Tofino and Back

Penticton, Tofino, Vancouver, Revelstoke, Golden, Calgary

I just finished my last Western Canadian tour of the year. I was joined by my good friend Sean Hamilton. Sean plays in a Calgary punk rock band called “Jenny” (www.killjenny.com) and is also a great singer/songwriter. Sean and I met years ago in the Calgary Folk Fest Song Contest and have been friends ever since.

I was happy to have Sean join me on tour as it’s been getting a little lonely on the road and it’s always nice to have some accompaniment. We did a “Nashville” style show in which we both sat on stage and took turns playing songs. We worked our way up so that we were playing on a lot of each others tunes and adding some kick drum, harmonica and lead guitar as needed. It worked out really well.

 

Our first show was in Penticton at Elite After 6. I played there back in the Spring and really dig the venue. It was a smaller show but a great audience nevertheless. We met some really kind and cool people. Elite After 6 has an old school Pac-man/Galaga machine so we opted for a tournament of the later. Sean somehow got the 3rd highest score in all of Penticton!!!

 

After Penticton we drove all the way to Tofino to surf for two days. I had never been there and realized how rusty I am at surfing. Sean was great and had plenty of experience in Tofino so he was able to give me a few pointers. We hit the Monday night open mic night at Jack’s Pub and tried to warm up our bones.

 

The next morning of surfing was really hard to get myself prepared for. We were still chilled from the following day and then had to put on freezing wetsuits. We had Sean’s van in the trip and slept in it in the parking lot. Once I got in the water it was totally worth it and a great way to start the day.

 

The ferry ride offered two more opportunities at Galaga (What are the chances). I managed to beat Sean in a three game tournament.

 

In Vancouver we crashed with Sean’s sister and did two on-air performances on both CITR and CJSF campus stations. We tied one on with my pal Tim Bruch and had a typical Vancouver night. The next morning Sean’s mom bought us the greatest breakfast I’ve ever had and sent us on our way with 10$ pieces of cheesecake for the road...cha ching!!!

 

We played at The Last Drop in Revelstoke. I’m beginning to really dig Revy. A really awesome gal named Angie, whom I met during my last tour back in June came out to the show. She hosts house concerts with her friend Ange, so we are hoping to make it back out there sometime for a house concert. Angie also helps run the local radio station and featured one of my vids on the site the following day.

 

Golden ended up being a surprisingly awesome show. We played our first song to 6 people before 200 people walked through the doors off a bunch of tour buses. We played really well and the Leaf’s one the hockey game. The booker, Paul, is hoping to get us back for some opening slots for some bigger shows. We were both into that idea. Fairly certain we are back in December to play with Shred Kelly.

 

We rolled back into Calgary Saturday afternoon and hit the Ship and Anchor open jam. It was really cool because the band July Talk was sitting in the corner and we got to play some tunes in front of them. The man, the legend, Darren Olinger, bought us some afternoon shots before we played.

 

The last show of the tour was at the Dog and Duck, which is my old stomping grounds. It was a nice show full of friends and we played really well. Dylan joined us on the pedal steel and we capped off a really fun tour.

 

Sean and I had a really good time playing together and hope to hit the road together again in the spring for a lengthy tour. 

Cheers,
Tanner James