Jodie Ponto Photography

Let me tell you, there’s nothing like an afternoon spent at the gravel pit hunting dilapidated dishwashers & mufflers with gunman extraordinaire Lew Bates.

Lew Bates, The Showdown’s guardian gun angel.

Lew Bates protects his ears from the blast of Holly’s big gun.

Lew Bates, Cooper, and Darby give the muffler a 100 yard head start before The Showdown opens fire.

Defying my weak-wristed reputation by filling the dishwasher full of lead with a .22 long rifle.

Holly & Miss Quincy look on proudly as Shari prepares to make her first kill.

Shari sets her sights on killing the dishwasher …

… While Miss Quincy poses with her vintage shotgun.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown’s Guns & Ammo magazine centerfold.

We’ve been living it up R&R style this past week at Miss Quincy‘s farm on the banks of the Peace River in Northern BC.  I’m talking 3am dawns, thunderstorms you can watch like TV, popcorn & movies, walks by the river, leather conditioning boots (my secret personal favorite), shooting guns (to see photos of girls & guns at the gravel pit click here), and lazy days spent in the longest days of the year sun drinking beer & jamming.

The Vangina watches a thunderstorm roll in.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown rehearse in Miss Q’s cabin.

Mildred the turkey & Willamina the wolf like what they hear.

Miss Q shows off her hipneck hula-hooping skills by drinking a beer while doing it.

Travis from The Party on High Street.

Front porch cabin jams.

It’s not often you get to see one of your all-time favorite musicians perform at one of your all-time favorite pubs.  The musician in question is Toronto’s Corin Raymond and the pub in question is the Rolla Pub in the teeny tiny Northern farming hamlet of Rolla, BC.  If you ever find yourself in Toronto on a Thursday night make sure you stop by the Cameron House to see Corin.  If you ever find yourself near Rolla on any night make sure you stop by to see the historic gem for yourself.

Check out Corin’s music and the folkloric tale of The Great Canadian Tire Caper here: www.dontspendithoney.com

An old photo of the Rolla Pub dear to me both because it was one of the first photos I ever printed in the darkroom and the original sign is no longer.

Corin backed up by Brin Porter & Travis Charuk (The Party on High Street).

Patti (right), the Rolla Pub’s proprietress extraordinaire, and her daughter Sara.

Mr. Brinjamin Porter.

Corin à la happy song.

Corin à la sad song.

Although the fun killers at the liquor control board forced our rooftop cocktail soiree into the backstage basement bowels of the North Peace Cultural Centre, Miss Quincy & The Showdown‘s Like The Devil Does album release bash was still one hell of a show.

The ol’ pre-show transformation to stage hot.

Shari & Miss Quincy either admiring each others’ face painting handiwork or just about to make-out.

Toronto’s Corin Raymond opens the show.

The audience gets up close and personal with the band by being seated right on stage instead of way up in the theatre seats.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown.

I can’t even begin to express how wonderful the firstival weekend at Sweetwater 905 music & arts festival on the Mattson’s farm in Rolla, BC was (June 15-17, 2012).  Here are some pictures instead:

Behind The Firstival Scenes

Miss Quincy with 2 goblets full of G&C’s (gin & cucumber slices, that is).

Travis from The Party on High Street in a festival outfit fit for Abbey Road Studios.

Miss Q  brushing her teeth festival style.

Miss Q and Shari get ready for their set in the Vangina turned dressing room.

Twin Peaks rehearse for their set with Reno Fitch, Brin Porter (The Party on High Street), and Hazen Sage.

Picture The Ocean

Picture The Ocean meets Twin Peaks meets Miss Quincy & The Showdown.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown

Going to Calgary usually feels as much like a homecoming as going back to my own hometown, and Miss Quincy & The Showdown‘s near sold out Like The Devil Does album release bash at the Ironwood Stage & Grill was no exception.  The photos below feature Miss Quincy & Tim Williams (who produced the album) on guitar, Shari Rae on upright bass, and Holly Magnus on drums.

Miss Quincy gets ready backstage with a brand spankin’ new tattoo under wraps.

Miss Q reveals her brand spankin’ new tattoo for the first time.

My first introduction to Ross Neilsen was in Fredericton, NB where it seemed like every single person I met wore Ross Neilsen shirts & hats & panties.  My second was when Miss Quincy & The Showdown shared a show with him & his road hot blues/rawk band on the absolute other side of the country at The Slice in Lethbridge, AB.  Here are a few photos from the moments I managed to tear myself away from The Slice’s backstage basil grow-op:

Miss Quincy & The Showdown

Ross Neilsen

The first time I visited the teeny tiny town of Bruno, SK (population 600, about an hour east of Saskatoon) was almost exactly 2 years ago when Miss Quincy & co. played right next door to Senior Citizens at All Citizens:

To see more photos from the first visit click here.

Since then Tyler Brett & Kerri Reid have taken their knack for transformation a few doors down and revamped the old red brick bank building (built in 1917) into the Bruno Arts Bank – an artist-run coffee shop, music venue, artist residency, record/book store, art gallery, and mini-museum.  With a 20 seat capacity and many of the original bank features still in tact (the vault, for one), it’s as gem-like as they come.

The Bruno Arts Bank and Main Street Bruno (photo by the Bruno Arts Bank).

Miss Quincy & The Showdown on the Arts Bank stage.

Record Shop turned Miss Quincy merch den (photo by the Bruno Arts Bank).

The ever-crafty Tyler Brett’s backyard A-Frame where all 4 of us bedded down for the night.

Shari framed within the A-Frame.

An A-Framed Family Portrait (photo by the Bruno Arts Bank).

Just like Fredericton, my collection of photos from Saskatoon, SK is canine-centric and completely devoid of scenery, rock n’ roll, or nudity.

Dante

Fly

This is Fly.  Although older than old & rickety on his feet, he’s still handsome & noble & sweeter than sweet.

You can’t fully comprehend the absolute enormity of Canada until you traverse it by automobile. For some perspective, once upon 2 years ago Miss Quincy & I stupidly drove from Calgary to Montreal in one fell swoop …. It took us 54 hours.  54 fucking hours!  That’s with a constant rotation of drivers and only stopping for gas, grub, and one four hour sleep in a roadside ditch.  What’s even more unbelievable about that number is that it excludes 5 whole provinces.

Here are a few rogue photos from the past week when Miss Quincy & The Showdown and I put over 3,000kms on the Vangina in a massive westward trek from Quebec to Saskatchewan.

Quebec City By Night

Everything you’ve ever heard is true, Quebec City is a time-travelling European city stranded in North America.

Backstage Pass

When travelling as an independent band you don’t often find a backstage full of star-studded dressing rooms, bottles of vintage Dom Perignon, 18 year old Greek virgins, and jars of M&M’s with all the brown ones removed.  In fact, there’s most often not a backstage.  Here’s what it really looks like:

Shari & Miss Q putting on their stage faces at Chez Rachelle & Erika in Montreal.

Pre-show beerverages on the leather-couched back patio of Not My Dog in Toronto.

Backstage in Bruno, SK at the Bruno Arts Bank.

Pre-show rehearsal at The Rusty Bike in Moose Jaw, SK.

Roadside Attractions

Miss Q making dinner for four on the hood of the Vangina in Wawa, ON.

Shari shadow-kicking the shit out of Miss Quincy.

Sleepover Time

As mentioned many times before, to survive on the road you have to become one hell of an adaptable sleeper. You must develop the ability to sleep when you can and where you can, or you will die a haggard sleep deprived death.  Here are a few of the more respectable places we’ve bedded down in over the past week:

Miss Q & Holly take turns chugging cough syrup (for illness not inebriation purposes) at the Motel Express in Quebec.

Our European mansion of an apartment in Quebec City.

The Thunder Bay International Hostel – although we arrived too late to take their infamous dump tour we still managed to sleep peacefully beneath the watchful eyes of the hostel owners’ wedding portrait.

Ontario: Putting The Cunt in Driving Across The Country Since 1867

As anyone who has ever driven across the country knows, the vast majority of your highway time is spent in Ontario. I’m not exaggerating when I say it takes days & days to circumnavigate the edge of the Great Lakes.  As Miss Quincy put it, “Ontario puts the cunt in driving across the country”.

One of the innumerable craggy lakes along the Trans-Canada’s seemingly endless Northern Ontario stretch.

A Northern Ontario sunset looking especially beeyootiful after 9 sweaty hours in the Vangina.

Prairie Respite

The Vangina finally emerges into the Prairies after 4 days of driving through Ontario.