... I think it's a full moon today... get ready for fun! February 23, 2016 - 2:07am ... super tired but just realized I've been awake (minus a couple cat naps in the van) since 5:30am. It was a 7hr drive to Moose Jaw, plus a time zone change, so we rolled in a little late around 3:30pm. ... I'll spare everyone the details but... if you're on tour, once you hit half a tank, take a few seconds to see when the next gas station is. There are times in Canada when it's 100+km's between gas stations... happens often around here... and northern Ontario is even worse. ... we didn't run out of gas, but had we of missed our chance today... it could made the day a whole lot more interesting... and probably cranky... and gotten us yelled at once we arrived. ... seriously though... don't run out of gas. Nobody will feel sorry for you. There are gas stations all over the place. No excuses. Side note.. our GPS needs to be updated badly. The amount of times it's dumped us either in the middle of nowhere or we've been driving in the middle of nowhere since there were no roads there since last update. The amount of times we're all checking GoogleMaps on our phones and the GPS thinks everything is ok... seriously... update your damn GPS's. ... I think I'm done for a bit... ranting... van rants. So the first place we arrived in Moose Jaw, according to the GPS was a smaller looking community centre... but it still looked like it could possibly be the place... but we couldn't find the buses. ... after checking our iPhones, we realized the location was actually down the street... hockey arena... there we go! Mosaic Place... looks like what we were... looking for. Walking in, I noticed the venue seemed a bit smaller than the others... it's still very much an arena (it's an arena!) but it reminded me more of my hometown... I think it was probably still 2,000 people in there and it felt full... mind you, the Disturbed merch table is always busy and I see so many of their shirts in the front row, so there are other factors than just tickets sales to determine where it makes sense to play... especially considering the size and quality of the production they've brought to their fans. #DearBands, gauge the dedication of your fans by your merch sales. If you play for 2,000 people and you're selling shirts for $50... do some math... if by chance you sold a shirt to everyone in there, that's $100k... half, $50k... quarter, $25k. Same with album pre-sales... ... the numbers stay pretty healthy... and this can be a real thing if you're a headliner on a large tour. ... I'm so tired. It just hit me. So highlights... Our dressing room was a hockey arena dressing room... I'm totally used to/ok with it but the other guys had an... adjustment period. ... play a few arenas and all of a sudden everyone gets soft! ... nothing a candle and some air flow can't fix. ... if anything it reminded me I have playoffs coming up... I miss you men's league hockey. *tear* Since we were there kinda late, I looked for a day sheet after loading in... had about 45 minutes to shave, shower, and I might as well have my stage clothes on... time flies... and we're on in 3 hrs... really not that long of a period. We missed lunch catering so we took some of the snacks... dinner started at 5 and ends at 7 so we decided grab a few things and take them back to the dressing room... have food waiting when we get off stage... RIch (Saint Asonia) came in to say hi and hang out... then he ate Reid's dinner. ... he didn't know it was Reid's dinner... just that Reid hadn't eaten yet and Seb and I grabbed a few extra takeout containers while people were getting cleaned up. We went on at 7pm which is pretty early so it was maybe 1/3 full... by the time our set ended it was back to normal. 3/4 full (packed by the time Saint Asonia started). Response was great too! I wish we could sell cd's at $20 but we have to match the headliner so it's $25.... I think there's a big difference between the two... also factoring in Disturbed is a US band and our $CND is pretty low these days... plus taxes and all the percentages that come off the sale... $25 makes sense... just hard to pass that cost along to the fans. Our set was good... I'll brush over our technical difficulties but understand most often, the audience doesn't know there's a problem unless you make faces like you're having a problem. We had a pretty good size problem going on tonight, but we played through it... it's fine... control the flames and smile. We're only on stage for 30 minutes anyway... and it goes by really fast. You can have all the backup plans in the world... but Murphy just laughs and decides which band member to toy with next. ... this is why I love it when people say their monitor mix was different than during soundcheck. You know why? ... because audio does that... I swear it just does that. You can have something dialed in... 60 minutes later... not the case. ... just the way she goes... roll with it. Adam gave us a pretty cool shoutout during the Saint Asonia set... a couple guys have bumped into him today around the building... I guess him and the guys had a lot of fun the other night. Awesome... just (sorta) glad they didn't see the downward spiral that was our hosting abilities. "Never again..," groans 2/5 of the band. So tired right now. So the smaller venue made Disturbed's pyro/light show even more awesome. It was a special night I think because people in seats were so much closer to the stage. The pyro was really awesome though... it throws off so much heat... good times. I love playing hockey arenas... and it sorta sunk in today the tour is ending soon. It's easy to say "let's get another one!" but this has been a special opportunity... heading out with a band with fantastic production value who've been away for several years... we're all very thankful opportunity knocked and we answered. It was an ok show for us but I'm glad it was the 2nd last show... we'll bring it tomorrow... we have wiggle room... long drive home either way. We headed to Regina after to drop Seb off at the airport. He doesn't have his P2 visa so he can't cross the border with us. Of course he could sneak over and meet us but let's not do that... it's not worth it. ... one last trip to McDonald's with him for good measure. It was great having Seb along though... extra hands, extra driver, attention to detail at FOH (Front of house / sound guy)... good times. Thanks Seb! Safe trip home and hopefully we can do it again sometime! :-) We're at the hotel now though.... soooooo tired. Breakfast is at 6am, pool opens at 9am... and we have a 7 hr drive to Bismark. ... should go fast. ... it'll be 8pm on Wednesday soon enough. - Mike :-) P.S. I ran out of data today and couldn't find the Wifi password at the venue... reason I wasn't posting pics... got my data back though! And Wifi tonight!
... delicious Wifi. *tear* P.P.S. A new fan came by and told me I killed it on guitar tonight... I told him I'm the drummer... but I'd pass the word along to Reid that I killed it on guitar tonight.
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Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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