July 9th, 2006 - Milwaukee
Welcome ya’ll to Canary Mine’s Summer 2006 tourlog. It is written by James Lanbro, with help and editing by the rest of the band.
Your authoratative narrorator, James.
Two years ago, with a new CD and a whole lot of gusto, we headed across our great Canadian nation. There were a lot of great ups and downs, but we made it through pretty unscathed. We gained a whole lot of fantasmical memories and made a bunch of new friends.
Last year, we had two CDs in tow. We revisited old ground. We broke new ground. Everything went rather smoothly for us. You could say we even turned a profit, albeit quite minimal.
And so begins our third Western Canada tour.
The CM tour kit. Two tents, two vehicles, and one roofrack.
This year, instead of loading everyone into one big unreliable van (RIP Betsy-Ruth-Anne), we’ve opted to cruise in two smaller vehicles. A station wagon and a sleek mini-van. We look quite domestic from the road, which made crossing the American border a breeze.
Chicago skyline.
Driving across Chicago is always an impressive experience as the highway system rolls quite close to the downtown core in all its manmade glory.
Our first gig, as with last year, was in Milwaukee, at the world famous BBC. The Violent Femmes were discovered there in the late 1970’s. We play during the "World’s Biggest Music Festival" called Summerfest.
The bar doesn’t really start getting hyped until after midnight. Eric the Red bought our newest, and as of yet, unreleased CD, "Live Tear in the Palindrome" during sound check. It was Dan the Hacker's birthday. He brought a whole birthday crew to enjoy the entire show. Just past midnight, the dance floor was ‘happening’. Some dude named Marty decided he was our onstage go-go dancer. We let him be as the bouncers eyed him like salivating hyenas. That was fun.
Jeremy was our sound tech and he had booked us the show. He opened the night with a light acoustic set. Jer and I were in a band, living in a van, travelling around the states over a decade ago. The stories we could tell are all incriminating, so I will refrain. Jojo and I spent the night at Jer’s. Mim, Cindy and Carlito stayed in a hotel just north of the city.
As I write this, we are cruising through Eau Claire Wisconsin, heading for a possible gig in Minneapolis.