First, just wanted to say that it was fun meeting and hanging out with the guys & girl from Monarch! It wasn't the greatest tour on earth but we had a blast with our entourage at every show and for the whole two weeks that they were in town...
Despite not playing the Toronto show, I had fun getting acquainted with everyone there for the first time. The show got moved to a house on Dupont. There was about 50 people smoking and drinking in front of the house, and we just hung out there until it got dark. We got booze at the LCBO. The police drove by the house before any band had started playing, but funnily enough they just said to get off the sidewalk and they drove off... !! Then I started to realize that it was almost 10pm by then, and no bands had played yet --- the show was supposed to be over at 11pm, which is why there wasn't any room for me to play anymore. I learned that the house people paid off the neighbors so that they wouldn't call the police (whaaaa---?) so that the show could go on much later than planned. Turns out the trick worked as Monarch started to set up around midnight and by the time they played, it was 1:30am and everything was fine! No complaints or anything. If they had thought of that before or whatever, then... why couldn't I & the other bands have played? We still don't have an answer.
We drank until late, even tried to get some food with everyone but we ended up losing the pack with the guy leading us to the burrito place (I managed to get one the next day, killer burritos in Kensington Market!) because a bunch of us bumped into this guy in the street who apparently drove from Philadelphia to catch Monarch... and he had a trunk full of beers! He gave each of us a can before he went back to the U.S. Then it started pouring. So we got back to the house and ordered some pizza for the rest of us. It was also great to meet some people that still came to the show and buy some tqa merch off me to help me out with gas money despite the cancellation. That was really appreciated.
The Guelph show the next day wasn't a great situation either, show-wise. Apparently two events were happening next to each other on a sunday evening, and they somehow decided to merge both of them together, making it an 8 bands bill! When we got there, none of the Guelph local bands wanted to start playing because they were... local. Reverse logic, anyone? So they pleaded me to start... even though my friends from the area were coming to see me and they hadn't arrived yet. In their defense, it was 6:30pm. Whatever. It took a lot of convincing but I was being a too good sport and started playing half an hour later... Surprisingly, all the kids that were at the venue came close and got into it. I don't think anyone had heard of me before either. You can imagine how atrocious it was to get through 6-7 bands afterwards... Most of them were just horrible and we had to make fun of them. But then it just got really long and we were all falling asleep. The pay wasn't worth it either... but still, good times.
Part 2 w/ Monarch! in Quebec City & Montreal later...
+ about the Suoni Per Il Popolo & the Church show in Trois-Rivières...
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