Giant Hand TOUR

Ok, we woke up in Quebec. Ate some pretty crazy breakfast. It was an omelette, wrapped up in a crepe. Choice!

We decided to take this day off to get as far east as we could so our drive to Moncton tomorrow will be nice and easy. We ended up stopping in Miramichi. We took highway 8. No lights, no cellphone signal, and some moose. It was probably the most relaxing drive as we listened to High Violet by the National. But that album only got us halfway through the woods.

Highway 8 is basically a logging trail and the road is very rough. Too much fun.

Well, we are here in Miramichi and getting ready for sleep.

Goodnight.

Crepe Omelette

Jon Driving

Snowy Trees

Highway 8

Woke up at 1:30PM. Packed and left.

Had some breakfast. Not as good as our last two at the cottage. For starters, they buttered the toast after it had cooled down, so there was just these butter chunks on crispy bread.

After that, we left for Quebec City.

This was my first time ever playing in the city and I was beyond nervous. Not sure how many people would come. Not sure if anyone would like my music. Well, seemed to come true. The place was absolutely packed. And people seemed to really enjoy the music. A large amount of the people came to talk to me, and Marc Andre, the audio tech bought us shots, and yeah. It was pretty much perfect.

After the show we got more poutine (quebec staple) and watched some east bound an down.

Fell asleep…

Backstage

Blurry Vocals

Woke up in the cottage once again. It was amazing.

Had an amazing breakfast, once again, and packed up for Quebec. First stop, Montreal.

We were playing at Casa Del Popolo, which is an amazing venue by the way. I played there back in August for Rae Spoon’s CD release show. The ceiling is painted silver and all the lights have empty jars around them.

Went for Mexican food.

I’ll be honest. I was a little worried about the show. We had no promoter and I wasn’t sure if anyone knew the show was happening. But I was informed that there was a screen in the metro by McGill University with my face and the details for the show. Not 100% sure how that happened, but there you go.

So there was actually a pretty great crowd. There was a little spill off from the sold out Twin Shadows who were playing next door I’m sure.

After the show, we picked up some poutine and headed to Jon’s brother’s house for some arrested development and some sleep.

Leaving the Cottage

Food!

Shiny Drums

Winchester Warm

We woke up to sun and omelets. It was perfect.

Drove to Peterborough and decided to get some sandwiches and some drinks at the Spill. Dave (the dude who runs the place) had WKRP Cincinnati playing on the TV. Needless to say, it was perfect.

After sandwiches, we went to my friend’s art gallery called the Cannery Art Centre to play our show. It is one of the coolest places I’ve ever had the privilege to play, and you should really check out all the art in there if you’re ever in Peterborough.

After the show, we all decided we should go back to the cottage for one more awesome sleep before we hit the second leg of the tour.
On one of the back roads the snow had fallen in a way that made everything from the road to the trees sparkle. It was a beautiful way to head back to the cottage.

Sleep…

Middle of the lake

Show

The Cannery

Woke up in Cobourg. Lazed around. Eventually packed and went for breakfast.

We passed a place called buttermilk café. It looked really nice. Breakfasts were $9.99. Right next-door was another breakfast place. Looked awful, but breakfasts were only $3.75. So we went in to the cheap place. There were plants everywhere, a fountain drink machine with the labels ripped off and the owner wrote new liquids in their place. There was no staff, but there were two elderly gentlemen in different booths who looked like they had no concept of what was going on, or where they were. Jon didn’t even sit down. We quickly put our coats back on and went to buttermilks.

Amazing choice. Everything was home made down to the toasted bread. Our meals were huge, and we were seated next to a group of people who were there for a woman’s 99th birthday.

After breakfast we went down to the pier and played some music in the cold.

Then we headed to Kingston.

Before the show I got to be apart of an amazing little project called Wood + Wires

After getting electrocuted by an ungrounded wire coming from a light and my guitar, we stepped outside to record the first song from my upcoming album.

The Artel is this great little art house where they put shows on in one of the rooms. It was a really nice small show and it was awesome to play in Kingston again.

After the show, we decided to drive the hour East to my cottage for the best sleep we had in days. Minus Matt who got the short end of the straw and had to sleep on my childhood bed.

Buttermilk's

Cozy Friends

Cold Strumming

Sorry for the lack of writing the last few days. Internet access has been extremely minimal, and I’m not about to start doing this entirely from my phone. Eff that noise.

Ok, so I woke up on a couch in London to a voicemail from the venue we were going to be playing at in Saint Catharines that night. The owner asked if she could cancel the show due to staffing issues. So sadly we could not play that night. To get over this horrible news, we went for a huge breakfast with the household and went thrift store shopping. Nothing helps getting over the blues like greasy food and gold sequence vests.

After our little outing, we packed up and decided to get past Toronto to cut down our drive for our next show in Kingston. We ended up staying at a little motel in Cobourgh called Breakers motel. The room had a view of the lake, and a VHS player. Luckily Jon bought Planes Trains and Automobiles back in London by complete coincidence. We ordered some pizzas, picked up some beers and relaxed while watching planes trains.

Walk to breakfast

Thrifty Armor

Ok, so each night on the road’s been better and better. But before I get to how the show went. Let me fill you in on the day leading up to said event.

Woke up in Toronto. Sat around. Played some Ocarina of time. Ate an egg sandwich my brother made me. Packed. Got picked up by Matt and Jon. Someone honked at them as they made a U-turn. I laughed.

Drove out of the city. Made our way to London. For some reason, I don’t remember much of the drive. I remember some traffic, and that’s about it.

We arrived in London and headed to a liquor store and a grocery store. The show in London was a house show slash pot luck, which is amazing when you’re on the road, and there’s nothing better than a hot home made meal. We brought some cheese, and some jalapeno, cheese bread. Oh and a box of cookies. People made soup, and roasted potatoes.

At the house we sat around, ate some food and met a bunch of people. Once the house was pretty much full, we set up and started the show.

I’ve never played to a quieter room. Like I mean, not a sound. It was beautiful.

After the show everyone stuck around, polished of all the alcohol and the rest of the food and slowly trickled out as we got ready for bed. Matt found a headless, painted mannequin, and thought I might enjoy his company.

I fell asleep to Timber Timbre.

Quiet Hands

Outside

Winchester Warmth

Sleeping at Jon’s father’s place was a treat. We woke up to pancakes and sausage. We all ate as much as we could, knowing this would be our last home cooked meal for a long time.

Once we all finished breakfast, we packed up the truck and headed for the Toronto. We needed to get into Toronto in the afternoon because Winchester Warm had an Aux TV video shoot. It was filmed in an amazing little restaurant called the Brockton General. The Aux folk were lovely to be around.

After filming Pam (the owner of Brockton General) Winchester Warm and myself purchased some amazing pulled pork sandwiches from a place I can’t quite remember. They have a full-page article in Eye Weekly I believe. It’s worth looking up. The baked beans were probably the best I’ve ever had. It was called Porchetta something or other.

Taking a moment to savor the remaining beans, I headed to my brother’s place for a nap and to play Ocarina of Time. Easily one of the best video games ever made. The game playing didn’t last long as I had to head over to the Imperial Pub for the show.

The show was part of a weekly showcase done by 50 River Concerts. The project is organized by one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met named Holly. I said Toronto had some pretty big shoes to fill from Hamilton. And they filled them quite impressively. The room was beautiful. The people didn’t make a sound while I played. And they had a pop corn machine upstairs!

London is next. And from the sounds of it. It’s going to be an amazing house with food and hopefully some forts.

xo

kr/gh

Packing/GPS Frustrations

Aux TV Video Shoot

Pulled Pork Sammiches!

Walk to Imperial

50 River Concerts

Music?

And let’s go. First stop, Hamilton.

I am touring with Winchester Warm, and we are all travelling together in one vehicle. The shit is packed high, and it feels kind of like fort inside the car. It was a long drive from Ottawa. But the roads were smooth, and the traffic could have been a lot worse. Once we figured we could go in the carpool lane in Toronto, we were gravy. The carpool lane rules are simple. 2 or more people in the car and the lane of un clogged freedom is yours. What amazed me was the amount of cars that had just one person in the car. The traffic was at a stand still but the carpool lane was pretty much empty. How hard is it to find one single person to carpool with. Everyone complains about the traffic in Toronto, but it seems like no one wants to do anything about it.

Anyways. Enough about that. We arrived in Hamilton at around 6. We went to the venue to see if we could load in. All the doors were locked. So we went to Jon’s father’s house and had some lasagna. Then went back to the venue and set up for the show. For the first night of the tour, in a town I’ve never played on a Wednesday night, and during the Canadian Juniors finals. There was a pretty good crowd. The sound guy was pretty much the coolest dude I’ve ever met, and made everyone playing that night sound like golden voiced angels. Even Ben Caplan who growls. Toronto, you have some pretty big shoes to fill.

Packed

What are you doing Matt?

Fill'er up

I woke up in the Ho-Hum motel and got ready for my flight to New York. When I went to check out, the man behind the counter addressed me as “dude”. I turned in my key and asked him if he could call me a taxi. He had a little trouble finding the number, but once he found it he cheered in excitement. He told the woman in the other room that he deserved a raise. As the cab pulled up to the motel office, a little boy no older than 8 came out from behind the counter to let me know the cab has arrived, even though I could clearly see it out the window. I got in the cab and rolled away from the Ho-Hum towards the airport.

I arrived at the airport a little earlier than expected and was able to take the earlier flight. The flight was short and eventless, so let’s skip that part.

Ok… Arrived at my hotel in New York. The Pod Hotel. It’s in a great location and I am able to walk to central park within 20 minutes. Which is exactly what I did. But I took a slight detour and got a burger at a place called Five Guys. It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. After the burger I headed to the park. I wandered around for a few hours before I decided to head to the Natural History Museum. I didn’t go in, but the streets around there are so quiet with trees hanging over the road from the sidewalk.

After reaching the Museum, and got a lemonade and sat across the street and watched as people come in and out. At around 4:00 I decided to head back to the hotel and take a nap. Sadly, I got completely turned around once I went underground to use the subways. I ended up getting stuck so I decided to head back up to see if I could get my bearings. It ended up being where the New Yorker was. When I figured out where I was, I headed back down to find out that my pass no longer worked and the machine that spits out the metro card didn’t take cash, credit, or debit. So basically I couldn’t use the subway at that location. So I walked down the street until I found the next subway stop and got on there.

I finally made it back to the hotel and took a nap.

When I woke up I got pizza from Krunch Pizza down the street and had a few drinks at the bar in the hotel. I was going to head over to the King Cole bar, but they didn’t allow sneakers.

After a few gin and tonics, I went back to my room and fell asleep.

kr/gh

Entering NYC

Central Park

Central Park 2

The New Yorker