October 7, 2013
... call me a foodie... as I eat McDonald's. I did swap out the pop for a mango smoothie though so that's kinda healthy right? Mango's a vegetable. *cough* Although I do feel like I got some sleep... it's funny how much of a difference it makes when you can wake up on your own vs being woken up. Everyone seemed to wake up here around 11am... after getting to bed at 6am... although most got a few hours sleep in the van last night. We got cleaned up, did some laundry, and were out the door for breakfast by 2pm. Yeah that's kinda late for breakfast but we were in denial we drove all night I guess. Another trip to Ricky's. I gotta say, their shredded hash browns are an embarrassment to the potato. Maybe it's just bad luck but I've had them twice in a week and they are terrible. They taste like pasta... chewy... they're the kind that should be crispy. Anyone who knows me, knows I love ketchup. Specifically fries and ketchup. So when I have a chance to enjoy some hash browns and ketchup first thing in the morning... and I get these... it's just terrible shredded disappointment... and an uphill battle all day to regain my baseline level of happiness. Also... if you have 3 different kinds of breakfast potatoes... you have 2 more than you need. Pick the best one, job done. After breakfast, we headed over to the venue (Cowboys) to load in and sound check. The bar is really nice... decent amount of stage to accommodate the bands. Pop Evil let us set up after Papa Roach again so we got to do a bit of a sound check. I honestly don't expect much in the opening slot. Pop Evil is so solid though that they might be indifferent to having a sound check. I've talked to a couple of them and they've been on tour forever. Papa Roach is also running a digital FOH (Front Of House) console so that might help keep some of the settings consistent... and speed up the change over process. Bottom line, it's a big help for us and we're super appreciative! There was only one dressing room which Papa Roach obviously had dibs on. Pop Evil has a bus. So we were wandering around before the show... it was too cold to hang around our van any longer so we eventually just headed in to the venue to wait to go on. I was chatting with a few friends there and it seemed like a few people recognized me which was neat. Just before we were to go on I was looking for everybody else... I found Matt and Tim sitting on the stairs next to the stage. I guess we could hang out in the hallway behind the stage like rock stars... or just... sit on the stairs behind the guitar tech station... drinking... a couple bottles of water. I wish I had a picture of it but in short, that's a 1,000 words of what it's like to be an opening band sometimes... or just a band in general. You want to be "rock star" as much as all the other bands... but you'll occasionally catch yourself doing something that's as rock star as having your mom drop off your lunch for you at school. Our set was decent... a couple new hiccups but again, there are certain things you just have to work out during the set... and you only get one chance a night to work them out. Tim was trying to add in a crowd interaction part at the end of "I Did It For Love" and I think he lost his place... and started going into the next section. It was the classic case of everyone looks at the one guy in the band they assume knows what's going on (in this case, me) and hopefully everyone can hold it together. I did catch a couple guys move onto the next section for a couple notes but then quickly go back to the correct arrangement. Even though we rehearse a lot instrumentally... it's crazy how strong the urge is to follow vocal cues. I even caught myself wanting to move onto the outro but it just didn't make sense were we were in the section. Ah well... stuff happens... gotta have a bit of danger in rock music. Tim covered for it, still sounded like music, and we laughed about it after. Again, hiccup. Oh... and to the guy heckling us about having to move our own gear off stage... well... yeah... I guess we are losers if we have to move our own gear. Have you seen our tour van? lol. We have zero tour support at this point but if he's willing to write a cheque... :-) Crowd response was good again though. Lots of new fans came up to talk to us in the crowd after. Yes we walk around in the crowd after the set... most opening bands should... it's important. Nobody typically knew who you were before the set so they think it's kinda cool you're around to talk to and get pictures and stuff. It's not like you're going to get mobbed or anything... plus I still enjoy watching the sets from out in the crowd. I get shit from people sometimes for sitting down and shows while I watch the bands. They assume I'm not having a good time. I can have a pretty good time sitting down... I've perfected it in some ways. I used to bring my Nintendo DS to shows... I was there to listen to the bands more than watch them. Think about it. Papa Roach was really good tonight again... Jacoby was all through the crowd which was cool. Canada is pretty tame so you can do that without risk. Oh... I think some Montreal Canadians players were at the show as well... I just checked and they're playing in Calgary on Wednesday. I'd heard talk earlier PK Subban was there so the story kinda adds up. They were pretty tall... I know I'm not that tall but they were pretty damn tall. After Papa Roach's set we hung out around merch a while longer, took some pics, signed some cds, then packed up, headed out, stopped by McDonald's, and now I'm sitting at Tim's watching Conan. We're off to Edmonton tomorrow... Union Hall... apparently there's a 4th band on the bill and I'm curious how that's going to work since that stage is small and that place isn't huge. The setup is neat since the club/bar wraps around the stage area... but it's a bit of a logistics nightmare for moving gear around... we'll see how it goes... it'll still be good times I'm sure. - Mike P.S. No shortage of tits in Calgary... always a party... good times. :-)
1 Comment
Oliier
10/8/2013 04:51:38 am
Remember. Sign your cd's with M♥ke.
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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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