life in the catacombs

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Fottergraphs frozen in time

Downtown Vancouver.

Farewell Breakfast with friends.

Atlas cools down. We look around in awe.

Scrapyard in Kelowna.

Wandering Osoyoos in the dead of night.

Nice view to wake up to.

Keg slayers. Pat and Jerimiah from Ponoka.

Brooks. The little town that kicked ass.

Last night we played with a bloody brilliant band from Winnipeg. They are called 'Quinzy'. I will dig up a link for them when I have more than 25 seconds of battery life left. I am certain they would pop up in your favorite search engine though. Great guys, great sound.

Tonight we are playing in Brooks, Alberta. It is a small town of about 1500. Steve was kind enough to book us in very last minute. I don't think I even had a chance to post the show. He is a super nice guy. We are sharing the stage with a couple of touring erotic dancers tonight. It is very cool. I will not say much more as me Mum does check in on the blog. I wish I could get a picture of our bass drum that says Vacuity and a dancer but they frown upon pictures, which is understandable.

Tomorrow we are fixing Atlas.

g.

PS - we are not mechanics.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

werd from Ponoka

Computers have become lost relics. Granola bars have become survival biscuits. What the hell is a blog anyway? We are on the home stretch. It will be followed by a slew of shows less than 1500km from our homes. Sunday morning we awoke in our amazingly sweet hotel rooms in Osoyoos. The sun was beaming in through my window from across the lake. I called the King Size bed that night though I certainly don't feel like a King.

Osoyoos is the only desert in Canada. It is a crazy place. My laptop is on the fritz so I will have to wait to upload pictures (pictures added). The lady at the checkout desk took a liking to us and allowed us to access the breakfast tray after hours. She also invited us to do Laundry. Paul is the only one of us who brought 18 pairs of everything. The rest of us are dying. We then realized we had a show in Ponoka the next night. Laundry had to wait.

Rob chugged Atlas through the Rockies once again. It was a clear night with only the occasional snow cloud lingering around the moon lit snow capped peaks. We were blarring Radiohead's Amnesiac through our improperly wired stereo. It created an insane remixed soundtrack to an equally insane visual through the windshield. We were almost out of propane when we entered the 'HIGH TRAFFIC DANGEROUS ANIMAL CROSSING AREA'. I shit you not. We spent the night in Lake Louise and fueled up in the morning.

We met a super cool guy named Pat in Ponoka. We went back to his place and with his friend Jerimiah in an attempt to help them finish off a keg. What a night. The road is kind, but you have to keep your eyes open.

Laundry + Calgary today.

Yay.

g.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Vancouver

Today our friend Ryan from way back showed us around Vancouver. I can see why he moved out here. There seem to be a good number of people from Ontario who've relocated to BC. Pictures later.

Tonight we are going out for Mexican. Tomorrow morning we depart for Enderby...the town no one in BC has heard of...

g.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

surviving the mountain descent

We sadly left Revelstoke behind. What a cool town.

Our descent from the mountains was slightly terrifying. Multiple 'Weather Changes Abruptly' signs were no joking matter. We quickly found ourselves in a raging snowfall in an avalanche zone. Mountain driver McFee cautiously steered us onward. We arrived at our friend Ryan's house in BC early in the night and had ourselves a good sleep. It is good to see a familiar face this far into the tour.

Tonight we play Vancouver. When I was 8, I lived in Victoria so I am wondering if I will see anything that I recognize while out here. We are cracking a bottle of champagne and lighting off fireworks on the coast of the pacific ocean.

The West has been conquered.

g.

AUDIO FIXED

sorry about that... i watched this video myself and realized some of the audio wasnt aligned properly... thats what happens when you edit a video for too long and just want to upload it already...

please rewatch it with enhanced dramatic audio!

enjoy,

Emeri

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Black Mountains, White Knuckles

Atlas packed to the brim.

Atlas meet THOR. THOR meet Atlas. THOR say goodbye.... Goodbye THOR.

Roosters and fire extinguishers... need I say more?

Mr. Bus Driver Man.

Yes.

Flat lands sunset.

Into the hills.

Regency Inn room view.

Another angle.

Last night was indeed awesome. Grant rocked on the sound board, and the people of Revelstoke rocked with us, and we rocked with them. It was fantastic. On the way there I pretty much gripped the steering wheel, and hoped for the best. A winding dark mountain road in the rain, dodging Transports and pulling over when the bus starts to smoke. 2 more pints of oil and we are back on the road. Running late... wait we passed the time zone... we are good again. Intense and rewarded by a great show in a great town. Cheap coffee and friendly peeps. Thank you Revelstoke!

r.

Mountain Pass

We are surrounded by mountains.

We drove into Revelstoke at 9pm last night. The bar was warm and the audience was great.

In the dark I knew we were surrounded by mountains but seeing them in the day is another experience entirely. I will not complain that my camera is out of batteries. It does seem untimely though.

Today's plan:

- get up for free breakfast
- nap until late checkout
- enjoy Revelstoke

I think I can handle that.

g.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Dangerous

There is much to report. There is a lot to tell. I can't even mentally summarize things anymore as the days are a little out of focus. A little faded around the edges. I wake up. I'm either in a bus, van truck, bus or getting into a bus, van, truck, bus. It doesn't matter. A few hours later I'm unloading and setting up gear. I'm in a shady bathroom learning that 'Reid blows real good 4 u'. The same shitty songs play in the clubs before and after our set. I'm playing 3 sets a night. We're debuting a song we've never played before. Back in the van, bus, motor vehicle of some sort. It doesn't matter. Onward, downward. I'm sleeping in Scooter's burnt out basement. The Twisters tell me to stop fucking around with these shit shows and start booking us into festivals. I'm drinking alcohol with Garret and Garth. A pretty waitress smiles at me. The RCMP knock on our bus door and ask why there are no plates. I'm drinking beer outside of Salty's Liqour. Someone asks me if they can have my sweater. My neck is sore from sleeping wherever I pass out. I'm loving almost every minute and secretly loving every other minute. Whenever a dark cloud passes over I think of the music and everything's fine. What day is it? Where are we today? The prairies stretch on endlessly, but now behind me. I miss my other life, but feel just as at home here. Nowhere. Scooter tells me we're all going to be millionaires. I wake up scared, not knowing where I am. This is chaos, but I like it? Strange faces, new places. I never know there names: Candy, Mandy, Andy, Mark, Matt, Matt, Matt, Paul, Emeri? I'm drinking Guinness with Tim Lee all the while he is saving our tour, and filling our brains with great ideas and stories. I love seasoned musicians. I'm sleeping on the floor. I'm wondering when we're gonna get a chance to stop for dinner. The Rockies lie ahead. Tomorrow is my turn to drive. I still don't like the sun. I'm in another small town for 8 hours. I'm back in the bus, van, car, truck.