Blue Shirts tour/need help (updated 04.08)

my band is going on tour through eastern Canada in late august, and we would LOVE to play as many shows as possible, anywhere - from a proper bar show, to backyard bbqs, house parties, and cafes.

we can do a wide variety of sets - from all-out harsh noise, to acoustic free improv (its ALWAYS free improv though).

if you are anywhwere in eastern (east of Hamilton, ON) Canada and could help us out, we'd MUCH appreciate it!

dates booked already:
fri 13.08 Hamilton, ON, TBA with La Bella Union, Fossils
sat 14.08 Toronto, ON, Duffy's Tavern with Rogue Astronaut, The One-Eyed Muskrats, Fossils, Warlock Moon, 1 more TBA
sun 15.08 London, ON, TBA with Disleksick, Fossils (TO BE CONFIRMED)
wed 18.08 Brantford, ON Rodeo Bar and Grill (20 Dalhousie Street) $free, with Rob Michalchuk + TBA
fri 20.08 Ottawa, ON, TBA with Feral Children
mon 30.08 Halifax, NS, Reflections Cabaret $Rockin4Dollar$


check us out here:
http://myspace.com/blueshirtsnoise
http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Blue-Shirts

it looks like we'll be cutting our tour short to save on the almighty $$$, so it will most likely be Ontario + Halifax only.

some dates got cancelled unfortunately.
looks like ill have to sell some stuff to be able to afford this tour hahaha

Samizdat wrote:

some dates got cancelled unfortunately.
looks like ill have to sell some stuff to be able to afford this tour hahaha

I take it you never heard anything from Belleville, eh? Did you try the group "Belleville Shows" on FB?

Discarded confirmed our Duffys date.

worshipsatanzine wrote:

I take it you never heard anything from Belleville, eh? Did you try the group "Belleville Shows" on FB?

Discarded confirmed our Duffys date.

i talked with Jane, and tried the fb group too.
Jane said that she's trying to take over the show, and will let me know ASAP. havent heard from her in maybe a week since then. yesterday noticed Mesrine have on the myspace that date now in Ottawa with G.O.D. so i figured if the headliner dropped out, and i know dislecksik arent gonna make that gig (they are setting up the london show, so weve been in touch) we are the only band left on the bill, so its cancelled. which works for us with transportation (long story short: i can only travel west of Montreal until the 21st, after which itll cost me serious $$$) so it works out. after Ottawa we are heading to Montreal prolly squat a show there, and back to Halifax!

Samizdat wrote:

worshipsatanzine wrote:

I take it you never heard anything from Belleville, eh? Did you try the group "Belleville Shows" on FB?

Discarded confirmed our Duffys date.

i talked with Jane, and tried the fb group too.
Jane said that she's trying to take over the show, and will let me know ASAP. havent heard from her in maybe a week since then. yesterday noticed Mesrine have on the myspace that date now in Ottawa with G.O.D. so i figured if the headliner dropped out, and i know dislecksik arent gonna make that gig (they are setting up the london show, so weve been in touch) we are the only band left on the bill, so its cancelled. which works for us with transportation (long story short: i can only travel west of Montreal until the 21st, after which itll cost me serious $$$) so it works out. after Ottawa we are heading to Montreal prolly squat a show there, and back to Halifax!

Yeah organizing tours isn't easy for sure man! As plans always change and theres only a few honest promoters in Ontario that I know of.

worshipsatanzine wrote:

Yeah organizing tours isn't easy for sure man! As plans always change and theres only a few honest promoters in Ontario that I know of.

yeah man.. plans have changed on us BIG time hahaha.. when we started planning the tour, it was going to be 4 of us going on tour, we were gonna rent a van or at least a car (2/4 people drive), and do shows in Quebec City, Miramichi+Moncton in New Brunswick, and Syndey here in NS on top of everything.
now its just 2 of us (and a special guest for the toronto show - one of the original members now lives in toronto, so he'll jam with us for the first time in over a year), and im taking a bus between all the dates, and the other guy will hitchhike for at least part of the tour (depending how much we'll make at every show, he might get to take a bus too! w00t!). all of that, plus we'll prolly end up sleeping on the street at least a couple nights (most likely brantford, and ottawa).
one thing though - from what i gather, our sound-making abilities wont be hampered though, the only limitation will be me not bringing my bass on the road - so it'll be an acoustic guitar, some whistles+percussion, and things that have knobs to twist (fx pedals). its a tried-tested-and-true set-up for us, weve done tonns of jams/sets with even less.

itll be some good times with good friends, and good adventure! haha

most current dates:

10 - Hamilton ON secret open mic
11 - Brantford ON w/ Rob Michalchuk + 4 more at Rodeo Lounge ***
13 - Hamilton ON w/ Fossils, La Bella Union at TBA
14 - Toronto ON w/ Fossils, Rogue Astronaut, Iron Bitchface, Discarded, Warlock Moon
15 - London ON w/ Fossils, Disleksick + 1 more TBA at TBA
20 - Ottawa ON w/ Feral Children at TBA ***
22 - Montreal QC secret special show
30 - Halifax NS at rockin 4 dollars at Reflections Cabaret

just in time for the tour, a new BS song! first really new track we have since april (NEW-new, not just old recording released).

our contribution to the BAND GUN compilation to be released on Radiator Family on september 11th. go check it out - http://www.myspace.com/blueshirtsnoise

PS can you guess what the new song is called?

facebook pages for events:
Brantford: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149445545069155

Toronto: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115947311751367

London: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144686878883601&ref=mf

and now our first review is in as well! wholy crap! whats next today? we got a new track, updates on the shows, this review.. i dont know what else to expect!!

http://noise-brigade.webs.com/allreviews.htm

Quote :

the quality of the sound is poor, it doesn’t take anything away from the fact this release is absolutely mental, Napalm death drumming, kind of miss pitched guitars, what appears to be screaming vocals but can be just the feedback, they are a noise band pure and simple

Quote :

it kind of reminds me Fantomas but with balls. A bit like The Locust but no screaming vocals that make them sound 5 years old. After it’s just finished I can easily go outside and rip someone’s face off. If you don’t like someone and fighting has never been your method of sorting out a situation, whack this on and change your mind man, go smack the fucker, and remember Blue Shirts told you to.

Great set in Toronto guys! I hope the rest of your tour was groovy. cheers

worshipsatanzine wrote:

Great set in Toronto guys! I hope the rest of your tour was groovy. cheers

thanks man!
yeah the rest of the tour went nearly flawless. here's a write up i posted on facebook;

day 1: august 9th - met my ride on robie street, picked up the rest of the riders to ontario (4 people were in the car, all of us playing in local bands... was like a scene get-together). drove through 4 provinces that day (NS, NB, QC, ON) and then crashed just before Trenton ON at a highway rest stop. driving through Quebec, stocked up on beer at a gas station. a 40 ouncer of 10.1% for $5.50 - amazing.



day 2: august 10th - got into Hamilton around 11 in the morning. Alex was still asleep, but got woken up as soon as i showed up at the house. spent the day relaxing, and then played some Twilight Empirium (board game) for 8 hours. and recorded a 60 minute tape in the middle of the game as a tour promo (Blue Shirts - Lost Articles).



day 3: august 11th - first show of the tour, in Brantford ON. showed up, turns out this awesome looking place, with wood panelling on the walls, and grumpy bartender. super cheap beer - $1.50 for a Gus'-sized glass, and $6 for a half-pitcher. the show was awesome, Rob played a set that was more bizarre than anything ive seen live. bundles of plastic bags, rocks, conact mics, and writing on pieces of paper. sweet. the other bands were pretty cool too; i really liked the last band (apparently improvised super fuzzed-out blues, 2 20-something old on bass and guitar, and a drummer in his 50s). one of the performers did the part of house music over the PA between the bands he'd stand up and play his acoustic guitar and scream his lungs out. like an acoustic version of oh, i dont know - early Nirvana, or The Famines, or even Sex Pistols - fuck-all attitude and anger. after our set, we got some nice heckles (someone screamed at us if we are from brantford, and when i said no we are not, he said 'good we dont need you ruining our reputation' and some other dude said we got less talent than his ex), and some awesome compliments (some dude came upto us and said he saw Merzbow live in south korea, and we 'are up there'). for added randomness, saw Kris (ex-Iron Bitchface guitarist, was with IBF when i brought them down to Halifax). couldnt figure out where i know him from for a good half our. after the show we biked to Hamilton (~40 kms) and crashed at an abandoned building at a gas station to replenish our energy in the middle of the ride.



day 4: august 12th - drank the 40 ouncer from quebec. got trashed. hung out in a hole-in-the-wall (literally) gallery. odd night.



day 5: august 13th - hamilton show got cancelled (the venue started renovations the day before), so we borrowed an extension cord from the gallery from the day before, and set up on a street corner (plugged in at an art store) during an Art Crawl. no hecklers. some people took pictures/videos of us, and by the end of it had people joining in. was awesome to play on a street corner at 10 at night.



day 6: august 14th - toronto. awesome all around. started by getting some freshly squeezed juice, and then lugging our gear for like 4 subway stations. had pita and pickled cactus for pre-show dinner - delicious. the show was pretty cool too. started with a BANG (literally - fossils, the first band was setting up, plugged something in into the PA, and this wall shaking static bang came out. my ear hurt). good bands all around, was awesome to see Iron Bitchface with a live drummer (completely different vibe to the band that way). some last-minute addition to the bill by some harsh noise dudes from vermont/montreal. missed their name, but good stuff. was awesome to see all the high school friends and hang out with them. by the end of our set they started a 'KOSTIA! KOSTIA!' chant going. i never felt so shy up on stage hahaha. was a blast to play with Chris again. i couldnt hear myself AT ALL during our set though, apparently others could hear me, so thats good.



day 7: august 15th - london. bused to london, showed up tired and hungover. David (the dude who organized the show) took us to Food Not Bombs for pre-show dinner, was awesome. did a 10 minute acoustic/pedals set there. the show itself was amazing. all the bands were great (was awesome to hear Rob again, and the rock was there again too). the only two people who were at the show and not in any of the bands left right before our set though. we had a blast though - it was the show i injured myself the most at on the whole tour - punched myself in the mouth with a mic, got/burst blisters from playing drums, and more. also broke 2 drum sticks in the 10 mins i played drums. the most energy-expending show i had on the tour. apparently at one point, our noise got too much for all the noiseheads there (and the other guy playing with me!) but no one wanted to be THAT dude who plugged their ears at a show. David also recorded all 4 sets, and apparently its going to come out on a CDR some time this year, so look out for an Indigenous Nudes/Dislecksik/Fossils/Blue Shirts split cdr later this year. crashed at one of the Indigenous Nudes' dude place, with a fun but overly playful dog, and a reel-to-reel recording studio.



days 8 - 11: august 16-19 - toronto again. killed a lot of time in high park, and kensington market. drank a lot of coffee. got kicked out of the place i arranged to crash at for my entire toronto stay on the first day at 7 in the morning, after we stayed up all night wandering the streets and came across 7 cop cars blocking off one corner of high park. so that sucked because one of the only reasons i decided to spend the so much time in toronto (as opposed to more time in hamilton, or somewhere else) was because i had a place arranged even before i left Halifax, but then obviously it fell through. i seriously contemplated abandoning the tour and heading to halifax that morning. so after that i spent a night in mississauga at Chris'n'Keegan'n'Ashley's place. was a freaking blast! thanks guys!

spent another night at Kate's place, she had a get-together with some of the people who couldnt make it to the show. so we drank in a park like the high school days. during the day i spent my time china town/kensington market. hung out at the hot box cafe for a while.



day 12: august 20th. after finally straightening out our ottawa show just on wednesday (house party with three sludge bands), on friday morning get a txt message that the show is cancelled. so we catch a bus to montreal, that takes us through ottawa. we got some tim hortons from the street that we were supposed to play at, and Alex played his guitar in a parking lot and i recorded it.



day 13-14: august 21-22nd. montreal. spent most of the days just laying low, and drinking the 40 ouncers and eating dollar store cookies (went through 3 40 ouncers over the weekend, pretty sure most of my calories came from beer). walked about the town for a bit. the set in the living room was awesome, half way through the set neighbours started banging on the door to find out if we had any acid to sell. i guess they had all reasons to think we did - bunch of weird dudes making unhuman noise are pretty good indication of drugs hahahaha



day 15: august 23rd. spent 18 hours on 4 different buses, going from Montreal to Halifax. couldnt have been happier to finally make it home. sleeping on a bed, after crashing on 4 different floors and 2 different coaches for 2 weeks was just DELICIOUS!!!



we still have one more show to go (the 30th at rockin for dollars!! ill be guest-djing there as well!!) and im sure it will be a blast, if any of the other shows have been any indication of it all.

im happy to have gotten to see some places i havent been to before, played some shows (or jammed for that matter), hung out with all kinds of cool people, and read a whole bunch (read 2 complete books, and started a third). getting into strong beer has been good too! haha. also never in a 2 week period did i drink so much beer as on the tour. i think there were only 2 days that i didnt have any beer.

all in all, exhausting but tonns of fun!!! cant wait to do it again.

Thats hilarious the neighbours in MTL knocked on your door looking for acid!!

worshipsatanzine wrote:

Thats hilarious the neighbours in MTL knocked on your door looking for acid!!

yeah we thought it was fitting for us