caught up....kinda sorta

Hey folks

well another week has zoomed by so now i'm trying to get caught up on the blog thang. a week without iternet sure throws a wrench in keeping up with the blogery and what nots.....now lets see.....

may 14th:

last thursday we had a nice drive to medicine hat where we were scheduled to play the ottoman lounge. the ottoman is a funky little night club that really works hard to bring original live music to medicine hat. the manager, sean davis, was an awesome fella and he looked right after us. sean is crazy enough to let the bands that tour through stay at his house and we were no exception. we had a great time performing to a a very small crowd. sold some merch and enjoyed meeting some new folks. specifically we enjoyed meeting andy, a hilarious english dude and chunk, a new zealander. chunk has been kind enough to offer to take us fishing and more importantly to the gun range next time we are through the hat! you can bet we'll take him up on that!!!

After the gig we went back to our gracious hosts place for a few after work pops. not only is sean a nice guy but he has two of the funniest looking kitties you ever did see. i think he said they were called fire tipped Himalayans.....these little cuties have lots a fur so sean likes to shave them for "their comfort". well let me tell ya, their comfort is our amusement cause they are hilarious looking. check the video and see for yourself.

friday am we went and grabbed our gear and stopped at a diner called nifty fifty's  for breaky on the way outta town. i can tell you for sure that this diner will NOT be getting a nod in breakfast of the week. with enough salt to clear the roads of new brunswick in february, it was gross. shawn had to send his bacon back as it wasnt even cooked. people, i gotta say...its bacon and eggs not rocket surgery......all you need to do is put a tiny bit of attention in and you can get good breaky, but noooooooooooooo. anyway, after breaky we hit the road for cowtown where good times were sure to happen.

MAY 15 & 16 cowtown:

 last tour we had some of the biggest fun staying with our old pal sailor chuck at the vista estates in calgary. never one to disappoint, chucky and mikey's juke joint delivered again, as did we.  we rolled in round supper time on friday and sat on the front lawn to enjoy a heini and the view of downtown calgary with the mountains right behind it. it was so nice to see the mountains once again. i always forget how truly spectacular they are. what a sight! after some catching up we went to the club to load in and soundcheck/eat. mikey's is a little roadhouse sorta place that reminds me a lot of bearly's in halifax. nice staff and patrons and they all act kinda like one big (drunken) family. the crowd that goes to mikey's is one of my favorites to play for. they cheer, dance and have a great time all round. oh yeah, they also love to buy cd's, which in our line of work sure helps out!  some of the vista estates crew came out to help warm up the party and by the end of the night everyone was in fine form and we went back to the compound to relax, have a beer and enjoy the entertainment of our host, sailor chucky!

Saturday AM i awoke to the smell of bacon. ever the consummate host ole chucky was already up and had breaky just about finished. guilty of being delicious, our breaky was just what the doctor ordered. after chilling for a bit we went to the alberta boot company to oogle the fancy boots. man. a fella could spend a lot of $$$ here. after some window shopping we hit a little restaurant's patio to enjoy a beer in the sun and check out the sights of downtown calgary. i gotta say. calgary has got lots to look at. indeed. after some string changing and a power nap we returned to mikey's juke joint for another night of fun. again the crowd was awesome! super appreciative and again bought lots of cd's! we also got to have mike clark hisself up to jam with us on a couple tunes. man. f you haven't heard mike play sax well then i guess you'd want to soon! he rips it up! 

chucky was the sole visitor from the vista estates on saturday and he certainly represented!!! my favorite part of the night was our last tune. traditionally we like to end with "call me gone" off of early grave. as i'm playing call me gone i can see at the end of the bar that sailor chucky is indeed being escorted out of the bar. chucky had such a good time that he had to have a rest period outside at the bartenders request. good time fo sho! all in all we felt like we had conquoered calgary and ad a great time playing at one of our fav spots in canada and hanging with some of our fav peeps! thanks to mikey's and the vista estate folks for looking after us!  

May 17th. 

longweekend sunday. we went to lethbridge where we had a time with old friends, barry morrison and matt price. we played the slice which is a great club with a kickin sound system and wicked pizza! the drive to lethbridge from calgary is spectacular. out the passenger window there is a solid line of rocky mountains reminding us that we were soon to be in the mountains. but first....the slice. the last time we played here it was to a very small crowd. this time the crowd was a little bigger and very receptive. i like the sound and the system here. get to full on rock out! after the show we went back to barry morrisons apartment to celebrate making it to the half way point of the tour. celebrate we did! man. it was silly. there were many laughs and many bevies enjoyed. i believe Karl and i had a sunrise perogie breakfast before falling fast asleep. when we awoke we started in on what would be another killer bastards breakfast. eggs and peppers, sausage, and corn beef hash made with an actual corned beef brisket. the real deal not that canned stuff! amazing.....oh yeah, how could i forget my favorite part....MIMOSAS!!!!! yes, its true, we live the decadent live....but hey we were celebrating after all right? half way through nine weeks and we were all still alive....we continued to celebrate for the rest of the day right into the evening too. we spent the evening at Average Joe's, eating, drinking, playing pool and my new favorite game, buck hunter! good fun. all in all a real grand time in lethbridge big thanks to barry morrison for hosting us! and for coming to banff for two more days of RAWK! atta boy barry.

May 18th:

the drive to banff is spectacular. the rocky mountains teasing you for a solid hour before you are right smack in the middle of them. sadly i spent the first two hours in the backseat sleeping off my lethbridge debauchery. i did manage to get up in the front seat for the final drive into banff. stunning. the mountains are so amazing. we hit the rose n crown where we scheduled to perform. after a load in and meal we checked into the band house and got cleaned up and went right back to the club for sound check. the gig was poorly attended but we sure rocked 'em anyway. today we found a bite to eat and then went in search of some internet to get caught up. of course since its banff there is nothing anywhere here for free so we are at starbucks begrudgingly paying for what should be free. tonight we are back in the ole rose n crown for another go at the ears of banff. i suspect we'll have a few more peeps tonight as word should have spread a little bit from our show last night. the podcast should be up tomorrow so stay tuned for that. always more to come!

well that about gets you up to speed. the pics here are from the medicine hat trip and then a few from cowtown. i have lots of good video that i will post later this week when i have a solid internet connection....hey starbucks yer internet sucks!

see y'all out there

MB