Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Tracks On Tracks - Day Five

Day Five...the last few hours on the train, a trip to Radio 3 to talk to Craig Norris about the trip, and a party in the VIA Panorama Lounge at Union Station.

Day Five...the last few hours on the train, a trip to Radio 3 to talk to Craig Norris about the trip, and a party in the VIA Panorama Lounge at Union Station.

You can see written updates on Day 5 here: by Grant Lawrence (sort of a best-of-the-best) on CBC Radio 3 and by Cody Alan Gregory on the Tracks On Tracks website (a bit at the end about our arrival)!

See DAY ONE by clicking HERE!

See DAY TWO by clicking HERE!

See DAY THREE by clicking HERE!

See DAY FOUR by clicking HERE!

Day Five. Oh Day Five. We said goodbye to our swaying home and entered the sticky metropolis that is Toronto, Ontario in summer. Dragging all of our belongings onto the platform and into the Panorama Lounge at Union Station, there was a scramble to find missing items, a bit of a shuffle through commuters, but then we got to bask in the warm welcome from the Toronto Music Industry Association (kinda the MusicBC of Toronto).

The plan was for all the musicians to bring their things to their respective residences (thanks for the bus Steamwhistle!), the Radio 3 Bloggers and I would head to the CBC to talk to Craig Norris, and then we'd meet back at the Panorama Lounge for a welcome reception and drinks...and more performances! So follow along:

(That's Lee Hower phoning Lana Gay back in Vancouver to fill her in live on the air on some of our trip!)

Back to party time!

So, Grant decided to make up some awards. He published the list HERE, but for reference, this is who won what:

Best Harmonies – Adrian Glynn. Adaline was performing a show on acoustic guitar at the back of the Park Car, the very last car of the train. Spectacular vistas of the Rocky Mountains surrounded her. Half way through a song, singer-songwriter Adrian Glynn chimed in from the back of the car, creating a beautiful stereo effect and an amazing musical moment.

Best Encore -  Shred Kelly. When Shred Kelly performed from the baggage car in Melville Saskatchewan, the Mayor showed up a few minutes late. He missed the performance, but quickly demanded one more song, and his citizens of Melville loudly backed him up. Shred Kelly obliged for another great moment.

Best Partier – Adaline. She may have the voice of an angel but she parties like a demon. At any given time, Adaline could be seen with bottles of Jack Daniels, champagne, or vodka.

Best Chest Hair – Maurice. For whatever reason, there was a plethora of overflowing chest hair on this train. It was like a rolling Boogie Nights.  All dudes tried it, but no one beat the Black Forest protruding from JP Maurice’s tank top.

Best Late Night Jam Leaders – Portage and Main. We should have known, based on look alone, that these stylish roots rockers would easily have every song by Neil Young and The Band memorized.

Best Surprise: The Matinee. These friendly guys blew my mind when they cranked out an acoustic version of my band’s crusty old song “Rosie”. And yes, I forgot the lyrics. But I remember them now.

Best Partier Who Wasn’t With Tracks on Tracks: “Shooey”. We were all partying pretty hard, but nobody, not even Adaline, could keep up with Shooey, a French Canadian cyclone of jokes, costumes, and mad drumming skillz.

Best Dressed: Top Less Gay Love Teckno Party. This over the top Vancouver party band wore matching sets of designer one piece long underwear, which went over great with most of us. Not so much in the always-formal dining car.

Best Fan: Lee Hower. At 60 years young, this Californian was everywhere, and loving every second of the trip. And since trains are his second favourite thing right after Canadian music, his knowledge of the train and the route proved invaluable.

Best Collaboration: The Belle Game and Sidney York. The Belle Game played their greatest show ever as the train rocked across the darkness of Western Ontario, joined by the bassoonist and oboist of Sidney York to create musical blist.

Best Traveler: Rebecca Gladney. “Rebbey” won tickets on the train and traveled all the way from St. John’s, NF to be there for the departure. Complete with her three cases of Screech (aka a “Newfoundland Carry-On”).

Best Injury - Kiana Brasset. The violinist from the Chris Ho band badly burnt her arm in a bizarre sparkler-related accident in a late night dance party in Northern Ontario.

Best Beer Selection Not From VIA Rail: Dave Olsen (Hootsuite). Dave’s cabin not only had the best beer selection (“Nectar of the Gods”) but it was also ALWAYS on ice.

Best VIA Rail Employee: Josephine Wasch. She stood by us through thick and thin, even when some of the regular (older) passengers wondered what the hell was going on. Thanks, Josephine!

Best Workers: The Green Couch Production Crew. Tireless. This is going to be a hell of a documentary.

Then there were three performances, by Portage and Main, Sidney York, and The Matinée respectfully...at a somewhat lowered volume since we were in the departure lounge. That didn't exactly stop us from dancing along to the Matinée yet again.

The boys played Rosie again, Grant remembered...more...of the words this time. It was nice for everyone to see it that missed it the first time around...though that is most definitely recorded on video, so I'm sure it'll be out there one day soon.

Finally the Toronto Music Industry Association threw us a party at Loft 404 (which is an AMAZING place) called Toronto Loves Vancouver (awww...and WE love Toronto...in fact we think it's awesome!) There were lots of people there to greet us, and we definitely cleaned them out of booze pretty quickly. The party moved on to a different location, and we eventually all said our goodbyes. Until tomorrow...where we had our showcase at the Gladstone for NXNE - photos from which you saw here on Tuesday.

Here are some photos from the event that the TMIA took!

Well, that's mostly it for Tracks On Tracks for now. I'll give you two bonus posts next week about food and beer...two quintessential parts of the TxT experience.

Here's one more link for now, Cody Alan Gregory's NXNE round up, which pretty much covers everything I got to do...and reading it makes me miss being in festival mode. Good thing I'm off to Tall Tree!

I guess all there is left to say is: EVERY NIGHT!

And here's to 2013! (fingers crossed!)