| Grayline in Montreal |
| GRAYLINE TOUR STORIES |
| Sunday July 8, 2001 Montreal, Quebec |
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| We got up this Sunday morning somewhere past Kingston with some uncertainty looming in the air. We were not sure if we had a show this day or not. Pete had been in touch with a guy from the band Legion about being added to a show they were playing tonight, but we never found out if we could get on the bill. Our plan was that since we had to drive through Montreal anyways, we would find the bar "Blue est Noir" and try and get on the bill. I didn't think we had a chance of playing tonight but Pete gave us an optimistic 50/50 shot. I offered to do some of the driving considering I felt great after my first nights' sleep in the van. One of my concerns about this tour was the thought of sleeping in a van. You see, I normally sleep in a queen size bed in a room with air conditioning. The thought of trying to get my beauty rest in a van with 3 other people and all of our gear was not very appealling to me. I envisioned stiff necks, sore backs and a retched stench filling my lungs. As it would turn out, the van would be my preferred sleeping quarters on tour. I took the wheel of the 'Midnight Missile' and once again began getting used to driving this beast. I was nervous. I felt as if I was doing my drivers exam all over again, but this time with Satan as my evaluator. I felt the sweat break on my brow with every lane change. We had crossed our first provincial border and were now in Quebec. I started to loosen up the more I drove. That is until we were approaching Montreal. There was some argument as to which exit we should take and I began getting that nervous feeling again. I could tell that Pete wanted to be in control of the vehicle. "Alright Nick, I'm driving now. Get in the back seat." Pete said. I was doing about 115 km/hour on a busy highway. "Right Now!!?" I asked. "Let go of the wheel and get in the back seat" he answered. So I did. Randy held the wheel as I spun around into the back seat. Pete waited until I was seated beside him and then moved up into the drivers seat. As he got up he gave me this bizarre look and I instantly realized I was with a bunch of lunatics! I'm going to fucking die in this van with these crazy fuckers!! Pete got us into Montreal safely. We pulled into a mall and as Pete would put it, it was time to feed the diabetic. The Zellers restaurant wasn't my first choice but I wasn't going to be picky. After lunch we walked around the Zellers to get some supplies and Randy wanted some new wife beaters. I thought that "naked time" was only for the evening but Darren proved me wrong. I heard Randy's giggle as I walked through the isles looking to see what was so funny. To my suprise (delight, horror, shock) I saw Darren's ass hanging out the back of his pants as he was walking funny down an isle. I didn't want to see the front because I knew his cock and balls would be surely flapping in the breeze. I could just picture a gang of Quebecers beating the piss out of this english only moron who was indecently exposing himself in their Zellers. I had really only 2 rules for this tour: Don't kill me and don't get me arrested. They promised they would bring me back alive, but there was no commitment on the arrest. I thought this could be it. I could see the headlines in the London Free Press - 4 Londoners arrested in Montreal for indecent exposure. We escaped the Zellers security and got back to the van with the address for the bar. We had all afternoon to kill so it was off to downtown to check out the Sex Shops. St. Catherines Street was a complete zoo. There were thousands of people out and about in downtown Montreal and keep in mind this was a Sunday. The streets were alive and I don't remember seeing so many beautiful women on one street before. We parked the van and began our exploration. Our first stop at a sex store ended with us being invited to leave because we weren't intent on buying anything. Fuck them!!! Maybe we were comparison shopping?!! Oh well, time for the real goods. Let's see some live sex shows!!! Unfortunately all of the peep shows were closed so we mosied on up to a strip club. $2 to get in and $6 a beer! The worst part was it wasn't even non-stop dancing. The girl we did get to see was really hot and slutty (as opposed to ugly and slutty - remember we are talking about strippers here). She had a fantastic piece of jewellery that attatched one of her nipples to the other via a silver chain. The menu included a 1/2 hour show on a bed, 1 on 1 for a mere $150. None of us were buying. We had a rawk show to swindle our way on to. We arrived at the Blue est Noir club around 6:00pm. As we walked in I noticed a dark tone to the bar with really cool artwork all around the walls. There were a few guys setting up some gear so Pete started a conversation with one of the them. Turns out that it was Danny from Legion who he had been e-mailing with earlier on. There was hardly any communication difficulty as they all spoke english. We on the other hand do not speak a word of French so shame on us. Danny informed us that we needed to speak to the guys from Shiver Down, as they had organized the show. He told us that we could find them at a nearby restaurant. We strolled along this section of of old Montreal which was very cool, admiring the arctitecture, outdoor patios, and women in leather pants. We found the Shiver Down guys and Pete went in the restaurant to talk to them. Like three seconds later he came out and told us were on the bill. YEAHOO! This wouldn't be a waste of a night!! We got back to the bar and brought in our gear. The other bands were sound checking and sounded really good. They were both really heavy emo-hardcore bands, and I wasn't sure how we would fit in but was excited to play with them. It became our turn to sound check so we got our stuff ready to go. The sound guy basically asked each one of us to play our insturment for like 2 seconds and told us he was ready for us to play a song. I thought that since we were just thrown on the bill that he didn't care what we sounded like and that it would be a big pile of mud. As soon as we started playing I realized this guy knew exactly what he was doing!! It fucking rocked. It was one of, if not the best sounding stages iI have played on. It must have sounded good out in the bar since members of the other bands and their buddies came up to the front for our sound check song. Michael, the singer of Legion was totally rocking to us. I couldn't help but get in to it myself. Hell, I was jumping around going crazy for "Death Rides" at sound check. After we finished it seemed that they warmed up to us and we started making friends. We went down to the band room, which was more like a dungeon where you had to be seated or crouching since the ceiling was about 5 feet high. This band room was a mecca for drugs, alcohol and stimulating conversation, depending on what you were on. I was on insulin so I wasn't really sure what anyone was talking about. Showtime!! We broke Grayline tradition and opened with "Dance With the Dead". As we played through our set, the energy and enthusiasm was present on and off the stage. It was a good turnout and we had a crowd watching eagerly in front of us. We rocked HARD! It was one of the few times that I've actually gotten a woody on stage. Sadly it wasn't from rocking but from visions of girls in leather pants we had seen earlier on St. Catherines street. It was our first night using the rock pyramid (stolen from Mr. Machete via the Scorpions). We played an action packed set, there may have been some screw ups (everytime I jumped or fell over) but it was an excellent performance!! Shiver Down and Legion both put on a great show as well in the heaviest night that I have played with Grayline (I'm sure Pete and Randy have played with heavier bands - remember, when most of us were in diapers, Pete was in Macifecation.) We had said our goodbyes and were on the road again, and on the street know as Papineau again and again... and again. Randy and I went up to the bunk to sleep right away, and left the getting us out of Montreal to Pete and Darren. Pete was driving and Darren had the map neatly folded over his lap being the navigator. They made a strategy to get us on the highway out of town and I thought we were safely on our way. Randy had dozed off at this point and I was slowly falling asleep. It started to rain, and quite hard. I peeked up to notice that we were driving over the huge bridge. I thought we would soon be out of there. A few minutes later I started to doze off again until I heard some grumblings from the front of the van. I looked up and we were on the bridge again. "For fuck sakes, we went the wrong way on Papineau," Pete said. "Cock sucking mother fucker! I thought we should have gone left," Darren replied, now with 2 maps both sprawled across his lap and the dash board. Randy had woken up at this point and we were both quietly giggling in the back. The two up front bickered a little more, and next thing you know, Papineau St. and then the bridge appear for the third time that night. It was funny from the cheap seats but I sure was glad that it wasn't me driving. By the time we had pulled over to stop for the night I was already fast asleep. Dreaming of hot french women, the sound at Blue est Noir, and the vision of Pete and Darren driving around in circles during a storm bickering like an old couple. I really must say that this trip so far was really good for me. I needed to get away and just go with the flow, no daytimer, no well structured plan, just living in the moment, in places in Canada that I had never been before. The truth is that I am bit of a mamas boy and never thought in a million years that I would take a vacation to live in a van for 2 weeks. I was definitely liking it so far. It felt kind of like home especially since the guys were on my case way more than even my girlfriend Krissie or my Mom ever was regarding the whole diabetes thing. Anyways, considering that early this Sunday morning we didn't have a show to play, day three certainly turned out to be a great success. |
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| Darren is going to leave some commentary about our visit to Montreal, once he stops weeping everytime he see the word 'Papineau'. You'll read about his adventure with the Puffs girl and how hard it is to actually give something away on the street for free. |
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