November 2008 - east coast tour journal

Hey there everyone, Zephyr magazine have asked us to write a tour journal for their next issue.
So this is it, we'll be periodically updating this note as we gooo.

Nov. 2nd: Day 1-3: Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto.

So we started the tour off in Waterloo. It was devil's night and there were many a splendid costumes! Olenka's immune system decided to take a break and let her get a cold the day before AND Sara and I (Paterson) are just getting over colds of our own. The number germs swirling around in our car is unfathomable. Anyway, enough about our varying degrees of sickness, regardless Waterloo was great. We played at, the infamous, Jeff Woods' House with 2 bands which can only be described as "rip-roaring" Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs and The Bad BongWater Boys. We're going to have them play Yale St. some day.. they were pretty hilarious and awesome

NEXT. Guelph.
So lovely.
They made us dinner! Homemade soup and dumplings. They also had a lovely cat named Dean, I believe, who Olenka says "smiles with his eyes". Opening were Nick Zubeck and Lisa Bozikovic. Olenka has been good friends with Nick for years and his set was exceedingly beautiful! Lisa was a very pleasant surprise. We'd never met or heard her but her set was so wonderful. She reminded me of Julie Doiron a bit and we've asked her to play our CD release show in December. So now all you lovely people will get to hear her too! Hoorah.

Tonight was Toronto but I am way too tired to contemplate my evening right now. I'll tell you one thing though, cello was not the right instrument to pick, based on size and manageability.

goodnight everyone!
Paterson, Olenka and the Autumn Lovers

Nov. 4th, early morning, leaving Montreal:

Holy crap we're driving all the way to Halifax today!

November 4th, 2008, from the Road

We finally have a free moment to write! EGAD! And it’s a momentous day. The US election is happening as I type this. Sara and AJ are in the front of the car (finally. I’m sure they’ve been wanting some leg space for a few days now). Paterson and I are in the back of the car. My hardy little Hyundai Accent. If it were a horse, it’d be a prize winner. Certainly. Blue ribbon. Shiny golden locks. Big suspension muscles, And Sandro Perri is crooning in the background as we coast along the battered and weathered freeways of Quebec. Not that we have Sandro packed in the car or anything. We couldn’t fit an insect let alone another human being in this car. Well, maybe the odd fruit fly. They always seem to get into every corner. And we’re eating official, locally made Quebecois CHEESE CURDS, aka squeaky cheese. If you’ve never had the pleasure of sampling this French Canadian treat, then you’re missing out on one of the most delicious dairy products to have come out of the kitchens of our French Canadian kin.

We’ve played Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto and Montreal so far. I’ve been fighting off some annoying flu or cold or whatever malicious bug decided to assail my body ever since the start of the tour. The flu-beast is on the wane, but it sure is taking it’s time. Neocitran, Cold FX and V8 have been sustaining me. The silver (phlegmy) lining has been the range that my voice has been locating itself in: lower than usual, and more breathy. I like the way it’s been sounding. Kinda wish I could have this range usually (sans runny nose and hacking, of course).

So, getting back to the tour, we officially started things off in Waterloo on Oct. 30th and Guelph on Nov. 1st, though we were back and forth between those towns and London. In Waterloo, we played at Jeff Wood’s house. Met many, really nice, well-costumed folks. Just Sara, Paterson and me at this show. By the end of it, I believe I sounded like a sultry frog (or so I was told). Jeff’s roommate, Owen, kindly offered me a number of throat soothing shots of vodka (an appropriately Polish solution to any bodily ailment). And at the end of the night we were treated to holy toast and peanut butter.

I spent Hallowe’en hopped up on vitamins, Tylenol and the aforementioned cold remedies, trying to get better for the tour. Aside from packing and preparing for the tour, we were also hand-making the sleeves for our newest EP (Papillonette, recorded the WEEK BEFORE the tour w/ Gareth & Simon at OIART), hand-making our shirts, printing off lyrics, and of course preparing for Hallowe’en festivities: 33 Yale hosted one of the biggest costume parties in the city, so all those kids were busily readying the house for the onslaught.

Guelph was a real treat as well. Mike Brooks kindly offered us a show with very little time to spare at his cozy house-show venue, The Attic. This time it was the tour quartet: the girls and AJ. We played with Nick Zubeck & his band (Darren & Marshall) and Lisa Bozikovic. It was an amazingly, heartwrenchingly intimate show. There’s so much beautiful music being written and performed in the living rooms of our great nation. It’s such a shame that so much of it is labouring in obscurity. Nick, Darren & Marshall are masterful musicians, and Nick’s music is richly melodic and intricately layered. For those familiar with Sandro, you’ll hear a kinship in melodies and instruments: naturally, as the two are childhood friends. Lisa was an amazingly pleasant surprise: a delicate voice and spirit, much like that of Julie Doiron.

EEE!! Les vaches! We just passed a picturesque Quebecois farm, surrounded by the foothills of the Canadian shield. Cows idling in pasture land.

And I’m tired. And still sick. So that’s it for today. Maybe Paterson will fill you in on the Toronto and Montreal shows. Or maybe I will, tomorrow. Tonight we’ll be barrelling into the night ‘til we hit Fredericton. Or Halifax. Or bust. I’m amazed that the suspension has held up. Tomorrow will be my first time in the Maritimes. And the first day of the new US Presidency. What an amazing time and place to be alive.

Love Olenka

Montreal/Toronto

Hello friends, Paterson here, reporting from highway 2, New Brunswick.
We’re 215 km from Fredericton and counting.

So, last night. Last night was Montreal. We played to a small, but loving crowd of friends, family, and various friends of friends. The sound man, Paul, and I became fast friends and remembered all our names almost immediately. Now that’s impressive. He might even come through London with his band sometime! Opening was James Lamb who never ceases to break my heart, musically. All I want to do is sing a long when he’s playing. He’s an old friend of Olenka’s from Vancouver and just recently moved to Montreal, which is clearly, where it’s at. Closing was Sick Friend (Michael O’Brien) who was, as always, amazing. For those of you that aren’t Londoners, Michael USED to live in London, but left for Montreal in the summer along with our good friends Nic and Charleigh. The show was really excellent. It sounded great and we were among lots of lovely friends.

The night before was Toronto at the Press Club. Playing with us was Polyester Heart and Nick Zubeck. Playing two shows in a row with Nick was so pleasant. I personally really love his music, and getting to spend some time together hanging out in Guelph and Toronto was great. He even gave me a CD because Olenka mentioned that I wanted one but was too poor. Sweetheart!

The show went just splendidly. Lots of our close friends from Toronto came out and there bar was nice and full. Not to mention it was just a treat to get to see Polyester Heart and Nick perform.

The older I get the more spread out my friends get across the country but it’s so nice when you’re on tour and you get to see a different old friend every night. We especially can’t wait for Halifax. Sara and I have a bunch of friends from art school that moved to go to NSCAD. I wish I could see the mountains that are whipping by, It’s been pictch black since 6pm! We’ll see them on the way back though, so I’m not too sad. The moon is just a white smile, just barely visible behind big black clouds. We’re listening to sentimental country music and it makes me want to write travelling songs. I’m sure that we all have enough inspiration out here to write a few songs. At the rate Olenka writes songs, we’ll have 3 new ones by the time we reach home.

The glow of my laptop is making me loopy.
Halifax or bust!
See ya later.

November 6th, Charlottetown

Wowzer. We love P.E.I

I’m gonna tell you the whole story. Hunker down and get ready for a tale. This is even an edited version.

Now, to precede the story, you must know that some shady/confusing myspace emails had been exchanged previous. Some emails pertaining to our supposed show in Charlottetown. One of which asked if we were still coming... which we obviously were.

It’s 6:30 in the PM, the streets are dead, we are ready to rock. We drive up to the venue, which is infact a house, dubbed Lyons House. Knock Knock. Uh, no one is home? That’s wierd... hmm, we all thought. Lets go find somewhere with internet.

So off we went. I (Paterson) in the meantime am totally freaking out because I”m starting to put the pieces together.. Myspace emails... confused booker, holy eff, did he think we cancelled show? OMG.. Ola is gonna kill me!

ANYWAY as I am sort of having a mental breakdown we drove by this record store that I had been before and I saw a dude locking the store and walking out. STOP THE CAR! Ola stops the car, I jump out and run after this dude. I just asked him if he knew about a show or whatever, and he didn’t but he DID know about Lyons house and said a girl that lives there works at the Timothy’s down the street, maybe she is there! Hoorah, we rush off to Timothy’s. Through many phonecalls, curtesy of the lovely barista at timothy’s, we deduced that the show had in fact been cancelled.. Holy freakout.

So as we are sitting at a table thinking very very hard this guy walks up to our table. He asks if we are in a band. Turns out he is in the band that I had been in contact with about the show, New Royalty and had gotten one of our messages. His name is Chris Frances and he is our God. Along with his cell phone and facebook he put together a show for us in 2 hours in an art gallery above a cafe there. The crowd was small but so loving. We sold the most CD’s there and I believe.. more CD’s than there were people. We also painted just about everyone in the crowd’s faces. Photos to come.

After the show we pigged out on pizza, in true rock star fashion, and ended up staying in the most amazing house ever. It was the oldest brick house in Charlottetown and loaded up with history.

The next day my Nanny took us ALL out for lunch and Chris gave us a tour of the downtown, complete with a history of practically the whole town including the fathers of confederation! We had the pleasure of his company until the moment we started the car to head to Sackville. Chris Francis, we salute you. Anyone going Charlottetown, get in touch with this boy.

November 7th: BAGTOWN (aka Sackville, NB)

Headed south towards Sackville, NB, we bid the Island farewell and crossed that blessed bridge. We arrived in Sackville around 7pm. It took a little while for us to find George’s Roadhouse. Our directions were from a nice man at the grocery store, however, the farther down Lorne St. we got, the more doubtful we became. George’s Roadhouse, firstly, is nowhere near downtown Sackville, which is about 2 blocks on one street; secondly, it’s PAST a pretty freaky looking train station AND looks like it’s abandoned. The railings were falling apart, there seemed to be remnants of a wheel chair ramp though I wouldn’t dare brave it and, of course, there was no one there. We decided to venture into downtown Sackville and stopped into a really lovely cafe. The man behind the counter, Rory (who came to our show!) informed us that shows never, ever start before 10, and that if we’re the second band, it’s unlikely we’ll be on before 11:30. We went back to the Roadhouse twice more before there was any life to be seen stirring within it’s rickety exterior.

The first people to greet us were Buck and Kinch, the opening band. Kinch, AKA Donnie to us, did his master’s degree at Western and used to play bass for Olenka. Awww, Autumn Lover reunion. Around 10 o’clock, university kids and local townies start to filter in, all so ready to rock out to The Tom Fun Orchestra, but they had to wait. First up was Buck and Kinch. The rock-duo started off the night on an upbeat and they even covered one of Olenka’s songs, 45. They really upped the rock-factor! It certainly wasn’t as mellow as our version.

So, now it’s our turn. The bar is deafening loud. There are drunk Sackvillers everywhere. We decided to do a louder set. For most of the tour we’ve been doing a quieter catalogue of songs but we were definitely going to get drowned out if we didn’t kick it up a notch. We pulled out some of our polish/gypsy ones and seriously got those kids dancing. Certainly the rowdiest show we played.

Third up was Carmen Townsend and the Shaky Deals. Holy, what a hottie. Boy that girl can rock out. Roaring guitar, fat bass and phat beats coupled with her sometimes hard-core rock voice sometimes cute almost indie-girl voice. I’d give up at least one limb to rock as much as she does.

Finally, the reason we have all gathered here today, The Tom Fun Orchestra take the stage. Tom Fun consists of a rotating cast of about.... 23890348903 people. I think there were 8 of them at our show with banjo, bass, 2 guitars, fiddle, trumpet, drums and accordion. This was probably the funnest show...ever. EVER! The istrumentation was just amazing and they were so together!

After the show we went to a local’s house and partied with Tom Fun till.... way too late. They really are rockstars, they weren’t even close to being done when we left at 4:30am.

The next morning we bid Sackville adieu with hopes of returning in January to play the Stereophonic festival (with Julie Doiron!!) our stay in Sackville was made ever the more pleasant by the generostiy of the 67 Bridge Street kids with whom we stayed. The house, the New England villa that had fallen prey to generations of Mount Allison students, was neverthe less a pleasant and entertaining environment with dizzying ceiling heights and a disturbing abundance of taxidermied animals. These furry friends of ours will be making their appearance on myspace and facebook shortly.

Now here's Andrew for a recap of St. Andrews (how fitting!)

Dear readers, fans, boys and girls
November 8th 2008
Destination: St. Andrews

Hello everybody. Our time spent in St. Andrews started with our arrival at the famous Salty Towers where Buck and Kinch had already made themselves at home. We were welcomed by Paterson’s childhood friend, Emma, who lives at the inn along with her mother, Deb, and East Coast Music God, Jamie Steel. We were greeted with an amazing pasta dinner at which we all had the chance to sit around a table, enjoying good conversation and delicious wine with the other guests staying at Salty Towers. After a short rehearsal, we headed down to the Kennedy Inn where we played a mixed set to a small but supportive crowd. After the show, we spent the remainder of the evening going through Jamie’s extensive music collection, drinking rum, and listening to stories about the East Coast, courtesy of Donnie. At around 3 am, we retired to our cozy separate bedrooms. That morning we all headed down for lunch at the SWEET HARVEST BAKERY! Following brunch, we went down to the WHARF exploring crustasions, the pier, and the beach. We also hung out with starfish city and talked to ROB who drove a boat to the nearest haunted cemetery island. Later we checked out this killer beach where the water was salty and the seagulls were A-Plenty. We also found seaweed fleas. Gross. The weather on this day was pretty alright. The small town feel of St. Andrews was welcoming and warm. The hospitality that extended to us here was incredible and we all couldn’t have had a more pleasant time with Emma, Deb, and Jamie. We drove off into the sunset like the 4 horsemen of the apocoLIPS.

Fredericton and Quebec City: Un petit tournee avec le Wooden Sky!

Alrighty, Fredericton. We got into the city in the early evening, checked out the venue and then dropped off our stuff at the house we were staying. We found this house on Couch Surfing and it turned out great. Benjamin and everyone at Pederson Cres. were so nice and hospitable to us.

Back to the Capital we go, load in, grab some pitas and hunker down for the show. Just by watching the Wooden Sky’s sound check I knew we were in for a treat. After we both sound checked it was really nice just chatting and getting the know the guys in the band. Opening for us was Logan Hawkes who was quite a pleasant surprise. His voice was like butter and guitar playing so soothing I could listen to it forever. You should all check out his band Slate Pacific.

We played second... and quite well in my opinion. With every day we are in better practise. The sound was excellent, thanks to Leah our sound WOMAN. First sound girl I’ve ever had it was a nice change, haha.

Quebec City! Je t'aimes!

Quebec was my (Paterson) favourite show of the tour I think. After hanging out with The Wooden Sky for much of the night before, it was learned that they had 2 days off after Fredericton. OH boy, so we invited them to come to our Quebec City show. And they did! Not only did they come see us, they played as well!

The show was at Sam Murdock's house, who we met through Lesbo Vrouven when they played Yale St. back home in London at Thanksgiving. He's the lead singer/guitarist and also co-founder of the music label P572.

Check out their website here.

So we get into Quebec around dinner time and as we walk in the house we are met by the tantalizing smell of tomato sauce being cooked. Holy moly, big pasta dinner for all, complete with baguette and salad. The Wooden Sky arrive shortly and we all just hang out until people start to arrive for the show. I think that Olenka and the Autumn Lovers and the Wooden Sky are in love... or certainly should be.

TWS played an amazing acoustic set. Just acoustic guitar, banjo, glockenspiel and beautiful 3 part harmonies. I'd never really listened to them before meeting them, but now I can't get enough. If you EVER get a chance to see them, DO IT... and tell them I say hi, haha. After they were met with much approval, Quebec City style, we went up. We played acoustically as well and I think it was one of the best performances we've ever given. Certainly of the tour anyway. After the show, we all just had a dance party at the house, then at a bar, then we all snuggled in the living room and went to sleep.

It was a long drive home, but we made it and now we're back. I'm gonna hand this over to Olenka to fill in some of the blanks, and then... that's it for our tour blog.

Love Paterson