February 25, 2016 - 3:37am ... I took 267 pictures today. It never feels like I take that many since there's always stuff I see where I think "I should take a picture of that!?"... but it's usually something stupid... or just feels like overkill after a while. Looking back over everything from today though... it helps jog my memory. Sometimes it's better to just document everything and sort though it later. I'm pretty tired... it's almost 3am and we're aiming to head out on the road for 6:30am. We're all hanging out in the hotel lobby except Matt, who's sleeping... we're doing our best to not disturb him since he's Age Of Days #1 driver. Tim is flying back to Calgary in a few hours and the rest of us are driving back to Toronto... 20 hr drive I think... if all goes well we'll miss some snowstorms that are rolling through the area. So... lots of time to kill this morning... Matt and I went for breakfast around 9am. Part of me wanted to hit up the pool but I had visions of not being able to use my body properly after... I was a combination of sore and relaxed after swimming yesterday... I really enjoyed it but didn't want to push my luck... so my focus was to go for a walk for exercise. Dan's is food... in case you were wondering... it's a grocery store. Captain Jack's is a liquor store. Menard's is like Home Depot (I think, didn't go in). ... and CVS is shoppers drug mart. When I'm out doing band stuff/tour, I do the black nail polish thing... something I've done since I was 16, so... half my life. It's a conversation starter and photographs well.. matches my stage clothes. *cough* So I haven't been able to find my nail polish since like, 3 days into the trip... probably left it at a hotel or venue so I've been borrowing Reid's... until we lost that too. I'm using the word "we" because I remember putting it near his stuff in the "D R" (dressing room) but who knows what happened after that. It's often a shit show when we're packing up to head out of a venue... so it was probably left behind. ... goal this morning... find nail polish. CVS being just like Shopper's Drug Mart back in Canada... the adventure to find nail polish was pretty straight forward... $4.99... done. There was so much candy there... and sorta cheap... I paced in the aisle for long time... long enough for someone to ask me if I needed help... I was killing time but also trying to decide if it was worth my precious american dollars. ... I only have $9,775 left. ... joking. I'm so tired. I passed a Golden Corral on the way back to the hotel... there's a plan to stop at one on the drive home... when our "diet no longer matters post tour". I have a feeling it won't happen since we won't see one on the way home... because we've been parked next to one the past 36 hrs... just the way things work. We got to the venue around 1:30pm. It's a basketball arena.... I think. We went a little earlier since Reid was helping tech guitars for Saint Asonia. Their's had to fly out early. Reid seemed pretty stoked to get the opportunity...the kid has energy, knows what he's doing, and I'm sure has been dying to poke around Musok's rig... I know I have. ... It was a bittersweet day... we've all discussed it a few times... brushed over the topic at least that today is the last show of this run... ... will we get pranked? ... will we get any shoutouts from Saint Asonia or Disturbed? ... will we end on a high note? ... will we have Wifi? We loaded in and set up back stage... spent most of our time in our dressing room to be honest... well except Reid since he was busy with fancy guitar tech stuff... but we just hung out... casually bringing up often how great things have been the last couple weeks... and how long until we're back to our "normal lives". ... the thing, even though half of us work in music full time, I'm sure we'd all like this to be our "normal life". Playing in a band/touring has it's pros and cons... and financially it's a commitment... but the experiences you get from the highs and lessons you learn about yourself from the lows... priceless. I popped the question... tour highlights? Tim's was every show where we ask the crowd to take a picture... the roar... the participation... the positive energy. We've all played shows to nobody... we've all played shows where nobody claps. That's not the case on this tour... or any of the past few really... it's surreal at times though. Highlight for me was still that guy in the stands who waved off security, saying he was ok... and he was obviously not ok as he went on to barf all over himself and the 2 rows of seats in front of him. That was awesome. That guy was awesome. ... so tired. We went down to the stage for 7:15pm... just in case Detroit (production manager) wanted is to go on 5 mins early again. Pre-show ritual and then that last walk down another vacant venue hallway. Detroit came up to us all smiles... said it was a pleasure having us along and grabbed a quick pic with us. It meant a lot and it felt sincere. I imagine there's a fair amount of bands that screw things up... ask for too much, don't do enough... get in the way... that was the biggest part of our first day... just trying to find the flow of the crew and not get in the way. A few people made comments that they barely saw us... just heard us on stage... more or less that was it. Perfect. Response has been great from (new) fans as well... the amount of people that have stopped us around the venue after we've played. I really hope we can line up some pending tour opportunities summer/fall. It feels like there's momentum again. ... a few more crew came up to us pre-show to somewhat say their goodbyes... Corey... Scotty... I actually helped Scotty patch in the mics for my kit today... he didn't seem surprised or anything, more appreciative that I took the initiative to help him and move things along. it's not hard plugging cables in... it's all labeled and colour coded. ... 7:29pm... 1 minute to show time. Go house lights. Go intro music. ... I was nervous so I brought my practice sticks on stage... just incase mine were... missing. #pranks ... you just never know what might happen. We hear our intro music fire up... it's game time... we walk on stage. ... then it switches to (I think) Ace Of Base - Beautiful Life in our monitors... thanks guys. *tear* (It's a good thing... and it put us at ease... they're leaving the van alone!) ... now we were sorta wondering when to start since we couldn't hear the intro... they cut it off just before the end and the show went along as usual... blur. As you know by now, we have a spot where I can take a pic of the crowd... I was back and forth about it all day but... the one thing about being behind the camera all the time is it's tough to get in front of the camera. I see photographers at the front of the stage most shows and they snap a few pics of me... but I haven't seen any yet. I think there's 1 pic of me so far on stage... so I thought maybe there'd be time to try and go for a selfie... as lame as I'd feel doing for it... there are moments you want to capture... what would make me feel worse... taking a stage selfie in front of 2,500 people? Or wishing I had'f got one with the crowd behind me. During the 2nd guitar change, I went for it. "HE'S TAKING A SELFIE!!!", I heard from the crowd. I laughed... I was going to enjoy the moment... it's been a blast... and in a way, as much as we're getting paid to entertain, tonight was more for us. We were having fun. Being in a band can really suck... tons of lows... but tonight was one of those payoffs. We really were up on stage having fun for 30 minutes... for us... as a band. Tim chimed in while struttin' across the stage with something along the lines of "hey man... fuck that selfie shit, live in the moment!!"... the crowed cheered... I laughed. ... I figure he had no idea what was going on behind him and I'd give him the gears for it after... throwin' me under the bus WHEN I know the first thing I'll see on my phone after the show is "hey man, can you send me the crowd pic?" Tim... I'm probably standing beside you... you don't have to text me... and basically I'm sending you a pic of you (selfie) in front of the crowd... that I took while still playing drums... you're reading this and probably laughing because you know I'm right! :-) It was worth it though... and amazing as the pic turned out *cough*, I think it's perfect. Reid ended up jumping off of my kick drum today... he brought it up the other day... I said "rental drums" and that was that I guess. ... I tossed a few sticks into the crowd after we finished too... and our gear was off stage 2 minutes later. ... it's that quick... it's over. ... pack up... ask catering to stay open for another 30 minutes so we can load the trailer and eat. ... we always miss most of Saint Asonia because we're packing/eating but I try and catch King Of Nothing if I can... love that tune. Watched most of Disturbed in between band duties... wanted to bask in the warmth of the pyro and "wall of fire" one more time.... for now at least. This really has felt like a tour of bands who enjoy playing together... sometimes it takes a while to find that feeling again... as lame as that sounds... it's the reason I stopped years ago... but I really enjoy playing with Age Of Days... it's fun... we have good songs... and I feel we're all pushing in the same direction. We'd sniffed around to see if we could grab a photo with Disturbed... and post (their) set we got the word. Seeing them around the venue is one thing but they were open arms and smiles when we went into their dressing room. I ended up beside Draiman in the huddle... he put his arm around my shoulder and pointed at the camera... I threw mid level horns with my right hand and didn't know what to do with my left. I wasn't about to put my arm around him... didn't feel we were there yet. They were really nice to us though... cool guys... I think the crew liked us too... people talk I'm sure. It was great to get a pic with them though... more for us really... like I'm sure it'll get shared on social media and people might think that's the motivation... but even though "you were there", it's nice to have a picture... with smiles. We responsibly partied in our dressing room for a couple hours after... veggie/fruit trays weren't going to eat themselves and I was determined to make a dent in our cheese/cracker tray. ... I'll leave it at that... it's just after 4am now and I think I might be getting my 3rd wind. I should lay down for at least an hour (already showered) but I'd like to thank everyone for the words of encouragement and motivation to keep this tour blog going. These are long days and late nights... and while I'm still relatively young, I wouldn't have it any other way. Sidenote... I did bring a rig to do an audio/video blog/podcast... maybe next time... Long drive back tomorrow... we'll see how close we get to our 6:30am departure. - Mike :-) P.S. Rock ain't dead. ;-)
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February 23, 2016 - 11:19pm ... good ol' travel day. Started out with breakfast and then a trip to the pool/hot tub. I brought swim shorts with me (for once) and I was determined to make use of them. We had a little bit of time while people were showering and whatnot anyway. ... I use the term "we" because I went with Dane. Dane saw the waterslide. ... I was afraid of the sadness I'd witness if/when I broke the news the waterslide wasn't "open" til 4pm. Dane was in luck though... a couple little kids (under 12) asked the front desk to turn it on so they could use it. ... you have to turn on the water (inside the slide) so you can actually slide down it... else it'd probably feel like getting a massage in a wetsuit from someone wearing rubber gloves... dry... let that sink in. ... so Dane stopped trying to crawl up the slide, used the stairs,, went down... and I thought we was going to kill himself. This water slide (and pool) is designed for young children... not 6' adults. ... the little kids took over the waterslide soon after. ... then we tried the hot tub. I immediately started coughing... my eyes burned... there wasn't enough hot tub in this chlorine. I stuck it out for a couple minutes but decided to pull the chute... this felt like the kind of hot tub Jack Kevorkian would recommend to patients... but I still plan on living a while. ... back to the pool. ... the pool was only 4 ft deep... it's awkward to try and swim in 4ft of water... anyway... on paper... swimming and hot tub today. Most of the day was driving to Bismarck... last show of this run tomorrow. *tear* Quick stop at L&M to swap out Reid's guitar amp... we were having problems the other night... then I realized I'd forgotten my pillow at the hotel. (Noooo!!!!!) ... laugh all you want but I wanted... needed my pillow back. The thought didn't even cross my mind that it was gone... I had to suck it up and ask Matt to turn around to see if I could get it back.... only 10 minutes away. ... I'd made peace with having to possibly take it out of the garbage... no joke. They'd already turned down/cleaned the room by the time I got there but luckily the staff put it off to the side... there was a shelf of stuff people have forgotten. I said "don't laugh" when the woman from the front desk who helped me find it handed it to me. "Comforts from home on a long trip?" "Yeah..." I don't sleep a ton but I also have trouble getting comfortable... the pillow I have is the perfect pillow for me... it slightly tips the odds of "hotel bed roulette" in my favour. I'd say everyone has things like that though... you don't notice it until you've had it taken away... ... just noticed how much I'm dedicating to this pillow. So border crossing went well again... wasn't busy at all but they did ask to open up the trailer. First time in 5 years I've been going across... seems like the guard just wanted to have a quick look... again... slow day... perhaps just finding some work to do. Again, when you have visas, I think they know you've gone through the hoops so it's your choice to roll the dice and screw it up. We stopped in Minot for lunch... Denny's... I needed a salad. ... McDonald's last night kicked my ass... too much clown on this trip... I felt awful after... still tasted good but finally had enough. ... I'm used to eating oatmeal and salads... chicken... KD... eggs... but all this late night Ron's has taken its toll. I feel like ass. So it was salad time and avocado club sandwich... and fries... fries are still good. Tim got some double cheeseburger monstrosity which looked awesome... but in reality just laughed at you with it's two giant beefy patties as you try to consume it. ... sorry Tim, but you're going to pay for that one. ... 3-4 hrs to Bismarck... sun went down and we went through an area with a ton of wind turbines (I think that's what they're called)... seemed like a couple hundred... pretty cool... started thinking about how much they cost to build and how much power they generate. Arrived at our hotel 158km and one U-turn later. ... they have a pool and hot tub... open til midnight. ... yes!!! We hit that up... band bonding experience. *tear* ... realized... 2 different pools, 2 different hot tubs, in 2 different countries in the same day. #ballin ... on paper at least. There was a couple there with their 18 month old kid who was running around and somewhat learning to swim... the father introduced us by asking him to give us high fives and hugs... Age Of Days huggin' babies in swimmin' pools... so rock and roll. ... so not rock at all... but I wanted you to hear it here first incase photos or rumours start circulating. :-| Good times though... it was nice being in a hotel at a reasonable hour and I'll get to bed before 1am. ... I'm looking out the window at signs for Wendy's, Taco Bell, Applebee's... Dan's... I'm just going to pretend Dan's is food... I'm hungry but it's fast food hunger... when you can just eat for taste... terrible habit. ... I want a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's. Bed time for me... we'll see if we get pranked tomorrow. I won't be offended if we don't... but just hope they leave the van/trailer alone... it's a rental... and we're almost done with it. - Mike :-) ... 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. February 21, 2016 - 11:27am ... I woke up... I woke up feeling pretty good. The other guys... not so much. Despite going to bed around 3:30am... kinda tipsy... I woke up around 6:30am feeling good but didn't get out of bed til closer to 9am. I knew a) nobody else is going for breakfast with me this early and b) I'm going to regret not getting at least a couple more hours sleep today. The plan is to drive back to Calgary and have a relaxing day... but we know how plans go. I shaved, showered, and went downstairs to find breakfast. Dane was up too. We discovered breakfast buffet was $25. ... $25!? The thing is I know the breakfast was awesome, but when you're trying budget on your per diem... that wipes out your daily allowance in one meal... so it's a no go. We went back to the room... or should I say, infirmary, to spread the news. ... we are a hurtin' unit today. I'm grateful we didn't have to play today... aside from Dane (who can drink the most) and myself (who drinks the least or "responsibly"), the Ages camp is a mess. I was right... 4/6. Reid has the ultimo hangover headache... Seb is accepting his fate atop the porcelain judge and jury... Tim is in denial, thinking he's just hungry... and Matt can't even... Matt just can't even. I'm sorta glad it happened this way though... we know our limits now... I hope... I really hope. Everyone wants bagels. Dane and I go on a bagel mission to Tim Horton's, enjoy a nice walk in the sun... nice Sunday morning stroll... return to the infirmary... it's just sad... just a sad, sad, room. I honestly feel bad for the guys because I can't relate. I don't really drink and I haven't really been drunk enough for a hangover... seriously. I decided to go wander around the mall area that had the Tim Horton's to kill some time. ... we aren't going anywhere. 10am checkout? Good luck! I asked to have it changed to 2pm... I thought about jokingly asking for 7pm when the guy asked what time... didn't want to push my luck though... we needed every hour we could get. I wondered around Winners... I bought a bunch of new clothes before I left and thought I'd try my luck again. ... my sick sense of humour also thought it was awesome I went playing tourist and shopping while everyone else was rolling around in their own stew of vomit fumes, regret, and toasted bagels. I'm sorry guys... but it was a beautiful day out. Tim and I eventually find the Ricky's and get breakfast... reasonably affordable breakfast.... $9... more like it. I have no idea where our van/trailer is... all I know is we had parking til 10am.... it's now 1:15pm. I'm hoping we just get a ticket... and praying nobody cut the lock. As fun as things were last night... trying to park the van/trailer downtown during a show with like 6,000+ people attending... kinda tricky. ... to yesterday for a minute... after re-reading drunk blog... I was more coherent than I thought I was. The party though... it was such a loud blur... fun blur... and I'm glad the Saint Asonia guys came down... they said they would when we invited them so it was cool they actually did... then again I would've totally omitted this if we asked them and they didn't... it was nice hanging out. I got a chance to chat and listen to some stories... cool guys... and they are a band. If you don't know what I mean by that, all good. There were a lot of people at that show though... I think that's maybe why I felt off... I usually don't look out too long but I did backstage... it's awesome they sing along and stuff... the set is only 30 minutes but we're really starting to rip through it. It's a lot of fun! We left the hotel around 2:30pm... Tim pulled up with the van and I was at ease the trailer... ... but we still needed to fix our lights. Not sure I mentioned but the plug must've wiggled out on the highway and ground itself down to bare wires. Our plan was to head back to Calgary asap and fix the lights tonight... while in day light. We made a McD's stop and rolled into a Canadian Tire parking lot at 6:15pm. ... it's amazing how many different possible plugs we could get... I'm just glad we didn't need to do any soldering or anything... just shove the cables in, clamp, done! Van lights fixed by 7pm... most of the time was spent looking for the darn plug! The guy at Crappy Tire was helping but this seemed outside his zone. Back to Tim's by 8pm and it's been laundry, pizza, and movies the remainder of the evening. I wanted this done earlier so I'd be asleep by now but I had some catching up to do, not having internet over night. ... the internet is an important thing when you run your own business. 6-7hr drive to Moose Jaw tomorrow... hopefully the guys are feeling better. They started to come around mid-day... except Dane... he got worse... you can only run from the hangover so long I guess. ... 2 more shows left. Mike :-) P.S. Sadly didn't get to go swimming today... running out of time!
... swim time!!! P.P.S. I need sleep... can't re-read tonight.... sorry if this doesn't make any sense or full of errors and typos. February 21, 2016 - 3:22am … this is going to be short… since tonight got a little rockstar. … we were asked (and agreed) to host an after party at Knoxville’s tonight. It’s sort of a dance/country bar… average age early 20’s. … we played at 7:30pm and around 10:30pm a limo stopped by the loading dock to pick us up. … most of Saint Asonia came to join us even though they had a 12am bus call. … things went from 0 to 60 pretty fast… I think it’s safe to say everyone is wrecked right now. … anybody who knows me knows I rarely drink… I think I had 4 shots in 15 minutes then nursed a couple jack and cokes to keep hydrated. … so hungry. … I don’t have internet so I’m not sure when I can post this… I think Matt has the envelope the room key came in… so it’s probably on there… but he’s passed out…. and I’m not about to dig through his pockets to find it… we aren’t there yet. … I’m somewhat together… it was a pretty fun night though… we”ll see how I feel in the morning. … I would do a lot for pizza right now. … pool opens at 6am… that might be a thing. … so the show tonight… I think there was around 3,500 by the time we went on…. doors were at 6pm and we hit the stage at 7:30pm. I played like crap but overall it was a good set. … I don’t know what it was but I just didn’t feel comfortable on my kit… I need to bang around for an hour or two… felt tired too… maybe it was the steak for lunch… or the endless stairs all day at the venue. … super nice venue though... huge room. I had fun today… and it was nice nobody bothered me at the bar afterwards that I wasn’t having the same kinda fun they consider fun. Dane wore a vest, scarf, top hat, and glasses on stage tonight… that’s commitment. I got his hat back. … and his cell phone… I think. Reid and Seb are off to find food… I think it’s a lost cause though… GoogleMaps couldn’t find anything decent… and breakfast opens in a few hours. We’re all sorta sad there’s only a couple shows left… Moose Jaw and Bismark. … it’s been a really fun tour so far… hopefully we can pull the trigger on a few more runs asap that are in the works. … apparently people appreciate that I keep it real and call it like I see it… bless you truth serum. … I wish they ordered us pizza tonight. I can’t think of anything else that really happened today… that I can include in the blog post at least. We left Dawson Creek at 6:30am and drove for 8 hrs… really wasn’t that bad and I do remember getting some sleep in the van… I think I found my spot. I peeked in during Disturbed’s set… I’m curious what the final attendance was… it looked pretty busy… and people were into it. I have to sleep… so hungry. Tomorrow should be more interesting… my prediction 4/6 hungover. We’re driving back to Calgary to spend the night… I need to do laundry. … my face hurts I’m so hungry. Bed time. - Mike ;-) P.S. I’ll check over the photos tomorrow… my phone is dead. "Seb put it best... it's that feeling of weightlessness that gets the adrenaline going. The first time we hit black ice was gut wrenching." February 19, 2016 - 11:47pm It's like I finished the last post, closed my eyes, then was back in the van... 2 hours sleep isn't enough... although when I woke up nobody else seemed to be getting up to be in the van for 3am... I'll once again try and keep this short... need sleep badly... plus people are flooding into the hotel and the lobby is the only place I could find to write... just a matter of time until someone recognizes me... right? ... right? *cough* Seb and I did the first shift driving... left Tim's at 3:40am. Figured the roads would be clear and with steady driving, hopefully hit Dawson Creek by 12pm. ... except the weather created a variable. Seb put it best... it's that feeling of weightlessness that gets the adrenaline going. There was a storm rolling past Edmonton and we drove into it... and in a place where the speed limit is 110km/hr, having to drive 60-70 really adds time to a trip. The first time we hit black ice was gut wrenching. On the highways out here, there's these big, graceful curves in the road... which combined with black ice create this amazing opportunity for the trailer to try and overtake the van. I didn't think we were going to die... the roads are wide enough and the ditches aren't that deep... and we really weren't going that fast... fast enough to get banged up but not to throw/roll the van. ... safety first. ... even if safety is going to take us forever to get there. ... and I always figure in situations like this, you're not alone. If we're hitting this weather and road conditions, the other bands/buses trucks are too. We switched off drivers around 6:30am. It was a long drive... definitely got dicey a few times but again, we were taking our times. I think we slid 4-5 times... and it kept everyone awake. I guess if you're going to die in a car accident, it's best to be awake for it. ... I knew we were fine though... I have faith in the Seb. This is a lot of single sentences. The roads were fine after Edmonton... back to normal traveling speeds and the sun being out probably helps. We arrived in Dawson Creek around 2:30pm... surprisingly not that late. We went in to check out the venue... the stage looked like it'd just been finished and the crew were starting on the first bit of lights/rigging. ... we are definitely behind schedule. We a better idea how much time we have in this situation now. Odds are we're free to do whatever until 6pm (doors at 6:30... lol... *tear*), but be ready to go, go, go when it's time. Breakfast/lunch was good... they went ham on the bacon. :-| We all tried resting in our own way most of the time since sleep wasn't really to be had in the van today. I grabbed a (hockey) shower in our dressing room which at least helped wake me up... hopefully athlete's foot doesn't take hold since I don't have shower sandals with me. Things are sort of a blur now... I think we started loading ours and Saint Asonia onto the stage at 6:10pm... I was thinking the doors aren't opening at 6:30pm... no way... they were still working on rigging and we were booted off the stage while loading to do the pyro test. ... I started thinking if there was a day for an accident, it might be today... not that people were recklessly rushed, but that's how accidents happen... when you don't have time to cross your T's or when you're overly confident... this crew is solid though... I think they opted to not put up a couple light rigs because of the delay. OH! I forgot to mention... when we got there, the stage looked like it'd just been finished... why? It wasn't long before the buses and trucks showed up. Apparently there was an accident on the highway that stopped traffic for a couple hours. That could've been us, could've been anybody on the production... I overheard a few others talking about how they felt the weightlessness of their bus at times during the trip. ... that'd be scary... I think buses are way more dangerous in an ice related accident. So at least everyone is on the same page... and glad everyone made it. We finished soundcheck just after doors opened... people ran to the front of the stage... felt less like a loser soundchecking after doors opened... I'd heard the floor tickets were sold out... 1,600 or something. ... this is good. We ended up going on (told to) 7 minutes late... which was totally cool with us. We had time to run back to the dressing room to mentally prepare... still felt like a long time between setup and showtime. ... lights go off... intro music. ... blur. My hi-hat clutch was giving me problems but aside from that, it was one of the better shows I've personally played on the tour. It was awesome to hear after the show that everyone felt similar about their performance and our performance as a whole. ... even Reid was happy! ... Matt! Even Matt was happy!!! Good times... great crowd too. The place looked packed from the stage and walking around after, it pretty much was. We signed a few shirts and took some photos after Saint Asonia's set. (signed a guitar for the venue earlier too!) ... one girl asked us to sign a Saint Asonia t-shirt and I vetoed that. It's faux-pas in my books. ... with that she went and bought an Age Of Days shirt and asked us to sign it. That wasn't my/our intentions but it was awesome she liked the band enough to grab a shirt and help support. ... it really does help... merch sales are the lifeblood of a band on tour. We finished packing our personals in the dressing room and headed out just before Down With The Sickness started up. By far, this was the loudest "encore" crowd on the tour. We could hear the thunder of stomping feet above our dressing room. ... awesome. So now we're back at the hotel... Reid, Dane, and I have assembled in the lobby... converted it into our production office for a while. Chatted with a few fans coming through about the show but overall it's pretty tame. ... apparently the parking lot isn't... but that's another story. I'll leave some more notes about the day in the slideshow. ... breakfast opens at 4am, we're back on the road for 6am. Edmonton tomorrow... supposed to be nuts... ... we're ready. - Mike :-) P.S. Happy Birthday (again) Dad! Glad I could catch you on Skype, but sorry I couldn't show you the stage setup out front because of the wifi... will try again tomorrow. :-)
... just like in hockey... if a goalie is looking like they might end the game with a shutout... when you're on tour and things are going smoothly... don't say the words... it's bad luck. February 18, 2016 - 11:15pm I woke up at 10:30am... which is an unheard of length of time for me to sleep. Slept awesome though... and it was the first night which a) Reid didn't knee me in the back and/or b) I didn't punch Reid in the head. ... felt pretty bad about that one actually... I just extended my arm and... sorry Reid... he didn't wake up or anything though... that kid isn't a light sleeper which is great if you're in this band... considering the decibels of a Snoretallica concert and getting randomly punched in the head. ... ok... it wasn't a hard punch... but there was definitely contact. ... it definitely would've woke me up. ... actually it did wake me up. ... anyway... pretty uneventful afternoon until we arrived at the venue... Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary. The #1 question on everyones mind... will there be pyro??? I noticed on the day sheet at the venue (times everything is going on for crew and bands), that there was a "pyro demonstration". Apparently the fire marshall can observe and either say no, yes, or what needs to be done to make it safe. They scaled things back at bit (1/2 to 2/3 I'd say) but I'm sure it was still a pretty cool show they put on... ... I'm saying this because we're already back at Tim's. We decided it'd be best to leave the show after Disturbed started to get a few hours sleep then hit the road. There's apparently a storm around Edmonton, and on an 8 1/2hr (so 10hr) drive, that can cause problems... so we're giving ourselves 12hrs to make the trip. It's much better to arrive early (and check in early) than be rushing... or worse. It was a much more relaxed day though since majority of the stage/lights were all in house/venue. You could tell the crew was a little more relaxed as well. ... I'm glad we got a chance to hang out with a few of the them the other night at the bar... it's nice to see people outside their work environment. It's where people are "people". ... that's something I try to explain often... even if someone is up on stage... it's just people doing their job. Some jobs are a little more glamorous than other, but the 10+ cogs backstage make the machine work for the 4-5 on stage. ... I really need to get some sleep since I'm going to be part of the first driving shift... so I'll let some of the pics tell the story. Highlights... Spinal Tap moment 7 minutes before going on stage... Our dressing room happened to be the venue's Gibson Guitar Lounge (pretty sweet actually!)... the door was propped open when we got there... and locked when the door closed. ... we constantly had people knocking on the door to get back in. So we were all standing back stage and I remembered I'd left one of my cases in the dressing room... no big deal but I was thinking I should just go back and grab it... I had time. ... then I was thinking... I bet you nobody thought to keep the door open behind them after our pre-show ritual and heading to the stage. I looked around... if there's a guy to ask "hey, do you know if anybody made sure to keep the door open a little before we left?"... that guy is Tim... because it'll freak Tim out a little and it's funny to watch Tim freak out a little over something that's not a big deal. ... there are keys for that door... it's just a matter of tracking someone down. :-) ... I ask Tim... he immediately takes off to see if it's locked. ... 5 minutes til we're on stage. I see Tim down the hall standing outside the door... looking at the door handle... looking at me... then back at the handle... Our manager is in the office next to me... asks what's up... tell him about the door and he says he'll have it unlocked by the time we get off stage... all good. ... 3 minutes to stage time... crisis averted. Great crowd in Calgary and I could tell it was probably going to be the best sounding room on the tour so far... reason mainly being it's a room... with carpet... and not an arena with concrete everything. ... this is where the blessing and curse of working in audio comes in. ... if a large space sounds nice, it's either ugly.. or SUPER expensive. We almost got the house lights and intro music synced up tonight... almost... about 5 seconds off. I mean... they can manage to do it for Saint Asonia and Disturbed... but like.. just not us... *cough* The set was a blur again... saw a few people singing along... we changed the set up a little too... took out 'Dying On The Inside', which is new, and put 'Live Out Loud' in since it usually goes over well in Calgary. It's a tough call putting a 5 minute ballad in an already tight 30 minute (28mins timed) set when you're opening this show. We went for it though... ... second highlight... Tim coming out on stage and his wireless mic wasn't turned on. It happens but you just pray the mic is off and the batteries aren't dead. Dead batteries suck... end of story. It was fine though... just missed the very first "CALGARRYYYYYYY!!!!! LET ME HEAR YOU!!!!" bit... it was implied... it's a rock show. ... good show overall... good energy... but I didn't realize how many people were there until we got to the part where I snap a pic of the crowd. People are still coming in as we're playing obviously... and we'd heard the show was close to sold out... The house/crowd lights came on for a second and.. people... seemingly straight to the back of the room. Awesome. *tear* After the show they'd already packed up dinner which was kinda crappy... we don't typically get to eat dinner since we're setting up, but grab it right after we finish loading out. Missed it by 15 minutes apparently. ... but dessert was still out. ... I'm having chocolate cake for dinner. ... not the worst dinner... arguably better than McDonalds... which we'll probably still eat anyway. Our manager noticed us all eating cake and asked us what was up... disappeared for 2 mins then said they're bringing food back out for us. ... clutch. Not gonna lie... I was pretty hungry but not yet hangry (hungry + angry). So we piled some salmon, beef, and vegetables on top of 2 kinds of chocolate cake already in our guts. On paper all of this was awesome... but I also pretty sure if you pile protein on top of sugar... get ready for... *looks around... whispers*... farts. :-| ... or cramps if you try and deny science. We went to merch after Saint Asonia for photos/signing but it was too busy to really do much. Met a few friends and new fans... always worth the stop by the table. Packed up soon after and headed back to the house... sans McDonalds. Bed time for me... should get a couple hours sleep. ... I'll be honest though... I had a moment of really missing my studio today... and creating music. I was chatting with Sal (Saint Asonia's drum tech) this aft and we geeked out lightly over recording and drum programs / virtual instruments... discussing the future of recording drums... then I got thinking about how many people I get to work on great music with... and they're friends. Good times. ... I'll be back in Toronto soon enough but hopefully recording will have me travelling a bit this year. ... but for now, I have a chocolate milk in the fridge for the drive and my alarm set for 2:30am. Good times. - Mike :-) P.S. We all pitched in to wash and vacuum the van this morning... clutch.
February 17, 2016 - 11:34pm ... oh man... I'm gonna be in bed before 1am! This is amazing!!! ... we're still in Calgary... 2nd day off in a row. Reid actually pointed out that because of the time change (-2 hrs), it's like we've been going to bed at 6am and getting up at 4pm. That's pretty amazing... but a horrible habit we've developed. The next few days are going to be a grind with back to back overnight drives... so staying up all night helps... but going to be rough once we get to the venue. ... this speaks to where we are in the pecking order being the opener on a tour where everyone else has buses, driver, and crew. ... biggest problem is waiting for merch to get counted out/finished. Often we could be out of there at least an hour earlier... probably have to a couple dates at least. So today... lots of NHL 15 on Xbox 360 was played and we did a photoshoot with Oli. He's done all the band photos since I've joined... awesome guy, better photographer! Check out his link here: www.olivierdutre.com ... and I need a leather jacket. Never thought I'd say it but it's one of those "rock things" I don't have... I think I've put on one in my life I thought looked cool (on me). Tim wanted everyone wearing jackets... slim pickin's on my end. I know the photos will look good but I honestly have no real idea what I look like since I threw one of Tim's jackets on last minute, on site. ... it got cold... and hopefully this isn't the tipping point where someone gets sick.. and it's all downhill. ... these overnight drives are going to do it though... someone will crack. I took a few pics while we were moving locations on the shoot... you'll get the idea. We ended up against some textured walls/lights near the casino and everyone was surprised we didn't get kicked out... I'm sure they could see us on the security cameras... but then I started thinking maybe they know we're far from troublemakers... and that's not very rock 'n roll at all! ... it would've been cool to get kicked out! Or at least asked to leave... ... you know who isn't cool? That casino security isn't cool! They let us down... ... ah well... we're playing there tomorrow... looking forward to it. In case you haven't read any of my blogs... I love people watching at casinos. ... I should get to sleep though before I rant about something... wish I could play drums for a bit tomorrow... I just want to bang around for an hour. It sounds like Disturbed's light/pyro show might not fit into the venue so I'm curious to see what they do... and it should allow for bands to have soundcheck. ... and I guess it's not that the pyro won't fit... pyro is fire and fire fits pretty much anywhere... the problem is it can set things on fire... and that's bad... so it's more "too dangerous" than "doesn't fit". ... tomorrow is show #5 too... officially halfway done... bittersweet. Oh... I almost forgot. In case you're wondering what's up with that pic of Dane, shirtless in the van... and hopefully he's not mad at me for posting it. On the way to the photoshoot, Dane was still trying to decide what shirt to wear (under his leather jacket) and decided to change it again. I made a joke about him being shirtless in the van again, but then told him he should just ride around in the van shirtless since, considering how transparent the fishbowl is, it'd just look like a naked guy riding around in a van with a top hat and oversized sunglasses on... and just as I said that, a group of girls got off their school bus, looked over... and were quite confused. ... it was pretty funny... it was pretty awesome. Good times. - Mike P.S. re: NHL 15. Final game of the day, I was up 4-0 after the first (CHI vs CGY). I took a 5 minute major and CGY scored 4 power play goals. I went down 5-4 with 40 seconds left... tied it up with 9 seconds left... in OT, my goalie came way out of the net to play the puck... one of the Flames forechecker's got a hold of the puck... game over. ... what a bullshit way to lose. Awful... shame on you Corey Crawford. Shame on you. February 17, 2016 - 3:54am ... it's funny how many things can happen in a day where someone will ask you to not include it in your blog. ... woke up at 2:30pm and I can't believe I'm up this late... was hoping to be in bed by 1am at the latest... long story short, we met up with Oli (photographer) and a few guys from the tour crew for drinks... went til last call and then the obligatory McDonald's stop on the way home. It was good times though... good times that will stay at the good times bar. ... so you're welcome. :-) The day went by pretty quick though... went for a walk to Tim Horton's with Reid... I wanted exercise, he wanted coffee... breakfast was ready by 4:30pm... that pretty much screwed up the flow of the entire day... since I'm use to eating breakfast at 7am. Spent the afternoon playing Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition... where I (finally) dethroned Reid to become the champ... then defended my title til the end of the tournament... and played a lot of Hearthstone while doing laundry. ... I left my stage clothes off to the side when we did laundry in Lethbridge... they might be $7 black t-shirts from H&M, but hotel washer/dryers ruin clothes. I wanted to touch on the topic of Dane's robot guitar going full robot last show briefly again... he made a comment at dinner... he was so embarrassed that the thought crossed his mind to just leave the stage and try and sort it out... but I think he dealt with it the best way he could have...dig deep and fight through it with a smile... don't distract the crowd since they probably don't notice... most are focused on the singer... seriously! He said could've transposed it on the fly (and I believe him)... problem is those tunes just kept on a'tuning. You never know what cards life is going to hand you... there's a time and place to show your emotions but when you have a job to do... maybe not the best time. "Band" is a team sport... sometimes your laces come untied... sometimes your lace just break. It's not your fault, but it's how you deal with it which means something to your teammates. Nobody wants to go on stage thinking they're going to have problems... and nobody wants to surround themselves with teammates who aren't trying their best to pull their weight and avoid problems. I trust everyone in this band onstage to do their part... and if something happens, I'm expecting a good reason why... "Skynet hijacked my guitar" is a good reason.. "I'm drunk and don't practice" is not. "I couldn't hear myself" definitely is not. That being said... I know too many bands that practice in pristene conditions so when the real world shows up at their gig... they whine. "I couldn't hear anything on stage." That's the #1 thing I hear bands complain about... and the excuse they give incase you think their performance sucked... or just noticed their mistakes. After playing a few gigs on stages big enough were a) stage left and stage right seriously can't hear each other at all without coming through monitors and b) they're so far apart that there's a time delay affecting their own timing if they're playing off them (1ft = 1ms)... I want to say the bigger the show, and you don't have in-ear monitors.. the worse it gets... until you trust your own ability to play your own parts, and you follow someone... I highly recommend the drummer. .... assuming your drummer is good. *cough* Need to be up by noon tomorrow... seriously... photoshoot then hopefully a low key night. ... days off are cool but I would've rather been scrambling to get our gear on stage and finish soundcheck before doors opened tonight. ... I'm not a bar person. - Mike :-) February 17, 2016 - 11:34pm ... oh man... I'm gonna be in bed before 1am! This is amazing!!! ... we're still in Calgary... 2nd day off in a row. Reid actually pointed out that because of the time change (-2 hrs), it's like we've been going to bed at 6am and getting up at 4pm. That's pretty amazing... but a horrible habit we've developed. The next few days are going to be a grind with back to back overnight drives... so staying up all night helps... but going to be rough once we get to the venue(s). ... this speaks to where we are in the pecking order being the opener on a tour where everyone else has a bus, driver, and crew. ... biggest problem is waiting for merch to get counted out/finished. Often we could be out of there at least an hour earlier... probably have to a couple dates at least. So today... lots of NHL 15 on Xbox 360 was played and we did a photoshoot with Oli. He's done all the band photos since I've joined... awesome guy, better photographer! Check out his link here: www.olivierdutre.com ... and I need a leather jacket. Never thought I'd say it but it's one of those "rock things" I don't have... I think I've put on one in my life I thought looked cool (on me). Tim wanted everyone wearing jackets... so slim pickin's on my end. I know the photos will look good but I'm not entirely sure what I look like since I threw one of Tim's jackets on last minute, on site. ... it got cold... and hopefully this isn't the tipping point where someone gets sick.. and it's all downhill. ... these overnight drives are going to do it though... someone will crack. I took a few pics while we were moving locations on the shoot... you'll get the idea. We ended up against some textured walls/lights near the casino and everyone was surprised we didn't get kicked out... I'm sure they could see us on the security cameras... but then I started thinking maybe they know we're far from troublemakers... and that's not very rock 'n roll at all! ... it would've been cool to get kicked out! Or at least asked to leave... or someone just wondering who we are... ... you know who isn't cool? That casino security isn't cool! They let us down... ... ah well... we're playing there tomorrow... looking forward to it. In case you haven't read any of my blogs... I love people watching at casinos. ... I should get to sleep though before I rant about something... wish I could've played drums for a bit today... I just want to bang around for an hour. It sounds like Disturbed's light/pyro show might not fit into the venue so I'm curious to see what they do... and it should allow for bands to have a bit of a soundcheck. ... and I guess I should clarify it's not that I don't think the pyro will fit... pyro is fire and fire fits pretty much anywhere... the problem is it can set things on fire... and that's bad... so it's more "unsafe" than "doesn't fit". ... tomorrow is show #5 too... officially halfway done... bittersweet. *tear* Oh... I almost forgot. In case you're wondering what's up with that pic of Dane, shirtless in the van... and hopefully he's not mad at me for posting it. On the way to the photoshoot, Dane was still trying to decide what shirt to wear (under his leather jacket) and decided to change it again. I made a joke about him being shirtless in the van again, but then suggested he just ride around in the van shirtless since, considering how transparent the fishbowl is, people looking in would see a naked guy riding around in a van with a top hat and oversized sunglasses on... and just as I said that, a group of girls got off their school bus, looked over... and were quite confused. ... it was pretty funny... it was pretty awesome. Good times. - Mike P.S. re: NHL 15. Final game of the day, I was up 4-0 after the first (CHI vs CGY). I took a 5 minute major and CGY scored 4 power play goals. I went down 5-4 with 40 seconds left... tied it up with 9 seconds left... in OT, my goalie came way out of the net to play the puck... one of the Flames forechecker's got a hold of the puck... game over. ... what a shit way to lose. Awful... shame on you Corey Crawford. Shame on you. |
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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