April 12 - Prince George

Its 10am and we are still in Prince George. We better hit the road soon if we hope to be in Vancouver by tonight. We have another day off so the plan is to find one of the ancient forests they have here in BC and explore a little bit. I would like to see one of those giant redwood trees.

The show last night was killer! It was at a place called Third on 3rd. It is an anarchist collective run by an awesome bunch of anarchist punks. The place is set up really cool. There is a single entrance with doors to the right and to the left. The door to the right leads into a lounge area with books and supplies to make tea and coffee. It was a nice and relaxed environment to hang out in. The door to the left led to the venue... a really cool venue. I was noticing that when a venue is set up by musicians everything is exactly the way it should be. The stage is the right size, the PA has plenty of power, everyone gets a monitor, there are lights on the stage, etc. When a musician gets to set up a venue its easy because they just think about how they would want the venue to be and make it just like that. Its not like that when a non-musician sets up a venue... at all. This place was really kick-ass though. There was even a green room in the back for the bands. There was a back load in door, no stairs and actual parking behind the venue. Its the little things that make the evening flow a little easier.

Before the doors open Jeff (the promoter for the night) supplied us with loads of delicious homemade pizza. There was so much of it that we will be enjoying the left overs on our travels today. Until you are on the road you don't really realize how incredibly important feeding the band is. We really appreciate it.

It was a three band bill. In my opinion three bands is a perfect show. Just short enough to not get bored but long enough to get your moneys worth. Three bands is the way to go. The first band called Nonshalant was a punk/ska sort of Leftover Crack sound. They were really cool and it was their first real show (they said they played New Years somewhere but where too drunk to play well or even remember). They ruled though! They did covers of NOFX and really got the crowd pumped. They said they played in lots of different bands but think that they finally found that winning combination with this trio... I totally agree! The second band up was called Illicit Dissent and they were also really wicked. Sometimes you play a show and you don't always dig all the bands but last night wasn't one of those nights. Actually, the whole tour has been pretty good. I can't think of any bands we've played with that I didn't dig. Awesome! We played after Illicit Dissent. The crowd response was great. When we were booking this tour everyone told us to play Prince George even though its a little outta the way its worth it.... and they weren't lying. For a town of only 80 000 or so there was a big crowd and everyone was really into it. And we played a killer set!

After the show we packed up our gear and headed out to Jay's place for a chill, wind down night. We've been going strong for a week now so it was nice to have a chill night for a change.

I just want to say this about Prince George. I've never seen so many second hand stores in one area in my whole life. I would need a few days to go through all of them (too bad I don't have that kind of time). We went into a few when we first arrived and Brando picked up 6 or so classic books for 50 cents each like To Kill a Mockingbird and Huck Finn. Great deal! Other notable things about PG... Jan, Will and Brando walked to the liquor store before the show started and they said that everyone on their walk was really friendly smiling at them and saying hello. One well dressed guy, they said, nodded at them and simply said “yeah, beer!” As they were on their way back to the venue. Lol. Even this morning at Tim Hortons people were going out of the way to hold the door for us. Amazing!

If you are a touring band and are going through BC I would recommend looking up Third on 3rd and booking a show with them.