what a weekend

This was a rock n' roll weekend for sure.




Friday night The Establishment was set to play a show @ The Attic with Die Brucke and our best buddies Orphan Choir from Windsor, Ontario. The entire week the weatherman said a terrible storm would be hitting us Friday, which a) didn't surprise me because The Establishment is cursed and whenever we play in Halifax it either snows like mad or rains so hard you can't see in front of your face, and b) pissed me off as a result of "a" always being right. When I woke up Friday morning though, the sun was out and I thought we were good to grow. Wrong. But the show was happening regardless.

By nightfall the snow started barrelling down, turning into hail, turning into rain, turning the whole city into slush by the time our show was over.

Usually we do quite well @ The Attic crowd-wise, but because of the weather the turnout was rather minimal in comparison. But, that didn't stop us from having fun. It was so awesome to hang out with the guys in Orphan Choir again, they are seriously amazing fellas (they're pictured above, with us - The Establishment). It sucked that the weather was so bad, I really wanted them to play to a good sized crowd in Halifax. Regardless, the people who did brave the weather to come were excellent and they really enjoyed the show - so it wasn't a total bust.

Saturday morning I woke up to gorgeous sunshine, and +5 weather - a stark contrast to the night before. I went and rented a car and we got set for a road trip to Fredericton where we were playing another show with Orphan Choir and a band from Fredericton called Them, The Ragtag. To our awesome surprise, earlier in the week, we found out that this was yet another band that Nick Cobham and Steve Dunn (of The Fussy Part) were involved with. So, as always, it would be good to see them again.

The drive up was pain-free, the weather was nice. Nicole (my gf) and our friend Vanessa came along for the ride.

We played at a bar called The Capital, where we always play, but they have done some excellent rennovations in there so now there's a good sound system, an awesome stage and lots more standing room. Gorgeous.

Fredericton is always really fun (my fav. place to play in the Maritimes) and Saturday was no exception. The crowd was excellent, all the bands were excellent and we got to hang out with some awesome people, including our pal Derek who comes to every show and puts us up whenever we're in town.

We stuck around the bar for quite a long time, then said our farewells to Orphan Choir who had to start the drive to Ottawa that night. Those guys are seriously awesome. I can't wait for our split to be done. And the good thing is, we'll be seeing them in two weeks when we go to Ontario with Sleepless Nights. Hot damn.

Sunday morning we had to get up at 7:30, despite only going to bed at like 4:30, because Pinky and I had to be back in Halifax for a matinee show with Sleepless Nights at the Pavilion. Thanks to the wonderful driving of my girlfriend, we made it home right on time, returned the rental car and then hit the Pavilion for the show with our pals Gamma Gamma Rays and a band from Ontario called The Most Serene Republic (best known for being on Arts & Crafts and for housing ex-members of Broken Social Scene).

For a show on a Sunday afternoon, I thought the crowd was great. I always look forward to hanging out/playing with Gamma Gamma Rays - they're a lot of fun.

The weekend left me completely exhausted, and I still have so much work to do before we leave for the Sleepless Nights tour to Ontario on Friday...