No matter where or when you go on tour, there is one universally held rule for every band and crew that hits the open road: don’t eat at Denny’s. A week and a half into the tour, we have managed to avoid eating at America’s biggest crime against cooking. Not that there haven’t been some close calls. Don’t blame us though – it’s hard to find food at 2 am. Aside from the aforementioned close calls, the past week of the tour has taken us through sunny, and periodically rainy, Florida. We didn’t see any alligators, but we did have a chance to hang out and play in a bunch of really cool spots. On Friday night, we played on Jacksonville Beach. After a long battle with the Canadian winter and the equally intolerable Texas heat, a night on Florida’s beaches were exactly what the doctor ordered. Tim and Anthony sat on a patio overlooking the ocean, Max and Mike went for a swim, and I sat on the beach remembering just how enjoyable my “job” can be. On Sunday night, we played in the historic district of Tampa, Ybor City. The Cuban and Spanish influence meant the streets were full of culture, music and cigar shops. Wanting to take full advantage, Anthony and Chris (our tour manager), filled our dressing room with more cigar smoke than a Rick Ross music video. I don’t know anything about cigars, but I was told they were very good. On Tuesday we played Atlanta but unfortunately, missed the Georgia Jug Fest (www.georgiajugfestival.com) by a couple weeks. According to Mike, it’s the best of all the Jug festivals. Today we play in Louisville, home of Louisville Slugger and Jim Beam. Two products that when used separately, can be very enjoyable, but when mixed, can become a deadly combination.

More updates soon,
Nick

-Mike

We spent the night of April 18 in New Orleans. None of us had ever been, and we were immediately swept away by the unmistakable spirit the city is known for. There was a rhythm in the air as we skipped down Decatur Street, beer in hand, passing the “other” Jackson Square. We have many reasons to be thankful, and the Big Easy helps any musician put things in perspective: “Yes, THIS is why we do this”.

On the drive into town that day we were all thinking about Levon. His character and disposition stood for what I like about playing music the most: the community and friendship it offers. At 3am we left Frenchman Street and recorded this in our hotel room. We’ve been singing this song in the van for as long as we’ve been a band – here is a thank you to Levon and what he represented.

-Max

April 20, 2012

After two weekend shows in Austin and Dallas, we enjoyed the tour’s first off day this Monday. Sometimes, you are so bagged from tour, that your day off is spent within twenty feet of your hotel bed – but this early in the tour, we were all feeling energized enough to make the most of our free time in Dallas. Early in the day, the band’s resident Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong (Max Kerman and Mike DeAngelis), decided to take a bike ride along Dallas’ famous Katy trail. Meanwhile Tim, Anthony and our tour manager Chris, had lunch (pulled pork of course,) at a famous Dallas BBQ joint: The Baby Back Shak (that’s not a typo Mom). After lunch, we all met up and spent the afternoon relearning some of the contemporary American history we forgot from our university days, at the JFK museum and memorial in downtown Dallas. For dinner, the guys sampled another southern delicacy: fried chicken, at a joint called Chicken Scratch. While they were eating, I took the opportunity to follow the NHL playoffs on something other than twitter for the first time since we arrived in the US, and was treated to a very entertaining Bruins/Capitals game 3.

Yesterday we played in Houston, and just as importantly, celebrated the release of Michigan Left in the US. It’s been a long time coming and we are excited to have the record finally out. We’ve had a lot of fun on the first few days of the tour playing and hanging with the Maine and Lydia. We’re also looking forward to the next week where we will be playing four dates in Florida and yes, going to Disney World. We plan to meet Goofy and Donald. Unfortunately, Mickey and Minnie are away on business.

Nick

July 13 – Peace River, AB @ PeaceFest

July 20 – Jackson Triggs Amphitheatre @ Niagara-On-The-Lake

July 27 – Guelph, ON @ Hillside Festival

Check out the full details here.

Arkells’ new album Michigan Left is now available in the USA on iTunes and amazon.com.

Here are the buy links for our friends south of the border:

iTunes

Amazon

Catch the band on tour this spring – check out the full list of live dates HERE.

Today we crammed our suitcases, baseball gloves, and newly purchased folding bikes into the trailer and began our long drive to Texas. Whenever we set out on tour, there is a long list of things that we can expect: hours and hours in the van, the odd flat tire, eating enough McDonalds to make an eighth grader sick of it, and the time honored (I cringe at using the word honored) ritual of Tim and Anthony blaring Big and Rich through the van stereo system. Traveling through the US brings with it a set of challenges that touring in Canada doesn’t. With that in mind, here are some of the differences between touring Canada and touring the United States in the world of Arkells.

The Border
This is first on the list because this is the first thing we actually have to deal with. We can play anywhere in Canada without showing passports, equipment manifests or works visas. Not so in the US. Bringing a giant trailer full of anything into a foreign country would be difficult, doing it when you have beards, skinny jeans, and claim you’re trailer is full of guitars will not make it easier. We’ve never encountered anything that would be considered a “violation of constitutional rights”, but we have definitely spent hours at the Detroit and Buffalo border crossings while US Customs agents make sure there are actually guitars in our trailer; not the foreign plants commonly associated with rock and roll.

Stopping for Food
You can always find somewhere good to eat inside a city (Canadian or American) before or after a show, but for touring bands, most meals are ingested somewhere along the side of the road. Despite Canada’s reputation as a cultural mosaic, most of the cultural diversity that makes the country so great is not found at rest stops along the Trans Canada highway. That means we end up with the same two or three options every time we stop for food; yes one of them is Tim Hortons. Luckily, we are not confined to the same lack of choice when in the US. Whether it’s a family style country restaurant (like Cracker Barrel and Bob Evans), the quintessential American Roadhouse (Like Applebee’s or TGI Fridays), or a wider variety of non-burger fast food options (like Panera Bread, Waffle House, or Chipotle), you can eat anything you want, whenever you want once you cross the 49th parallel. God Bless America. You can also order your sub with spinach instead of lettuce, so they got that going for them too.

Cell Phones
Like any good Canadian, I could go on a diatribe about how one of the three major cell phone carriers is robbing me blind. This holds especially true if you try and keep your Canadian cell phone on while in a foreign country. The band has one US phone that we share, but for the most part, we hunt for wifi. Skype, iMessage or bust.

ESPN vs. Sportsnet/TSN
So I’ve probably lost some of you here, but there really is a difference between Canadian (TSN and Sportsnet) and American (ESPN) sports TV. Unless we have an off day, our schedule usually requires that we take in our sports in the form of the nightly highlight package. For me, US sports coverage is a doubled edged sword. The positive is that American networks show way more baseball than you get in Canada, the negative is that they show almost no hockey. Max is happy because there is more basketball and Mike is indifferent, as competitive slack-lining is ignored equally by all networks.

Talk soon
Nick