Hello Canada.

15/02/11

Sorry.

Straight in with a stereotype.

We arrived in Montreal last night, sailing into the city towards the beacon of a glowing blue W, our hotel calling us home. I’m not sure we’ve been happier to arrive in a city, in recent memory. The first week of tour has left everyone quite tired, so an evening off was something everyone was looking forward to. After crossing the border south of Montreal, we spent an hour driving up to Montreal, enjoying the increasing French influence. It might just be our mental projections of the place, but walking around the beautiful city of Montreal, it feels distinctly European, from the architecture, to the people we’ve had the pleasure of encountering thus far.

The band have never headlined in Montreal before, so everyone is looking forward to a great one tonight at La Sala Rossa.

Our last show in the USA, before crossing into Canada, was in Cambridge MA, as you may recall – After establishing that it’s not quite Boston, but is still technically in the city limits, the band got round to the business of rocking a room to its foundations. In this case, the room was the wonderfully-named TT the Bears. Unfortunately for the band, the wonderfully named club, was not quite some wonderfully equipped technically, and the guys essentially had to play a show without being able to hear a fucking thing. Very frustrating all round, but the show was still great, and I doubt those out front would have noticed much of a difference, considering how much the band threw themselves into the show.

At this point, a special mention to our friend Haley, who not only endured some fairly dubious methods of transport to make it to the shows in the east coast, but who entertained our entire tour party with some phenomenal apple juggling on the snowy streets of Cambridge. We almost fell over when she started taking bites from apples mid-juggle. I think Ben had an attempt at a basic juggle, and I wouldn’t like to needlessly speculate, but speculation is that he failed miserably. And if not miserably, it certainly didn’t go hugely well. But it’s alright, seeing as he’s the best drummer you’ve ever met.

The boys holed up in their hotel that evening, prior to the show, watching the Grammy Awards take place in LA. Congratulations to the boys in MUSE, congratulations to Arcade Fire on an album that we were listening to just yesterday. Congratulations Lady Gaga on your egg, and congratulations to wee Justin Bieber for playing that guitar all by himself.

We were listening to The Suburbs by Arcade Fire on our way into Montreal, as a tip of the hat to the city that spawned such a wonderful band. Spawned perhaps isn’t the nicest word to use, but the only word that springs to mind. “Birthed?” “Gifted?” “Established?” ” Breathed Life Upon the Concept that was until then merely Conceptual?” Who knows. In any case, they’re from here, we’re actually here, and it seemed like a good way to fill the hours drive from the border.

Tomorrow, we travel along the lake to Toronto, where we spend a couple of days, doing both a show, and a television appearance, before travelling back into the USA, to get to Columbus OH. After that, it’s Chicago, and finally Minneapolis, before the band and i fly to London for a couple of days, before returning to North America, to pick up the tour in Vancouver. Which is of course, a wonderful opportunity to see our friend GGGarth, the production legend who worked his arse off alongside the band to bring Puzzle and Only Revolutions to life.

After that, we travel down basically the entirety of the west coast of the country, performing in Seattle, San Francisco, and finally ending up in Los Angeles, where we’re looking forward to seeing some friends.
We’re also, rather excitingly, now allowed to talk about the show that the band will be performing on March 2nd, at our old haunt, the Bootleg Theater in Silverlake…

The band will be performing some songs, in a stripped down manner, and will be accompanied onstage by the immeasurably gifted Mark Z. Danielewski, who will be reading from Only Revolutions.

It’s very much in the planning stages at the moment, but it should be a particularly special occasion, and a really nice way to mark the end of this tour.

So, wish us luck in Canada’s sub zero temperatures, and more soon!

TM Neil