The Art Daniels Blog – Part 4

By Art Daniels

artblog1May 26th 2014: So when we last left off, we were heading toward the Canada border. (Check out parts 1, 2 and 3 of the blog if you haven’t yet). Crossing the border is easy if you’re not in a van or truck full of musicians and equipment. There are more than a few ways to make it easier on yourselves but what it comes down to is that they want your money at the border. If you had a felony in your life, they have this scam, yes SCAM where they make you pay $200 to get in. I’m not going to say who but one of the dudes in the van did something so long ago it’s not even on his record anymore but they found it and made him pay. They also kept us there for three fucking hours while they decided that’s what he had to pay. It’s a scam. So that was pretty aggravating, but Montreal is pretty cool.

Montreal

Oh Montreal! I rarely go there when it’s not freezing but I always have a wild time. It’s like every woman in the city took a class on how to dress classy and did the opposite. Seriously, everybody here dresses like they got lost on Whore Island. This is at any time of year. This is NOT a complaint. Thank God for Montreal. The show was great; the Villains got their first international exposure and it went well.

Two awesome things happened to me. First, a girl named Christine came up to me and asked me all about my job and what I do. Man, that always makes me happy when people want to know about what I do. Trust me, it doesn’t happen too often. I was more than happy to pass along some info and later on I sent her links to the two times I was interviewed and to this very blog. Thanks Christine, it was nice to meet you!

The other cool thing was my pal Evan who showed up and wanted to get me hammered at the local bar. The problem was that after the show, we had to head back to America. Dammit. We reached the solution of us pounding beers and eating poutine (Google it, it’s awesome) behind the venue after the show. That’s a win in my book. Evan is a nut. He was pretty entertaining with his stories about his life, and his friends were as well. Thanks guys!

After that we headed back to the USA. It took about 4 minutes to get back in through the border. Of course it did.

Boston

I’m not a big fan of Boston, with its confusing streets and low bridges, tunnels and hard to understand accents. Having said that, this was the first time I think I liked being there. We played the House of Blues and that was right across the street from Fenway Park. It was fucking cool to walk around that place before the show. We got a huge green room too. Life is so good when you can stretch out and relax and not be sitting on a chair before the doors open. The show was solid and both bands rocked the fuck outta the place. The real story about Boston is when we tried to leave. Apparently there is only one way in and out of that area. Ever try to bring a 12-foot tall RV under a 10-foot overpass? I have. You don’t want to do it.  They have this shit without warning. It’s not at all fun to back 40 feet of RV and trailer out of that mess but we did it. Did I say nice things about Boston earlier? I take it all back.

Hampton Beach

After a day off drinking Crown Royal and eating lobsters with the Steel Panther bus drivers (we party with whomever and those dudes are rad), we had a show at a great venue. Just when you walk into the place you can see these big bands that played there and when. There were The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Louis Armstrong and George Carlin just to name a few. It gets you really amped up to know that those GODS played in the same place.

The show was great, blah blah blah. After the show, some locals invited us to a local bar and it was awesome. They had a local cover band playing and some dude was just buying us all kinds of drinks. That’s what I like, free drinks. So we were drinking a few when Stix and Lexxi showed up and then it got even better. People always react well when they show up. Then it dawned on Dusty to get those two plus him and Clay on stage to play a few songs. Man, that’s a good idea right there! We got it worked out and just as Stix was playing a song with that local band and I was getting Lexxi to the stage, the lights went out. Apparently they close the place at 1 and it’s really strict. We pleaded and they tossed us out. Don’t they know what they just made us miss out on? The world may never know. Just to be sure we got the point about the closing, the cops were outside of the bar telling us to leave. Welcome to our town, the cops are dicks. FUCK YOU. We ended up getting drunk in our RV. We win!

Portland, ME

It’s small. Moving on…

Just kidding! The venue was tiny but it had incredible sound. It might have been the best show of the tour and it was strange to see Steel Panther on such a small stage. This is as good a place as any to mention that Steel Panther’s guitar tech has started playing guitar for us during the cover of Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”. His name is Kurt and he’s a good dude. He came out and helped us kill it once again. Every show feels like its growing the band and the brand that is Future Villains. We are some happy dudes traveling this country. Our tails are wagging.

Embarrassing Steel Panther Encounter of the Week:

We were at an after-party, Lexxi was there and Clay made me tell him what I wrote last week about him possibly bringing muffins to my house if he found out where I lived. That was embarrassing! He was pretty gracious about it, of course.

So that’s it for now as we travel toward Toronto. Let’s hope that we get in a little easier this time.

Check out the 5th and final part of the blog here.

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Steel Panther/Future Villains remaining tour dates:
5/26 — Toronto, Ontario — Sound Academy
5/27 — New York, N.Y. — Irving Plaza
5/28 — Pittsburgh, Pa. — Stage AE
5/29 — Cleveland, Ohio — House of Blues

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