Thunder Bay was a typical Thunder Bay-ish kind of night; dinner at The Apollo, good chats with Sheila & Co., and a show with good sound. We met a local couple who’d just wandered in off the street and ended up chatting with each of them for ages after the show. We decided to stay in a hotel near the highway for the night, next to a mall, which turned out to be noisy, smelly, and generally unpleasant. The guys slept alright, but I was not at my finest the next day and slept through most of the drive to Winnipeg.

In Winnipeg we played at Standard Tavern, which used to be called Hooligans but was recently bought by Jill and Andrea. It’s the local watering hole for the neighbourhood bordering Wolseley, and gets a good crowd most nights.

We loaded in and ate deep-fried pickles, which are surprisingly good. Actually, the bar is planning to have an event where you bring something you want them to deep-fry, and they’ll deep-fry it for you for $5. I’ve already got a mental list going…

A local band called Weatherman Underground opened the night with a sort of 70s jam rock. Winnipeg crowds are always fun; as I’ve said, Western crowds aren’t so self-conscious. Once we got started, we had a few people up and dancing and really getting into the music. Now, one or two of the dancers were absolutely hammered out of their tree; one demanded that we play The Doors so he could join in, gave me a jumbo pack of Rolos, and approached Marcus between sets with some sage advice about John Lennon. At the end of the night, another guy brought us a tray with three shooters of Goldschlager and left it on the stage; he came by to talk to us a few minutes later as we were packing up, and stepped directly onto the tray, spraying Goldschlager everywhere. He apologized, rushed back to the bar for three replacements, and on the way back crashed into another customer and sent those flying as well. A waitress glared at him and sweetly offered to bring us the shots herself, and so began the afterparty.

We stayed at a house nearby, hung out with the bar owners and locals and stayed up ridiculously late (or early, depending on your perspective of when the next day began). Winnipeg ended up being the tour-end party, although there would still be one show to go and a long drive home.

I slept through most of the drive to Regina as well.

Actually, the drive to Regina was a little more eventful because there was actual real snow falling from the sky. Horrors! It wasn’t really accumulating, just blowing around the highway, but we did not approve of the snow and the cold so early in October. I know, I know, our name is ARCTIC and all, but you may have noticed we live in Vancouver where if the temperature drops to freezing, everyone panics and stays inside with the doors barred.

But we made it to Regina no problem. The snow and cold made things a little unpleasant loading in at O’Hanlon’s, but the bar was nice and toasty and there were lots of people. A Calgary band called Friendo played first - we were pleased to see the drummer from Women was part of it, as we’d played with them in Thunder Bay last year, and got to catch up with him for a bit.

So by the time we got up to play, there was a good crowd of listeners in from the cold. And they weren’t even all lurking in the back, but with a little nudge from Marcus, hung out and grooved in front of the stage. Bonus! Being the last show of the tour, we were exhausted, but threw everything we had into it and put on a really damn good performance. One guy told us afterwards, “Man, I shoulda brought my helmet ‘cause you guys made me feel like my head was gonna explode.” (He meant it in a good way.)

Last time we played there I’d heard about four or five glasses smashing over the course of the night. I didn’t notice any this time, just an ice cube flying from the balcony, but Rob said he heard five solid smashes. The soundman nodded and said the bar goes through a case of glasses pretty quickly.

Back into the snow to load out, and that was it… done. Twenty shows in thirty days, PLUS a radio performance at CIUT in Toronto PLUS Marcus did a solo set at CFCR in Saskatoon. For the last week, we had at least seven hours on the road every day. We’re all beyond tired, but feel that it was a really solid tour and we made the most of it.

Yesterday we drove to stay with a friend south of Calgary, and stopped in the tiny town of Piapot (population 55) for lunch at the saloon; they’re still going strong, and we’d actually just missed a big party the night before. Today we’re headed straight to Vancouver, and then it’s back to reality. Not that reality is a bad thing; for me it includes reuniting with my dog, and eating inexpensive quality sushi.

Thank you so much for reading along and coming to the shows and telling your friends and being a part of it all. Our next Vancouver show is November 12 at UBC, and we’re working on our tour plans for next year. We’ll see you soon, wherever you are!

Top Three Inside Jokes You Totally Had To Be There To Get

- Throat Varmint
- “…Can I talk to you for a second… over here?”
- “DO YOU KNOW what John Lennon said?”

Top Three Quotes

- “My brother’s the bass player in a famous band… you know, the Red Hot Chili Peppers… his name’s Fly.”
- “Oh, she just LOVES to choke the chicken!” (see video for explanation)
- “You must just stay over with all the girls that come along, you little studmuffin.”

Marcus: 3
Rob: off the scale + 2
Kirsten: 3
Joey: off the scale - 1