artist Meatdraw

Nothing brings a band together like a good brawl! We in MeatDraw are generally pacifists, butwe know oppertunistic therapy when we see it.
That's why after a good two weeks of touring MeatDraw goes looking to throw a fist or 2. The optimal way to fulfill this need is to get in a fight with another touring band, that way you can kill two birds with one stone.

We were fortunate enough to be presented with the opportunity to have our butts kicked in Montreal, the zenith of our tour.

We had found an optimal parking spot outside Le Divan Orange, a rare opportunity indeed. My brother held the spot while Marek grabbed the van a few locks away. But after a minute or two another car showed up wanting the spot. My brotehr stood his ground and told the car to move along, the spot was taken, we had several tonnes of gear to move into the club. The driver ignored him, started to pull into the spot and ran over my brother's foot.

My brother is a hot headed fellow at the best of times. but he managed to keep his cool for a few minutes. Mostly i think he was just in shock from the unexpected rudeness. He stood on the sidewalk while the driver and passengers removed themselves from the car. "Hey we're musicians too man, we need to unload here.."

Needless to say this was the opening needed to throw the first guitar amp
(always pack a small, light amp combo-amp, you can throw them farther and faster than a Marshall stack). While we were fast, they were a little faster, and if it were not for Lily Fawn (the smallest and most dangerous of us all) and Korma, her canine companion we would have been toast.

We didnt get our parking spot in the end, but we got some crap off our chests and played a killer show because of it. THANKS MONTREAL!

.....drool....
oh where to start...
well Winnipeg was amazing. Friendly faces galore! We showed up at Mayor Matt Allen's house and within a 10hour period he managed to serve us 3 gormet freshly made meals. Christine Fellows and John Samson made an appearances at the show, we also met the dudes from Hot Panda fresh back from a European tour.

but enough name dropping, on with the yet another horror story about a touring band trapped in the Canadian Shield.
Let me start by saying propane is a wonderful fuel. It's environmental footprint is small, it lends a long life to any engine that burns it, and it is about as common diesel fuel.....if you are west of Manitoba.

As soon as we hit the Ontario border we had come across a propane dead-zone. However, we really were not aware of this yet.
We rolled on, confident that there would be something up the road, surely Dryden, one of the few 10,000+ population towns would have it.
It did not. We kept moving. but not for long.

We ran out of fuel 2.5K outside of Upsala. Fortunatley we had a spare tank with us that holds about 12Liters for just such an occasion. Unfortunatley we didnt have a clue as to what we were doing, and incorrectly added the fuel tot he tank. The gas and air in the tank co-mingled and caused the tank to want to spit the fuel out. Worried about driving with a constant leak of air and propane gas (albiet a much much smaller gas to air ratio), we stood on the side of the dark highway wondring how the hell we would make our Thunder Bay gig. It was 10PM and we were about 180Kilometers away still with enough fuel for about 24K and it was slowly leaking out of the tank.
Things looked bleak.
But ther is more...
In the distance an oncoming semi-truck swerved and it's headlight went out. Marek went to inspect the situation. About 1/4 of a Kilometer up the road the semi had hit a huge moose. The poor animal lay in the middle of the road obstructing traffic one way, while he semi pulled partially off to the side held up the opposing traffic. It seemed we were in even more of a pickle.
But sometimes salvation comes in the most unlikely of ways.

 Korma, our canine travelling companion, quickly came to the rescue. Korma, known for his unsatisfiable appetite, could smell the fresh moose meat, and it awakend his inner wolf. He ran down the road to the carcass and began to feast. Within minutes he had devoured about 400 pounds of meat and had grown in size, as if some enchanting property of the moose's flesh had given him magical abilites. He returned to the van and we looked up to him in wonderment. Korma licked his lips and lay on the ground in front of us beckoning us to climb on his back, we obliged unsure as to what he had planned. Once we were all on his back he picked up the van carefully between his teeth and began to run towards the lights of the tiny town of Upsala.

Last night I got to play drums with the amazing cutie patutie band - WOMEN.
We rocked so hard I grew a pair of hairy man balls AND a sweaty ass crack. (The Exchange - Regina)
WONDERFUL
We traded CDs and hugs, then spent the rest of the night drinking Belgium beer and eating pizza to celebrate Marco Bozenich's BIRTHDAY. (our big white tour van adorned with Birthday decorations).  What a good time. 
Women, I love you!
I hadn't seen them since we played together a few years ago, they were called Varitas back then.  They are still as charming and as NUTSO as ever.

Drove from Calgary to Regina to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo (also my birthday).
Along the way we were overtaken by a salt storm, a result of crazy prairie winds sweeping across the salt lakes of Saskatchewan.
We made it to the show and threw some Frisbee around with Patt, Matt, and Chris of Calgary band Women. Turns out their drummer Mike was attending his Grandfather's  funeral, so Marek and Lily stepped in and played with them for thier set.
Tuesday night gigs in Regina can be rough, thankfuly the huge regina band Library voices showed up to fill the dance-floor void.

Hit the road yesterday, and it all went surprisingly smooth.
played a show with Vancouver band Winter Mitts.

We also aided in the loss of 13% CBC Radio 3's listeners when we hosted an on-air meat draw. When news of the publicly aired meat raffle reached the vegan listening community, an on-line revolt began within minutes. A Facebook group was started urging listeners to protest CBC Radio 3....at least until the meat draw was over.

There is rumor the numbers of the grou pmay have reached near 250,000 strong! That's nearly 800 times the size of MeatDraw's fanbase dear readers!

onward to Kelowna to play with fellow Victorians The Listening Party.