DAY 27

Drove to Chicago to play at The Darkroom. Our agent, Mary, came to the show and we hung out and we got a hot beef and peppers on a bun to split. It was good. Thax came to the show with another poem he wrote for us. He came to our last Chicago show and read the first one before we played. He did a new one tonight and I got a copy of his book of poetry. Thanks, Thax. You honor us.

DAY 28

Had a day off so we got a hotel, went crazy at Half Price Books, ate at Olive Garden, went and saw Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. The first hotel we checked into, we immediately checked back out of it because it smelled intensely bad. Bad things have happened at this hotel I shall not name. The one we switched to was only 8 dollars more. 8 dollars to not smell a combination of mold, hurl, smoke and possible murder? A bargain.

DAY 29

Drove to Fargo, ND to play at Aqarium. Long drive. Basically not very exciting. Our friend Don drove his motorcycle from St. Cloud, MN to see us though and so that was awesome.

DAY 30

Drove back to Canada :) . Had a Joe Louis to commemorate. Played at The Exchange in Regina, SK. The stage was coming apart like ice floes or Teutonic plates in the earth. We survived. Broke 2 drumsticks in one show about it. By the way, I was chastised by 2 different drummers while in America about the state of my drum heads. My rack tom has a hole in it - I put a piece of tape on it - good as new! So there. Becky broke a string on her guitar 2 songs into the show - too bad she can’t just slap some tape on it.

DAY 31

Got up unnaturally early to drive to Saskatoon, SK for a live noon hour interview on CTV. It went well - and we were surprisingly awake. Wandered downtown - got cd’s and records and such. Many good used stores here. Ate at Amigo’s - damn fine. Did an interview on CFCR - fun. Played at Amigo’s Cantina that night - also good time. Back to the hotel - and scene.

DAY 32

This hotel had a 1pm checkout!! Awesome. Drove to Lethbridge, AB to play at Henotic. We beat the storm, which raged nearby this night. Super nice fellow who owns the joint had a place for us to stay and so we had tequila about it.

DAY 33

Drove to Calgary to find a hotel for which to spend our 2 whole days off in and around. Did so. We’re on a mutual reading kick and spent most of the day doing just that. Actually, that’s been most of the past week. We’re reading fools. We also went to a mall and shopped about it.

DAY 34

Day off. Read books. Went shopping…again. There’s a song right now with a line about how the singer is going to party like a rockstar…books and shopping is how we roll. Ordered in Indian food and did not use the indoor waterslide because it was constantly over run by a serious progression of screaming kids. Sigh.

DAY 35

Got up, tried to do the waterslide only to find the aforementioned screaming kids had control of it at 9 in the morning…they never sleep. Just like the girl in The Ring. We found a cheap movie theatre and saw Year One - finally a movie that was funny. We have this knack of picking the worst movies. For instance we went and saw Aeon Flux a few years back and had to go get popcorn to make the movie worthwhile. Hmm, we probably did some more mall this day too. Drove to Banff and played at The Storm Cellar in the H.I. Hostel. They treated us like gold and in turn, we drank about it.

DAY 36

Got up, had a great breakfast at the Hostel, loaded up, drove to Calgary. Spent the day doing not a helluva lot. Played at Broken City. Easily one of our favorite shows we’ve ever played. Thanks, Calgary. Drove out to just past Banff, pulled over and slept about it amongst semi’s.

DAY 37

Got up, drove and drove and….have I mentioned how tired of driving we are? I digress. Got to Vancouver in record time and went to our respective homes. Woohoo. A night in my own bed.

DAY 38

We got haircuts from the best hairdresser in Vancouver - our man, Preston. Then we had sushi! Then we took the ferry to Victoria and played at Logan’s Pub.

DAY 39

We played at The Green Mountain Music Festival in Nanaimo. Our friends James and Kim put this festival on every year to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research. It was a long, good day, of seeing friends and hanging out and having a drink or 15 about it.

DAY 40

Caught a ferry, dropped off the gear, went home. Summer Canadian Tour done. Thanks, everyone.

Alright, I’ve fallen behind…er…a lot…so this next installment may be on the lean side but rest assured I have only picked the most relevant things to talk about. If you feel that you’ve grown as a person as a result of reading this…I cannot help it….such is the power of my words - Maya

Oh, and p.s. Thank you to everyone who have been leaving such nice comments on our Facebook page and sending lovely msg’s via email and myspace. Seriously. Everyone has been super great this tour and doing a wicked job of telling their friends about us. You all really do make the band and we can’t do any of this without you….wow, sappy, hey?

DAY 13

Spent all day at Canada’s Wonderland. It was AWESOME. We rode a million coasters, ate crappy fair food, and played games. We “won” stuffed animals at a stand where you fished for an animal to turn over and you win a prize. I asked the lady if the prizes came in s, m, and l. She said you win a prize no matter what and they were all the same generously sized stuffed animal….pause…I said “So I could just give you my 4 loonies and pick my prize?”….pause….she says (deadpan) “Yes.”…pause…I decided to cast my fishing rod anyway so as to fit in. I “won” my prize.

DAY 14

Drove up the 401 to Kingston, ON. Played at The Mansion. Found a record “store”. Really, it was some dude’s basement all barfed up all over the floor and called a store. We dug through filthy boxes of band stickers and bought a bunch. Dude made 30 bucks off of us. Oh, on the way to Kingston we stopped in Historical Downtown Whitby to do laundry and discovered a new favorite breakfast joint called PJ’s - they, like the rest of Ontario, offer peameal bacon which is my new obsession.

DAY 15

Drove back down the 401 to St. Thomas, ON. Played at The Brunswick Tavern. Sometimes we spend so much time in Ontario, it feels like we live there…or at least on the 401. Depressing, no? The promoter bought us Mr. Sub for dinner. We got a reuben and split it. The fellow who made it, refused to let us decide what we wanted on it. We said, okay. Our friend WhatWave Dave and his wife Rena came from London for the show and then we stayed at their place in London. Too tired that night to have Dave’s home brew.

DAY 16

Drove back up the 401 to Toronto, ON. We played at The Horseshoe. We also had lunch at our favorite place in Toronto: Aroma. We had power breakfasts…we ALWAYS have the power breakfast. We are creatures of habit….which is also not too bad a band name. We got to the shoe and played Magic in the van, did a video interview for AUX TV and played the show.

DAY 17

Drove to Montreal, QC. Played at L’escogriffe. Wicked good time. Montreal is soo gorgeous. Our friend Jordan came and we stayed with him and his girlfriend, Donna, that night. Yay, we have a home in Montreal now. Phew. Oh, also on the way to Montreal, we stopped again in Historical Downtown Whitby and had breakfast at PJ’s.

DAY 18

Drove to Quebec City, QC. Played at Festival D’ete Off. Played with a band from Montreal called Les Guinelles. Awesome guys. New friends. Good times. I quote “You play more songs, Carrot Top?” If you guys are reading this - you’ll know. The Fest put us up in someone’s apartment with a cute cat…the cat was there before us.

DAY 19

Drove to Cowansville, QC. Played at Cowanskate Skull. It was a skateboard, graffiti and music and basically cool punk teen festival. We love Ramon. We played earlyish and immediately started driving towards Halifax. Yes, it’s true. We got somewhere past Quebec City before we slept in a rest area. By the way, we looooove the whole Province of Quebec. One of the many reasons, is that they have a bazillion rest areas.

DAY 20

Drove and drove and drove to Halifax, NS. We played at Gus’s Pub. Wicked show - Halifax and well basically all of Nova Scotia - we think it’s gorgeous. Instant happiness whenever we get to Nova Scotia. Thanks to The Superfantastics and The Stance for being wicked and playing with us on a Monday night. Yo. Our dear friend Jay came and we all got donairs after the show and then followed him back to his house in the Valley.

DAY 21

Slept in really late…wonderful. Did errands with Jay, ate his fantastic breakfast, hung out with his girlfriend Jenni, visited his mom, had amazing chowder. Played that night at West Side Charlie’s in New Minas. Wicked, great, awesome, drank a ton, hung with the nicest people, had a great show - these are the best nights.

DAY 22

Got up. Caravaned with Jay to pick up our van and the gear and his other car and got them all back to his house. Had a super fish and chips lunch at Jenni’s restaurant on the patio and all delighted in having cucumber water. Then we said our goodbyes and hightailed it back into Halifax where we did a radio show called Let’s Get Baked where we literally made sugar cookies with pink icing (our choice) with hosts Mat and Dave. It was also an interview of sorts - it was wonderfully low key and suited our hangovers just fine. Then we did some bizness at FedEx and hit the road to Grand Rapids, MI. A mere 25 hour drive. We got past Fredericton, NB and slept at a PetroCan.

DAY 23

Woke up at 6:30 a.m. and I resumed driving. Got Becky up just past Montreal and we carried on. No rest for the…err…band? Got to a hotel outside of Toronto, ordered pizza, watched So you think you can dance, slept about it.

DAY 24

Drove on. Got to Grand Rapids. Got a hotel about it. Played at Juke’s. Our friend Tony and his best friend Dawn came to the show. Cool to see them again. Man, I am completely running out of things to talk about…sorry, I’m on a wacky deadline.

DAY 25

Slept in about it. Had breakfast at Bob Evans. It should have been better than it was. We both got eggs benedict. But neither of us read the fine print apparently. The eggs were over easy and the English muffins were biscuits…sigh. Then as we left, the lady at the counter tried to entice us into buying bbq sauce. She said “Would you like to try our new BBQ sauce. It tastes really good on…(she searched her mind, you could actually see it happen and then concluded…)…stuff. Outside of the Bob Evans, we passed by a man showing his friends his GUN from the trunk of his car. We got crap at Target and now we’re leaving for our show at Blue Note in Muskegon, MI.

DAY 26

Today we played on a dock. Literally. Red Dock in Saugatuck, MI. Sunny day. Beer flowing. Played on a dock and hoped for non-electrocution. Broke a stick, threw it to grab another and watched as people tried to catch it, and instead it slid oh so gracefully through one of the dock slats. I looked behind me and saw the other half of the stick in the water. Awesome. This was easily one of the funnest shows we’ve ever played. And, bonus, got back to the hotel by 9pm! Yow.

DAY 6

Day off in Kenora, ON. Hmm…slept in…drove into “town” and killed 3 hours exploring 4 city blocks, while waiting for the Greek restaurant to open up. It was worth the wait. Watched Sophie’s Choice on TV. What a laugh fest. Played Magic. And scene.

DAY 7

Drove to Thunder Bay. Yep. That happened. Sheila at The Apollo treated us like gold, as usual. Met The Rocket Reducers who were playing at the bar down the way - rad guys.

DAY 8

Got up ridiculously early to drive to Sault Ste. Marie to play Arcadia Coffee House. Discovered that Pita Pit is awesome. Slept in the van before load in. Passed right out when the show was over. We played with OK Vancouver OK and Kalle Mattson - all awesome people. Thank you OK Van OK for the beer and brie.

DAY 9

Got up. Stopped at a Value Village and got a new suitcase to hold all of Becky’s guitar gak. Also got some cassette tapes for the van: Sound of Music soundtrack, Phantom of The Opera soundtrack and Much Music Dance 2000. We listened to them all. Twas good. Drove to Sudbury. Got bit by 10,000 mosquitos both off stage and on stage. We said goodbye to our tool kit as we split up our stuff into my cymbal bag and the new suitcase. That toolkit held all our combined stage gak and we’ve had it since the beginning. It was a huge decision to spend 30 bucks on it and we were both sad to let it go. We left it in the basement of The Townehouse after we took a picture of it to hang in our van. We drove out of Sudbury and parked in a “rest area”, which was a gravel pull out with no bathroom by the side of the highway.

DAY 10

Got up. Got to Tim Horton’s. Drove to London. Slept in the van outside of Call The Office until load in time. Had a great show. Drove out and slept at a Flying J.

DAY 11

By this point, you may have concluded that we needed showers…you are not wrong. We drove to Windsor and got a hotel and had the best showers ever. When you shower every day…how can it ever be special? Try showering after a few days of playing shows and sleeping in a stinky van….the best shower ever, trust me. Then we finally thought, hey, maybe we should, er, eat? We had breakfast at The Golden Griddle which is attached to this hotel…we’ve stayed here before and know the Golden Griddle well. The food is good and well, what a great restaurant name. We are both creatures of habit. Went downtown to Phogphest early to watch Holy Fuck play - awesome show. Then we hung out for 10 million years. Congrats to Tom for the Phog Lounge being voted best live venue in Canada. Great people, seriously. We played at 12:30 a.m. on the outside stage - frantic but good. CBC Radio 3 was there and it was nice to see our pals Jordan and Chris. We got back to the hotel and passed out about it.

DAY 12

Drove in some ridiculous traffic to a different hotel to enjoy a couple of days off doing not much of anything. Watched a bunch of So you Think you can dance, ordered in from Double Double Pizza and Chicken…yes, that is the name. More TV. Sleep. Glorious sleep.

DAY ONE: I meant to get to a computer sooner…but Canada got in the way. We started off on Canada Day in our van, The Falcon. Well, we didn’t start as early as we meant to because we decided to have one last breakfast at our favourite breakfast joint in Vancouver - Joe’s Grill on Denman. Chorizo and eggs. We get the same breakfast every time. Actually, we both tend to order the same things at every restaurant always. Combination of when something’s good, why change, and also…wait, that’s all it is. Then we drove to Golden, B.C. where we decided to stay the night and leave the Rockies for the next morning. Nothing much else to report except for the dude who urinated right outside his van, which was parked beside our van, instead of walking around the corner to use the bathroom in the restaurant he was just in and then he and his fellow dudes got into their van and did a series of unnecessary donuts around the parking lot, I have this to say: these types of things, contrary to what you might think, do not impress girls. Just sayin’.

DAY TWO: Drove to Edmonton for our first show of the tour. We saw two big animals with huge curly horns that for some reason neither of us can really say what they were…mountain goats, sheep, big horned rams, Bob and Doug?
We played at The Brixx Bar and spent an inordinate amount of time setting up the 10 thousand banners that come along with sponsorship - this will get easier. Everything with touring is about getting a routine going and nothing says routine more than putting banners up in a bar. Wicked show ensued, where we had actual people come to see us as compared to the only other time we played in Edmonton 2 years ago. Two people came to that show. One of them was a friend from Vancouver. Things are 100% looking up. We slept in the van at a Flying J - touring is just that glamorous.

DAY THREE: Drove to Regina. Stopped, got an oil change, bought Death Star inflatable beach balls and a foamie to add to the back because sleeping in a van is not always, err, comfortable. We got to O’Hanlon’s, ate, and waited for the RoughRiders to beat the Lions. The bar became packed - a literal sea of drunken green people. We were a little, uh, thinking that it was gonna get weird. And it did, but in a good way. From amongst the green surged a crowd that were there to see us. So, cool, thanks, Regina. We slept at a Husky gas station.

DAY FOUR: Drove to Winnipeg. Stopped for lunch at a restaurant where I ordered a chicken taco salad and Becky ordered a chicken wrap. They got my order wrong and I had to re-order my taco salad. The waitress then asks me what salad dressing I wanted on it…salad dressing? On a TACO salad? I couldn’t deal with it. Becky saved me by suggesting to her that salsa might work. We got our meals and as it turns out, my chicken taco salad was chicken, iceberg lettuce and tomato…the exact same ingredients that were in Becky’s wrap. So basically, we had the same lunch. We got to the Lo Pub and got to our room and got clean - yay. Another great show - the evil plan of trying to get people to spread the word about us seems to be working. Evil. Pure evil. We also got to drink because we weren’t going anywhere and that was nice. And the food was good. We split a kimchi noodle bowl and passed out about it.

DAY FIVE: We drove to Kenora, ON. Got a hotel - big treat - for two nights as our next show is in two days. And that’s where I am right now. We’ve watched non-stop reality tv shows - tv is so much better when you’re on tour. In fact, it’s the only time either of us even watch tv. And scene.

“Vancouver blues rockers the Pack A.D. seem to have the right idea on how to spread the word about their music. “We tour like hell, and if you like us, then you tell your friends,” says the band’s Maya Miller in a statement. “Then your friends tell their friends and so on and before you know it, you’ve made the band.” ”
The full article is here.