Toronto - The Opera House - 9/3 My earliest memory of Toronto was going there with my parents at 14. My hotel window seemed to overlook the sleepless Sam The Record Man sign. I’d watch it spin for an eternity before I decided to sneak out and take the city on by myself. I was fearless then. Years later, here I am performing here with some of my closest friends. We were all pretty stressed after border patrol fucked with us entering Canada. They lined all 13 of us up, and had this crazy labrador running in and out of the vans, incessantly barking, weaving in and out of the seats and throwing around gym bags. This was the only time I rooted against a Lab. After a little hang=up, we got through and headed to T-dot. Reef cued up NWA’s “Fuck the Police” as we sped away. That was a good time. So yeah…we ate some “chinese food” at a spot across from the Opera House and got ready to rock. What a show. “Murder Death Kill” brought about a pit which was dope and helped max out our energy. It seems like all I ever report on is mosh pits. Well, at this show during ”Wrestlelectro” a fucking pit started. You shouldn’t be able to “pit” to a beat like that but we’ll take it every time! This crowd was bat-shit crazy…pushing the monitors around during “Frank Miller Tank Killer” and just wilin’ out. Yall made us feel like AC/DC for real. We signed a lot of limbs, shirts, hats, and cds. Nuts. It made up greatly for the time we played with Pharoahe Monch in T-Dot and the crowd started chanting “Pharoahe, Pharoahe” 30 minutes into our set (I was foolish enough to think they wanted to hear Army of the Pharaohs). I love Toronto.

TORONTO CATS RUN TINGS
Ottawa Canada, The Ritual Nightclub - 9/4 Sitting here at the Crowne Plaza hotel during some convention. Tired. We rocked Ottawa last night, what a wild bunch they are! It was held at a really dope venue called “Ritual” or the “The Ritual” that was only 2 weeks old. Beautiful place. I knew this modern layout and hot bartender chicks was all Beyonder needed to feel at home and start drinking scotch like the anchorman he adores so much. Pretty sure it was open bar for us, at least it seemed like it. I need to remember what the cranberry in the cranberry and vodkas do to my voice before I pound 5 of them. We did our set, performing a lot of stuff from Dangerous Connection, Bars of Death, and Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo. This crowd showed so much love I felt like I could say whatever and they’d ride with it, so I had them chant “Dustin! Dustin!” (Dustin is the merch guy / navigation guy / bodyguard guy) and told the club to buy him some liquor because it was his b-day.

OTTAwA GETS BUSY!
Once the show was over, everybody relocated to the lower floor of the venue where the DJ was playing everything from DITC to Rihanna to Supercat. It was a good time, beginning to end. Some slimy pizza closed the night off perfectly. I think this was our 6th show in a row. Off to Montreal tonite for a 7th!
Montreal - Telus Theater - 9/5 I’ve been waking up with a gigantic sweat ring around my neck every morning, which kinda cancels out my shower after the shows. Montreal is a dope city. What a good looking venue this was. The street itself was beautiful (Saint Denis). We had quite a few backstage antics here that should see the light of day on video. The show itself was bonkers, and here is a link to us performing Battle Cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QXaevyI91c

3 COOL CANADIANS AND A DUMB 'MERRICAN

MONTREAL UP CLOSE
After the show a few fans led us to a house party that was down a few blocks from the venue…soon we found ourselves in a van full of people and MIA’s “Paper Planes” was on blast, which led to a somewhat cinematic, joyous moment in time. The party was cool, there was a really cool dog there named Tito, who was some sort of shepherd mix, and he made me miss Logan and all the dogs he hangs with back home. Those subtle nuances a dog makes really get me. I hate to admit this, but that sobered me up pretty fast and I hit the 24 hour McDonald’s a block up and called it a night. The next morning I hit up St. Catherine to do some shopping for the fam but Labor Day closings thwarted my efforts. Off to Vermont…thank you Canada!