I had to get to work straight away after getting home on Monday…I had to do some redo’s on vocals for one of the Posies songs so Jon could finish his mix. At one point jet lag overcame me on Tuesday and I lay down for a nap, which was accompanied by the music of Le Prince Miiaou which was a TRIP. It was a day and half at home where I had to run across town and collect the guitar damaged at Sasquatch (and the guitar shop was closed, luckily, they were in there, in the back, and left the door unlocked so they had no choice but to deal with me…there were tons of other things to sort out, and while making a proposed sequence for the Posies album in ProTools when in rapid succession, BOTH my ProTools systems crashed. Uh….
So, it was with that in mind that I boarded a plane for Calgary Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful morning, and I was leaving late enough that I could enjoy a coffee on the terrace with Dom & Aden before I left. Now, I always forget this, but this was the first time I’d gotten on a plane in Paris since the beginning of summer, and Terminal 3 is woefully underdeveloped for the summer hordes who use it to access the budget airlines that leave from there. Checking in for my flight wasn’t bad, but the passport control line for non-European passport holders was a 2-plus hour wait. Long enough that even after my 2 hour experience in that line there were still 60 passengers trying to get thru and get on the plane, so they held the flight until everyone got on. This plane went to Montreal, the hub of Transat, and continued on to Toronto. I got off in Montreal, and spent a long time in line clearing Immigration (my papers were in order so my actual time at the window was like two minutes). I was so tired tho after the long flight that when I got to baggage claim, most of the other passengers on my flight long gone, I thought my bag hadn’t come, not remembering I’d brought my small grey suitcase for this 4 day trip as opposed to the big blue one I take for longer trips. I think I stared expectantly at the belt for 20 min. before shaking it off and realizing my error. I checked in for my WestJet flight to Calgary, and boarded, and found out the flight stopped in Toronto where we changed to another flight, same crew, same flight number, different airplane, different gate. Weird. OK, all of this took a long time, and I got to Calgary about 30 min. later than expected. I was picked up by Claire, one of the festival drivers, and taken to the hotel, where I checked in, and then went to the bar to have the two free drinks I’d been voucher’d for. Two glasses of wine and some charcutrie later, I was buzzed enough to justify bed, having passed the midnight/jet lag-busting mark.
CALGARY, 7/1
Long days of getting caught up on work, as I was at last stationary and not behind a mixing desk at all hours of the day and night. I woke up at 7.30 with a vengeance, digging into Posies, Disciplines, and Pro-Tools rescuing emails that took me most of the day. Spending time on the phone, at last, with the Posies label, I hadn’t had time to do that in weeks. Room service breakfast, and then lunch with Darius, Matt, Sled Island Festival organizer Zak Pashak, and various local musicians etc., at the festival canteen, Broken City Social Club, which was a fully functioning music venue that day. I used their office and and the festival’s counselor to do some Canadian-tax related biz, had a sandwich, and headed back to the hotel for a swim.
The band assembled in the early evening and we headed to the Republik, the latest incarnation of the club we played in 1995, albeit now in a new location a couple blocks up the street…Deerhoof had already soundchecked so we were free to set up. Of course, this was our first show in a couple of months…so…even soundchecking was hard to do, and little did I know it but I had a bad cable that was affecting the tonality of my guitar. But it *seemed* ok…we ran thru a song and then had to get out of the way for other bands. OK, we’ll see….
We went to dinner with Deerhoof, Zak, and SF’s Sugar & Gold, I had Alberta beef as a tartare…both bands were really fun and friendly so it was a great atmosphere. I think after dinner we went back to the hotel, to print set lists, and get ready. We ended up taking a cab to the venue cuz the traffic was so bad (it was Canada Day, big night for all citizens) our van couldn’t make it to pick us up. We were bogged down in a traffic jam but facing the fireworks display…
We got back to the venue pretty much in time to set up and get on with it. The show was a familiar sight now that I’ve been part of a few “Posies play at ultra hipster festival with no new album out” evenings: a mix of curiosity, skepticism, joy and contempt–in other words, the full range, which means, opinions are open. Our set was loud, well played, and will sound 1000 times better when we have time to learn these new songs. But again, while we’re prob. incapable of a slam dunk at this point, it was a hard fought, ably-executed, passionate and funny set. Then Deerhoof went on and people went absolutely nuts…well deserved, too. Amazing band. I shuttled off to the hotel to drop my stuff and hop down into the Palomino, the BBQ saloon across the street, to watch my friends By Divine Right, the perfect way to close out the evening, down in a cool basement with about 30 dedicated listeners, watching a great band crank out psychedelic rock with a massively strong songwriting core. We all went out on the sidewalk, so some could smoke, and shot the breeze til it was time to call it.
CALGARY, 7/2
I was up at 8.45 to order breakfast, and invite Jon in so he could use my other phone to participate in a label conference call. Then came more work, and another conference call with our publicist (there were calls these days from our agent, from our radio promotion person, etc). We lunched with Zak at a local diner and I got in another swim. In the early evening we waked around the corner of the hotel to the wonderful Legion Post #1, all vintage 1959, wonderful place. Kind of shallow stage but we fit up there, and by now, we had our sea legs and I’d sorted some tech problems, so we sounded much better (and in fact, this is a much better sounding room than Repbulik was). So, after soundcheck we were much more confident. We treated ourselves to filet mignon at the vintage eatery Ceasar’s (which totally fit the theme of the Legion, seemed to be the same vintage–but was actually founded in 1972). We took a couple of adjacent booths in the upper deck of the lounge and had the place to ourselves. After eating steak that was so rare it was practically sashimi, I needed a little rest up but we filtered back into the Legion in time for our set, and played a GREAT show. Augmented by a couple of shots of Jagermeister, we had a wonderful, great sounding set that went well past closing time, and the staff was absolutely OK with that. A great night, and we went to bed very happy.
The next morning I was a little too beat to get in one more swim, but did not suffer on my long travel home. Stopping in Montreal, I actually had time to run into the city and dine with friends at Thai place, and I slept every second of my flight back to Paris. Now back in my flat apartment listening to music, my ProTools is working again, life is good….so…prepared for the days ahead, I can rest a little today.
Love
KS
Paris