Montreal!

after we left Toronto, we had a few hundred miles to get to montreal. about halfway there, the majority of the signs had become french. i knew i was closer to the part of canada i was more familiar with. i ended up driving for the last part. between the frustrated canadians and the french signs, it was very stressful to find out where we were supposed to go and to then get us there. we eventually found the general area of where l'absynthe was located and found a parking spot on saint catherine.

it was getting dark so we decided to go meet up with Jill who had met a few people at the hostel. we had a nice 30 minute walk to meet her

we got to meet the travellers she had met and went out to get some food in an expensive area of the city a few blocks away. afterwards, we drank some wine by the river by the same dock i was fairly certain the river boat from my 8th grade canada trip took off from. we were trying to figure out where we were staying for the night.

we had left a message for Sergio from the Trigger Effect who had said months ago that because hehad to cancel our show at the Turbo Haus that he had no problem hooking us up with a place to stay while we were in the city. he had left me a message back and gave us the number of a friend of his who would be more than cool for us to stay at his place.

Binns left him a message but by the time it was getting dark we still had not heard anything back so we didn't know where he lived. so, a few of us had decided to pay the 20 bucks to stay in the hostel for the night and get a shower and wash some clothes. EJ, Curly, Ryan and i had thought about it but decided that we would wait until later to make a decision about it.

a bunch of us went out with Jill and her new friends to a popular club. we waited in line for a while and got to go in and buy pricey pitchers. we hung out for a couple hours and finally got a hold of sergio again. he said that his friend was actually at the same club we were at. he gave us a description of what he was wearing but it was a big place with an upstairs and downstairs neither of which we wanted to pay to gain access to so we didn't see him.

we hung out at the club for a few hours and it was slowly beginning to calm down. we got some pizza slices down the street. we walked back to the van to grab some stuff and i saw a drunk guy peeing on the side of a building as some cops drove by. they backed up and went over and talked to him but nothing too crazy happened.

Beans and I wanted to stay at the hostel so we grabbed all our stuff and walked back. we got in through the back and EJ thought we could get away without paying and i just wanted to go to bed so i didn't make a deal about it. i took a shower which was awesome and went to bed which was also awesome. EJ had gone upstairs to log on the computers they had and the guy at the desk had caught him and made him pay. but i was already in bed so i slept and didn't have any trouble.

we slowly got moving the next day. curly and i and gar too i think cleaned up the messy Hanky and i went to get some more pizza. we started to head over to L'Absynthe by 6 to set up. it was raining while we were loading in. we crammed all our stuff onto the stage and had some time to chill. since the booker at L'absynthe had been replaced some time after he booked our show, we were left as athe only band once again. So, we put together all the songs we could possibly play into two 8-song sets.

most of the local crowd remained outside while we played but there was a video projector that displayed the stage on the wall outside. some of the people we had met had shown up and we sold some shirts and CDs. After we finished theshow, it was late and I was pretty tired. We eventually got EJ to stop drinking fake absynthe and got the Hank loaded up. We were waiting for a call after Trigger Effect finished their show so we could head over and crash for the night. it was gettting later and later and we decided that since we had the address tojust go there and showup. so we did and after a 20 minute drive we got to the house. the people there had no idea we were coming but welcomed us in and set us up with places to sleep. i slept in the van cause i was feeling terrible.

i woke up and it was hot. it was about 11 and i went inside and everyone was still sleeping so i grabbed my computer and started updating my journal. once everyone started stirring, we decided to have a little barbeque and i went with sergio and a couple other guys from the band down to the grocery store and bought some ground beef for burgers. they were in a rush because they had to head to a house wrecking show in ottawa later that night.

EJ was hoping to go but was throwing up when they left so he just stuck around for the night. we played some goldeneye and picked up some beers from the store up the street. the next day we woke up and slowly got ourselves ready to head down to boston a few hours away for the show later that night.