M83 Support Tour (Portland to Seattle)

So after our pit stop in Redding we arrived in Portland, OR to play the Hawthorne Theatre.

The next day M83 were scheduled to play the world famous Sasquatch festival in the heart of Washington’s beautiful gorges. As this was effectively a day off for me and Paul we took in the sights and watched a few bands. Namely, The Walkman (who were amazing!), TV on the Radio (whose sound was less than amazing), obviously M83 (who in my unbiased opinion were on top form and gave a particularly special show. That’s when I took this first video.

Then it was the highlight of my day when I got the chance to see Deadmau5. Oh my lord was it brilliant. That’s where the second video comes in. I know the quality of these two videos is not great, but hopefully the mood of the what was going on translates. I haven’t felt this good at a dance gig than when I saw Justice at the mean-fiddler in London when they did their album launch party.

After the spectacle that is Deadmau5 it was time to get back on the bus for another night on the road. This time we awoke to find ourselves at the Canadian Border. An experience to say the least. for starters we arrived at the entry for cars instead of coaches. So we had to do a three point turn on the border, then head back into the land of the free for a few miles down the road where we would eventually join the (insanely) long queue to re-enter Canada. After three hours we got ushered on our way and into Vancouver. Now I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was surprised. It was so clean and spacious. I could understand why they have strict borders. I wouldn’t want to share Vancouver with just anyone.

The show was at Richards on Richards. The crowd were fantastic. It really felt like everyone was having a great time. there was even some impromptu dancing from Morgan on the stage speakers.

This was where (for a day or two) we would leave the company of M83 and the womb like sanctuary of their tour bus for a little road trip of our own.
I basically had a radio session with KEXP and an industry showcase for Play Network in Seattle the next day. The next morning we loaded up the hire car and with me behind the wheel having just inhaled my breakfast waffle we set off for the birthplace of Grunge.

I’d like to say the border crossing went smoothly but I’d be lying. we were pulled up for some random unexplained admin error and had to sort out some paper work in the border office. After telling us that it was because my visa wasn’t swiping. the guy manually entered it into the system, stamped our passports and then charged us some Yankee green for the pleasure!

We arrived at the Play Network showcase with minutes to spare and I got to work setting up. It was basically a show for the people that plug music to starbucks, gap and things like that. I did about four songs before heading off in the direction of KEXP.
It was a real pleasure to be asked to do a session for these guys as they’re rated very highly amongst true music fans.
The session was for the DJ Kevin Cole and it went without hitch…which was nice!
I quickly packed up after a ceremonial photograph and a free t-shirt (on behalf of the person sitting next to me on the plane I thank you).

So as I just mentioned I’m on a plane. San Francisco bound. where tomorrow I shall be rejoining my French compadres with our final show together at the mezzanine.

(to be continued)