Whudddya mean the ferry's fugging broken?!

So the show in Charlottetown wound up being pretty great. We were the only band that played, so we did a bit of an extended set. Sold a fair bit of merch, and the sound guy/bar tender Mike was pretty awesome. I'd almost feel okay about finances if the ferry to Newfoundland wasn't busy screwing us over. Turns out the boat we needed to take tonight to Argentia is being fixed, the next one doesn't sail until after our shows. The only options are to either take the other ferry to the opposite end of the island and drive through an endless expanse of moose and truckers, or to fly. Both cost approximately the same, both are terrifying to me, but one saves us a 12 hour drive and a longer boat ride!

Here's the view we woke up to from our camping spot just outside of Charlottetown two night ago:



We'd slept in the car three nights in a row, which was okay I guess, but my Mom took pity on us and put enough money into my band account to rent a hotel room for the night, which was nice.

Here's our steed:


And this picture goes out to anyone who has been to a B.A. Johnston show that doesn't know what a couche-tard is:

So you're saying this island is really just a giant pile of red sand?

PEI is beautiful. I have a fair bit of updating to do as I have been slacking off like a real slacker. To start, we stayed a couple of nights in Quebec City. It was really beautiful there, and we spent a great deal of time wandering around the old city like a couple of tourists. We caught a few soccer games in pubs, and made delicious sandwiches in parking lots. e played at a venue called L'AgitéE with a wonderful band fronted by Jessi Homenick. The turn out wasn't great, but it was nice to meet such wonderful people. We were also in town for most of the festival for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. After feeling a little bit too anglophone we hit the road.

That evening we drove to the Quebec/New Brunswick border and spent the night, then continued on eastward. We'd originally intended to spend another night around Shediac, but figured we might as well just go all the way to PEI since it was so close. We definitely haven't regretted our decision. PEI is a very nice place, and we've enjoyed exploring it and meeting the nice people in Charlottetown. We've been busy the last day with busking and doing promo for our upcoming show at Baba's Lounge! If you're in the neighbourhood, come check us out on Sunday June 27th with locals Low Lights, and possibly more guests!!

When it comes to Continental Breakfasts, Josh is a tough critic...

So last night in Montreal was pretty awesome. We had the chute pulled on a show here, so we were sort of humming and hawing about what to do about it. After some internet sleuthing I wound up finding an open mic at a place called the Yellow Door Cafe. Turns out this place is now the oldest cafe in Canada...and it's not so much a cafe as it is a humble basement venue run by a really interesting and talented fellow named Marc. Apparently many great Canadian musicians have graced the venue with their presence (apparently Leonard Cohen MAYBE attended some performances there).

When we first arrived, Marc informed us that he was very pleased that we wanted to play, but felt that there may not be a roaring crowd to play to. We were happy just to have a stage, and after a while about half a dozen people showed up to perform and listen. It wound up being a really cool jam and we had a great time. Almost everyone there was from another city, there being a couple from Regina, and a young guitar player and his sister from Toronto. It was really fun.

Today we've just bombed around town. I went to some of the University campuses here to look at potential schools to transfer too. I'm definitely going to audition at McGill, but I'm getting really interested in audition at the University of Quebec campus in Montreal. I met with their department heads, and am gearing up to do some serious learning of French. Josh also wasted most of the day by buying a new fancy cell phone that has a map in it andwill allow internet access mostly all the time. Anyway, we're heading to Quebec City today in preparation for our performance tomorrow at L'Agitee with Jessi Homenick!

Montreal and more Ottawa!

After getting a taste for busking in Ottawa, Josh and I met with my friend Sarah for a visit, and explored some better locations. We also played a show last night and it was pretty okay! We played to a crowd of about 10 people (many more showed up later, but we were the first band) and we sold two CDs, which is a not bad ratio considering. We felt pretty good about our performance. Ghostkeeper were really awesome, and I'm glad we had an opportunity to play with them.

So after the show, we retired to the hotel room my Mom was nice enough to book for us and we slept soundly. The next morning, we went to the Byward Market to go busking. We scoped the joint, and found what we thought would be the most ideal location in which to busk: a corner, where two adjacent parts of the farmers market meet, in front of a large storefront window. We set up shop, and played for no more than 2 minutes before another busker appeared, with what looked to be a permit. He informed us that only permit holders are allowed to busk, but kindly suggested some other places we could go instead. In that two minutes, we made $4...we were obviously a little sad to hear this, especially considering how successful we were obviously going to be. Keeping our chins up, we set up infront of a Lush, on a sidewalk that we figured wasn't lorded over by the market people. We were doing pretty good, and money was slowly but surely pouring into our cases. Then the rain started pouring down. We ran quickly into an overhang, when a girl who worked at Lush sheepishly asked us if we wanted to come inside and play. At first, we were pretty hesitant, but after only 15 minutes, two $5 bills were dropped into our cases. We realized we'd made the right choice. After that, the rain died down, and we went across the street back into market territory, but where there was a large overhang to protect from the rain. We made another $10 before we saw a suspicious man who scowled at us. We figured he was with the market. We looked in the direction he was walking and a sad looking mine frowned harder at us, so we left.

Then we got sandwiches with Sarah, enjoyed them very much, and headed to Montreal. When we were driving to the hostel we're at, we were using the On Star navigation function that our car has. We got to talking with one of the advisors, and turns out he's from Peterborough, and when he realized we're a band, he said he was going to come to our show there on July 8th. It was pretty random, but we hope to see him there! Driving in Montreal was, in one word, ridiculous. I've never seen so many cars come so close to colliding with each other merging. It was neat. Now we're going to get breakfast and go busk more!

Oh oui wa wa!

So we're in Ottawa now. So far we've spent two days at an expensive hostel, gotten a huge parking ticket, and made $35 busking. The parking ticket is a huge load of crap because the sign we could see said we could park there free until 9 am. The sign that was completely obscured by foliage said there was no stopping between 7-9 am :( Of course, this means war. The spot we found to busk in was pretty tough. It was the Sparks Street Mall, which is a three or four block long pedestrian mall. People were quite reluctant to give us change unless we played gypsy jams on cello and accordion. What really got to me were the people who obviously enjoyed what we were doing but didn't leave any money. They'd stand there and take pictures of us, or video tape us. It was frustrating :( If every person who took a photo of us left a toonie we would've made at least $20 dollars more...but at least they liked us! Today we're going to try out the Rideau Market at the suggestion of a friend. Apparently that's a good spot. After that, we have to play tonight at the Elmdale House Tavern with Ghostkeeper and Sadie Hell.

Here are some pictures of things that have happened so far:

Me in the CN Tower.
Josh on the glass floor.
Jet Jagger in Wawa
Lake Superior plus a river I can't remember the name of.
Josh on Lake Superior

Josh being grumpy on the CN Tower.

Onwards and upwards!

So we're in Toronto. After leaving behind our pals the Concerns of Royalty in Winnipeg, we continued on into Ontario. We stayed with Josh's family in the scenic areas of the North, and then did some camping on our way south. Ontario is actually a very beautiful province. We camped at a place called Rainbow Falls on the shores of Lake Superior, and at another site near Sudbury that's name is escaping me. Both were very nice. I like camping this time of year because there are so few other people. Also, the bugs haven't gotten too too bad yet...but I have my share of mosquito and no-see-um bites. We went up the CN tour yesterday. It was overpriced and crappy. I liked the Sear's Tower WAY better...and we went to a brewery here and did a tour that got us some free beer. It was pretty alrite. We have a show tonight at a place called the Boat. If anyone out there is in Toronto, please stop by!

On tour

So far, this has happened:





More to come eventually!