Super-heroine and keytar queen LIGHTS just finished crossing the country on a massive tour and she wrote tour diaries about her adventures for CHARTattack. You can read the first four parts here and here and here and here.
Here's part five:
It's been just over a month since the first, nerve-slaying day of this long but incredible Canadian tour.
And here I am once again, back in the U.S.A., in my middle bench of the van looking back on all the ups and downs of it. I set out with high expectations of what I would learn, who I would affect and how the shows would come across, and I have to say that the results exceeded all three.
I won't lie; the last few days of tour got a little bittersweet for me, and by the last day in Kitchener, Ont. I felt a little swelling in my left eye as I poured my heart out to the crowd about what I learned in the process and how I became better for it. I later pulled a three-inch hair out of my eye, but I feel like that wasn't the reason for the minor tearage.
I'll pick up where we left off last Thursday, en route to London, Ont. As with all the shows of the tour, it was a much bigger venue than the last time I came through a mere 10 months previous, but the crowd still proved to be excitable as precedence would have it.
One nice detail to the night was when my grade nine English teacher came to visit me backstage. He was one of the three people (including my mother) that were influential in honing the writing that you're reading right now. He also told me he had been reading these entries and was proud of me. I felt 14 again. I almost asked him what my grade was.
For the duration of the tour, I tried my very hardest (and with good reason) to not become accustomed to the excitement and grandeur of the shows. This tour was special, and not all of them afterwards will be the same.
The Barrie, Ont. show was actually a gentle way of some greater power saying, "don't let this get to your head; you're not there yet. Small shows and apathetic crowds still await."
It was definitely the smallest turnout of the tour, and the sound in the room was certainly not the same as playing in a theatre. Our set time was closer to midnight and as the drinks were being passed around, my ability to maintain the attention of the crowd became more difficult.
Another thing I almost got used to on the Canadian tour was having a bathroom in the band room area. It's a subtle but wonderful blessing, and my experience in Kingston, Ont. a few days prior to Barrie reminded me of this.
I got a standing ovation for using the toilet, which happened to be up on the stage to the right (I KNOW???). It was probably single-handedly the most pressure-filled piss I've ever taken. I should also note I received a big, hearty applause when I exited. I felt like I was on Just For Laughs: Gags. I really had no choice other than to bow to the crowd and declare my relief.
The next day I found myself in Kitchener, for the last day of the most amazing tour I could have asked for. It seemed like what I was feeling was echoed across the room, and a happy-but-blue sentiment was floating in the air.
Despite the entire P.A. system cutting out for a good part of my second song, the crowd gave back everything I put out for them. I also received one of the sweetest gifts yet, which was a collective effort from scores of fans on my forum — a compilation CD of covers and songs written for me. It was in the likeness of my record only it was called "The Listeners" and my face on the cover was a collage of all of their pictures. It was something very rewarding to receive.
My long time friend and manager, Jian [Ghomeshi], came to the show and we shared the final moments of the tour we had both been so excited (and slightly nervous) about for a long time. It felt kind of like we had just climbed Mount Everest, paraded around on the top for a while, and before it was time to go back down had one last minute to just sit on the brim and take in the view.
Sincerely, with all of my body and heart, thank you everyone who was involved with the tour, from venue staff, to my crew, to other bands that were on the shows, to the show-goers themselves. You gave me the time of my life. There are many more tours to come, but this will go down in history as the one that made me fall in love with it.
Until next time, "KEEEEP SINGINGGGGGG" — Ursula, The Little Mermaid, 1989
LIGHTS.
