June 10th, Wake up in Montreal, one of my favorite cities in the world.
Walk into the Metropolis, one of the best venues in the Canada. Franky and Mikko from Apocalyptica are on stage. I chill at the top of the balcony and watch them do some staging.
Franky and I hit a 4 mile run together along the Saint-Lawrence river talking all the way about our music industry views, shared passion for writing and had a heart to heart about life, death and second chances. We then sprint through the streets of Montreal’s China Town up hills and through intersections back to the tour bus.
I find a quiet spot to do some yoga at the top of Metropolis Theatre while my band starts staging and sound checking. I join them shortly after for a nice long sound check. Hungry. Cale and I share a much needed apple and banana on stage for brunch.
Find another quiet area, this time outside near a vacant building to finish my yoga. Tear into a can of sardines and wash it down with a bottle of water. Allen Kovac, the head of my label calls and we chat for 30 min as I dip into a park and stand under a small tree. Birds and squirrels are all around me. After the call I rescue some local french kid’s soccer ball from a low roof. They thank me and I say “Il n’y a pas de quoi!” trying to impress them with my broken french.
Shower. Meet and greet on the bus. Cool girls that are all about the music. Awesome!
Warmups. Dress for the show. Dressing room for 1 hour lockdown. Paavo from Apoc comes in to wish us a good show completely naked. Full frontal Paavo!
I have a good chat with Perttu just before we go on and tell him how much I enjoyed joining them on stage for a few of the shows.
Spirits are great today in this really large shared dressing room.
Show time. Hit the stage. The lower level is packed and some young guys in the front know all of the words to the new songs! I assume the balcony is closed until the house lights come up and I realize it’s packed too. I get the entire house singing “Lève Toi” at the top of their lungs! (The french translation of Rise Up.)
It’s one of the best shows of the tour. Singing seems effortless.
Merch signing. Spot the wonderful faces of my close Montreal friends waiting at the back of the merch line. Take them down for a quick dressing room beer. Bang off a short impromptu interview. Off to ‘Front of House” where we watch 2 Apoc songs.
They surprise me with birthday reservations at Joe Beef, one of the best restaurants in Canada, arguably one of the best on the continent.
Hail a cab. Table for 4 on the patio. It pours rain like it did when I was a kid on the porch roof of my grandparent’s cottage. We sip wine and share bites. One of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. Unreal. There’s barely time to catch up properly, but we have many nice words about our personal journeys since we were last together in Paris at Christmas.
Flag another cab. Laugh a lot on the way back. All the bands and crews is out by the busses. We sip wine from the bottle in the street and pass the bottle around.
Back down to the dressing room where we pop the corks off 3 bottles of bubbles with Aocalyptica and the two crews. We have an amazing group cheer and ‘End of Tour’ photo.
Run the girls back to a cab on Saint Catherine’s. Cale, Jeffy and I sneak over to the ‘must see’ metal bar next door for one quick beer. Craft. Yum. Back to the busses where we say our good-byes.
Eikka stops me outside and we have a nice moment together where he shares some words of wisdom.
Hugs. Bed. Border.
Headlining show tonight.
In the middle of 12 shows in a row.
