TOUR DIARY

Summer 2006 Tour

****THIS DIARY IS ALSO AT MY SPACE, WHERE YOU CAN ADD COMMENTS IF YOU LIKE****

 

June 26: After a what seemed like an ETERNITY of doing last-minute errands and other ESSENTIAL home stuff, I finally got on the highway at 12:30 this afternoon. At the border I had to go inside the booth and get questioned about everything, and wait through the ETERNAL long pauses between every question, in which time the guard typed a couple words and pretended to be looking at my passport - no doubt, she was waiting for me to confess that Im smuggling drugs and human slaves. Anyway, they let me go after a while and I was off. Had to stop in anacortes to pick up my merch, which was rad because i got to see my friend Ruth, even if it was only for like 2 minutes. I was running late for the show in portland, so I called, and Aaron at the Artistery told me to hurry. I hurried, and got here in time to play a nice short set which the people seemed to enjoy. It was indeed a really lovely show, all the bands were great, and the new Artistery Version 2.0 is really rad, more like a "real venue" than the old artistery house where i played a couple years ago. Anyway, as I was driving today, I was thinking about what are my goals for this tour. Most of all, I plan on having fun this time. In the past, touring alone has made me lonely, or anxious, always stressing about losing money and not selling CDs and stuff like that. Well this time I accept and expect those things, so I'm not going to let it get to me. I have the amazing privilege of partying with a different group of people every single night, so I should make the most of it. It started tonight after the show, a couple people were playing stand up bass and piano, so I got out my saxophone and jammed with them!! It didnt take long before most of the members of Golden Boots, plus Aaron and Tim of the Artistery that were playing too, and we made a wonderful free-jazz post-rock kinda ruckus for like an hour. Now I'm going to sleep, here on the couch of the artistery venue room. Good night!!!

June 27: Olympia is the most unpredictable place ever. Every time I've played here, I've worked super hard to promote the show, but every time it has sucked, except for the one awesome show, which was booked at the last second and not promoted at all. This time, I made the usual effort, drawing up posters and mailing them down. Upon my arrival, I walked around town and was pleased to see the posters displayed prominently... although, also posted, in an ominous bright shade of yellow, were posters for HELLA and THE ADVANTAGE playing the same night in olympia. DAMNIT!!! The few people I know here mostly all work for KRS, and I had emailed them to invite them to the show... but as soon as i saw the posters for that other show I knew they would be there instead. So, my expectations were low for le voyeur, but it actually turned out really good. I mean that, by the way, even though if it sucked i would say it was really good too, just to stay in a positive mood about everything. Anyway, I sat in the front room (trying out some new chess moves i picked up from a book bought at powells books in portland this morning) eating a tasty (free) dinner, and sat there until 10:30, there was still no one here who seemed to care at all about the show. I read in The Stranger that Wires On Fire, the weird rock band from LA that i was supposed to playing with, was actually playing in seattle tonight, and either they forgot to cancel the oly show, or the le voyeur promoter forgot to tell anyone else. Well, i was just about to abandon the show and leave, when the crash and the boys band showed up. Super nice people, fun times. I played first - started off playing to only the 3 members of crash and the boys, but by the time i finished there was like 15 people in there watching and listening. Which is really rad!!!!!!! Because, it means, either they were there to see me play and were waiting for me to start before they came into the venue room, OR they just happened to be hanging around le voyeur and liked what they heard so they came back. Either one feels really good... Its weird for me to be pleasing people, usually my music just pisses people off or something like that, so it was quite awesome and strange to fill up the room tonight. After the show, i hung around with crash and the boys at a couple bars and then a friends house, having a good time (though maybe its a little weird not knowing anyone), and am now staying at one of their houses.... actually im really embarrassed because im laying in his guest bedroom typing this but i dont remember the guy's name at all!!!!!! He' s super nice though, i can promise you that much. Good night!!!

June 28: Oh man, i forgot all of the Mean Letters CDs in Olympia!!! I realized this tonight, as i was loading gear into the venue in Seattle. The show was fine, pretty small turnout, but fun anyway. People seemed to like it, and the absence of the Mean Letters CDs meant I got to unload a couple copies of Sincerity / Sarcasm for the first time in a while. Tomorrow I have to drive back to olympia to get the CDs and then come almost back to seattle before turning east to spokane. Leaving the ocean behind and venturing into the mountains; looking forward to playing in unfamiliar territory. Today i drove, slept, ate, read, and exercised more manoevers on the chess board. Tonight I am sleeping at the house of Sky aka LEVATOR, who is super rad by the way, this was the second time ive played with her, and both shows were way awesome!! Unfortunately Glassy Globe didn't show up tonight (what's with all the no-show bands these days???) but we had fun anyway.

June 30: In Spokane, staying alive. My saxophone strangely didn't work last night at the show here, I couldnt get it to make even the smallest little toot. I figured it was because the night before in Seattle, I dropped it, and i guess it broke. GUESS AGAIN!! This morning I take it out to see if I can fix it myself before i call all the spokane music shops, and all of a sudden it works fine. Huh??? Ok, today Im driving to Boise. Idaho will be the 4th state ever for collapsing opposites to play in. Then after that it's serious driving time East, leaving the northwest behind.

July 1: Boise motherfucking IDAHO!!! The raddest show, seriously. Ok, I showed up at like 8 oclock, not knowing what to expect at all. I booked this through a local band, the show was at their friends' house. Well at the time I arrive, said band James Jeffries and the Scorpy Aeons were already rockin the basement, lotsa rad people hanging around. Then this other band Urban Campers, oh and there was these cool dudes i met from the east coast, Fire Island Alaska and Smyrna Skim played and then me, and the kids fucking loved it! Seriously, eating out of my hand kinda thing. Im still just getting used to not emptying out a room, and so tonight was like a dance party. Mucho CD sales, at least mucho in comparison to past shows. The tour is going from medium to okay!!! Seriously. Except for one thing: the gear situation is getting bad.... after fucking up the saxophone the other night (i was too scared to even try it tonight at this PA-less show) on the last song tonight all of a sudden my guitar stopped working. When i was tearing down the gear I looked at my mixer and realize there's a big DENT in the spot where the aux-send cable goes - - - ????? what the fuck??? I really NEED to spend some time tomorrow morning figuring this shit out! Before the next show, otherwise there might not be many more shows. Seriously, its a problem. Ive been really absent-minded about stuff lately, forgetting things, spilling stuff, knocking things over, breaking things... i dont know whats going on, maybe it's the heat. I always used to be the guy with the perfect gear but nobody liked the music. Now all of a sudden everyone loves the music, but my gear is falling apart! THIS HAS GOT TO STOP! OH, i almost forgot to mention. BOISE IDAHO!!! After the show everyone went out to some river in town and got naked and went for a swim. It was so fun!!! ITs been really hot everywhere, so it was nice to strip down with a couple dozen super sexy women and nice guys and go for a dip. The Boise River i think it was called. OH, and speaking of natural disasters I saw a tornado today!!! Seriously. I was actually scared, it was coming right up the highway... but then some trucker drove straight through it and nothing happened so i guess it wasnt a very dangerous tornadoe, just a dust-devil or something, but it sure looked like the tornadoes look on tv!

July 2: Oh great, now they hate me AND my gear is shit. Well, a couple people said they liked it, but the room emptied bigtime, about 20 seconds into my first song, a sloppy, feedback-filled, dirty ugly mess of a version of Teachers and Students. That's one of the new songs. Anyway I played like shit tonight, partly because the sound was shit, but I should have been able to overcome that. It was a big room, bright lights, couldn't see anything. Denver, Colorado = rough show. I was lucky to get the 40 bucks they gave me, and now my first priority is to Get Out Of Here! Tonight I will sleep in the car somewhere near the Colorado-Kansas state line. Last night I slept in the car in Wyoming, inside the Great Divide Basin - that's a real cool geographical thing, it's this huge chunk of land completely surrounded by mountains, so that water drains into it, but not out because there is no downhill route for it to take. But because it's a desert, it all just evaporates. I was thinking, if you were to spill some water there, and somehow prevent it from evaporating, would that be a Sea? Like the Dead Sea is a sea and not a lake because water flows into it but not out of it. Anyway, I peed in the Great Divide Basin and briefly declared my urine to be the 8th sea.

July 4: Lawrence was fun. Nice small show, playing for the other bands and a couple friends. This cool band Occasional Detroit showed up and played a few songs, now we're superfriends. Almost was gonna play with them again tonight in Kansas City but that fell through so now I'm here in Chicago for a couple days chillin at my old friend James' house out in the suburbs. It'll be nice to take a break for a couple days then get right back into it on Thursday in Bloomington. Need to do laundry, clean out the car, etc. Get the saxophone fixed and buy an amp.

July 8: OOps, I guess i missed a couple days on the ole tour diary. Pretty uneventful really, i spent most of it sleeping at my good friend James' house out in the western suburbs of chicago. I needed it, and feel much better now. I had pretty low expectations for the midwest, and for good reason it turns out. Bloomington kinda sucked bad, except for MOSQUITO BANDITO (member of THE AMAZING ELEPHANT MAN) was so awesome... then there were some "grindcore" bands i think... the two people who came to see the show were grindcore fans, so you can imagine what they (and the other bands) thought of my set. So, Bloomington was a little worse than expected, but Chicago was actually a little better. Even though i was on a bill with 4 hardcore bands, people seemed to dig what i was doing (at least enough not to leave the room), and - can you believe it? - I actually GOT PAID for the show!!! Wow, what a concept!!! Anyway, I decided to bail on Indiana (really sorry if there's anyone reading this in Evansville who was excited for the show) and now Im on my way to new york, to be a tourist for a couple extra days. Next show is in Pittsburgh! It almost got cancelled too, but now I think it's on again, as a late-night house party to follow the This Bike Is A PipeBomb show in town the same night.

July 13: OK, let's see, where did we leave off... Oh yes, New York. I spent a wonderful day on Monday in the City, went to the MOMA museum for a good long while to see some Douglas Gordan and other stuff, then seriously just wandered around Manhattan for 6 hours before ending up at a rad show at the Cake shop. The next day (already!) I had to take off to get to pittsburgh. There was some sketchy feelings about this show happening, because there was another big show in town that night, but it ended up awesome. Instead of competing against the other show, everyone went to it and watched it, and handed out flyers and stuff for our house show, which started an hour after that ended. And, it worked, lotsa people came down to the house, including the this bike is a pipe bomb gang, who were super nice! And so the show was great fun!!!! Clyde from Your Heart Breaks, and Karl Blau, are seriously the awesomest people, it was really cool to play with them. We're playing together again in Milwaukee in like 3 weeks, as our tours cross paths again there, so we'll see what has changed between now and then. Yesterday, I woke up and drove the drive to Baltimore, had a nap, and played a show at the Talking Head Bar opening up for some other cool bands. That show was good, in that I played really well (i think), and the sound was really good too. So all the practice of the last couple weeks worth of shows is starting to add up to something!!! I stayed at my friend Charles' house out in the burbs, and now I'm getting ready to head back to new york. Starting on Friday, there's 21 shows in the final 23 days of the tour, with a good possibility of one or two extras being added at the last minute. SO basically the tour is beginning now.

July 14: Tonight is the big show in Brooklyn!! I'm super excited about that, the other bands seem really nice, and looks to be a cool show. Last night I went to go see Oneida, and as it turns out, in the other room at the same venue were a couple bands that Im playing with in Norfolk on Sunday, so it was nice to see that, I caught the tail end of their show after Oneida. Also I ran into my friend Slim and had a nice short little conversation, so that was cool. OK not much else to add. Ive been emailing like mad this morning, inviting all my friends out to the shows in ontario and montreal next week. Sorry for the spam, people, i just trying to promote the shows any way i can.

July 15: OK, the Syb-Sym tour!!! That's what my new friends in Jeff and Festival are calling this tour they're doing, and man they're one rad family. Quite possibly the two friendliest, kindest, warmest, and funnest bands I've ever played with. AND their music is super-rad, AND they're like 18 years old, AND they are seriously going places. It's awesome to see such an amazing rare combination of positivity, talent, energy, kindness, and success in a young band, and it was a thrill to open for them tonight in new york.

July 17: The cycle of violence. The snake eating its tail. Action and reaction. Cause and effect. Karma. Norfolk, Virginia. Not very many people at your show, so it feels like there's no energy in the room, so you play like shit, so the few people who are there don't like your show, so they leave, so you get even more discouraged, so you play even worse. That's about it! Norfolk, Virginia. Tonight stunk, but it's only gonna get worse if I dwell on its stinkiness, so get over it and move on. How do some bands play through it? This is a skill I would like to earn. Be fuelled by no one but yourself, Totally Going For It, no matter how many people are in the room and no matter how much they care. I've always been more of a reactionary, playing to the room, playing quiet at a nice small show, and loud-n-angry at a big rock show. This is a good approach a lot of the time, but the downside is: at shitty show, you play shitty. Anyway, no one came tonight, and the venue staff didn't really seem too nice. I hesitated booking this show, as we were late add-ons to a pre-existing bill, and that made four touring bands and no locals. BUT, the booker said it would be good, and they were expecting a big turnout. So I said yes, and here we are in Norfolk, right now sitting in Southerly's hotel room which he is graciously letting us sleep in tonight. Tomorrow morning we will turn around and head back up the same road we came on, to new york. Yes, WE: as of yesterday, I am touring with Ill Ease, aka Elizabeth A. Sharp of Brooklyn, NY. We'll be playing and travelling together every night for the next week and a half or so. This tour-within-a-tour started yesterday in Philly, with a decent show at the M Room with a couple local bands. The promoters were disappointed with the turnout, but it was pretty decent relative to some other shows. Anyway... tonight was the halfway point of this summer tour (already?!), and there's only one more American show (in Connecticut on Tuesday) before crossing into Canada, which I'm really looking forward to, as people seem to have at least heard of my band there, and some might actually come to the show. Well, we shall see.

July 19: Something from a few days ago that I forgot to mention. While in New York, I had breakfast with my friend Anni Rossi, who's on a big tour right now with a couple other bands, and it sounds like that's going well, which is great cuz she's the best. Anyway, it was good to see her, but the cool thing is, she gave me a tape someone made of her and my show in LA a couple months ago, so I put it on in the car right away. Listening back to my set, I realized for the first time just how monotonous and drony alot of my songs are. I knew the looping made things a bit repetitive, but I hadn't realized the extent of this until listening to the tape. Anyway, I've had that issue in my head the last few days, and have written set lists with that in mind, trying to play only half drony songs, and have the other half of the set be more songy stuff, like with different parts to the songs. This has meant playing a greater proportion of older songs - right now I'm playing about half new stuff and half material from Mean Letters and Sincerity / Sarcasm - whereas at the beginning of the tour, I was playing almost exclusively new stuff. Right now, Sharp and I are driving through upstate New York, headed to Sainte Catharines for the show tonight. Connecticut was weird, it had elements of a total DIY show, but it was also at like a big bar, many of whose patrons were not there to see the show. The only crazy thing that happened was the PA kept fucking up. Like basically just total distortion of everything. We couldn't tell if it was broken, or an electrical brown-out didn't leave it with enough juice, or maybe it was just a shitty PA. It totally ruined Sharp's set, and she was only able to play one song, and even on that song she couldn't sing anything. I played before her though, and everything went fine, but Ill Ease totally got screwed on this one.

July 20: Nice to be back in Canada. Last night we played for some nice people in my friend Erica's backyard, and it was great. Aquaman Sunk is seriously the aweseomest!!! Right now we're at my friend Kate's house in nearby Niagara On The Lake, staying at her mom's 'B and B' which adjoins their house. Very possibly this is the nicest tour lodgings ever! Beds! Food! Our own kitchen! Beautiful backyard, gardens and ponds with fish! Amazing!!!!

July 22: Oh man, so much has happened since the last update. I guess I'll start with the beginning. The Guelph show was really awesome. Huge turnout, and everyone was super positive and cool. I wasn't totally happy with the way my set went off, but it was probably fine. Sharp was really great in Guelph, definitely her best show of the tour, and I told her so. She sold like 10,000 cd's too. I knew when we first talked about touring together that there was a very good chance she would totally kick my ass musically - it took a few shows to get there, but now it's happening without much opposition. It's fine though, it's great touring with bands that you love. Toronto was similar but even more lopsided. Even though almost half the audience were my friends, I got big-time HATED. The original show fell through when the venue went out of business, so it was nice to get added to this bill last minute, but really it was kinda weird. Everyone was on drugs and just wanted the hot shit, the death dance disco noise rock flourescent pop shit, and well that's not really my area of expertise, so the promoter asked me to stop playing after 3 songs. !!! Can you believe it?? I thought I left that kinda thing behind years ago! I was kinda down about it for a while, but basically What The Fuck, it's fun being controversial and I love the fact that my performances bring out the worst in people. Oh yes, the worst. You haven't even heard the half of it!! Today, July 22, was supposed to be The Show that makes the whole tour worthwhile. That one amazing show that basically I could have flown out to and skipped all the others and the tour would've been almost as good. Tonight I was supposed to be opening for Danielson in Providence, RI, which I've been wetting my pants about for months, because Danielson's like my favourite band in the world. The excitement turned to fear, however, when the United States Department of Homeland Security (ie: border guards) did not buy my story that I was a friend of Ill Ease riding around on tour with her. They denied my entry, and gave me a list of documents I would need in order to be admitted into the country; the disappointment of being turned away quickly turned into determination to get the requested items and make it back to the border in time for the 8 hour drive from Niagara Falls to Providence. Foolishly, we chose to make our second attempt at a different border crossing, and to the guards, this made it look like we were trying to run away from the law or some shit. After a couple hours of more questions and threats (to put me in jail, impound my car, and deny me a phone call to a lawyer) they caught me in a couple stupid lies and turned me away. I was lucky to get out of there in one piece, and now I'm totally scared to even go near America. If I get caught trying to perform in the USA again without a work visa, I will be banned from the country for life. So... i've had to cancel the remaining 5 American shows, and will have to hang around Eastern and Central Canada just a little more. After dealing with this garbage all day, I decided to pay the bucks for a hotel, so that's where I am right now, in Hamilton Ontario, getting ready for bed at 8:30 pm. Ugh.

July 23: One day after the border incident, I'm still pissed off, but have basically come to accept it. There's nothing else to do but move on. Because I won't be able to drive her home, Ill Ease has to rent a car and cancel her Maritimes shows. Nothing else to do but move on. The anger in my set tonight didn't last for more than a few seconds - I started to sing about it during the opening song "Buffalo" (now it's about Buffalo, NY) but couldn't get into it. It's not a winnable fight, and it's not a fight worth fighting. So what could have been the angriest angry-ser ever faded into a more straightforward and resigned run-through of 8 songs. The show tonight in Ottawa was quite fun, thank you to Mike W. for organizing yet another collapsing opposites show (this makes 3). Tomorrow is Montreal which should be nice, and then it's off to the Maritimes, on my own for one day before meeting up with my friend Laura who's going to be drumming for me during the rest of the tour (should be interesting!). By the way, I've named this "The Two Party System" tour - the name comes from an Ill Ease song, and I think it's appropriate in a lot of ways (Two Parties, eg: canada and usa, ill ease and collapsing opposites, ryan and laura, the show we're playing and the show that stole our audience, north and south, east and west).

July 24: Montreal was fun. The people at the show enjoyed the show, all the bands felt loved and and all the bands were awesome. The only bad thing about it was that our friend Ben who organized the show lost a bit of money because he didn't know he had to pay for the venue until the night of the show, and not enough people came to cover the rental cost. But it was a nice evening, and a fitting way to end the section of the tour with Ill Ease. It's been real rad travelling around with her the past couple weeks, and it's gonna be strange to be going it alone again starting in two hours. Yikes, gotta get to sleep!!!

July 28: Ok the maritimes. Had to get up super early to drive to Fredricton, and made it just in time. Someone named Stephanie played, then I played a nice short set, then Monsieur Poitous totally destroyed. Then it was over, at like 8:30, and we went to Laura's friends' house for an impromptu birthday party and maritimes kitchen jam which roused everyone into a musical frenzy, including the dog and various cats. The next day we raced off to Halifax for fish and chips before the show, a slightly weird night at Gus's Pub (kinda like Pats for anyone reading this in Vancouver). Monsieur Poitous played a grunge set this time, which unfortunately didn't go over so hot. Jessie from the band SS Cardiacs was a last-minute add-on to the bill, and she sounded great even though she didnt think it was so great. I played alright, some people liked it and some people didn't, and then spin-cycle squared finished off the night with some typically fun pop-rock-punk songs. We ended up staying with Jessie, and then the next day she decided to come to Montreal with us, so that's where we are now, sitting in her parents' basement in Montreal. I got a last-minute show tonight, an accoustic set at Esperanza which should be fun, playing with the same Montreal band as last week, Lake of Stew. Tomorrow Laura and I are gonna hang around Montreal a bit more, and are going to rent a practice space with drum kit for a few hours. She has promised to play drums in Collapsing Opposites for all the shows on the way home, but we were too chicken to give it a try at the last couple shows, maybe some practice is what we need.

July 30: Been hanging around Montreal the last couple days, playing two last minute accoustic shows at esperanza and a weird campy kinda "skeleton-themed" house party last night. But the funnest music of all was practicing, Laura and I borrowed a friend's space at the friendship cove and spent 3 hours hammering out some songs. She is my new drummer, without drums. We're hoping to borrow them at every show, which should probably be fine. Anyway, the songs really sound great with drums, it took some time to figure out how to match em with the loops (this still might fuck-up sometimes!) but i think it's worth it. Can't say for sure whether this is going to be a permanent addition or not, i guess we'll see how the rest of the tour goes. Oh, we also got to meet and play two shows with a nice person named Megan, who has one of the most beautiful singing voices I've ever heard!

July 31: Driving. Montreal to Thunder Bay, with a stop at a very shitty yet clean and safe hotel in Sault Ste. Marie. Laura and I have taken to doing some pretty psychotic drawings (a la Exquisite Corpse), which we're leaving everywhere as a token of our friendship (they are gifts for you, Telefauna, White Birch Motel, and bands who stay at the Apollo, so enjoy!) It's really fun travelling around with Laura, we're always coming up with crazy new jokes and ideas - like the drawings, for example. She's like the kid sister I never had. Tonight in Thunder Bay was the first show we played together, I thought it went pretty well, although it's going to take some time to get used to being a pop-rock band. It was a weird show in terms of the lineup of bands, but Sheila, the kind and warm-hearted mastermind behind The Apollo, more than made up for it with great food, a nice cozy place to sleep, and more money than we deserved. Driving into town we witnessed a Thunder-storm, we wondered if that was a common sight in Thunder-bay... it was smaller than the one we saw on the way to Montreal though, which was psychadelic and big and loud and scary (Jessie and Laura were shaking while I drove cautiously and cranked The Residents' Duckstab to full volume).

August 3: The Winnipeg show was great; we totally kicked ass, the drums, the songs, everything rock'n'roll like crazy, and the kids loved it. Maybe the only show of the tour where Collapsing Opposites "stole the show". We stayed wtih Mike and Cathy who are the raddest people ever, and then in the morning went to the radio station with Mike and Dave for an interview and some accoustic song-playing. All this made us a bit late for Saskatoon, we got there and basically had to play right away, but it was super fun, just at someone's house. There werent any drums there, so I played solo again. Feral Children was really great; Monsieur Poitous used her time on stage to yell and swear at people, which everyone enjoyed, even the one guy who took it completely seriously. After the show we went to "Pita Pit" which was a weird surreal experience, and then everyone went and watched "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." Lysh and Ryan were super nice folks, and they made us feel totally welcome staying at their place. Today I had a "Don't Know" Milkshake in Medicine Hat, which is a random flavour that no one knows what it is until they taste it. I thought it was like vanilla cotton candy. Tonight was Lethbridge, Martine set up a rad show at the Tongue N' Groove, all the bands were great, although our set was stifled by technical problems - my guitar is basically fucked, thank you to Kris from Kessler Tidal for lending his guitar, which i broke the D-string of right away on the first song. Anyway, I thought it was a terrible performance, but some people enjoyed it. Tomorrow I have to go get the guitar fixed and buy a new patch-cord or two. There were 7 bands on the bill tonight because the venue got double-booked, but everything seemed to go smoothly with a two-show / two-seperate cover charge system. The surplus of bands might be partly the reason why the room was so full. Kessler Tidal was really awesome, I'm looking forward to playing with them again on Saturday in Calgary. Right now we're at Jeron's place in suburban Lethbridge, and we're all bundling up because of the news report that they're expecting a tornado in the area tonight. YIKES!

August 5: So, it's over. I'll think things over in the car, and have some final thoughts tomorrow. For now, here is the news. Edmonton was nice, a real small cozy show at my friends' apartment. Colin Powell Beach were great. We watched a weird funny tv show called Wonder Showzen (recommended!). Laura played keyboard-drums for my set, which was ok. The guitar worked, but the keyboard died. This is the tour of the broken gear. This afternoon I drove laura to the airport because she had to fly home a day early for a show in Vancouver tomorrow. I went on to Calgary, and played at Broken City, a big bar. The people who were there for the show enjoyed the show, but there was also a bar-crowd there that werent into it so much. The keyboard worked fine at the beginning, but then died, then started to work again. I got discouraged by the loud / heckling bar crowd and ended the set a little early. Some tours go out with a bang, but this one was a limp to the finish line. The breaking music gear has spread to my car, as the fan (for the heat, AC, and vents) is apparently broken. At this point, I dont really care. Just get me home and deal with it later. Tonight may have also been the last ever Collapsing Opposites show as a solo act. The difference between drums and no-drums is huge, and I think I like it better with drums, and apparently so does everyone else. Probably we will also get a keyboard player, and make it a 3-piece band. More about that later, tonight the priority is rest.

August 9: Ok its over. One more show, but it's in vancouver and isnt really part of the tour, although Im saving my beard for it. The tour overall was pretty good, lost less money than past trips, and the shows were generally better. Although of course there were plenty of disastrous moments. Dont want to think about it anymore, or write about it either. Its over. Come on Thursday for a show in Vancouver with drums. Adieu!

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