O Canada

Preamble: Those of you who know me know that I was in Canada from Thursday night through Friday night. This was, unfortunately, the first time I’ve ever been out of the country. This post will serve as a foreigner’s outlook on Canada and to recap the trip, because it was fucking sweet.


Overall I believe the main reason why Canada perplexed me so much is just because I wasn’t used to the foreign culture. And I can deal with my own personal ignorance pretty well. But, these are a few things that just baffled me about Canada and Canadians in general.

#1: I don’t like your currency. I’m not going to lie. I know this is basically a stab at every European country ever but, why do you need 1$ and 2$ coins. Solely so my American pockets can be stretched to their physical potential? Who knows? By the end of my Canadian excursion I had a little baggy filled with all this unnecessary change. I still have some. Canadians must carry gay little change purses. I’ll take dollar bills thank you very much.

#2: Despite the language barrier, a lot of the kids seemed like they listened to good music, so I can’t complain there but, EVERY single youngster I saw in Canada (granted it was at a “scenester” bar and a show) were SOOOOO very fashion-core. On top of that their moshing consisted of pushing you with their two fists and gyrating and they clapped, during songs, at extremely unnecessary times. Basically their show etiquette was just piss poor. They pushed without even attempting to say, “Excuse me” and seemingly pushed you blatantly out of the way for little or no reason. And a side note, maybe I’m just an old fart and got into “this sort” of music before they did, but you HAVE to move around for Saves the Day. Even just bob your head, do something. They were so sick. At least clap after the songs more. That just baffled me.

#3: This one also might just be because I was drunk several times in our car trips, or paying attention to the antics and not the roads, but their road system seemed even more confusing than NJ. And that’s a tough reputation to live up to.

Other than that this trip was totally awesome. And those are just petty things. Now, for all of your enjoyment, here’s the story of the entire trip.

We shipped off from Oneonta at around 6:30 or so and were in for a LONG car ride to Canada. Spirits were high in the beginning and lasted for quite some time, maybe an hour but then began to slowly swing to the lower side of the spirit spectrum. For myself personally I was out of new tales to tell the hometown crew and I was pretty cramped seeing as how we managed to squeeze three people in the back seat of a Hyundai Sonata. We trudged along and listened to tunes. Some slept, others (like myself) did not. We switched drivers at around the four-hour mark and that was, I believe, our first break. *** I took a break from this blog and realized there’s no reason to bore you with every last detail. The drive there was not all that awesome. *** So we arrive in Canada, after passing through customs with ease, at around 11:45 or 12 A.M. with drinking copious amounts of alcohol being only thing on our minds. After we checked into the hotel we headed out for a night on the town. We herded back to the car and drove into the city of Montreal. We drove around for a while, mostly with zero clue of where we were or where anything good to do was. (Highlight of this car ride was breathing in, smelling beer, looking up, and realizing we were right below the Molson brewery. Very awesome and I have pictures that need to be developed.) We asked someone in the car next to us where a good area for drinking was and he told us the name of some street. Someone, I’m not going to mention any names (Connolly) said he knew where this street was, which made us neglect to get any directions from this nice gentlemen. We continue driving around aimlessly, until we stumbled upon a strip of several bars and, presumably, a strip club. We, as pumped to drink as we were, jumped at the opportunity, parked the car, and started walking down the strip. We noticed a couple holding hands. The odd thing about this was the fact that they were both dudes. We shrugged it off, thinking, “It’s a big city” and kept walking. We then looked to our right and saw the strip club. We mentioned how we should probably visit it later, and kept walking. As we continued walking down the strip we began to realize that there were little to no females in the area. That, plus the presence of the lads holding hands, led the thoughts of this being the gay district creep into our brains. At this point the signs became more obvious. There was a sign on a window for gay pride and we saw two men making out. That was the last straw and we turned around. As we were walking back through Gay-town Montreal we saw two men wearing leather get-ups and then, the clincher, a poster containing the image of two men curiously close to kissing and writing that, loosely translated from French said, “Super Gay”. We made haste and ended up on the street the gentlemen mentioned to us earlier. We ended up at a bar that was filled to the brim with fashion-core people, although it was a pretty sick bar. Drinks were expensive, and Jager bombs are called “uppercuts” but it all in all it was a good bar. I wish we had gotten there earlier. It was approximately three stories high with about 5 bars and a huge dance floor and they played good music e.g. The Postal Service, Led Zepplin, Slayer, Metallica, Bob Marley etc. After meeting a very sexy and quite cool Canadian chick, we headed out following their 3 O’clock last call. We got back into the car with our first international drinking night under our belts. Connolly yelled out the window at Canada the whole ride home and that was just ridiculous. The next day was the show. We went “sight seeing” in the city, which mostly consisted of us fucking with people and looking for a place to eat. We finally settled on “Hanky’s” or something when we were closer to the venue. Then the show!

This show was fucking amazing. One of the best shows I’ve seen in a really long time. The bands I saw were:
-Emanuel
-The Early November
-The Bled
-Saves the Day
-Underoath
-Senses Fail
-Thrice

I am a fan of all of these bands except The Early November I don’t really care for at all and my feelings on The Bled are “ehhhh”. Anywho, all the bands that I really like, (Saves The Day and Thrice being two of my top favorite bands of all time) were out of control. The Early November is just too, I don’t know what, for me. Never been a big fan. Emanuel pretty much rocked. They are much better live than on recording and their song selection was pretty sweet. The Bled I am never impressed with live. I think all of their songs sound exactly the same. In my eyes, probably the worst band I saw. Saves the Day was fucking incredible. They had an awesome song selection. And, the new song they played was scrumptious. It is right back to their old style before that disaster of an album “In Reverie”. I was so excited when I heard it that it felt like I was being reunited with a long lost relative. That’s the only way I can describe the feeling that came over me. Underoath were the best I’ve ever seen them. The drummer was extra nuts and his double bass drum sounded exquisite. Whoever mixed the drum set knew what the fuck they were doing. Underoath are gods in Canada though so it was pretty crazy. Definitely best set I’ve ever seen by them. Senses Fail usually always disappoint me in a live setting. Some of their old songs did, in fact, disappoint because the singer can’t hit his notes for shit. What made up for their usual sucking was the new influence on their music. They came out to and played, several, VERY METAL, solos and breakdowns. They also had a new song which was quite metal, and quite awesome I might add. If that’s the direction they’re heading in, then I’m pumped. Also “187” is always a delight to hear. Then comes THRICE. In my eyes, the best band on the planet right now. So talented and so…genius. They never cease to amaze me when I see them live and this show was no different. Highlights of their set were “For Miles”(Which was dedicated to Saves the Day), “Deadbolt”, “Music Box” and acoustic “Stare at the Sun”. There was not a low point in their set at all. Just amazing, no other words to describe it, all in all, a great show.

P.S. On the way home Sullivan and I killed half a bottle of Goldschlager and a full bottle of Jagermeister. So…you can imagine what the ride home was like.

That’s my Canada trip, pretty thorough. I’m pumped to go back. Sorry in advance (whoops) for the length of this post.