From Mitchell Lee:

As a band on tour, we’ve probably had to enter and exit Canada about 5 times.  After all those times, we’re still not 100% sure what we have to do in order to not get sodomized by Canadian and U.S. customs agents with a baseball bat wrapped in nails and barbed wire. If you ever manage, tour manage, or play in a band and you’re trying to get into Canada without post traumatic stress disorder or dismemberment, here’s what I can tell you:

1) Everybody on the tour needs a U.S. passport or enhanced driver’s license.  New York State offers enhanced driver’s licenses for getting into Canada but I’m not sure about any other states.

2) If anybody on the tour has had any previous convictions, i.e. DWI, shoplifting, etc., you’re probably best off leaving that person behind in the states.  If you try to cross, Canadian customs agents will hold up your whole party to do a background check on anybody that has had any previous run-ins with the law.  I’ve heard of a band having to wait for 5 hours at the border while customs agents did a background check on a crew member.  Apparently he got arrested for getting into a drunken fight years ago.  Even after agents do a background check on a dude, they may refuse him entry into their country anyway.

3) Dump all the drugs.  This isn’t a problem for our band but it’s still a pretty interesting topic since there are plenty of other bands and people in this industry that dabble in the Devil’s lettuce or that frosty white snow.  I once heard a story where customs agents found a very tiny amount of weed on a band’s bus at a border crossing.  Every person on that bus was stripped searched including a female member of the crew.  Apparently customs agents conduct cavity searches since drug smugglers (both male and female) are known to stash goods in various “private part” orifices.

4) Create an inventory of all the merch you plan to bring and sell in Canada.  Include descriptions, quantities, sizes for clothing, and the value of all goods.  I’ve heard that the magic number is $400.  If you bring more than $400 in merch, you’ll have to pay the Canadian government a small amount in import taxes.  Roughly 6% maybe?  Don’t bring a ton of merch across and claim that it’s all “free promo goods.”  Canadians aren’t stupid.

Another option is to ship merch to yourself across the border from the US.  That way, UPS, FedEX, or whatever parcel service you use will have to deal with the Canadian government instead of you.

Another option is to have your merch printed or pressed in Canada and then shipped to the Canadian venue.  I believe Thrice did this on our tour in Toronto.

5) Don’t ever go through a “Commercial” border crossing. Ever! You’re just asking for customs agents to place your junk in a vice grip.

6) If you go through a “Commercial” border crossing, create a manifest or bill of laden for every piece of gear you have and declare it as you enter Canada.  Let’ s say you have 6 guitars, each worth about $1,500.  That’s $9,000 of retail goods that you’re bringing into and out of a foreign country.  As you try to re-enter the states, U.S. customs agents will assume you bought these guitars in Canada and that you’re now trying to smuggle them back into the U.S., duty free, to resell them.  Not to mention you’d also be smuggling all of your, amps, drums, pedals, mics, etc.  This happened to us after a show in Vancouver on our North American tour with Biffy Clyro.  We were stuck driving around in circles at the border for over 4 hours. We had to face dozens of different customs agents and explain the same story over and over while going through a handful of different check points.  After paying fees and having our van and trailer X-rayed, we were finally allowed to cross.  We technically weren’t allowed to re-enter the U.S. because we had no manifest, bill of laden, or broker.  Since it was a Saturday and all the brokers were closed for the weekend, customs agents let us go with just a warning. We made it to our show in Seattle that night but not after a little ass pounding.

Other than that, playing Canada is great!  The country is not as cheap as it used to be since the US dollar blows chunks now but Montreal and Toronto are awesome cities.  We ate poutine, pho, and hung out with our buddies in Moneen.  Kenny even came out on stage and sang/played on The Cascade.