For a city that sits right next to an Ocean you’d think the drainage would be a little better. I’ve been spending the last week in Vancouver (BC, we’re back in Canada) and it’s been raining small house pets. The puddles soak the hem of my jeans and I’ll never quite figure out why in Seattle you’re strange with an umbrella and in Vancouver you are strange with a rain jacket (I swear they look at me funny). I like to think that in Saskatoon we just wear whatever seems sensible for the current weather although I can’t quite figure out what weather all the sweatpants suit (FYI IMHO lulu lemon are glorified sweat pants). Please forgive the gratuitous acronyms in the previous sentence.
So I’m unscrewing the hinges of a screen door to a house on Beacon Hill in Seattle and pondering the life of a touring musician. I’m removing the screen door because we’ve agreed that it’s safer during the house party with lots of people coming and going. I’m thinking that the one thing I’ve noted is that a small gig that allows me to make a personal connection with the performance is no less gratifying than a large gig that pushes a little harder on the eardrums. During our time on the West coast we managed to play an art gallery, a pizza parlor, a book store/cafe and an honest to goodness club, met some great people and experienced some really unique communities. I wrote in one of my artist biographies that “Unique (music) comes from life lived in someone else’s ordinary” (I really need to get someone else to write those biographies). The point is that Kevin and I really appreciate the unique experience of meeting all of you great Seattle and Portland dwellers. I will end as I began by thanking Jesse Perrell who really made it all possible with his hard work. Visit http://www.theleveebreaking.com, see some compelling art, buy a CD and support him in the worthy vision he is attempting to realize.
How about some news from the guys from Canadia (our new title). The Christoff Gallery was quite excellent as we played along side Alyse Black and J- on Saturday and ran into Deep Sleep Narcotics Co. who were showing some of their videos there on Friday night. You can see those same videos at the bottom of their page. We will be playing with these cool, extremely nice people on Thursday night at the Skylark Cafe.
On Sunday Night we played in Portland with Andrea Wittgens and Central Services to a rather tiny crowd consisting mostly of Andrea Wittgens and Central Services although there were some other nice and appreciative listeners, many thanks for your support during the show. This all reminds me there is a youtube video you need to see. While back at the Christoff on Friday we saw another video that was made by Captain Vintastic called “She’s a Dog” that made us laugh quite heartily. It could be taken as having lots of double entendre or just as a funny song about dogs and costumes, you probably know by now we went with the former.
Captain Vintastic turned out to be one of the band members for Andrea Wittgens and Central Services. I know that story sounds a little bit like one a high-school cheerleader might tell but I guess that’s what stress and sleep deprivation will do.
Well the coast was dry when we rolled in today. Having lived in the Frazer Valley for a time I like to describe some of my friends who are life long resident as believing that everything outside of the Valley is beyond Hope and everything past the Coquihalla (highway) is without Merritt. Kevin is extremely proud of that last sentence. I kid and that’s what one does when one is on a great trip such as this. Tomorrow we head South, across the border to Seattle and hopefully a film showing at the same Christoff gallery that we’ll be playing at on Saturday night. I’m looking forward…..