Okay okay, I know it’s been a few days, but stuff kept happening. I’ll explain as we go.

Windsor to Kingston was a long drive, but after the Northern Ontario stretches it still doesn’t feel like much, especially when it’s a straight run on the highway. Nothing particularly noteworthy on the way except I’d like to say that the service centres on that chunk of the road give me the creeps. Marcus has gotten really good at those claw games where you try to pick up a stuffed toy, though, so we’ve got a little collection growing.

We loaded in at the Living Room and met Pawnshop Diamond, also from Vancouver, and We Were Lovers, from Saskatoon. Had a bite to eat downstairs and got up & running. Pawnshop Diamond played a sort of pop/country set and then we got up for our turn…. and found out Marcus’s pedalboard was on the fritz. We spent a nervous ten minutes or so, Rob and I watching helplessly as Marcus plugged and unplugged things and tested cables and pedals out to see what was causing the problem. We thought maybe some of that insta-snow had gotten in and jammed something. He finally narrowed it down to a wonky MIDI cable, and got it connected enough to work. We cut our set short so We Were Lovers wouldn’t have to go on too late.

It’s funny how you run into the same bands and see the same names over and over again when you’re on the road for a month; we’ll be playing with We Were Lovers again in Ottawa next Monday, and we also dropped in to show a l’il support at the Horseshoe in Toronto where they played Nu Music Nite. They’re actually quite nice, no matter what may or may not have happened between Marcus and their drummer Jordan.

We had no shows Monday or Tuesday but spent the time catching up on errands and work, meeting with friends, and so on and so on - the time filled up pretty fast. Marcus fixed his pedalboard. We got caught up on sushi for a while.

Wednesday it was back to work. Our first stop was CIUT at the University of Toronto. CIUT was in the process of moving from a somewhat shabby basement across campus to the staggeringly beautiful Hart House, a lovely old stone building that made us feel like we were wandering around at Hogwarts. We were to be their first live band in the new space, and it looked like the whole staff was there to help out - with our convoluted setup we knew we’d be giving them a real test run.

Everyone was a little nervous about noise, though, us included. We were to be playing in a big hall with high, high pointed ceilings, flat walls and windows, and hardwood floors - lots of echos, and not a lot to muffle the drums. We did our best to mellow the room with a bit of carpet and some clothes, but there wasn’t a whole lot we could do. Once we started playing we kept glancing out the door nervously to see if the administration was angrily storming the room with pitchforks, but they never materialized, and afterwards somebody told us it wasn’t even that loud in the hallways. I think the stone between floors must have done a good job of soaking it up. That said, a small piece of wood did fall from the ceiling during our set, so our new concern was that we were going to bring the roof down…

We did four or five songs to be aired on Thursday’s edition of Take Five. Our day wasn’t over yet, though - time for a quick bite to eat and then we were off to Supermarket to load in and soundcheck. Supermarket is a funky restaurant in the funky Kensington area of Toronto with a surprisingly nice stage. Every Wednesdays there’s a Pay What You Can showcase that is known for having some pretty fine shows, and that’s what we would be a part of that night. We learned the shows are also streamed live online, which was a nice perk, and we sent the link out via Facebook and Twitter.

Mike Butlin started the night, sort of a Randy Newman-style singer/songwriter. The sets were pretty short, half an hour, so we got going as quick as we could and kept the banter to a minimum so we could play five songs. I think we’ve played better, but we had a terrifically fun night, and caught up with some old friends. There was a vintage ARCTIC t-shirt in the audience we were excited to see (dark blue shirt, logo bleached in red) and overall it was a fine turnout.

Thursday was a bit of a scramble. We had learned on Tuesday night that our Hamilton show was cancelled because the promoter couldn’t find appropriate local bands for the bill, and spent a day or two putting out feelers to get shows anywhere on Thursday or Friday. Thursday morning we got word that there was an opening spot available at Call the Office in London, so we snapped that one up. Friday we will be playing at Bobby O’Brien’s in Kitchener. So… off we go!