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.
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... 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.
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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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