Mix Live Blog : Packing for the Sub-Zero Tour

New York, NY (February 6, 2026)—Last Friday, I had a one-off with Blue Öyster Cult at Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario, about 134 kilometers—oops, sorry—about 83 miles NNE of Toronto. Somehow, we made it there and back without a major travel mishap, though one of my crew guys had a nasty flight-delay-adventure home the next day.

For the past two weeks, we here on the East Coast have been experiencing a wicked cold spell that started with some serious snow in late January (10 to 12 inches in my area); the side streets are still not entirely cleared. Thousands of flights were canceled in and out of the NYC Metro area that weekend, and in fact, much to my astonishment, LaGuardia was actually closed down that Sunday night, reopening on Monday morning. I don’t ever recall that happening in my lifetime. If I had gone to NAMM, I might still be trying to get home.

Fast-forward two weeks and today, the temperature warmed up to a balmy 35 degrees, but last Friday, when I left for the airport to go to Canada, the temperature was in the low single-digits. Waiting curbside at JFK Terminal 4 for our cartage company to drop off our gear was especially wonderful (insert sarcasm emoji; wait a minute, can sarcasm be represented on a tiny face?); luckily, it wasn’t too windy, but when that breeze did blow…Yikes. Icicles on the eyebrows!

Gigging in the Tundra is not my strong suit. I can barely remember the good ol’ days when my friends and I wore little more than leather motorcycle jackets én route to banging our heads at L’Amour on a Saturday night in January—and some of the ladies wore considerably less than that!! Ah…youth.

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As I get older and less resistant to the cold, I’m getting better at suiting up. This time out, it was a long-sleeve pullover, a long-sleeve fleece over that, a fleece vest over that, and then my outer winter coat. Hat and hood, thermal socks and boots that, much to my surprise, kept my feet warm. And a gas-powered turbo heater in my pocket just for good measure (insert just-kidding emoji). But having one of those battery-powered hand warmers is starting to look like a good idea.

All this to barely keep from freezing!

And if I thought it was cold in New York last weekend, well, Ontario had us beat by more than a few degrees. On that Saturday morning, I woke up to -5F on my iPhone screen.

It reminded me of a story a friend once told me, from when he was on a major tour back in the 1990s. They went through a Canada leg in January, and the tour buses ran their diesel engines all night, even while parked. I thought he was exaggerating. Turns out he wasn’t. If you shut those diesel engines down in sub-zero temps, there is a good chance you won’t get them restarted until the spring thaw. (Editorial aside: Since then, this practice has been deemed extremely unfriendly to the environment [insert sad-face emoji] and is not so popular a thing to do these days.)

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Once inside the venue, all was well and I could actually remove my outer coat, though going anywhere near the loading dock was akin to searching for a side of beef in a walk-in freezer. You can’t really blame the venue for that.

It was comfortable onstage, as well as in the dressing rooms and production office. The show? Ah, well, the folks at Casino Rama have just installed a beautiful brand-spankin’-new P.A. system. Stay tuned for the details…