October 14, 2013
... two goals today. 1. Drive to the other side of Chicago (playing in Flint, MI tomorrow). 2. Do laundry. A bit of a late start this morning... didn't end up getting out of the hotel until 12pm. I checked Google maps and there were a few places on the other side of Chicago that had vacancies at Holiday Inn Expresses. We prefer them because they have breakfast, a "gym", pool, and in this case... which is desperately needed... laundry. Nothing too eventful today... driving... driving... construction... driving... construction. We made pretty crappy time on the road and I knew around 4pm it wasn't going to be an early evening (it's 1:26am right now). At one of our stops for gas... I saw something we'd been keeping an eye out for since last summer... well we've seen them but it's always been like $35+ and nobody in the band will actually pony up the cash to buy it. Our van has no CD player or Aux input for iPods. Most of Canada that we've been touring has no radio so the van is typically pretty quiet aside from our own chatter. Yes... we're probably the only band in Canada that doesn't listen to music on tour... because we basically can't... partially because we can't afford it. lol. So in this gas station store, I saw the Cassette-to-1/8" adapter for iPods... for $15. I had the free breakfast that morning so I figured I'd put my per diem towards it as a gift for the guys and Green Machine (van). Maybe it'd make things a little better in there since now we'd actually be able to listen to music. I make the purchase and bring it back to the van. I show the guys what I'd found. First response... "How much did that cost?" "$15" "That's a lot." ... well... you're welcome guys. I also realized buying this adapter possibly meant two things... 1. Giving up my iPod for personal use... for the greater good. 2. Being subjected to metal. I'm totally cool with metal... but on 10 hour drives... that's too much metal... and although metal is a great soundtrack to road rage... it doesn't help suppress road rage whatsoever. I opened the package, and Tim plugged everything in. iPods are alphabetical and I have a lot of music on there... days and days. So what's the first thing he puts on? ABBA. Occupants of Green Machine revolt. I understand it's just music... but I was a little concerned some people might get out of the van, push it over, and set it ablaze. ... next choice... Johnny Cash. ... someone has a problem with that. ... Foo Fighters... someone doesn't like the first song on the album. ... we did manage to stay on Guns'n Roses for a bit... but still... all could not agree on what to listen to. I yelled at Tim a few times "no schizo DJ's". It's a pet peeve of mine... but I can't argue it too much because that's how peoplw consume music these days. One song at a time. Finally we landed on Motely Crue's, Shout At The Devil and everyone was ok... for a bit. Bottom line... this adapter was ripping our band apart. Sorry guys. Eventually we did start making it through some albums though... Smashing Pumpkins... Rage Against The Machine... U2... I'm sure things will settle down and although it was highly disruptive... the addition of "music" to the van will overall be a positive one. So back to driving... and driving... and construction... and driving... and tolls... and driving, construction, tolls, tolls, driving, and tolls. Seriously that was our day. We were talking about how awesome it is gas is cheaper in the US but the amount of tolls we paid to today might have evened it out. ... actually it's still far cheaper to drive in US than Canada. We finally made it past Chicago and set the GPS for a place called Portage. It had a Holiday Inn Express. I asked Matt this morning if he wanted me to call and make a reservation and he said no, we'll just try our luck. We arrived at the hotel, went in, asked the lady at the front desk about vacancies and she quickly said "no we're full". ... we'll that's not good. There were a couple signs around town that said "Welcome Elvis Fans" or something along those lines... I starting thinking maybe there was an Elvis convention going on or something and we might be screwed for a place to sleep tonight... it was 11pm already... and worse... no place to do laundry. I seriously have nothing left except pinstripe stage shorts and a button up dress shirt. So we get back in the van and backtrack a few blocks to a Days Inn... the one with the Elvis sign actually, and ask for room there... $80, good to go! Laundry? Yes! I had to laugh since when we checked in... I was looking along the lines of "people of Walmart"... I went back to ask the guy at the front desk about quarters for the laundry machines dressed like I was going on a date or something. ... it's all I had left! I think we're back on the road for 9am tomorrow. I just heard the dryer down the hall stop... so I'm gonna stop here as well. The show tomorrow is sold out and I've heard tons of awesome about the Machine Shop. Should be good! - Mike P.S. I hardly took any pictures today... but this basically sums up the day.
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October 13, 2013 ... we made it out of the hotel parking lot at 5:57am. I slept most of the drive to Minneapolis today. Tim nudged me in the van to wake me up once we got close to the border... the officer there seemed pretty easy going... didn't make fun of us too long about our van and sent us on our way. ... I think we drove a couple more hours until we stopped for breakfast... breakfast at IHOP! We've been trying to hit up one for a while now but finally... we made it! Pancakes! Pancakes with everything! Pancakes with a side of Pancakes! ... you'd think the highlight of IHOP would be the pancakes but it wasn't... it was Marvin our waiter... he was awesome. A lanky black gentleman with a tight afro and a peppy line for every single question you could throw at him... always delivered with a straight face. Wanna know about drinks? Marvin will fill you in. Sides? Marvin has the inside scoop. Can't decide what you want? Marvin knows what you need.... and above all that... he will tell you how many pancakes your meal comes with. ... IHOP... known for their fluffy pancakes. The food was good... I really liked all the berry flavored syrups they have on the table. Marvin brought us out hot maple syrup but go with the berry stuff... it's all sugar anyway. After we finished eating... Marvin kicked into high gear. "Lemme get that outta yo' way." As if our empty plates and dirty cutlery were mobs of people crowding our space... Marvin took care of them... he cleared the path... and every time he leaned in to take something off the table... "Lemme get that outta yo' way." "Lemme just get that outta yo' way fo' ya." "Lemme get that... make some space here... get that outta the way." I thought he was amazing. He was working hard. When I was at the cash breaking a bill for the tip, I noticed everyone there was working pretty hard. I also noticed some people were treating the employees like crap, and some were treating them as what I'd consider "normal" (aka politely). Work hard, be polite... the rest is up to everyone else. ... in short... again... Marvin was awesome. After breakfast we were back in the van and once again en route to the legendary First Avenue. Speaking of driving... I totally missed something yesterday. Mike Mascioli (Age Of Days - Manager) met up with us in Winnipeg to catch a couple shows and he was travelling with us today. When I came out for "bus call", he was already in the drivers' seat... ready to go. He drove the entire way today (7 hours). It might not seem like a big deal, but it allowed everyone to sleep/pass out. Something we all very much needed... especially Matt. He does the bulk of the driving and has been a tank regarding the "grinder" work overall. These kinda jobs take their toll after a while and if you toss in something like a head cold... the grind really wears away at you. Matt might argue he only slept a couple hours today... but being able to sit shotgun and sleep/rest most of the day while Mike drove makes a big difference. Matt looks healthier today. lol. Thinking about it more... at this level... the balance between good/not good is very sensitive. Minor inconveniences can snowball into major problems just as a minor hand can be a huge help. I'm pretty sure Mike will read this, but seriously, thanks again for driving today... it's going to make a big difference this week (6 shows in a row) with everyone getting some rest today. Minneapolis was pretty neat on first impression... except all the sad looking Vikings fans wandering the streets. Being a Leafs fan, it was kinda like seeing Leafs fans the last decade except in purple football jerseys. The venue is amazing. I wish I took more pictures... especially the outside. Seems like everyone has played there. They have the names written in these silver stars on the outside of the building which is super cool. In behind the stage they had some old set lists. There were two I had to snap pics of... I'll be honest... I touched them. ... I had to... it's The Hives! ... and friggin' Soundgarden... well probably just Cornell now that I actually read the song titles... but still! Show went well... crowd was awesome again. I ended up running merch a bit more tonight... I think I'll end up doing that until we have a full time merch person. It's easy for me and I enjoy it. I did sneak off during Pop Evil and Papa Roach to take some pics though. ... apparently there was a guy in a wheelchair crowd surfing during Papa Roach... I wish I had of seen that. That is definitely something to see! lol. Pop Evil did a meet and greet/signing after Papa Roach's set and the merch area was buzzing for quite a while after the show. We are selling a ton of CD's and many of the people buying are saying they had no idea who we were before tonight... but were pleasantly surprised. ... it's awesome. We're now back at the hotel... 2 queens tonight... big upgrade! Breakfast too! I'm hanging out in the front lobby/lounge area... the front desk guy probably thinks I'm nuts since I'm still up click-clackin' away on my laptop at 2:30am. ... well... nuts or "important". It was a good day though. Day off/travel day tomorrow to Flint. Laundry is a must tomorrow. I'm out of clean shirts... although... I wonder how far I could get tomorrow just wearing track pants and a tie. - Mike P.S. That guy's body language tells me he might have accidentally set that ginormous fire behind him. I'm tempted to sharpie in some whistling notes to make it official. October 12, 2013 ... I think I left off at sound check... which I felt like ass during. The no sleep thing has really caught up to me. You know that feeling when you can do something easily 1,000 times and then all of a sudden your body just isn't responding? Well that was sound check. I simple felt "muscularly unresponsive". ... that being said, I was more focused on food after I'd heard we were welcome to the buffet... buffet is the magic word! The problem was it closed at 8pm and we started sound check around 7:20pm. Most of us were determined to hit up that buffet though... roast beef... veggies... salad bar... pecan pie! If only it was open now... I'd go back... after what we've been eating the past week... it was a magical place. Overeating was a concern... but I think we all did anyway. We hit the stage at 9pm. I forgot to mention around 3am last night I realized I'd forgotten one of my iPods in Lloydminster. I use one to play an intro song and I have a habit of not remembering to get it back from the FOH guy after I'm done packing. Yes... we live in a time were losing an iPod is like "whatever". The tech that pretty much brought the music industry to it's knees isn't worth that much either anymore. I spent a few minutes emailing all the iPod nano ads on Kijiji close to the hotel to see if anybody wanted to sell me one cheap and deliver... no luck. It turns out the Papa Roach crew grabbed it for me... those guys are saints... and probably wondering how we function since we're losing shit everyday. Ah well... I got a second chance with it... hopefully that's the last time I lose/forget something... especially that iPod. The show went well... great crowd again here in Winnipeg. I played like crap... first time in a while I'd admit it... although I don't think anybody else would notice. lol. It's totally a personal thing about how you played and how you're feeling. I've felt way off all day... not like "drunk" or anything... just uncoordinated due to lack of sleep and proper nutrition... I really wish I could keep my normal diet from home... it's so hard though with the schedule and the traveling conditions. Pop Evil and Papa Roach were awesome again... a given at this point. There were these gaps at the front of the stage and I thought at the beginning of the show "someone is gonna slip through there"... well... Jacoby ended up being that guy tonight. It was a scary moment since the band kept playing and he just sat there in pain. The thought crossed my mind... he snapped his ankle or leg or something... tour is over... we all go home. Life is funny sometimes... and shit happens. A minute later he got up, walked it off, and finished the show. I wouldn't be surprised if he's still in pain... it looked really painful. Gotta be careful though... it's way too easy to fall off stuff when you're rocking. It's 1:22am... I gotta get to bed... we're heading back to the US tomorrow and it's a 8-9 hour drive. We voted to sleep a bit and leave at 6am... we'll see how close we get to that! - Mike P.S. Best thing about the room we got today is the bed... king size! Perfect for a 5-piece band. *cough* P.S.S. I've narrowed it down to two people.
October 12, 2013
... so if you read the last post, you'd know we had to haul ass outta Lloyd(minster) last night pretty much as soon as Papa Roach hit the stage. Winnipeg was an 11 hour drive... so including stops and whatnot... we were looking at a 13-14 hour trip. We left last night at 11:30pm, arrive at the hotel/venue here at 2pm... made pretty good time if I might add. I was debating doing a longer post (lol... of course!) but yesterday was pretty relaxed... I think it was the first time in a while everybody in the band got some sleep. It was nice not having to rush to the venue either... although I was joking internally we'd still find a way to be late/end up rushing. We had breakfast at the hotel, stopped by Walmart to grab a few things for out merch table, and then headed over to the venue to load in. I like this club... The Kooler. It's definitely got an edge to it... and I think it's a strip club most of the time... but it's got a good stage and setup. Sound system could use an overhaul but more drinking equals sonic indifference. There's a few balcony type areas and I grabbed a pic from up top. It probably looks like complete mayhem but that's what bigger (organized) stages look like. You set up in front of whoever is playing after you. Very easy system, especially when striking the stage. By the time the headliner hits the stage, it'll look nice and clean. The show filled up pretty good... crowd response was good again. It's kind of a bummer when you have to leave a show early... unless the show sucks of course... but these shows are awesome... so I like staying til the end... you never know what might happen at real rock shows. We packed up our merch after Papa Roach hit the stage, tossed it in the van, and were on our way... directly to McDonald's. Two bacon cheeseburgers and small fries. That's the ticket there... you get the taste... but less guilt... and probably less gut... and gut rot. Oh I gotta say one more thing about stage/gear/packing stuff. When we're done... our gear is off stage so friggin' fast and Pop Evil is up and line-checked in 15-20 minutes. There's no reason to pack up your gear on stage. Take it off stage, pack it somewhere else. The only thing I sorta pack on stage is my in-ears rig because if I lose anything there, I could be screwed. It's a couple cables and a mixer I just shove into my empty cymbal bag beside me. It's still quick, but that's as much as I pack up on stage. Our gear usually ends up outside the venue near our van/loading area. We pack up there. We have it down to a science now packing/loading. Some people will argue switching up jobs keeps things fair... but it gets down to efficiency. If you do the same job every night, you'll fall into a routine and that speeds up the process and minimizes mistakes. Of course mistakes will happen from time to time... nobody is immune from nightly variables... but again, it certainly minimizes them. Everyone packs up their own gear, and while I'm packing my drums, Trevor and Matt are loading the trailer. It's Tetris, but it works. The same I'd say goes for every other aspect of running a band... trade off jobs when you aren't sure who's good at what, but eventually people will fall into rolls they're reliable at... hopefully. So the drive... I rode shotgun from 11:30pm to 8am maybe? I know I passed out a couple times (probably 30 mins total) but I was aware I was asleep at least. I hit my second wind around 3am so it wasn't too bad overall. We did stop off at a Tim Horton's that was just putting out it's "freshly baked" donuts. That was torture... I really wanted to buy a dozen, eat them, go crazy on sugar, then pass out for good... but that would've been selfish and irresponsible. ... only a large french vanilla was purchased. During Trevor's shift driving we saw a ton of wildlife over the span of about 10 minutes... coyotes, deer, I wanna say a cow... I might have been dreaming though. There were a half dozen splattered coyotes... I'm just glad we saw everything far enough in the distance... definitely not interested in seeing anything up close... like "through the windshield again" close. We stopped for breakfast in Neepawa...bacon and eggs... served by typecast movie grandma... she was awesome... then I switched off riding up front in the van to try and get some sleep. We arrived at the hotel around 2pm (I called it!) and I finally took a quick nap. I officially feel tired now though... last night was ok but I'm definitely feeling it now. Why am I not sleeping now? Just waiting to setup and do sound check... :-) October 11, 2013
I'm trying to do this from my phone since I probably won't have internet access until sometime tomorrow afternoon... it's a long drive to Winnipeg. I snapped this pic just before our set tonight. It's my 1,000 words about 100's of 1,000's of bands out there. This is what back stage looks like... most of the time. ... I feel like there's some funny business going on... because empty toilet paper rolls seem to be everywhere I turn... that or someone in this band is using way more squares than necessary. October 10, 2013 ... today I finally did something I've needed to do badly since day 2 into the trip. I feel like I've been playing a harmonica covered in sandpaper all week. My lips have been sooooooo dry since I got out west... to the point I find myself licking them, painfully, the entire day. I probably look like an idiot during shows... or LL Cool J during any music video... but seriously, my lips have been in pain. It should've been an easy solution to pick something up but believe it or not, we haven't been close to a drug store during any stops... and all the stuff I've seen in gas stations have been the kind an 11 year old girl would buy... and I just don't want to have to explain what that's doing in my pocket to anybody. So we finally went into a little plaza today and there she was... Shoppers Drug Mart... it was like a much needed knee surgery... for my lips! So where did I leave off... today was a travel day from Regina to Lloydminster... no need to go into more detail with what the actual drives are like... so I'm gonna make this more of a photo diary blog post... because I can! We stopped off at a nearby Humpty's for breakfast. I love Humpty's. It's affordable and mostly breakfast food... with proper hash browns. This is actually the same infamous Humpty's we stopped at last year during the Buckcherry tour... were the great "you guys can't park there" incident took place. In short... we parked our van/trailer across 4 spots (since it was easier to get in/get out of the parking lot. I guess the owner didn't like that... but in reality, if all 5 of us drove, we'd be taking up 5 spots. The waitress told us we couldn't park there in a pretty bitchy way, and I sorta went all Ice T/Spock on her about it. Too hungry... and her case had not enough logic. This time we just did a "pull through park" over top of two spots on either side... taking up four spaces. It was awesome. No complaints this time though. Bacon and eggs were ordered... consumed... and check this out... ... how frightening is that! lol. On the wall behind the cash, they had these kid's colorings on the wall. I had to take a picture of a couple... I want to meet the kids that did these. Let's start with the shoes... yellow... that's ok... pants... brown... sounds good... blue shirt, classy... face... blue mustache... ok kinda weird but this is through a child's eyes. Speaking of eyes... what's going on Humpty? Sleepless nights? Been having a little too much fun with the boys down at the pub? Did you forget to bring a towel? Seriously... those are some red eyes you've got there... might need to grab some Visine Humpty. I wonder what's going on at home if this is what normal eyes look like to this kid... red hat is solid though. Picture number two... brown shoes, blue pants, blue shirt (denim on denim perhaps... not my style but to each their own)... mustache... why so sad in the eyes Humpty? Trouble at home again? Get passed over at the office for that big promotion? Red hat... I figured they'd all be wearing green hats in Regina. My favorite thing about the picture though is the hand gesture/body language. It's"WTF?". "WTF!? You took my parking spot!?" "WTF!? How was I supposed to know when you said cheese, it meant you wanted me to pick up cottage cheese on the way home?!" "WTF!? ... like seriously guys... WTF!!?" Poor Humpty... can't catch a break these days. Hopefully the kids that colored these pictures turn out alright down the road. We arrived in Lloydminster around 5:30pm (I think), checked into our hotel, then went downstairs for dinner. I've been craving an actual "dinner" dinner for days now so I had chicken, mash, and veggies. There's a grocery store down the street so I was thinking if I still had space in my gut, I'd grab one of those big ass pre-made salads. We headed there after (in the wrong direction at first... my bad guys) and picked up a few things. Basically, we all bought bananas. Just a bunch of dudes all buying bananas and heading back to their hotel room... nothing weird about that... Speaking of hotel... when we got back I felt everything was wrong... like as soon as we walked in the door, it felt like bizarro world. I said to the guys about 10 times... all the way up to our room... "I think we're in the wrong hotel." Nobody else seemed to notice until we reached "our room." We went back down to the lobby and tried to sneak past the front desk girls as to not look (even more) like losers. Mind you, Brent had just asked them where the gym was and we all went to have a look at it... what a waste of harsh elitist criticism. ... anyway... wrong hotel boys... we're next door. Back to the room... I decided now was a good time to Skype with the lady for a bit. I haven't had much quality WiFi time (or time in general) and tonight I was planning on taking it easy. I found a quiet corner in a stairwell and we chatted for an hour or so. It's awesome we have video chat these days... it's one thing to be able to hear someones voice but it's awesome to be able to see the eyes and smile of someone you miss and that misses you. It's midnight here now... I'm about to call it a day... apparently the show tomorrow will be rammed... should be awesome if the venue is as big as I remember. Big drive after the show tomorrow night to Winnipeg... not looking forward to that... but it'll be a great test to see if we can rectify our tardiness issue. - Mike ... one more thing... spotted this at the hotel. That fire is clearly on the stairs... I'd take my chances with the elevator.
... third time this week. C'mon boys... I wish this was a joke... maybe they're just messing with me. I hope they are... but I have a feeling this is someones cry for help. October 9, 2013 I did get an hour sleep this morning... I admit... I've felt like a bag of crap all day though. I thought I could sleep more in the van but there's a steady stream of distractions in there. If it's not one thing, it's another... and if it's not another... it's probably farts or something. I don't mean this in a bad way... it's pretty entertaining in there... the farts could go though... that's our own fault though from eating all the fast food lately... and perhaps a certain chip truck burger. We got back on the road around 7:45am... big drive today to Regina. About 3 hours in, Tim thought we should check/put some more air in the tires... we seemed to be losing air in the right rear consistently. We stopped and then drove awhile longer... Tim asked Brent to pop his head out the door while stopped passing through a town to see how the tire was doing... not good apparently... like "danger" not good. We pulled over to a gas station put some more air in it, and realize it was now full on hissing. Officially 100% not good. Lucky for us, we noticed all this right alongside a strip of highway that's all tire shops. What are the odds? We pull into a used tire shop... guy looks at the van... within an 45 minutes we've got the rear tires replaced and one of the wheels on the trailer swapped out as well. This is good. The tire swap took no time at all actually... it was more waiting for them to finish with their current customers... in the meantime we walked down the street to grab some Tim Horton's. Awesome. It's funny because even though I was bitching a little about the drive last night... everything happens for a reason, and I don't think we would've caught this, where we caught this if we didn't do the drive last night. Hopefully this somewhat preventative maintenance avoided a potential catastrophe in the middle of the night... or worse... the middle of nowhere... at night. Again... you have to factor in an additional 30% for time on these trips to actually get a more accurate arrival time. This can also cover some time for unforeseen events such as blown tires... and frequent pee stops. (I'm sitting in the lobby of a Quality Inn right now... the guys are all asleep and I didn't want to be click clackiting away in the room. I hate the arms on this chair I'm sitting in though... it's too tight... gonna try and power through it... I'm sure this chair is of high quality for sitting... but not for sitting with a laptop.) Aside from the tire situation this morning... it was just driving, driving, driving. We ended up arriving in Regina a couple hours later than originally planned (again... add 30% people!)... but the Papa Roach crew seemed understanding of our tardiness. Still... we really need to start leaving earlier. By the time we got there, Papa Roach and Pop Evil had finished with the stage for sound check and were basically waiting for us (knowing we were running late with tire problems). Pop Evil was spending some time messing around with monitors so it wasn't like people were just sitting on their hands. I think we had our gear unpacked and on stage in record time. No joke, I think we were setup and sound checked in 40 minutes... which I think is pretty quick! The venue isn't huge but we knew it was going to be rammed... it sounded great on stage and we were good to go! ... got our hotel room sorted out... took a quick shower... and back over to the venue for 8pm... on stage for 8:30pm. Another decent set I thought... a couple hiccups shuffled around again, but that's cool/normal. Fan response was great... last time we played here was ok, but didn't have anywhere near this strong of a line up... we were headlining! lol. Fans were singing along... it's always awesome to see a few people in the crowd who know every word to every song. I wanted to stick around and see Papa Roach's set for sure. Big bands in smaller clubs... that's my jam. I'm not sure the last time they've played a place this "small"... well it's not small, just where the bands are is a smaller section of the venue. If you are a big Papa Roach fan... this would be type of place to see them... it'd be like seeing them at a private party... and even though it was a smaller venue... they threw down hard. They were awesome. "Where Did the Angles Go" was ridiculous... again... it's such a good song... it's not fair how much it rocks recorded and how much it rules live! Again, riffs are currency in my world... that tune's a blank check to me. Jacoby put on a clinic as far as being a front man goes. He was everywhere... interacting with the fans, and sweating his bag off. It was super hot in there... but too awesome an atmosphere to worry about. A couple times in the set he'd finish a tune and bolt out the side door into the alley for a couple seconds. I could see him talking and laughing with his crew once he'd come back it... didn't need much experience reading lips to see he was laughing about how "f*cking hot!" it was up there. It's a rock show though... one the people who came out won't soon forget. We stuck around and did merch a while longer... we did attempt to pack up earlier but the Papa Roach merch guy (Ray I think...) yelled at us to get our shirts back out since people were still stopping by. lol. It's such a fun group... I know I keep saying that but it's just great vibe all around. Finally made it back over to the hotel around 1am... it's 2am now... I think it's bed time for me. We're off to Lloydminster tomorrow... travel day but also a day off. Everyone needs sleep and a good meal... and we could use a couple hours to have a band meeting/vocal rehearsal. Even if you're playing all the time and around each other 24/7, I think it's still a good idea to make time for a vocal rehearsal, and to go over band details/Q&A period. ... I think I've been up for close to 4 days now (with what I'd consider a few naps)... funny how time flies! lol. - Mike
October 8, 2013 .. I'm not sure you can tell, but it's, as far as I'm concerned, the perfect bottle of water. A 3-4" layer of ice chunks at the top. Oh man... I wish I had one of those right now. I love ice cold water... it's amazing stuff! So cold! Anyway... Thrillhouse (check out their facebook page here) went on at 8pm, we were on at 8:30... I thought we played pretty good. Stage sound was great and that makes things easier. Our transitions between songs was a lot better tonight too. It's gonna take time to work out the kinks as I've said before... there's only so much you can do in the rehearsal space... it's different having a crowd there... things are gonna happen and you just gotta roll with it... good and bad. ... highlight... Trevor jumped off the stage at one point and went over to this dude in a wheelchair and everyone over there was banging on his guitar... I don't know what it sounded like... I can't really hear guitar too much in my in-ears (I typically just get vocal on smaller stages), but it looked super cool! Another was actually during sound check... we usually play "Live Out Loud"... it kinda covers all the bases... but just after the bridge I was thinking... 'wow... we are really killing this song today... like... I don't think we've ever played it this good... ever... in two years.' ... now what it sounded like out front, I have no idea... but feel wise... we destroyed that song. I felt like we got to Edmonton, unpacked our gear, set up our gear, and then threw down "Live Out Loud" better than ever. It's a great feeling... and the goal is to make as much of the set feel that good... it's a natural progression though... sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. (... 4:15am... maybe I'll just stay up and listen to music. I haven't done that in a while! lol... I can be the 6am alarm clock to make sure we're on the road for 7am) Pop Evil was awesome again... but because of the drive, we had to skip out after Papa Roaches first song. I was sorta bummed I couldn't get a pic of them in the venue... iPhone died. I did snap a few pics of Pop Evil though. We stopped by McDonald's on the way... Bacon Cheeseburger X2 + small fries is the way to go. You can rock both 'burgs separate or remove a top bun and create what I'm going to name right now, a McBaconMac w/ cheese. ... I gotta chill on the fast food though... it's only been a week and I already feel a little jiggly up top... it doesn't take long people. ... 3.5 hours later, we were back in Calgary. Looking forward to Regina tomorrow though... we played there back in June (I think) and it kinda sucked (I know)... time to throw down for real... for real in Regina. - Mike P.S. This happened... again... twice in one week! ... unless you're gonna change that sh*t... don't take that sh*t.
October 7, 2013
... call me a foodie... as I eat McDonald's. I did swap out the pop for a mango smoothie though so that's kinda healthy right? Mango's a vegetable. *cough* Although I do feel like I got some sleep... it's funny how much of a difference it makes when you can wake up on your own vs being woken up. Everyone seemed to wake up here around 11am... after getting to bed at 6am... although most got a few hours sleep in the van last night. We got cleaned up, did some laundry, and were out the door for breakfast by 2pm. Yeah that's kinda late for breakfast but we were in denial we drove all night I guess. Another trip to Ricky's. I gotta say, their shredded hash browns are an embarrassment to the potato. Maybe it's just bad luck but I've had them twice in a week and they are terrible. They taste like pasta... chewy... they're the kind that should be crispy. Anyone who knows me, knows I love ketchup. Specifically fries and ketchup. So when I have a chance to enjoy some hash browns and ketchup first thing in the morning... and I get these... it's just terrible shredded disappointment... and an uphill battle all day to regain my baseline level of happiness. Also... if you have 3 different kinds of breakfast potatoes... you have 2 more than you need. Pick the best one, job done. After breakfast, we headed over to the venue (Cowboys) to load in and sound check. The bar is really nice... decent amount of stage to accommodate the bands. Pop Evil let us set up after Papa Roach again so we got to do a bit of a sound check. I honestly don't expect much in the opening slot. Pop Evil is so solid though that they might be indifferent to having a sound check. I've talked to a couple of them and they've been on tour forever. Papa Roach is also running a digital FOH (Front Of House) console so that might help keep some of the settings consistent... and speed up the change over process. Bottom line, it's a big help for us and we're super appreciative! There was only one dressing room which Papa Roach obviously had dibs on. Pop Evil has a bus. So we were wandering around before the show... it was too cold to hang around our van any longer so we eventually just headed in to the venue to wait to go on. I was chatting with a few friends there and it seemed like a few people recognized me which was neat. Just before we were to go on I was looking for everybody else... I found Matt and Tim sitting on the stairs next to the stage. I guess we could hang out in the hallway behind the stage like rock stars... or just... sit on the stairs behind the guitar tech station... drinking... a couple bottles of water. I wish I had a picture of it but in short, that's a 1,000 words of what it's like to be an opening band sometimes... or just a band in general. You want to be "rock star" as much as all the other bands... but you'll occasionally catch yourself doing something that's as rock star as having your mom drop off your lunch for you at school. Our set was decent... a couple new hiccups but again, there are certain things you just have to work out during the set... and you only get one chance a night to work them out. Tim was trying to add in a crowd interaction part at the end of "I Did It For Love" and I think he lost his place... and started going into the next section. It was the classic case of everyone looks at the one guy in the band they assume knows what's going on (in this case, me) and hopefully everyone can hold it together. I did catch a couple guys move onto the next section for a couple notes but then quickly go back to the correct arrangement. Even though we rehearse a lot instrumentally... it's crazy how strong the urge is to follow vocal cues. I even caught myself wanting to move onto the outro but it just didn't make sense were we were in the section. Ah well... stuff happens... gotta have a bit of danger in rock music. Tim covered for it, still sounded like music, and we laughed about it after. Again, hiccup. Oh... and to the guy heckling us about having to move our own gear off stage... well... yeah... I guess we are losers if we have to move our own gear. Have you seen our tour van? lol. We have zero tour support at this point but if he's willing to write a cheque... :-) Crowd response was good again though. Lots of new fans came up to talk to us in the crowd after. Yes we walk around in the crowd after the set... most opening bands should... it's important. Nobody typically knew who you were before the set so they think it's kinda cool you're around to talk to and get pictures and stuff. It's not like you're going to get mobbed or anything... plus I still enjoy watching the sets from out in the crowd. I get shit from people sometimes for sitting down and shows while I watch the bands. They assume I'm not having a good time. I can have a pretty good time sitting down... I've perfected it in some ways. I used to bring my Nintendo DS to shows... I was there to listen to the bands more than watch them. Think about it. Papa Roach was really good tonight again... Jacoby was all through the crowd which was cool. Canada is pretty tame so you can do that without risk. Oh... I think some Montreal Canadians players were at the show as well... I just checked and they're playing in Calgary on Wednesday. I'd heard talk earlier PK Subban was there so the story kinda adds up. They were pretty tall... I know I'm not that tall but they were pretty damn tall. After Papa Roach's set we hung out around merch a while longer, took some pics, signed some cds, then packed up, headed out, stopped by McDonald's, and now I'm sitting at Tim's watching Conan. We're off to Edmonton tomorrow... Union Hall... apparently there's a 4th band on the bill and I'm curious how that's going to work since that stage is small and that place isn't huge. The setup is neat since the club/bar wraps around the stage area... but it's a bit of a logistics nightmare for moving gear around... we'll see how it goes... it'll still be good times I'm sure. - Mike P.S. No shortage of tits in Calgary... always a party... good times. :-) October 6, 2013 Remember when I said hopefully we can go a while keeping a reasonable day/night schedule? Well that's completely out the window now. We ran into a tiny bit of drama after the show Saturday... hiccups can really snowball into something larger when you're on a busy (and somewhat tight) travel schedule. I think I slept 3-4 hours Saturday night, and 2 hours so far today/tonight... it's a 12 hour drive from Seattle to Calgary... so much for having today off! lol. So after we got back to the hotel last night (1am), we realized some luggage was left behind at the venue. The bright side... it's not like we realized this after driving several hours to the next city... or worse, once we got to the border. This is one of those situations where everyone feels bad. You'd feel bad if it was you, so you'd rather it just not happen to anybody in the first place and wish you would've seen it/grabbed it. Bands are a team sport. But it's also understanding the difference between "everyone for themselves" and "taking care of your own stuff". That's also part of being a team player. My rule of thumb, never assume someone packed it. If you aren't sure it was packed, double check. You'll never be sorry you held everything up another 5 minutes to double checked and make sure you have everything. I'm constantly double checking I have everything, very easy to understand since I'm a drummer, but still sometimes I lose/forget things. It happens. We were only 20 minutes from the venue so I made a couple calls to see if anybody was still there. No dice. Matt and I decided to head back over just in case someone was still there. No dice... but we did manage to catch the Papa Roach crew and they mentioned the venue staff pointed out some luggage was left behind. At least we know where it is. They had a show going on the next day so it was just a matter of stopping by once the staff get there to grab it. Matt and I got back to the hotel around 2:30am, I slept horribly for a few hours then decided to just get up to hit up the continental breakfast. It's about 8am. Matt got word the venue staff should be in around noon... so we need to kill about 4 hours... 4 hours that we could be en route to Calgary. I'll tell you right now, it's 6am here (6:35am as I attempt to proofread)... that theoretically means we would've got here at 2am today. There's a massive difference in case you're wondering. Another thing, here's a basic formula to tour travel to how long the drives actually are. Trip X 1.3 = Actual Trip Seattle to Calgary = 12 hours 12 hours X 1.3 = 15.6 ... so let's just say 15.5 hours. We left Seattle at 1pm yesterday realistically. 1pm + 15.5 hours = 6:30am ... then factor in the time change... it'd be 7:30am. ... I think that's all correct. ... bottom line. The formula works pretty well regardless of where you're going... I knew we'd get in a lot later than the GPS was saying but way she goes... we were spoiled off the top of this tour... that's for sure... well... coming from a guy who skipped 3 days of driving by flying out. lol. Speaking of regardless of where you're going... crossing back into Canada was pretty easy. Much shorter line, about a 15 minute wait. Matt handed our passports over to the officer, he asked a couple questions... one being where everyone is from. Matt, in his super thoroughly honest response way said "Richmond Hill, Calgary, Toronto, Toronto, and Peterborough." The officer then asked how do we practice (being a band) if we all live so far apart? "Well we get together to rehearse before we do shows/tour"... part of me was hoping Matt would've said something like "We don't rehearse... we suck live." The officer then asked if this was a full time thing... "... well we'd like it to be... that's the goal." I'm pretty sure the officer was holding back the giggles... we certainly don't travel like rock stars.... and our van clothes certainly don't help us look the part either. He handed back our passports and sent us on our way. Such a long travel day though... at least the border didn't add any more time than necessary... especially more "waiting" time. I spent most of the day riding shotgun... the roads are constantly curving and winding through the mountains which is awesome to see during the day... but at night it sucks. The wildlife warning signs suck more... fog sucks too... the combination makes the trip amazingly stressful... well, stressful if you care about your well being and safety of others. I think they threw some "people crossing" and a single mountain goat sign in there just for good measure. ... everywhere a sign. Another highlight was witnessing this happen. I'll let you figure it out... ... if you can't see it... I mustache you to look again. We eventually made it back to Calgary though. We're playing Cowboys tonight which should be good. Last show here was with Buckcherry back in July which was great. We were all sleep deprived from shooting the "I Did It For Love" video so when we hit the stage... we were all sorta on autopilot. I don't know how many people were actually in attendance but it was definitely into legit "crowd" territory. Oh... I broke down and had McDonald's today... I'm only ordering off the value menu from now on at fast food places... nobody needs that drink... I also ate at Jack In The Box today as well... speaking of drinks... keep in mind, they ask you small, regular, or large. This is regular. - Mike P.S. Yes I know I have tiny hands... but c'mon people!?
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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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