Today, we became Parisians. We had croissants and pains au chocolat with an allongé for breakfast. But we still kept a little side of North America within us; we also had Starbucks.

That is something that you need to understand. Every time we book a hotel or do a gig, I need to scout the surrounding area; places for photoshoots, places to eat, places to hang out between soundcheck and concert… But the very first thing I lookup is Starbucks! So I know exactly where to go. It’s an obliged stop every time! And let’s be honest, we were rejoiced to see that Starbucks beverage sizes were the same all around the world…

In order in the last picture… a medium size drink from Starbucks… Followed by a French x-large and large… So yeah, you could imagine our coffee addiction was far from fulfilled… lol!!!

Then we headed to the venue – that is when we encountered traffic, and officially became Parisians. We honked at the other cars, for no apparent reason, just like everyone else. We stopped being courteous on the road. So yeah, we’ve been faithful to Paris’ driving reputation. 🙂 What was supposed to take us 20 minutes took us 1.5 hours… Really wondering now what our drive to Berlin will be like tomorrow (or more realistically, in a few hours from now…)

And then was the soundcheck, and then the show. And it was incredible! After seeing only sets of 30 minutes every night in the UK, it felt incredibly good to hear them play for over 2 hours and a half today in Paris… And what a show it was!!!!! It was really special, from the very start to the very end… The songs flowed one after the other, traveling from the stage to the back of the room, sung by everyone that was there… 🙂 The band ended their set – and came back by general demand!! They played 2 songs, and the show ended on the floor, in the middle of everyone else. Electric guitars, bass, drum kit… People played on the drums with Moose’s sticks (and one got badly hurt by a broken stick – sorry David, hope your eye will heal soon!!!!)

And then it was time to meet with our fans, friends and family… They’ve been waiting for us for a long, long time, and we could feel they were just as happy as were to see them again!!!!! We’ve been kicked out of the venue, so we could go to the restaurant part of the building… And we’ve been kicked out of the restaurant not long after… But we couldn’t help it… People drove hours to come and see us, from the very South of France to the North, others from as far as Netherlands, Belgium and UK… And you guys have all been amazing!

Tonight was incredible. We couldn’t have had a better welcome back in France… And we’ll be back soon, very soon… on May 29th… We’re hitting Paris again, at Le Sentier des Halles…Free concert… everybody’s welcome! More details will be given soon!!!!

– Stephanie

We are about to leave for Paris… Had our last day in London, and spent it rehearsing from early this morning to now… We’re always welcoming the unexpected, but today, it came in a grand way… We were rehearsing at the same time and place as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds… Yes, the man himself! Some of the band members had the opportunity of talking with them, and took a picture to commemorate that first encounter… Do I need to say it somehow felt surreal? Alex was really happy to be able to meet him, though, as Nick Cave is a pure and genuine artist, like we so rarely find nowadays, the only artist that truly matters… Definitely

We’re leaving now, got to go!!! We’ll be taking the ferry, and we’re all looking forward to it!!! Paris, à bientôt!

-Stephanie

“Tonight was perfect in its imperfection… It couldn’t have been more real and more human…” – Alex

It was our last show in the UK tonight… It’s incredible how that week went by so fast! It’s almost as if we arrived yesterday… But the memories shared, the moments created and the relationships born are so alive, vivid, real and numerous that it saddens us all to already be leaving… We know, however, that all that we lived with you will forever live within our hearts, and is now a part of who we are…

You should have seen us driving back home. It took us around 40 minutes (a normal time without traffic… lol)… And the only thing we talked about was the time we spent with you. The conversations we had with you. How happy we were to be able to see you guys again. How we appreciated you driving so many hours to spend that time with us. And how privileged we all felt to be able to call you family. Not only once did we mention anything about the show… Because that time with all of you truly was our own highlight… 🙂

But talking about the show now… Let’s be honest, it was surreal! I can honestly say I got carried away a little into watching and momentarily forgot about taking pictures. I lowered the camera for a second to get a better view of the stage, in order not to be limited by my viewfinder at all. And then I turned my head to the right – I wanted to move this way, to get to Jeff’s side of the stage. And when I saw you guys in the crowd, enjoying yourselves, being all together, singing along to the song “I Just Want You To Know”… A song some of you have known for a little while already, and that others discovered through previous gigs we did on this tour, or discovered today… And it was a wonderful sight… Because what was happening on stage was happening in the crowd at the very same time… Perfect in its imperfection… Real and human…

Here are a few pictures of the moments shared on stage…

– Stephanie

Our day didn’t go as planned today. Not at all. We were overjoyed to play again in London after over 5 years… But that didn’t happen. After a 2-hour drive (thank you London traffic for always slowing us down… lol!), we arrived at the venue, called “The Islington”… A very tiny stage in the back of a lovely coffee shop. A quick look at the stage was enough to tell us it would be quite challenging to fit in 6 people with amps, massive footboards, a drum and a keyboard… But we thought we’ve already done worst before that, so we’d be able to make it anyway… Then Matt started to look at the equipment that was there, to realize that there was no way 6 people could play there. Not because of the too small stage, but because of the equipment that wasn’t adequate at all. He tried for quite a while to make things work for the band, but it was simply impossible. Cancelling a show is always something we try to avoid at all cost – we’ve become pros in finding alternative solutions for what we wanted to do… lol! Impossible has never been a part of our vocabulary, but we needed to use it tonight…

We gave everyone a meeting point at the Starbucks, where else? lol! We spent some time talking around a delicious coffee, then went all together to a restaurant… Yes, 20 of us in a restaurant in London – a task that proved quite impossible a few days before in Brighton… A long waiting for small but delicious plates that, even though delighted our palates didn’t quite fill our Canadian empty stomachs… lol!

The time that we spent together, however, was a true communion. People from different countries, speaking different languages, from different backgrounds and with different life stories, all gathered together by something that goes way beyond the music itself. We’re so much more than noise… and tonight was no exception to this…

Thank you for sharing such a wonderful time with us… It’s been a wonderful evening!!!!

– Stephanie

Comme le concert de ce soir à The Islington est annulé, nous aurons un repas tous ensemble à 8:30pm !

Jamie’s Italian
Angel Building
403 St John Street
Islington
EC1V 4AB

Il est hors de question que nous manquions cette opportunité unique de passer du temps avec vous !

On se voit très bientôt !