Wow, what a weekend! An outing with Keys N Krates is never without adventure, and this past weekend did not disappoint!
I left Burlington to pick up the boys at Sole Power around 11:30 last Wednesday...the thought was that rather than driving all day and doing sound check and set up on arrival (being all worn out from driving), we would drive through the night, check into the hotel, and relax for the day. Well, I lasted behind the wheel until about 2:30 and then Flo took over, and I crashed. Next think I know, it's daylight and we're stopping at McDonalds somewhere around Montreal for breakfast...then Tune got behind the wheel (we don't let Matisse drive...long story...) and headed for beautiful Lac-Beauport and the Manoir Sainte Castin Hotel...oh, it's just gorgeous up there, I wouldn't mind heading back up there for business or pleasure at all! Nice clean atmosphere, and one of the best hotels I've ever had the pleasure of staying in!
The staff at the Archibald Microbrassarie was great, great sound, we had a killer party going on...the place was packed out, I heard it was one of the largest they've had at that venue, around 550 or so rocking out to the remix by Keys N Krates! Sounds like they'll be heading back for more, and hopefully yours truly will be along for the ride!
So, after we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning (the only negative at 'Castin was that there's no late check out, so we had to boogie by 11) to head for the next gig in Montreal. So after tracking down Matisse's jacket at some studio in the industrial area (still not sure of how that story came about...) we arrived at the venue, Tabu Lounge for set up. We had a nice little crowd for a more intimate performance, once again wowing the crowd...BTW, if you're still not hip to what reinventing the remix is all about, head over to http://www.keysnkrates.com and check out what the show's all about...and then make it a point to get out to the next show that's in a venue close to you...or even far!
Where was I? Oh yeh, so we hooked up with Flo's boy Kevin and headed back to the Prisonlodge...oh yeh, let's talk about that for a minute...
...as nice as the Manoir Sainte Castin was, the Travel Lodge on Rene Levesque in Montreal is it's polar opposite in my experience and opinion. The room was maybe 100 sq. ft, with bunk beds...the bunks were bolted to the wall above the regular bed...the picture didn't get saved unfortunately, but wow, we all felt it was like a prison, for real! They ran out of underground parking, so we had to unload all the gear into storage overnite and park on the street...yeh, hopefully we'll get the Delta next time again!
So yeh, we unloaded, chilled for a quick bit...then decided to go get some chinese food. I was going to stay in and catch up on sleep, but I'm a total mark for chinese, so off we went. Kevin is from Montreal, going to school with Flo in New York...so he knew of this place that had pretty good deals...and what a deal it was...a HUGE (think two medium-full size) plate of spicy pork chops, with fried rice, leeks, and a fried egg (on top of the rice...)...um, WOW! Greasy, Chinese goodness, I couldn't finish my 6-7 good sized pork chops, so I had to get a doggy bag...finished them for "breakfast", and they were just as good then! Big thanks to Kev for taking us there!
So, the return trip was largely uneventful, we took turns driving and snoozing. The guys are heading to Germany next month, I'll have to decline that as there's a work conflict with my day job, but if you're in Europe, check the Keys N Krates website for the venues and try to make it out! There's a West Coast tour towards the end of June that Matt (West Coast bass guy) will most likely be handling unless things change, Van, Calgary, Winnipeg, check it!
So, unless things change, I have no gigs outside of church schedded for the next little bit...yikes! I really want to try doing Berklee Online this fall or Winter semester to get their Bass Specialist Certificate, so help a brother out: if you know or hear of someone who needs a bass player, HAVE THEM CALL ME! Check out my website or contact me at andrew.jacksonsmith@gmail.com for contact info and creds. I'm a quick learner, and work really well with people and different genres, you won't be sorry!
(Oh, just a plug for Mrs. Groove's new blog, "Dancing on Jupiter" , she talks about some of the family stuff going on, check it out!)
----------------
Now playing: dc Talk - Dive
via FoxyTunes
I left Burlington to pick up the boys at Sole Power around 11:30 last Wednesday...the thought was that rather than driving all day and doing sound check and set up on arrival (being all worn out from driving), we would drive through the night, check into the hotel, and relax for the day. Well, I lasted behind the wheel until about 2:30 and then Flo took over, and I crashed. Next think I know, it's daylight and we're stopping at McDonalds somewhere around Montreal for breakfast...then Tune got behind the wheel (we don't let Matisse drive...long story...) and headed for beautiful Lac-Beauport and the Manoir Sainte Castin Hotel...oh, it's just gorgeous up there, I wouldn't mind heading back up there for business or pleasure at all! Nice clean atmosphere, and one of the best hotels I've ever had the pleasure of staying in!
The staff at the Archibald Microbrassarie was great, great sound, we had a killer party going on...the place was packed out, I heard it was one of the largest they've had at that venue, around 550 or so rocking out to the remix by Keys N Krates! Sounds like they'll be heading back for more, and hopefully yours truly will be along for the ride!
So, after we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning (the only negative at 'Castin was that there's no late check out, so we had to boogie by 11) to head for the next gig in Montreal. So after tracking down Matisse's jacket at some studio in the industrial area (still not sure of how that story came about...) we arrived at the venue, Tabu Lounge for set up. We had a nice little crowd for a more intimate performance, once again wowing the crowd...BTW, if you're still not hip to what reinventing the remix is all about, head over to http://www.keysnkrates.com and check out what the show's all about...and then make it a point to get out to the next show that's in a venue close to you...or even far!
Where was I? Oh yeh, so we hooked up with Flo's boy Kevin and headed back to the Prisonlodge...oh yeh, let's talk about that for a minute...
...as nice as the Manoir Sainte Castin was, the Travel Lodge on Rene Levesque in Montreal is it's polar opposite in my experience and opinion. The room was maybe 100 sq. ft, with bunk beds...the bunks were bolted to the wall above the regular bed...the picture didn't get saved unfortunately, but wow, we all felt it was like a prison, for real! They ran out of underground parking, so we had to unload all the gear into storage overnite and park on the street...yeh, hopefully we'll get the Delta next time again!
So yeh, we unloaded, chilled for a quick bit...then decided to go get some chinese food. I was going to stay in and catch up on sleep, but I'm a total mark for chinese, so off we went. Kevin is from Montreal, going to school with Flo in New York...so he knew of this place that had pretty good deals...and what a deal it was...a HUGE (think two medium-full size) plate of spicy pork chops, with fried rice, leeks, and a fried egg (on top of the rice...)...um, WOW! Greasy, Chinese goodness, I couldn't finish my 6-7 good sized pork chops, so I had to get a doggy bag...finished them for "breakfast", and they were just as good then! Big thanks to Kev for taking us there!
So, the return trip was largely uneventful, we took turns driving and snoozing. The guys are heading to Germany next month, I'll have to decline that as there's a work conflict with my day job, but if you're in Europe, check the Keys N Krates website for the venues and try to make it out! There's a West Coast tour towards the end of June that Matt (West Coast bass guy) will most likely be handling unless things change, Van, Calgary, Winnipeg, check it!
So, unless things change, I have no gigs outside of church schedded for the next little bit...yikes! I really want to try doing Berklee Online this fall or Winter semester to get their Bass Specialist Certificate, so help a brother out: if you know or hear of someone who needs a bass player, HAVE THEM CALL ME! Check out my website or contact me at andrew.jacksonsmith@gmail.com for contact info and creds. I'm a quick learner, and work really well with people and different genres, you won't be sorry!
(Oh, just a plug for Mrs. Groove's new blog, "Dancing on Jupiter" , she talks about some of the family stuff going on, check it out!)
----------------
Now playing: dc Talk - Dive
via FoxyTunes
