January 19, 2017 - 3:17am P.S. No food pics today.
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February 25, 2016 - 3:37am ... I took 267 pictures today. It never feels like I take that many since there's always stuff I see where I think "I should take a picture of that!?"... but it's usually something stupid... or just feels like overkill after a while. Looking back over everything from today though... it helps jog my memory. Sometimes it's better to just document everything and sort though it later. I'm pretty tired... it's almost 3am and we're aiming to head out on the road for 6:30am. We're all hanging out in the hotel lobby except Matt, who's sleeping... we're doing our best to not disturb him since he's Age Of Days #1 driver. Tim is flying back to Calgary in a few hours and the rest of us are driving back to Toronto... 20 hr drive I think... if all goes well we'll miss some snowstorms that are rolling through the area. So... lots of time to kill this morning... Matt and I went for breakfast around 9am. Part of me wanted to hit up the pool but I had visions of not being able to use my body properly after... I was a combination of sore and relaxed after swimming yesterday... I really enjoyed it but didn't want to push my luck... so my focus was to go for a walk for exercise. Dan's is food... in case you were wondering... it's a grocery store. Captain Jack's is a liquor store. Menard's is like Home Depot (I think, didn't go in). ... and CVS is shoppers drug mart. When I'm out doing band stuff/tour, I do the black nail polish thing... something I've done since I was 16, so... half my life. It's a conversation starter and photographs well.. matches my stage clothes. *cough* So I haven't been able to find my nail polish since like, 3 days into the trip... probably left it at a hotel or venue so I've been borrowing Reid's... until we lost that too. I'm using the word "we" because I remember putting it near his stuff in the "D R" (dressing room) but who knows what happened after that. It's often a shit show when we're packing up to head out of a venue... so it was probably left behind. ... goal this morning... find nail polish. CVS being just like Shopper's Drug Mart back in Canada... the adventure to find nail polish was pretty straight forward... $4.99... done. There was so much candy there... and sorta cheap... I paced in the aisle for long time... long enough for someone to ask me if I needed help... I was killing time but also trying to decide if it was worth my precious american dollars. ... I only have $9,775 left. ... joking. I'm so tired. I passed a Golden Corral on the way back to the hotel... there's a plan to stop at one on the drive home... when our "diet no longer matters post tour". I have a feeling it won't happen since we won't see one on the way home... because we've been parked next to one the past 36 hrs... just the way things work. We got to the venue around 1:30pm. It's a basketball arena.... I think. We went a little earlier since Reid was helping tech guitars for Saint Asonia. Their's had to fly out early. Reid seemed pretty stoked to get the opportunity...the kid has energy, knows what he's doing, and I'm sure has been dying to poke around Musok's rig... I know I have. ... It was a bittersweet day... we've all discussed it a few times... brushed over the topic at least that today is the last show of this run... ... will we get pranked? ... will we get any shoutouts from Saint Asonia or Disturbed? ... will we end on a high note? ... will we have Wifi? We loaded in and set up back stage... spent most of our time in our dressing room to be honest... well except Reid since he was busy with fancy guitar tech stuff... but we just hung out... casually bringing up often how great things have been the last couple weeks... and how long until we're back to our "normal lives". ... the thing, even though half of us work in music full time, I'm sure we'd all like this to be our "normal life". Playing in a band/touring has it's pros and cons... and financially it's a commitment... but the experiences you get from the highs and lessons you learn about yourself from the lows... priceless. I popped the question... tour highlights? Tim's was every show where we ask the crowd to take a picture... the roar... the participation... the positive energy. We've all played shows to nobody... we've all played shows where nobody claps. That's not the case on this tour... or any of the past few really... it's surreal at times though. Highlight for me was still that guy in the stands who waved off security, saying he was ok... and he was obviously not ok as he went on to barf all over himself and the 2 rows of seats in front of him. That was awesome. That guy was awesome. ... so tired. We went down to the stage for 7:15pm... just in case Detroit (production manager) wanted is to go on 5 mins early again. Pre-show ritual and then that last walk down another vacant venue hallway. Detroit came up to us all smiles... said it was a pleasure having us along and grabbed a quick pic with us. It meant a lot and it felt sincere. I imagine there's a fair amount of bands that screw things up... ask for too much, don't do enough... get in the way... that was the biggest part of our first day... just trying to find the flow of the crew and not get in the way. A few people made comments that they barely saw us... just heard us on stage... more or less that was it. Perfect. Response has been great from (new) fans as well... the amount of people that have stopped us around the venue after we've played. I really hope we can line up some pending tour opportunities summer/fall. It feels like there's momentum again. ... a few more crew came up to us pre-show to somewhat say their goodbyes... Corey... Scotty... I actually helped Scotty patch in the mics for my kit today... he didn't seem surprised or anything, more appreciative that I took the initiative to help him and move things along. it's not hard plugging cables in... it's all labeled and colour coded. ... 7:29pm... 1 minute to show time. Go house lights. Go intro music. ... I was nervous so I brought my practice sticks on stage... just incase mine were... missing. #pranks ... you just never know what might happen. We hear our intro music fire up... it's game time... we walk on stage. ... then it switches to (I think) Ace Of Base - Beautiful Life in our monitors... thanks guys. *tear* (It's a good thing... and it put us at ease... they're leaving the van alone!) ... now we were sorta wondering when to start since we couldn't hear the intro... they cut it off just before the end and the show went along as usual... blur. As you know by now, we have a spot where I can take a pic of the crowd... I was back and forth about it all day but... the one thing about being behind the camera all the time is it's tough to get in front of the camera. I see photographers at the front of the stage most shows and they snap a few pics of me... but I haven't seen any yet. I think there's 1 pic of me so far on stage... so I thought maybe there'd be time to try and go for a selfie... as lame as I'd feel doing for it... there are moments you want to capture... what would make me feel worse... taking a stage selfie in front of 2,500 people? Or wishing I had'f got one with the crowd behind me. During the 2nd guitar change, I went for it. "HE'S TAKING A SELFIE!!!", I heard from the crowd. I laughed... I was going to enjoy the moment... it's been a blast... and in a way, as much as we're getting paid to entertain, tonight was more for us. We were having fun. Being in a band can really suck... tons of lows... but tonight was one of those payoffs. We really were up on stage having fun for 30 minutes... for us... as a band. Tim chimed in while struttin' across the stage with something along the lines of "hey man... fuck that selfie shit, live in the moment!!"... the crowed cheered... I laughed. ... I figure he had no idea what was going on behind him and I'd give him the gears for it after... throwin' me under the bus WHEN I know the first thing I'll see on my phone after the show is "hey man, can you send me the crowd pic?" Tim... I'm probably standing beside you... you don't have to text me... and basically I'm sending you a pic of you (selfie) in front of the crowd... that I took while still playing drums... you're reading this and probably laughing because you know I'm right! :-) It was worth it though... and amazing as the pic turned out *cough*, I think it's perfect. Reid ended up jumping off of my kick drum today... he brought it up the other day... I said "rental drums" and that was that I guess. ... I tossed a few sticks into the crowd after we finished too... and our gear was off stage 2 minutes later. ... it's that quick... it's over. ... pack up... ask catering to stay open for another 30 minutes so we can load the trailer and eat. ... we always miss most of Saint Asonia because we're packing/eating but I try and catch King Of Nothing if I can... love that tune. Watched most of Disturbed in between band duties... wanted to bask in the warmth of the pyro and "wall of fire" one more time.... for now at least. This really has felt like a tour of bands who enjoy playing together... sometimes it takes a while to find that feeling again... as lame as that sounds... it's the reason I stopped years ago... but I really enjoy playing with Age Of Days... it's fun... we have good songs... and I feel we're all pushing in the same direction. We'd sniffed around to see if we could grab a photo with Disturbed... and post (their) set we got the word. Seeing them around the venue is one thing but they were open arms and smiles when we went into their dressing room. I ended up beside Draiman in the huddle... he put his arm around my shoulder and pointed at the camera... I threw mid level horns with my right hand and didn't know what to do with my left. I wasn't about to put my arm around him... didn't feel we were there yet. They were really nice to us though... cool guys... I think the crew liked us too... people talk I'm sure. It was great to get a pic with them though... more for us really... like I'm sure it'll get shared on social media and people might think that's the motivation... but even though "you were there", it's nice to have a picture... with smiles. We responsibly partied in our dressing room for a couple hours after... veggie/fruit trays weren't going to eat themselves and I was determined to make a dent in our cheese/cracker tray. ... I'll leave it at that... it's just after 4am now and I think I might be getting my 3rd wind. I should lay down for at least an hour (already showered) but I'd like to thank everyone for the words of encouragement and motivation to keep this tour blog going. These are long days and late nights... and while I'm still relatively young, I wouldn't have it any other way. Sidenote... I did bring a rig to do an audio/video blog/podcast... maybe next time... Long drive back tomorrow... we'll see how close we get to our 6:30am departure. - Mike :-) P.S. Rock ain't dead. ;-)
February 23, 2016 - 11:19pm ... good ol' travel day. Started out with breakfast and then a trip to the pool/hot tub. I brought swim shorts with me (for once) and I was determined to make use of them. We had a little bit of time while people were showering and whatnot anyway. ... I use the term "we" because I went with Dane. Dane saw the waterslide. ... I was afraid of the sadness I'd witness if/when I broke the news the waterslide wasn't "open" til 4pm. Dane was in luck though... a couple little kids (under 12) asked the front desk to turn it on so they could use it. ... you have to turn on the water (inside the slide) so you can actually slide down it... else it'd probably feel like getting a massage in a wetsuit from someone wearing rubber gloves... dry... let that sink in. ... so Dane stopped trying to crawl up the slide, used the stairs,, went down... and I thought we was going to kill himself. This water slide (and pool) is designed for young children... not 6' adults. ... the little kids took over the waterslide soon after. ... then we tried the hot tub. I immediately started coughing... my eyes burned... there wasn't enough hot tub in this chlorine. I stuck it out for a couple minutes but decided to pull the chute... this felt like the kind of hot tub Jack Kevorkian would recommend to patients... but I still plan on living a while. ... back to the pool. ... the pool was only 4 ft deep... it's awkward to try and swim in 4ft of water... anyway... on paper... swimming and hot tub today. Most of the day was driving to Bismarck... last show of this run tomorrow. *tear* Quick stop at L&M to swap out Reid's guitar amp... we were having problems the other night... then I realized I'd forgotten my pillow at the hotel. (Noooo!!!!!) ... laugh all you want but I wanted... needed my pillow back. The thought didn't even cross my mind that it was gone... I had to suck it up and ask Matt to turn around to see if I could get it back.... only 10 minutes away. ... I'd made peace with having to possibly take it out of the garbage... no joke. They'd already turned down/cleaned the room by the time I got there but luckily the staff put it off to the side... there was a shelf of stuff people have forgotten. I said "don't laugh" when the woman from the front desk who helped me find it handed it to me. "Comforts from home on a long trip?" "Yeah..." I don't sleep a ton but I also have trouble getting comfortable... the pillow I have is the perfect pillow for me... it slightly tips the odds of "hotel bed roulette" in my favour. I'd say everyone has things like that though... you don't notice it until you've had it taken away... ... just noticed how much I'm dedicating to this pillow. So border crossing went well again... wasn't busy at all but they did ask to open up the trailer. First time in 5 years I've been going across... seems like the guard just wanted to have a quick look... again... slow day... perhaps just finding some work to do. Again, when you have visas, I think they know you've gone through the hoops so it's your choice to roll the dice and screw it up. We stopped in Minot for lunch... Denny's... I needed a salad. ... McDonald's last night kicked my ass... too much clown on this trip... I felt awful after... still tasted good but finally had enough. ... I'm used to eating oatmeal and salads... chicken... KD... eggs... but all this late night Ron's has taken its toll. I feel like ass. So it was salad time and avocado club sandwich... and fries... fries are still good. Tim got some double cheeseburger monstrosity which looked awesome... but in reality just laughed at you with it's two giant beefy patties as you try to consume it. ... sorry Tim, but you're going to pay for that one. ... 3-4 hrs to Bismarck... sun went down and we went through an area with a ton of wind turbines (I think that's what they're called)... seemed like a couple hundred... pretty cool... started thinking about how much they cost to build and how much power they generate. Arrived at our hotel 158km and one U-turn later. ... they have a pool and hot tub... open til midnight. ... yes!!! We hit that up... band bonding experience. *tear* ... realized... 2 different pools, 2 different hot tubs, in 2 different countries in the same day. #ballin ... on paper at least. There was a couple there with their 18 month old kid who was running around and somewhat learning to swim... the father introduced us by asking him to give us high fives and hugs... Age Of Days huggin' babies in swimmin' pools... so rock and roll. ... so not rock at all... but I wanted you to hear it here first incase photos or rumours start circulating. :-| Good times though... it was nice being in a hotel at a reasonable hour and I'll get to bed before 1am. ... I'm looking out the window at signs for Wendy's, Taco Bell, Applebee's... Dan's... I'm just going to pretend Dan's is food... I'm hungry but it's fast food hunger... when you can just eat for taste... terrible habit. ... I want a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's. Bed time for me... we'll see if we get pranked tomorrow. I won't be offended if we don't... but just hope they leave the van/trailer alone... it's a rental... and we're almost done with it. - Mike :-) ... I think it's a full moon today... get ready for fun! February 23, 2016 - 2:07am ... super tired but just realized I've been awake (minus a couple cat naps in the van) since 5:30am. It was a 7hr drive to Moose Jaw, plus a time zone change, so we rolled in a little late around 3:30pm. ... I'll spare everyone the details but... if you're on tour, once you hit half a tank, take a few seconds to see when the next gas station is. There are times in Canada when it's 100+km's between gas stations... happens often around here... and northern Ontario is even worse. ... we didn't run out of gas, but had we of missed our chance today... it could made the day a whole lot more interesting... and probably cranky... and gotten us yelled at once we arrived. ... seriously though... don't run out of gas. Nobody will feel sorry for you. There are gas stations all over the place. No excuses. Side note.. our GPS needs to be updated badly. The amount of times it's dumped us either in the middle of nowhere or we've been driving in the middle of nowhere since there were no roads there since last update. The amount of times we're all checking GoogleMaps on our phones and the GPS thinks everything is ok... seriously... update your damn GPS's. ... I think I'm done for a bit... ranting... van rants. So the first place we arrived in Moose Jaw, according to the GPS was a smaller looking community centre... but it still looked like it could possibly be the place... but we couldn't find the buses. ... after checking our iPhones, we realized the location was actually down the street... hockey arena... there we go! Mosaic Place... looks like what we were... looking for. Walking in, I noticed the venue seemed a bit smaller than the others... it's still very much an arena (it's an arena!) but it reminded me more of my hometown... I think it was probably still 2,000 people in there and it felt full... mind you, the Disturbed merch table is always busy and I see so many of their shirts in the front row, so there are other factors than just tickets sales to determine where it makes sense to play... especially considering the size and quality of the production they've brought to their fans. #DearBands, gauge the dedication of your fans by your merch sales. If you play for 2,000 people and you're selling shirts for $50... do some math... if by chance you sold a shirt to everyone in there, that's $100k... half, $50k... quarter, $25k. Same with album pre-sales... ... the numbers stay pretty healthy... and this can be a real thing if you're a headliner on a large tour. ... I'm so tired. It just hit me. So highlights... Our dressing room was a hockey arena dressing room... I'm totally used to/ok with it but the other guys had an... adjustment period. ... play a few arenas and all of a sudden everyone gets soft! ... nothing a candle and some air flow can't fix. ... if anything it reminded me I have playoffs coming up... I miss you men's league hockey. *tear* Since we were there kinda late, I looked for a day sheet after loading in... had about 45 minutes to shave, shower, and I might as well have my stage clothes on... time flies... and we're on in 3 hrs... really not that long of a period. We missed lunch catering so we took some of the snacks... dinner started at 5 and ends at 7 so we decided grab a few things and take them back to the dressing room... have food waiting when we get off stage... RIch (Saint Asonia) came in to say hi and hang out... then he ate Reid's dinner. ... he didn't know it was Reid's dinner... just that Reid hadn't eaten yet and Seb and I grabbed a few extra takeout containers while people were getting cleaned up. We went on at 7pm which is pretty early so it was maybe 1/3 full... by the time our set ended it was back to normal. 3/4 full (packed by the time Saint Asonia started). Response was great too! I wish we could sell cd's at $20 but we have to match the headliner so it's $25.... I think there's a big difference between the two... also factoring in Disturbed is a US band and our $CND is pretty low these days... plus taxes and all the percentages that come off the sale... $25 makes sense... just hard to pass that cost along to the fans. Our set was good... I'll brush over our technical difficulties but understand most often, the audience doesn't know there's a problem unless you make faces like you're having a problem. We had a pretty good size problem going on tonight, but we played through it... it's fine... control the flames and smile. We're only on stage for 30 minutes anyway... and it goes by really fast. You can have all the backup plans in the world... but Murphy just laughs and decides which band member to toy with next. ... this is why I love it when people say their monitor mix was different than during soundcheck. You know why? ... because audio does that... I swear it just does that. You can have something dialed in... 60 minutes later... not the case. ... just the way she goes... roll with it. Adam gave us a pretty cool shoutout during the Saint Asonia set... a couple guys have bumped into him today around the building... I guess him and the guys had a lot of fun the other night. Awesome... just (sorta) glad they didn't see the downward spiral that was our hosting abilities. "Never again..," groans 2/5 of the band. So tired right now. So the smaller venue made Disturbed's pyro/light show even more awesome. It was a special night I think because people in seats were so much closer to the stage. The pyro was really awesome though... it throws off so much heat... good times. I love playing hockey arenas... and it sorta sunk in today the tour is ending soon. It's easy to say "let's get another one!" but this has been a special opportunity... heading out with a band with fantastic production value who've been away for several years... we're all very thankful opportunity knocked and we answered. It was an ok show for us but I'm glad it was the 2nd last show... we'll bring it tomorrow... we have wiggle room... long drive home either way. We headed to Regina after to drop Seb off at the airport. He doesn't have his P2 visa so he can't cross the border with us. Of course he could sneak over and meet us but let's not do that... it's not worth it. ... one last trip to McDonald's with him for good measure. It was great having Seb along though... extra hands, extra driver, attention to detail at FOH (Front of house / sound guy)... good times. Thanks Seb! Safe trip home and hopefully we can do it again sometime! :-) We're at the hotel now though.... soooooo tired. Breakfast is at 6am, pool opens at 9am... and we have a 7 hr drive to Bismark. ... should go fast. ... it'll be 8pm on Wednesday soon enough. - Mike :-) P.S. I ran out of data today and couldn't find the Wifi password at the venue... reason I wasn't posting pics... got my data back though! And Wifi tonight!
... delicious Wifi. *tear* P.P.S. A new fan came by and told me I killed it on guitar tonight... I told him I'm the drummer... but I'd pass the word along to Reid that I killed it on guitar tonight. February 21, 2016 - 11:27am ... I woke up... I woke up feeling pretty good. The other guys... not so much. Despite going to bed around 3:30am... kinda tipsy... I woke up around 6:30am feeling good but didn't get out of bed til closer to 9am. I knew a) nobody else is going for breakfast with me this early and b) I'm going to regret not getting at least a couple more hours sleep today. The plan is to drive back to Calgary and have a relaxing day... but we know how plans go. I shaved, showered, and went downstairs to find breakfast. Dane was up too. We discovered breakfast buffet was $25. ... $25!? The thing is I know the breakfast was awesome, but when you're trying budget on your per diem... that wipes out your daily allowance in one meal... so it's a no go. We went back to the room... or should I say, infirmary, to spread the news. ... we are a hurtin' unit today. I'm grateful we didn't have to play today... aside from Dane (who can drink the most) and myself (who drinks the least or "responsibly"), the Ages camp is a mess. I was right... 4/6. Reid has the ultimo hangover headache... Seb is accepting his fate atop the porcelain judge and jury... Tim is in denial, thinking he's just hungry... and Matt can't even... Matt just can't even. I'm sorta glad it happened this way though... we know our limits now... I hope... I really hope. Everyone wants bagels. Dane and I go on a bagel mission to Tim Horton's, enjoy a nice walk in the sun... nice Sunday morning stroll... return to the infirmary... it's just sad... just a sad, sad, room. I honestly feel bad for the guys because I can't relate. I don't really drink and I haven't really been drunk enough for a hangover... seriously. I decided to go wander around the mall area that had the Tim Horton's to kill some time. ... we aren't going anywhere. 10am checkout? Good luck! I asked to have it changed to 2pm... I thought about jokingly asking for 7pm when the guy asked what time... didn't want to push my luck though... we needed every hour we could get. I wondered around Winners... I bought a bunch of new clothes before I left and thought I'd try my luck again. ... my sick sense of humour also thought it was awesome I went playing tourist and shopping while everyone else was rolling around in their own stew of vomit fumes, regret, and toasted bagels. I'm sorry guys... but it was a beautiful day out. Tim and I eventually find the Ricky's and get breakfast... reasonably affordable breakfast.... $9... more like it. I have no idea where our van/trailer is... all I know is we had parking til 10am.... it's now 1:15pm. I'm hoping we just get a ticket... and praying nobody cut the lock. As fun as things were last night... trying to park the van/trailer downtown during a show with like 6,000+ people attending... kinda tricky. ... to yesterday for a minute... after re-reading drunk blog... I was more coherent than I thought I was. The party though... it was such a loud blur... fun blur... and I'm glad the Saint Asonia guys came down... they said they would when we invited them so it was cool they actually did... then again I would've totally omitted this if we asked them and they didn't... it was nice hanging out. I got a chance to chat and listen to some stories... cool guys... and they are a band. If you don't know what I mean by that, all good. There were a lot of people at that show though... I think that's maybe why I felt off... I usually don't look out too long but I did backstage... it's awesome they sing along and stuff... the set is only 30 minutes but we're really starting to rip through it. It's a lot of fun! We left the hotel around 2:30pm... Tim pulled up with the van and I was at ease the trailer... ... but we still needed to fix our lights. Not sure I mentioned but the plug must've wiggled out on the highway and ground itself down to bare wires. Our plan was to head back to Calgary asap and fix the lights tonight... while in day light. We made a McD's stop and rolled into a Canadian Tire parking lot at 6:15pm. ... it's amazing how many different possible plugs we could get... I'm just glad we didn't need to do any soldering or anything... just shove the cables in, clamp, done! Van lights fixed by 7pm... most of the time was spent looking for the darn plug! The guy at Crappy Tire was helping but this seemed outside his zone. Back to Tim's by 8pm and it's been laundry, pizza, and movies the remainder of the evening. I wanted this done earlier so I'd be asleep by now but I had some catching up to do, not having internet over night. ... the internet is an important thing when you run your own business. 6-7hr drive to Moose Jaw tomorrow... hopefully the guys are feeling better. They started to come around mid-day... except Dane... he got worse... you can only run from the hangover so long I guess. ... 2 more shows left. Mike :-) P.S. Sadly didn't get to go swimming today... running out of time!
... swim time!!! P.P.S. I need sleep... can't re-read tonight.... sorry if this doesn't make any sense or full of errors and typos. February 21, 2016 - 3:22am … this is going to be short… since tonight got a little rockstar. … we were asked (and agreed) to host an after party at Knoxville’s tonight. It’s sort of a dance/country bar… average age early 20’s. … we played at 7:30pm and around 10:30pm a limo stopped by the loading dock to pick us up. … most of Saint Asonia came to join us even though they had a 12am bus call. … things went from 0 to 60 pretty fast… I think it’s safe to say everyone is wrecked right now. … anybody who knows me knows I rarely drink… I think I had 4 shots in 15 minutes then nursed a couple jack and cokes to keep hydrated. … so hungry. … I don’t have internet so I’m not sure when I can post this… I think Matt has the envelope the room key came in… so it’s probably on there… but he’s passed out…. and I’m not about to dig through his pockets to find it… we aren’t there yet. … I’m somewhat together… it was a pretty fun night though… we”ll see how I feel in the morning. … I would do a lot for pizza right now. … pool opens at 6am… that might be a thing. … so the show tonight… I think there was around 3,500 by the time we went on…. doors were at 6pm and we hit the stage at 7:30pm. I played like crap but overall it was a good set. … I don’t know what it was but I just didn’t feel comfortable on my kit… I need to bang around for an hour or two… felt tired too… maybe it was the steak for lunch… or the endless stairs all day at the venue. … super nice venue though... huge room. I had fun today… and it was nice nobody bothered me at the bar afterwards that I wasn’t having the same kinda fun they consider fun. Dane wore a vest, scarf, top hat, and glasses on stage tonight… that’s commitment. I got his hat back. … and his cell phone… I think. Reid and Seb are off to find food… I think it’s a lost cause though… GoogleMaps couldn’t find anything decent… and breakfast opens in a few hours. We’re all sorta sad there’s only a couple shows left… Moose Jaw and Bismark. … it’s been a really fun tour so far… hopefully we can pull the trigger on a few more runs asap that are in the works. … apparently people appreciate that I keep it real and call it like I see it… bless you truth serum. … I wish they ordered us pizza tonight. I can’t think of anything else that really happened today… that I can include in the blog post at least. We left Dawson Creek at 6:30am and drove for 8 hrs… really wasn’t that bad and I do remember getting some sleep in the van… I think I found my spot. I peeked in during Disturbed’s set… I’m curious what the final attendance was… it looked pretty busy… and people were into it. I have to sleep… so hungry. Tomorrow should be more interesting… my prediction 4/6 hungover. We’re driving back to Calgary to spend the night… I need to do laundry. … my face hurts I’m so hungry. Bed time. - Mike ;-) P.S. I’ll check over the photos tomorrow… my phone is dead. ... just like in hockey... if a goalie is looking like they might end the game with a shutout... when you're on tour and things are going smoothly... don't say the words... it's bad luck. February 18, 2016 - 11:15pm I woke up at 10:30am... which is an unheard of length of time for me to sleep. Slept awesome though... and it was the first night which a) Reid didn't knee me in the back and/or b) I didn't punch Reid in the head. ... felt pretty bad about that one actually... I just extended my arm and... sorry Reid... he didn't wake up or anything though... that kid isn't a light sleeper which is great if you're in this band... considering the decibels of a Snoretallica concert and getting randomly punched in the head. ... ok... it wasn't a hard punch... but there was definitely contact. ... it definitely would've woke me up. ... actually it did wake me up. ... anyway... pretty uneventful afternoon until we arrived at the venue... Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary. The #1 question on everyones mind... will there be pyro??? I noticed on the day sheet at the venue (times everything is going on for crew and bands), that there was a "pyro demonstration". Apparently the fire marshall can observe and either say no, yes, or what needs to be done to make it safe. They scaled things back at bit (1/2 to 2/3 I'd say) but I'm sure it was still a pretty cool show they put on... ... I'm saying this because we're already back at Tim's. We decided it'd be best to leave the show after Disturbed started to get a few hours sleep then hit the road. There's apparently a storm around Edmonton, and on an 8 1/2hr (so 10hr) drive, that can cause problems... so we're giving ourselves 12hrs to make the trip. It's much better to arrive early (and check in early) than be rushing... or worse. It was a much more relaxed day though since majority of the stage/lights were all in house/venue. You could tell the crew was a little more relaxed as well. ... I'm glad we got a chance to hang out with a few of the them the other night at the bar... it's nice to see people outside their work environment. It's where people are "people". ... that's something I try to explain often... even if someone is up on stage... it's just people doing their job. Some jobs are a little more glamorous than other, but the 10+ cogs backstage make the machine work for the 4-5 on stage. ... I really need to get some sleep since I'm going to be part of the first driving shift... so I'll let some of the pics tell the story. Highlights... Spinal Tap moment 7 minutes before going on stage... Our dressing room happened to be the venue's Gibson Guitar Lounge (pretty sweet actually!)... the door was propped open when we got there... and locked when the door closed. ... we constantly had people knocking on the door to get back in. So we were all standing back stage and I remembered I'd left one of my cases in the dressing room... no big deal but I was thinking I should just go back and grab it... I had time. ... then I was thinking... I bet you nobody thought to keep the door open behind them after our pre-show ritual and heading to the stage. I looked around... if there's a guy to ask "hey, do you know if anybody made sure to keep the door open a little before we left?"... that guy is Tim... because it'll freak Tim out a little and it's funny to watch Tim freak out a little over something that's not a big deal. ... there are keys for that door... it's just a matter of tracking someone down. :-) ... I ask Tim... he immediately takes off to see if it's locked. ... 5 minutes til we're on stage. I see Tim down the hall standing outside the door... looking at the door handle... looking at me... then back at the handle... Our manager is in the office next to me... asks what's up... tell him about the door and he says he'll have it unlocked by the time we get off stage... all good. ... 3 minutes to stage time... crisis averted. Great crowd in Calgary and I could tell it was probably going to be the best sounding room on the tour so far... reason mainly being it's a room... with carpet... and not an arena with concrete everything. ... this is where the blessing and curse of working in audio comes in. ... if a large space sounds nice, it's either ugly.. or SUPER expensive. We almost got the house lights and intro music synced up tonight... almost... about 5 seconds off. I mean... they can manage to do it for Saint Asonia and Disturbed... but like.. just not us... *cough* The set was a blur again... saw a few people singing along... we changed the set up a little too... took out 'Dying On The Inside', which is new, and put 'Live Out Loud' in since it usually goes over well in Calgary. It's a tough call putting a 5 minute ballad in an already tight 30 minute (28mins timed) set when you're opening this show. We went for it though... ... second highlight... Tim coming out on stage and his wireless mic wasn't turned on. It happens but you just pray the mic is off and the batteries aren't dead. Dead batteries suck... end of story. It was fine though... just missed the very first "CALGARRYYYYYYY!!!!! LET ME HEAR YOU!!!!" bit... it was implied... it's a rock show. ... good show overall... good energy... but I didn't realize how many people were there until we got to the part where I snap a pic of the crowd. People are still coming in as we're playing obviously... and we'd heard the show was close to sold out... The house/crowd lights came on for a second and.. people... seemingly straight to the back of the room. Awesome. *tear* After the show they'd already packed up dinner which was kinda crappy... we don't typically get to eat dinner since we're setting up, but grab it right after we finish loading out. Missed it by 15 minutes apparently. ... but dessert was still out. ... I'm having chocolate cake for dinner. ... not the worst dinner... arguably better than McDonalds... which we'll probably still eat anyway. Our manager noticed us all eating cake and asked us what was up... disappeared for 2 mins then said they're bringing food back out for us. ... clutch. Not gonna lie... I was pretty hungry but not yet hangry (hungry + angry). So we piled some salmon, beef, and vegetables on top of 2 kinds of chocolate cake already in our guts. On paper all of this was awesome... but I also pretty sure if you pile protein on top of sugar... get ready for... *looks around... whispers*... farts. :-| ... or cramps if you try and deny science. We went to merch after Saint Asonia for photos/signing but it was too busy to really do much. Met a few friends and new fans... always worth the stop by the table. Packed up soon after and headed back to the house... sans McDonalds. Bed time for me... should get a couple hours sleep. ... I'll be honest though... I had a moment of really missing my studio today... and creating music. I was chatting with Sal (Saint Asonia's drum tech) this aft and we geeked out lightly over recording and drum programs / virtual instruments... discussing the future of recording drums... then I got thinking about how many people I get to work on great music with... and they're friends. Good times. ... I'll be back in Toronto soon enough but hopefully recording will have me travelling a bit this year. ... but for now, I have a chocolate milk in the fridge for the drive and my alarm set for 2:30am. Good times. - Mike :-) P.S. We all pitched in to wash and vacuum the van this morning... clutch.
February 16, 2016 - 3:50am ... I'm in the van so I'm not sure how long this will be... we're on our way back to Calgary to avoid hotel rooms and also avoid burning one of our days off driving back when we could sleep all day tomorrow... then possibly go party. ... there's been a lot of half joking about people wanting to go party in Calgary. Nothing too crazy today. Woke up at 5:50am to be back in the van for 6:20am to drive to Saskatoon. It was a late night for me and a rough start this morning. I slept for a couple hours but didn't feel rested at all. ... and I'm still not quite sure how the time math made sense for the stage/show to get moved from Lethbridge to Saskatoon over night... safely. We arrived a little late around 3:30pm. There's a time change too we didn't really factor in... it's fine though... we got a message from management the trucks/rigging were running late... meaning we'd be standing around waiting for direction anyway. SaskTel Centre is a decent size arena. The layout is easy to get around and the dressing rooms are nice... I wish I got a pic of the shower stall though.. instead of having all the facets on the walls, it has a main one in the middle, that sprayed outwards. Pretty awkward setup if you ask me... I'll skip ahead right to the good part.. the show. There were no handlers to help us load so we ended up helping Saint Asonia's techs get their gear up and then we loaded it up on top of them... it's organized chaos but we're getting the hang of it... we had 15 minutes before doors opened I think. .... back to the stage for a second.. they were hustling to get the stage built and lighting/pyro together... and Disturbed had a very quick sound check. The thing is though... you can't rush putting the stage together... assuming if something goes wrong... people will die. There's a lot of gear/lights... and the pyro alone is dangerous. Rushing is how accidents happen! We did a quick line check and were off the stage 3 mins before doors opened... do the math. That's all you should need though...there's no need to stand on stage playing random chords checking your guitar. Play when you're asked... otherwise...be quiet... people are doing something else... your guitar works. We hung out in the dressing room and handed back to the stage at 7:15pm... 10 mins before heading on stage. The tour/[production manager came over and made a few jokes about the days off... we haven't been yelled at today.. so far so good! It was 2 mins to show time... 1 minute... "Is that your intro?" I guess the intro started up prematurely and the cues got mixed up... regardless we ran up the stairs and got on stage. ... it was quick... and we were not really ready... but still hit the downbeat on time after the intro ended... I'm sure nobody noticed but it was a crazy start for us... was like jumping off the back of a moving truck while you pray your legs are moving fast enough. (... I'm so tired right now... I'm actually typing with my eyes closed and hoping I don't fall asleep like this... although it is comfy.) The crowd was awesome (again)... quite rowdy actually... and I got some great pics of the crowd... it was the end of the set when I noticed Dane having problems. Dane is a super solid guitarist so I was fairly certain it was a cable problem since he was crouched over his pedalboard... not uncommon in guitar world. He missed the intro of the final song and I started thinking it was either a brain fart or motor skills.. which would be odd. We finished up... 2 mins under set time... and backstage Dane was pretty upset about the show. "My guitar started tuning itself mid song!!!" The Les Paul's Gibson lent us for the tour are "robot guitars" they are motorized and self tuning. ... and the robots wanted it tuned to E... which is a massive problem when you're playing a song in E-flat. This made way more sense since I remember the tuners flashing while he was messing with his pedal board... and that's what they do when they're self tuning. I know found this somewhat hilarious and told him it was Skynet sabotaging the show... and saying he got John Conner'd. ... Terminator 2 reference. I don't think many people even noticed though... lots of bands are out of tune but not many bands actually hear pitch (that well). Seb said he noticed it was a little "jazz" but the audience couldn't tell. Just keep playing, keep smiling, and deal with it later. (This is really hard to type in a bumpy van right...not to mention being pushed against the side of the van... I keep closing my eyes and feeling like I'm waking up after a coffee... not that I really drink coffee... but I imagine that's how alert people are after drinking coffee. I'm probably going to have to post tomorrow morning when we arrive... cell reception is bad out here.) The crowd was definitely into our set by the time we were done... or maybe just cheering for Saint Asonia for being up next. Gotta be careful though...sometimes doors lock. (<-- re-reading this at 9am, I have no idea what I'm talking about here) I'm craving pomegranate right now... too tired to eat it but I don't care. (<-- same ???... really tired...) We loaded out and went back to catering for dinner... braised beef was amazing! Caught the intro to Disturbed's set and watched until the end of "Prayer", such a good tune. Hung out in the dressing room for a bit then headed side stage. I can't even read what I'm typping... thera read liins all the place... since we don't konw what we're doing! I can barely read any of this... Besides I need WiFi for internet;. (I left that last bit as-is so you know how brutal this was to edit this morning) Oh... we hung out at merch after Saint Asonia's set....we probably posed for 40 pics and signed a ton of tickets and couple T-Shiirts... posed for another 30 after the show was over. We had like 12 bottles of Gatorade in the dressing room and somehow they're all gone.. I had one. There was a blogger/photographer at the show who asked to do an interview.. Tim and Reid ended up doing it. I wish they gave some more specific answers... the questions were pretty basic (music influences, favourite song to play, how the band rights, etc). Sometimes "real life"answers aren't glamorous but I think people would rather hear it... it's more interesting at least... maybe Dane and I can do the next interview... we both have some media training... and no filter. *cough* .(.. I'm so tired... I keep leaning over and closing my eyes... almost falling asleep.... if I don't write things down now though I'll forget... and then my journal/timeline gets screwed up.) ... I wanted to shower at the arena but opted to just go for a complete change of clothes... I'll last 6 hrs. I took the first shift with Seb on the drive to Calgary... 2 hrs then switched up and I started writing... Matt and Dane have second shift... we had our eyes peeled for wildlife... nothing... they've seen tons so far though... lots of deer... I hope we don't hit anything... we really don't need an accident... things have been going so well this far. I need to sleep... I just feel asleep again. I'm going to try to upload this (tethering off my phone) but I'll upload pics tomorrow... wifi. Again... we have a couple days off but then I think it's drive, play, drive, etc... it's going to be a grind but it's what we signed up for... and they're good markets... and a casino... finally. Mike :-) P.S. ... turns out I don't have enough bars to use my phone for data/internet... I can't even proof read/edit this either... I think that's a sign. Bed time it is! February 16, 2016 - 8:50am
... we made it to Calgary. I got a couple hours sleep but after we switched off drivers (and I'd finished/accepted not being able to post this) our GPS wanted to take us in a circle and GoogleMaps quickest route wanted to take us on backroads. I woke up to Matt declaring "there's no way I'm taking this on a dirt road." Totally understandable... if anything happens you might be kinda screwed this late at night (4am) and that far off a major highway. We drove on a dirt road for a half hour... ... just so people know, when following GoogleMaps... yellow lines are good... grey lines... try your luck. Stay on the highways! I've left some more nuggets about the day I forgot about in the picture/slideshow comments. It was a long day. Everyone is asleep... I need sleep... ... sleep time! February 15, 2016 - 1:32am ... I have to make this quick today... I'm so tired... and bus call is 6:30am. We have a 6hr drive tomorrow to Saskatoon (8hrs), and it's a show day. We're supposed to be there for 2pm... and then wait until probably 6pm until they're ready for us... but regardless what time we're supposed to be there and what time we're actually needed irrelevant... it's going to feel like a long drive tomorrow since everyone feels tired today. So today... woke up a bit later for breakfast... around 8am... I actually slept through my alarm and Matt woke me up. I'm sorta sick of the "free" breakfasts already... the novelty of hotel waffles has worn off... and I think I'm gaining weight with all the sitting around. After breakfast we did a quick load of laundry and bugged Tim in the gym to pass the time... good times. I was bugging people to go for a walk or something... it was so nice outside... I just wanted to stand around in the sun... I feel like it's been a while since we've had actual sunlight... I cut my hair this morning and everything! I was ready for it! It's glorious rays! It's warm outside too!!! 10C!!!! We headed to the venue for 1:30pm... lots of crew said hello to us when we came in. I wouldn't say we're all best friends but it's nice having them acknowledge you... although we know where we stand in the pecking order and what cog we are in the machine. ... it's such a crazy stage setup. We've seen quite a bit of it put together but there's just so much... really curious how it looks the first couple hours... since they rip it apart so fast at the end of the night! I chatted with Saint Asonia's guitar tech (Hoogie) a little today. I'd heard his name several times over the years (18 as a tech apparently!) and figured we'd have some common ground with Evans Blue. Turned out to be the case... said he's toured with them (teching for other bands) many times over the years. It's such a "family" environment... something I've watched from the outside over the years, working in a pretty small circle (or solo) in the studio. I may be quiet but I do enjoy people's company! I really do! lol. I chatted with Saint Asonia's drum tech as well... his name is Sal... I asked him how long he's been teching for... seems like only a couple weeks... turns out he's the drummer for Stained... I felt like a bit of an idiot for not realizing that but also how it makes sense since the guitarist from Saint Asonia is from Stained. Keep it in the family. ... I've had a handful of friends over the years offer to be my drum tech if I ever needed one... I joke there won't be much to do since I have such a small setup... but I think that's the point... it'd be more of a hang... not that Sal isn't working hard (because I see how hard techs work!) but it's more fun bringing your friends out... especially when they have a gap in their schedule. Again, cogs in the machine... everyone pushing in the same direction... music isn't easy. It was a good chat though... I may not be a "musicians" musician, or a gear guy... but I love checking out peoples setups... there's a lot of character and personality in everyone's setup. ... we waited by our gear for a while today. I've accepted we will be yelled at for something new each day... and in Winnipeg it was not being ready to load our gear... so once Disturbed started their soundcheck, we went to our gear pile.. and waited. ... and waited... waited some more. Not complaining, but we were gonna be ready. ... waiting... I think we went to our gear at 5:05pm and loaded it on stage at 6:20pm... and we loaded it fast... Saint Asonia only had/needed 15 mins to get their gear on stage and wired up... and we were loading up half on top of them. It's stressful... again... trying to do your job but not step on the toes of anybody above you. There is an order and we're an opening act. We did get a little soundcheck though... off stage by 6:53pm, doors at 7pm! ... success. Waiting again now... we go on at 7:50pm. I love the little intro music/clip I put together. I love it when the lights go down and it fires up. ... I have 45 seconds to get to my kit, get my (in) ears in, click on my iPod, and start the set. The heart rate gets going though when it fires up... the crowd... the nerves go away... time to throw down. Our set went well again tonight... I only missed one drum fill... had a bit of a brain fart making rock faces with people in the front row... it happens. ... was sorta crapping my pants though once I checked the time... our set is 30 mins, and can't go over... just assume going over means a fail. You can get 99 questions right on the exam, but if you get that one wrong... you fail the course... and everyone hates you. So we had 10 mins left going into the last 2 songs... 4 and 3 min songs... all good... but we ran a bit long on some crowd participation parts... and while it's fun having people sing along... we only have so much time. The last breakdown part in the last song I'm free to take a couple pics of the audience... we had 2 mins left... we gotta finish this up asap! It's hard to signal to Tim we gotta hurry up while I'm playing drums... so I killed the click and just played it faster. No joke... this needs to end asap! ... ended the set at 8:19pm. #pass ... too close for my comfort though. We'll talk about it in the van tomorrow since I know where things went long. Finally saw some video of our set too... sounds pretty good in my opinion! Good job Seb! He said he thought it sounded pretty good out front... I told him he was biased. ... so I was sitting in my typical spot at shows to watch Disturbed's set... sitting... at the back of the venue. I noticed my wifi connection was pretty good (been great all day) so I thought I'd see if my parents were around on Skype... "you around?" "hi" ... I called them, turned on my video and pointed the camera at the stage. I'm sure my mom was trying to figure out what was going on and trying to talk to me... although I couldn't hear here anyway over the crowd... so I just messaged them again that Disturbed's set was about to start. ... and start it did. I'm not sure how much they were really able to see over Skype video but there's a lot going on lighting and pyro wise on the opening tune. Hopefully it looked alright... I'm sorta weird about having friends and family come out to shows, but I thought this was a happy medium... and I wanted them to see it. These are awesome shows... we're playing hockey arenas... it's sort of a big deal for me and I'm sure my parents get a kick out of it. They've been super supportive since the beginning... they've never (really) told me to get a (real) job. I let them watch the second song as well and then had to turn my Skype off... partially because I'm sure what I was doing broke some laws but also because my hand was cramping. "Ok thanks, nice surprise! Sounds good. Pretty exciting. Enjoy every minute. It's a treat for us too. Thank you!!" Technology. *tear* Prayer is my favorite song in their set... such a good tune. Rich (Saint Asonia - drummer) popped in our dressing room after Disturbed finished their set and mentioned maybe going to a bar after... if we were interested. ... we were all "sure! yeah that sounds great!" on the outside... but on the inside we're all "fuhgg!?!" We really need to sleep and get on the road early. It's one thing to have a bus driver... driving your bus to the next city... but we have to drive ourselves... and we still need to sleep. ... it didn't turn into a thing luckily enough and we were out of the venue by 1am. ... couldn't make it past McDonald's though. We've decided "no day is official until Reid has consumed a hamburger of sorts". ... I also accidentally guilted Reid into buying me a Cadbury Cream Egg McFlurry. I totally didn't want it... but I totally ate it... it was totally awesome. ... shower... blog... bed time. It's going to be a long couple days coming up... drive, play, drive... then we have a couple days off I think to sleep... probably do a photoshoot once we're in Calgary... if I know Tim. Mike :-) P.S. Reid put some duct tape on the stage and we got yelled at for that... so that's what we were yelled at for today. February 14, 2016 - 12:11am ... travel day! Probably a short(er) blog for a change... plus I'm pretty tired... despite sitting in the van for 14hrs today. I set my alarm for 7:30am... plans to shower, grab breakfast and be on the road for 9am... but I barely woke up at 8am, pulled on my adult winter boots and walked over to breakfast... love the layout of this hotel *cough*... figured I'd grab a shower after I eat then get ready for a full day of sitting in the van. It was so cold in Winnipeg... can't stress that enough. The air hurts your face... hurts your lungs... and instantly dries you out... it's awful. Apparently it's just as cold in Toronto right now... but I am (I was) in Winnipeg and I'm associating Winnipeg with attempting to stop all molecular motion. We managed to get on the road by 9:30am. Again, it was a bit of a late night after the show yesterday and a later night for me because of "this"... ah well. It's better to leave early and hopefully get to the hotel before midnight. The hours can add up quick if you leave at 9am vs 12pm... and again, things can happen on long drives to really push back your arrival time. We plugged Lethbridge into the GPS... 12hrs... + 30%, I'd say 15hrs. Not much to really talk about... we hit bad weather a couple times... felt the van skid/slide for the first time when we stopped for food in Swift Current. It wasn't scary or anything, but we were wondering how the 3-season tires would do in a little bit of snow... there really hasn't been much snow at all so far. Most of the day I either rode shotgun, played Hearthstone (iPad), or tried to sleep... wasn't able to sleep much though... it was pretty loud in the van today... we dragged out a few jokes for a long time... laughing can get quite loud... which is a good thing. ... I'll say it again... this is a really fun group so far. There's been a bit of a revolving door for guitarists over the last 4+ years I've been playing with Age of Days but this is a solid line up and the chemistry is really good so far... good times! So... highlights... ... the temperature going up! We drove out of -35C in Winnipeg into -3C in Lethbridge. It's amazing how awesome -3C is when you step out of the van. *tear* ... Tim's "bus battle". For some reason, when Tim is driving... weird shit seems to happen on the roads. Seb and Matt drove 90% of today... Tim drives for 10 minutes and we have this "Carefree Bus"... like... a huge bus... constantly trying to overtake our van and trailer on the highway... then slow down. Of course Tim isn't having this... so he'll pass the bus... granted the bus is passing us and slowing down... we aren't exactly speeding and this bus isn't exactly speedy... so while it's annoying... Tim's reaction is priceless... and hilarious. We... softly raced with it for a few km's... then the bus just took up both lanes... maybe the bus driver was a bored... or not a fan of how much fun was going on in the van (again, van is basically transparent with the amount of windows it has)... eventually an off ramp gave us the ability to part ways... and Carefree Bus will be forced to make a new friend... or enemy. So long Carefree Bus. ... Reid was practicing the set in the van... our guitars are in the back so he pulled one out, threw on his headphones and went through it. Nobody said anything which was cool... Reid's new and he cares... I'll say he played great last night and I can tell he's more comfortable with the tunes (live) considering how much he was moving around. It's not easy going from jamming along at home to... here's 3,500 people watching you! Go! Go be good now! I have a method of mentally running the set (against my clicks/tracks) so I do that daily... I hope most people run the set daily in their own way... not just in AoD but in their own band too. It's funny because you think playing often will keep a set tight... but you don't really get to warm up on tour as an opening act... you just "go"... and I know how I play when I get to warm up for an hour or 2... but that's just not possible sometimes... and a practice pad doesn't cut it. The limbs feel different after you loosen up and really play for a bit... you can pretend stretching is going to help but unless you warm up, stretching is useless... more for mental show... my opinion at least. We had McDonald's for dinner... think about what you want... order 2/3... you feel less bad. ... another thing... I'm noticing my energy level dropping already. Sitting all day and not getting my typical amount of exercise takes its toll. There's a "fitness center" in the hotel we're at tonight... but it's not the same as my daily amount of cardio. I'm going to try and figure something out asap... there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" so far... I need to find an hour... I brought proper footwear for that too! ... so the hotel we're staying at... I'm usually the first to explore it and report back what we have and how good (or not so good) we have it. The basement... ... the only way I can describe it is The Shining meets Blair Witch Project. ... this place gave me the chills... I say "gave" because I've excepted it has a personality and I'll just stay on it's good side. ... seriously though, whoever designed and built this place... nightmare fuel. I took a couple pics... they don't do it justice... the place has a "vibe"... if you see anything in the pics... ghosts... etc... let me know... there's something going on with this place... I swear! I showered... finally... oh yeah I forgot to mention... not showering this morning (post show) and then sitting in a van for 14 hrs... horrible idea! I smelled "me" all day... and felt the grime. It's obvious in hindsight and I'm sure the usual suspects will be all "well duh" and "eww" but sometimes you don't have time... you seriously don't have time... and/or run out of time. There are 6 people who all run on their own schedule during a fixed amount of time. Sometimes you just deal with it. ... and there are some tough drives coming up where we might not really have a hotel for 2-3 days... play, drive, play, drive, etc... you do what you can to stay hygienic... but sometimes you're just... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ... and get back in the van after the show... they're long nights too... these are the lines in the sand though... you either want to be here or you don't. Either you want to do this (for the right reasons) or you don't... it's not for everyone. There's a dream being sold to fans sometimes... but when you take a photo with your favourite band then think about the fact they might not have showered in 3 days... or haven't washed their stage clothes in just under a week... it happens though... we ignore it... focus on the good, silence the bad... for as long as you can... that's why we all wear hoodies... they keep us warm (and keep in the smell!). ... anyway... showers are awesome if you've been regretting not having one for 10 hrs. So I'm sitting in the lobby/breakfast area of the hotel. Breakfast starts at 6am so I will be destroying it in 5hrs and 15min. I'm so hungry right now but all that's available is junk... sometimes it's better to just sleep off being hungry. There was trouble brewing at the front desk when I started writing this... sorta glad I was here but also wish I wasn't... I hate confrontation... since things can get out of hand quickly. Two sorta drunk/aggressive guys showed up to book a room... the lady at the front desk... I can't remember what happened but they started getting on her case about how they were going to pay for the room or something...? ... sounds bad but I was waiting for one of them to either punch her or push the computer monitor off the desk. I positioned myself to keep an eye on the situation but still... I sorta assume everyone has guns or knives now too... she stood her ground and convinced them (that it was their idea) to leave. ... after they left the lady at the desk started talking to (at) me about it... she was shook up a little, as was I, it is tricky dealing with drunks though... since the world they're in is different than everyone else who is sober. ... and yes I'm aware they'd been drinking and drove here/away, but we're in Lethbridge... and I'm not about to tell Lethbridge how to Lethbridge... I'm just passing through. Bed time for me though... Snortallica be damned, I'm getting a full nights sleep! ... well... until I wake up to binge at 6am, then go back to sleep! Mike :-) |
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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