into the U.S. and over the hill

OTTAWA > MONTREAL > BOSTON. 2010 5/5 - 5/7

After rushing out of Canadian Tire, we made the drive to Montreal and ran through the doors of La Tulipe just in time for the boys to give it a quick sound check.


The set started smoothly, but during the second song, Patrick's bass cut out. Chaz swooped in and covered the low-end on his synth, but that technical difficulty definitely shook things up a bit. La Tulipe is a 700 capacity venue and the show was over-sold. The fact that they were relying on a Behringer direct box blows my mind. Hopefully an upgrade was made after that incident.

After the show, Chaz's former tour buddy, Jamie, let us crash at his place. It was neat - neighborhood cats would come inside and hang out with you. His place was cozy, and he is an all-around nice, mellow guy.


The drive to Boston the next morning was by no means the shortest, but as soon as we were welcomed back to the United States by the policeman at the border a sense of relief came over all of us. It is not that we didn't enjoy our first Canadian portion of the North American tour (on the contrary). There was just something magically patriotic about our GPS working again, reading our speed in miles-per-hour, and the anticipation of passing a slew of Starbucks, McDonalds, and maybe even a Wal Mart.

We arrived to our host's apartment in Cambridge. He left us a key under the door mat so we could all pile out before the show. We did just that. Middle East was a pretty cool venue and in a pretty cool neighborhood.


As usual, both bands slayed. But something was different on that night... when the clock struck midnight I turned 27. My brand new age was greeted by our host, Adrian, and Patrick bringing me a Reeses brownie (which was delicious). The rest of the post-show evening was spent chatting and playing with a certain little beast named Henry.

Fortunately, a good night's sleep was had and we were well rested and ready to move onward to New York City.

Oh, and here is a picture of Patrick biting into a big slab of meat:


All of these pictures were taken by me. Do not use them without my permission. Thank you!