diary
New Pornographers Tour Diary Part 1
There’s so much to say I’m having trouble keeping up every day. It also gets harder to stick to a routine as a tour progresses as the outside world seems so remote. Every day is get up, (before noon if at all possible), get food, explore if have time, soundcheck and play and then drink the headline band’s plentiful supply of beer, wine and spirits…
10th Oct
Calgary (travel day)
Left Glasgow today but Jonny Scott (drummer) still didn’t have his visa at 11am and was due to take a taxi to the airport at 11.30am. I’ve never jumped through so many hoops to get a visa before so it was no surprise to find myself chasing the courier company all morning making sure the passport had actually reached Glasgow and wasn’t still languishing in London somewhere. Right at the death Jonny, after pacing his flat for the whole morning with nothing to do but wait, got the necessary visit from the courier and all was well with the world once again. I think Jonny wanted to hug the courier man but restrained himself.
That’ll explain his celebratory behaviour on the plane to Calgary downing a total of 12 whiskies and almost puking everywhere at touchdown.
So we’re here! And I’ve no idea what time it is but I have seen the bus and it’s lovely (white / stainless steel and neon strip lights inside). I’ll be staying in a hotel room tonight but Jamie, Paul and Graeme have decided to stay on the bus. These buses are cool, but it has to be said after 5 weeks any motel room with ensuite bathroom has its attractions.
11th Oct
Edmonton
First show tonight. Absolutely brilliant fun. Edmonton has the third biggest mall in the world and almost the biggest in North America but I didn’t see any of it as I was doing a radio interview at the university then went to damage my credit card on 110V power supplies. I was in Avenue Music on White Avenue and this girl came up to me and asked if I was Emma. I said yes and she told me she’d heard the radio interview and wanted to come along to the show. I put her on the guest list and she came along. It’s great when things like that happen. I saw her later on at the merchandise stand and she bought one of Judge’s posters. They’re terrific. I’ll need to put the image up on the wesbsite.
Didn’t really eat much yesterday which came back to haunt me later on when I was a little worse for wear after The New Pornographers donated their Makers Mark bottle to our cause. Ooops.
Paul and Ben are due to fly out today but I’ve just heard they’ve been delayed in London and will have to fly to Calgary via Toronto. Good job we’re playing 2 nights in Calgary or we would’ve been in real mess trying to get to them.
12th and 13th Oct
Calgary
Spent two nights here. Great gigs both of them but ran out of CDs to sell on the 2nd night so loads of people went away unable to buy one which was a real shame. I really love going up to the merchandise stand after shows. It’s lovely to speak to people who’ve come along to the show.
Finally managed to pick Paul and Ben (husband and son) from the airport on the morning of the 2nd show. They were pretty done in as they’d missed the connecting flight to Calgary from London and were redirected to Toronto where they spent the night in the airport before flying to Calgary. Amazingly they managed to stay awake the whole day and we went into Calgary centre to try and find a 110V adaptor for Ben’s new Nintendo DS. Oh yes, a whole new world of excitement awaits.
Below – some photos of the crowds on both nights at Calgary:
14th Oct
Missoula
After a couple of pretty unhealthy days to start the tour we all decided to walk up the massive hill behind the University of Montana (where we played) and try and reach the massive concrete M that sits on the hill and is visible from miles around. Apparently some students originally built this M from rocks in 1909 and then in 1968 it was replaced with a concrete one. On our way up there we met a lovely guy called Joe from Wisconsin. He comes to Missoula every year and goes walking and visits a local Bavarian brewery. He eventually came along to the gig that night and shouted out that he was there as I was telling the audience about him. He was absolutely thrilled that I mentioned him on stage and so he walked back to his hotel and brought some of the ‘Scotch Style’ ale that’s brewed locally by Kettle Brewery. It’s actually great stuff and I look forward to it accompanying me on this tour for the next few days, if it lasts that long.
16th Oct
Minneapolis
In Prince’s club tonight – First Avenue – or at least where he filmed Purple Rain. Jonny and Graeme are particularly excited by this fact so we’ll have to try and pick up the film at some point soon. Once again haven’t done much except go find food and come back and soundcheck and play and drink beer. The beer tonight however is very special – Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which reminds me of the Radar Bros. as it, comes from California. Talking of the Radar Bros. Jim Putnam will be doing our sound for the west coast dates.
17th
Milwaukee
Pabst Theatre
This venue is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this. It extends up to a 2nd balcony so far up that it gives you vertigo just to look at it.
Apparently the ‘god’s’ seats were once reserved for the black community back in the days of segregation. Looks like they had the best deal to me. Paul and Ben went up there to have a look and I nearly passed out worrying they were about to fall out. A great night. The venue provided incredible catering with a beautiful cheesecake with ‘The Pabst Theatre Welcomes The New Porngraphers’ iced on top. The staff also bought Ben (my son) loads of toys to play with whilst he was there. The gig was wonderful – really great atmosphere. I couldn’t see anyone’s faces, just a sea of black. I really like that though. Don’t like to see the eyeballs. Freaks me out.
18th / 19th Oct
Chicago
The Metro is a great club. We played here (The Delgados) in 2002 and it feels like yesterday. It was a great night and I remember someone came up to us after the show and told us it was one of the best gigs he’d been to and he’d seen The Beatles. Some comments you never forget.
New Pornographers played here 2 nights and both were sold out so a full house for us going on stage which is always nice. We had a really bizarre night on the 19th when we went to a restaurant nearby called ‘Raw’. The food was excellent – alligator and ostrich were on the menu – but we also had the surprise of a piano-accompanied singer all the way through dinner named Patsy De Santo. She was lovely and sung a load of classics – Say a little Prayer, Purple Rain, Under The Boardwalk, What a Wonderful World… the list goes on. She took a real shine to Ben (he’s 5 yrs old) and spent most of the night trying to get him to tell her his name. She eventually gave us this very scary rabbit / harlequin doll that scared the shit out of all of us, and insisted we take it home to Glasgow. I’m not surprised she gave it to us. I wouldn’t have wanted to keep a hold of it either.
Someone at the gig tonight, of the name David, flew out from San Francisco to see the show. He had booked the tickets before I announced the west coast US dates and so I shame facedly thanked him for his support and told him I looked forward to seeing him at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco.
20th Oct
North Tonawanda
Paul and Ben head home today. We dropped them off at the Amtrak station after missing the Greyhound bus and then learned that the train was delayed by over an hour. They have to make a flight in Toronto at 11pm.
This is a sleepy town. Or city. I’m not sure, as we’re not in the centre. We got into town at 2.15pm and everything was closed. Saturday afternoon as well and everything’s shut. There was a lovely little canal with a bridge over it that we had to cross to find somewhere to eat. Erin the merch girl and Jenn, my TM, and I all went to eat in a little place called Suzz’s that had home baking and great coffee. We loaded up on cinnamon French toast (a favourite in the US I find) and headed back to the venue.
The most amazing thing about this place is the fact that the Wurlitzer was invented here. There’s an incredible one in the venue in the pit, as well as a mechanical orchestra that can play strings, brass and a whole load of different things, all controlled by one person. It would have been great to use the Wurlitzer for the opening bars of New Land but alas it was not possible.
The audience were great tonight. Another seated venue, which I’m growing to love as people really pay attention and there’s always a great atmosphere. There’s also no bar inside the theatre – only at the foyer so there’s no chatting while people go and buy a drink.
I have loads of photos to get up here so keep your eyes peeled…