PHILADELPHIA Friday, June 24th
I woke up really late again. Not quite 5:30pm but well after noon. The last time the band was here I feel like it was pretty dark. Things feel pretty light on this tour. Andrew was amazing on the tubs. We played “G Turns To D” and it was so fast and crazy/fun I couldn’t stop laughing.
We heard that OFF! and Dinosaur were playing across town the same night. We wanted to go but it was impossible to pull off but we were in touch with Steven McDonald from OFF! who suggested we come to meet him afterwards. It was walking distance so some of us went over. Steve introduced us to Dimitri Coats and Mario Rubalcaba from OFF! I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Barlow and went on to talk to him for quite a while. I knew a fair bit about him and he knew at least some about Sloan and we have a few mutual friends. He is very funny. Henry Rollins wasn’t there but he is also on that tour interviewing Dinosaur or some such thing.
The next night for them was D.C. so Henry Rollins, Keith Morris and Ian MacKaye would all be corral-able for the ultimate hardcore photo op. I would have skipped the Baltimore show if I could have photo bombed that picture. Oh God, here it is! Is that me in the doorway? Sadly, no.
PS I should add that I made sure everybody knew how to play “Nervous Breakdown” in case Steven McDonald dragged Keith Morris to our show. I’m not embarrassed.
BALTIMORE Saturday, June 25th
Part of Gregory’s research into how to have fun included a trip to a restaurant called Bo Brooks where they specialize in crabs and evidently long wait times between ordering and eating. They didn’t take reservations but we managed to get our table for 8 without a ridiculous wait.
I talked at length with an extremely drunk man who upon finding out we were a band was blown away that I didn’t know who Phil Lesh was. FYI, he was (is?) the bass player in the Grateful Dead. When he heard I was the bass player in our band he was even more blown away. “You are SHITTING me!”, he said over and over. At one point I guessed Mr. Lesh’s affiliation with The Dead but he repeated his disbelief mantra. Despite his disbelief, he still let me know that he was having fun talking to/at me and wanted to come sit with us. We avoided this and had a nice (expensive) dinner.
Maybe I should come out and admit I am usually a frugal person. I don’t like to think of myself as a cheapskate and I value generosity but I try to avoid blowing money when I can help it and I never really enjoy extravagant spending. Oftentimes my fellow travelers have an equal and opposite viewpoint so I find myself in the position of wanting to hang/bond with people that I love but I don’t drink booze and I never want steak or crabs for that matter but I also hate party poopers. What to do? PS It was a $20 cab ride each way x 2 cabs… but it was fun.
XX Tour Diary: Pittsburgh
PITTSBURG Thursday, June 23rd
I woke up in Pittsburg at 5:30pm! Really. Everybody had a full day before I even woke up. I heard stories and saw lots of pictures of the Andy Warhol museum. I saw nothing.
Pittsburg and Baltimore are the 2 places on this tour where we’ve only ever played once before. The venue was a bit ambitious in size for a band with no track record there. The showing was respectable and very receptive but it should have been at a smaller place. The show was way more fun than I thought it would be and I think we played well. I honestly think we are playing as well as we have ever played.
We are joined on this leg of the tour by Toronto 2-piece Hot Kid. We have known the drummer, Robbie Butcher for a long time. He is in line for best drummer we know with Taylor Knox, Juice and me behind Andrew. The other half of this duo is guitarist/singer Shiloh Harrison. We didn’t know her but she is a lot of fun to have along for the ride. Rounding out their camp is Robbie’s brother Chris who has worked with Sloan before on video stuff and Shiloh’s boyfriend/chaperone, Andrew. After the show we had a 50’s dance party on the bus with Hot Kid and some friends who drove in from Michigan. It was really fun.
I woke up in Pittsburg at 5:30pm! Really. Everybody had a full day before I even woke up. I heard stories and saw lots of pictures of the Andy Warhol museum. I saw nothing.
Pittsburg and Baltimore are the 2 places on this tour where we’ve only ever played once before. The venue was a bit ambitious in size for a band with no track record there. The showing was respectable and very receptive but it should have been at a smaller place. The show was way more fun than I thought it would be and I think we played well. I honestly think we are playing as well as we have ever played.
We are joined on this leg of the tour by Toronto 2-piece Hot Kid. We have known the drummer, Robbie Butcher for a long time. He is in line for best drummer we know with Taylor Knox, Juice and me behind Andrew. The other half of this duo is guitarist/singer Shiloh Harrison. We didn’t know her but she is a lot of fun to have along for the ride. Rounding out their camp is Robbie’s brother Chris who has worked with Sloan before on video stuff and Shiloh’s boyfriend/chaperone, Andrew. After the show we had a 50’s dance party on the bus with Hot Kid and some friends who drove in from Michigan. It was really fun.
XX Tour Diary: Toronto & Toronto (& Toronto)
Editor's Note: It is a rather interesting coincidence that this blog post is going up just before yet another Toronto play. This Friday (August 5, 2011) Sloan will be performing a free, outdoor, all-ages, licensed show at Ontario Place's new "Echo Beach" stage. Chris would suggest that I should have posted this weeks ago, but I would counter that this was all part of an elaborate scheme to keep the website interesting with timely updates through the summer months. (xxmn)
TORONTO Tuesday, June 21st
Any show on the same day as a family day at home is trouble for me. It means I have to get up 13 – 15 hours before the show when my energy is supposed to peak and if there is to be a family day the next day, I have to unwind quickly and get to bed so I’ll be ready for the kids at 6am. I should add that I am a big baby about sleep at the best of times so since we have had kids I have been somewhat of a constant nightmare for my “wife character”/girlfriend/baby’s mama, Rebecca.
I invited my favourite band in the under 14 division, Toronto’s own 11 Toes and their parents to our “sound test”. I had just seen them (for the 3rd time) at Tot Stock, an amazing kids’ event with a music component, which featured our friends Oldies 990 (members of Local Rabbits) and 11 Toes.
At the sound test, we did the whole picture-taking thing on stage with 11 Toes holding Sloan’s guitars then I showed them our tour bus. I hung out with their parents as each of the kids took a bunk and watched the tiny TV’s that are in the bunks. I may have watched TV in my bunk 5 times in 20 years. They watched the sound test and were very appreciative. Rock on kids!
I biked home in time to say goodnight to my own kids. We got a babysitter and Rebecca and I biked down to the show. The Mod Club is great and it’s right in the neighbourhood. We had a large guest list. Lately our tour manager/manager Mike has been calling them “guessed lists” as he is pretty much able to make the lists without asking us for names based on who we’ve been talking about and using old guest lists.
When we hit the stage it seemed as if I knew just about everyone. The crowd was receptive but I was somewhat distracted from all of the (ridiculous) winking I was doing at the people I knew. I saw my cousin Greg and realized that I was supposed to have put him on the guest list and couldn’t remember having done it. It is difficult to ask someone whether or not they had to pay to get in and at the same time apologize for forgetting to put them on the list with your eyebrows but that’s what I attempted to do during “Follow The Leader”.
Rebecca stayed until the end of the encore but went right home to relieve the sitter and to wisely get as much sleep as she could before the kids wake up in the morning. I stayed to talk to people after the show as I always try to do and hung out pretty late on our bus talking to friends. I knew I had a family day that would come early but tour starts tomorrow and I will have lots of opportunity to sleep then.
TORONTO Wednesday, June 22nd
I was a bit of a mess getting up but I had a great day with the family. There was no sound test so tonight I was able to partake in the goings on between 5:00 and 8:00 that we call “bed, bath and beyond”. By that we mean dinner, the bath and bedtime stories. Once the kids were down I had to pack for the next leg of the tour then I said goodbye to Rebecca and took the streetcar down to the Mod Club.
Well, I’m sorry Tuesday people but I have to say that the second show at The Mod Club was better. I’m not sure why. Was it us? Was it the crowd? Wednesday did go on sale first, which may have meant that the people who bought tickets first were more determined to see us play. I had been somewhat distracted by all the people I knew on Tuesday. Patrick told me after the Tuesday show that he nearly pulled the plug on the before we started. He was that sick. I had no idea. He powered through it and pulled it off but I’m sure he preferred the show where he didn’t feel quite that bad. We had also been off for about 10 days so we might have been a bit rusty on Tuesday. Anyway, Wednesday just felt looser but Tuesday (the night that all of the journalists wrote about) was fun too.
I don’t think we’ve ever played a gig in Toronto, since we’ve lived here, when we didn’t sleep in our own beds that night. I think I was excited even while on stage to know that there was no incentive to beat it the hell home after the show to get enough sleep to not be a terrible co-parent the next day. I went out after the show to Sneaky Dee’s for nachos. The last time I did that was when the Evaporators stayed at the place that I lived in before I moved to the place I lived in before the one I live in now. I always feel a little bit guilty staying up late on tour knowing I don’t have to get up with my kids but I felt especially guilty doing that in Toronto with my family sleeping just down the street. Anyway, I had fun.
TORONTO Tuesday, June 21st
Any show on the same day as a family day at home is trouble for me. It means I have to get up 13 – 15 hours before the show when my energy is supposed to peak and if there is to be a family day the next day, I have to unwind quickly and get to bed so I’ll be ready for the kids at 6am. I should add that I am a big baby about sleep at the best of times so since we have had kids I have been somewhat of a constant nightmare for my “wife character”/girlfriend/baby’s mama, Rebecca.
I invited my favourite band in the under 14 division, Toronto’s own 11 Toes and their parents to our “sound test”. I had just seen them (for the 3rd time) at Tot Stock, an amazing kids’ event with a music component, which featured our friends Oldies 990 (members of Local Rabbits) and 11 Toes.
At the sound test, we did the whole picture-taking thing on stage with 11 Toes holding Sloan’s guitars then I showed them our tour bus. I hung out with their parents as each of the kids took a bunk and watched the tiny TV’s that are in the bunks. I may have watched TV in my bunk 5 times in 20 years. They watched the sound test and were very appreciative. Rock on kids!
I biked home in time to say goodnight to my own kids. We got a babysitter and Rebecca and I biked down to the show. The Mod Club is great and it’s right in the neighbourhood. We had a large guest list. Lately our tour manager/manager Mike has been calling them “guessed lists” as he is pretty much able to make the lists without asking us for names based on who we’ve been talking about and using old guest lists.
When we hit the stage it seemed as if I knew just about everyone. The crowd was receptive but I was somewhat distracted from all of the (ridiculous) winking I was doing at the people I knew. I saw my cousin Greg and realized that I was supposed to have put him on the guest list and couldn’t remember having done it. It is difficult to ask someone whether or not they had to pay to get in and at the same time apologize for forgetting to put them on the list with your eyebrows but that’s what I attempted to do during “Follow The Leader”.
Rebecca stayed until the end of the encore but went right home to relieve the sitter and to wisely get as much sleep as she could before the kids wake up in the morning. I stayed to talk to people after the show as I always try to do and hung out pretty late on our bus talking to friends. I knew I had a family day that would come early but tour starts tomorrow and I will have lots of opportunity to sleep then.
TORONTO Wednesday, June 22nd
I was a bit of a mess getting up but I had a great day with the family. There was no sound test so tonight I was able to partake in the goings on between 5:00 and 8:00 that we call “bed, bath and beyond”. By that we mean dinner, the bath and bedtime stories. Once the kids were down I had to pack for the next leg of the tour then I said goodbye to Rebecca and took the streetcar down to the Mod Club.
Well, I’m sorry Tuesday people but I have to say that the second show at The Mod Club was better. I’m not sure why. Was it us? Was it the crowd? Wednesday did go on sale first, which may have meant that the people who bought tickets first were more determined to see us play. I had been somewhat distracted by all the people I knew on Tuesday. Patrick told me after the Tuesday show that he nearly pulled the plug on the before we started. He was that sick. I had no idea. He powered through it and pulled it off but I’m sure he preferred the show where he didn’t feel quite that bad. We had also been off for about 10 days so we might have been a bit rusty on Tuesday. Anyway, Wednesday just felt looser but Tuesday (the night that all of the journalists wrote about) was fun too.
I don’t think we’ve ever played a gig in Toronto, since we’ve lived here, when we didn’t sleep in our own beds that night. I think I was excited even while on stage to know that there was no incentive to beat it the hell home after the show to get enough sleep to not be a terrible co-parent the next day. I went out after the show to Sneaky Dee’s for nachos. The last time I did that was when the Evaporators stayed at the place that I lived in before I moved to the place I lived in before the one I live in now. I always feel a little bit guilty staying up late on tour knowing I don’t have to get up with my kids but I felt especially guilty doing that in Toronto with my family sleeping just down the street. Anyway, I had fun.
XX Tour Diary: California
SAN FRANCISCO Tuesday, June 7th
It’s June 26th as I write this. I remember having a fun show. It was small and packed the way I think we perform the best for better or for worse. U2 played the same night across town for at least the 2nd time on this tour. We know how to play “I Will Follow” in case those guys decided to show up.
LOS ANGELES Wednesday, June 8th
We watched The Vancouver Canucks get destroyed by The Boston Bruins on a set up that projected TV image onto an entire wall. It was HD and looked great. The place we played was really cool. The area was “up and coming” I suppose. The motel we showered in was like a compound with barbed wire &c. but I never really care about that. I do love hard water pressure but this place certainly didn’t have that.
We had the privilege of hanging out with a lot of friends that we have made over the years in Los Angeles including Taylor Locke of a href="http://www.tlatr.com/">Taylor Locke and the Roughs/Rooney fame for the 2nd time on this tour. He was in Chicago when we were there and he was on fire both times. He is such a funny, scathing, arrogant, beautiful, musical heavyweight, musicologist that I could listen to him for hours. He is very knowledgeable and for the most part complimentary of Sloan, which makes him that much more easy on my ears. I realize this is a bit pathetic but he will also make fun of us pretty harshly too.
In case you missed it the first time around, Taylor Locke kicks off this video with a clip of his acoustic rendition of "C'mon C'mon".
It’s June 26th as I write this. I remember having a fun show. It was small and packed the way I think we perform the best for better or for worse. U2 played the same night across town for at least the 2nd time on this tour. We know how to play “I Will Follow” in case those guys decided to show up.
LOS ANGELES Wednesday, June 8th
We watched The Vancouver Canucks get destroyed by The Boston Bruins on a set up that projected TV image onto an entire wall. It was HD and looked great. The place we played was really cool. The area was “up and coming” I suppose. The motel we showered in was like a compound with barbed wire &c. but I never really care about that. I do love hard water pressure but this place certainly didn’t have that.
We had the privilege of hanging out with a lot of friends that we have made over the years in Los Angeles including Taylor Locke of a href="http://www.tlatr.com/">Taylor Locke and the Roughs/Rooney fame for the 2nd time on this tour. He was in Chicago when we were there and he was on fire both times. He is such a funny, scathing, arrogant, beautiful, musical heavyweight, musicologist that I could listen to him for hours. He is very knowledgeable and for the most part complimentary of Sloan, which makes him that much more easy on my ears. I realize this is a bit pathetic but he will also make fun of us pretty harshly too.
In case you missed it the first time around, Taylor Locke kicks off this video with a clip of his acoustic rendition of "C'mon C'mon".
Sloan & You Am I - Commonwealth Rockers United
Sloan and our Australian friends You Am I will be getting together for a week of shows in the Northeastern US this September. These shows should be a lot of fun for the bands and fans alike. Check out the details in the tour dates section, and we hope to see you in September!
Sept. 12 - Washington, DC - Rock And Roll Hotel
Sept. 13 - Brooklyn, NY - Bell House
Sept. 14 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
Sept. 15 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
Sept. 16 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
Rolling Stone Kind to "Unkind" Video
We would be lying if we suggested we weren't delighted to see Sloan's new video for "Unkind" featured favorably in Rolling Stone.
Filmed by Kevin Hilliard & Tim McCready and edited by our own Chris Murphy, this "elegant & classy" video premiered on VEVO yesterday. Check it out below.
XX Tour Diary: Seattle to Medford. Yes, Medford.
SEATTLE Saturday, June 4th
I am in a great little joint called Hattie’s Hat where there is great food, free wireless, AC (power) and bottomless coffee… and hopefully a private washroom. The White album is playing and Abbey Road was before that so I am happy as a clam but it’s my younger son Santiago’s 1st birthday today, which is a little sad for me. I did sleep in until 2pm PST (5pm EST) so it’s bittersweet. You’d think I was in Australia but not so. I think I will be away for my older son Francisco’s 4th birthday in September but a guy’s got to work. There are a bunch of things going on in Toronto when I am home but I am making the promise with you as my witness that I will be 100% available to my family while I home between these tours… unless it’s cool for me to see The Descendents… or Off! Happy birthday sweetheart.
PORTLAND Sunday, June 5th
Well, every night can’t be a Saturday.
MEDFORD Monday, June 6th
We always play Seattle and Portland and the next play is always San Francisco but it’s too far to drive in one night so we need to park the bus somewhere and let the driver sleep. Our day off in Medford OR at The Red Lion Inn has been a tradition for the past 7 years or so. There is a multiplex nearby. We have had movie nights there. It’s kind of romantic for the whole band to do anything “extracurricular” together. There’s not a lot of hanging out together at home and it’s a fun, bonding thing to do.
We saw Avatar last time we were in Medford and Tropic Thunder the time before. We’ve been a band for 20 years and that is hammered home by some other movie memories: We all saw Reservoir Dogs together in Glasgow in early 1993 and we saw a premiere of Pulp Fiction in Chicago in 1994. In 2002, we were working in Toronto with producer, Tom Rothrock and he stopped us in the middle of rehearsal and made us all go watch Standing in the Shadows of Motown. I guess he thought it might make us play better or maybe he was simply tired of watching us rehearse. I don’t really think it helped but it probably didn’t hurt and it was memorable.
We didn’t go to the Cineplex this time but we all watched game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and later (after a vote at an Irish pub) Fletch beat out Midnight Run for the movie that would play that night on the bus. I hadn’t seen either movie in its entirety. I voted for Midnight Run at the Irish Pub but in the name of democracy I watched Fletch with everybody and it was pretty bad. The people who had voted for Fletch laughed loudly to make it seem like it had been the right choice. I wish we had all gone to see The Hangover part 2 or a movie from this year. It would help me organize my memories so in 20 years when I ask when did we all watch Fletch, I won’t wonder if it had been 1985.
For those of you who haven't had a chance to stop over in Medford, OR. Here is a short travelogue to provide a bit of context:
XX Tour Diary: Onion AV Club Revisited
So here is the result of Sloan's afternoon visit to The Onion while we were in Chicago a few weeks ago. Thanks to everybody at The Onion for inviting us to participate in their undercover series. Lots of fun!
XX Tour Diary: Vancouver, Before the Riots
VANCOUVER Friday, June 3rd
We played the Commodore Ballroom, which seemed like a stadium compared to last night when we played the hotel in Penticton. We have had the good fortune to play the Commodore the last few times we have been through Vancouver. We played several more times in our 20 year history. One time in 1997(?) opening for the great Stereolab and the first time to 30 people on the night of the infamous L.A. riots in 1992.
Last time we were in Vancouver, it was in the throws of Olympic fever. This time it’s Stanley Cup fever. Toronto, by contrast had the G20 and the election of Jabba the Mayor. Our good friend Craig Northey of Odds fame was generous enough to include us in their latest amazing project. The Odds are playing rock music at the Vancouver Canucks home games. They are up in the nosebleeds for the home games but they are at centre ice at the sold out BC Place for the AWAY games!
The Odds have had several guest singers accompany them including Elvis Costello, Randy Bachman, Colin James, Bobby Baker from the Tragically Hip and Ra McGuire from Trooper. The talented Mr. Northey arranged for some CBC folks to come to the Commodore to video Sloan playing the intro to our song Money City Maniacs so that it could segue into The Odds playing the main riff in game 5. The very idea of their being a game 5 means that we have to root for The Bruins to win at least one game. Vancouver’s own, Gregory Macdonald is very conflicted about this.
Continued (at length)...
Polaris Prize Long List
We are honoured that "The Double Cross" has made the Polaris Music Prize long list. Congrats to all of the other musicians selected, with a special nod to Luke Doucet. Our very own Andrew Scott produced "Steel City Trawler" with Luke, and we wish him and all of the others the best of luck as the jury deliberates upon our fates.
Recent Fan Photos
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