It's Been A While Torches And Tragedies.

I realized today that I have not updated this blog in over a month. So it's 2009, George W. Bush is no longer the king of the U.S. and the band is finally taking off. On the weekend of January 16th, we did a weekend with After The Fall and Endover in Canada. Besides being the most excruciating and painful cold that I've dealt with in a long time, it was an awesome weekend. We started in Ottawa, then headed over to Montreal and ended in Burlington on Sunday. Canadians for the most part, beat the perpetuated stereotype of lumberjacks and hockey enthusiasts and actually stand taller as welcoming hosts with a penchant for good pilsners.

The small bit of Canadian culture that I was able to witness is a million times more interesting than anything in New England. The strangest thing to me, is language. In Quebec, the province where Montreal is located, the primary language is French, yet the minute you cross over into the province of Ontario, where Ottawa is located, everything is primarily in English and French 2nd. I imagine this because Ottawa is relatively close to the border of Quebec. This kid who put us up at his house in Ottawa, said that French basically disappears 20 miles west of Ottawa. I guess I find it extremely interesting that the province of Quebec is the only French speaking part of Canada. I would like to know how it came to be so distinct and secular from the rest of Canada. So, far all you U.S. citizens who think that all Canadians speak French, you are wrong. It is just in Quebec. People in British Columbia don't speak French, they speak English (well I'm sure a few people can, but it's not like the street signs are in French, like they are in Quebec). Quebec also happens to be right above VT, NY, NH and ME. Yet somehow something as artificial and unnatural as a border, completely changes the language of choice. It really does baffle me. It also depresses me how much of the world is bilingual and Americans are not. I guess it is part hegemony, part laziness.

So how did the shows go? They were pretty cool. Unfortunately Cafe Deckuf in Ottawa had a very strict age policy and anyone who was under the drinking age of 19 had to leave after their band played, meaning our singer Conor was asked to leave immediately after our set. Really, it's fucking bullshit, considering he's straight edge anyways. We honestly had no idea that the show wasn't all ages until we got there. I felt bad for Conor, so I left the show with him after our set. Luckily a really nice guy who was friends with the promoter, named Tome let us stay at his apartment for a while. He was a huge music geek and had thousands of records, tapes and CDs. Needless to say, Conor and I were having just as much fun checking out his collection. They also made Antoine, the singer of Endover leave the show, even though he was 18 (which is legal in Quebec). Antoine was fucking awesome. We had a lot in common as far as movies, music and other nerdy pop culture shit. The thing that bummed me out the most, was the Conor and Antoine missed After The Fall's set back at the venue.

Seriously, it must have been -30 degrees that entire weekend in Canada, yet we were out walking around in Ottawa in Montreal, exploring everything. Actually we did more walking around in Ottawa, because we got there early and were staying at Jeff's house, meaning we had time to explore. One awesome record shop had ALL's "Problematic" on 12" color vinyl. I should have picked that up. After The Fall are such huge stoners. Bruce and I decided to go bar-hopping with them at midnight and they seriously smoked at least 5 joints in a few hours. We went to this one bar, where the bartender had a huge green mohawk and weighed like 300 pounds. Seriously, there were so many hot girls in Ottawa. It was very painful. It only got worse when we were in Montreal the next day.

Jeff was nice enough to make us awesome pancakes for breakfast when we woke up. Unfortunately, they weren't vegan! Whatever, I just ate thai peanut noodles. We got a little lost trying to get out of Ottawa and Ontarion, but we eventually made it back over to Montreal. The worst part about driving in my car is that the windows don't stop fogging up and eventually just keep freezing, when it's cold as it was in Canada. It's a miracle I didn't get side-swiped by anybody, because I could barely see out of any window except the one in front of me, which was hard enough to keep clear.

So the show in Montreal was much better than the show in Ottawa, although I had more fun walking around Ottawa. In Montreal, the venue L'Absynthe didn't seem to card any of the 16 and 17 year olds that I'm pretty sure were in there getting wasted, especially this girl named Karly whom I had been talking with online for the past month before the show. It was cool to finally meet her in person, although she was pretty fucking trashed. She said had a $100 for herself to get drunk that night and she used it all. Whoa!

So we got really fucking lost on the way back to the U.S. and somehow accidentally entered through New York. The border patrol agent there was a total fucking asshole. He claimed I was ingesting illegal drugs because my eyes were red. Like I would tell him. Besides, it was 3 AM in the morning; I was fucking tired. He started questioning all of us about where we live and where we work and started harassing Nick for being unemployed. He also made me pop open the trunk, where we so disrespectfully threw everything out onto the pavement. He was a fucking dick and I was so close to flipping out on him. Things got worse, when we finally got into the states, when we had to drive through a snowstorm on the Lake Champlain Islands on the way back to Burlington.

In all honesty though, it was a fun trip and I met alot of awesome people. I really hope we play Ottawa again, but when it's warmer! And seriously, the Canadian border patrol is so much nicer than the U.S. Someone needs to pull the stick out of their ass!