I just spent the last hour on a very enjoyable conference call with Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler and Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood, discussing their shared joy of touring together (they’ll be at the Showbox November 20-21), both before and after the election.The boys are in Ontario, Canada tonight, and one point they brought up surrounding that was particularly interesting: border crossings between U.S. and Canada are apparently infinitely easier since the election. “It’s a dramatic, dramatic difference,” emphasized Patterson. “It usually takes us as much as five hours to get through and they’ve always given us a hard time. This time they were downright neighborly!” Both men were certain that there was a correlation between as easing of passage and the impending departure of one Mr. Bush from power. Touring has been particularly hard on bands in ’08, but perhaps between this trend and decreasing gas prices, there’s some relief in sight.