I’m sitting in my room at the Mercure Hotel in Duisburg, Germany. I just came back from the restaurant, where it took nearly 20 minutes for the young man to figure out that alas, I would not be partaking in their breakfast special (which didn’t look that special), but only coffee was on the menu for me this morn. As he came out with 2 incorrect drinks, I watched those with tired eyes and sometimes giddy looks on their faces walk into the restaurant. What’s their story I wonder? The man in the suit with briefcase in tow, on a business trip. Does it all the time. Sick of hotels and paid lovin’. Just wants to get back home to his own pillow. The young couple, definitely their first trip together. A bit disheveled but blissfully happy. Or is it that they are blissfully happy because they are disheveled? Had an early morning of eye gazing and all that goes with young love. The 4 English speaking woman sitting in the corner, getting a much needed rest away from their husbands, on their annual vacation. They laugh as though no one else is in the restaurant. Elated to be away from it all, but missing their families just the same. Me, a musician. On another tour. A toque that Brenley’s mother knitted covering my bed head. My jammie shirt still on under my very Canadian looking knitted sweater. Last night’s makeup still splattered across my face. Just needing a caffeine fix.

We are on day 4 of this tour. Day 1 was Hamburg. Day 2 was Berlin. Day 3 was (last night) was a more than sold out show in Duisburg. So far there have been many familiar faces in the audience. Loads of repeat listeners. And more excitingly, more people singing the words. Love that.

Today we will head to Stemewede. We’ve never been to this town before. I think it’s a little village, but won’t know ’til we get there. There’s been no time for shopping yet. Sort of sad that we didn’t get to go to funky area in Hamburg (great shopping!). And I need to find a bumper for my new iPhone 4 (though I’m hearing conflicting info on them).

Ok, time to get ready for the day. My coffee is now cold. Darn it.

Lisa

And the sign says long hair freaky people need not apply..signs signs everywhere signs.

Snow in May. SUCKS. We drove from Saskatoon to Edmonton a few days back to do breakfast television and a few other preshow promotional spots and ended up snowed in for an extra night. We had to reorganize our radio interview in Calgary and postpone it for a day. After our performance at mix 97.7 I noticed that the station had won a few Calgary Oscars and I also noticed that there was a sign posted in front of them.. Lisa didn’t on the other hand-  reached out and picked one right up! A few hours later, on route to Coleman, I was scolded at a pita pit for neglecting the sign to please not reach over counter and point at the toppings. So yeah, evidently we both have a selective reading. Lisa has selective hearing too. Heehee.

We are at The Blackbird Cafe at the moment having some breakfast wraps and chai lattes. The owners here are wonderful and the show last night was great. It’s an old church with a marvelous woodstove in the middle keeping my feet warm. I’ve been here all morning reading my book listening to She and Him, sipping chai waiting for the John Henrys and Lisa to arrive. Perfect morning.

Lisa caught red-handed

The John Henrys at the blackbird cafe

Snow in Edmonton

Lisa shrunk?

Well it’s official.  I’ve finally driven right across Canada.

I had driven between Victoria and Winnipeg and Toronto to Nova Scotia, but always missed the part between Toronto and Winnipeg and instead chose to fly that leg.  Driving around Lake Superior was breathtakingly beautiful and the weather was perfectly bright sunny and warm which made Superior look like the Agean sea – deep dark blue.  I read ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ in about 3 days – all 840 some pages of it and finished it just before Saskatoon.  The perfect thriller for long drives.  It’s been a 100 years since I read a mystery thriller type book and I have to say, it was really good.  So good that I had to run off to Coles this morning in Saskatoon to grab the second in the trilogy.  It’s a dark book and has some terribly graphic scenes, but there is some fierce retribution and I must admit… I like the revenge!! ;o)

Last night we played in Winnipeg at The High and Lonesome Club – a great room and a great audience.  I especially loved Lou, the sweet guy who danced every song through the John Henry’s set.  He asked both Lisa and I to dance and I felt mean, but I just didn’t have my groove on and Lisa didn’t have her dancing shoes.  The night ended with their notorious chicken toss.  Yeah that’s right.  You place your bets and see if you can land a rubber chicken with no head in a white bucket across the room.  Lisa got one in!  I decided i didn’t want to touch the chicken. Ew.

Saskatoon tonight!

Rocker Remnants

The John Henry

Dancing without the pole.

Thinking about getting this for the hotel pools. Hmm, maybe not.

Pit stop pee break along Lake Superior.

Musical tetris!

Outside The Office in Thunderbay

On the road again…  This time we are touring the vast expanse in which we call Canada.  We’re on tour until mid-May with the John Henry’s. Lovely guys.  Fantastic musicians.  Good van-panions.

We started this leg of the journey in Sudbury.  We managed to stop at every Tim Horton’s on route, drinking caffeine until it was seeping out our pores, knowing it was going to be a really late night.  When we arrived for load-in at 7, there was some sort of rock festival thing going on, and there were still 3 bands that needed to play.  So we headed back to the hotel to have a short nap (because that’s what rockers do).  The show was fun, but a bit of a late start (after midnight), which is crazy for us.  We’re much more used to early shows.  Maybe I’m getting too old for this.

From Sudbury, we headed to Thunder Bay.  We had 2 nights off there before the show.  At least we thought we did.  When we arrived in Marathon, a few hours from our final destination, we checked into our hotel and bolted onto the internet.  We had no cell service/reception for several hours that day, and it nearly killed us!  What did we do before iPhones?  There was a message from a promoter in Sault Saint Marie asking where the heck we were!?  Unbeknownst to us, there was a show being promoted in SSM that we didn’t know about.  Darn it.  And we even stopped there that day for lunch.  Oh well…

Monday we filmed a Shaw TV interview at a cafe called the Bean Fiend in Thunder Bay.  Brian (the owner) was really sweet and opened it up for us.  It’s not officially open yet, but his sister was the journalist, so he hooked us up with amazing coffee and peanut butter and jam muffins. Wow.  I highly recommend it.  After that we headed to our hotel, put on our workout clothes and walked to the local gym.  First workout of the tour.  I spent most of my time on the elliptical machine (what Brenley refers to as the eucalyptus machine).  I still have a sore ab.  Yes, you heard right.  Ab.

Thunder Bay venue.  There were 6 televisions on the walls.  6.  I’m just saying.  The promoter was sweet and all, but 6 tvs??

Wednesday we headed to Kenora.  What a beautiful drive.  Water all around.  We landed at our 7pm soundcheck to a room full of pool tables, hockey on tv once again, a slot in the floor and ceiling on the dance floor (for the stripper pole that’s only up on Thursdays) and a couple drunk a**holes.  Ruh roh.  I was ok with the drunk dude heckling me during soundcheck.  I can handle myself.  But I lost it once he yelled that he wanted to c**e in my pants.  I tore him a new one from the microphone and the security guards removed him from the premises.  Yeah, that’s how I want to start my night.  Again, the promoter was totally sweet and accommodating, and the audience was receptive and warm, but I think this may have been the wrong venue for us.

Now we’re in the van on our way to Winnipeg.  The boys are playing DJ on the radio, drinking their milk.  It’s hilarious.  I’ve never seen anyone drink more milk than this band.  Several litres a day.  They’re definitely getting their daily calcium intake!

I was just told by our agent that Alberta got 20 cm of snow yesterday.  It’s nearly May.  This is ridiculous.  I didn’t pack a toque.

I’m getting a bit sick to my stomach, writing while in the van, so I’d better get off here.

Lisa

So we are a couple of days behind in our tour blog. It’s been quite a busy few days. Saturday night, we recorded a television show called Rockpalast. A very high end production of our live concert, in front of an audience. They gave us a copy of the dvd, and it looks amazing! I told the camera man not to shoot too low, as our dresses were shorter than usual! They laughed, and crouched. The band who opened the show was called Baby Woodrose. A Danish rock band. Great band, but very very loud! The room was vibrating my insides out. 25 or so of the Runrig fan club came to the show. It’s pretty special how supportive they are. I’ll have to thank Runrig for having us on their tour. We also saw our first Madison Violet tattoo. It’s the banner from our album. She’s going to get the rest of the logo inked soon!

Sunday we played the Blues Garage. We were there in October as the support band, but this time we were the headliner. And it was packed! Woot! There were loads of familiar faces in the crowd which is always nice when you are on tour in a foreign country. Seeing people singing along to your songs makes me feel all warm and cuddly. Though it’s harder when we sing the wrong words…

We all slept in late on Monday, as we had a very late night after the Blues Garage gig. We were staying at the Motel California, which is riddled with cool music memorabilia. Henry, the promoter from the club, owns the motel. He took very good care of us. We can’t wait to go back. Rebecca’s room had an old Wurlitzer organ, which Brenley, Adj and I found ourselves writing songs on at 3am, at full throttle. Leftover rider from the last few days in tow. There is video footage of our late night performance, which I hope is never leaked! It has rock and roll written all over it.

Yesterday we hopped on the train, and headed to downtown Hannover. Spent the day shopping and getting our first bit of exercise all tour, walking the city. Adrian bought ANOTHER pair of shoes. The boy’s got a problem. Brenley found some funky green kicks as well. I… I bought a salt and a pepper mill. Gotta love the European grinders. Even when I’m frantically searching for jeans, I end up with a food item. Never fails.

Now we are on our way to the last show of the tour, in Gera. After the show we will hang for a few hours and then head to the airport for a 4am call. Yuck. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. I get pretty sick to my stomach at that hour of the day. It’s difficult to function, let alone lug gear into an airport. Our flight is from Leipzig to Frankfurt to Toronto. Poor Rebecca has to drive for a bazillion hours after she drops us off, to drop off the upright bass in Koln, and then fly out of Frankfurt. She’s gonna be wrecked by the end of the day. Sorry Rebecca.

All in all, we’re a bit road weary, but I think it’s been quite a successful tour. We’ve seen growth in our audiences and unfortunately our pant sizes as well.

Now I have a little bit of time to finish the past 20 pages of Harry Potter. I swore I’d never read them. Alas, I’m now on book 3.

Lisa

Lisa's boot felt unseasonably warm in Duisburg...

Shooting an acoustic song before Rockpalast

Getting ready to film Crying

When Adrian goes for a walk, he typically takes a film crew and Larry

Rockpalast

Rockpalast

Rockpalast. We have a Sennheiser endorsement, but they were adamant about us using their mics for the shoot. Sorry Sennheiser. We love you and our e965s!!

A blurry stage view of the Blues garage

Brenley at Blues Garage

Lisa at Blues Garage

Aftershow songwriting. Or rather, gong show writing.

Massage chair and iReversi!

I’m not sure I can wake up to another ‘cheese on a bun’ on this tour.  If there’s one thing I miss about home, it’s breakfast.  Fried eggs, some avocado, rye bread, tomato slices… mmmm.  Now that’s my kind of breakfast.   A typical German breakfast (Frühstück) falls somewhere between what we’d call a deli platter and a continental breakfast.  Cold meats and cheeses are served along side a variety of breads and sweet toppings like jam, marmalade and honey.  And soft-boiled eggs… difficult to find a hard one and we’re all more into a more well done boiled egg.  I will say though that German bread is quite delicious, especially this morning’s crusty rolls (Brötchen) which were heavily covered in pumpkin seeds.  Lisa bought some new zip locks yesterday so when we make up an extra sandwich for lunch later, I won’t have to pick the seeds, bits of tomato slices, sweaty cheese and soggy bread from the bottom of my bag anymore.

Today we stopped  for a quick trip to the loo at a gas station and we couldn’t figure out where to pay the .50 for the toilets. In perfect English, the woman behind the counter said, “You pay for the toilet just through there, in the restaurant”, and Lisa said, “No spreche kein Deutsch ( I don’t speak German )”. I laughed my arse off. You know you’re tired when.

Watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords today. The one where they do a Simon and Garfunkel tribute .. hilarious. And Lucy Lawless is in an episode too for all you Xena fans. I haven’t actually ever watched an entire episode of Xena but something tells me I might just have to give it a go someday.

I’ve eaten an entire jar of pickles in the last three days. Germans really know how to make pickles.

Brenley

Finally, enough time to clean our dirties and low and behold, it’s a beautiful sunny day for it. We started at the crack of eleven o’clock, Rebecca, Lisa and I carrying small bags of laundry and Adrian dragging his suitcase through the cobblestone streets of Nürnburg. Cobblestone streets are beautiful for the eyes but not so easy on the ears when you’re wheeling anything over them. It took us forever to figure out how the hell this whole laundromat operated but eventually with the help of a very sweet woman who spoke english, we came out with clean clothing. She had two beautiful children and the little girl walked over to me and crawled up onto my lap and stayed with me twirling my hair for ages. Adorable. Rebecca took some great pictures .. I’ll post them tomorrow.

Brenley

PS.. While we’re on the subject of laundry and is in fact Thursday, here’s one of my favourite pieces:

Thursday
by Krystle Mullin

It was a clean Thursday.  The kind of Thursday that saw people, who wear unclean socks religiously, decide do their laundry at the Coin and Wash in the market.  Some mystical phoneme coming over them; making them sweep their soiled clothes into a garbage bag and hike it over their shoulders like hobos.  They march down the street, over the grimy cement and untidy curbs towards ultimate purity.  I rode by the Coin and Wash.  On Thursday, it was the smell of clean laundry that struck me as absolutely and inconsolably dependable.

You could count on it.  Nothing, that day, came so close to being as steadfast as the scent of cotton and lint and detergent and fabric softener filling the moderately busy street at dusk. The smell fanned out of the small Laundromat gently tumbling towards the plates of appetizers at the small French bistro’s patio across the road. And the sun was still just high enough in the sky for me to make eye contact with it.

It was the kind of smell that people from all walks of life and all professions, lawyers, construction workers, jewelry makers, and receptionists could claim as their own.

That Laundromat, the Coin and Wash, was a battleground.  Simultaneously washing away memories embroidered into the fabric of people’s clothes and also stimulating memories that had been folded and forgotten. Memories that somehow found a way back here, to the present.  Gone were the Saturday nights that got a little too Saturday night, a hug that meant more than a hug, remnants of a screaming match held in defense of something not worth defending, the sweat of a heart that has forgotten how to love furiously, and coffee stains.  Gone were the stories our clothes told.  Washed away.

There’s a moment, just then, that sits between the past and what’s going to come next, that simply takes us over.  And for that moment only our lives are truly void of all narratives, every happenstance, entire history and total desire.

And then the smell of cotton and lint and detergent and fabric softener summons the pedestrians respective memories: father’s blue factory coveralls hanging on the clothesline, with the wide Saskatchewan skyline stretched out behind them like the last little bit of detergent was stretch out and used to wash them; clotheslines that reached across small apartment buildings in Lisbon like silly putty; mother’s prominent biceps acquired through the pounding of clothes against rocks and rubbing them with the oils of vanilla and lavender; a warm bundle of clothes, fresh out of a suburban dryer, being poured all over a lazy body lounging on a couch like the very definition of comfort.

We remember it all, memories triggered by the smell of clean laundry, clean laundry that is about to be dirtied with an impeccable and unavoidable filth, a beautiful filth called Friday.

This little one makes my ovaries hurt.

Wating for the clothes to dry

Shoe shopping in Nürnburg

Adrian wheeling and dealing for his smoking new boots

Rebecca and Lisa - A little sushi before hitting the road.

the band - food!

We had a day off today.  And what a beautiful day it was.  Sunny and
warm.  After last night, we needed a day of rest.  The show went well,
but it was afterward, in the hotel, where a domestic kept me up, going
on in the hallway at 2am.  Hmm, one of those voices sounds familiar!?
As I walked to the door, I realized it was Brenley yelling in the
hallway at a slobbering drunk with his TV at maximum volume.  Just to
warn you all, don’t blare your TV at night if you don’t want Brenley
on your ass.  He muttered some slurred words and she went back to her
room.  No change in volume.  I heard her storm down the hall once
again.  This time with a raised fist in the air.  Don’t mess with a
musician and her sleep.  Ever.  He screeched out an incoherent ‘yeah
yeah’ and closed his door.  I scolded Brenley, and told her she had to
go back to her room, as I wasn’t sure if the messy drunk would clock
her.  When she did, I snuck out in my jammies, pounded on his door,
and ran as fast as I could and locked my door.  TV went off immediately.

We all went shopping today.  Adrian bought another pair of shoes.
He’s definitely got a shoe fetish.  Every German tour we’ve been on,
he’s bought new shoes.  He’s already bought 2 pairs on this tour.  He
found some killer boots today.  Think rustic embroidered, vintage
cowboy.  Very hot!

We’re on the autobahn.  Have driven about 2km in the past 3 hrs.  The
traffic is brutal.  Brenley looked up online (we have internet sticks
with us which are amazing) what the alcohol laws are in Germany.
We’ve discovered it’s legal to have open liquor in the car, so we are
now sharing a bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.  Slightly warm.
Except for Rebecca (the driver) of course.  But now we all have to
pee, and it’s looking like I’m gonna have to go in front of a trucker
in the middle of the autobahn.  Again, putting on a show for the
neighbors.

Lisa (and Brenley says hi)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

We are midway through the tour.  We’re all a bit exhausted.  I guess going from a UK tour to a U.S. tour, to the late night ECMAs straight to a German tour was a bad idea.  We’ve been on the road since January, with the exception of a few days off to do laundry.  Yesterday we had a 700km drive to the venue.  Unfortunately, even though we were on the autobahn, and there was no speed limit, it took us over 10 hrs to get there.  God, the traffic.  Brutal.  We kept our pit stops to a minimum so that we would show up at the venue, hopefully, before the audience!  On one occasion, I went to the loo in the back of a gas station, came out to wash my hands, and just as I looked down, realized that I was about to stick my hands in the urinal.  Holy crap!  I came this close to scrubbing my hands with a bright blue urinal puck.  You know you’re tired when…

We got to the venue at about 6pm, which was lovely.  A table seated listening room.  Great promoter.  Amazing sound!  And another schnitzel to add to the list.  3rd one this tour.  (It’s always my go-to when I’m over here.)  The audience was a bit mellow, but after 2 encores and a long cd signing, I came to think they liked us.

After all was said and done, the promoter lead us to our hotel, and we all went to our dedicated rooms.  Brenley had a funky little corner room.  It was adorable.  Adrian had a nice balcony.  Rebecca had a jacuzzi.  I felt like Jemaine, from Flight of the Concords, when he decided to move out of his flat and get his own place.  For any of you FOTC fans, you’ll know what I mean.

I hopped on my laptop at about midnight, and got an email from someone in Boston saying that he had just discovered our music on a Paste Magazine cd sampler.  Woo hoo!  I thought Brenley might want to know, so in my jammies I ran down the hall, laptop in tow.  I knew I should have fixed the drawstring on my pyjama pants before I flew over here.  They fell to my knees midway down the hall.  Woops.  I’m hoping that no one was looking out their peep holes at that very moment, as there was a bit of a peep show going on.  You know you’re addicted to your computer when you’re now giving shows with your Macbook in hand.

Now, we’re in the van, en route to a radio station.  I’ve gotta stop writing, as the windy roads are making me nauseous.  We’ve got an audiobook with us, but I think it would put us all to sleep.  We listened to War and Peace on one of our tours, but we constantly had to rewind it because we kept getting confused with the fact that they are all addressed differently depending on who’s talking to or about them.  It took about 3 weeks to finish.  We have a murder mystery, but none of us has it in us to stay awake.

Lisa

So this is bizarre.  Every hotel we’ve stayed in so far on this tour and on every tour of Germany, have these little bags of schlaf schäfchen, gummy sheep on the pillow.  Sleepy sheep.  Well, I  know that if I consumed a bag of gummy sheep before sleeping I would definitely have to count sheep to fall asleep.  Nothing like a super sugar buzz to get you in the mood for snoozing.  I just don’t get it?  And, to top it all off, there aren’t even any orange ones?  They’re all pale yellow, faded green, wan non-coloured and if you’re lucky a sole red one clinging to the edge of the bag, deep in the corner.  Maybe I should try a few tonight.  Perhaps there’s a secret ingredient like melatonin or liquid morphine, and each sheep is a tablet to induce sleep?  I may wake up with chewy candy stuck in every molar a few new cavities, but I will have slept well!

We are 6 days and seven shows into this tour and I’m feeling a bit spent.  My strumming index fingernail is at the quick and it kills every time it hits the strings.  This always happens when we’ve played too many shows in a row and not enough days off in between for the nail to grow back.  I’ve considered getting an acrylic nail, but i think they look kind of sick, to be honest. But if this kind of touring schedule keeps up, I may have to surrender my vanity.

Outside of Object 5 in Halle

Radio Corax in HalleObjekt 5

Country Music Fair in Berlin

Lisa the ex vegetarian

Aussie multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Clermont joins us on stage

Privatclub in Berlin

What exactly are you doing in there Adrian?

Adrian and Rebecca (our tour manager and taker of all these photos) found this sign whilst crossing from the former East Berlin to West Berlin.

Brenley