Tour Diary – Moose Jaw, Sask and Winnipeg, Manitoba (June 24 and 25, 2012)

It was a relatively short and uneventful day in Moose Jaw. We stayed overnight in Saskatoon and did the three hour drive to Moose Jaw in the morning. Once we arrived; we sat behind the arena for a few hours; did some exploring of downtown Moose Jaw (not a whole lot happening on a Sunday in Moose Jaw); and watched Italy defeat England in a very uninspired nil-nil match decided by penalty kicks (both teams looking like future speed bumps in Germany’s march to the finals). Another hockey arena tonight, good catering, great sound on stage, great sound in the room and we put together a very good performance. The audience was a little more subdued than those in the BC interior, but they seemed to be listening and we had a pretty good response.
 
After the Moose Jaw show the Mellencamper’s headed out on a 1300+km drive to Thunder Bay. We cut our drive in half by booking a gig in Winnipeg at the West End Cultural Center. It’s been over fifteen years since we did a gig in downtown Winnipeg so we figured since we were driving by, we might as well stop and see what’s shakin’ in the ‘Peg. I know some people (mainly native Winnipeggers’) who love the city. They obviously know it way better than me, but I’m telling you, as someone just dropping in to town for a day, it’s not an inspiring place to visit. There is a lot of civic pride here and it looks like the past fifteen years has brought a bit more life to the downtown core, but much of the city looks like it did a decade and a half ago, sketchy (as my kids would say). The neighborhood around the venue (which isn’t that far from downtown) looks as depressed as it always did, despite the fact that the University of Winnipeg is only a few blocks away. On the up-side, one can apparently by a really nice house and property in the city for very little money and they have a brand spanking new NHL team with a very cool logo.

The audience at the show tonight was fantastic. They listened to the details and it was a great sounding room and stage so we were able to give them plenty of detail. We had a great night. Thank you Winnipeg. Go Jets go.