Vancouver singer-songwriter Jordan Klassen is making his way across Canada on his first cross-country tour. He will be keeping a diary here at CBC Music.
Here is his third dispatch:
After CMW, the tour itinerary called for several dates in other Southern Ontario cities. This is a really great thing about touring in the area, as there are a lot of great places to play and nothing is so far apart that it is very costly on gas. After our incredibly long road-trip, this was a welcome rest.
First up was Guelph. We rolled in as the sun was setting and the town was glowing; its many creeks, bridges and cathedrals alight with history and small-town charm. The show was at a hip little restaurant called The Cornerstone and even though we crammed ourselves into a little corner, we left with new friends and high spirits.
There is sort of a honeymoon phase on any tour. Everyone feels nutritionally invincible, quick to find motivation, quick to call the sleeping spot on the floor, freely sparing patience and grace. Southern Ontario was the thick of it for us. As we played shows in London, Hamilton, and Peterborough among others there were a lot of great highlights and also a lot of challenges but everything seemed to roll off our backs fairly easily. Don't get me wrong - it's not like everyone is simply ignorant to some impending doom and misery that will eventually strike. Touring is pretty much always just really freaking fun. I guess there just kind of comes a time when everyone needs to start being strategic with their energy, planning for good sleeps and good meals and being a good friend.
Everyone usually gets sick as well. As we bid farewell to Ontario (for a short time, we'll be back through in a couple of weeks) we drove toward Montreal popping vitamin C and sipping neo citron. It was easy to forget about that though, as The City of Saints lived up to its reputation and showed us amazing courtesy and love, packing out the room at Le Cagibi and just making us feel like kings and queens. Post-show we also walked a few blocks down to the world-famous St. Viateur's bagels for a midnight snack. They live up to their reputation, and we are still finding sesame seeds in our tour van.
Atlantic Canada is up next.
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