Our Lady Peace relies on the kindness of strangers
Day 3 - July 29th - New Orleans

On Tuesday I awoke to the sounds of our sound man (Roger) saying that we had to get off the bus if we did not want to be locked in the compound for the day. I remember thinking at that point: Compound? This can't be good. As it turned out, we had arrived at the hotel in New Orleans and it was only a locked parking lot we were in -- no Kool-Aid, no big deal.

We were to play The House of Blues that night so we set off for the French Quarter at about 2 p.m. The club was actually really cool with a kind of old theater vibe to it; plus there was a sort of voodoo shrine thing set up in the dressing room. This was also the first time in a while that we were playing a venue with a pro sound system in it.

The show was being presented by KKND and billed as a listener appreciation night. The only way for fans to get tickets was through a contest. I guess it was around 4 p.m. when we went to the station to do an acoustic performance and it was shortly after that that they offered the last set of tickets to the first person to show up with -- get this -- a tire, a Pez dispenser (with Pez in it), a toilet seat, a pink flamingo and an Our Lady Peace CD.

After they announced that crazy list, we played a couple of songs live and by the time we were done there were these two people bringing all of that stuff into the control room! We never did see the toilet seat because it was an old used one in a box so we deemed it wise to take the guys word for it. Oh yeah, note this: lemon Pez from a C3-P0 dispenser is pretty cool.

We were also told about the piss off the commuter contest where a listener had to call the station on a cell phone and make at least ten people honk at them. I guess some guy took it upon himself to stop in the middle of the highway, get out of his car and start yelling at people. No doubt (not the band) he was at the show.

The show itself was really cool. There were 1,300 people crammed into the venue who were really into it. The only downer was that in the backstage area they have a wall of fame (so to speak), but what it really is is a list of performers who have sold out The House of Blues. Just as we were introduced, I looked up and saw (and sorry if I offend anyone with this) Sinbad -- man, what a nauseating experience that was. After the show we headed off for Bourbon Street, only to find that on that particular night it was kind of quiet, so we bailed, went back to the hotel, had a swim and called it a night.

Day 4 - July 30th - New Orleans

A few of us decided to take in some of the sights so we went off on a tour of the Bayou. We were promised close encounters with alligators and lots of other wildlife. The guide found some gators and picked up a nine-footer on the end of a pole not more than a few feet from me. I guess it's kind of funny that I had no trouble trying blackened gator that night at dinner. Later, some of the other guys went on a haunted ghost tour of the city and said it was pretty cool. Days off are rare to us and when we have them they go by pretty quickly, so the next thing I knew I was answering a 7 a.m. wake-up call and we were headed for Texas. That's all for now.

Duncan Coutts