Conquest of Quebec

28 Nov 2009 Tour Diary Conquest of Quebec, Rouyn Noranda, Val d'Or

Tour Diary – the Conquest of Quebec – Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, QC (Nov 26 and 27, 2009)

Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, QC (Nov 26 and 27, 2009)

You might need a little help locating this one on the map: head NNE from Toronto and keep on going, past Algonquin Park, past where all of those pesky roads seem to end, way up there, a little to the East of a town named Timmins. This is the real deal: a frontier town, which, in North America, is very rare in this day an age. Up here there is precious little English spoken, even ordering a BLT from the local Tim Horton’s you best know a few key French words, like, oui, non, blanc, B L T. It’s not exactly the most scenic of towns, it’s functional, built to withstand the onslaught of winter, built to accommodate those in the business of extracting things from the earth. A very basic place.

Walking around these streets you really begin to understand what keeps the separatist movement going in Quebec. This is another country; the large Canada signs on the sides of the fortress like Federal buildings look very out of place. The Fleur-de-Lys flies a little prouder than the occasional Maple Leaf that you might come across. For the average guy on the street, Canada must seem a very fuzzy, distant and inconsequential concept. From my point of view, I love the idea that within my own country I can feel so “out-of-town”.

It was a very nice little theater tonight, beautiful sound on stage and excellent sound in the auditorium. Unfortunately there were very few people in attendance. I thought we played a really good show…one of those tightly played, snarling affairs. I’m not sure if we made much of an impression on Rouyn-Noranda. Hopefully there was at least one person in the audience who walked out of there thinking, ”….man, that was cool….”.

Val D’Or is a relatively short, ninety minute ride east from Rouyn-Noranda. It was a grey, wet day. The steady, cold drizzle, the theater being a bit too far out of town, made me think twice about hoofing it in to town. So I spent the day on the bus, a depressing way to spend a day. The alternate was to spend it in the rotting motel on the highway, the bus seemed the better choice. I watched seven episodes of an Australian comedy show called Summer High (or something like that). It was very disturbing and very funny.

We had what I would call a disheartened show tonight: which is probably the worst kind, from a performer’s point of view. It was a very decent little theater inside of a huge local high school, pretty decent production, a very helpful crew, but a tiny audience. I hope we gave them enough.

We head back tonight. I’m not sure if I’d call it a “Conquest”, more like a brief forage, but, overall, we had fun these past couple of weeks bouncing around the highways of Quebec. We have a gig in Miami next week for our friend Enrique Martinez Celaya and then we have some serious work to do in the studio. Have a great holiday. Keep your eyes on this blog for updates about the studio and for news on upcoming Latent stuff.

We’ll be back on the road in March.

22 Nov 2009 Tour Diary Conquest of Quebec, Quebec City

Tour Diary – The Conquest of Quebec – Quebec City, QC (Nov 21, 2009)

Michael Timmins

People in other parts of Canada tend to get pissed off at Quebec on a regular basis. It is such a different culture, a different attitude towards the way one lives a life, they are just so darn different from us: and people tend to get pissed off at things that are different from them. The thing about Quebec is that its mere presence, its simple confoundedness, is what makes Canada unique, different, special. It’s why we are who we are.

We are thinking about doing an album in French and touring though Quebec, exclusively, for the next couple of years. Leave North America without leaving the continent, come to Quebec.

Quebec City is such a beautiful and sophisticated place. If ever a city could be called “charming”, this is it. Even the overabundance of souvenir shops can’t take away from its charm. It’s the most unique city on this continent. If you are looking for a destination for that ever elusive romantic weekend getaway, look no further, you won’t be disappointed.

We had an amazing night. We played in a beautiful theater (La Palais Montcalm) and had a surprisingly large crowd (we’ve only played here once in the past twenty-five years and that was at a festival). The audience was not only large, but incredibly enthusiastic and attentive. We played two sets and they stuck with us through both.

Tomorrow we head back to Toronto for a couple of days before we climb on board a bus and head north into the real Quebec…north into the unknown…Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, here we come.

21 Nov 2009 Tour Diary Conquest of Quebec, Montreal, Sherbrooke

Tour Diary – The Conquest of Quebec – Montreal and Sherbrooke, QC (November 18 – 20, 2009)

Michael Timmins

I had my morning coffee in a small café off of Sherbrooke Street, serenaded by that penultimate Quebec songbird, Celine Dion. If it’s Celine this must be Montreal.

Technically, this is our hometown…at least it’s where we grew up. Once a Montrealer, always a Montrealer. Its part of our genetic code. The thing about Montreal is that it never seems to change. It’s an old city and set in its ways; sophisticated, urbane and confident. Sherbrooke Street always maintains its old-world class; Ste Catherine never rises above its slightly sleezy strip-club chique; Old Montreal is always the perfectly preserved glimpse into a very distant past; Crescent Street is always hopping come nightfall; tight jeans and bad ‘70s rock never goes out of style; the Decarie Expressway is always jammed.

Another thing about Montreal that never changes is that it is always a great city in which to perform; the audiences are always knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I don’t think we’ve ever had a truly bad show in this city. This time through we had two shows over two nights at a new club in town, The Astral, which is run by the Montreal Jazz Festival and part of their new headquarters. It’s not a bad little club, a bit sterile, but that might change with time. It’s got great production and is intelligently laid out. We had two pretty good shows, the second night was a notch better than the first, and we debuted three new songs, Stranger Here, Staring Man and Little Dark Heart. Overall it was a nice way to start our Conquest of Quebec Tour, in a familiar environment, before we head deeper into the unknown.

Sherbrooke isn’t exactly heart-of-darkness territory, but it’s an introductory taste to small town Quebec. We have never played here. The town is located about two hours east of Montreal in the Eastern Townships, which is an area of lakes and ski hills that was, at one time, the play-land for English Montreal. Our grandparents had a cottage in Magog, about 20 minutes from Sherbrooke, where we spent a lot of time in the summer and winter. There is still a healthy mix of English and French in these parts, but the sophistication that one finds in Montreal does not travel off of the island. Our lodgings tonight were at La Payesanne Motel. The rooms had that 70’s porn flic décor and they smelled like…well…they smelled like old motel rooms.

The gig tonight was at Centennial Hall, located on the campus of Bishops University. A little run down, but not a bad venue. It was an odd night on stage. The audience felt kind of distant, both physically and mentally. We did a kind of low-revving, heavy, kind of show. It was hard to tell what it sounded like in the audience or how it was received.