Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday September 05, 2025 - Montréal, QC

Road Blog
September 5, 2025
Montreal, Quebec

I loaded out of my AirBB near Hamilton, Ontario and said hello to a litter of curious baby kittens living in the garage and goodbye to Bear, the giant 1-year old German Shepherd who didn’t seem too distraught to see me go. 45-minutes of normal Toronto congestion later and I pulled into a Petrol-Canada station and did a record swap with my pal Woody and got a coffee. I’ve been doing this run this weekend for 15 years now and Woody came with me on the first one. We got a pic and he set me up with a bag of road snacks (thanks! The fig cookies are awesome!) and I was on my way. I took a toll road (407 I think) around Toronto that was downright pleasant and fast and met back up with the 401 that I stayed on until I hit Quebec, stopping only once for gas and once to get rid of that coffee. Not sure how or when they collect the tolls but I guess I'll keep an eye on the mailbox.

I got an AirBB in Pincourt, Quebec, about 45 minutes outside of Montreal, which made for a not-super-fun drive after the show, but an easy exit this morning, and saved me a few bucks from staying in the city. It’s another basement apartment with the basic amenities and clean enough and all that. My host showed me around when I arrived and seemed borderline offended that that I didn’t think to remove my shoes when I came in. “Yes, this is Canada.” she said, as if removing your shoes is baked into the constitution or something, and this f’ing Yankee should know that. Anyhow, she was otherwise pleasant enough and I had a few minutes of downtime to shake of the road before it was back in the truck and into the city.

Montreal traffic can be brutal, but like Toronto, it wasn’t too bad yesterday. I cranked the self-titled The Nils album, as I always try to do when driving in to Montreal, and took it all in. It’s such a beautiful city and so alive with people and diversity and food and culture. I thought to myself, kind of a shame that I’ll only be here for about 5 hours, but that’s road life. The gods shone down on me brightly as I once again landed rock star parking right in front of Barfly on St. Laurent street. I considered for a moment giving the Lou Gehrig speech on the sidewalk: “Today (today today today) I consider myself (myself myself) the luckiest man on the face of the earth (earth earth)” (amirite Carl?) but resisted and went about my business. I loaded in, said hello to my pals Dany and Jeanette, Kearns, and Fross Tee. Great people, all of them, and a big part of why I love it here.

I walked down Saint Laurent and got a Döner sandwich and a side of poutine at Berlin Döner Haus. @TrooperGirl22 and I have a thing for Döner sandwiches now, though we’ve yet to beat the ones we had in Vienna a couple summers back. This was was ok, better than Ireland and about equal to Detroit. The poutine was aces, and I certainly didn’t walk back to Barfly hungry.

Back at the bar a guy walked up to me and said “Hey I need to say hello – I’m Jon Bondhead.” Whoa no way! Jon was in Doughboys back in the day and we’d been in the same room a few times and talked about those shows, Brock, and Buddies Fest. His friend Ani was a delight and they have a band called Nümonia that we all need to check out. It’s always great to hang with the people who’ve been on my record player for decades, and even better that they’re awesome, friendly humans. Life is crazy sometimes.

After the Hangover Golf Tournament team-draft, I went on to a fairly packed and somewhat attentive room, around 9:30. Dany helped me dial in the sound (thanks bud) which was a life-saver, as I was just winging it. There were some younger dudes up front who were way into it and brought a lot of energy into the room, and on their way out one of them fell onto the stage and into the mic and had to be helped up. A couple tunes later, a different group of younger dudes came in and the same thing happened with one of them – twice in one set! I love it. For the second night in a row I was called up for an encore, which is funny and strange and awesome.

After me, Rob Lutes went on and played a great set of some finger-picking blues. We had a good chat – he knows my pal Bill and played the Trinity House Theatre, where I’ve occasionally volunteered and run lights, right by my house. He was great, and a friendly guy. I got caught up with my good pal Dave , said a brief hello to Ilse (sorry we couldn’t hang more!) and James too. So many friends there!

It was tough to get out, with lengthy goodbyes and photos and gear (navigating around the fresh pool of vomit on the curb next to my truck, not mine obvs, but that fella apparently had poutine too). I was finally able to make my exit and drive back to my AirBB. I got a nightcap down, still working on the half-pint of Jameson’s I got In Windsor, and crashed out around 2am, exhausted from the long day and drive and the show.

This morning I had a downright brawl with this piece of shit coffee maker that’s yielded a hell of a mess but no coffee, so I’m a bit grumpy, but determined to get out of here on time to get some caffeine and start heading back towards Detroit. Tonight I wrap up the run in London, Ontario at the Richmond Tavern with my bud Trevor Kostyria who I played with on Thursday. I love London, it’s been a couple years, and I hear there’s a big show across town, so if you’re on the fence, we sure could use ya at the Richmond!

Big thanks to Kearns, Anthony, Rob, Dany, Gwendo Lyn, and everyone who was at Barfly last night! It’s a lot of work to get to Montreal from Detroit, and every year I ask myself if it’s worth it, then the next morning the answer is always “yes.” See ya next year! Xx