Day Six: Montreal

Suddenly I wake up and when I shoot up I bump my head really hard. Wide

awake now I get out of bed to get something to drink and when I enter the downstairs

lounge I notice that it’s empty. Everyone must still be asleep. What time is it

anyways? I look for a clock, but can’t find one. Then I see someone’s watch on the

table. I pick it up and look at the time. It’s 5:43 a.m. No wonder I’m here by myself. I

grab a soda from the fridge and sit down on the big couch. I look around the lounge

and think it is amazing how little time it takes to make a mess. I put my drink down

and start clearing plastic cups and cans. When I’m almost done putting the trash in a

bag, I feel eyes burning in the back of my neck. I turn around and see Connor standing

at the bottom of the stairs. I quickly sit down in the corner of the lounge with my

drink. I try to avoid eye contact, but he seems to be staring at me.

Finally I get annoyed and say: “What? What are you looking at?” He doesn’t

answer me and keeps staring.

“Fine, I’ll leave!” I eventually say. I get up and walk past Connor towards the

bunks.

“You know, if you start cleaning up after them, they’ll expect you to do it all

the time.” he says as I reach the stairs.

I pretend not to have heard him and continue walking. As I get back in my bunk

I try to sleep again. It seems like seconds later when I hear everyone get up. I wait

until they are all downstairs before I get out. Apparently we have arrived, because I

hear some voices outside. I get dressed and walk downstairs. Now that I’m down in the

lounge I start wondering where my suitcase has gone and if I can take a shower

somewhere.

Jason walks back on the bus, smiles and says: “Good morning! I’ll show you

where you can get to your clothes and you can take a shower at the venue, though I

have to warn you. We won’t have a shower at our disposal everywhere.”

“Yes, my boss told me that and I came prepared” I follow Jason out of the bus

toward the back. There is another door there, which he opens and lets me step in

first. It’s a small cargo bay where all the bags and suitcases are stored.

“Your suitcase should be here somewhere. Just get what you need for today.

Later tonight you’ll have the opportunity to get some other stuff out for tonight and

tomorrow. We’ll be on the road all day then, so we won’t be able to access this

place.” he explains. I look for my suitcase for a moment, but as it is a very bright

turquoise color it really stands out between the dark colored cases. As I open it up

Jason turns and walks out: “I’ll give you some privacy.”

I look up to smile gratefully, but he has already left. Since I don’t want to take

long I just grab a towel, some clean underwear, socks, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a

sweater. After putting it in one pile on the side I close my suitcase and walk out. I join

Jason and he leads me to the shower. When we reach it, it is already occupied.

“I’ll just wait here for them to be done. Can I just ask what everyone is doing

today?” I say.

“Mostly we take the time to either go around town or we sleep, but no plans

have been made yet. You can decide what you want to do. Either you hang with us or

you can go sightseeing around Montreal on your own. We have to be back here at 4:00

p.m. After setting up and the sound check, we have until doors open to do whatever,

which is around 8:00 p.m.”

“I think I should stick with you. How else am I going to write about you on tour?

If I don’t stay around to see how you spend your free time, there is something missing

from the story. I’m going to be around you guys so much you’ll get sick of me sooner

or later.” I jokingly say.

Then I hear the door behind me open. Of course, of all people it had to be

Connor coming out of the shower. Ignoring me he starts talking to Jason and together

they walk away. Completely annoyed by his disregard I glare after him for a moment,

but then pick up my toiletries, towel and clean clothes and walk into the shower. I

open the tap to let it get to temperature and start undressing. Surprisingly enough the

bathroom is really clean, I kind of expected it to be really dirty and smelly like a guys

toilet. While I am in the shower, there is a knock on the door.

“Do you need any help in there?” Jordy calls through the door.

“No, I can manage. You just worry about your own cleanliness.” I call back.

I start smiling and shake my head thinking some guys just can’t help hitting on

girls. He’s probably not heard no many times, but I guess there is a first for

everything. When I get out he’s still waiting outside the door and his disappointment is

clear as he sees that I am fully dressed. I look at him in amazement and wonder if

other girls are really that easy. Without saying a word, I walk past and leave him

behind. I get back on the bus and it is clear plans have been made for some to go

sightseeing and others to go to the mall.

Just as I start wondering what I should do, Reagan asks: “Do you want to come

with Yuri, Paul, Dom and me? We are going to the mall and maybe grab something to

eat out there. I think Jason and Con are going to Toys ’r Us for some stuff for Jason’s

kids and Stepha`n and Moe are going to go on some sightseeing tour through the city.

The rest are staying here.”

“If you’re sure it’s ok, I’d like to tag along with you. Maybe I can get a souvenir

for my dad.” I say relieved.

We decide to wait for Jordy, to check if he wants to come with us. When he

comes back from the shower, Paul asks him if he wants to go with us to the mall. He

decides to stay at the bus, so Yuri, Paul, Dom, Reagan and I walk to the nearest bus

stop. It doesn’t take long for the bus to come. After 20 minutes ‘Centre Eaton’ comes

into view and the guys start planning on where to go first. When the bus stops right in

front of the main entrance, we get out. We decide to split up and meet back at the

bus stop in 2 hours, because everybody wants to go to different stores. After a few

minutes I am by myself and look around the mall to see where to go. I spot a drugstore

and walk over to it. I remember that I need some perfume and aspirins. At the store I

take the time to check a couple different perfumes and soon decide on one. I put it in

the basket and walk around to see if there is anything else I need or want. When I

can’t think of what else to get, I go to the counter where I find Yuri. He doesn’t notice

me and tells the lady behind the counter that he wants 5 big packages of regular

condoms. When I involuntarily make a sound, he turns and sees me standing there.

Obviously embarrassed he says: “It’s not for me. The guys asked me to get them

a supply.”

“And you think 5 packages will be enough for 10 guys? Really? Well, you guys

must not be that popular with the girls then.” I say smiling slyly. He shrugs with a

bright smile and pays for his things.

As he grabs the bag he winks and says: “There are many more of these stores

along the way you know.”

I smile shaking my head and walk up to the counter. After asking for aspirin I

pay for my stuff and take the bag from the counter. When I walk out of the store, I

notice a quaint little souvenir shop so I go over to it. I buy a couple of refrigerator

magnets for dad and myself and put the magnets in my bag. As I walk out I crash into

Reagan who is entering the shop.

“Oh sorry! I wasn’t paying attention. Are you ok? I’m such an idiot.” I say

apologetically.

“I’m fine. Are you? It’s totally my fault. I shouldn’t have rushed in without

looking.” he says in turn. We look at each other for a moment and start laughing.

Then he asks: “So, did you buy anything in here or were you just looking?”

“I bought some refrigerator magnets for my dad and myself. What are you doing

here?”

“My mother likes those things as well. I always bring her one from every place

we visit. You bought a few, so there must be some good ones.”

“Yeah, you should go to the back of the shop. There are some nice ones there.

Well, see you later. I’m off to do some more girly shopping.” I say as I leave.

I walk outside and wonder where to go next because to be honest I don’t really

know. I decide to just start walking and see where I’ll end up. When I’ve walked past

every shop in the mall I look at my watch. I still have 45 minutes before I’m supposed

to meet the rest. For a moment I want to go sit at the bus stop and wait for the guys

there, but soon I decide that’s just crazy so I go to the food court, get a regular coffee

and blueberry tart and sit down at a nice spot overlooking the mall. While enjoying

the view of busy shoppers I take out my Blackberry and check my e-mail. There is a

message from Beth asking if everything is going well and if there are any hot guys for

her.

I laugh as I answer the message; Yes, everything is going as well as can be

expected. The tour manager really does not like me being here. Apparently he

disapproves of women on a tour with guys. The band members are really nice and

have made me feel welcome from the start, especially Reagan and Paul. To be honest

I guess they are all kind of hot. Jordy (the sound guy), Paul (the guitar tech), Stephàn

(the drummer) and Connor (the tour manager) would probably be right up your ally.

How are things with you? And at work?

I press send and sit there for a while, almost like I expect a message back

instantly. Then I put my phone back into my pocket and start sipping at the coffee

while I look out at the mall. Suddenly I spot Con sitting on a bench staring, with a sad

expression on his face. I try to look away, but I can’t. Maybe I can break the ice if I go

over and try to cheer him up. I order another piece of blueberry tart, to go this time. I

take the escalator down to the first floor and walk over to the bench.

“Are you OK?” I ask with concern.

“I’m fine.” he answers annoyed. Ignoring his rudeness, I sit down next to him

and hand him the blueberry tart. He sighs audibly.

“Here, I always feel better after eating something like this. It’s really good too.

I just had some myself.”

I try to sound as open and friendly as possible. He looks at me in complete

astonishment for a moment and then averts his eyes and takes the tart. He eats it

quietly and I sit next to him without saying or asking anything. When he’s finished and

throws away the wrapping, Reagan walks over to us.

“Hi, so have you guys made peace now, since you’re sitting less than 2 yards

away from each other?”

At this comment Con gets up at once and says: “Yeah, sure. Whatever, dude!”

I look up at the sky and sighs loudly. I get up as well and all three of us walk

over to the bus stop. When we arrive Paul and Dom are already there and Connor

walks over to them.

Reagan puts his hand on my arm to stop me for a moment and says quietly:

“Sorry about that. Did I interrupt anything?”

“No.” I answer, “Nothing was going on. I just thought he looked like he needed

cheering up, so I brought him some blueberry tart.”

“Ok. Yeah, he hasn’t been himself the last couple of days. I’ll go talk to him

later.”

We wait for Yuri and after he arrives we all decide to have a bite to eat at

Dunn’s Famous, which is only a 5 minute walk. When we get escorted to our table by a

waitress we sit down and as she walks away the guys discuss how attractive she is.

After a few minutes they divert their attention towards me and Dom says:

“Since you are going to find out a lot about us these coming weeks, it is only fair we

get to ask you some stuff as well. Don’t you agree?”

I start blushing and say: “I guess so. But I’m not really that interesting.”

“We’ll be the judge of that. So, you said last night you have 2 brothers and a

dad. Can I ask about your mom?” Dom asks.

“Sure, no problem. My mom died when I was 6 and I don’t remember much

about her. Dad tells me I look like her and my brothers say I act like her.”

“Where’s your family from? Van der Meeren is not very common here.” Paul

asks.

“Well, my mother was from Holland, Europe and when she died dad decided to

change our last name to hers. He wanted to keep her memory alive that way. We can

all speak Dutch as well, it was important to dad for us to be able to talk to mom’s

family.”

“So, you speak Dutch? I think one of the drivers is from Holland. Have you ever

been there?” Reagan asks interested.

“Yeah, we went to my grandmother’s when I was 14. We were planning on going

last year, but we couldn’t get the money together. The feature-story about the tour

will earn me some extra money so we will be able to go this year around Christmas.

My grandmother is getting pretty old now and we’d like to see her before it’s too

late.”

The waitress comes back to see if we are ready to order, but no one has even

looked at the menu. We all quickly grab one, choose something and order it.

After she is out of earshot again Dom asks me: “Moe told us you are not

involved with anyone. I wonder how a nice looking girl like you could be single. If you

donÅLt mind me asking.”

Looking from Paul to Reagan to Yuri to Dom to Connor I notice that they are all

waiting for my answer and after considering it for a moment I say: “To be honest, I’ve

never really put much thought into it. I work full-time and when I come home I spend

my time reading and listening to music. I like the way my life is now, so why change

that?”

The guys just stare at me for a moment, which makes me a little

uncomfortable. I wonder what they are thinking. When our food arrives, we focus on

that and it’s not until everyone is done eating that we start talking again.

“Wow, that was a good lunch!” Reagan says rubbing his stomach.

We sit there for a while, but then decide to leave. It is already 3:30 p.m. and

we have to be back at the venue at 4:00 p.m.

“This one is on me. IÅLll put it on the company credit card.” I say as I walk over

to the counter to pay.

As I join the guys again they thank me. We walk back to the bus stop and see

the bus coming, so we run over and get on. At the venue we get out and walk to the

tour bus to drop off our stuff. Connor then tells the guys to get their s**t for tonight

together and take the gear to the stage. I go upstairs to get my voice recorder for

tonight. All of a sudden Connor is there too, quickly says thanks for the tart and leaves

again. I smile to myself hoping that maybe he is warming up to me.

Seconds later he comes back and says: “Stay with Jordy at the sound table, if

you must be there for the setting up.”

I follow him to the club and when we get inside I walk over to Jordy to sit down

behind him. I take out my Blackberry, check my e-mail and when there are no new

messages I start writing about what I did today trying to put in as many details as

possible. After an hour or so the guys are done setting up and doing the sound check.

Everyone walks back to the bus and spreads out inside. Yuri goes upstairs to sleep

while Jason takes out his bass to play a little. Dom and Reagan start playing on the

PlayStation. When I notice that Stepha`n isn’t really doing anything, I walk over to him

and ask if I can ask him some questions for my story. He agrees and clears some space

next to him.

“I’d rather go to the upstairs lounge if you don’t mind. That way we have some

quiet space to do this.” I say. So he gets up and follows me upstairs. “Thank you so

much for doing this! I know we have 3 weeks, but itÅLs never too early to start.”

“That’s ok. I’m happy to help any way I can. So, what did you want to know?”

I turn on my voice recorder and start my little interview. “Well, can you tell me

how you got started?” Stepha`n starts telling the band story, like he’s done a million

times before. Then I interrupt him and tell him I’d like to know about him personally.

“You see, the general band story is well known so I’d like to know about your personal

experiences.” I explain.

He thinks for a moment and then starts talking. After a while we are

interrupted by Connor, who tells Stepha`n itÅLs time to eat. So he gets up to follow him

and when he sees that I don’t he tells me I should come too. I get up and follow them

to the club. There in the backstage area the food is in big trays, buffet-style. It looks

good. Gino is already busy filling his plate, when Connor reminds him that there are

still others that need to eat. Stepha`n grabs a plate, gives it to me and then takes a

plate for himself. He starts putting food on it and Connor does the same. I wait for

them to be done before I fill my own plate with only a bit of food. I sit down next to

Paul on the couch, he comments on the amount of food on my plate and I explain that

I’m still pretty full from our lunch. He laughs and agrees that lunch was pretty heavy.

When he finishes his plate he gets up and explains that he needs to get the guitars and

the bass ready for tonight. I finish my food and notice that almost everyone has left.

I ponder on what to do now, when Stepha`n comes back and sits down with a

huge sigh. “I hate this part. From now until about 10:30 p.m. we have 4 hours to kill.

Luckily, we have a supporting act today that is really good. They’re old buddies of

mine. They should be arriving soon, so hopefully the hours will go by fast.”

“So it’s fair to say that there is a lot of waiting involved in touring?” I ask.

“Well, no, that’s just with gigs in general. You always have to be at a venue at

a certain time and there are several hours to kill between arriving and show time.” he

answers. There is a lot of noise suddenly, Stepha`n gets up to see what’s going on and

he yells: “You better have brought me some beer!” He waits for the person to come

towards him and he gives him a hug.

“Long time, no see man.” The other guy says.

When he looks questioningly at me, Stepha`n introduces me and tells me his

name is Victor. We shake hands politely. From behind, Stepha`n is jumped by some

other guy, probably another band member. As everyone in the room seems to be

preoccupied, I slip out quietly and leave towards the front stage area. Here I find

another bunch of guys talking to Dom and Jason. I turn around again and decide to go

to the bus. I sit down on the couch in the downstairs lounge after having gotten my

laptop. I connect my Blackberry to it and synchronize them together. Out of habit I

check my e-mail and am a bit surprised to see a new one. It’s from Beth again. She

must have read mine. I open the e-mail and first it goes on and on about some stupid

stuff at work, but then I read that Ben hasn’t been at the office in two days. That

really is not like him. Ever since I started working for him 5 years ago he hasn’t missed

a day. I wonder what’s going on with him. The e-mail continues about some guy Beth

met at a club. I close the e-mail and decide to write back later tonight or maybe

tomorrow. I open the Word-document I am working on and use the voice recorder to

write down what Stepha`n told me earlier. Someone comes on the bus and without

looking up I say hi.

“Now that we are alone, why don’t we go upstairs?” Jordy says as he comes

over and sits down next to me.

“No thanks. Not interested.” I see him considering pressing the subject, but

changing his mind and leaving the bus again.

After focusing back on what I was doing I continue writing for a while. When I

look at my watch I see it’s 7:45 p.m. already, which means the doors to the venue

must be opening soon. Because of my curiosity I put my laptop away, get my

backstage pass and walk out of the bus to the venue. I expected more people to be

around, but then I realize that this part must be closed off from the general public. I

walk towards the room where we have been eating our dinner, but that door is closed

now. So I wander the hall to try and find the guys. After a few minutes, I see Jason

come out of one of the rooms at the far end of the hallway. I go over to it and open

the door to find everyone sitting there. Stepha`n is in the middle of a joke when I walk

in and everyone starts laughing at the punch line. I notice there is no seat left, so I sit

down on the armrest of the couch in the corner. After a while the guys from the other

band start preparing themselves for their performance. They leave the backstage area

and two guys come and go with wires and stuff. This must be normal since none of the

Dreads on Fire-guys seem worried about anything. When the band starts playing, some

of the guys get up and go to the wings of the stage to watch them. I decide to go

watch as well, so I walk past the security guy and stand all the way in the back of the

venue. It is still about half empty, which is too bad for these guys. I hope more people

will still come; otherwise this second gig probably is not going to be much of a

success. I listen for a while, but the band doesn’t really impress me so I decide to go

outside for some fresh air. I walk out the front door to see if there are still a lot of

people outside and it surprises me that there is quite a crowd there.

Someone spots my backstage pass and soon people start ambushing me asking

all kinds of questions: “Are you with Dreads on Fire?”

“Who are you?”

“What are you doing with the guys?”

“Are you Stepha`n’s or Reagan’s new girlfriend?”

I regret going out at the front, I see it was a mistake to go here now. How can I

get out? They have surrounded me and are not letting me leave. All of a sudden I feel

a big hand grab my arm and a voice tells people to back off and let me through. Then I

see that it is Gino, so I grab hold of him.

When we are back inside, I say: “Thanks! I shouldn’t have done that. I really

didn’t expect to be ambushed. I thought that only happens with boy bands…haha. But

how did you know where I was?”

“Con said you were getting yourself in trouble out there and told me to go get

you before you got hurt.” I conclude that he probably saw me leave out the front door

and expected this to happen. Wow, I really feel stupid now.

“Well, thanks for saving me. I’ll just get out of your way now. I feel so stupid.

I’ll stay on the bus for the rest of the night.” I quickly go to the back door and walk to

the bus. There I see the bus driver standing next to the door having a smoke and some

coffee.

“Hi. How are you?” I say.

With a very heavy accent, he answers: “Hello. I’m ok. How about you?” This

must be the Dutch driver the guys were talking about this afternoon.

“IÅLm fine” I say in Dutch.

I laugh as the driver is clearly surprised by hearing his own language. I explain

to him how come I speak Dutch and we talk for a while. Then I ask him if he could let

me get in the back of the bus so I can get some stuff out of my suitcase.

He says he would like to, but he’s not allowed, company policy. No one goes in

or out of the luggage space without anyone from the band or the tour manager. “This

way we can’t be accused of stealing someone’s belongings.”

I will have to wait until later. After talking with the driver a little while longer,

I decide to get on the bus and write some more. An hour or so later I wonder if the

band has started yet, so I get up to go check them out. As I open the door I hear the

music coming at me. From the wings of the stage I look at the crowd and it is

completely packed. The band is really going at it.

Right as I get into it, I hear : “I thought you were going to stay on the bus for

the rest of the night.” Surprised I turn around and see Connor looking back at me with

an annoyed expression on his face. “What are you doing here?” he sneers.

“I wanted to check out the band and thought this was the best place to see the

show.” I say.

“Yeah, well you can’t be here right now. Go sit with Jordy or Gino and keep

your backstage pass out of sight.”

Annoyed I shake my head and while muttering swear words I walk past him

quickly and tug my pass inside my t-shirt. After struggling to get through the crowd I

flash my backstage pass at the security guy, go upstairs and finally reach the light

table. As I sit down I notice that almost the whole crowd is moshing, so I am glad I’m

here with Gino. You really don’t want to be at the front of the stage now.

Then Yuri shouts: “CIRCLE PIT! YEAH!” and it seems like half the crowd starts

running in a circle going nuts. It looks kind of cool, almost like a human whirlpool.

I stand up to look at the band and notice that they have a really good stage

presence. I didn’t really notice this last night, but everyone looks in place and they

are having a great time, which really comes across. After the show is over I go

backstage to see how the band feels about this performance. The guys are really

pumped. A completely hyper Stepha`n jumps around and start hanging around people’s

necks cracking jokes. Connor goes around handing them beers and complimenting

them on the performance. He is actually smiling and joking around. He high fives

Jordy and tells him he did a fantastic job with the sound. Gino gets a pat on the back

for the excellent lighting. Jason walks over to me handing me a beer as well and asks

what I thought of the show.

“Yeah, it was great! You guys really know how to get the crowd going. Your

stage presence is perfect. It’s clear you have been together for so long.”

He hands me a band t-shirt and says: “Here! Now you’ll look the part. You can’t

be on this tour and not have one of our t-shirts.”

He lifts up his bottle as do I and we clink them together. He smiles at me and

then walks over to Dom and Reagan who seem to be discussing their performance.

After a couple of beers I go outside to the bus. On my way there I see Jordy with some

girl and Moe trying to score with her friend. Stepha`n is on the bus with a girl on either

side of him. He’s telling them some obviously exaggerated story about how he got hurt

on stage once. I feel totally obsolete here, so I go upstairs to my bunk. When I hear

someone else getting it on in one of the bunks I walk to the back lounge with my iPod

and laptop. I put my iPod on to block out any sound and turn on my laptop. I start

writing again. Before long I fall asleep on the couch. Someone shakes my shoulder and

when I open my eyes I see Reagan sitting next to me.

“Hi. We’re about to leave and I wanted to see if you needed anything from your

suitcase. We’ll be driving all day tomorrow, so get enough stuff.” he says.

I rub my eyes and get up to follow him. We get out of the bus and go towards

the back. He tells me to hurry, because Connor wants to leave in 5 minutes. I grab a

bunch of clothes, some underwear and my toiletries and close my case again. I walk

outside and go back on the bus with Reagan following closely. Connor enters the bus

and asks if everyone is ready to go. When the answer is yes, he does a headcount and

lets the driver know it’s time to go.

After he returns to the lounge he addresses the guys again: “We should arrive in

Detroit by 3:30 p.m. Make sure you are ready by then, because we are offloading

straight away, then we set up and sound check. We play at 11:00 p.m. We’ve got two

bands opening for us; Sunrise Falls and Gods of Hell. Sunrise will play first and then

Gods. This is not going to be a problem, right?”

Is he looking at Moe? I wonder what’s going on. Reagan then turns to me and

asks me to follow him upstairs. Feeling the tension between Connor and Moe I grab the

chance to leave.

We sit down in the back lounge and Reagan explains: “We’ve played with Gods

of Hell before back in Boston and one time there was an argument between Moe and

one of the guys from Gods because he hit on Moe’s then girlfriend. A fight was started

and both bands got kicked out of the club. We were banned from the biggest club in

Boston for three years after that. As you can imagine, things are still very shaky

between us and Gods of Hell.”

“Right, yes of course. What will happen if Moe sees that guy again tomorrow?”

“Probably nothing, Con will make sure of that. But there are never any

guarantees, once he gets mad.”

“So how come you guys have to play with them tomorrow?”

“Our booking agency made a mistake. I guess they have a new guy working

there. You should’ve seen Connor when he found out, but we knew we would run into

them sooner or later and agreed to be the bigger person in this.”

We talk for a while longer and when Reagan tells me he is going to sleep I

decide to do the same. He leaves the back lounge and I grab my pajamas from my

bunk. I change into them and get in my bunk at once.