# West Coast Tour 2018!



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

We are super excited to be heading back out West this spring! Tigerwine are great dudes with some awesome music, be sure to check them out at Tigerwine - Audiotree Live, by Tigerwine

I hope to meet some of our wonderful community on this run!

(Recording is awesome by the way).


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

Looks awesome!


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Please don’t have a gig please don’t have a gig (don’t as yet). Hey, I can’t find Temple in Edmonton, @Budda can u find out where that is?


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

keto said:


> Please don’t have a gig please don’t have a gig (don’t as yet). Hey, I can’t find Temple in Edmonton, @Budda can u find out where that is?


Starlite Room, don't know why they have it labeled as Temple

The Penske File w/guests Sparrows, Tigerwine and More - Tickets - The Starlite Room – Temple - Edmonton, AB - May 5th, 2018


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## WannabeGood (Oct 24, 2007)

Will try and make your Saskatoon gig. Be on the lookout for a GC tee shirt.

Regards,


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## johnnyshaka (Nov 2, 2014)

Temple is upstairs at the Starlite Room...I was there a few weeks ago...it is very, very cosy and the band we went to see had the misfortune of having a fuse blow in the middle of their set. Bring ear plugs.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

johnnyshaka said:


> Bring ear plugs.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


We sell earplugs


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Vancouver, Venue TBA. Keep us informed, eh?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

High/Deaf said:


> Vancouver, Venue TBA. Keep us informed, eh?


Of course. I'll be updating the poster pic when things get confirmed.


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## johnnyshaka (Nov 2, 2014)

Budda said:


> We sell earplugs


You, sir, are going places!


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Here's to a successful trip, Budda.HNG^%$


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

johnnyshaka said:


> You, sir, are going places!


Hopefully not deaf.


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> Hopefully not deaf.


I'm pretty sure that we have played with some of the same bands, so if you're anything like me you are already well on your way.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

RBlakeney said:


> I'm pretty sure that we have played with some of the same bands, so if you're anything like me you are already well on your way.


Earplugs at every show. Unfortunately didn't have great ones when we practiced in a metal room though...


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> Earplugs at every show. Unfortunately didn't have great ones when we practiced in a metal room though...


I just didnt use ear plugs for the first several year of jamming and playing with a 5150. Ahh to be young.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Have an enjoyable tour! 

All the Best!


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

High/Deaf said:


> Vancouver, Venue TBA. Keep us informed, eh?


Oh, I thought that was maybe a franchise. There's one in the 'Peg too. 

Let us know when you have an update, high sparrow.


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## hammerstein (Oct 17, 2017)

The house in DeKalb Il, wow I didn't think I'd ever hear of that place outside that town.. I grew up there and spent many nights in that place watching friends bands perform.


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

@Budda , who updates the sparrows613 site. No dates there.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

bzrkrage said:


> @Budda , who updates the sparrows613 site. No dates there.


Thanks for the info! I'm not sure if we maintain it ourselves but I'll get it sorted out.


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## Zifnab (Dec 1, 2017)

I have the Edmonton show marked in my calendar. Hope to make it out!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Two weeks away!


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Wishing you and your bandmates a wonderfull experience. 
As they say: Go West young man !!!!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Nearly one week away! This week will be my last saturday shift for a while


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Writing from the van! Lets gooo


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

We played an awesome house show in Iowa last night with spectacular hosts. Two dates in Minnesota and then on to Winnipeg!


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> We played an awesome house show in Iowa last night with spectacular hosts. Two dates in Minnesota and then on to Winnipeg!


House shows are the best when they let you stay, and make you breakfast.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Going to be touch and go whether I can make it Friday. Company coming and going, playing a show all the way across town that goes until early evening, blah blah yada yada. I might be a late show at the door with no ticket and take my chances.

Dunno what time you hit town, in terms of maybe hitting a guitar shop or whatever, but I have to be loading in by probably 2.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

RBlakeney said:


> House shows are the best when they let you stay, and make you breakfast.


That really depends on the house in question


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I like you and all, but i ain't driving that far to see you.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

cboutilier said:


> I like you and all, but i ain't driving that far to see you.


I want to play halifax a lot. But its hard to get out there. 

Winnipeg tonight at windsor motel(sp)!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Budda said:


> Winnipeg tonight at windsor hotel(sp)


Apparently it is quite famous...

*Historic Venue Spotlight: Windsor Hotel*

*From Charlie Chaplin spending a night in 1913 to it's expansion in 1994, the Windsor Hotel has seen a lot of history.*

Sheldon Birnie

Sep 23 2014, 10:56am








In downtown Winnipeg, amidst new and redeveloped high rise buildings, next to empty surface parking lots, stand a few scattered relics of the past that refuse to die. When night falls on the Heart of the Continent, from the dark depths of one such relic, the old Windsor Hotel and Blues Bar, comes a rumbling sound.

That rumbling sound draws skids and students, punks and old boozers in a timeless migration, from every corner of the city and far beyond the perimeter, in much the same way as it has since the hotel opened its doors at 187 Garry Street back in 1903. And no matter how the downtown, or the venue itself, changes, the people keep coming.


In 1913, Charlie Chaplin stayed at the Windsor during one of his final vaudeville tours. In the 1970s and early 80s, the bar played host to blue collar drinkers looking to hear some country music and maybe watch a few ladies dance. When Rick Penner became a part owner in 1986, downtown was changing once again.

“That crowd was waning,” Penner, who sold his partnership in the Windsor in 2006, told Noisey. “I pitched my ideas about doing blues. I was a big blues fan and I knew a bunch of the guys in the local bands. Our clientele had a large proponent of country & western fans, and blues wasn’t a far push”

At the time, the Windsor had a capacity of “maybe 100.” They began booking local blues bands, like Big Dave McLean, Brent Parkin, and Billy Joe Green on the weekends, then throughout the week. By the early 90s, the dimly lit joint was bumping on the reg. “We realized we were just far too packed,” Penner said. “We couldn’t grow and get the kind of bands that I wanted to get the business we wanted.”

In 1994, the Windsor expanded. While nearly doubling their capacity (to a whopping 180 seats), the room began booking national and international blues artists and remained packed most nights. Powder Blues, Downchild Blues, Long John Baldry, performed regularly over the years, while Colin James, Jeff Healy, and Big Dave McLean had impromptu jam one evening that lasted for hours.









“That was pretty awesome,” Penner said with a chuckle. “Dan Aykroyd came in about seven or eight times. He actually did his Elwood Blues thing with Downchild when he was in town filming that _Avro Arrow_ movie.”

When asked about his philosophy of running a live music space with a diverse clientele, Penner said it was simple. He’d tell patrons, “I don’t care about how much money you got. This is your place. Equate it to your rec room. You respect it, you treat it with respect, and everyone will respect you.”


“Rick Penner knew how to host an evening,” Jay Nowicki, of Winnipeg’s blues band The Perpetrators, told Noisey. “He’d shake everyone’s hand, go around to every table. He was one of those guys who could bounce somebody just by looking disappointed! He didn’t have to be a big tough guy.”

Nowicki got his start playing in a blues band in high school at the Blue Note Café around the corner from the Windsor. One of the first bar gigs he ever got was at the Windsor. “It was a great experience,” said Nowicki, who continues to play the Windsor stage upon occasion, with the Perpetrators or alongside fellow blues-rocker Romi Mayes.









But, as always, though, things was changin’ in downtown Winnipeg. Following the heyday of the blues bar in the 90s, Penner moved on from the Windsor in 2006. Today, he runs the Royal George in Transcona, MB.

Sam Smith, who booked the talent at the Royal Albert Arms until it closed unexpectedly in 2011. But when he found himself unemployed after another staple of live music, the Lo Pub, closed in 2012, the time seemed right to open the Windsor Blues Bar, which had seen a decline in attendance, to some new musical options.

“I got my lab coat out and started experimenting with a few things here,” Smith told Noisey over a couple cold Molsons one afternoon amidst the vintage beer lights and the classic signed headshots of blues legends that line the Windsor’s walls. Echoing Penner’s philosophy on what makes a good live music room, Smith said he, “I just wanted to just make a room where all people feel welcome.”


Today, the Windsor operates primarily as a presentation room, where locals can book a night and put a bill together, or Smith can bring in “national or international acts, DJ nights, or “whatever. Provided it can be a mutually beneficial experience for the audience, the performers, and the bar.” Smith says, “If everybody’s happy, everybody wins.”

The eclectic approach has seen acts as diverse as the New Orleans based Rebirth Brass Band to Scandinavian improvisational jazz trio The Thing, Saskatoon’s Shooting Guns to Kingston’s PS I Love You, and local heavy hitters like Propagandhi and KENmode playing to packed houses. Dirtballs like BA Johnston or Fubar’s Dean Murdoch have been noted to party late into the hours in the Windsor, and every weekend there’s bound to be something weird happening down on Garry Street.









“The reward for me is when people just stumble into something they knew would be different,” Smith explained. Still, Smith says, “There isn’t a night that goes by that I’m working the door where somebody doesn’t show up and starts talking about this place they remember from 15 or 20 years ago, which obviously speaks to what a huge and important hub this place was.”

“The Windsor’s got a warm, homey feeling,” Penner told Noisey. “It’s kind of like comfort food, you have stew when it’s 40 below. That’s kind of like coming to the Windsor.” And while the bulk of the music booked down at the Windsor may have changed – they still host popular weekly Saturday afternoon blues jams—the place still retains much of the charms that made it a popular destination 10, 20, 30 years ago.


“The way it is now is much the way it was then,” Nowicki recalled with a knowing laugh. “A no frills, friendly beer joint with pretty college girls sitting next to, or up dancing with, these rough around the edges Bukowski type characters who live in the hotel above the bar. I think it’s very important to have a room like that. It’s not close to a blues bar like it was, but at least it’s a healthy, exciting live music room.”

_Sheldon Birnie is Winnipeg's international man of history - @badguybirnie_


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

The Windsor is a super greasy neighbourhood, was when I was growing up in Winnipeg (think I might have had my first underage beer-in-a-bar there about 1980), and still was when I was last there watching my bro play about 2 years ago. Good sized stage tho.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

keto said:


> The Windsor is a super greasy neighbourhood, was when I was growing up in Winnipeg (think I might have had my first underage beer-in-a-bar there about 1980), and still was when I was last there watching my bro play about 2 years ago. Good sized stage tho.


Sounds like my kinda place


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> I want to play halifax a lot. But its hard to get out there.
> 
> Winnipeg tonight at windsor motel(sp)!


That's rude. 
The fullblast did it.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

RBlakeney said:


> That's rude.
> The fullblast did it.


They also did a tour with alexisonfire haha.


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> They also did a tour with alexisonfire haha.


im pretty sure I played that show in Halifax.. and maybe Moncton?


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Budda said:


> They also did a tour with alexisonfire haha.


You and @KingLoudness should do a show together here. He's currently in 32 different bands, so one of them should mesh with Sparrows.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

cboutilier said:


> You and @KingLoudness should do a show together here. He's currently in 32 different bands, so one of them should mesh with Sparrows.


If he can get us good shows from quebec to halifax he should send us a message.

I have a feeling Im in the minority with my travels haha. Everyone else had kids and got jobs.


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

Budda said:


> If he can get us good shows from quebec to halifax he should send us a message.
> 
> I have a feeling Im in the minority with my travels haha. Everyone else had kids and got jobs.


%h(*& Well I don't have kids though.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Budda said:


> If he can get us good shows from quebec to halifax he should send us a message.
> 
> I have a feeling Im in the minority with my travels haha. Everyone else had kids and got jobs.


I don't know about NB, but there's only a handful of loud friendly venues left in Halifax.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

The edmonton show is pretty early! @keto whole thing is over by 8:30 hard curfew.

Stoked for a hotel shower.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Any news on the Vancouver venue?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

High/Deaf said:


> Any news on the Vancouver venue?


Its in Victoria now, forget the name. I will update!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Budda said:


> Stoked for a hotel shower.


Enjoy the early gig ....and a nice, long, hot shower.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Budda said:


> The edmonton show is pretty early! @keto whole thing is over by 8:30 hard curfew.
> 
> Stoked for a hotel shower.


Ugh 8:25 and just got home. Next time thru, I promise!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

High/Deaf said:


> Any news on the Vancouver venue?


 Vancouver show is actually in Surrey at a venue called "The Flamingo".


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Hmmm. Things must have changed down in that part of Whalley. No more Byrd? Pancho & Lefties still there?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

No idea.

3 bands, doors at 7. Early gig then back to the US for a week and a half.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Budda said:


> 3 bands, doors at 7. Early gig


I'm thinking they want to get you out of there before nightfall. 
I'm sure you've played sketchy areas before, but a heads-up anyway.

edit: Doh! I see that gig was last night, nevermind.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

jb welder said:


> I'm thinking they want to get you out of there before nightfall.
> I'm sure you've played sketchy areas before, but a heads-up anyway.
> 
> edit: Doh! I see that gig was last night, nevermind.


It actually wasn't bad at all. The venue was pretty spacious as well. I think a lot of vancouverites hype it up to feel better 

Two more shows, then we're all done. Windsor at The Windsor Beer Exchange on Saturday, for anyone in the area.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Last gig tn at windsor beer exchange. On around 10:30. Come say hello!


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## Guest (May 20, 2018)

Safe journey homeward.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

laristotle said:


> Safe journey homeward.


Made it safe and sound. Rolled into my driveway around 7am, walked the dog, tried to get a few hours sleep. I'm very glad I have tomorrow to try and re-adjust to real life things before heading back to work. That 5:50am alarm is gonna suck...


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