Helix Issue East Coast Tour Video Recap
HELIX ISSUE EAST COAST TOUR VIDEO RECAP
November 29, 2009
Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer has issued the following East Coat tour recap and video diaries at www.planethelix.com. The band have been toruing in support of their new CD Vegabond Bones.
Our last trip to the Maritimes (aside from the release of the Trailer Park Boy’s movie premiere “Countdown to Liquor Day) was in the late summer of 2008. We were just itching to get out and at it, not knowing quite what to expect. (Incidentally, our backup band throughout the tour was the band TYME from Windsor. Great bunch of guys-we had a blast together).
We left Planet Helix at around 3:30A.M. Tuesday morning and by 4:30 we were pulling out of Brent’s in Kitchener. We met Daryl and Fritz on the highway and by 6A.M. we were at the ferry at the end of Bathurst Street in Toronto boarding the ferry for the Island airport. At 11:05 we landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia and were picked up by “Limo Jim” and driven to downtown Dartmouth to pick up our rental vehicle. It was a little over five hours from there to our first date at the Three Mile Entertainment Centre in St. John, New Brunswick. Immediately upon arriving in town we headed for our hotel to clean up, and from there to the club where we met up with contest winners from Big John Radio for supper. The taxi drivers told us we were the busiest place in town that night. Nearly 24 hours after we had gotten up we finally hit the sack, after our first successful night of the tour.
The next day we had to be in Fredericton by 1P.M. for an on-air interview with The Fox. We made a wrong turn leaving St. John and ended up taking logging roads to get to Fredericton, but we didn’t care because it was a warm beautiful day and everyone was just soaking it all up. We made our interview and played a live acoustic version of Vagabond Bones. From there we headed over to Fred FM for another interview, and from there to the venue-The Irock Nightclub. I met the owner Brian, who told me he wanted to buy something at the upcoming Michael Jackson auction. I told him “the glove” would go for around $400,000. He thought he would be able to buy it for $200,000. As it was, days later it went for $420,000.
On Thursday we had a day off so Fritz booked us in for a tour of the Sabian Cymbal Plant in Meductic, New Brunswick with Relations Manager Terry Ryan. I had been to the factory many years before on our first tour of the Maritimes in 1977, so I knew what to expect. So, along with Kaleb, Fritz and I headed off Thursday morning. Daryl and Brent (who was deathly ill with the flu) stayed behind. It was another sunny day with warm temps and we were all in a great mood. The tour lasted around 2 hours and we all had a blast. Terry treated us royally, giving Fritz several cymbals and autographing another one that I later found out retails for around $120.00. It’s now hanging proudly in my memorabilia room downstairs. We all got Sabian shirts (very classy) also given to us by Terry, and as anybody knows, a way to a musician’s heart is through free swag. LOL.
On Friday we played The Rockin’ Rodeo in Moncton where I was interviewed previous to the show at 103.3 FM by Shawn Crawford, otherwise known as “The Crawdaddy”. Newcap radio has been very supportive of Helix over our past several releases. I took Kaleb along with me for the interview. That night was Ladies’ Night at the club. The place was stuffed to the rafters. Brent was starting to feel much better and the show rocked. Afterwards the place turned into a disco and got even more nuts, making it almost impossible to make an exit from the club. Our hotel was right beside where the tides went in and out. I went back in the van and went to bed.
Our last day of the tour was in Chester, Nova Scotia, just south of Halifax. We dropped off our rental van in Dartmouth and from there Limo Jim gave us a lift in his stretch to Chester. We once again went out to supper with fans and from there crashed for an hour before we had to go to the show. It was Daryl’s birthday that night and a good way to end the tour. The next day Limo Jim picked us up and took us into Halifax for a surf and turf breakfast and from there it was off to the airport and back to Ontario.
It was only four days out east but it seemed like we had been sucked down a vortex and shit out at the other end. LOL. I think that comes from sleep deprivation. Anyway, it was back to reality for Monday. By Friday everyone was itching to get right back at it, and what better way than to come back and play our hometown of Kitchener at Molly Blooms. It turned out to be a sold out show presented by Dave FM.!
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com and www.planethelix.com