Firstly, wow, this took far too long to get all of these images together and share a bit of the tour experience with Youth Fountain, First Ghost and Seaway! That’s the way of freelance meets coming home to a 9 to 5 type job. That being said, I am just happy to be able to share this with you before the new year!
I was very stoked when I got the message asking if I was available for this short run. I’ve always enjoyed working with Youth Fountain and everyone in that band. Their live shows are some of my favourite to cover and it always helps when you genuinely enjoy the music, the people, and the over all experience. This tour was back-to-back with my Year Over Year run (which you can find here). We started the tour in Winnipeg and then stretched it across all of the major Western Cities. It was nice with some family to allow us to stay in Winnipeg and have a relatively comfortable sleep and experience with great food and I can’t be thankful enough for them being so accommodating for my awful dietary restrictions! With the full tour, I was definitely really thankful to have done this run so many times. I know so many reasonable food and coffee shops across Western Canada now that it makes life easy on the road. In general, I like to think that I have a talent of finding vegan food and coffee in almost any city.
Previously, I had seen Seaway several times on different tours across Canada. Any time someone asked me to describe seeing Seaway I would just tell them that they are a genuinely fun band to watch, regardless if you ever had even heard their music it was a guaranteed good time. That made it easy for me on the two days that I covered their shows for MRG Concerts. Plus the fact that I definitely interrupted some of their time to pull either Ken or Ryan aside for some quick photos, which you will see below.
WINNIPEG, MB
REGINA, SK
While Regina definitely isn’t the most “bumping” spot for music anymore, there is a small part of me that’s excited to use the stray theatre chairs in the Exchange every time. It has this unique club set up that definitely enables some more interesting photography. From blue and red plastic chairs that line the walls to the velvet brown and red theatre chairs that somehow find their way all over the venue. When I saw Ken walking by I noticed that his flannel matched the chairs as well as his jeans matching the wall. I decided to build myself up to ask him if he’d let me photograph him there. Luckily for me, Tyler is way more confident about asking other people if I can photograph them (haha) and he found Ken in one of the other rooms so I didn’t have to wait until after the show. Honestly, I am really happy with them all, even though it was such a brief moment. Ken definitely understood where I was coming from with the colour pallet.
This is going to be short … Did you know that Cody knows several card / magic tricks? This is a new thing that I learned on Halloween. Here’s a photo of that.
SASKATOON, SK
CALGARY, AB
EDMONTON, AB
VANCOUVER, BC
After the long drive from Edmonton to Vancouver, we all went our separate ways. For everyone in Youth Fountain, this is where they live and nearing the end of the their journey for this tour. I went with Vinny and stayed with him and the friends in First Ghost. In the morning, we went on a hunt for coffee (Revolver is always a Vancouver go-to), and then coxed a few people into going to Bon’s. With First Ghost being as passionate about coffee as myself, only Anton and Alex came with Vinny and I to Bon’s and the rest found their way back to Revolver. Our plan was to meet Bran down at Bon’s as well and as we were all finishing up breakfast we couldn’t help but notice a Cody walk through the door and sit at a table a few stalls away from us. We stared him down, contemplated sending videos of him to himself, until he looked our way and joined us. It was hilarious and perfect. I think it was also the most time I had ever spent at Bon’s in my entire life. I’m not complaining though, I do worship their greasy potatoes.
