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!

9/1 Minneapolis  - Varsity Theater - I don’t even know what to write about the actual show here, but the Mesa Pizza place across the way was nutty. I wolfed down two slices of ziti-covered pizza that really hit the spot around 2am. We had fun on stage and connected with some cool mofos during the sets, but I have nothing too crazy to report (such as stabbings, stage-dives, or wild boars). Actually the decor at this venue was spectacular. We spent most of our time backstage lounging. It was good to catch up with my man Peter Parker too. The show was dope, and the crowd helped make it a party.

SUBTERRANEAN IN CHICAGO

9/2 Chicago - Subterranean - Today I spoke with my wife Andrea (back in Boston) for a little bit and she mentioned that Logan (our dog) finally came up to bed last night. Over the past 2 weeks he has been downstairs waiting for me to come home every night since I left for this tour. Man I love that dog. Anyway, We started off the day on Milwaukee Ave, shopping and looking around at some spots. Kwestion and Beyonder were hell-bent on hitting up that sneaker/fitted/tee spot Leaders so we went over there. I played the “I care less about you than you care about me” game with the staff and bounced. Maybe that’s all in my head but boutiques make me wanna puke. The show itself was a blast, despite the infra-red camera that kept going off during our set. I don’t like red beams pointing at me while performing, it makes me feel like somebody is gonna blast me! It was nutty in there. 2-level shows always are.

CHICAGO FANS RULE! AND NOBODY GAVE ME SHIT ABOUT MY SHIRT (LIE)

9/3 Detroit - The Shelter - This was the spot where they shot Eminem’s 8 Mile battle scene…kinda cool to see and rock at. We left Chicago late so we didn’t even get a chance to hit the hotel here before the show. I met our old friend Nikki at the venue, a girl who brought us out to Detroit last time we played here (in a vicious snowstorm years ago) and she was asking about 7L (like a lot of people on this tour). While Reef rocked, there was a dude in front, with a Road Warrior Hawk haircut, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, holding up a Malcolm X sign, extinguishing cigarettes on his head, hands, and feet. I’m not lying. Maybe the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. This went on for probably 30 minutes before security tossed him. I don’t think he wanted trouble, he was just a little different…and by little I mean a whole fucking lot. We did our thing, got in some jabs about the Celtics getting Rasheed Wallace, and met some cool fans and listeners. Unfortunately somebody got stabbed up during the Jedi Mind Tricks set. Nobody in Detroit batted an eyelash though, it was very similar to the time that Obi-Wan cut Walrus Man’s arm off at the Creature Cantina in Mos Eisley. Once the blood was mopped up, everyone just returned to the music and drinks. Then after the show we got back to the hotel and had three or four shady homeless zombie types scheming on our bags and valuables to the point that the Hotel had to lock it’s sliding doors. Detroit is nuts!

A TIRED ESO & VIN AT THE SHELTER IN DETROIT

I tried giving Adidas a try on this tour. I really did. I gave the Top 10’s like 6 or 7 shows to make me feel comfy. Didn’t work. After giving 96% of my Nikes to Planet Aid and/or the garbage can, I have realized that I f’d up. So this show in Colorado Springs was dope, the fans were hardcore, and somebody got punched in the nose. I had the great pleasure of meeting Laura, a girl with our Egoclapper tattoo on her leg. Being a leo and an egomaniac, I love seeing shit like that. Laura, you rule!

Egoclapper Pterodactyl

This dude who travelled from Mexico for the show rocked as well…

YES YES YALL COLORADO SPRINGS VIA MEXICO

The next day we headed to Des Moines, Iowa where the only rest stop was Hooters (sure it was) and to be honest, it was atrocious. There were a few Nascar dudes in there, waiting to close the place. You know, those guys who wear those thin-rimmed sunglasses on top of their DIY wiffles and argue about engine sizes and shit. Our waitress looked like she had two different haircuts on one head but she was very nice. Beyonder’s up-to-the-minute rock star look always gets girls asking about our “band” and shit, so naturally once acquainted the girls asked if we did hip-hop like Lil Wayne. We gave the appropriate answer. Then Nascar dude #1 asked us to rap. I told him “nah, it’s our only day off” but the main reason was because “Cotton Eye Joe” was blasting in the background and I could tell he wouldn’t understand if I took the time to explain that it wouldn’t work with this shit in the background. He then asked me if I heard of two rappers I never heard of and that was that. The girls there referred us to a strip club named Big Earl’s and we thought it was Big Girls. That took awhile to straighten out. She said it is b.y.o.b. and the past owner got shot in the face. That is just shady as fuck to us East Coast cats so we skipped it. Now we’re in Minneapolis getting ready to rock at the Varsity Theater. Checked out the Mall of America today (like I need more shitbag stores cluttering my brainspace) and it was pretty uneventful. Yeah. Sooo umm, I have no friends in Minneapolis so the first person to direct message my twitter account (twitter.com/mcesoteric) gets on the list plus 1 for tonight’s show. Peace!