We've got a short drive today for the first time in a while. Its been raining for days, so Saskatchewan still looks like something out of "The Road." A few details of last night's show in Saskatoon have come creeping back to me. There was a dude in a wheelchair rocking out in the pit harder then anybody else - that was rad. There was also this guy dancing around who I've grown to call the "Ass Mosher." Instead of jumping in the pit like a normal person, he would enter ass first and proceed to dance backwards in a circular motion, all the while with his ass sticking straight out. Seems they've got some moves in Saskatoon we've never even heard of. We rolled up to the venue in Regina, which is surrounded by a bunch of train tracks and nothingness basically. After we loaded in and practiced some more songs off our new record, we took a stroll to the nearest liquor store to grab a box of Pilsner. Upon exiting the place with our box of beer, I witnessed something truly Canadian. Right out the front door there was this old Hank in a full-on Canadian Tuxedo (blue denim shirt AND blue denim jeans), wearing a Molson Canadian hat, playing Neil Young songs on an acoustic guitar for people's change. Ah, its good to be home.

The show tonight was a lot of fun, as Regina shows usually are. The bar and the sound quality at The Exchange are both rad, and it was our tour manager Dorian's night to drive, meaning the four of us had a really good time. After the show all three bands stayed at my girlfriend's friend's Grandparents' place (confusing?), where we raised all sorts of hell, drank all sorts of beer and, yes, lit all sorts of farts on fire.

April 15 - Winnipeg, MB:

Winnipeg used to be a sketchy place for us. It seemed like the first 5 of 6 times we played the Peg, something totally fucked up happened. We've had our run-ins with the Lebanese Mafia (for real), seen people pummeled by groups of drunks, had our windows smashed, shows eerily moved the day of, etc. The shows have always been great, but they were always followed up by some kind of disaster. Only a couple years ago did we break our Winnipeg curse. Now every time's a party, and tonight was indeed that. It was a long drive from Regina to Winnipeg, so we basically got in to town just in time for the show. And the night began quickly. What a rad show. We caught up with some old friends, felt our friend Farrel's soon-to-be-born baby girl kicking up a storm, and even had a cameo from the Cobra Skulls' tour dog Bella. I was surprised this tiny dog's head didn't explode when she ran out on stage during our set. We ended the set with "Eulogy" tonight, and when we got to the quiet part before the outro, this guy jumped on stage and started singing the part. At first everything was all good, we love it when people sing our songs with us. But this particular gentleman started rushing all the lines - "pre-singing" if you will - leaving us in stitches. Luckily a few other folks jumped on staged and helped the poor guy out. Needless to say, we left the stage all smiles.

Tonight was my night to drive so I wasn't drinking the "Standard Lager" we got at the show. The label of this beer is an exact replica of the Budweiser label, but with a different name. Okay fine, I had ONE beer and it tasted exactly like Budweiser too. Some eery shit. All three bands planned to tackle a bit of the longest drive on earth for an overnighter - Winnipeg to Thunder Bay. 8.5 hours plus you lose an hour to the time zone change. So before we hit the road, us and Broadway Calls tried to find a Burger King to fill the grumbling bellies of the meat eaters and veggies/vegans alike. We must have driven around the entire city of Winnipeg before we found one but GOD DAMN was that Steakhouse Burger and our $45 order worth it.

April 16/17 - Thunder Bay/Sault Ste Marie, ON:

There should be a city in between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay. Seriously. A real city. This drive is the bane of every Canadian tour's existence. We finally get in to Thunder Bay, after something like 7 hours without cell service, and the venue is locked. Its 30 minutes until doors and we can't get inside. So what does one do when you don't want to be stuck at the door waiting for it to be unlocked? You explore the city of course. Casino to the right, Black Metal band practicing in an abandoned mall to the left. The casino was like any other. Cobra Skulls were on a mission to find food and walking tour dog. So we opted to explore this abandoned mall with Broadway Calls and try to get a glimpse of the metal band squatting their jam space in the basement. They sounded like your typical metal band, so once we got down to the door of their impromptu jam space we figured it would be much more fun to just rock the fuck out to their songs than go inside and introduce ourselves. So that's what we did. Mini-mosh in the basement of the abandoned mall, pretending we were front row center for "Two Minutes to Midnight." Once the venue doors opened, Scott got his ass whooped at foosball by Cobra Skulls. Adam (aka "Axl") and I compared "skinny-guy guts" and while Broadway Calls were killing it. We usually hit T-Bay on a weekday, but a Friday night worked out much better. We were all well taken care of by the very generous bar staff at Black Pirates Pub. Luke from Cobra Skulls and I had an orange fight in a Burger King parking lot afterwards, and then we all had another giant slumber party. Next we woke up and drove for 8 hours to Sault Ste Marie without cell reception. What fun.

Sault Ste Marie on a big ol' Saturday night. We were remaining hopeful, and the show turned out all right I suppose. Although everyone seemed to watch from the furthest corner from the stage, like all three bands smelled like hockey bags or something. I can safely say we sold more merch at the A&W we stopped at for lunch that afternoon than at the actual show. But that's okay. Fast food employees in the middle of nowhere apparently love bands they've never heard of before. The stage in Sault Ste Marie looked like something straight out of Blues Brothers. All that was missing was the chicken wire and black suits. Cobra Skulls and Broadway Calls were all able to pick up American cell coverage since we were so close to Michigan, so they were all stoked. Us hosers had to be careful with our phones. It dawned on me tonight that we're a magnet for dudes who just want to grab the mic and have a good time, because the same guy got up on stage with us twice tonight to sing along to songs he had definitely never heard before. The best part was the second time he came up and grabbed the mic, no sound came out for so long. It was like he was watching super-attentively and just preparing himself fully for the perfect moment. But he, of course, had to be gripping the microphone to prepare for his moment. I really don't think that moment ever came for the guy, but hey, he was having the night of his life!

There also seemed to be a black hole on the stage just for people's beers tonight. One spot of the stage seemed to serve as the audience's table, which was fine. But the funny thing was that this one particular spot just swallowed all those drinks whole. Pitchers were spilled, bottles were broken, and glasses were dropped. And only on this one particular spot. At one point a girl's beer foamed up and overflowed, so our very own Scott Brigham - being a man who appreciates a good drink - handed her one of his beers to replace it. Of course, this girl's cell phone was much more interesting than the show, so she just grabbed the beer from Scott and kept texting OMGs and LOLz to her BFF. Who stands front row at a show and just texts the whole time?! That's some weak shit. Scott asked her if she was going to text him saying "thank you for the beer" and the far corner of the room erupted with laughter. Yeah, we got that pre-teen queen good. Put your phone in your fucking pocket!!!

April 18/19 - Barrie/London, ON:

HOME TURF SHIT! We're back in Southern Ontario, some 9 weeks later. The shows in Barrie and London were such a blast. Lots of familiar faces and lots of freshies too. This tour just keeps getting better and better and it is insane. After the Barrie show, when I could have slept at home in my own bed for the first time in forever, I slept at my girlfriend's house, some 10 minutes up the road, with Broadway Calls and kept the tour dream alive. We ate delicious food, we shared historically radical laughs, and we were on tour. I love this band and the people in it. The next day they played the amazing retro pinball machines at my lady's place all day. Meanwhile we headed to the legendary Call the Office in jolly old London, Ontario to set up our shit. This must be the 25th or 100th time we've played at this bar. Always armageddon-hot on stage, endless drinks every time, party on the regular. The show was insane, and it was a Monday night! This is the second time we've gotten ass lucky to have our Monday night show be a great one, and experiencing that makes any band on tour stoked on life. And the mother fuckers could sing! Louder than the PA at times, which made it easy for us to just sit back, take a breather and let the audience carry our sorry asses. Cheers to our friends in these cities for coming out and making us feel so at home!