Thursday - January 22, 2015 … I've been waiting for this day to come… playing a strip club again! … joking… it's 3:42am and we're checked into the hotel in Edmonton. We got in around 2am but Matt and I ended up walking around the hotel/casino for a bit… then I decided to catch up on some emails before getting to this… I think I've been up since 8am. The day started out good… had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel… they had quite a bit available... had one of those waffle stations there... with a woman (arguably 35 w/ young kids OR 14 with two younger siblings) making (attempting) a waffle. I'll be honest… I just assume when things aren't working right, that they are broken… it rarely crosses my mind if the thing isn't simply "on". So she was making a waffle but it wasn't turning out too good. She ended up scraping it out of the machine, covering it in syrup, and calling it a day. I went to make mine after and figured something was wrong… or that it was just broken. I mean… the thing was pretty hot… it's just that the timer wasn't working. Then the guy behind me, somewhat impatiently suggested the machine probably needed to be turned on. So the on switch was flicked and the road to better waffles was soon to be paved… … or so I thought. This thing took a while to heat up. I mean… it was 9am… breakfast started at 6am… why wasn't the machine on and LEFT on? Other hotels, that's the case. So another horrible attempt at a waffle was made… this one was much more edible though… ended up pawning half of it off on Matt… he didn't seem to have a problem with it. I made a comment to the guy behind me in the waffle line… asked him if he was the "resident waffle expert" and he shot back a smile that was half "yeah bud" and "I will punch you if you're being a smart-ass"… with a dash of "… don't take this from me… this waffle means a lot to me." Tim had the same trouble with the machine apparently. … he tried to hide it but the truth poured out once I shared my story… you see, the thing is the instructions for said waffle maker is placed off to the side… when they should be above the machine… since you're killing time looking around when you finally find the instructions posted and realize you probably missed some steps. … just saying. I think I was back in bed by 10am... hanging out watching cartoons... rock and roll! Our late check out was 1pm… sort of sucky since we had nowhere to go except the venue… knowing sound check was realistically at 5-6pm (we opened) and our set was at 9:30… this was going to be a serious day of hurry up and wait. We decided to go find some lunch… tour rule I'd like to remind people of… "eat what you can see". We could see Wendy's, which just happened to have a Subway beside it so the guys went to grab a burger while I met up to them with a sub. Lunch was good today… it's a different vibe being 4 instead of 5 but it was a good bonding experience. We talk about how shows/rehearsals go but today at lunch felt like the first time where it was a team.... where you're just hanging out... not at work. All things considered, even with the two monster drives, it's a pretty short and basic tour at the end of the day… the times when you're eating together, hanging out at the hotel, sitting in the van, etc, these are the times where the real team building occurs. Again… 23 1/2 hrs you aren't on stage… and you only sleep so much. Back to the venue… sound check… hang out in a little upper area… sorta acting as a band room, sharing with The Wild! We had almost 2hrs to kill so I did a mental rehearsal to pass the time… where I put my click track in my ears and visualize playing the set. I didn't feel super good during sound check so sometimes this helps. … yes I can play the entire set against the click in my brain. … I fell asleep 3 times though I think…it's surprisingly relaxing! The set went well… crowd wasn't huge but apparently Buckcherry comes through pretty often… and word is the oil prices have affected the city quite a bit… which I could understand. … but anyway, crowd was still good… it's always awesome having people up front singing along. That makes it worth it. Afterwards while packing up my kit I was quickly reminded the venue is a strip club 7 days a week… all the girls were polite and understanding of my drum stuff scattered in the hallway… curious how they dress in the summer though if that's how they're dressing in the winter. We didn't stick around too long after… it's only 2.5hrs to Edmonton and we had rooms here already… decided to take advantage of that… plus we have insane amounts of food buyouts/vouchers here. Apparently there was a few fights during Buckcherry's set we missed… it's too bad, we had some PRIME seats for all the antics that apparently went on… ah well… I'm sure we'll be through Lloydminster again. I like casinos… said it before, and I'll say it again… can't say I got the itch though when Matt and I were walking around. I'm sure I'll throw $20 in (high roller, I know!) here or Calgary, but I should get to bed… there's a pool here too I'd like to hit tomorrow… not to mention breakfast… gotta start chipping away at these food vouchers. ... oh... we all caved and went to McDonald's after the show tonight... Dane and I found crayons. - Mike P.S. There's a hockey rink in the casino!!!
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Wednesday - January 21, 2015
… yup… another 12hr drive today in the books… 28hrs of driving since Monday… welcome to touring in Canada! I was going to say "welcome to the Canadian music industry" but that's not fair. There's a lot of great bands working really hard driving back and forth across this beautiful country… that's the problem though… the drives are what drain most chances you have at breaking even, mentally and financially. I woke up still pretty full and most of us skipped breakfast… we still had quite a bit left over from last night's rider anyway… back on the road around 7:30am. Nothing much to really talk about since there's nothing really to do cramped in a vehicle for 12hrs… except put Dane's sunglasses and make "Kravitz faces" at people we pass on the highway. We arrived in Lloydminster around 9pm… there's a pool here!!! Here at the hotel!!!! … WITH A WATER SLIDE!!! Seems like most hotels have water slides around here… so it seems a little less special now… I don't even feel like water sliding anymore… besides, the pool closed at 10pm and I was more hungry than felt like swimming at the time… maybe I'll go in the morning… after breakfast. We had a bit of an adventure finding dinner tonight… I searched and there was an A&W just down the road… 10 min walk. The thing about Lloydminster… there doesn't seem to be any sidewalks here… so we tried walking a little off the beaten path (the beaten path being the road/highway with transports and stuff whizzing by)… everything was fine walking through parking lots but then we tried crossing a field. Dane: "… maybe we should walk along the side of the road… we don't really know what's out there." Me: "… let's just give'r a go!" Matt: "Let's run!!!" About 100ft later we're up to our knees in snow and dealing with a decent size snowdrift down a ditch. … but we made it… and burgs and rootbeer were had. We're back at the hotel now… 11pm… looking forward to getting to sleep and hitting the breakfast here in the morning. - Mike … and now for your enjoyment. |
Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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