Columbus
We rolled into Columbus around 9pm after a exhausting 8 hour drive, thankfully the show in Nashville last night had a reasonably early finish time. I think all the travel and late nights are starting to really effect me. I was so relieved to get into my room, which i was surprised to find was a trendy downtown LA loft style hotel. Our gig at Karma wasn’t until the following night so I hit the sack early as I wanted to get out and about a bit to see what Columbus was all about. The following afternoon I met my friend Neil, the writer from 30 days on the Road (www.30daysontheroad.com) for a delicious lunch at a local favorite deli spot complete with old world Pickle barrels and massive 1/2 lb sandwiches. Later on I had just enough time to squeeze in a visit to the local Botanical gardens where they were featuring some glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly (www.chihuly.com) which was a welcome reprieve from the madness of the past week. Karma is a great venue which holds approx 700 people with a comfortable DJ booth overlooking the dance floor. I really enjoyed my set tonight, people responded instantly upon arrival and within half an hour the dancefloor was buzzing, Sasha and John both played quality tuff upbeat sets which went down great, leaving a packed house at the end of the night screaming for more.
Detroit
Detroit, place of legend. Techno, House and everything else you associate with the place had my anticipation levels running high. Even the venue name “Clutch Cargos” sounded enigmatic and I was surprised to see that the venue was in fact an old church not a Detroit Warehouse. When we arrived rain was spitting and it was freezing cold, we drove to a suburban area of Detroit and checked into a spooky hotel which resembled something out of the film “The Shining.” After grabbing a quick bite with Sasha at a local Italian eatery I dashed to the venue for a 9pm start. I dug deep in my CD wallet tonight and dropped a lot of atmospheric techno ish music I hadn’t played on the tour yet and which seemed to go down really well. Sasha and John played great again tonight although the gig wasn’t quite as packed as some of the others we’ve done. I’m guessing there were 600 people tonight and we all left with the satisfaction of a job well done and our first Canadian gig ahead of us.
Toronto
It was an action packed day today. I woke up this morning feeling a little the worse for wear but I’m definitely getting used to it.. ha !
Blake our amazing bus driver picked us up at the “Overlook Hotel” and we quickly packed off to Toronto. Time was short today and we were already cutting it fine, we still had no idea how long it would take us to get through Customs in Canada. Knowing the type of treatment that these “Rock Star” busses like ours get from border control, we could have feasibly been forced to sit and wait as they took apart the bus examining every single nut and bolt. At a brief stop near the border we discovered one of Sasha’s bags was missing, unfortunately it was the one with his Visa in. Panic swept the bus as we tried to work out what to do, in the end we had to leave him at a local airport near the border to catch a cab back to Detroit as the show had to go on. As you can imagine morale was a little low by the time we pulled up at the Canadian border but thankfully we passed through uneventfully and arrived at “Kool Haus” in Toronto right on time. I’ve been curious about the Toronto scene for a long time and the club “Guvernment”, part of the same complex is pretty legendary. Mark Oliver opened up the first hour with some great house tracks and I took over around 10pm to a packed house. Tonight I played a mix of House, Tech and Atmospheric tunes which seemed to go down great and I met a cool group of local house DJ’s who gave me the lowdown on the Toronto scene. John played an amazing set tonight, totally represented in fine style and although people were disappointed that Sasha couldn’t make it, everyone had an amazing time rocking out to what will be John’s only 4 hour set this tour. After all the gear was loaded back on the bus we steeled ourselves for an 11 hour drive to Chicago and a 7am Customs inspection en route… doh !
Chicago
I’d been really looking forward to the Chicago gig as it had been sold out for a week or so and I knew the House of Blues venue is massive. As soon as I arrived I headed out for a really nice Mexican dinner with friends and It was great to connect with the guys from Listed and my PlayCo Chicago mates Hac Le, Sasha and Chris. I started playing around 10 tonight. A local DJ / Promoter Milo got the ball rolling nicely and I started what was to become one of my favorite sets of the tour. I found it a little tricky mixing on the rig tonight due to some slapback from the facing wall, however the grooves were flowing thick and fast tonight and the crowd was going mad. After my set I typically go to the front of the stage and give out some CD’s, tonight everyone was grabbing like crazy and I nearly got dragged into the crowd, this was a definite first for me. Thankfully, Sasha was reunited with us tonight and all the crew were really pleased as he took over from me and dropped one of his best sets yet. John came on and built from where Sasha left off and the venue was left at 4am with a ravenous crowd dying for more. As spirits were running high after the gig, my friends and i hit up an after party but I quickly found I was worn out from the past 2 weeks activities. We had a welcome day off today but as the weather was freezing I opted to veg out and catch up on some reading and TV at the hotel….nice)
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