Spiral Beach's tour blog will be a kind of mish-mash of conventional "tour-diary" blogging and bizarre rhyming dialogue written by the band's Daniel Woodhead and Maddy Wilde, featuring characters and events based on (but not restricted to) reality on tour with the band. Links will also be posted to online comics and videos which will be uploaded to the band's webpages over the course of the tour.

December 2007 Point
Ball CD Review

We had no idea what to expect out of this show - we’ve never played in Sarnia before, I’ve never even BEEN there. . . the road in front of the venue looked like a SANDbox, and on the marquee we discovered that our favorite band, SPIRAL SANDS was playing, so SAND is officially today’s word. Also I had a SANDwich that tasted like SAND (served to me by a woman named SANDY) - no wait, that’s a lie.Noah came along with us to do sound for the instore, but LITTLE DID HE KNOW that he’d be setting up an ENTIRE PA SYSTEM and doing sound for ALL THE BANDS at the nighttime show as well!After a totally mad scramble to get our shit together, together it was. . . playing in a beautiful/creepy ex-strip club was both svelte and magnanimous, lots of mirrors and jumping up and down music. . . it ended up being a LOT like the Toronto shows we do in art galleries/theatres. . . totally DIY and WAY more fun than a club show. Must go now, everbody’s waiting for me.  Snakes 

Oh, Waterloo. . . why must your name be so appropriate? This pretty much sums up the day: RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN CHINESE FOOD RAIN RAIN COLLEGE RADIO SHOW STILL RAINING 2 UNLIMITED RAINING RAIN SNAKES & LADDERS FILMS THE RAIN SOUTH PARK IN THE RAIN COUNTRY STYLE COUPONS AND TORRENTIAL RAIN AND SO MUCH RAIN My memory from this whole day is a bit spotty. . . we got to sleep at about 6:30 in the morning (and had to be at the instore in Waterloo by noon) so I felt rather narcoleptic all day. . . me, Maddy and Ryan were already literally asleep before the show and had to be woken up when it was time to go onstage. . . and the new Run With The Kittens album kicks so much ass it’s scary. The instore was awesome today - Trevor got some footage of it so when this whole thing is over there’ll be some more Snakes & Ladders videos. . . Daniel 

OK, so OBVIOUSLY the first sentence in the last post was a Hunter S. Thompson steal, I just watched Fear & Loathing and Gonzo last week and am feeling a bit gonzo myself now. . . In-stores are HILARIOUS. We haven’t exactly got off to a good start as security shut us down for being too loud after only playing ONE FULL SONG (with drums)  - so we’re putting together a more acousticky kind of set - Milky Way (which we just released on the Bonus EP, and played acoustic on the radio this morning), a couple of covers and FOUR NEW SONGS that are titled: Orange, Free To Run, Vagueries and Shake The Chain.As for the show itself, it was a HECTIC NIGHT (to say the least) - EVERYTHING BROKE - batteries running out, bass unplugged, keyboards mysteriously turning off, guitar strings broke, sticks flying. . . I even managed to break through the BOTTOM head of the snare drum, how that happened I have no idea. All the same it was a wicked show, Alphabot kicked ass and danced on the speaker stacks and most of the drums ended up scattered across the room.All the same, I just want to extend severe apologies to everybody who thought the show was all-ages: SO DID WE. There was some mix-up with the promoter, and nothing we could do. . . except come back as soon as we can!In the van on the way out we were followed and attacked by drunken college zombies - literally moaning and clawing at the door, trying to get at our pizza and beer. One of them got the driver’s door open but we left him in the dust, it was quite cinematic.  Cheers!Snakes 

As soon as we arrived, I knew there were pterodactyls waiting for us. . . the shrieking noises we heard as we pulled into the driveway were the ferocious winged lizards swooping over our van. . . I wondered how Dorian felt, alone in his Dodge Neon (you hit your knee on this, you hit your knee on that. . . ) We climbed the stairs up to the tenth floor, opened the door and were welcomed into the nest. Kraft Dinner & caramelized popcorn. . . Peterborough hospitality is the best. It had been a pretty wild show at the MoHo. . . I decided halfway through that I needed a video camera near the drums, as I have the best angle to see both the band’s performance and the audience’s reaction. . . we’ll see where that goes. Now we’re listening to Wu-Tang and eating said popcorn with several of our trusted reptilian hosts. Dorian and Jake are engaging in a sleeping bag race. . . perhaps Jake has the upper hand as Dorian cut his foot wide open on broken glass onstage. . . I didn’t mention that Jake (Alphabot) is with us for these first two dates. . . his record just got finished, I played a cut for it on the first SNAKES & LADDERS podcast, you can hear it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?p67wvxwwoxh

Mustsleepnow.

Snakes.