The drive from Milan to Munich is the nicest drive I’ve ever done in my life. It was, and I hate to use the word, epic! I guess I had no expectations for that drive. Figured it would be nice but didn’t know that it would wind us through the Alps. It was turn after turn of breathtaking mountains and huge valleys. It seems pointless to write about it and the hundred photos I took from the van window could never do it justice. I have decided to never live in the mountains so that they always carry this type of weight for me, but after seeing this countryside I feel like I need to make an exception. It was unreal. Totally floored me and I can only wish that we had more time to explore. A hike would’ve been amazing.

Nice to come back to Munich. Each time we’re there it’s too short. Just arriving in time to load-in and soundcheck and play and sleep and leave but it’s still a nice place to spend a short time in. Our good friend Stefan lives there and we looked forward to seeing him. He had filmed a session with us before for his website and so after our set we went for a little walk to film a video for “Asleep in the Pews”.  Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKafTQJTOfc

The show went great. Mika from Timber Timbre joined us for a few songs which is always so nice for us and we got to play to a packed room. Saw some folks from the last time we played Munich too. So rad! Beers were drank afterwards. More food was consumed, including the leftovers from our amazing curry+rice dinner. Another short sleep and now I write this on the road, in the back of the van, enroute to Koln.

I don’t remember much from the drive other than the Koln Dome coming into view on the way. So impressive. Brought back nice memories from the last tour. We played Gebaeude 9 which, like many European venues, is a big concrete box. They never really feel cozy until people get there but the engineers make them sound nice. We met up with our new friend Sabina and had a nice hang before and after the show. Also met a guy from Kansas named Kelly. Nice dude, friends with one of our Kutu labelmates Hospital Ships. Small world. Pretty uneventful night after the show. Back to the hotel to sleep for too few hours and then up for a big drive to the Rolling Stone Weekender Festival, north of Hamburg on the sea, near Kiel. It was a day of celebration though in Germany, on the 11th of November. People wear costumes and get drunk all day. Here’s a couple Jims outside our hotel room in full garb.

So we’re driving along the autobahn, minding our own business, when the police pull in front of us and put their sirens on for us to follow them and pull over. We get off at the next exit and they come and check our liscense and insurance, etc. Then they say that they want to weigh our van to see if we are legally on the highway. Well, at this point we’re frustrated as we’re going to just barely make soundcheck, but what can you do but oblige and follow them. They tell us to tail them to an exit 3 stops down the highway. They pull off the highway and into a truckstop, that has no weight scale, so they wave us around and back onto the country road, where we follow them for 15 minutes. It was ridiculous. You could see them looking all over the place, totally lost and without a clue as to where to find a scale. Eventually, after 45 minutes, we are pulled into a farm that has a big scale and they weighed our van, and we were over, supposedly, by a couple hundred kg’s. This cost us 35 euros, which you just have to pay, and then we got back on the road. So frustrating. Left us only enough time to load our gear on stage and start playing.

Sometimes I like being late, or behind schedule, or just in a mad rush to get on stage as it takes away from the usual preshow ritual of getting anxious, or overthinking things. This was a perfect example. I was a little stressed about this show, it being a Rolling Stone thing, etc. But because we were in such a rush to get stuff on stage and tune up we basically were thrown right into the fire. It worked out great. We played to a packed room and it was a really special show for us. We even got encored. Met a lot of nice people at that show. Afterwards we went and had dinner in the catering area… Really amazing food and pretty cool sitting there eating beside Jeff Tweedy and the dudes from The Notwist. Little ol’ unknown Evening Hymns probably looking like they snuck into eat. Ha…We got to see some Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and a few others, but the highlight for me was seeing Josh T. Pearson. I was given his record by my friend Ro and had listened to it a few times and it hadn’t connected with me to be honest. It was interesting but didn’t really grab me. Well his live show was beautiful and really pulled me in. Been listening to his record since then and it’s a heavy listen. Really amazing and worth checking out. Got to chat with him late at night and he is a true gentleman.

The festival was held on this old resort so artists and attendees were given little apartments to stay in. Pretty cool and super convenient for us to just wander and sip coldies.

Part of the excitement of the Rolling Stone festival was that I had arranged to surprise Sylvie with a surprise appearance of her really good friend, and no stranger to this blog, Dorotka, from Berlin. Her partner Terry and I had been in touch trying to plan a way to surprise the girls and so after our show Sylvie was helping pack up gear and voila! Dorotka magically appeared outside with our amps and guitars. It was a huge surprise!!!! Totally awesome. We drank a bunch of beers and had a really nice time. A bit of a bittersweet night though as we had to say goodbye to Timber Timbre and our friends. It was a short but sweet little jaunt through Europe with them, hopefully not the last! Beers were cheered. Hugs delivered. The road was hit.

In the morning Terry, Dorotka, Sylvie and I took a shuttle to Kiel and picked up our rental car for the next few days. No probs picking up our Skoda and we were off to Utrecht for a big show with Agnes. Nice to have new blood in the car and it made things more exciting, grant you Terry and Dorotka seemed to nap most of the way.

Boy did we get turned around in Utrecht. I took the rental car down a pedestrian street, and not just a short one, like a really long street with people and bikes everywhere. The police saw us but didn’t really seem to care. Tourists. It sucked but was good for a laugh afterwards, once we were safe and sound. Finally found the venue Vrendenburg on the outskirts of the city. It’s a massive, 1500 capacity, venue that was built as a temporary location for the old theatre in the city centre that is currently being renovated. Crazy that they’d build this amazing, huge space that is only temporary. It was amazing. Awesome food, stage, facilities. We got to play one of the biggest shows we’ve ever done and it was rad. I had a blast and people seemed to love it. Can’t wait to come back and play to these people again. They were an amazing audience. After the show we hung out on the bus and then drove into the town to stay at a dude named Eddy’s place, who T&D had found through couchsurfer.com… Really nice guy, who was able to also come and see our show. We settled in and fell asleep. Had an amazing rest. In the morning we drove T&D to the train station, said our goodbyes, and then Sly and I took off for Heidelberg, Germany.

So the club we played in Strasbourg was a big complex that housed a couple different venues. In the main room that night was a bunch of DJ’s playing and a rapper named Beans, who I had seen years ago in Toronto. Cool to run into him. Unfortunately we missed his set as Hymns played at the same time as him. It was a sold out show we got to play which is always an amazing treat. Really excited to see how well Timber Timbre is doing here. They are selling out these great rooms and people are losing their minds over the band. It’s exciting… Super proud of Taylor, Mika and Simon. We kept the night pretty mellow and caught up on some sleep. I also pulled off one of the tightest parking jobs I’ve ever done with the wagon behind the hotel. I’d like to think I impressed Sylvie with my skills.

Back to Paris. Pretty uneventful drive. Nice fall colours and a nice blue sky to accompany us. Hit Paris in good time and found the venue, La Loge, in a neighbourhood I had never been to so that was nice. So many neighbourhoods in Paris that are different from each other that exploring each section is really interesting. Similar to Toronto, but on a much larger scale. You get pockets of different culture here and there. It’s cool. And makes food choices always varied and exciting. Our show for Paris was presented with La Blogotheque. I’ve been a big fan of watching their videos for years so it was a great honour to share the stage with them. They screened a bunch of unreleased videos that were rad and then it was our turn to play. Sylvie and I have been playing the same set for most of this tour and it’s been fun working on presenting a tight set but we decided to experiment a bit more for the rest of the tour, to pull ourselves out of the regular motions. It was a good decision for us. Nice to try something new and smack our faces a bit. I think it went pretty well and I’m excited to refine things a bit more. It’s tough every night playing the same songs over and over and we’re kind of limited by what we can do as we are only a two-piece and want to keep things moving a bit on stage. I think pushing ourselves to try new things each night will keep us on our toes and in the zone. La Loge is a nice fit for Evening Hymns. Cozy and intimate. Got to see some friends too which is the best when you’re on the road and far from home. Always feels good to play to a packed house in a city like Paris too. Thanks Paris! Xo jb

We started the next morning too early and raced to Marseille. It was about an 8 hour drive I think. Pretty straightforward. Hit Marseille at night. Saw a bit of the sea. Dropped Sylvie off at the hotel and then had to drive back 30 minutes to the airport to return my car and catch a bus back into the city. Kind of a crazy thing to do after driving for 8 hours but it went pretty smoothly. Nice to listen to some songs in the dark on the bus racing back through the city. It’s those weird moments on tour that I love and make my life seem so bizarre. On a city bus, in the middle of the night, in Marseille, winding through the city.

Those two above photos are from this little pizza truck on the side of the road. Sylvs and I got lost on the way to the hotel and went to the opposite part of the Marseille that we were supposed to be in but magically we happened upon this little truck that had a wood burning oven in it. An older couple fashioned us up one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. Sylvie and I drove through the streets burning our mouths and licking our lips. It was rad. I want to build one of these. I think it would totally slay downtown Toronto.

I walked to a club where Timber Timbre was playing, as part of the Inrocks Festival, and watched their set and hung out. Nice to have a night off to watch them play. Again, they drove people crazy. It’s a powerful thing to witness.

In the morning, reunited with the van and the band, we took off for our day off in Nice. A stunning drive and a really pretty town. Spent the afternoon wandering around by the sea. We settled in for a nice dinner and a couple bottles of wine our hotel room, with the balcony doors open and the rain falling gently on the town. It was a really nice mellow night spent in with friends so far from home. A perfect night off.

In the morning we left for Milan, Italy. Being my first time in Italy I was glued to the window of the van taking it in. It’s a gorgeous drive from Nice to Milan. The highway follows the coast pretty much the whole way. Huge vistas. Our first stop was at some roadside gas station/convenience store and we ate amazing fresh sandwiches and then hit the highway for the final leg to Milan. The venue we were playing was called Magnolia and it is out by the airport. Really big space with an amazing staff. They cooked us an incredible pasta dinner that was hands down one of the best meals I’ve had on tour… I was worried what the attendance was going to be like for our first show in Italy but it filled up nicely just before we played and we were treated to a quiet audience that seemed to really enjoy the show. Such a trip to be so far form home, playing in a country for the first time, and have such a delightful crowd. Lucky us… After the show, and some beers, and after getting my ass handed to me in foosball by some Italians, we hit our fancy hotel, had a jacuzzi, and went to bed, for few too little hours. Story of my touring life.

I will leave you with that haunting image now… the incredible hunk, ergh, hulk…

The next day we loaded up and checked into the venue, Union Chapel, which is one of the nicest venues I’ve ever had the chance to play. Sylvie described it pretty well in her blog post. It’s really a perfect room. A good soundcheck with our man Les and we hit the stage feeling pretty comfortable. Mika from Timber Timbre joined us for the first three songs which was a total treat for us. Nice to expand a bit for a few shows. I was super happy with the set. I think that being given time to relax before shows and to have a great soundcheck makes such a huge difference for our performance. In the past I’ve gotten so nervous before shows and this tour it’s been a more positive stress. More like an excitement or anticipation. Makes for a much more enjoyable tour. Anyways, TT killed it in the church and a lot of people seem to enjoy the whole night and we left as happy campers. One of the highlights of tour so far….

Union Chapel from the outside

Reuben dropped this chip and caught in his shoe by accident.

the man of movember

my jam

A few coldies in the hotel before we hit the hay and woke up to hit the road to the ferry again, back to Paris. Met back up with Agnes and the bus and watched their set at Casino du Paris. As Sylvie said, it was nice to just chill out and watch a set without having to play. We put our feet up and relaxed.

Our next show was in Caen, which I can never actually pronounce properly. I end up saying “cone”. Sorry about that. Another beauty night in a theatre. Great sound techs and super receptive audience. We tried some new songs and then retired to the bus to sip a few jaspers with Agnes and crew before splitting up again for a couple weeks. It started pissing rain so hard when we were on the bus and it made for such a nice evening inside. Feels kind of like camping when you’re on the bus. Settled into my bunk so late, knowing that we had to get up at 5:30am at CDG to grab our rental car.

After a few hours of restless sleep I awoke at the airport and went in search of the rental company. We ended up getting a pretty sweet whip for this leg of the journey. A Peugeot 508 wagon! Sylvie and I grabbed coffees and hit the road for Strasbourg. Pulled over at a park/rest stop/aire to sleep for an hour or so in the car. Actually was pretty decent. Feeling a bit better we rambled to the venue. It was really nice for me to have my own vehicle again. Driving on tour really connects one with the area I find. On the bus, or even in the van, you get to put your brain on autopilot while someone else drives and you don’t take as much out of the environment. It was nice to get behind the wheel and look around and think. I miss that on this tour. Not complaining. Just pointing out the difference of this tour and the last. Okay. Going to drop it here at Strasbourg and pick it up again in a bit.

Thanks for reading.

Jb

Sorry for the delay…

It’s been years since I’ve blogged and right now I’m in Nice, France, sipping a nice wine and listening to Illmatic by Nas and I’m going to try and take a crack at catching up…. We’ll see how far I get before I fall into my keyboard.

So Paris:

We spend a day just wandering. Literally, just wandering around with no goals. It was nice. Super lazy. Much needed. That night we hit this great restaurant up… Awesome veg option and we drank a bunch of great wine. This is my wine tour! No more beer… Just all the wine.

Woke up the next day and walked down the road by myself to Pere Lechaise, the famous cemetery. Spent about an hour and a half walking around looking for famous graves and enjoying the amazing fall colours. Feeling sentimental. Listening to records. The new Ohbijou, Bon Iver, etc. Pretty touching day for me. This cemetery is incredible. Every single headstone is worth stopping to look at and yet it’s completely endless…. So much to see. No time. Here’s an overview of what I saw:

I like the flowers on these graves

Cool headstone… literally.

Chopin’s Grave

Edith Piaf’s Grave

Jim Morrison’s Grave

A really nice way to mellow out and reflect on life before heading to Pitchfork Festival to DJ a couple sets in the afternoon. Took the train solo to this massive building that the festival was being held at. Here’s a pic:

Got to DJ two sets which was a nice chance to go through my ipods and pick out some tunes, which I find normally turns into getting hooked on listening to songs you forgot you had on there. Anyways, thought it went pretty well. I enjoyed it anyways…

Got to see a bunch of great sets. Kathleen Edwards, Canadian represent, warmed the room up. Jens Lekman, Lykke Li and Bon Iver all killed it. The Bon Iver set was especially amazing. So exciting to see people having that much fun on stage. I think that guy is making really important music right now. It’s super important to me and to see him playing that huge room and just having a blast was refreshing. Got to hang out with Kathleen and her band afterwards. It was nice talking Canadian for awhile. Oh and I got some sweet new shoes… Thanks to Greg and Claire for having us for the day. Good times.

Woke up early in the morning to hit the Gare du Nord to head to Amsterdam. I laid down the law with the beggars at the station. Ate an overpriced sandwich and caught our train. I caught a little sleep on the train. We were surrounded by this family from Holland, I assumed. 5 of them, presumably traveling from Paris on a vacation or something. I assumed all this… But I thought it was really sweet and it made me feel really comfortable to see this, seemingly, happy family on a nice trip together. They seemed content. Made me miss my family back home and I hope that one day we get a chance to travel for fun together. Oh the things one assumes and builds a story out of…

I spent some time on the train staring into the window. On the last train trip from Paris to London I did the same and it kind of inspired some of the lyrics for the opening song Arrows on our new record… Again here I was on the train from Paris trying to sort out some of my life by staring at/into/out the window on a train moving fast across the countryside of France.

We arrived in Amsterdam to a fine mist falling down and the hustle and bustle of a busy transportation hub. After lugging our luggage (is that where the term comes from?) we arrived at Bitterzoet, a former jazz club, turned indie club by the wonderful host Stuart and his sweet old doggie Syl (my favorite dog of tour yet). I fell asleep on the couch upstairs in the green room listening to the CBC on my iphone and drifting off, to be awoken by the pitter patter of Timber Timbre coming up the stairs. Reunited at last with our dear Canadian friends. Happy to be back in the fold with them, dashing across the countries. The show was a great start to our journey with them. Nice audience, cozy space, and an amazing TT set. An amazing feeling to be this far from home playing shows with these guys. TT and I did our first tour ever together and here we are… It’s a trip! We finished the night off in a typical Amsterdam blaze of glory, if you can imagine, and hit the hay for too short of a sleep before we raced to catch our ferry in Calais.

hiking around Amsterdam at night

On the way, at a gas stop, we were interrogated by the custom’s police, which is always fun. They said they saw one of us throw something in the woods and they went searching to see what it was and couldn’t find anything and they hassled us for awhile longer before eventually letting us go free. We hopped back on the highway, a little freaked, and caught our ferry. Phew!

Here are some photos from the ferry crossing to England. It was my first time traveling this way to London. Pretty cool.

Veggie lasagna, mushy peas and wedges. Not too bad!

Our van in the hull of a ship.

Sylvie playing with her food

After the crossing we went to our hotel to check in. Was pretty jacked to be headed back to London, mostly so I could eat ploughman’s sandwiches from Marks and Spencer. I really love those things. We got to town and checked into our hotel for the next two nights. It’s a pretty “hip” place to stay. The first night we shared the place with Lou Reed, Tori Amos and Alice Cooper. That’s right, we shared a hotel with Alice Cooper on fuckin’ HALLOWEEN!!!! Mellow night with a nice dinner and some downtime. Not much to report.

Next post will be really soon… I’ve got it all typed. I promise! xo for now… jb

By Sylvie.

When I left off my last blog post, I was rushing off to the Grande Halle des Villettes to check out Pitchfork Fest where Jonas was DJing. I arrived RIGHT on time, as Jonas was just warming into his first set. I hung around his DJ table chipping in my 2 cents here and there and bopping along to the jams he was dealing out. I must say, I think our boy did a pretty good job! I vote him my fave DJ from the night. After his first set it was time for Kathleen Edwards to play, and we traipsed out onto the floor of the huge venue (a former abattoir, we were told) to watch the set. Kathleen gets an A+ for her efforts to keep all her banter in French! I’m always too shy to say much more from the stage than a few careful comments. Then JB played another batch of the hits and just like that our responsibilities for the day were done! It was barely 5 o’clock, and we were free as birds to wander around and catch the rest of the acts. Jens Lekman’s set was a particular highlight… the man’s got charm. JB and me were dancing around side stage by the time Jens and his awesome drummer/backup singer played their sampler-heavy finale.

The venue filled more and more as the night went on, and was absolutely packed by the time Bon Iver took the stage with his huge posse. There were 9 of them onstage! 2 drummers, a horn section, couple guitars, and everyone switching up instruments whenever needed. We were super excited for this show, and watched the whole thing from the wings. Those dudes looked like they were having an awesome time up there. And it sounded great… man, what a show! I’m so glad we got to go to that. It was fun hanging out with Kathleen & her band and catching up on some Canadian-ness (once we finally found out where the food was hiding, which was a major mission and took us a long time and a fair bit of sleuthing). Plus JB got a sweet new pair of free shoes! Thanks to Claire & Greg from Super! for hooking us up with that gig.

The next morning we hauled ourselves out of bed and made our way out to the street where we flagged a cab and loaded it with all our stuff. Even after leaving much of our gear with the bus, we had about a whole person’s worth of extra stuff that we couldn’t properly carry ourselves, so the transfer from the cab into the Gare du Nord, and from the platform there onto our train to Amsterdam, were an interesting exercise in sherpa-ism. Carrying two guitars in one hand plus backpack and rolling suitcase? Yeah sure, no problem, I’m an expert. The train trip was smooth and quick and then we were out on our butts in the Amsterdam train station. Well… those sherpa skills I was boasting about? They don’t stand up all that well on the endurance test. I was sweating and cursing by the time we wrestled everything outside and all the way around to the taxi stand. So guess whether my mood was improved when all the taxis refused to take us because the venue was too close to the station!? It was close. Very very close, in a car. Walking, with a herculean load of gear and merch and personal bullshit (you can bet I was wishing I’d trimmed the contents of my suitcase down), it was manageable but just. I had flashbacks of the last time we were in London, hucking our stuff around on the tube system. Next time we tour I’m installing wheels on my bass case! JB doesn’t believe me, but I’m serious about this. Luckily we were received at the venue, the Bitterzoet, by the extremely friendly and helpful and hospitable owner, Stuart, and his old pooch Syl. We immediately installed ourselves on the comfy leather couches in the band room and devoured several sandwiches. Phew!!!

A few hours later we heard familiar voices on the stairs and in burst our beloved Timber Timbre. It was really great to be reunited with our old pals. The show that night was really fun… it felt good to play in a bar again (this may sound weird, because we’ve been raving about the big theatres on this tour, but it was kind of like slipping on an old pair of shoes after you’ve been wearing fancy heels for a few hours). We met a lot of nice people, including Geordie and ? – some friends of our friends Laura & Colin, who tipped them off about the show – but it turned out they were already planning to come and see TT anyway! After the show we all went out to find frites and mayo (yummm) and walked through a bit of a suburb of the red light district… this is a bit of a strange experience for those of us who come from a place where the sex trade is illegal. I think we all had mixed feelings about it.

The following day it was time to head out for the ferry crossing to the UK. This was an all-day affair… drive to Calais, go through customs (process our visas, which takes extra time), drive onto the ferry, get out of the van, eat mushy peas (or in my case, fish & chips), kill some time, get back in the van, drive from Dover to London, find the hotel (way out in Shepherd’s Bush), get some pounds instead of euros, realize how expensive everything is in the UK…. etc. But it was all worth it in the end because the following night’s show at Union Chapel was my favourite so far. You’ll have to wait for Jonas’ post to see photos of the venue. He’s got some stunners I’m sure. For now you’ll just have to trust me that this place is beautiful. It’s in a square layout as opposed to the long shape of many (most) churches, with balconies on three sides – perfect for concerts. The whole thing is red brick, including the interior, which I’ve never seen before. And the sound! The sound! Singing into that space is an exhilarating feeling. The church was packed for the show, and we had so much fun. Mika played on 3 songs with us and having her there made the show so extra special. Lots of nice people there.

This is a layout showing all the pew that folds into a box on the wall in our band room. There are holes in all the places for pegs. I want to know what this is used for!

This room was the Sunday School, and I sneaked in to do a vocal warmup... I felt like I was a ghost and I was haunting this chapel.

That night we sat around Taylor’s hotel room for a while just laughing our heads off at Simon. What a clown. It was great to see those guys!

Simon looks like a cop. But definitely "good cop." I guess that makes Taylor "bad cop."

Taylor & Simon are wearing mustaches to raise money for prostate cancer this “Movember.” (And because it looks so smooth.) You can sponsor them here!

The next day was a repeat of the ferry crossing day in reverse. Too much time in the van for anyone’s liking, and I’d already finished my book on the way over, but luckily Mika lent me her iPod with the original Batman movie on it so I was easily entertained. They dropped us off in Paris just outside Le Casino de Paris where Agnes and the gang were performing at the Inrocks festival. JB quickly located the ever helpful Guillaume, and we got our stuff stashed inside relatively quickly and then it was goodbye to Timber Timbre for another few days until we meet again in Strasbourg tomorrow.

We grabbed a nice little dinner at a tiny Italian hole in the wall near the theatre, then found our seats and settled in to enjoy watching Agnes, Gill, and Anne dazzle the huge crowd. It was nice to be able to watch their whole set without having to dash back to the merch table before the encore. Then we were backstage reunited with our friends and all trying to catch up on what we’d missed on our days apart in between sips of white wine in the tiny red-velvet lined production office. It felt good to be back with these guys. Agnes and Gill tried to pawn off a bottle of nasty sweet-smelling stripper perfume on me (they’d been given a bottle by the un-named sponsors of the night’s event) but I wisely turned it down (probably for the good of the whole bus). We finally clambered back onto the good old Klaus-mobile and the familiar late-night shit-shooting session over beers in the front lounge. I was the first to crawl off to my bunk and I slept very soundly, waking up this morning in overcast Caen.

We spent all day inside the venue so I can’t say what Caen is like. We had lots of catching up to do with accounting, blogging, showering, and sleeping in. Not to mention JB was in dire need of a haircut! I took care of it, finally, and I think he looks awfully handsome with the new ‘do. Tonight’s show was a real winner. I had a great time and so did Jonas, and hopefully so did the audience. Feeling happy and relaxed (I just finished a very late dinner).

new haircut: so handsome!

Tomorrow we’ll be dropped at the Paris airport bright and early (try 6 am) to pick up our rental car and head to Strasbourg to meet up once again with the TT crew. This part of the tour is pretty confusing… lots of back and forth between our two touring buddy bands and some weird logistics concerning rental cars and festivals etc. But we’ll get through, we always do, and I’ll report back when I can.

Xo,

S.