On A Cold Road

August 20th:

Okay, the trip home wasn't that cold, but it did rain a lot, and plus I wanted to insert a reference to Dave Bidini's book about life in a band on the road.

We got up at what seemed like a painfully early hour but in reality was sometime around 9:30. Our plan was to meet our friend Heather and some of the Minks for brunch at a place called La Sala Rosa. Note to everyone: when looking for brunch food for vegetarians while in Montreal, go to Las Sala Rosa. Scrambled tofu, potato latkas, sweet potato home fries. It gets no better. Our waiter was extremely forgetful but in that charming way that makes any transgression forgiveable. Good news for me, Jane decided to come along too as well as Amanda. So I got to hang out with them for a little while longer (but not long enough unfortunately--such is life on the road). Then it was time to say goodbye again.

Before leaving town we had an appointment with CKUT to do a station ID. Our first one ever! We ended up playing it straight on the final version, so hopefully it isn't too boring sounding. But then again knowing Vaughan he went back and re-edited it using some outtakes to make it sound ridiculous. CKUT is nice--they have a slick production room with a full-on Pro-Tools setup, NS-10 nearfield monitors, and an isolation booth with some sweet Audio-Technica large diaphragm condenser microphones.

ahem. Sorry about that, I just went audio-geek on everyone there.

Then it was time to hit the record stores. We went to four or five in total, but the only place we found that did any amount of consignment was L'Oblique. (Everyone in Montreal go to L'Oblique to buy our record!) Spen and Matt bought cool stuff at just about every store we were in, I ended up finally picking up the Slint 10". Two songs for ten bucks...worth it?

All this wandering around in the rain meant that we didn't leave town until about 4:00 pm. Ouch. And that meant we didn't get to Woodstock until about 2:00 in the morning, with about two litres of gas left in the tank. Double ouch. Never drive through Northern New Brunswick late at night unless you're sure you have enoug gas to get to where you're going--all the gas stations close at night. Fortunately Valerie Barker is a patient woman and was not too upset by our late arrival. She had cold beer and fudge waiting for us too. We had some fudge.

Next morning after a breakfast of muffins and fresh fruit it was time to head out again. But not before getting all smashy with the van bumper at the gas station. That's right. Backing up to get next to the pump, I accidentally went too far, only to bring the van to a banging halt. Ugh. I blame the fact that it was raining and the rearview mirror was obscured by band gear, but really it had more to do with me just not paying attention. Oh well, that's what $0 deductible insurance is for.

I honestly don't remember much of the rest of the trip. I know that we were getting along quite well with each other, sort of a "yeah! we made it!" mood was in the air. High fives and hugs. We made it back to Halifax at a surprisingly reasonable hour (Matt and I even made it to the Sunday Bike Dinner). Spen was reunited with Blythe, Matt reunited with Rachelle, and me reunited with my comfy bed. Aww.

Big thanks to everyone who came out to see us, and a really big thanks to everyone who gave us a place to stay: Jane and Vaughan, Swintak, the Da Costas, and the Barkers.

Still to come: PEI adventures!