After re-reading the North of America tour diaries as well as my previous band's tour blog, I thought it would be good to document some of the madness that is the Kestrels summer tour.
We had a few good shows before we took off for the concentrated part of the tour, including a good release show in our native Halifax and three shows in scenic St. John's, Newfoundland. The release show was at Reflections Cabaret back in late June and can be adequately described as "fair". The following weekend we flew to St. John's (hat tip to Peter Andrews of Anteduvia and Veneers for booking us). I had been to St. John's once before, and this trip did not disappoint. Peter picked us up in his Passat (which took me on a nostalgic trip remembering my old Passat) and treated us to a first class vegan BBQ in his backyard.
NOTE: Sriracha sauce has a much hotter counterpart in their chili/garlic combination. Use wisely.
Our first show was at a bar called Rose & Thistle which is set up much like the Khyber when they did downstairs shows. We played a relatively tight set of noise-pop and met up with friends new and old. There is a strong community amongst NFLD music people, and we had a good night at both the door and the merch table. We had some post-show falafel at a late night place called Muhammad Ali's and retired to Peter's place feeling like kings.
The next day was spent hanging around the abandoned military bunkers of Cape Spear (pictures forthcoming) before eating delicious Indian food. I played a short acoustic set at an amazing cafe called Post-Espresso in advance of our big show at The Ship. Playing solo sets is one of the most terrifying experiences imaginable, and including untouchable songs such as "God Only Knows" only raises the stakes, but by all accounts it went off ok. The iced mocha delivered mid-set sweetened the deal considerably.
The final bar show at The Ship was well attended and by all accounts a success. There was the typical push/pull relationship with the soundman who at first loved the fact that I had a Moog MIDI MuRF pedal in my arsenal, but then hated the stage volume that I prefered. We started off as fast friends, but the relationship disintegrated quickly. Post-show involved some record buying from Peter's formidable collection (Holy Molar and Left For Dead entered my record collection), and then back to Peter's for a few hours of sleep. We had teary goodbyes and boarded the plane back to Nova Scotia, quietly anticipating the 6 weeks of touring ahead of us.
Chad