Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday July 10, 2025 - Windsor, ON

Road Blog
July 10, 2025
Windsor, Ontario

Adam Wild Honey Collective and I left the house around 2PM and headed for the Ambassador Bridge to Canada. It was smooth sailing until we got to customs, where the line of cars was 20-deep. 30 minutes later we were finally at the front of the line where the customs agent was pleasant enough and curious about the music festival we were heading to. Just as we the thought we were going to be released into the beautiful Canadian wilderness, he slapped the yellow slip under the windshield wiper and sent us to immigration for what he called “a routine search, nothing to be worried about.”

The agent in immigration was also fairly pleasant and a bit chatty while a stern blonde woman and short but bulky French-Canadian dude gave our vehicle a pretty good once-over. She wasn’t messing around and seemed overly curious about my Claritin stash and the ear-plug holders on my keychain. They seemed almost frustrated that they didn’t find anything, but there was also a non-aggressive “just doing our job” aspect to it as they told the chatty agent who was now giving Adam his employment history with the Canadian government that it was ok to release us. I’ve never been turned away at the border, knock on wood, but it’s always stressful as hell and huge sigh of relief to see that “Welcome to Canada” sign on the other side of customs.

We stopped for some gnocchi pasta (Adam) and Indian Butter Chicken (me) at a place called Fusion Pasta and Bowl where the owner and sole human in the place was (justifiably) complaining about how difficult it is right now being in a border city to the hostile and irrational US government, and how until a couple months ago he would go to the US every week for groceries and other goods, but now it’s too difficult and too expensive. After that we stopped at the LCBO (Liquor Control Bureau of Ontario) for some motel hooch and there wasn’t a bottle of American whiskey to be found. The manager explained that it’s a reaction to the tariffs and hostility from the US in recent months, and how the Jack Daniels plant in Louisville that was solely distilling for Canada has closed. A little research shows that this isn’t really the case, and he has his facts and details a bit skewed, but it’s still a sign of the strained relationship the US has created with our best neighbor. I had to begrudgingly settle for Jameson’s. Any way you look at it, it sucks.

A quick stop at an Asian supermarket (a debacle of a detour of its own) and were chilling out in our AirBB for an hour or two before the show. It’s a nice, but sparsely furnished basement apartment in a multi-unit building just off downtown Windsor. Some modification to the lighting was needed, but it was perfectly acceptable accommodations for the night.

We loaded into Meteor a little after 7pm, again, as in Toledo, pulling up just as Chad Price Peace Coalition were finishing their load-in. It’s a great room, above a sushi restaurant and across from the Phog Lounge, where the Tucos have played a couple times. Troopergirl22 and I saw The Sadies at Meteor a year or 2 back and I was happy to play there. The bartender Jessie is an old friend of mine from the band Black-Eyed Susan, who the Tucos played with at the Windsor Beer Exchange around 2018 or so. We got caught up on our group of common friends ( TJ, Casie, Mia) and it was nice to see her again. I took a walk to a nearby convenience store to get some Rolaids on the count of the butter chicken and called TrooperGirl22, who is keeping the house standing and our new baby opossum visitor fed with fresh apples.

We went on at 9pm to a slightly better crowd than we had in Toledo and played what we thought was our best set yet. Adam’s got the songs down and we’re starting to get into some more advanced dynamics and playing off each other. We had a good time up there, got a good response, and left the stage content. After us Dean George Music went on, a 3-piece with no drummer, and played some quirky and fun indie-pop and punk songs. He’s got a great voice and a fun self-deprecating humor on stage, and the songs were strong. He closed with a solo cover of “Sorrow” by Bad Religion that had the crowd singing along on the choruses – it was great! Chad Price Peace Coalition went on around 11pm and played a looser, slightly more rocking set that they did in Toledo, equally killer, just a little more raucous last night, if that makes sense. When they wrapped up we sold some merch, took a few photos with ( Trish ), and headed back to the AirBB for a nightcap.

Adam and I have no shortage of touring and traveling war stories to share (he has me surpasses x10 in that department), and theories and thoughts about songs and the approach to playing and the music biz in general, so the hours seem to pass quickly behind tales of this crazy girl in Berlin or this bathroom incident in Akron, or the dynamic of that one band back home, on and on. We’re a couple cackling hens at the end of the day. Before we knew it, it was after 2am and time for nighty-night. I crashed pretty hard, which I probably could have just as well 4 hours earlier on a normal night. Perpetual exhaustion isn’t a great way to go through life, but I just don’t want to miss anything.

Big thanks to Ian and Shawn at Meteor for being awesome, and to Chad and Dean for a great show last night. We’ll see ya tonight in Tillsonburg for the kickoff of Buddies Fest! xx