Winter Touring: The Road Less Travelled

Hey Folks, we have officially capped off our winter season GTA run with our final show at The Hideout, here in our home town Toronto.  It was another classic LBD party, except this time on a Monday night!  Lots of friends and family came out to cheer us on, and we were thrilled to have them there.  One of the nice things about "all ages" shows is that they usually start a little earlier, (this particular show has us on stage at 9:30!) allowing us to play to some new fans.  The band felt great about the show, which had a lot to do with all the loving and familiar faces we had in the audience.  This show truly reminded us that home really is were the heart is.  Simply put: we love playing shows in Toronto!!

Speaking of home towns, last week we made a midnight journey to London, Ontario, the city where Damian and I grew up.  We threw the keyboard up on the roof yet again and drove through the blistering winter cold for 2 hours each way to become a little more acquainted with our London fans!  London definitely has an energy of its own.  Our friends in the London-based band "Calvin James" (nobody in the band is named Calvin James, that's just their band name, I swear!) were hosting a keg party, and, of course, the logical thing to do is bring an entire busload of party people to the show; and that is just what they did!  While my parents stood a few feet away from quite possibly the queen of all drunken party girls (mind you she was wearing a little black dress and apparently it was her birthday) the rest of the rowdy crowd got down and dirty for our set.  We made sure to play our heaviest, bluesiest and rockin'est stuff for everybody's sake.  There was some jumping around, some moshing, and at one point we all thought the new birthday girl was going to bring down the PA system with her vivacious dance moves!  In here defense, the speaker pole did closely resemble a stripper pole.  Basically, she was awesome, and Dan took a few chances to get off stage to dance with her.  We certainly had a great time playing to a packed London crowd!  We look forward to our return... whose birthday will it be, one can only wait and see!  (Yeah, we spit rhymes when we don't even mean to.)

They're right when they say nothing brings a band closer together then touring!  There is something special about loading up the van and hitting the road.  Each gig and city brings a new energy and whole new mix of stories to tell.  You get a chance to work on your musical set and see the results of your hard work night after night!  Of all the bands I have toured with I have to say this one truly is awesome and unique.  The merging of our personalities is completely cohesive and mostly "laugh out loud" funny (that's LOL for you internet n00bz).  With a riddle here and there, a stop at Timmies every 40 minutes or so, and the likelihood that we probably won't let Lew drive again, this band has now found it's road... rain or snow...  frequently traveled.  We look forward to hitting the road as much as possible in 2012.

Now that our slew of outta town gigs is over, we have some time to gear up for our record release!  The mixes are starting to come in from our producer Johnny Simmen (@colourJohnny) and they sound big, bombastic, and phenomenal! Stay tuned for our CD release this year at CMW!

- @BrianLBD