artist The Maynards

Okay - that was a lie to see if you're paying attention - winter is awful! Although the last week has been awesome despite the frigid temperatures.
Oh middle week of January 2009 - what times you brought us.

It was a show filled blitz of music and pals, starting with a mid-week dance party at a newish venue in Halifax called the Blue Moon.  The dance floor was packed for great sets from local heros The Gideons and the Stance. The Maynards rounded off the night and sure it was scrappy but it was punchy too and what do you expect for after midnight on a school night?  Note to dudes who seemed to never have been to a rock show before - it's really not cool to tap the bass player on the shoulder mid-set and try to talk to her, even if you are trying to compliment her playing.

Thursday night was the biggest night we've ever seen at Gus' Pub - and a night that was both a great party and a sad ole time.  A night of KISS covers performed by tonnes of local bands all in remembrance of Peter Roberts - a Gus' bartender and great all round guy (who loved to talked about KISS) who passed away between Christmas and New Year's Eve.  In one of the Maynards first attempts ever at playing covers we hit out "Lick It Up" and Detroit Rock City" with our pal Erica from the Stolen Minks kicking in second guitar.  Peter would have been proud.

Saturday night we hit Stereophonic - a fundraiser for CHMA radio at MT. Allison University in Sackville, NB. Oh, George's Road House you are a fun place to play and see a show.  We lucked out and were on the same bill as our aforementioned pals The Stance and the lovely ladies from the Stolen Minks. Check out our giant band photo that we took after we'd all played.

Sunday was more show fun with the Stolen Minks - in Truro with two great local bands Pig and Genetic Angry in the basement rec room of the TAAC  (a facility who's acronym I still haven't figured out - although I'm pretty sure the "T" stands for Truro).  There was a big ole snowstorm a-blowing outside, but lots of folks still came out for the show. The drive back to Halifax wasn't much fun but everyone agreed it was worth it.

This week - more touring mayhem in Vancouver and Calgary! Can't wait to see our pals the B-lines and meet Calgary's Pine Tarts. Rock 'n roll!

Monday December 1:

6:45am - depart Toronto

Tuesday December 2:

4:10am - arrive Halifax


zzzzzzzzzzz

Sunday night = Wavelength and good rockin times.  On November 30, 2008 it also meant a severe storm warning and a pile of rain - but that didn't stop the rock.  A good omen leading up the event when KP got ID'd at the Beer Store and then a solid night of rock fun with School Jerks (who had a fan ejected from the venue within 2 minutes of them starting to play - that's PUNK), my new favourite band The Pink Noise, and the nicest industrial band you've ever met First Person Shooter.

Seriously, Toronto - we love you. Thanks for braving the wild weather. It seemed like you enjoyed yourself: especially this guy

 Two shows in two nights with our pals Horses from Toronto.  The hilarity of our traveling over 1800 km from Halifax to Hamilton in a station wagon packed to the roof with gear was never so obvious as when we pulled into the parking lot of Pepper Jacks in Hamilton to find Horses ambling out of their 14 passenger van which they drove from Toronto. They might have had leg room, but we had coziness on our side. Or so were saying.

Oh southern Ontario towns - you are a fickle lot. Our rocking was true but your crowds were small.  We had a fun show in Hamilton with localish lads Sandman Viper Command and then headed back to Toronto for the night.  Our Guelph show was organized by Brad from Elbow Beach/Billy Club and featured - among other mysteries of Guelph - a pub crawl of Santas passing through.

Armed with ipods loaded with local music and comedy records we hit the road from Fredericton to make the journey to Quebec City.  We were excited to visit the snowy streets of old Quebec before our show and managed to make a few touristy stops despite having only an hour or so to peek around.

Our show in Quebec City was at l'Agitée -- a cool little co-op bar and was organized by our pal Sam who plays in a bunch of great bands, including Lesbo Vrouven.  We shared the bill with Les Mammographes, a newish band on the Quebec City scene who had brought out a tonne of friends to see the show, who offered us pizza and whose set included cardboard swords, a leotard sporting storm trooper and the drummer almost loosing an ear to a confettii bomb. Needless to say, no one was disappointed by their performance. Although the Maynards were saddened to not pick up one of their EPs which disappeared in a sea of 5 dollar bills after the show.

First show of tour is slightly nervewracking and Heath and KP weren't helped by their lack of french skills. Chantal to the rescue - she chatted and charmed and kicked out the drums, KP even managed to try and make a few little jokes.  The picture above is of a note someone in the crowd gave us after the show.

Ahh, Quebec, our visit was too short. So snowy and beautiful and with lots of great new friends. We can't wait to come back.

The Maynards are a bit new to this whole blogging business, but we were hella jealous of the blog our pals The Stolen Minks put together on their recent megatour - so we thought we'd give it a chance.

There's nothing the Maynards love more than a good minitour - and we're heading out from Halifax today to start a blizt of Quebec and Eastern Ontario.  We're packing up the Subaru and hitting the road to play shows in Quebec City, Hamilton, Guelph and Toronto. GPS unit and CAA memberships are at the ready.

First stop - a detour to Fredericton - where no one seems to want to book shows on a Wednesday. But we're gonna crash with our pals Chris and Dawn - and deliver Chris copies of the new Memories Attack cd. His own band - and he doesn't have copy yet!

Quebec City and Hamilton are new towns for us - so spread the word to your pals in those towns. Guelph, Toronto - we'll see you soon old pals.