Danielle is from Upstate New York, but I had never been, so she took me to Niagara Falls. This is where my argument that "traveling just for DMB" loses its validity because you can check off many other bucket list things at the same time. So we stopped there and took some pictures and I checked Niagara Falls off my bucket list.
When we got to Toronto we met Grant at the Hotel and decided to go grab a bite to eat. At the restaurant we all sat around and pondered what we should do that night because the DMB show wasn't until the next day. While we waited for our food, we hopped on our handy-dandy IPhones and got on twitter. Right at that time, Jeff Coffin randomly had just tweeted that he was playing a show with a local band right down the street. Extremely excited, we ate quick and hopped on over to the Orbit Room to see Jeff play.
Everyone has heard and scene Jeff play with DMB, but playing on his own and in a tiny venue was something special. The Orbit Room fit only about 100-150 people and it the only seats in the house were right in font of the Beard himself. Another cool part of this night is that I met Josie, or better known as the "DMB Family Momma." We watched Jeff play and I swear the sounds Jeff made come out of the Sax were not from this planet. Afterwards we just hung around and had a few beers. Everyone , for the most part had left, and then Jeff comes strolling back out. We didn't want to bug him but we went up and thanked him. He was very cool and down to earth, I had met him before but hadn't had much time to talk. We talked to him about Spac and he said something that was hilarious. He said that after the horrible weather at Spac, if he didn't have a drink when he got home he would've been under the table and sleeping and there would be no dreaming involved. It was cool for him to throw in that little DMB reference and hear him joke with us. After we chatted for a bit and snapped a few pics, we left and called it a night.
We woke up the next day excited and ready to go. I had never been to Toronto before so we went to the Hockey Hall Of Fame, another thing crossed off the bucket list. Growing up, my parents were friends with Bruins legend Ray Bourque. So I was always big into hockey and had never been able to get to the HOF. It was really cool to check out the history and see everything they had on display.
After the HOF, we were walking around looking for somewhere to eat when we came across the DMB's buses. Sure enough, there was Carter and Tim walking by us and getting on their bus. We didn't bug them, we just said hello and that was that. As any fan would, we decided to eat at the hotel where the buses were in hopes to see any other band members. When we walked inside, we saw Bus Driver Jerry. This was perfect, because I had just bought his book in hopes of seeing him and having him sign it. After he signed it and we chatted for a bit, we parted ways and we went and had lunch. After we left, we realized we went the wrong way so we turned around, which made us pass the hotel again. As we passed the hotel, guess who came out of the front door...Boyd Tinsley. We were about thirty feet away and stopped and I yelled, "BT!" He was carrying some things and just gave us a quick head nod and kept going. Then he did a double take, stopped, dropped his stuff and yelled, "Andy? What's up!" If you know BT, you know what happened next. Yes, you guessed it…a big ass Boyd hug. At this point, I had known BT for a little while, and although I didn't take it for granted, I was used to this. Danielle had also met BT before. But Grant on the other hand stood there mesmerized as I hugged Boyd. He had never met anyone in the band before, so he stood there like a child waiting to open his present on Christmas with a shit eating grin on his face. Grant got his first BT hug, and it was great to witness. After we said quickly said hi to BT we let him be on his way. Because if you know BT, he was already late for rehearsal without us bothering him.
We headed to the show, but again it was crappy weather. Temperatures were in the 40s-50s and t was raining. But nothing could bring us down after the last two days that we had. And the funny part is that we had pit tickets, did all that stuff instead of getting soaked in the pit line with everyone else, and still were railed right in front of Boyd when we walked in. And guess who was right there next to us, Josie! Now if you follow Josie and I on twitter and see our interactions, now you will know why I call her "Pit Buddy." Me Josie and the rest of the gang danced and sang to DMB all night. You wouldn't think Toronto would have a "great" setlist, but it was a killer show. The show included a Tripping Billies opener,the liberation of Captain, The Stone, JTR, and a wicked awesome rendition of Recently.
After the show my nerves started to kick in. I was set to meet up with Boyd to interview him for DMBConnect.com. Although many people think Boyd and I vacation on the Cape together and have BBQs on the reg…this was the first time I was going to actually hang out with him one on one. Boyd and I have always kept close in contact on twitter and have a good relationship but other than that we had only hung out at gatherings. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous. He is the nicest guy in the world but when it comes down to it, he is still a celebrity in your favorite band. So it was pretty hard to keep my nerves in check. We headed over to the gathering and the bus driver told me to come on the bus. I then just about soiled my undies as I walked onto the bus. As I lifted back the curtain, there was BT at the back of the bus. He said, "Hey Andy, what's up, come sit down back here." I went back and gave him a hug and started conversation. I must have sounded like a bumbling idiot trying to think of things to talk about, or at least that is how I feel like I sounded. LOL. Being the nerd I am, I pulled out my manila folder with the interview questions and started the interview. Oh boy, I have audio of this, if you ever want a laugh you need to hear it. I sound so awkward, it's priceless. Anyways, after the interview I got more comfortable and we just sat around and shot the shit for awhile. He told me how cool it was that everyone shows so much love to him and to all DMB Family on twitter. He stressed that stuff a lot and that is why I try to do the same. He just thought it was so cool that we all come together, no matter where we are from or who we are. It really is cool the bond that DMBFamily shares and Boyd definitely loves and appreciates it. Then he told me some funny story about hanging with Andy Roddick at WPB the previous year and we were both in tears from laughing. I made it short but sweet, because I didn't want to take to much of his time and people were waiting for the gathering. So I gave him a hug, told him I loved him like a brother, and got off the bus.
The next day, Grant and I were leaving for Pennsylvania. But needless to say, Toronto didn't let me down and will be one of the greatest memories in my life.
