October 24, 2013
... so this isn't much of a tour day blog post but I feel like I should finish the story. ... dropped off my gear at the studio around 1:30pm... I was at home, showered, and in bed by 2pm. The End. I'm going to take the weekend to sort some stuff out and regroup. I'm curious to go over some of the numbers/stats from the trip... there was a lot of driving... a lot of hotel rooms... very little sleep... and fair amount of money spent. It should help put this sorta thing into perspective for people who think it's all a big party. Believe me... it's fun and I had a blast... but you don't last very long in this business if go at things as if it's a big party... well... at least if you're on the music making side of things. :-) - Mike
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… let's see how much I can remember… it's 9:05am… still in the van… we drove last night and crossed the border around 8am… didn't get a ton of sleep last night but I also wasn't coherent enough to actually write anything down… not because of partying or anything though… just super tired. October 23, 2013 ... bed by 4am, my alarm went off at 8am to grab breakfast… they had oatmeal which means it's going to be a good day… then back in the van for 9am. We were only 4 hours from Sayreville but we wanted to leave ourselves lots of time just incase we ran into traffic. Looking at googlemap… we could be driving through a mess of city traffic. Nothing too eventful on the drive… ran into a bit of traffic once we got into New Jersey but we rolled up to the venue around 1pm. Papa Roach was there… but Pop Evil hadn't arrived yet. … we actually arrived before one of the buses for once! Well, I think we beat them both in Winnipeg but still… we're usually the first to leave and last to arrive… not that it matters since we're the last to set up/check anyway. We talked to the crew… asked them if we had time to go grab some lunch… we typically set up around 4:30-5pm so they kinda laughed at us and said absolutely. We plopped a restaurant in the GPS… and made our way over to an abandoned diner with a for sale sign on it… Alright… option 2. Whatever is within sight. I'm mentioning this because (I can't remember if I have already)… tour tip… eat what you can see, if you can. You won't believe how much time you can lose driving around just looking for a place to eat. If there's fast food near the venue? Do it. If there's a diner or something close, do that. Once you're travelling enough, you break down time into 30 minute segments. It might seem like a short 10 min drive to a place to eat but it'll take 30 minutes once you factor in rounding up people, actually leaving, getting lost, parking issues, etc. It happens more often than not. So what's within sight? Next door is an Italian restaurant. I've been craving lasagna for weeks now so this could work out pretty good. We walk in… seems decent… it's the type of place where I'm hesitant to look at the menu… we're all on a budget here. I'll keep this short since I know people love hearing about food… *cough*… I had eggplant lasagna… the portion was huge, under $10, and it was amazing. I accepted this would either be awesome or horrible since within an hour I knew all I'd want to do is sleep. Who cares though… too much flavour to worry about the consequences. Everyone felt the same way about what they ordered. It was also awesome our waitress whispered to us what not to order. I wish more people were like this… you know… had opinions. People are filters... and it's called trust. So... finish lunch and we all waddle back to the Green Machine… head back to the venue. Starland Ballroom is a pretty well known place. We've been lucky on this tour playing so many wicked venues… even as an opener, you still get the experience… especially playing to 1,000 people (on average) a night. We have a room backstage! We hung out up there most of the afternoon relaxing and waiting to check. Papa Roach was doing meet and greets all day so we were pretty quick setting up and stuff… which I don't mind. Again, we're using a digital board at FOH (front of house) so you just recall the settings and tweak from there a little. It was pretty busy in the venue… I went upstairs to our room and took a power nap on the floor. Fatigue plus that awesome lasagna was starting to take it's toll. … 7:30pm… I went downstairs to see how the crowd was looking… apparently this place holds over 2,000 and it's sold out. The venue is deceivingly big because it's wide… crowd/bar sorta horseshoes around the stage… which is also massive… and carpeted! Carpet is usually gross… like gross enough you want to throw your shoes and socks in the garbage after… but this place was recently rebuilt… Hurricane Sandy came through here a while ago. Crowd is looking about half full… not just being optimistic. I hand over our intro track to FOH… head back upstairs to get into my stage clothes… head back down around 7:50pm… place is rammed. It's now a problem trying to get anywhere… which I'm fine with for now. 8pm we hit the stage… it's sorta bittersweet... our pre show prep talk was more about it being the last show opposed to just going up there and throwing down. Again… in my mind, it's been a really awesome practice run… hopefully pre-season is over for this 'little band that could' and it's now time to make a real push… especially down in the US. We all want to it happen, the response has been amazing on this trip… so hell or high water… something has to happen the next year! The show went great… I was caught off guard at the beginning since the lights came on and a dozen camera bees were buzzing about at the front of the stage. I don't really have any cool drum poses/faces or anything for pics… I pretty much think all drummers look stupid in pics except Dave Grohl… Dave always looks cool… Dave could be picking up uncooked spaghetti off the floor and he'd still look cool. Luckily, between what Tim's doing in the middle of the stage, and what Trev and Brent are doing on the sides… there's lots to pay attention to. It was hot up there… I have a little fan hanging off my floor tom that keeps air moving but I was sweating buckets after a couple tunes… that combined with the lasagna for lunch… and not much sleep… I wasn't feeling great a couple tunes in. It's still fun to play in that state though… you really can feed off the energy from the crowd. I had a couple hiccups but hey… people can just assume I'd had a couple drinks before or something. Still good times. Tim actually gave a shout out to both Papa Roach and Pop Evil's crews on stage which I thought was a really nice gesture… too often we forget how many people are behind the scenes making things roll along as smoothly as possible. I took another quick pic from my position after the show. It's official in my books… we did it. Tour was over… we made all the shows, everyone was still alive, nothing (as of right now) was lost, stolen, or broken… well aside from a single mic stand and a couple wristbands. It was finally time to relax since the plan was to drive through the night. We hung around until 1am chatting with the crew, taking pictures, and saying our farewells. Again, both crews have been amazing towards us and you could tell the smiles, handshakes, and hugs were sincere. In any industry, you never know who you might end up working with or working for down the road, so when you meet good people, you like to keep them in your circle. … oh… one thing I forgot to mention… I guess someone decided to increase the level of safety on our van during our set. Deep down I was hoping someone would prank us… as lame as it sounds… it's a sign we did good in my books. Wrapping the van is pretty tame considering some of the other pranks I've heard over the years… I was just hoping it was nothing involving liquids, creams, or powders.
So into the van for 1am… quick McDonald's stop en route. I was mega tired and although I was riding shotgun, I was nodding off constantly. I finally able to end my shift and sleep a bit around 4am. Border crossing back into Canada was a breeze… maybe we've just been really lucky but every crossing has been hassle free… even the first one which took a while, it was only because we needed additional paper work. It's 10:31am now (we stopped for breakfast)… just about to drop Brent off and then make the rounds dropping off gear and what not. I'm really looking forward to being in my own bed (duh), but I'm also anxious to see what management can dig up in the next while. Our VISA's are good til the end of the year… :-) - Mike P.S. I'm aiming to do a tour recap asap… I have a boatload of emails to catch up on today and tomorrow though. I'm aiming to get a couple projects started at the studio asap as well… but I think I'm taking the weekend off first. P.P.S. Sometimes this is what backstage looks like. ... 2:53am... if only you could see the breakfast area of the Super 8 I'm sitting in right now. Oh wait... you can! ... I feel like I'm in a cottage... I have no idea where we are aside from NY state... only 4 hours from Sayreville though so hopefully the drive is easy tomorrow... 9am van call... last show tomorrow. October 22, 2013 Big show today... Metropolis can hold over 2,000 people and if it's anything like Quebec City, it should be nuts... I'll spare you the suspense... it was pretty nuts in there. It's funny how quickly an audience can go from "into it" to "into it" over the course of about 2-3 songs. We warmed the crowd up pretty good... Pop Evil took things to the next level... but Papa Roach came out and destroyed in about 15 minutes. I haven't seen a pit this crazy on the tour and there was tons of crowd surfing going on. The security was really cool about it though... they'd pull people down, ask them if they were ok, then direct them were to go to get back into the crowd... I also think they warned them to not go up again... but still... they were cool about it. There's been a couple venues where the bouncers have been real dicks about it, and kicking people out of the show. As if crowd surfing is a problem in 2013. ... so I'm pretty tired right now... like vomit tired... I took a bunch of pics today so I'm just gonna dump a bunch in and talk around them. Oh wait... might as well get this out of the way. Breakfast was pretty good. *Insert several paragraphs worth of details here* Moving on. :-) Oh I should get this out of the way too... Matt and I grabbed lunch at a near by pub/sports bar. They had tons of TVs showing soccer... I was curious if any of the groups of 3 TVs, showing 3 different games, would show 3 different dives simultaneously... only got to 2. So my ordering in french success rate sorta went up today... the menu was half 'n half (french/english)... so I couldn't really order in french unless I ordered something in french just for the sake of ordering something in french for the sake of improving my ordering in french success rate. Still with me? The club sandwich looked really good though and did not disappoint. I'll give myself half a point on this attempt since I did say "merci" and didn't point once. 1.5/3, 50% "ordering in french" success rate. ... actually... I'm gonna give myself 0.75 of a point because I'm still at 50%. 1.75/3, 58.3% "ordering in french" success rate. ... there we go. Steady improvement if I say so myself! We milked our late checkout as much as we could today... then drove around the block to the venue and loaded in. Metropolis is awesome. I think it's arguably the best venue on the tour... arguably only because a couple people argued with me about it. I'd say Flames Central gives it a run... but as far as a rock venue goes... the setup and sight lines at Metropolis are perfect. Tons of space but still feels small enough you can really enjoy the show. Sound system is great, stage is great, load in/out area is great. It's great! They had this loading bay elevator side stage... it looked really cool with the fog and the lights so I decided to set my drums up there while Pop Evil was line checking and took some pics. ... then Matt came over and asked me if I wanted him to grab a pic of me on the kit. I'm a pretty poorly documented human being so I said sure why not. ... and then Matt hopped on my kit... and called for a pair of sticks... ... yeah he totally just showed me up on my own kit on my own photo shoot... the nerve of this guy. ... I was laughing pretty hard actually... I snapped a ton more pics but you get the point... he was pretty into it! lol. I was poking around stage a bit and grabbed this pic of Tony's (Papa Roach) tamb mounted on his kit. I love tambs... but his is all rusted and stuff... it's bad ass. I'd buy this at auction... for the record. (<-- no pun intended) ... moving onto the venue pics. ... yeah this place is pretty big. Sound check went fine... I was cracking up again because Matt decided to tape off a "no guitar player" zone on the floor. He was getting annoyed Brent and Trev would bump into him/get in his way while he's singing backups. I mean... he's got a hard enough job as it is hitting root notes on the 1's... trying to sing harmonies and dodge two dudes zippin' around on stage... stuff happens. I thought it was amazing though. I wanted one... but nobody ever really runs into me back there... hell... people don't even know I'm on stage or in the band half the time! lol. Anyway... Before. After. ... such an awesome crowd to play in front of. Typically you can't really see past the first few rows when you're on stage under the lights... but the pics give you a better story. I watched a bit of Papa Roach side stage... we had to head out fairly early because of the drive... way she goes... got to see Angles at least. ... some dad guy ended up, upside down in the pit/crowd surfing. It was awesome. I tried to get a pic but it does not do it justice... it was like watching a synchronized swimmer with their legs up in the air... awesome. ... that was pretty much the day. Crowd response was great again... still sorta shocked how good it's been considering nobody really knew who we were going into this tour. New fans every night so far... Facebook likes steadily climbing. Lots of compliments from people in the crowd and stopping by the merch table. Good times. We headed out around 10:30pm... decided to do the boarder crossing (dude was super nice and we chatted bands for a couple minutes) asap and grab a room wherever we were by 2am. I'm so glad we found a reasonable place first try... it sucks driving around finding a place at 2am... in case you were wondering. I gotta go to bed though.. 3:33am now... if I had my own jug of milk I'd be eating a bowl of Raisin Bran right now... it's staring at me... no wait... it's the neighbouring Frosted Flakes that are... damn you Tony... - Mike P.S. I don't really know what this was supposed to be... probably "art" or something... but it was on the wall in the lobby/stairs at Metropolis. It's neat. ... it's like an Escher drawing... but in drum form. P.P.S. I know I said I didn't like being in Quebec a couple days ago because it makes me feel uncomfortable (because of the language thing), but I had a blast this time. Montreal especially has such a cool vibe. I'd like to actual come back and visit sometime... when it's warmer of course. :-)
... some serious sleep was had last night... housekeeping has some work to do. October 21, 2013 I just checked my iCal. Today was the first day since we started that we've been able to wake up whenever we felt like it, and able to leave for the next city whenever we felt like. We had the day off and were determined to act like it. I didn't get to bed until around 3:30am last night... set my alarm to go grab breakfast at 8am. It wasn't anything to write about... but why break tradition! I'm on a roll apparently talking about food. lol. As far as continentals go... it was pretty weak... they didn't even have Raisin Bran... they had All Bran... not sure if that's a step up or down to be honest. I considered filling up on Fruit Loops (just because I could) but I wasn't sure what kinda consequences might come into play considering there's some McDonald's still working it's way through me from a few days ago. Too much info maybe... but from past experience... those wacky Loops do funky things to my insides. There's something going on with apples out here too... outside one of the gas stations they were selling huge sacks, like 15 lbs bags of them for like $5. The lobby had the same looking ones sitting in a bowl on the front desk. I grabbed a couple... they were ridiculously good. To answer the age old question... "how do you like them apples?" I love them apples. In hindsight, I should've taken the rest... one at a time... awkwardly... Harpo Marx style... I figure the guy at the front desk already thinks I'm weird for hanging out alone so much in the lobby. I filled up as much as I could and then went back to bed until around 11am. We headed out around 1pm (they gave us a late check-out of 3pm... which was insane if you know anything about late check-outs) but first we had to find some breakfast... since not everyone was up in time for the free hotel one. What to eat... Tim got really excited about pizza for breakfast... Matt was pushing towards chinese buffet... the rest of us were voting for a diner. ... long story short... through construction, closures, and some wonky GPS directions... diner won. ... I'm gonna order breakfast in french... so help me God I'm gonna do it today. So we enter the restaurant. Waitress asks how many. "Cinq." (I held up my hand too... all five digits spread just in case.) We get the menus... I find the 2 eggs, with bacon, ham, or sausage, plus home fries and toast... I'm good to go. Our waitress comes over to take our drink order. ... language barrier birdy takes flight. ... it's amazing how quickly a simple conversation/transaction you take for granted can quickly go into the dumper as soon as two parties start trying to over think what's going on. "Just water for everyone" seemed to make no sense at all to her... and we just kept saying it louder. She left after taking just one drink order... returned with a pitcher of water... and then asked "do you want the english menus?" ... ... I'm sorta torn here. I wanna order in french dammit! I have a 0% "ordering in french" success rate I'm looking to improve significantly today... so this has to happen... for me... I need this. Everyone places their order in english... I place mine last... "Duex oeufs (hand flip gesture established for "over easy"), jambon, brown (toast). Merci." (... nailed it... I think... and I know brun is brown in french btw.) ... yup... nailed it! I gotta say whatever they did to their "pomme de terre" was amazing. If Ricky's shredded potatoes are a 1, these guys are a 10. 1 for 2, 50% "ordering in french" success rate. ... maybe after dinner I can push that up to 66%... or down to 33%. We had a pretty good, relaxed meal and then we were off... I slept most of the way to Montreal. We decided to try our luck at a Holiday Inn Express near the venue. Some of the guys wanted to explore downtown... I wanted to hideout in the hotel... basically hangout in sweatpants and do stuff online... I pretty much wrote emails and played Bloons TD5 all day. It's my day off. I'm allowed. We did a load of laundry... Trev and Brent returned with really awesome pizza for dinner (no ordering in french necessary)... Tim and I went looking for the gym here and some how kept ending up in the wrong hotel. Oh yeah... when we first got here... we had to park our van/trailer underground... very scary on paper but hopefully there are no issues getting out tomorrow. We unloaded our stuff, got in the elevator, went up to our floor... went to our room... and our key didn't work. ... my first thought... maybe we're in the wrong hotel...? Apparently we needed to use our cards to use the elevators... and we didn't. Matt went to go get the keys checked out... yup... somehow we're in the wrong hotel. This is twice now on the trip we've done that... so it's obviously us. When Tim and I were looking for the gym... he called down to the front desk and they said it was on the 2nd floor. There's a stairwell right beside our room so I figured let's just take those downstairs. It's exercise and we are looking for the gym after all. ... we go down a few floors... and we find ourselves in the other hotel again. Wtf is going on here. We walk back up, get in the elevator, take that down stairs, and end up on the right floor... in the right hotel... such a funny layout here. ... anyway, ate pizza and watched hockey during dinner. A few of the guys went out on the town for a bit... they're back now (1am) so they couldn't have found too much trouble. I would've liked to of gone out at least for a walk but I'm really loving hangin' around in my house pants right now. It's been a while. I'll keep this short since I'll just end up rambling (more)... and I'd like to be in bed before 2am tonight. lol. We're playing the Metropolis tomorrow... capacity is 2,200 apparently... let's see if it tops Quebec City... it certainly has the potential to. We'll probably have to drive after the show to Sayreville since it's 7-8 hours plus border crossing... 10 hours real world time... and then it's... home time. ... you always know it'll feel like it flew by once it gets near the end... 48 more hours and it'll be the end of this and hopefully not too long until it's the beginning of another... good times. - Mike P.S. I'm gonna destroy this place in about 7 hours... they have the pancake machine. P.P.S. I don't really drink so this kinda stuff cracks me up... 1.18L! Loss of motor skills combined with an increased need to urinate... perfect combo for any party!
... they had oatmeal. Today was going to be a good day. October 20, 2013 ... aside from seeing a full blown, end to end rainbow... nothing too eventful on the drive to Quebec City. We woke up around 8am, went to the lobby for breakfast (did I mention they had oatmeal?), then back in the van for 9:30am. We breezed through the border... the officer actually gave us the thumbs up once he figured out we were a band... and then it was only a couple hours drive from there. I need to get this off my chest... I don't like being in Quebec... I feel so awkward here. I like Quebec, I like the people from Quebec, and I really do like listening to the language. I can read french and understand it enough in conversation... but I can't write it or speak it so the communication barrier (mainly mental) makes me feel really uncomfortable. I mumble often and speak quietly in english... so toss in my butchering of a different language into the equation... and you don't have a recipe for success. ... basically... I feel like Mr. Bean when I'm in here. I know some french lessons would solve a lot of my problems but I'm almost 30 years old... and part of me feels like it's just punishment for my not paying attention in grade 9 french class... or whenever we started taking french in public school. I do try to speak french when I'm here though... my main problem is I feel like I can't order food anywhere. I always end up having to point or use a number system. It's sad... but at least I try. Anyway... new trip to Quebec... fresh start... I'm determined to not only eat today... but to order in french.. no pointing... but number system allowed. Baby steps. So we pull into a service station just after noon. There's a St. Hubert restaurant involved and the guys decide it's a good place to grab lunch. I'm hesitant to order anything... but I'm definitely hungry and decide to scope out the situation. At least if everyone else is ordering... I might be able to get lost in the shuffle. ... I check the menu posted above the counter... number system. Awesome... I can do this. I'm next in line... time comes... "Bonjour." "Bonjour... numero trois... please." (I always say please... I can't help it.) She looks at me with a blank stare... then basically mumbles 'huh?' "... numero trois." (I'm trying with every ounce of strength to not point at the sign.) Same awkward stare... she motions to bring another employee over... aka the bilingual one. I'm starting to panic... everyone else has got their order and food already. I gotta say as far as fast food goes... this place is frickin' fast! I try one more time before the other employee shows up... I'm running out of time here to salvage this attempt. (I brought out the biggest gun I had.) "... combo numero trois... s'il vous plait." ... too late. The bilingual employee had shown up to take my order... and to add insult to injury... without my knowing... I found my left arm, holding up my left hand... while it pointed at the sign. Fail. "Allo, can I take your order please?" "... number 3 please." "Would you like a drink with that?" "Yes please." I get my receipt, food is ready in 30 seconds... it's delicious but the loss stings. 0/1, 0% success rate Ah well... I tried. I'll have to try again the next few days... unless I just live off gas station food for a bit... which is not a bad idea right now... ketchup chips have at least two food groups according to Dr. Denial's nutritional guidelines. Moving on... We arrived in Quebec City around 3:30pm. The venue is awesome. It reminds me of a cross between the Mod Club and Opera House in Toronto. Great sight lines, balcony, and lots of space for bands on stage and backstage. We had a dressing room too! I'll skip ahead since the show went really well... I wasn't sure how the crowd would react to us since Quebec'ers seem to love the heavy stuff and we're not that heavy... definitely not as heavy as Pop Evil or Papa Roach in my books... but then again all the shows I've played in Quebec over the years, the crowd will get into it. No exception tonight. I think they were already into our set halfway through the first tune. Awesome. I snapped a couple pics from my kit... tried to take a before and after. It was hard to get a good 'after' shot because the house lights were so dark/low. They were pretty rowdy and singing along by the end of a few songs... our choruses are pretty simple that way which helps. I got lots of great shots during Pop Evil and Papa Roach though so you can see what the crowd looked like. It was rammed in there. Yeah I run around a lot during the other sets... it's fun. Definite highlight during Papa Roach... some poor lanky kid got picked up and forcibly... forced into crowd surfing. He was pretty scrawny... so once he was up there... he was basically screwed. The crowd was literally throwing him around... like... he was getting air. He was motioning for them to put him down but no dice. He might as well of been a beach ball. Eventually he did make it back to his feet... and then went straight back into the pit. What a trooper. Kudos to that guy. Merch went well after the show... took a bunch of pics... I had my disguise on (hat and hoodie) so people didn't realize I was in the band. It doesn't bother me... I'm just the backbone of everything happening on stage. *cough* Great show though... amazing crowd. Safe to say it could be the best show/crowd of the tour... still two shows left though. It's 3:09am... staying at a Comfort Inn... breakfast starts at 6:30am. We have tomorrow off so I might cast my vote to stay here until Wednesday The rate is good and seems like a decent hotel. Everyone just wants to sleep anyway... except McLaughlin... that dude wants to party. - Mike P.S. Sometimes this what backstage looks like. P.P.S. Did I mention I had oatmeal for breakfast? :-) P.P.P.S Welcome to Quebec!
October 19, 2013 2:12am. We just found a hotel 20 minutes ago maybe. The first place we tried was asking $150... second place just up the road was $115... that's more up our alley. ... oh... and it's 1000X better. ... $150... seriously. We're only going to be here for like 7 hours! Anyway... today didn't start out great... breakfast at the... I don't even remember where we stayed last night... bottom line... breakfast was pretty weak. Raisin Bran, Cheerios, toast, english muffins, bagels w/ cream cheese, orange juice, apple juice, tea, coffee. That was everything. I tried to fill up but pretty much everyone ended up at the McDonald's next door... which is pretty good I must say. Pretty uneventful day... 4-5 hour drive to Burlington, VT. One of the Pop Evil crew mentioned that you have to be careful going there because you can end up on the wrong side of the water and either have to drive several more hours around it, or take a ferry across... in the back of my mind I was constantly wanting to ask if we were on the right side of the water. That's how my brain works. ... all good though... in case you were wondering. The drive was kinda slow... felt like we drove through countryside for most of it... which isn't too bad to look at but starts to eat away at you when you just want to point Green Machine (van) in one direction and go (interstate). We ended up stuck behind a few cars that just refused to do the speed limit... and because we're on single lane roads, it's almost impossible to pass. Matt delivered one of the best horn honk moments I've ever been witness to. It must of been over an hour following the same 4 cars, led by a small red SUV. Matt finally reached his limit... and just laid into the horn. ... you could tell he felt better after. I know I would... horn honkin' feels good. It works for all emotions... even sadness... try it... you'll feel better. Anyway... just going through my pics from today. ... so this was a bit before the country roads but in short... everyone was staring at this couple with a mattress tied to their roof. I couldn't/didn't want to get a better picture... the girl in the passenger seat was visibly embarrassed... but it was the least aerodynamic thing I've ever seen. If you inverted the Wright Brothers calculations... you'd get this car. Everyone on the highway was looking... and wondering what they were thinking. Who cares what they were thinking... they'll make it home eventually... they'll probably argue about the trip home then have make up sex on their new bed. They'll be ok. We arrived in Burlington around 3:30pm. Everyone was starving... gotta just grind through it though. In the back of your mind, at any venue, you're wondering if they'll feed the bands. When you're per diem isn't much, you stretch the money as far as you can... and free meals go a long way. I finally broke and hit the Burger King adjacent to the venue. Fast food is again, mega cheap here. Value menu FTW. The venue (Higher Ground) was actually really awesome... the set up/layout was great for bands. Staff was pleasant and did a great job stocking all three dressing rooms (yes you heard correctly) with drinks and snacks. I meant to take a pic of backstage tonight but... I think I did and deleted it because it was crappy. It wasn't spectacular but having your own room, with food and drinks... it's awesome. Again, it's just nice having somewhere to go that's not the venue floor or the van. The Pop Evil crew had a bunch of family at the show as guests and they brought tons of food. They invited us and Phantom Sons (opening act) to Pop Evil's room to grab a plate. I didn't end up having any because I was full but it looked/smelled awesome. It was a really cool vibe tonight actually because it wasn't a huge venue and there was so many friends 'n family around. The stage was pretty tight after Pop Evil put their gear and drum riser up. I looked at the left over space and though it'll be really tight but whatever... we'll make it work. That's when it happened... they started striking their drums. ... we're going to get to use their super awesome drum riser. ... or at least I was thinking that was the case unless they were going to strike the riser too... but that'd be kinda silly in this room. ... then it was official... we get to use the riser! Now... a little more personal info about me. Pop Evil's riser is pretty high and I'm not a big fan of heights. Also, there's no real easy way to get up on said riser... you have to climb up it. I'm not flexible. This could be a problem. I asked their guitar tech half jokingly... "... possible stupid question... but is there an easy way to get up there?" "... nope... figure it out." So now I'm basically trying to build a set of stairs... and secretly... while trying to act casual... practicing getting on and off this 4ft (I think) riser. It might not sound very high but try and climb up something that high... with very little space to stand or grab onto. I figured it out though between a milk crate and Brent's guitar cab. ... no ripped groins or jeans. I was hoping for the best at the beginning of our set that I wouldn't fall, break through the milk crate, knock something over... or my ass crack would hang out or something. So many possibilities! This is how my brain works. I made it up though... it sure was bouncy up there. ... I was determined to rock it though. The opening act was called Phantom Sons. Crowd response was good and I caught a few of their tunes. I was also keeping a close eye on their drummer who was using my kit... seeing how springy it was for him... I might have to hold back a little tonight. ... game time... intro track was on... it was go time to get up on this riser... cool-ly. ... made it. ... it actually looked higher now that there were people there. I've been trying to take pictures at the end of the set for fun but I always forget. I'm usually more focused on getting our crap off stage so we don't get yelled at. I decided to take one at the beginning tonight. ... crowd seemed pretty dead. I'm starting to realize if you hold a camera up long enough... eventually someone will clue in you're taking a picture... and they'll rock more... and it's contagious. They'll start cheering if I wave my hand around too. ... a little blurry... but there we go. Gonna be a good night. We played pretty well... a bit of funky stuff going on in the guitars but all good. It was fun hearing some people singing along with the tunes. The record hasn't been out in the US very long but a few people seem to be coming out to see us...and/ or just super stoked to hear we are one of the support acts since they were going to the show anyway. There was apple pie left upstairs so... because I could... was eating pie while watching Pop Evil's set. It was awesome... pie and rock show! We stuck around a lot later than planned to sign some stuff, take pics, and chat with people. It's sad people seem so surprised we'll take the time to chat for a bit. Obviously we can't chat with 500 people after a show... but we do our best to be accessible. So far so good at least. ... signing shirts is hard by the way... especially when you're writing is crap. We left the venue around 1am... drove a bit... and now here I am in another hotel lobby... 3:10am. ... shower... off to bed... continental breakfast here (looks promising), then it's back in the van for 9am and off to Quebec City. Three shows left. - Mike P.S. I'm pretty sure I saw a little girl playing soccer in a storm trooper helmet during the drive up... she's gonna go on to do great things.
October 18, 2013 ... it's 1:43am... we pulled into an Econo Lodge at 1am on the dot... and somehow it's taken us 43 minutes to check-in and make it to our room. I'm thinking we were abducted by aliens... only logical explanation here. The day started out pretty awesome... quick shower then hit up the cafeteria one more time to grab breakfast. It was actually pretty gross... even for free. The bacon was good but the scrambled egg mass and cold dry hash browns... not so much. I filled up on fruit and chocolate milk instead for a change... well that and bacon. Tim and I wandered... semi-romantically... along the beach and Boardwalk after breakfast. I love oceans... I can geek out over the sound and sight of waves for hours. I'd come back here as a road trip stop for sure. Even though I can't imagine casino culture being squeaky clean... there's a good vibe in the air around here... probably the ocean. We left Atlantic City around 10am. A few notables on the drive... ... I thought this was awesome. Even though I don't drink coffee... I thought this presentation looked delicious. This was pretty awesome too. Seriously... we are jones'n for exercise. Everyone is starting to go nuts. We're all pretty active people (... yeah I'm marking Matt on the curve here) so sitting in a van this many days without time to really do much... if people are wondering why we're going crazy on stage... we're actually just trying to get in some cardio. We're desperate. The drive to Luzerne felt quick... I slept a bit then rode shotgun after the first shift missed the same exit like 3 times... I'm not perfect but that was killin' me. The roads are pretty tight around here so maneuvering with the trailer was a bit tricky. Luzerne reminded me of a smaller town outside of Peterborough (my hometown). The kinda place where if you aren't from there, everyone from there stares at you as they drive by. I spotted a McDonald's on the way in so I back tracked there after we got to the venue to try and finish yesterdays blog post. They had a big "no loitering" sign on the window so I felt obligated to buy something. McDonald's is cheap in the US. They aren't joking. I watched a guy order 4 McDoubles and a small fry. $5. That is craziness. Anyway, I spent the next hour trying to assemble the post... I had to put all the pictures in and re-read/edit it... I'm so tired when I write some of these that when I read over them the next morning, or in this case, the next day... I'm pretty sure people think I drink and do a lot of drugs... I don't though... in case you're wondering. I didn't manage to finish the post at McD's... luckily I found a spot in the venue with WiFi... it was nice having WiFi at the venue again. *tear* Pretty mellow day overall... Pop Evil actually sound checked today... probably because they were headlining. I got to chat a bit more with their crew... really nice guys... good chats. I love learning about peoples backgrounds.. and it's always cool hearing what bands and stuff people came from. So many of us in the business are musicians at heart. There are so many different cogs in the machine though to make things happen... but we're all pushing in the same direction. Pop Evil has 5 band members and 7 crew (including driver I think). Think about that for a minute. There were two bands before us on the bill. Small Town Titans. ... and Governing Murphy. Both solid... great response from the local crowd. Small Town Titans seemed to be moving a ton of merch. #DearBands... it's a good idea to have tons of merch available these days. I thought we played pretty darn good tonight... best of the tour so far actually. It was a bit smaller of a crowd compared to the other shows but still a fun one... especially once they loosened up a bit. I think we played a bit looser as well. We were given a slightly longer set so we tossed All I Know into the mix. I love playing that tune... again... riffs are currency in my world. I hated having to do this (feel like such a douche) but we had jet right after Pop Evil started. It's 7 hour drive to Burlington, VT and rumor is there's serious construction... so it could be closer to 10 hours. We drove a few hours tonight... and now here we are... and here I am... sitting up against a wall in a stairwell while everyone gets some sleep. I should probably shower tonight too... 5 guys and 1 bathroom is a shit storm of wtf in the morning. ... free breakfast here though... fingers crossed they have oatmeal. - Mike P.S. Sometimes this is what backstage looks like... when it's filled with Small Town Titans. P.S.S. I can't believe how short this post is.
... so we spent the night in jail. ... joking... but we did just arrive in Luzerne... and I did just find a McDonald's. :-) October 17, 2013 … it's official… I've accepted it... I have no internet access… so I probably won't be posting this until we get to the next venue... or a McDonald's or something. There is WiFI here but I'm having some IP address issue with my phone and laptop so it won't let me on… and the hotel here… a casino hotel… you have to pay for it. Unbelievable… I get it though… you spend time in a casino and you probably don't care about the $10 charge… problem for us is we have no idea who it's going to get charged to… we're not sure if this room is free or "free". … it's 2:27am… Matt and I just got back from hitting some slots downstairs. I'm down $40, but still up overall thanks to my luck in Vancouver! The machines here were a lot more expensive… even though they're $0.05… you have to play max bet in order to really make it worth your while… and that's a jump from $0.02 in Vancouver. They had $0.25 machines too… I'm not there yet though. … so this morning… it's actually really hard to remember the mornings now. It's not like we're sleeping very long so hotel stops kinda feel like food stops or pee breaks. … oh yeah… we stayed at a Days Inn… breakfast was good… waffles and oatmeal were had. I love oatmeal for breakfast in case you didn't know. I eat it pretty much everyday… except on tour/trips where I pretty much live on bacon and eggs style breakfast. I'd probably save a lot of money if I just brought an electric kettle with me and bought some instant oatmeal and fruit… maybe next time I'll do that. … although bacon and eggs is delicious. I think we were back on the road for 9:30am… a little behind schedule but I had my fingers crossed we wouldn't hit any traffic. Five guys and one bathroom means it takes a while to get everyone through. The drive was nice… even though we went through like 500 tolls, I still think the highways here are nicer… and we haven't really hit major traffic in a while… just a few bottlenecks because of construction... as long as we're moving! One of the pee breaks turned into a 30 minute stop… we were already kinda behind schedule so I was biting my tongue. One thing I've learned… don't get on someones case if they're hungry (aka waiting for food) or if they have to take a number two (aka need to sit for a while… for the greater good). We were all waiting for Tim to get back to the van… I wasn't going to guess what was going on in that service station… when he finally came out and we saw the food bag, that answered that question. ... but it wasn't until he showed us what was in the bag until we fully understood why it was worth the wait. ... that picture is worth 1,000 words right there... or at least twelve inches of words. ... I think it was longer than a foot but bottom line… we were all in shock… but like the good kind. It was quite the sight to see. I'm not sure the pic I snapped will do it justice… but again, it was alotta dog. I also tried to take a pic of the entrance to the parking lot/service station. I couldn't see because of the glare on my phone but I tried to get every single warning sign… there was like 11 signs or something... they sure do love their signs down here telling people what to do/not to do. … I have to wait until tomorrow to transfer pics to this blog as well… I usually just email them to myself to get them on my laptop but no internet/WiFi means I can't! This no internet thing is really messing up my daily routine! We arrived in Atlantic City around 3:30pm… I've never been to Vegas so I can't compare… and I haven't been to Atlantic City since I was 16-17 (hey Mom… remember that trip to Quebec I went on with a couple buddies...? well...), but I recognized a some of the buildings and the Boardwalk and stuff. We found the hotel/House of Blues, spotted the buses, and parked… again... our van... next to the buses. I gotta say Trev and Matt and are getting pretty good at backing this trailer in so at least we look like we know what we're doing... we have that going for us at least… transportation wise. We'd heard a lot about the building… how it's quite the trip from loading to the stage area. We had to wait 20 minutes or so for the crew to get down to help us load in… they were at lunch. I had to pee pretty bad so I went in to try and find a washroom. This place is a maze. Stairs and halls… and halls…. and halls. It makes very little sense. Even at the end of the day it still seems like a bit of a labyrinth in here. I finally found a way to get to the stage, found the door to the venue… and there's a number lock on it. Frig. Luckily Brent came over soon after with the code… and we were in. The venue is awesome. I know the pics don't do it justice… big stage, awesome layout, lots of access and proper ramps for loading gear. Tonight was gonna be good. Bathroom was a mess but whatever. I went back downstairs to the van and we waited a bit longer for the load-in crew to show up. Talking to the security guy there, it's a 1/4 mile to the stage to load gear. In short though, on two luggage carts, it wasn't that bad. If we had to carry everything, it would've sucked huge… but on wheels, it's just a walk… and it's not like we couldn't use the exercise at this point. Everyone is malnourished, lacking in exercise, and sleep deprived… might as well scratch one of those things off the list today. Papa Roach and Pop Evil were still setting up/doing sound check by the time we got our gear up to the stage… but there was something on all our minds as we passed through the halls. There was an employee/crew cafeteria… ... do we have access to that cafeteria. … in our eyes, that place is a buffet… a magical place at this point. The loaders joked about the quality of the food… but our laughing along with them had an undertone of "… yeah but seriously as long as it doesn't give us the shits we don't care... it's free food!" ... two things off the list! We got the word. Our passes/wristbands gave us access. We also found out we had a room (all three off the list!!!) in the hotel so we quickly ran the 1/4 mile back downstairs, grabbed our luggage, dumped our luggage, and hit that buffet… er, I mean cafeteria. We hit that place as if we've been stuck on an island for a month. I've never been so happy to see a salad bar in my life… ... I never thought I'd be so emotional responsive towards a salad bar. If you remember the show Pee-wee's Playhouse, where all the furniture and stuff in his house have faces and talk and stuff… that's what was going in my mind… from the salad bar, to the hot foods section, to the cutlery trays, to the soft serve machine. Everything was laughing, smiling, and welcoming. It truly was magical. Everyone… stuffed themselves… it was awesome. The show went well… attendance was lighter than the rest of the nights but the venue capacity was apparently 2,500 so it might have just looked that way because the place is huge. There was a really cool balcony area as well that was packed… if that wasn't open, the floor would've looked rammed for sure. I think overall it was the best set we've played this tour. Stage sound was awesome, lots of space to move around, and the crowd response was good. To the guy yelling at us to play something heavy… don't worry… "Angels" is early in Papa Roach's set… you'll be ok. Speaking of… I was standing up top for a bit of Papa Roach's set tonight... again, the sound system is awesome here. I decided Angles and I have been seeing each other for a couple weeks now… things have been going really good between us. I'm pretty cautions about my hearing and always make sure I have my ear plugs in. I felt tonight was a special night though… tonight I decided I wouldn't be using any protection… and… it was better than I'd ever imagined. … seriously… listening to them perform this song live almost everyday for a couple weeks... always a highlight of the day for me. I shoved my ear plugs back in after the tune… and enjoyed the rest of the set from side stage. Post show merch action was good. To the girl who spilled her beer all over our merch table… we are sorry about your loss… I also learned why K.C. and Ray don't put hardly anything down on the merch table. They are pros. I felt bad about the mess even though it wasn't our fault… stuff happens. They're just super accommodating with us so I try and make as small a footprint as possible. … Spinal Tap moment after Pop Evil's set. Our normal plan is to go to the merch table while Papa Roach sets up. Take care of sales, sign some shirts, set lists, tickets, cds, boobs (arms and pant legs if they are minors), take a few pics with fans, then go watch Papa Roach's set. Tim usually takes a few minutes to get there… Tim time… but he does get there. Tonight however… Tim never showed up. Again, Tim time, we weren't thinking much of it, until it just seemed like something was wrong. There's only 30 minutes between sets so it wasn't long until we were done. Maybe 5 minutes before Papa Roach was on, Tim strolls over. Us: "Where were you?" Tim: "… I ran up to the hotel room, came back down... and I got locked out." Us: "… so you were behind that door over there, 80ft away from the merch table while we signed a boatload of stuff and took a bunch of pictures." Tim: "… yeah pretty much. I was banging on the door and trying the number code and trying to find someone to help me and looking for another way to get in... it's not my fault!" Us: "Tim. You just had a Spinal Tap moment." It was pretty funny… Tim was a little flustered… but whatever… stuff happens. This place is a maze… and again, Tim time… nobody thought to check their phones. Oh… just before our set, Tony from Papa Roach came over and introduced himself. He was all smiles and seemed genuinely interested in saying hello. There was mention of us not being on the Orillia show but whatever. It's just a pleasure being part of this tour in general… I'm not about to complain about what we don't get when there's so much to be thankful for regarding what we do. Besides… it's not like we're the ones selling the ticket on this tour... let's be honest here! lol. Post show… everyone headed straight back to the cafeteria… went crazy again, and by now it was about 1am. I ate as if I wasn't going to be eating tomorrow… or the next day. I managed to drag Matt down to the slots for an hour… we were both up a little at one point but ended up going through our "entertainment budget" for the evening pretty quickly. It was a great day overall. These casino gigs are really different… maybe we've just been lucky but there's so many perks that help out bands in our situation. We have somewhere to go, somewhere to sleep, food, entertainment, staff is super nice… it's awesome. I gotta get to sleep though… it's easy to find trouble here when there's a casino 7 floors down... and people recognizing you in the lobby. Oh… you can smoke in here!? Like… in the casino area. I totally caught me off guard seeing someone smoking indoors since in Canada, you can't smoke anywhere… which I don't mind at all… gotta keep the seniors happy at their slots though I guess. … 10am van call tomorrow morning… three hour drive to Luzerne, PA. I'd like to hit the Boardwalk tomorrow morning as well before we leave… officially gone coast to coast on this tour. Awesome. - Mike P.S. This is a disaster. P.S. This is a disaster. P.S.S. I didn't get a pic of it but our room was another... single... king size... bed. A room is a room though. P.S.S.S. Sometimes this is what backstage looks like. Fruit tray, pop, water, doritos, preztles. P.S.S.S.S. This is probably overrun with typos and grammar issues... I apologize. I had to re-read this kinda quick. I ran out of time at the McD's... had to get to sound check. Doors are opening here soon... (6:09pm)
October 16, 2013 ... 1:58am... I'm only doing this tonight because I know people are reading it... I'm wicked tired right now... which is either good for the blog... or bad for the blog. Everyone slept through their alarm this morning. The plan was to get up around 8am and head down to breakfast for 8:30am. I heard the bathroom door slam around 8:45am. I guess my pillow fell off the bed, knocking my phone off the chair beside me and onto the floor... unplugging it... and somehow ending up under said pillow. Bottom line... I didn't hear my alarm go off at 7:45am. I showered before going to bed so I wasn't in a total panic... but I basically woke up, got right out of bed, and went straight downstairs to breakfast. Breakfast... most important meal of the day! It was decent... although I spotted the oatmeal too late... already committed to raisin bran. The "omelettes" were ok... but they put Kraft singles in them and that kinda ruined it. Eggs at these kinda things already taste a bit funky... but adding processed cheese is too much funk. Back on the road for 10:30am. Nothing too exciting... only highlight I can remember was wishing I had a megaphone. One of the pee stops we made had these little kids playing soccer or something on the other side of a fence/trees. Part of me wished I had a megaphone so I could yell at them (old man style) for fun. Next time... I'm bringing one... I know L&M rents them... look out kids. We arrived in Youngstown around 4pm. The venue (Rodeo Music Hall) is pretty large... a huge boomy box. It had a massive stage as well... which is nice since the last couple shows have been a bit tight for us and Pop Evil. Tim, in usual Tim fashion, was asking me a boatload of questions about things I had just as much idea about as he would... one of them being... "How do we get on/off stage?" Well... I'm assuming there are stairs on either side. It's a huge ass stage... 6ft high, maybe 50ft X 20ft... it's large. They gotta have a few sets of stairs and whatnot to get gear and people on and off it. I saw some of the Papa Roach crew (PR Crew from now on) talking to some of the venue staff about loading gear so I wandered over and listened in. Apparently... there's only one set of stairs. They have a couple ramps they use to bring gear in and out. I took a quick trip backstage to see what else was going on... there are stairs everywhere... not good... well... not as bad for us because our back line can be easily carried by a person or two. Pop Evil's gear is a lot more serious. Their guitar rigs aren't light. I went back to Tim and let him know my assumption was incorrect... and that they indeed, had built a big ass stage with only one set of stairs. So after a bit more discussion... we were to load down the ramps, down another set of stairs, through the basement (basically), and out the side door in to the parking lot. Pop Evil got to load their gear down the ramps... through the crowd... and out the front door. All I can say is when I saw that happening in real time... bless their crew. Everyone loves dragging gear through a crowd... even more than packing up in a parking lot... after it's just been raining pretty hard... and you aren't sure if it's going to start up again. The show went well... solid crowd... and I think it was the best we've played in a few shows. I counted two hiccups. Everyone was sweating buckets on stage... the lights up top were cooking us while the lights on stage were blinding us. It's a horrible combo in case you were wondering. To the photographer who was trying to get me to give him my cell phone during Papa Roach's set... I honestly had no idea what you were trying to say to me besides of "gimme your phone". I know realize what you were probably trying to say was "gimme your phone so I can give you my contact because I took a bunch of pics of you guys during your set and you might want to use some of them for personal and/or promotional purposes." My bad. We headed out around 10:!5pm... just after Papa Roach started. They were killing it again... but we wanted to get a bit of a leg up on the drive to Atlantic City. It's 6.5 hours away... even if we do a couple hours, it'll make a big difference tomorrow... which we did... and now I'm sitting in a Days Inn lobby while the girl at the front desk is... I'm assuming... watching a horror movie... it sounds like a horror movie. It's 2:26am... breakfast is 6:30am to 10am... they have waffle makers... I don't know much but I do know one thing... I'll be on the business end of that waffle maker in about 5 hours... back in the van for 9am. Tomorrow nights show is supposed to be pretty good... you know it'll be good when the crew is looking forward to it. - Mike P.S. I didn't take many pics today... and I couldn't get many decent pics inside the venue... too dark. P.S.S. I had a salad today... it was awesome.
October 15, 2013 ... oh man... I dropped a stick tonight... and it felt awesome! I took that pic from the stage after the set... definitely a few hiccups tonight but overall it was a good show. We were direct support for Papa Roach tonight so we didn't get our usual setup time... which is fine with me... we're pretty quick getting things together... and in theory, we know what we're doing. *cough* I know I usually talk about the day in order but I gotta get this "stick dropping thing" outta my system... I'm probably the only drummer on the planet right now who can drop a stick and feel absolutely amazing about it... it kinda made my night! ... just digging through some records... I don't think I've dropped a stick since... 2008! Greekfest! So what's the big deal? Well... most people freak out when something bad happens on stage. They feel like everyone is looking at them like they're an idiot and/or they suck and/or they're letting the band down, etc. It's typically a crappy feeling. If you play sports, and you care, you know exactly what I'm talking about... except in most band performance cases, there are actually people around to see you mess up. Fifteen years ago... dropping a stick would've caused me to implode... basically turn into dark matter. I loved playing but I hated being on stage... but I loved the feeling of accomplishment (high) I'd get after getting off stage. It just felt awesome to know I did something mentally I didn't want to do at all. Kinda like how you feel after getting off a roller coaster. Ten years ago... dropping a stick would've haunted me the rest of the evening... it'd be my memory of the show for the next week or so. Five years ago... dropping a stick would but crappy... but everyone is allowed to make mistakes here and there... still shouldn't be dropping sticks like some amateur though. Today... dropping a stick... meh... that's what today is. lol. The thing about live... there's 100,000 tiny moments going on. They pass so quickly... and if you're competent, you can cover really quick and go on with the show. Stuff happens! When the stick in my left handed decided to "peace out!" and fly across my rack tom and out over the front of my kit... I laughed pretty hard... inside and out. It's not like I meant to do it! lol. It just happened... and it's not like the song had to come to a stop or anything in order for me to recover... I just reached down, grabbed another stick, and kept on playing. That's all you can do. Way she goes. :-) I've seen too many musicians beat themselves up over minor hiccups on stage... but I've seen how pros react to show issues... personal and/or technical. Real pros always laugh it off, cover it up, or turn it into something special for the crowd... and never sweat the small stuff. You just have to look out at the crowd to remember everyone is there to have a good time. On that note... I'll rewind back to this morning... I'll be honest... when I woke up this morning... it finally sunk in... our hotel was mega sketchy. It was ok in a pinch (aka almost 11pm)... and we did get laundry done but still... we really gotta start calling and confirming hotels before we end up... I don't even want to say any "what ifs"... I'm pretty sure I got my yearly dose of asbestos and mold though. Short drive today... 3.5 hours. Nothing too eventful... we did see a Tim Horton's though! We ended up stopping... we had to. The inside was much nicer than any I've ever seen... and the donuts honestly looked unhealthierly delicious. Yeah I know unhealthierly isn't a word but it's fun to say (you tried it... admit it) and you know what I'm talking about. We arrived in Flint around 3pm, unpacked our gear, and then decided to go for lunch/dinner while Papa Roach was doing their fan meet and greet. There was an Arby's 2 minutes away so we headed over there. For the first time ever, we were asked out names to go along with our orders... so Brent, Dirk, Chico, Norm, and Bill all placed their orders. I went with Norm just so I could say it was short for Normal (move the accent over the 2nd syllable) if anybody asked. I was tempted to go with a name like Jashawndon Tobias Kendreak King... but... as good as I am... there's no way I could've kept a straight face. Arby's is awesome by the way... meat, bun, sauce... smart. Back to the show... there was an opener tonight called No Resolve. They were pretty good... the singer was mentioning we should do some show trades once I told him we were from Toronto. I told him straight up, don't waste your time. He looked confused. We've played three shows in the US and they've been hands down better than any show I've played in Canada... probably ever. Combine that with cheaper gas, more cities, more people, music fans who buy cds and attend shows... easy choice. Sure you can tour and play shows for the sake of touring and playing shows... but it's a long drive to play to 40 people standing with their arms crossed in Toronto. I love Canada... but it's no secret... it's hard for bands to make a living in music there... it's math. No Resolve is heading out on tour with Trapt soon (I overheard) so that should be pretty fun. Good band and all the best to those guys! Papa Roach killed it again. Not much more to add... old hat now. Machine Shop really held up it's end of the bargain though... sold out crowd... rowdy crowd... but responsibly rowdy. Tim and I ended up taking a shuttle van back to the hotel after with a few others at the show... this about sums up the night. ... gotta come home with your shoes on kids. P.S. After our set, it started raining... and we had to load our gear outside to pack it up... that sucked. I'm scared to see the actual aftermath... hopefully it's hot today so we can dry our stuff out a bit.
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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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