SKULLIANS TORONTO PUNX

DAY 1/14 – THE BOVINE SEX CLUB TOUR KICKOFF

w/ Web Society, Bourbon DK & Brutal Youth

Today’s the day! Months of booking shows and confirming bands are all coming full circle today. For our tour kickoff we got Web Society (young awesome punkers from Hamilton, ON), Bourbon DK (Burlington Oi Boys) and Brutal Youth (hard hitting fast skate punk from Kitchener/Waterloo area).

The show was absolutely rammed; everyone was drunk as shit, and we sold so many cd’s I was totally floored! It’s amazing when so many people show up to support your endeavors – needless to say we felt quite loved. There was a guy with a huge blonde Mohawk starting pits in the crowd, we talked to him after and I think he said he was from Italy. That’s so cool.

Huge thanks to Deanna and everyone else at the Bovine for always making us feel right at home.

Photo: Blonde Mohawk Guy by Sahira Sepp

DAY 2/14 – THE SPILL, PETERBOROUGH

w/ Meatwig, Nagasaki

Day 2. This show was so fun on many levels. Granted it did suck that Mike had to make his own way to Peterborough thanks to the lovely folks at his work – so we had to travel with only 75% of Skullians. But needless to say we made it to Peterborough and played an awesome show! We made some new friends and caught up with some old friends as well. Meatwig and Nagasaki we’re both awesome – and Greg jammed until the early hours of the morning with Nagasaki which was so fun to watch! Two totally different styles of guitar playing, coupled together to form an awesome jam session.

The best part of being in Peterborough was staying above the Spill in their extremely haunted band house! Okay maybe it wasn’t totally haunted, but it really LOOKED haunted. The night ended with Evan and I sitting on the steps of a church of all places, looking for McDonalds (apparently all McDonalds’ in Peterborough open at 7:00am, what’s up with that?). We also noticed that there are about 6 different costume shops on the main strip of Peterborough. Why is this? I joked that it must be Halloween every day in Peterborough ha-ha. Either way, the next morning I woke up in a single bed, conveniently beside a window with no curtains inside the Spills band apartment, SWELTERING in my own drunken sweats and with a pounding headache. It was awesome.

Photo: Evan’s artists rendition of me puking + new tshirt idea?

DAY 3/14 – THE ARTEL, KINGSTON

w/ Lionsbane, The Machetes, IQ32

Day 3. Woke up with a splitting headache, and Greg serenading me with his acoustic guitar. I told him I wanted Tylenol to which he replied, “you know Candice, back in the day they didn’t have Tylenol – all they had was the blues” ha-ha. After a good hour of slowly getting ready, Greg, Evan and I went to eat a wonderful little diner on the main street in Peterborough. They had this awesome photo of all of the notorious gangsters in movies, i.e. DeNiro, Pesci, Tony Soprano and so on and so on. We made sure to take lots of photos for Mike.

Again, due to Mike’s work, he had to make his way to Kingston on his own – which was weird and sucked. But we made it to Kingston, picked Mike up from the bus station, hit the beer store and arrived at the Artel.

The first thing I noticed about this place was that it reminded me of 84 Lowther (my old house, a frat house in the Bloor and St. George area in Toronto). It was basically an art collective full of cool artwork, an old piano, and a large room where we played our set to about 25-30 drunken and rowdy Kingston kids. So yeah, it looked like Lowther but with a lot more talent and a lot less pissing on the floor ha-ha.

The best part of Kingston by FAR was hanging out with the Lionsbane guys. Not only did they blow our minds with their amazing Metal/Hardcore-ish set, they were nice enough to show us around town after the show. We went to this bar (forget what it’s called) that was about a 20-minute adventurous walk from the Artel and we drank and drank, and drank some more. I don’t even remember getting back to the Artel.

I woke up the next morning with one foot on the floor and the rest of my body on the couch (I assume this was to avoid the spins). It was amazing to wake up and the first thing I saw was all of our gear, still set up from the night before. We didn’t even put our guitars away ha-ha, and if we wanted to we could have woken up and played another set – obviously we didn’t. We also woke up to a lovely note from the manager/owner of the Artel – I believe his name was Mike (I’m so bad with names, can you tell?). He was sweet enough to draw us a map of the three best breakfast places in Kingston – what a guy.

Huge cheers to the Artel, Art Guy and Lionsbane.

Photo: The morning we woke up in Kingston with all of our gear intact lol

DAY 4/14 – CAFÉ DECKUF, OTTAWA

w/ Brain Damage, IQ32, The Machetes & Murder State

Day 4. We made it to Ottawa. We got there really early, so Evan decided to go see Batman without us ha-ha, and Greg, Mike and I all went to Mooney’s Beach. I really really wanted to go swimming but apparently there was a health advisory and high levels of e-coli in the water. I went about 1ft in, just up to my knees and a lifeguard told me I’d for sure get a rash (I didn’t).

Anyways, later in the day we made our way to Cafe Deckuf on Rideau Street. There was construction down the entire goddamn street, and directly in front of the venue as well lol. That really sucked, especially when we had to park in the Beer Store parking lot and walk about a half block with all of our gear into the venue. Thankfully a lot of the other bands helped us load our gear in which was so nice!

This was an all ages show, and from 7:00pm onwards it was packed. It really goes to show you how messed up Toronto can be in terms of all ages shows – if you disagree with me, play some out of town all ages shows and then form your judgments! Like I said, from the get go the place was packed with enthusiastic kids and their parents, flailing around the pit and singing along – even if they didn’t know the words.

All of the bands were really awesome, but the one that caught my eye the most was the opener – Murder State. These kids are between 15-17 years old and can play circles around most musicians that I know. They reminded me a lot of Web Society: young, catchy music, plenty of energy and the best attitudes in the scene. Also, they’re the nicest guys ever! The best was when we had not one but two encores, and Ottawanians knew every word to the songs we played off of “Pure”. What a feeling!

But anyways, our Skullian-party moved from Café Deckuf to Machine Gun Dolly’s jam space around 11:00pm that night. Then the night went from good wholesome all ages punk rock, to messy drunken stoned older person punk rock ha-ha. Mike passed out on their old man chair about 30 minutes after we got there, and Greg, Evan, Jesse Strokes and I decided to jam out some Skullians tunes. Mike told us the next day that we sounded horrible – but in the moment I swear we were rock stars.

Photo: Cafe Deckuf at 7:00pm.

DAY 5/14 – L’ESCO, MONTREAL

w/ My Own Chaos & Crooked Jacks

Day 5. Just when I thought my tour headaches couldn’t get any worse, I woke up at Chris Hawkeye’s house in Ottawa – with a migraine, on the third floor of his apartment, under a sunroof. WHY DO I KEEP FALLING ASLEEP IN SUNFILLED AREAS? Anyways. We all got up and went to a diner called “Ada’s”. Fucking fabulous service and food – great recommendation from Chris!

We said our goodbyes and began our mission to Montreal. I must say, THANK CHRIST we had Magellan (Greg’s new GPS system, so cleverly named I might add!). Every other time we’ve been to Montreal it’s been a massive headache getting around. I don’t know about other bands, but we’ve had massive issues navigating around Montreal since day 1 – BUT NOT THIS TIME. We found the venue with no troubles at all.

We had some time to kill, so the boys went off on an adventure to get food while I happily waited with the van – I needed to rest my eyes. Just 10 minutes of glorious sleep and I would be okay for the night. Well, that 10 minutes turned into me passed out in the front drivers seat of the van, key in the ignition, snoring my ass off ha-ha. Mike walked up and laughed at me – with good reason. But hey, at least the cops didn’t roll up and ask what I was doing.

L’Esco is a really really nice little bar on Rue St. Denis, and the hospitality there was awesome! They gave us free pizza and beer, which is always a key to my little heart. We played alongside Vancouver Metal Heads “My Own Chaos” and Sherbrooke punks “Crooked Jacks”. The only unfortunate part of this evening was that every band played to each other, there was no one inside the bar ha-ha. But we still all had a great time, and made some new friends. Crooked Jacks are seriously the nicest guys ever. Their manager “MOOSE” offered to let us stay at his house the next day in Sherbrooke – more on that later.

That night we stayed at “Motel Rideau”. What I really liked about this motel was their website – and how they advertised their whirlpool baths and fresh towels. We got there and I noticed there was a ripped shower curtain, no towels and moving blankets (those blankets you wrap your furniture in when moving apartments) on the beds. It was haggard and awesome, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Photo: I liked their sign inside the bar so I took a photo of it.

DAY 6/14 – BAR LE MAGOG, SHERBROOKE

w/ R.U.S.T, The Lost Ideas

Day 6. Holy fucking shit the mountains in Quebec are unbelievably beautiful. I actually got teary eyed at one point like any hungover girl would while seeing something beautiful ha-ha. Driving through the mountainside was one of the highlights of this tour by far (for me at least, and Mike ha-ha, we were taking pictures every two seconds!).

At this point in the tour, Greg and I had been practicing our French all week in preparation to be in Sherbrooke – where apparently no one speaks English. We were wrong, most people spoke English, and when we tried to speak French we were either gawked at or given dirty looks ha-ha. Oh well, we tried! The best part of our language difficulties was when I ordered a cheese bagel, toasted with cream cheese at Tim Horton’s, and got a cinnamon bagel toasted with herb and garlic cream cheese instead. Who the fuck would even eat that?

We got to Moose’s newly rented house (it was beautiful) around 2pm that day. Turns out Moose gave us the wrong address (he JUST moved in), so I walked up to a random persons front yard and started shouting “MOOOOOSE”. I guess Moose heard me and walked outside, across the street and said “Guys! Over here! I fully gave you the wrong address!” It was funny. We hung out all day in his beautiful house, and I had the best shower of my LIFE and had a one hour long grooming session – it was exactly what I needed ha-ha.

Later on that night we drove to Bar Le Magog to meet up with Caroline and Wawa – the promoters of the show. Again, nicest people ever. They actually APPRECIATED Greg and I speaking French! They even told me my French was “bon”! Anyways. R.U.S.T we’re fucking awesome – a three-piece Metal/Crust-ish band from Sherbrooke, and I absolutely loved them – and their guitar tones, and their attitudes. They talked to us for a while after the show and we all got along so well! The Lost Ideas were a Reggae/Ska infused band, with amazing vocals and rhythms – talented guys, that’s for sure.

That night we stayed at Moose’s, and I had a terrific nights sleep ha-ha. Shocking really, apparently the boys from Crooked Jacks and Evan/Mike partied until 5am with me on the couch right beside them. I didn’t hear a peep!

Photo: Quebec mountains = amazing.

DAY 7/14 – MANIKS MONDAYS @ CAFÉ CHAOS, MONTREAL

Day 7. Back to Montreal we go! The rain that day was absolutely insane. Greg and I went to take out money at the bank and grab some snacks, and when we were leaving the convenience store KABOOM the rain started. Greg wanted to go eat somewhere, but I wanted to run back to the car. So of course – I ran back to the car. Picture the two of us running up St. Denis Street in the worst torrential rain ever, stopping between awnings and drying off – then making a break for it again. It totally sucked and we were both soaked. I did manage to get a poutine from the restaurant beside Café Chaos, and that made everything better and more fattening. God fucking damn it I LOVE Montreal food!

The show was really fun in particular for me; we got to catch up with our homie Alex Crimes who hosts Maniks Mondays alongside Jennifer Bobbette (notoriously the best promoter in Montreal, we were told). Lots of kids showed up too, despite the torrential rain! Alex was kind enough to take video footage for us, and we even sold a t-shirt and cd to the door/security guy (see photo below). Alex also gave us two issues of his DIY Punk Magazine, which talks a lot about Montreal, their scene, and bands that come in and out of the Death House (which he also runs, what a guy!).

I remember feeling so tired after this show, good thing we decided to make a break for it and drive back to Toronto for our ONE SINGULAR DAY OFF (good job Candice ha-ha). We stopped in Napanee (I think) to grab gas and some coffees and made our way back to Toronto.

I’m not going to bother documenting our day off in Toronto – all I have to say is SLEEP IS BEAUTIFUL.

Photo: Doorguy who bought our tshirt and cd, awesome dude!

DAY 8/14 – OUR RESPECTIVE HOUSES, TORONTO

w/ Lots of Sleep, Food, Sex and Relaxation

DAY 9/14 – THE BOATHOUSE, KITCHENER

w/ Play 4 Keeps & The Rotten

Day 9. Feeling refreshed and ready to complete the second leg of our tour!

We made our way to Kitchener in the evening, pulled up to the venue and Mike said “OBVIOUSLY this is the wrong place!” We weren’t expecting to play at a venue that was literally ON the water. It reminded us of Kitchener’s version of Ontario Place ha-ha.

It was really awesome to see our friends in The Rotten and catch up with them – and they played an amazing set, as usual. The best part of this night though was watching Play 4 Keeps play their set. These kids ranged in age from 13 years old (yes, I did just say 13 years old) all the way to 18 years old. The singer’s 13-year-old sister was the drummer for the band and she absolutely rocked. I felt inspired and totally nostalgic watching her play – it reminded me of being that age and deciding that I wanted to be in a band. Angi (The Rotten) and I watched their set together and kept cheering them on like two school girls ha-ha – I guess that’s what happens when you get to be in your late twenties and watch younger musicians rock out.

We also caught up with our friend Moses who is the lead DJ at “Straight Outta the Pit Radio” which broadcasts in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. What a cool guy, and it was even cooler that he came because the night before he had done an interview with Mike about our tour and the new cd. He kept shouting out songs while we were playing and we honoured every song request (I think). Afterwards, I drunkenly decided to interview him on camera ha-ha, I’ll post that video along with our other tour videos as soon as I can. He’s a true supporter of all music, and a lover of people – we love you Moses!

That night we missioned over to Greg’s beautiful home in Hillsburgh, Ontario – which would be our home for the next night or so. What amazing luck we had to stay in a beautiful house for two days instead of roughing it like we anticipated doing!

Photo: Evan and Mike converse by the water at The Boat House

DAY 10/14 – DIY ARTS COLLECTIVE/FITZY’S BY THE BAY, BARRIE

w/ Black Cat Attack, James & The Readys

w/ Deals Gone Bad & Chainsaw Lobotomy

Day 10. Barrie: A City so nice we did it twice! We ended up playing two shows in two separate venues that day. Lu Primonero, our new Barrie promoter friend had a band called Paper Fortunes who were unable to play at Fitzy’s that night, so Skullians came to the rescue and filled in for them!

But back on point here, the first show we played was at the Barrie DIY Arts Collective. This show was small but really awesome. We got to hang out with our longtime friends Black Cat Attack and catch up which is always so much fun. We also made some new friends in James & The Readys (who by the way are terrific and you should check them out). Both bands played rockin’ sets and every band, including us, had a small pit of dedicated punk rock fans that were rowdy and fun as hell!

Flash-forward to 10:30pm that night, we loaded all of our gear back into the van, and drove down the road to Fitzy’s By The Bay to play our second show that night. As we arrived, Chainsaw Lobotomy was finishing up their set (tight band, awesome music). The guys were awesome enough to lend us a lot of their gear, which made the rushed load-in all that much smoother. We played our set as exhausted as we were, being careful to not duplicate songs from the prior set at the DIY, and it was awesome!

After loading out and organizing the merch table, we watched Deals Gone Bad. Here’s a band that will REALLY make you move. I’ve never seen Evan dance before that night, and Mike, Evan and I were all cutting a rug in the front row to their set. Holy fuck I really loved these guys. Mike was giddy like a school girl and made sure to buy some merch from them – we also discussed going out their way to do some shows, I hope it happens! Oh yeah, and Fitzy’s had 25 cent wings, so we all pigged out after the show and it was amazing. I LOVE WINGS.

So after playing two sweaty and beer soaked shows in Barrie, we made our exit and headed back to Greg’s house for another beautiful nights sleep.

Photo 1: Outside the DIY Collective, cool chalkboard

Photo 2: Deals Gone Bad, amazing band and amazing set

DAY 11/14 – THE FORMAC, BURLINGTON

w/ The Pre-Nods, Black Cat Attack, Panama Red & Bourbon DK

Day 11. Not even remotely tired (yeah right).

This show was so much fun and so rowdy ha-ha. It’s always nice to play shows with your friends, and this show was totally one of those. We knew every band personally which made for a really positive environment to play our set. Every band had a crowd and a pit, and overall it was a really awesome night.

Panama Red played a wicked awesome set – I had never seen them before and I have to say I really enjoyed them! A perfect combination of ska, punk and reggae influences. Good job guys! Bourbon DK killed it as usual, Black Cat Attack definitely won over the crowd with their hilarious jabber in between songs, and The Pre-Nods are always awesome no matter where they go.

The original plan was for us to stay at Dayo’s house (Burlingtons sweetest Paul Bunyon look-a-like), but that plan got kaibashed once we realized there was a massive party going down at his place, and nowhere for us to sleep. Oh well ha-ha.

Photo: The Formac, I have never actually played a game of pool at this venue.

DAY 12 – BUTT PIRATES COVE, WINDSOR

w/ The Rowley Estate, Glowing Hearts

Day 12. Alright, I get it, most of you probably scrolled right down to this tour date based on the dramatic incidences that happened ha-ha. I don’t blame you. So I’ll just come right out and say it: yes, Evan did get arrested. Yes, we did have to play without him, and yes, it fucking sucked. Here’s what happened:

We rolled into Windsor at about 5:30pm that day. Hit the beer store, got our booze, and went to Derek’s a.k.a Butt Pirates Cove (DIY House Party Venue for All Ages shows). Now, you all need to realize, Evan has a thing for clean feet and socks. Its understandable, who wants smelly feet on tour? It seems inevitable – unless you’re Evan and you’re willing to go out and buy new socks. So, around 6:00pm – Evan went on a little mission to go buy some socks, while Mike, Greg and I waited at The Cove and started drinking.

During Evan’s mission, Windsor police stopped him on the grounds that he fit the description of several armed robberies in the area. The searched him (he had all of our earned tour money and his extend-o bat in his pocket, by the way), and let him go once they realized he wasn’t the perpetrator.

Flash forward about 45 minutes. Evan comes back to the party, cracks a beer, and tells us the unbelievable story of him being stopped and thankfully being set free. We all cheers to our good luck and talk about how wrong that whole incident could have gone.

Evan goes to call his girlfriend from the alleyway, and Mike and I continue drinking (at this point, Greg had gone for a walk and wasn’t present). All of a sudden Mike and I hear “CANDICE AND MIKE!!! CANDICE AND MIKE!!!” coming from the alleyway. We put down our beers and saunter our way over, only to see Evan up against a cruiser, in handcuffs, pleading with the Windsor police. Turns out they had fucking profiled him and followed him all the way to the house party, and decided to arrest him after all (make up your minds you pigs!).

We pleaded and pleaded and tried to convince them to let him go, but then the patty wagon rolled up and took him away. The best part was when adult braces (the name I gave the female pig a name because she was being totally insufferable and rude the entire time, and bullying Evan from the get go) screamed “WE HAVE A SYRINGE HERE!!!” in response to me getting Evan’s diabetic insulin and syringes, AS PER HER PARTNERS REQUEST. What a cock knocker she was. One would think that she’d hear her partner requesting the kit from Evan’s bag – but no, apparently Evan is a heroin shooting robber ha-ha.

So there we were, Mike and I are depressed beyond belief, Greg has no idea what’s going on, and the cops just took our best friend and band mate, our tour money and our dignity all in one shot.

That night we played our set without Evan (only 8-9 songs), which was bizarre. I felt so bad though because of all the cities we played in, Windsor was by FAR the rowdiest. Circle pits in the basement of a house? Awesome. I’m so sad that Evan wasn’t there to enjoy it with us. But the show had to go on, we didn’t drive 5 hours to our own house party show to not play.

A half hour after we got offstage, Evan called us from the cop shop and we picked him up. He has a blue jumpsuit and mug shot to prove it. Atta boy Evan, you’re much stronger than I am – I would have freaked the FUCK OUT if that happened to me. But apparently when Bonnie (Evan’s mom a.k.a Mother Skullian) called the station, the officer on duty said “Evan is the most polite person we’ve ever arrested!”.

That night we stayed in a motel that had mirrors on the ceiling – silver lining to a fucked up night.

DAY 13 – CRASH LANDING MUSIC STORE, HAMILTON

w/ Bourbon DK, Hangman Pinata & The Steeltown Spoilers

Day 13. The final tour stop. I remember feeling sad but accomplished. Excited to see my bf, but sad that I’d be sleeping at home and waking up with fuck all to do the next day – instead of going to our next tour stop.

Sue and Crash, the owners of Crash Landing we’re kind enough to ask us to play their very last show before shutting the place down due to high costs and low traffic. So yeah, we played the very last set a band has ever played in a legendary venue – thank you guys so much, seriously WHAT AN HONOUR.

The show was sufficiently packed, and hot as hell. I know Sue and Crash did their best to cool the place down with fans, but my god, we were all sweating to the point where going outside was somehow cooling us down (it was 30 degrees outside ha-ha). By the time it was our turn to play, I felt sick and tired and disgusting. But again, SUE AND CRASH TO THE RESCUE! They had ordered some awesome pizza earlier in the day, so I stole a few slices and drank some water, and BOOM, ready to play.

We pulled out so many songs that we hadn’t played during the tour and it was awesome. I remember Steve Vos requesting Last Call like 4 times until we finally played it ha-ha. What a day.

So there you have it. 14 shows in 13 days. Overall the tour was a complete success. We made it to every venue unscathed, we played 14 amazing shows, the van didn’t break down, financially we ended up on top, and we didn’t kill each other in the process!

I can’t picture three people that I’d rather spend this much time with, and needless to say, I’m ready to do it again. SO LET’S GO!

-Candice Skullian

You can see all of our tour photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.444640645558501.92317.186238951398673&type=3

SKULLIANS TORONTO PUNX

I WANT YOUR SKULL…IANS

虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。

Yabba Dabba Doo!

TRICK OR TREAT

Tis The Season

SO LONG SUMMER

Oh What A Night…

Have you ever heard of a band called Corporation?

DON’T TAKE IT TO HEART LYRICS

SKULLIANS DOWNHILL TOUR 2012

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