the tour is over & autumn begins

There is something very legit about playing in a theatre, with seating and everything. Especially when the sound system is absolutely incredible; our show at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax was the best live sound we’ve ever experienced! We also got to meet the lovely and talented folks from Three Little Birds and from Soho Ghetto, and hear them play in the acoustically jaw-dropping goodness of the ol’ Neptune. Then we spent the night club-hopping on Argyle Street and posed with Rachel from Soho Ghetto in a photo for our new band project, tentatively titled Girl & the Plaids.
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girl & the plaids. photo credit: rachel sunter

The next day was our last show of the tour — and we had to play it without Mike! He got dropped off at the airport very early in the morn (by yours truly, of course, the only one crazy enough to wake up that early) and took a flight to Toronto. We hung around Halifax for a few hours then hoofed it to Fredericton to play the Capital Complex with The Sweet Deals and Coral Bear. After our sound check — which felt weird without Mike there — we discussed our crazy plan: to drive through the night and try to make Toronto by mid-afternoon on Sunday. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Flash forward and we played our show (and met friend/blogger Jean-Etienne who wrote the first French review of one of our albums!) and watched the other bands play, and we piled into the van and Alex started driving. Seven-odd hours later Alex, with dawn on the horizon, decided he had driven just about enough. We switched drivers and John Law took us on home. We hit Toronto at 4pm-ish. Straight from Fredericton! Ridiculous.

Then we barely saw each other for almost a week. It was glorious.

But our album release show was coming up on September 7th and we knew it was going to be a good time. We just didn’t have any idea the scope of the good timery that it would become. The Unseen Strangers opened with a jaw-dropping set of fast-fingered bluegrass. Harlan Pepper played next and their roots-rock blew the crowd’s collective mind. The Strumbellas had everyone at the front of the stage dancing like hedonistic teenagers. When we took the stage the audience was 400 strong, which was mind-blowing for me, and they actually gave us a wonderful reception just for coming out and tuning up our instruments. I was tempted to say thank you, that’s our show…

Instead we played. And we felt the energy and the love from the very wonderful crowd of friends, family, and fans. When we were out east on tour, people would ask us how we could stand to live in Toronto. What they don’t know yet is that Toronto only pretends to be aloof — in reality the support and warmth here is bar none! We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Huge, massive thank yous to all the wonderful folks who braved the late night and stayed to the bitter end! Hope it was worth it for you; it was certainly worth it for us.
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‘in the year you were born’ album release show at the legendary horseshoe tavern in toronto. photo credit: jenny johnston

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