Part two
Day Nine (Ottawa - Quebec City - Montreal to Hamilton - February 26th)
I’m currently sitting in the car - listening to the new Johnny Cash record. We’re on our way to Hamilton for the show tonight. Its been a couple of days since I’ve written anything down, so here are some thoughts, and words about what we’ve been up to for the past few days.
From Thessalon we kept on east to Ottawa. We didn’t really know where we were going to be staying in Ottawa. its one of the only cities on this tour where we did not really know anyone there. I’ve used this website called couch surfing - how it works is you go on, search the city where you’re heading, and it brings up a whole list of members who have couches or floor space for you to stay and make use of. I came across a guy named Xavier, seemed like a nice enough guy, so we got in touch with him. He wasn’t able to let us stay at his house - but he got us in touch with some friends of his who are also musicians. it was all very last minute, as we pulled into Ottawa at around 8:00.
So we arrive at this house where we don’t know anyone who lives there - little did we know that we would become such good friends with these people by the time we were to leave. We had such a good time at that house with those people - we watched a french movie (with subtitles) - shared a few drinks - had a good number of laughs and tried so hard to speak french - as they all spoke french as their first language.
The second night we were in Ottawa we got the chance to play this small and intimate house concert just down the street from where we were staying - at this house called the Tree House. At first it seemed as though it might be sort of weird, poorly attended - and surprisingly enough it ended up being the best show of tour up to that point. We enjoyed it so much. Thank you Ottawa for taking such good care of us - we’re glad to say that next time we come back to Ottawa we’ll have some folks to call friends.
After playing in Ottawa we made the drive from Ottawa to Quebec City. It was all of our first times to the city. We drove through what was probably the worst weather we’d seen yet, but we made it alright! Little did we know that most of Quebec City is strictly french speaking. Most of us can shoot the breeze in french - hello, good bye, how are you, etc - but none of us can fluently speak the language. It made it sort of tough doing anything - but it was very interesting at the same time.
It is truly interesting and fascinating to be in a place where you cannot really correspond with the people who live there.
The show in Quebec City was fairly last minute - but we were super thankful to Jon, who booked the show. We played to a small but attentive crowd and enjoyed every minute of it. Especially Andy’s encore song “Petite Poisson.”
The next day we continued back west towards Montreal in the snow and sleet. I’ve been to Montreal before and have a handful of friends there, so its always really good to go back. The first thing on the agenda in Montreal was to gorge our selves with some real Montreal Poutine. We went down to La Banqouis with our friends Nic and Jacynthe. I think most of us felt fairly ill afterwards - thats when you know you’ve had a good poutine. We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out around Montreal, taking in some sights and then headed to Cafe Shaika. The show was fairly good - but I think by that time in the day the weather and finally caught up with us and we were all sort of glum. It was still a great night though - I can truly say that I love the city of Montreal.
I’m really excited for this next week. We’re playing a lot of shows that I think should be really cool - Hamilton tonight, Waterloo tomorrow, Toronto Tuesday, etc. If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, hopefully you can make it out to a show or two.
Thats all for now.