UT) going on downtown.
The only consolation for a less than awesome turnout is the nice staff, and everybody is a little nutty over the door girl, who is a studious 20 year old who is a taller and more voluptuous deadringer for Leslie Feist.
Because of the local UO/UT college football game, we are lucky to get rooms at the Days Inn, where we are honoured to be awarded with a generous Southern gift from The Beloved Wooden Sky: A 60 oz bottle of pure agave reposado tequila. What make this bottle extra especial is that is shaped like a Tommy Gun. They picked it up in Phoenix, of course (see blog). We are now gangsters for sure ! Gavin, Simon, Wyatt and Kip... the BROOD loves you !!! To date we haven't opened the bottle, though I think we agree that it should be shared between the two bands before the end of the Western leg. Failing that, New Years Eve at Lee's Palace, which we are hoping they will accept with us as a year end blow out gig.
We found out about a week later that Denton is hometown to a band we've been listening to with religious fervor in the van called "Midlake", who are modern day kings of smooth music, reminiscent of the original smooth music (aka Yacht Rock) movement of the 70's and 80's... check out Midlake if you want some great driving music.

Ghost towns and the old road

2009-10-23T11:27:00.000-04:00

Day 21 Shakespeare (My Butt) Ghost Town.

Just on the inside of the Western New Mexico border there is a town called Lordsburg, and just south of Lordsburg on the map is a place called "Shakespeare Ghost Town". Being that we are on a tour that we have entitled, "Future Ghost Towns Tour", we are compelled to stop here, and maybe get a few photographs.
We are short on time, but since you can basically do 140 km/h across the desert at any time to catch up, we take the detour. Mark is immediately skeptical. As we cruise down the old road* towards the southern peaks, things look promising: the trail is narrowing, we pass an old cemetery, there is an old wooden sign with an arrow marked "Shakespeare Ghost Town". We have our hopes high that we will find an rickety abandoned main street, with empty wooden shacks and a few rusted old carts for good measure. As we crest over the final summit we see a camper/trailer and a big fence. In the distance there are a few restored sheds. A man comes out immediately to greet us. Somewhat enticing are the sheds, but not worth the admission price of $8 to cross those gates. What a let down. Mark was right when he said it would be "all made up". We have a Pioneer Village right in Toronto for that sort of histo-voyeurism. Rule of the day: If a ghost town is on the map, it isn't a ghost town. This compels me even more to do an old road* tour.

* the old road*
When you are travelling on a highway through the wilderness, remember that the road you are on was built over top of an older route, one initially used by settlers, trappers, explorers, natives. I am perpetually intrigued by the "old road" (ask my band or my wife, who have to suffer my imaginary musings on the topic).
The old road intrigues me, because once a new highway is built, it is often cut along a better topographical line, leaving segments of old road to wither, decompose and die. As you whizz along the new road, you get occasional glimpses of the old road, usually overgrown and winding into nowhere. Who knows what lays down those abandoned paths ... former rest stops, motels, restaurants, inns, ghost towns ? Like modern day rivers, roads act as the lifeblood to many communities, depositing wealth of all sorts onto it's gravel shores.
Old roads are especially evident in mountainous areas, where modern innovations in blasting and excavating have promoted more efficient highway infrastructure. On this tour I've tried to take a few pictures of them, in Northern Ontario, BC, California and Arizona. It's down these roads that I want to explore, finding ghost towns that didn't make the map, and maybe the occasional abandoned wagon or motel.

Phoenix - The Rhythm Room

2009-10-23T10:52:00.000-04:00

Day 20 Phoenix AZ - The Rhythm Room (pictured: Gavin and Kip from Wooden Sky)

Promoter Jeremiah turns out to be a dream - promoting three shows in one night, the others being Yo La Tango in a 1000 cap room, and some apparently wicked African band playing to about 25 people. In spite of the crazy schedule, he manages to meet us at load in, get us dinner and see our show. The show itself was kind of funny.. a small turn out of curiosity seekers and a few fans of CanCon. one couple wearing the t-shirts of Canadian bands Sloan and Two Hours Traffic. Indeed Jeremiah himself was quite a fan of Canadian music, rattling off several names of acts he's booked in recent months from north of the border : Final Fantasy, Constantines, Cadence Weapon, Plants and Animals, Born Ruffians ...
The club itself looks on the outside like the last bastion of hope for a struggling band on the road (see picture), but once inside we are treated with utmost hospitality (drink tickets good for any drink), and perhaps the best sound of the whole tour.
The highlight of visiting this town, for sensational shock value, was our visit to the pawn shop/gun emporium right across the street. There you have your choice of Kalashnikov,Tommy Gun, Barreta, Glock, AK47, Taser, Smith & Wesson pistol.... whatever you need for whatever it is you're planning. Fortunately, my interest in firing weapons ended after I killed a chipmunk with my grandfather's pellet rifle. That said, I was quite taken by this display, which I reckon would be the envy of most gun collectors. Most guns there are listed "pre-owned" or "used", and clock in easily under $1000.
After such a long drive through the desert and arriving early to an empty parking lot at the club made us dilerious and goofy, culminating in Gavin's hilarious dedication during their set to "porno, guns, drinking and titties"(if you don't think that's funny... you had to be there).
After the show, we repeat the actions of the previous night in LA, leaving right away to get a leg up on the ensuing long drive of the next day. We have a day off coming, in which to drive 15 hours to Austin TX, where we will be performing on radio and on a local offshoot of NBCTV.

Los Angeles

2009-10-21T12:04:00.000-04:00

Day 19 Los Angeles - Hotel Cafe
I will start the blog with the good news that the BROOD has made it into the Americana Music Association top 40, being the top debut album (debuting at #38).
And now, news from the darker side of things ...
As we drive southward on hwy 5, the incessant rain gets worse. This is apparently the remnants of some asian tsunami we haven't heard about because on the road none of us reads the newspapers. The drive is stressful... as the rain lets up we hit a desert dust storm for about an hour, then resume to pouring rain and sharing mountain driving with transport trucks for a couple hours more. This is one reason I took out life insurance shortly before the tour.
Our arrival in LA is delayed, and it pours rain the whole time we're there, which is literally only 6 hours.
By midninght, we'll be in a motel 6 in an Eastern suburb of LA aptly named "Ontario". So this is touring. Welcome to Los Angeles. I hope you enjoyed the alley between the van and the club. We didn't even stop at In 'n' Out burger, though the next morning I did enjoy driving through the thousands of wind turbines near the entrance to the mojave desert in the East.
As for the show.. to be honest, we've finally hit a tour low point. No offence to the LA audience, but when we hand out kitchen percussion, it's nice if you could stand up and participate a little, not just give them back after one song and sit down again. Too cool for school I guess. Plus in full LA fashion, virtually none of our guests showed up. I really want to like LA. Next time I motion we play in Silverlake instead of Hollywood.
In defiance of LA not seeming to care so much this time, I am posting several pictures of our live show that were taken by Gavin of Wooden Sky during our recent show in Edmonton. Thanks G !

2009-10-20T00:58:00.000-04:00

Day 18: San Francisco - Cafe du Nord
pictures: Shasta Lake (Northern Cali)+ the band on break near Mt. Shasta
Here is a review of the show in SF Weekly

We roll in to town with a couple hours to spare to explore the Castro district, near Twin Peaks. Just our luck (not), it is Columbus day, so many stores are closed. That conveniently reduces things to mostly food and drink. Casey spots a comfortable bar with patio and hauls us in for a beer. My throat is sore, so beer is not so good. I opt for a walk around the neighborhood and take my chances that I'll find something I like better. Within half an hour I was relaxing at the El Flore patio, with free Wifi (got to send out the entire Alberta blog). And there I was in full San Francisco style, eating pumpkin bisque, sipping sangria and keying away at the laptop.
This one looks like a bust with an early Monday night show. It would help if the third act scheduled tonight was local. I check: the extra opener, Rosi Golan is from Brooklyn , and Rosi expresses the same wish that the other bands were local.
Anyways, somehow the room fills up... Wooden Sky sound amazing again, and we manage to pummel Monday night into feeling like a Saturday. Thanks for getting everyone dancing Kip. Amongst the fun crowd were peeps who found out about us online, purchased our music on itunes and drove from as far as Sacramento and Big Sur. It's always great to meet people who have come from far and wide to see you. Makes it feel like we're doing something right. These people have insight too as to where we should play next time we're in the area. Suffice to say we now have plans to play at the Fernwood in Big Sur next time we hit California, ideally in the spring on the way back from Australia, if things go as planned.
I really like the staff at Cafe du Nord. Extemely friendly, they provided us with a buffett of lasagna, steak and salad on arrival, and were very accommodating at the bar (staff=Rob and Lana for personal reference). I learned that this is one of the older bars in town. It is attached to the Swedish American Hall, and it indeed has an old vibe to it. For anyone from Toronto, I would say it compares to a cross between the Latvian House and the Cameron House.
We knew the house soundman, Ross, as he is the drummer from Emily Jane White who we met on tour in France last February. The sound at this club was so good, Ryan had us all dialed in within half a song at soundcheck.
After the show, Mark somehow comes out with a hot fresh pizza he just got down the street. Perfect timing.Then we roll out of town and let GPS take us towards the #5 highway. No scenic Pacific Coast Highway for us. We are directed back across the Bay Bridge into Oakland. For a while it seems like there are no hotels. Finally we find a Motel 6 within 5km of the highway, near the Oakland airport.
As we drive through the neighborhood, it begins to take on resemblance to the setting for the TV show "COPS": high fences, some with barbed wire, no one around, a few deserted buildings. A great place to leave your vans full of musical gear. The Motel 6 itself provides a good defence to the surroundings: High fences, and a security gate where you get screened before checking in. We are safe. The next morning at the local gas station we overhear a pizza delivery woman lamenting that between the pouring rain and the gunshots she heard this morning, she'll be overwhelmed with business. Everyone will stay indoors on this day in Oakland.

Portland

2009-10-18T05:16:00.000-04:00

Day 16 Portland OR - Mississippi Studios
This is our last day of 17 in a row with one day off. Tomorrow we get one more day off, but must try to get to San Francisco in that day. This show is without our amazing friends "The Wooden Sky", as it was booked as a double bill with one of the many offshoots of Black Mountain, this one called "Lightning Dust" (also feat. members of Ladyhawke and The Organ) , who are closing up a five week US tour. The show sells pretty good for an early show, and the audience is very receptive too - eco consciousness prevailing in that they gave back all of our pots and pans. I really liked the promoter Jeremy, a gregarious fellow and true music lover.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, Gavin of Wooden Sky gave me some photos he took of our shows. The one at the end of the Victoria entry (of Casey from behind) is from him. One must give credit where credit is due.

Seattle, home of the Tractor

2009-10-17T19:51:00.000-04:00

Day 15 Seattle WA - Tractor Tavern
Located in the former fishing village known as Ballard... The Tractor is nestled in an ultra hip zone of the city, just on the verge of being pummeled into gentrification. To someone who is into art or old guitars or vintage clothing, or home cooked food this is a must visit part of the western hemisphere. As I published in Twitter, I was able to purchase a neat coat and hat combo within about 43 seconds of arriving here. I am grateful for adjacent shops in the neighborhood, "Twenty 20 clothing" and the bar/eatery "Hattie's Hat" for being there for our perusal any time we play here and have to wait for the club to open.
The Seattle show is pretty rockin' for a US date. KEXP exposure has definitely helped here. And tonight we learned something to apply to the rest of the US: reduce merchandise pricing. This is a new market for us, and price point is much less important than sales.

Victoria BC rocking the church

2009-10-16T04:56:00.000-04:00

Day 14: Victoria BC - Alix Goolden Theatre
I don't want to jinx it, but this is a pretty fun blog. It's kind of like, oh, every day is great... things are rosy... bla bla bla... Well Victoria is no exception. In fact in one way this date is kind of exceptional: we are playing in a cavernous former church that was built with acoustics for unamplified music. In other words, once you play loud in there, things tend to get lost in the mix. As Ryan, our sound tech reiterated, he could not get a clear sound in this room (sometimes in theory you can just turn it up to essentially make the PA sound compete over the natural reverb). Not here, because the reverb is just too great.
The room acoustics gave openers The Wooden Sky a tremendous edge in this room, and indeed they received a standing ovation. That's the other thing, being a church, it is full of pews and everyone is sitting. This is very anti-BROOD like. Also, my mom is here with her husband Gerhard, and 3 other couples in their 60's. They are sensitive and cautious about volume , so I am careful to hand out earplugs to them ahead of the show. Damage control: I don't want to receive the guilt afterwards of having made an elderly person deaf, or even angry at us.
So for this show, we slightly adjusted the set to incorporate some quieter tunes, but this isn't a theatre tour this is a rock tour. We can only do so much to alter the set.
Fortunately, a certain BROOD phenomena occurred during the performance that I haven't seen since Hugh's Room (Toronto, May '07). About halfway through our set, people start to get the jitterbug and gather near the stage. At first maybe four people come out and unashamedly start dancing to a tune. Within a short time, there is a complete turnaround to the 'seated' notion, and everyone is standing, with a large component right up front, ready to receive their ritual sacrament of pots and pans to hit.
This feels good, and it sure makes blogging fun....

Vancouver

2009-10-16T04:33:00.000-04:00

Day 13: Vancouver BC - Biltmore Hotel (sold out)
picture of Osoyoos BC from high atop the Crowsnest Highway:

The news that this show was sold out for 3 weeks is reassuring. Booker/Promoter Aaron Schubert coincidentally used to be our Western agent at Paquin. He's got it going on, and is a good match for this room, because he knows the talent.

I am still with no voice, and despite still putting a microphone in front of me every night, I still cannot sing. No problem there, Mark and Casey are the main guys anyways, it just means Vancouver won't get to hear my glorious harmonies. This show does turn out to be a bit of a boondoggle for us, issues like monitors getting mysteriously too loud, and us making insidious musical mistakes. There are gremlins invading our set, but the audience is pretty much on autopilot, and don't seem to mind the errors that we are beating ourselves up over. In fact, we (and The Wooden Sky) even got a pretty sweet review for the show.
The next day we took BC ferries over to Victoria, home of my mom.

Kootenay East Shore rules

2009-10-14T23:58:00.000-04:00

Day 12: Nelson BC - Hume Hotel (sold out)

There is something in the water here. Every staff member is gorgeous, and so are much of the patronage. Just a side note, noted by everyone, not just me. Maybe the natural beauty of the landscape transcends...
There is a ferry that crosses Okanagan Lake, just east of Nelson (see picture). many people come to our show from the East Shore of this lake, known affectionately as "East Shore". We learn that our record was the theme album for many an East Shore harvest this year (for whatever that is they harvest that BC is famous for, ha ha). Now that is an honour.
Literally, Nelson gives us the best response of the tour, and on a Tuesday night ! The stage is very wide and literally surrounded and packed with people (did I mention they were good looking?).
Could the Vancouver show end up being anti-climactic? Find out in the next blog...

Oh Alberta 3 - Lethbridge

2009-10-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

Day 11: Oct. 5 Lethbridge - Henotic Lounge
This is where I rip my jacket on a nail at the back of the stage. I have absolutely no voice tonight, which is a drag in place where you know a lot of people. Lethbridge is the first place that we played outside of Ontario back in June '04, and the night went so well that we've maintained a love affair with the town as an entity ever since. It is a funny town, kind of shunned by Calgarians and seems to be forever changing hands, but very dear to the BROOD.
This time a discount grocery store and the Tim Horton's beside it were shut down. much of the downtown in under the hands of entrepeneurial first time business owners. We have had allegiances with such types, as they also are main bar owners in town.
The community is small enough that you could say there is a bit of territoriality between the local businesses. I say this because this time we played the Henotic Lounge, seeming to reflect a change in loyalty, but truth be told we are still very fond of the other club owners with which we've had dealings: Jesse and Tyler at "The Slice", and Corey at "Tongue 'n' Groove. Reasons for the switch in venues due mostly to the numbers you can cram into the joint to see the show.
Hotel Lethbridge - It's only a Days Inn, but the view of the valley from within a few metres of the hotel was worthy of some pics. Shown here, my view from the jacuzzi, and some signage just outside the back of the hotel. As it turns out, we have a half hour to chill at the hotel, so I rush into my bathing suit and indulge in the whirlpool. Much needed. Today is the first day of what will be several with no voice. I blame Saskatoon (I mean myself, for staying out in Saskatoon). At least the show can go on when I can't sing, but it would be nice to be able to share conversation again, especially when I meet the parents in Victoria in a few days.

Oh Alberta 2 - Calgary

2009-10-12T19:35:00.000-04:00

Day 10: Oct 4. Calgary - Dicken's Pub
Starting to feel further under the weather. Begin to search out asian food and luck out with an elegant sushi dinner with a Calgarian gal, Mary, who I've known since we played the final Waynefest (5/5) back in '06. As an aside..."Waynefest" was a town festival put on by Kris Demeanour and his Edmontonian friends in the virtual ghost town of Wayne, Alberta (pop. 40). It is right alongside the CP Rail tracks, and literally in the heart of the badlands and dinosaurland - right near Drumheller. As a result of visiting this town, we returned in '07 to record in the town hall for the Mountain Meadows album. Many of the real train and hall noises made it to the final mix (heard in Chuckwagon and Write It All Down For You).
Back to Calgary, Dicken's pub is a basement Irish bar that holds around 400 people, and we managed to pack the place right up. People already coming in at 6PM, and the merchandise line starts shortly thereafter, pummeling Ryan and the boys with constant work. This will be the last night that I have a voice for awhile. Mark and Casey won't miss it because they don't hear me in there monitors anyways. But will the audience miss my lush harmonies? Just putting it out there...
The next morning, I am relaxing on the balcony by myself, and after a while of silence, three magpies sneak up and circle around me. They literally are a shy and curious bird, peaking at me from behind the branches before flying off. However, I've also heard that they can be fierce, so I was a little unsure when they surrounded me.

Oh Alberta 1 - Edmonton

2009-10-12T19:30:00.006-04:00

Day 9 Oct 3. Edmonton -
Starlite Lounge - The Wooden Sky put on a really good show this night, breezing through their songs and generally rocking it up. Perfect sightlines, too according to Ryan, who had a premiere viewpoint of Starlite's hugely raised stage from his balcony soundbooth. Ed. note * check the LA blog for pictures of this rock experience

This is one great club for a band of our size because you can cram about 700 people into it and give them a great show. We got about 550 peeps, but that still means more than doubling our guarantee in 'overages' (financial techtalk). Steve Derpack and Brent Oliver: We've had ourselves a good run with these promoters over the years. On this occasion, Steve came to both the Edmonton and Calgary shows, and was more than accommodating in every regard of show production.

Thanksgiving Day (Canada)

2009-10-12T02:08:00.000-04:00

Oct 11 - Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
Jumping ahead in the blog for a moment to real time (most entries lag a few days). Currently sitting at the Oregon - California border. I won't take a picture, but they are treating this like a national border. This is no highway toll. Every car is getting stopped. We have nothing to hide, especially when we find out what they are looking for: fruits, vegetables, plants, animals, hunting and fishing products. We have none of the above... free to go.
So for thanksgiving lunch, we stop at an Appleby's restaurant and eat steak. A distant second to what I would've loved today which is quality time with my wife Beta, our two young children Kaspar and Stella, and Beta's sister, husband and child who are visiting from Latvia. A full on get together with one of my step siblings' families would make it even better.
But today, we digress, and plug on through the mountains of Northern California. Not too bad as a consolation prize, I guess.
PS as of this posting, we went to another Appleby's for dinner.
PPS the BROOD just received a link with a very poetic review of our Winnipeg show.

Saskatoon

2009-10-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

Sold Out show - Amigo's
Earlier in the evening we do a little set for CFCR at the Great Western Brewery. Due to some misunderstanding, the doors get opened an hour late, to a cold and grumbly crowd, but no one will leave a lineup for free beer. Thanks for the beer GWB. Now I'm no graphic designer, but I think there's a consensus here that your brand's design could use a bit of a facelift. Thoughts?
The show at Amigo's is killer, and we received commanding feedback from the audience. Something about our Dollarama swag drives people crazy (inflation has supposedly made it Dollar-twenty-five-arama).We've found this little niche where we hand stuff out to people to play along with us. A little kickback to the peeps for coming out. Maybe one day people will bring their own stuff to play and we can relieve the 'rama from selling us so much percussive kitchen gear.
After the show, Mark and Casey are exhausted and make a beeline for the legendary Senator Hotel. I am wired, and Ryan joins me to kick back with the staff at the bar. Somehow this place gets away with sometimes discreetly serving a few more selects after closing. We are grateful to hang out with the staff, who turn out to be friendly and nice.

Birthdays in Regina

2009-10-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

Day 7 Oct 1 Regina SK - the Exchange
Birthday girl, poor birthday girl... doesn't realize that this is the slow song. Maybe due to the drink. "Twill" is probably the one BROOD song that you can't really boogie down to. Nonetheless, that's when said bd girl thought it best to come up and ring in that birthday by dancing onstage. It was a tad awkward, especially because she seemed like a pretty non threatening individual. Unfortunately it resulted in an eviction from the stage. Sorry 'bout that. At any other time, you might have even got a BROOD rendition of "Happy Birthday".
We had not yet designed a code word to securitize the stage, should the need arise. It might sound a little extreme to do that, but Mark and Casey have both suffered microphones in the mouth already this tour. Suffice to say that if you are somehow endangering one of the BROOD boys (or yourself), and you hear the word "Lebowski", you may want to shape up and behave. That codeword could've been used for prevention at The Borderline (London UK) a few months ago when an exuberant fellow came up and didn't leave the stage before stepping on both Mark's banjo and ukelele.
Later that night in Regina, we got invited to a house party by the birthday girl's friends (b.g. herself had already left for the evening). It seemed like a nice idea to unwind at someone's house, so off we all went. The funny thing is, after the invitations were handed out, it seems the invitees went home to bed. The tenants of the house were kind enough to let in the two bands anyways, and there we all were, in a strangers living room, playing giutars and singing away. My favourite was Wyatt of The Wooden Sky: Rocking out classics like "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, and "Crocodile Rock", he could've turned a hospital emergency room into a cheerful singalong. Two thumbs up.

Warning: tech talk

2009-10-10T01:55:00.000-04:00

day 6 Sept. 30 Winnipeg MA - West End Cultural Centre

The tour is now hitting stride. It's seems we're getting our shit together now with lighting cues, and pacing. Mark's voice miraculously came through for us. We could have had CBC record the show after all, but how were we supposed to know.
The new WECC is a dynamic arts centre, rebuilt with acoustics in mind, not to mention artist load-in and secure parking (always a plus). The total bonus, though was that on arrival, sitting there having a smoke was none other than John, a middle aged soundman, and probably my favourite in this country, though I don't know his last name. We first met him back in '04 at the Dawson City Music Festival, and it turns out he lives here in the 'Peg. This guy is so laid back, seems to love music, and always churns out great sounding shows (I will try to generally lay off techtalk, but good sound is obviously a primary concern to a touring band). Bear with me. The WECC is sporting top of the line Digidesign mixing consoles with total recall for monitors, and front of house. As chief acoustician for the venue, John stocked the room with these magnificent digital consoles, but still laments that he would've preferred analog. So Ryan no doubt got pretty excited about the equipment in front of him, and before we knew it, Ryan was mixing in Front of House, and John took care of our monitors. What a coup ! This will set the stage for the rest of the tour. Ryan has fully earned cred as our soundman, and I expect he will want to mix every show following (not to mention selling the merch), and relegate house sound engineers to lights or monitor duty.
As I've promised, there is a photo of our "Future Ghost Towns" tour stage set (affectionately known to insiders as the "shit show").
-Steve

promoters, crowd surfer

2009-10-03T23:25:00.000-04:00

Sept. 29 Thunder Bay ON ROXY

Great show - hard to sell out this 700 capacity room on a Tuesday, but we do pretty good. Extra openers "Old Man's Beard" and "Cuff the Duke" put on tremendous sets, in addition to The Wooden Sky's awesome set.
Promoter Frank Loffredo, once again comes out with full on BROOD support (example, in contract it says the BROOD goes on from 10:45 until "as long as they want to play". A better example is this: during the show, he emails our agent and gets tacit approval for us to play this coming Halloween. He will fly us up for the show. "Will you do it guys?", he eagerly asks, while the crowd is anticipating the encore... "uh, yes", we reply. "Can you tell the audience now, during the encore?". Done and done. this guy is a huge music fan, and again it's hats off to Frank ... Now I will have to explain to my 4 year old son Kaspar that I won't be taking him out in his elephant costume this year. Maybe Frank can come down to Toronto and sub for me as dad.
We are still sick, and Mark has decided that based on the terrible condition he is in, we will have to forego a CBC live recording of tomorrow night's show in Winnipeg. A sad but necessary concession. We try to pass it off to the Wooden Sky boys, but CBC prefer to take a rain check with the BROOD. Fair enough.
The next morning, we get up early, bundle up and take on the 7 hr journey. There is frost on the ground, and here's a few photos from North of Superior.
.... and the relentless crowd surfer was none other than Jesse of Old Man's Beard... inspirational
-Steve

moving right along....

2009-10-02T20:26:00.000-04:00

Sept. 27 Lop Lop's Sault Ste. Marie ON

If we are lucky, rock photographer/Sault Star Arts editor Donna Hopper may post the first pictures of the Future Ghost Towns Tour. One can only hope with all the snapping she did up front of the stage.
Lop Lop's show was great, a small club made into a real production by non other than George of Crank Sound "We're Not Happy Till Your Not Happy" . Ask our man Ryan... the sound was excellent.
With one day off ahead of a 12 day consecutivve run, we made sure to stock up, hitting "Station Mall" across the street, while Mark waited at the hospital walk-in clinic for a prognosis on his illness (outcome: viral... sorry can't help). My purchases included Oil of Oregano, 6 pairs of socks, 1 undershirt and 3 prs underwear. While waiting for Mark, we also made a good long stop at the Sault's only vintage guitar shop, "Music Depot". They also had some vintage drums. I have my eye on a partial set of Fibes Crystallite.
-Steve

PS Rockognized: Casey at Tim Horton's Peterborough, Mark at Pancake Bay Trading Post (way cooler)

Introducing... more friends

2009-10-02T13:46:00.000-04:00

Day 2: Fri. Sept. 27, The Townehouse, Sudbury

As we're pulling up to Point Au Baril on the 69, about 1hr out of Sudbury, I implore Casey to pull over. I have just spotted a very special old friend in the parking lot of the gas station; Michael Granka. Granka is an old friend who was an enigmatic bandleader and role model. As I introduce the BROOD to him, he immediately launches into stories of the good old days of us in a cover band together (The Michael Granka band), playing divey bars all over southern Ontario. Those stories need not be repeated here. This guy is good, and rest assured, if you ever break down just south of Sudbury, you will be in good hands with Michael at the helm of the CAA there. Just ask Falconhawk.
So the story goes, The Townehouse in Sudbury is not only the club where Stompin' Tom penned "Sudbury Saturday Night", it is where Nickelback signed the record contract that turned them from a mediocre bar band who play shinny into much maligned megastars with an indoor hockey rink.

BROOD tour manager Ryan Fields is currently manning the board at the Townehouse for us, quickly setting up sounds because the house soundguy didn't arrive until a tardy 9:30 for soundcheck. We actually met Ryan here in Sudbury about a month ago, and at that time he instantly proved himself to be our tour manager. by nature assisting the band, tuning guitars, putting away cymbals, carrying amps. This is the man you want for help on the road. He can also keep a driver awake for hours with conversation (a big asset), and hasn't repeated a story yet.

Certain students showed up like Nathan Lawr, a great drummer come songwriter. Enviable that someone can go from providing beats for the likes of King Cobb Steelie and Royal City, then go to releasing several excellent albums of original material, and receive a masters in History.
After the show, one kind geologist major purchased all of our albums plus a t-shirt. While I was signing them all with his friends circled around me, he informed me that he and said friends had visited Mexico this past April, and they all returned with the H1N1 (Swine flu) virus. Proof of survival right there, but no comfort to Mark and I, who as I mentioned, are already a little sick.
-Steve

Let the "Future Ghost Towns" tour begin !

2009-10-01T22:42:00.000-04:00

Day 1: September 26, Montreal House, Peterborough ON

Well, after suffering a crushing defeat earlier this weak to Polaris Prize winners Fucked Up (just kidding... congratulations boys and girl), Elliott BROOD has embarked on the "Future Ghost Towns" tour. This is a major one for us, and we have enlisted BLOGSPOT to enter the highlights into the blogosphere.
Unlike last years Mountain Meadows tour which had us all over Canada and Europe, this tour takes us in a figure 8 all over North America (first half only showing as of this writing). Map courtesy our uber prepared tour manager Ryan Fields. On the first part of our journey we will be joined by the illustrious "The Wooden Sky", from Toronto Ontario, with the inimitable "Deep Dark Woods" on the last half, from Montreal onward (Nov 6).
Our (Polaris Prize nominated) record, "Mountain Meadows" is to be released in the US on October 6, and we hope to sell many thousands of copies and/or at least convert a few hundred souls into the ways of the BROOD. check the new light show.

Peterborough - Montreal House tavern:
Jason, the owner of the MoHo is one serious dude. He loves good independant music, as could be evidenced by this weekend's lineup: Thurs: Sunparlour Players, Fri: Elliott BROOD, Sat: Golden Dogs.
Last week the MoHo had Trooper. Everyone makes mistakes. The MoHo is very dear to the BROOD because we seem to start every tour there. This is no exception (though we did rock Detroit the night before with The Weakerthans).
Our relationship with the MoHo goes further: They have ceiling tiles inscribed with the names of people (mostly deceased) who have been regulars there over the years during the tenure of this 125 year old club. Last night, Jason presented us with our own tile. This is a huge honour. Also, my last Elliott BROOD suitcase is immortalized on the wall (see picture, which also shows the famous ceiling tiles). I have been using a real kick drum since July '08.
-Steve