10/5/10

Tour Journal OAL Edmonston + meeting old friends

Howdy folks, Shawn here with your update from the road. After a wonderful experience at Montreal POP (Excluding various van problems, solved in part by the good folks at Hotel2Tango), we hit the road for the east coast. First stop Edmundston!

I know nothing about Edmundston. I drove through it once, to get from Quebec City and Sackville, that's about all I know. But we eventually pulled in front of a quaint little cafe called Lotus Bleu.

One of the great things about touring is that you really meet some of the nicest people in the world. Case in point, the staff at Lotus Bleu. Before we'd even hit the stage we had sold a number of CD's (including a couple of my own!). Olenka asked me to open with a four song set. The audience of about 40, where attentive and appreciative. Then Olenka hit the stage. It was a quiet show, so we had some constraints, we didn't set up the drums, and kept the horns in the car. Because of the constraints, the audience received a unique performance, featuring quieter songs like "Lark" and "Mary's Song" and a few old tunes, including the very little played "Tennessee" (By request).

After the show the staff served us one of the best meals we've had in a while. A tasty veggie-pate Sandwich with soup and salad! When dinner was finished we where taken to our lodgings. Half the band went to a local's place, and four of us went to a really nice B&B. It's really great to get a bed after four nights of a half inflated blow-up mattress.

We woke up early the next morning and picked up our equipment at the cafe. They graciously served us a breakfast sandwich and coffees. And we were on our way!

Kevin Braiser is a long time friend of the Autumn Lovers. Like me, he has an on again/off again relationship with the band. Kevin moved to Sackville NB not long again, and the rhythm section hasn't been quite the same. So, we called him up, and after very little convincing, talked him into joining us for a few shows. We picked him up at his place, had an inpromptu reggae dance party on the front lawn, and took the highway to Halifax.

That brings us pretty much up to date. We arrived in Halifax about an hour ago, pulled up to the house of our dear friend Patrick Schmidt (Slow Down Molasses). He prepared us a big meal of strawberry salad and Squash soup. and now where drinking Kev's homebrew and working out a setlist for tomorrow nights show at The Company House.

I've been seriously humbled by people here on the road; Andrea in Montreal, the staff at Lotus bleu, and Patrick here in Halifax. I'm told this is the norm, and we'll be meeting more great people in the next couple weeks. I can seriously get used to this touring thing.

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