Crossing the Border: Coheed in Canada, Eh?

When Coheed announced a short Canadian tour, my initial thought was to go to Vancouver, where they were playing the Commodore Ballroom, where I saw the Smugglers reunite last year. But it didn’t take an awful lot of convincing from my friend Niki to come to Montreal with a small group of friends instead. I’d have to fly to Vancouver anyway, so why not just fly to New York and drive up to Montreal with them instead?

The small group of friends was just me, Niki, her boyfriend Jason, and Biz, who I hadn’t seen since February. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him again after that. It’s a long story that doesn’t need to be explored here, but basically I wasn’t sure if we could be friends, so I took… a lot of time away from our friendship. But things have finally started seeming alright between us again. He even told me a week before the Montreal trip that he missed me. So I decided to surprise him.

Spoilers: my surprise was sitting on Niki’s couch drinking a cider and yelling “SURPRISE,” without moving, when he walked in the door. It took him way too long to even look in my direction after yelling at him. It’s fine, whatever. I’m never good at surprises anyway.

The day up until that point consisted of Niki picking me up from the airport, lunch at Qdoba, picking up her friend who was house/cat-sitting for her while we were in the great white north, then napping and drinking while waiting for the boys to show up.

Highlights on the drive to Montreal:

* “Tainted Love” was playing at a gas station we stopped at for snacks in the middle of the night, and Niki turns and starts singing with two random dudes, thinking they were our random dudes

* When we got to the Canadian border and had to show our passports, border security asked what we do for work, and Jason listed off all 5+ of his jobs, even while Niki was yelling at him that it was unnecessary and to shut up.

* Mostly the three of us (aside from Niki, who drove the whole way) just slept.

There was a lot of drama with the hotel, but I’ll save that for one giant list at the end. Coheed first!

DirtyErn, Coheed’s photographer and a good friend of ours, met us for breakfast the day of the show. I asked him if there would be an album release show in New York on October 5th. He said he had no idea of any details, but that I should “hang out in NYC that day.” Welp. Cue me looking at flights. Guess this is happening, even sans information.

He met us again for drinks right before the show at a bar called Yer’Mad.

It was honestly a really cool bar. I got cider with grenadine. That’s amazing. Why is that not a thing in the states? Then a more normal thing: the five of us did whiskey shots.

Eventually, another COTF Amanda shows up. I do not remember ever meeting her before, but Jason was sure I had. But when she walked in, I immediately stuck my hand out to shake and said, “Hi, I’m Lindsay, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“We have. Multiple times.”
“Oh… Uh…”

Yeah, I’m awkward. It’s fine.

Amanda only lives about an hour from Montreal and was having some drama with her ride, so she needed a place to crash for just that night, so she stayed with us. (Remember when I said there was drama with the hotel? Just wait. It’s fun.)

The four of them all had VIP for this show, but I bought my ticket too late and did not. We tried to sneak me in with the VIPs, but venue security was not having it. As you’d hope, obviously. They were following the rules. But then Ern came back outside, grabbed me by the hand, and walked me past venue security in with the VIPs. UGH HE IS THE BEST.

Niki had a sash she made for her picture in honor of it being her 50th Coheed show.

It turned out really awesome.

She gave her crown to drummer Josh Eppard hoping he’d wear it during the show, but he just wore it in Jason’s VIP picture and then took it off.

And then because I shared both of their VIP pictures, might as well give you Biz’s too. He’s a cutie. I’m glad we’re friends again.

So that’s my crew. I love these weirdos.

We were on the barricade, obviously. Front and center. We just decided to chill there all night. Small group, new country, might as well. We got a pretty good professional photo out of it, too. (Photo credit: Emmanuel Gagné)

They played “Goodnight Fair Lady” acoustic for the VIPs.

Doors were THREE HOURS before the show started OH MY GOD. It was brutal. The venue was out of pizza, so Niki panicked and bought candy she doesn’t even like. We sat on the ground and played a guessing game, Heads Up, on Biz’s phone while we waited. Eventually Biz, Amanda, and I went across the street for pizza and came back. It was a long wait. They couldn’t force us to stay in the venue the whole time.

The first opening band was Crown Lands. They were SO GOOD. I think we were all pleasantly surprised/impressed. I would definitely check them out again. They had a Rush vibe, and even covered Rush’s “Working Man.”

It was only two musicians in the whole band, but one of them was playing an instrument that was BOTH bass and guitar. What the heck. That’s amazing.

After Crown Lands was Protest the Hero. I was not a fan of them. Tbh I fell asleep. While front row center. Yeah, I know, WHOOPS. They were funny/entertaining, I just wasn’t into the music. It was too… loud? I guess? That’s a terrible way to describe music (I LIKE it loud), but I guess it was too screamy and not melodic enough for me. That’s probably a better description.

“Did you say we suck or we rock? It’s okay, he said, ‘You guys fucking rock, play the next song.'”

Then it was time for Coheed.

Dark Sentencer
Juggernaut
Devil in Jersey City
In Keeping Secrets
The Crowing
Blood Red Summer
A Favor House Atlantic
Ten Speed
The Suffering
Here to Mars
Wake Up
Island
Unheavenly Creatures
Welcome Home

It was more or less the exact same setlist we got over the summer on the tour with Taking Back Sunday. Oh well. It was still a great show, as always.

We headed back to Yer’Mad again after the show, where a guy Ern was with immediately turned to me and said:

“You’re like the biggest Green Day fan.”
Me: “Yes, I am, but… how do you know that?”
“I do their merch.”

Oh okay makes sense. How does literally everyone know everyone?

Ern: “I thought you were the biggest Coheed fan!”
Me: “Can’t I be both?”

So here’s how the hotel went:

* They gave us the wrong room, first of all. Niki specifically got a room with a couch, and we got there and there was no couch. It wasn’t a huge deal, but for all the shit they gave US, they could’ve at least given us the right room.

* All four of us walked into the hotel, at the same time, together, with our bags, at 4am Thursday night, and checked in. No one said anything about there being four of us in one room. As far as we knew, that was fine.

* Not fine, apparently. By Friday night, there was an “extra person” charge that we hadn’t been warned about. And now we had a fifth person, as well, so that’s fun.

* The people at the front desk were trying to claim that we “told them” there were only two of us. (Yes, four of us said there were two of us. Makes sense.)

* It was a $15 charge per person, so Jason counted out $15 in change for each of us: me, Biz, and Amanda, to pay the front desk in the most petty way possible. (Biz: “Happy counting.”)

* When the three of us got to the hotel after midnight, the guy at the desk wouldn’t let us in. “No guests after midnight,” okay, but two of us stayed here the night before, and our stuff is ALREADY IN THE ROOM. But okay.

* Saturday, they raised the extra person charges AGAIN, this time because we didn’t pay “tax” all of a sudden. We were told $15, we gave $15. What’s the problem?

* We basically just got fed up with them changing the rules on us constantly, so we more or less kicked ourselves out at that point to find a new hotel.

* They were also mad that there were pennies in the change we paid them with. As we left, Jason handed them a quarter. “I want to make things right.”

* They didn’t want to give us a refund until after we gave them the key to the room. Yeah, um, what are we gonna do with a key to a hotel room in Montreal? Just give us our refund and let us leave, please.

* The woman told Jason: “You don’t look like a manager.” What the heck?

* They had to check our room before we left to make sure we didn’t ACTUALLY take a shit on the floor. We might have joked about that a little bit too loudly.

So it was fun. We went to a much nicer hotel after that anyway.

Picture dump from the rest of the Montreal trip:

There’s some real interesting artwork all over Montreal.

We had mimosas one morning.

Niki put hot sauce in hers before we left the restaurant, just for fun.

So of course, Biz memed her.

Here’s the meme master at work, trying to lure wasps away from our lunch table one day:

This was just one of those weekends you don’t ever want to end. I love these three so much.

We stopped in Albany near Jason’s alma mater on the ride back home this time for BBQ chicken pizza. It was really good. A+ suggestion.

Then we dropped Biz off at his parents’ house in Jersey on the way back to Niki and Jason’s on Long Island. I got to play with his dog, Scout, for the first time in MONTHS. I might’ve missed her a little bit.

Niki: “Wow, she’s your best friend.”
Mama Biz: “Scout loves Lindsay.”

So, next trip out this way is for the album release in two weeks? That’s so soon. The things we do for this band, eh? (Okay, that was bad. I’ll see myself out now.)