TEN TIMES I RAN INTO CEREMONY IN 2012

Hey, every band person on earth it seems like this year is doing a top ten, and since I only listened to about 4 new records in 2012, I thought I would present you with the (top) ten times I ran into the band Ceremony in 2012.  Ceremony is a band we have been running into for years.  In 2005 when we were touring the squats of Europe, we ran into them in our sleeping chambers behind the venue in Hamburg, because they were on a long drive and were crashing there for the night, because that is how touring the squats of Europe works.  In 2006 when we were waiting for the guy from AFI to come eat Fat Slice with us in Berkeley after we played the Gilman (with Ceremony [I think]), we ran into Ceremony and then followed them and the guy from AFI to his house, where we were hoping to spend the night, until he texted us from one car in front at 2am and told us he was "too tired" to have us over, so we should find some place else to stay.  When we were hanging out with Sex Vid (remember them?) in 2007 in Seattle and they had just made "Geremony" shirts or something, we didn't run into Ceremony, which was probably a good thing.  Anyways, 2012 was a good year for running into Ceremony, because while Fucked Up didn't play that many shows, Ceremony did, and they were everywhere we were, and also every place else:

TOP TIMES I WHATEVER, YOU GET THE DRILL:

1) Nov 27 Toronto, Lee's Palace
In late November, I was just returning from a short trip to Europe, capped off by about a week in Istanbul partying like a German minimalist.  In order to curb the effects of jet-lag, I spend most of my first week home partying like another kind of German, and found myself Ceremonies (sp) merch table a few hours before the show.  We went out for a nice dinner at Fresh, which is where you go in Toronto if you are entertaining fancy vegans, or need to detoxify yourself, or both.  I spent the rest of the night behind the merch table with Stefan and entertained dozens of prospective merch diggers, half of which seemed to be Long Winter Interns, the most precious of whom asked me if a) they could friend me on facebook (yes) and b) if I was rich (yes).

2) Sept 4 Berkeley, Some Venue
In september we did a short west coast tour with Ceremony, which is why this can be a top-ten list at all, and not just a collection of times I saw Ceremony, which is what most people are probably capable of putting together this year (except Robby).  Because the tour consisted of like 7 or 8 shows, we made sure there were like 4 days off. On the 4th me and Jonah and Josh met our some friends for a delectable meal at Sons and Daughters in San Fransisco after spending the day doing laps in a public pool in Oakland.  Afterwards we went back over the bridge to see American Nightmare, with Ceremony opening. It was at some huge warehouse and me and Jonah spent most of our time there outside in the smoking area waiting for Josh to be done moshing, but we were there and so was Ceremony so it counts.

3) June 6, Toronto, Wrong Bar
Along with 500 other festivals, NXNE in Toronto was one of the festivals Fucked Up didn't play in 2012. But Ceremony did.  The day before this show, Ceremony played with The Flaming Lips, a show I did not attend, but will include on this list as number 10 if I need it later.  I did however go to their show at Wrong Bar, which apparently also featured Killer Mike and Death Grips.  In May and June I was in the middle of doing nothing, because Dorian was about to be born, so everyone in FU was chilling hard and gearing up for Orion Fest.  All I remember about this show was the bartender giving us free shots, and me spilling mine all over the bar and becoming really embarrassed, sitting behind the Ceremony merch table and trying not to spill anything on it.  Earlier that night Andy and Stefan (from Ceremony) and Jonah and I had a lovely dinner at Enoteca Social, where they told us tales from the road, including the time they (or the band Hoax) got fined (or something) by Warsaw, a venue in Brooklyn, for being (partly?) responsible for destroying a (giant) American Flag during (Brooklyns) North Side Festival.

4) November 4, Austin, Red 7
On November 3rd, Fucked Up played a show in Tokyo, and by the afternoon of the 4th, we were hanging out with our buds in Ceremony in Austin Texas, which if you will recall, is quite far away from Tokyo.  You can imagine how psychically blasted we were from being turned over time-wise twice in less than a week, and can then (probably) only imagine how much partying we had to accomplish in one day to avoid weeks of potential jet-lag once we got back to Toronto the next day.  I (now) fondly remember my few days in Tokyo this trip (our 2nd 3 day trip to Japan of the season [summer/fall {which I know counts as two season here, but things are different in Japan}]) which was highlighted by: a) discovering Instagram; b) instagramming hundreds of pictures of fish; c) coining the term "Instagramen" at a ramen restaurant in Shibuya (by myself); and d) staying at a hotel filled exclusively with tall, lanky Swedish(-ish) models.  Anyways, I wasn't able to actually watch the Ceremony set at Fun Fun Fun, but I did spend most of the night sitting behind their merch table having my photo taken by people for their instagrams.

5) September 6, Portland, Doc Martens Store
By the 6th, we'd been on a little west coast tour with Ceremony for almost a week.  I think at this point they'd already lost their van, which was being driven across the country towards Toronto, where they would fly at meet it the next day to start their tour with Bloc Party, or something.  Maybe they took the bus to Portland from where every we were the day before? Anyhow, when we got to the store they were sitting on the curb, because I think they missed us.  After the show we all got free shoes and ate huge handfuls of M and Ms from our rider and talked about how important it is to be musicians.

6) September 11, Toronto, Danforth Music Hall
I hadn't seen the boys from Ceremony in a while, so the day after I got home from tour I went out east to see Ceremony, which was fine because I hadn't done any exercise in a few weeks and it was a really long bike ride to get there.  I wasn't actually able to catch the Ceremony set because of how long it took me to get out there, but I caught them outside mingling with some Bloc Party vans, so we went to Licks and had dinner.

7) September 3, Los Angeles, FYF Fest
It's always fun to play FYF, except for the time when we re-arranged a US tour around playing it that meant we had to get from New York to LA in 5 days while also playing in Richmond, Austin, New Orleans and maybe even somewhere in Florida, and then the fest got cancelled a week before we left but still had to do all those crazy drives. ANYWAYS.  This time we went to Mexico City for a few days before the fest and played a showed there and hung out.  I think Ceremony must have played FYF the day before we got there, because I don't remember catching their set. 

10) September 5, San Fransisco, Slims
We all played Slims together and it was my turn to do merch and we had a fancy dinner the night before so I spent the whole show next to the stage and watched the Ceremony set and it was great the end.  CERRYMONY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE.