This was definitely a weird way to start a tour, but a welcome one. This gig dropped in our laps a few weeks ago along with a big bag of change. Today the Hudson Bay Company (which is a large Canadian retail chain) unveiled their line of Olympic wear for the upcoming 2010 Winter Games which are taking place here in Vancouver. They also held a party to celebrate the opening of their Olympic superstore in which all of their Olympic swag will be sold. We were part of the celebration and played a sixty minute set in the store along with a couple of other Canadian acts; Dan Mangan and Sam Roberts. It was a standard in-store performance under bright fluorescent lights with a hundred or so people milling about. Later that evening we were shuttled over to the cocktail party soiree where the company was schmoozing all of the sponsors. We played a fifteen minute set that was listened to by no one. There was polite applause after the first song, the DJ politely applauded after the second song (he was feeling sorry for us) and by the third song we might as well have gone home: of all the species of geese in the world the Canada goose is the most hardy and vocal. In any case this was your classic “crank and bank”, not the most satisfying type of gig to play but they help to fill in the financial gaps. We fly home tomorrow, get in around the kids bedtime and leave the next day on the bus before sun up. It’s a lot of hassle and travelling but, as I said, it’s well worth it, from a bottom line point of view.
These last two months have been off for the band. August was dedicated to family vacations and enjoying the final few weeks of Summer (which is a real necessity up here in the North). September was focused on outside projects and everyone getting their kids settled back in to school. I did a bit of writing and did some studio work with Mary Gauthier. It’s always hard to start up again…but always exciting and fun once you get back at it.
Tour dates are beginning to trickle in for the spring of 2010. Tickets are already on sale for shows in St. Cloud, MN, and Brownfield, ME. We’re looking forward to returning to both places. Lots more to come!
For those of you that can access the CBC: This Beat Goes On and Rise Up, the documentaries on the history of Canadian music in the 1970s and ’80s will be on CBC Aug. 27th, Sept. 3rd., Sept. 10th and Sept. 17 at 9 p.m. EST on all nights. Michael and Margo are interviewed in This Beat Goes On about the influence of the 70’s scene on the Junkies music and about the Junkies contribution to the 80’s scene in Rise Up.
Just in case you folks haven’t had the chance to check out some of the other artists on the new Latent Recordings website, I thought I’d point the occasional finger…in a good way…
Lee Harvey Osmond is the brainchild of Tom Wilson who has been on the music scene as long as we have. His new creation includes a whole lot of Latent friends including Josh and Andy from The Skydiggers as well as a couple of duets with Margo, Alan and Pete doing their thing and me playing some wacky lead guitar and sitting in the producers chair. It’s and incredible album and something of which we are all extremely proud.
Lee will be touring with us in October and he is as engaging live as he is on cd. Check out this live clip if you don’t believe me.
Please take the time to listen to the album and if you like it, buy it. You’ll be doing your part to support inspired independant music.
We just got word from our friends at Mountain Stage that they will be airing our May 2007 appearance this weekend, July 31-August 2. A complete list of stations that
carry Mountain Stage can be found here.
The following week the performance will be posted here and
archived for continued access.
Spokane, WA, Eagle, ID and Missoula, MT (July 23, 24 and 25)
We have never been through Spokane before. We’re not quite sure why we’ve missed it because it seems to be a happening little city. The cab driver that I had today said that the city has had a healthy growth spurt in the past few years, picking off some of the corporations from Portland and Seattle that are trying to reduce some costs. The city has a very mid-western vibe to it; clean wide streets, solid four story brick buildings, a citizenry very aware of pedestrian signals. I’ve never gotten more consistent flack for walking against signals, even with no cars in sight. Cars come to a complete stop if you step off the curb when it’s not your turn; some old man threatened to run me down with his pick-up truck if I ever tried to walk against a light again. It must be a reaction to the methamphetamine problem in these parts, control what you can, come down hard on any and all law breakers. In any case, it seems like a decent place.
Tonight was our first true theater gig of this run, a beautifully renovated Fox Theater no less. We had great sound on stage, great sound in the theater, and a very receptive audience. It’s always fun to play the outdoor venues in the summer but they really aren’t the best venues for the type of music we perform. We usually end up fighting the sound on stage and the dynamics and subtleties of the performance are often lost. It takes a theater gig like this to remember what we are all about.
We are somewhere outside of Boise today, if you are interested in finding us on the map, because I’m not sure you’ll be able to find Eagle, Idaho.The venue is the Wood River Winery: a tract of land in the middle of potato country, on the edge of a housing development, that’s been turned into a vineyard…this ain’t the Napa Valley. But the owners are trying hard and have gussied the place up with a fountain, some arbours, lots of vegetation and a few Botchie Ball courts (go figure) and apparently the wine is pretty good too (although I suspect that it has been shipped in from California and rebottled…just kidding). We were treated extremely well and if it weren’t for the 97 degree temperature it would have been a decent place to hang out for the day. Despite the heat, Jeff and Al had a raging game of Botchie Ball, with Jeff coming out on top.
If the gig in Spokane was an example of sculpting a set of music with a set of fine carving tools then tonight was the equivalent of sculpting with a chainsaw. It was a Friday night crowd in the middle of July and they wanted to whoop it up and who can blame them…so we whooped it up. Not exactly my favourite type of set to play. Usually one just needs to give in to it and go with the flow, but tonight was difficult because of how tired we all are. One more show, one more very long drive.
This country gets very big out here. The drives get longer, more scenic, but longer. At least we are in a bus, which is difficult enough; the Son Volt band and crew are in a van, which is real dedication and real work.
I don’t think we’ve been to Missoula Montana before. We weren’t anywhere near the center of town today so I never really got a feel for the place, but it’s surrounded by a whole lot of beautiful open space. I wouldn’t want to live here, but every time we come through this part of the country it makes me want to start planning an extended road trip with my family. It’s just such a beautiful part of the world and it would be nice to take some time rolling through it.
Tonight was a nice way to end the tour: a sold out show in a decent, functional theater on the University of Montana campus. It’s been a grind and we are all running on fumes but we dug deep into our reserves tonight and had a decent show. By the end of it we were sputtering but we made it thanks to a very good audience. It’s been a fun run of dates and although the promoters would argue that the co-bill wasn’t as successful at the box office as they would have hoped, from our point of view it has been a good experience. It’s been a pleasure to listen to Son Volt every night and it’s always a pleasure to be on the West coast in the summer. We head home tomorrow to spend the rest of the summer with our families and to continue to chip away at the new album. There will be some intriguing offers being made through our website in the next month so check back in every now and then, better yet, get on our mailing list so that we can let you know what is going on. Keep safe and enjoy the rest of your summer.
I don’t think that this has ever happened to us before. Our Vancouver show was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. I am not completely surprised. We played a pretty big gig in Vancouver last summer in the same venue, we had a decent turnout for that show, but there wasn’t the type of demand that warrants a return just twelve months later, especially without a new album. It’s tough enough playing indoor gigs in the summer in Vancouver without overplaying the market. I guess the promoter felt that with the addition of Son Volt on the bill we could do the business, again. No such luck. We didn’t find out that the gig was cancelled until we had checked in to our Vancouver hotel; the promoter was desperately trying to make this work right up until the last minute.So what was to be one day off in Vancouver turned in to two.Fortunately we were booked in to the Wedgewood Hotel the nicest, plushest, most comfortable hotel of the tour and all for a decent price. The Wedgewood is also located right in the heart of all that is happening in downtown Vancouver; it has a great bar from which to watch all the street action, and, man, there is a lot of street action. We had perfect weather for our little sabbatical, we spent way too much money, went to way too many bad movies, paid way too much for too much bad food and drank way too much overprice booze.It was time well spent.
I’ve never really been able to get a handle on Vancouver, the seedy side of the place has always overshadowed everything else, but these couple of days spent in the city with nothing to do but wander around has given me a new appreciation. There is no doubting the beauty of the location; the BC coast is about as stunning as it gets. Over the past couple of decades the city planners have worked hard at opening up the city to the large natural harbor that it sits on and they have done a remarkable job, despite the ongoing battle against private developers and the condo mania. It’s a beautiful city and absolutely dripping with money….a few too many homeless people, drug addicts and sex workers on its streets, but that seems to be the norm for all of the coastal cities out here.
What a difference a couple of hundred miles and an international border makes. Tonight’s show was jammed packed, a 4000 people sell out. Oh well…these are the vicissitudes of touring.
Todays gig was at the Seattle Zoo. A day at the zoo is always a good way to spend some time no matter how old you are. What’s not to like when you can wander backstage and visit with the Sloth Bear, Snow Leopard and Humbolt Penguins. The downside to this type of gig is the limited amount of playing time. The animals need their sleep so curfews at these venues are very strict. Tonight we had an 8:30 curfew which meant each band only got an hour on stage. It was our turn to go on first tonight so we loaded in at 3:30, sound-checked at 4:30, hit the stage at 6 and were done by 7. A very focused day. We had a decent show, not the greatest sound on stage, but a very good audience especially for this type of venue, where a large chunk of the crowd is there because it’s an easy and inexpensive night out with the family and a fun way to check out some music that one might not be too familiar with.
After the show we were taken on a behind the scenes tour of the new penguin exhibit. The last time here we were treated to dinner with the Grizzly Bears, so the penguins were a bit of a letdown, but still pretty cool and very much appreciated…it’s just hard to beat six inch long claws and a head the size of a bean bag chair.
We have added October 2009 shows in Lexington, MI; Three Oaks, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; Pittsburgh, PA; Carrboro, NC; Lewisburg, WV (our third Carnegie Hall!!!); South Orange, NJ; Easton, MD; Vienna, VA; Blacksburg, VA; and Black Mountain, NC.
We are also going to be in Quebec in November 2009: Montreal; Sherbrooke; Quebec City; Rouyn Noranda; and Val d’Or.
Check out the TOUR tab above for further information.
Sacramento, CA – Jacksonville and Portland, OR (July 17, 18 and 19)
Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho; my favourite part of any west coast swing. I love this area of the country. Tonight we were at the Montalvo Arts Center on the outskirts of Saratoga. Our regular play in this area for the past decade has been the Mountain Winery, one of our favourite venues in the country, but they recently did an upgrade to their facility and added 750 new seats which made the venue a little bit too big for us. Fortunately the Montalvo Art Center is about as perfect a replacement as one could hope for. This is a beautiful outdoor venue. The building that now houses the art center was built as a private house in the early 1900’s by James Phelan, the youngest mayor in San Francisco’s history and a US Senator. It was the center of political and social life in Northern California. Phelan invited artists of all stripes to visit his home and to use it as a retreat to work on individual artistic projects but in an environment conducive to cross-discipline dialogue. On his death Phelan willed the villa and the 175 acres of property to become a public space dedicated to the development of art, literature, architecture and music…and so it is. It’s an incredible piece of land, set a few hundred feet above the city on the side of a hill populated by redwoods, spruce, cypress and many more that I couldn’t identify: a spectacular place….in some ways it’s even better than the Mountain Winery.
We had a good show tonight, I think. I didn’t personally have that good a time. I’ve lost my mojo, which can happen from time to time. So my feel for what is going on, on stage is heavily skewed by my own troubles. It’s a loss of touch, a loss of feel for ones instrument and an inability to feel the connection through the instrument to the other players on stage. When this state of being strikes, one has to put down ones head and gut it out, search for that performance that will lift you out of it, dig for your mojo.
It was a good size audience tonight, with a lot of enthusiasm. I thought Son Volt sounded excellent.
We’ve played the Brit Festival in Jacksonville three or four times in the past and it is always a very welcome stop. This area is a spectacular little piece of Oregonian paradise and this venue is about as beautiful as they come. The venue sits on the side of a hill just above the town, the stage facing up the hill to the audience who sits in amongst giant Ponderosa Pines. People come with their family and picnics and set up for an evening of music. We had a very good show; lots of energy from the crowd, which helped our own energy. I think I found my mojo. It was hiding in one of the travel cases, now I just need to coax it out.
Portland has for many years been one of our favourite cities to visit in North America (it might even be our favourite). Over the past two decades of coming here it has slowly grown and evolved but it seems to have evolved for the better and not lost that peculiar flavour that makes it such a good place to hang out. There is a popular bumper sticker in town that states, “Keep Portland Weird”, which kind of sums it up. The locals seem to know what they got, and aren’t about to let it go without a fight. Unfortunately our hotel was way the hell out of town and the gig (the Aladdin Theater) was also across the river from the downtown core, so there were no easy walking excursions available. Some of us weren’t going to be robbed of our Portland fix, so Al, Tim and I jumped in a cab and headed downtown. Tim and I scoured some of the finer instrument stores, made the pilgrimage to Powell’s (the best book store on the planet), bought a dozen doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnuts (one of the best doughnut makers west of the Doughnut Plant in NYC), stocked up on some See’s Candy lollipops (to appease the rabble back home) and called it a day. The gig tonight was awesome…and it’s all because of the audience: another reason that Portland is so high on our list, the audiences are amazing. This was our sixth show in six nights, our eleventh show in twelve nights, but the audience refused to let our energies flag. Their enthusiasm was infectious; they coaxed my mojo out of the travel case and back in my pocket where it belongs. It looked and sounded like Son Volt had an equally great time…they were full on rocking tonight. Tomorrow we have a much needed day off in Vancouver. I plan to do a whole lot of nothing.
