Hayden’s Blog

the lights all went out in Massachusetts

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Hello again.

Since last time, we’ve done a couple border crossings, and played 4 shows, so let me start from the beginning.

The show at Schubas in Chicago went really well. There was a great crowd there of just under 200 people. We got asked on stage for an encore, which is always satisfying. A good portion of the show is on YouTube in a few different parts. There are also some photos and a quick review on Pitchfork. Along with our touring support, we were lucky enough to have the Lucksmiths, an Australian band we stayed with in Melbourne, play support. They just happened to be in Chicago the same day as us, so we asked them to be on the bill.

The next day we drove to Detroit. I’d really just like to forget about this city. It was totally run down, cold, unfriendly and scary. We parked up at the venue and were hassled by a guy called Papa Smurf for money to look after our van. The venue we were playing was a basement that looked more like an industrial metal venue than anything else. We got there late too, so we didn’t have much time to sort out the ridiculously bad sound system. The venue had 2 levels, so while we played we were competing against a really loud metal band upstairs.

We left the place as quick as we could, letting off some sky rockets and firecrackers as a final farewell to Detroit. As soon as we crossed the border into Canada things felt much better. People were friendlier; roadsigns were in Kms - it felt like home.

The following day we finished the drive to Toronto - hitting rush hour traffic and arriving a bit late for a photoshoot. After soundcheck we had quite a while to explore the city. On first impressions it seemed quite similar to Melbourne, but perhaps I just made that comparison because of the trams. It seemed like there was so much going on. We got dropped off in Dundas Square in the middle of the city, which seemed like a small version of Times Square. I went into a camera shop and made an impulse purchase of a CA$680 (NZ$900) digital camera (I’ll now be posting lots of photos). It’s a Canon Powershot G9 if anyone is interested.

Walked back to the venue along Queen St (I wish Auckland’s Queen Street was as great as Toronto’s), got ourselves a hot dog for dinner, played a great gig, packed up, went to our hotel.

The first shot on my new camera - backstage in Toronto.

Great Autumn colours were beginning to come out as we drove to Montreal the next day. I’m really keen to go back to Canada some day. It seems like a really nice place to explore.

We stopped off to get some gas after a couple hours. Luckily we were standing outside the van while we waited, because if we weren’t, Stephen wouldn’t have noticed THIS:

Yeah, so turned out our tire was on the verge of EXPLODING and throwing us off the road, or worse, rolling the van.
We drove (slowly) down the road to find a tyre place, but everything in Canada is closed on Saturdays! Thankfully we spotted a guy working some overtime inside a mechanics (he’d helped out an old lady who was stranded on the side of the road, and was in the middle of fixing her car). He said that we were lucky we spotted the ‘pimple’ because it could have rolled the van had it exploded. He changed the tyre and didn’t want to charge us anything, but we insisted since he wasn’t even meant to be at work.

We made it to Montreal in good time. We were supporting an all girl band called Bat for Lashes, so we didn’t have the stresses of being a headlining band (getting there early and sound checking first). Montreal has made me really excited about going to France. It was so great hearing a different language for once. I’ve been getting sick of American accents.

The venue was in a great pedestrian mall called Rue Prince Arthur. Quite close to the university. A really European atmosphere. I had to bust out the SwannDri, it’s getting really chilly being so far north.

The show was slightly strange. Bat for Lashes are quiiiite different to us. Kind of Bjork meets ABBA? That’s probably a bit harsh. Anyway, when we went on stage the whole audience was sitting down. We felt like we were on the wrong bill. But when we started playing they all stood up and got really into it. Ended up being a good night.

We couldn’t stay the night in Montreal because of the a golf tournament being in town (the Presidents Cup), so we decided to cross back into the US to try and find a place to stay. Turned out the entire state of Vermont had no accommodation left either because of some strange tradition where everyone comes and watches the leaves change colour into autumn. So we drove all through the night, getting turned down at every hotel we tried. Finally, at 9.30am we found a place 10 miles out of Boston, Massachusetts. Crashed out all day (on what was our first free day in over 2 weeks).

Tonight we’re playing a show in Boston, then tomorrow we’re in New York. Will post a whole lot of photos.

So long.