I hope you’ve all been enjoying the guest posts we’ve had in the past two weeks! If you missed them, our bass player Jessica shared about her bass cab facelift last week, and Josh had some funny stories of tour happenings this past Wednesday. It’s been fun to get everyone in the band involved in the blog. Next week, I think Zoltan’s coming up with something to share with you all!
This week seems to have flown by. We started the week with a long drive from Regina, SK to Steinbach, MB on Sunday, and after a a twelve hour drive, a six hour drive, a two hour drive and another twelve hour drive, two shows, and six free burritos, we’ll be in Lancaster, PA tonight. Whew!
In Regina, we played at the Artful Dodger as part of Juno Fest. It was so neat to be in the same city as so many talented Canadian artists. We were able to see Jordan Klassen, Hannah Georgas, and Yukon Blonde the day before the show, which was a treat! Our show, although a little chaotic, was really fun. We played for a packed house so the energy was unbelievable. And someone who came to the show thought we should get a Juno award for our merch design. 
Earl Grey tea with a hint of lavender. It was perfect!
From there we headed to Steinbach, MB, which I think is collectively one of our favourite places to play. There’s such a tight community of musicians and artists and like minded people in that small town, so it always feels a little bit like home whenever we visit. We played at a greenhouse and cafe, and let me tell you: the smell of the greenery made me long for spring!
The venue in Steinbach: Oakridge Garden Centre and Cafe.
The next day, after a rather long and strenuous border crossing in Pembina, ND, our plan was to power through to Naperville, IL and stay with some friends there and then only have an hour drive to our show in Dixon, IL the next day. Somewhere in Minnesota, though, we hit an epic snow/slush storm. We decided to take a break in St. Cloud, MN for dinner at Chipotle (where the manager gifted us with free burritos!) and to get our US phone set up and see if the storm would subside, but that wasn’t happening. We only got as far as the east side of St. Paul, MN before we decided that it wasn’t worth it to continue. We looked into a few hotels, but they were either full or far too expensive, and when we saw a church nearby, we decided to stop in and see if anyone would be able to help us out. As it turned out, the church also housed a bible college, and we were able to stay in one of their dorm rooms for the night! It was a day of provision, that’s for sure.
Free burritos!
The next day we headed the rest of the way to Dixon, IL to play our first American show of the year at a restored dance hall that was built in the late 1800s, and it was where Ronald Regan had his prom! It was a room full of character, and the show itself was awesome! One highlight for us was that we got to use a beautiful old Hammond organ that the venue was given. It sounded so wonderful, and now we want to bring one on tour.
The next day we played in Chicago at a place called Abbey Pub. Jess and I totally lucked out with there being a thrift store just down the street, and we both found a few cool things. The show was lots of fun. There was a great sound system and the sound guy was really helpful so Hammer was in his element. We saw a few people who were at our last show in Chicago with Rusted Root, and met some new people, and ate lots of good food!
Spring has arrived!
So it was a good week, and I think tour has been off to a great start. If you want to follow our day to day happenings, feel free to check out our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter or Instagram!
Until next time,
Lauren.
