... 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.
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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.
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!?
October 4, 2013
... Gamblor... damn you. It's 2am... finally pulled myself from the casino across the road... excellent post show entertainment though... I must admit. This will be pretty short... well as short as one pass will allow since I need to get up in a few hours... boarder crossing tomorrow. I think everyone was up pretty early this morning... I was wide awake around 6:30am. I'm still sorta on Toronto time so while it's 2am here (right now), it's 5am in Toronto... and yes I'm sorta tired. I met up with Matt and Tim to grab breakfast at the buffet. Buffets are awesome. If you find a good one, you'll eat better AND eat less. Which sounds counterproductive but eating well is better than eating more. Quality over quantity... and the food here is really good! I spent most of the afternoon in my track pants, doing web stuff and prepping a few things for the show. It would've been nice to head across the road to the casino to kill some time but 1) that costs money and 2) I had a bunch of things to get through online. Even though I'm away from work, there's still lots of work to be done when you run your own business. If you neglect it, you're gonna have problems. Matt and I took another trip to the buffet for lunch... it's pricey (thank you food vouchers!) but again, it's totally worth it. They had a soft serve ice cream machine... it was painful not being able to do anything stupid (funny) with it. We headed over to the venue around 3pm. It was an hour drive... through shitty traffic. I think we almost missed our exits about 5 times, went through about 9 construction zones., and were almost taken out by vehicles changing lanes about 15 times. Felt like Toronto except there wasn't as much construction. (cough) So we're playing another casino. Apparently these places are like a chain or all under the same umbrella. We have been treated amazingly at the hotel and it was more of the same when we arrived at the venue. Speaking of when we arrived... nothing shrinks your coin purse like parking your forest green safari van between two tour buses with trailers. It's not a pissing contest... but it looks nice.... the tour buses... not the piss. (someone is doing it in the room next to me... I wish I was asleep right now.) ... back to the tour bus thing. I understand 100% it's a logistics thing over appearance thing. It makes sense to have a place for everyone (band and crew) to stay and travel. It's a place to sleep and relax a little to, from, before, and after shows. It doesn't make sense for us to have anything like that right now since it's just 5 guys and 0 crew... although it'd be awesome to have a driver and a guitar tech around. We were spoiled with Brad (Brad is the man!) back in June. Having an awesome tech around just made everything better... and as I've learned, better is better. So we arrived just after 4pm... our sound check was at 5:30... or whenever Papa Roach and Pop Evil are done... we know the ropes by now... and we're quick with sound check.. The venue was a pretty big theater... more suited for actual "theater". It was 88% seats... like actual "sit down" seats. This is fine for old guys like me... but it makes for a weird rock show at times... especially if the crowd is somewhat behaved and respectful. Skipping to the show... it was great Tim didn't have to do much convincing to get people out of there seats and down to the front of the stage. All it takes is a few folks to get the parade started. It's a rock show... go have fun people! We only had a 20 minute set tonight... which flew by. It's 5 tunes. It felt pretty good though. A couple hiccups but they're the type you iron out over breakfast the next morning. ... I gotta sleep soon... can't wait for breakfast! The crowd and staff seemed to really enjoy the set. It's often we meet people at the merch table who say they've never heard of Age Of Days before and really liked the set (picking up a cd and or a shirt)... while others mention we're one of the better opening acts they've seen in a while. I take that as a huge compliment. Oh... our dressing room was awesome too. Huge room, enough seating for everyone... snacks (ketchup chips!), drinks, fruit basket, showers, two toilet stalls! It was like having our own bus! (cough) It was a really nice room though... and honestly it's been a really kick ass start to this tour. There's a lot of driving coming up over the next couple weeks... but I think this is all really good for overall morale. We packed up, watched Pop Evil, and Papa Roach. Highlight for me was when Papa Roach played "Where Did The Angles Go"... it sounded ridiculous. I'm a tough critic... but they threw down on that song... I was laughing after at how ridiculous I thought it sounded... SOOO good. Post show, we settled up, then headed back to the hotel/casino. Plan was to bum around the casino for a bit to eat and also feed Gamblor. Matt won a bit today on slots after lunch... I think it took him all of 19 seconds to lose his $14.93 cents he really should've cashed out. ... but that's just my opinion. Oh I met up with TJ Moreau at the show as well. You might know the name (through my blogs) since we worked on a few songs last winter. He seemed pretty stoked to see the show and I'm glad he could make it out. He tagged along back to the casino to hang and chat... good times for sure! ... TJ and I were the last ones standing/sitting at the slots tonight I'm pretty sure as well. In short... we walked around, tried a few machines... I lost $10 in about 14 seconds. He lost $10 in about 3 minutes. ... we just couldn't find the right machines though. TJ pointed out the machines we should go to but two side by side weren't open... there was some girl (half in the bag) sitting there... giving us the eye. We were eying her too... but like... the "we want you... to leave" eye. I told TJ he should go hit on her, then hurt her feelings to she runs off all dramatically... he wouldn't go for it though. What a jerk. We walked around a bit longer, lost a bit more money then she finally left... thank you Gamblor! So we start playing these machines... $0.02 machines BUT you have to really up the anti to make it worth while odds wise. This might be all common knowledge to you... but I'm new to a lot of things normal adults do regularly or have already done. :-| ... so I'm down to my last little bit... I decide to just go for broke. Max bet. $$$. Yes! ... then I lose the rest of it. TJ cashes out what he has left, throws it over to me, then pops another $20 in the machine. I ask him if he's sure about 50 times... he insists. I keep rocking max bet... and then it happens. Some free spin/bonus thing. The machine is kinda going nuts... I'm laughing since it's sorta embarrassing at first but noise is going on everywhere around me... and I'm technically winning money. So the bonus thing goes on for a while, then it starts paying out all crazy... I think I was up $45 now (minus the $20 I spent and the $15 TJ threw at me. So I guess only $10. I rocked this for a while... got the bonus thing a bunch of times. Long story short(ened). I think I was up $145 at one point, cashed out at $101.83. I was thinking I'd cash out at a new hockey stick ($160) but then I decided $200 was my goal, but AFTER a certain time (1:30am) I'd cash out if I was about to dip below $100. TJ was on his last spin, went for broke with max bet... ended up cashing out $40 or something. It worked out pretty good in the end. Gambling isn't a good career choice but it was a fun hour of entertainment that's for sure. I'm off to bed... 7am alarm clock, breakfast for 7:45, van call for 8:45. I can do this. Wish us luck on our boarder crossing. May the rock Gods be smiling on us. - Mike ... just to get this out of the way. This is what I sat down to this morning. ... always try and leave things better than you found them. That's how I was raised. ... moving on. October 3, 2013
Travel day. That's all days like today are... a day in the van... chewing through the 'time remaining' on the GPS... stopping every few hours to pee and/or eat. It's nice scenery driving through the mountains though... especially if you've spent a fair amount of time driving around the prairies. Everyone woke up around 8am, got cleaned up, and then headed over to Ricky's for breakfast. Rule of thumb, if the place ends in y's, it's a safe bet for breakfast. On travel days, you might as well load up on food in the morning... since it could be a while until you're stopping some place decent again. Also, when you have multiple drivers, you should take advantage of it, and not stop for long (more than 20 minutes) periods of time. It really adds up when you have a 10+ hour drive to do. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Good start. We ran a few errands, picking up some more merch and stopping at Long & McQuade. L&M had my snare skin of choice in stock in Calgary... Evans Super Tough... they don't carry them at my local L&M anymore (it seems)... I grabbed something that was close, but after putting it on last week and trying it... not the same. I like a bit of a 'ring' in my snare... without it, I feel like I'm playing a phone book... a really loud one... but it's missing that extra thing I like. A lot of a drummers personality is in their snare sound in my opinion. I think we left Calgary around 11am... 10-ish hours on the GPS... a walk in the park for me considering Matt, Brent, and Trevor have been driving for 3 days already... while I flew in last night. If you haven't been in the van as long as the others who have been in the van, you can't complain about anything related to being in the van. Nothing too much noteworthy today... lots of stupid jokes and staring out the window at the scenery to pass the time. Minor highlight was this raven (I think) that swooped down at me while we were stopped in a town called Golden. I was just standing there... watching this giant black bird flying towards me. Part of me started thinking... "that bird is getting pretty low..." Then I started thinking "I hope it doesn't poop on me... because that's a big bird." Then as it got closer and closer... getting lower and lower... "This bird might swoop down at me... this bird might attack me... I might have to fight this bird." Part of me was totally down with fighting this bird... I mean... if that bird's got questions... I'm sure I could find it some answers. Bring it bird. ... while the other part was thinking... I don't really wanna fight something that doesn't really have arms... I'd feel obligated to only use kick attacks. So the bird skimmed over my head (missed me by 3ft maybe), it was pretty loud... landed behind me... then standing sideways, started giving me stink eye, and hopping towards me. Kinda reminded me of the Igor type character from Young Frankenstein. I guess I was standing near some sandwich droppings in the parking lot it was after. I moved out of the way and let it chow down. It was a really funny bird though... it had a lot of personality... almost as if a very tiny person was in costume controlling it's movements. If I could have a pet bird, I would pick that bird. Sorry Big Bird. More driving, until an Arby's stop for dinner. It was between that and Carl Jr's. I've never had Carl's before... but when I'm hungry, I want to go with a safe bet... taste wise. Too hungry to be disappointed (just in case) so Arby's it is. Driving, driving, driving... and we're finally in Vancouver/Richmond. The hotel here is super nice... and there's a casino attached. If it wasn't so late I'd wander around just to have a look... but it's been a long day and I have a bunch of things to catch up on online in the morning... it adds up quickly not having email (or cell reception) majority of the day. ... buffet breakfast tomorrow... quick acoustic/vocal rehearsal... then it's off to the venue. Since we're opening on this tour (first of three) the set will fly by. Short sets are really fun to play though... and it'll be nice to get the rust off in front of a few people the next couple nights. ... for now though... time to get some sleep. - Mike October 2, 2013
I'm kicking myself for not documenting the Halestorm dates from June. I have a picture diary on my iPhone but it's not the same... although I probably remember most of it pretty well... there definitely was a lot to talk about. Today was a travel day... packing and travel day... the day didn't start out to good though. I was making breakfast while chatting with my mom on skype when my blender broke... well more exploded... causing my would've been delicious mango banana smoothie to fire out the bottom, all over the kitchen counter. It was pretty disappointing... and part of me was hoping it wasn't foreshadowing the engines on my flight later. That's how my brain works. Before I knew it, I was at the airport. Minor highlight was going through security. It seemed to be a bit busier at Pearson than usual. I put all my metal-ables in the tray, took off my shoes, and walked through the metal detector. It went off. Well that's new. The security guy says "you've been randomly selected for a pat down screening." ... I'm guessing the other non-white guy in front of me was also randomly selected as well. I laughed and said ok. The security guy then said I had the choice of public or private? I asked him which one he preferred. (... honest question I thought... he does work here, right?) This was bordering on airport security humor... he seemed kinda stunned... so I asked what the difference was... is public kinda like at a club? If private involves different gloves, I'll go public. He just sorta started doing the pat down without really saying anything else. He didn't really seem to enjoy this part of his job to be honest... I could tell by the expression on his face... then again, maybe I wasn't his type. Keep in mind I'm wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt... there isn't too much to pat down... he could've probably visually patted me down. In short, if you ever win the pat down prize, it's not a big deal. I figure if you ever have to go through extra security stuff, and you have nothing to hide, staying in public view is the better call. The flight was decent... West Jet usually is. I was looking forward to watching the Leafs game since they had TSN and TSN2 on the TV. Little did I know as soon as the game started, we were no longer in range to get the station... not cool. So I spent half the flight watching Love It Or List It, and the other watching the Detroit/Buffalo game. Tim picked me up from the airport... we're both really looking forward to the tour. I held off asking him to stop at the McDonald's by his place... I know there will be some McDonk stops on this trip... no need to start now if I don't have to... he has a bowl of Halloween candy here I've been snacking on (aka dinner) the past 30 minutes. I'll live. We're off to Vancouver tomorrow (12 hour drive I think) then the first show is on Friday. To anybody asking, I have no idea what is going on with guest list(s). We're an opening act and there is a pecking order. We do our best but you gotta understand sometimes you just don't have the pull... and sometimes it's just not that easy to make requests. I've written a blog about this already... please be understanding. :-) - Mike P.S. I'll be loosely proofing these daily. Please ignore obvious spelling/grammar issues... some of these days are going to be long! Straight up... there's a shit ton of money related topics so I might as well tackle one of the easiest to deal with.
Odds are everyone in the band have different levels of income, and just as important, their own list of expenses and responsibilities. Life costs money... but your band, which if you're reading this you're trying to run like a business, also costs money to get up and running and maintain... way more money than most of you think. A common problem discussing recording budgets is the one person who basically goes "I can't afford that." ... and? (lol) It's a band expense... not a personal one. Is the band supposed to be held back because someone has a lower income or higher expenses? What if one or two people in the band can handle the financial investments/costs of running a band while the other two can't? Is that fair? Is that unfair? I can understand it's easier politically if everyone contributes equally but life rarely works out that cleanly... especially when there's this many people involved. The way around this... have a serious sit down a few times a year to see where people are at financially. You're a band. You're somewhat all partners in a business. You have to have the money talk sometimes. There are guys I've seem bank roll the entire project for years and guys who've said up front they can bring no help financially whatsoever. Both are ok... just know that if and when money starts to come in, the ones who invested get to put their hands in the pot first (or at least have way more say regarding what to do with the money... this also applies to potential issues with private investors), while the ones who didn't invest/contribute need to keep their hands in their pockets. Really keep in mind money equals votes/say in the band... and the band needs to be your baby. Whatever baby needs, baby gets. You'll see this is common among the hardcore folk in any passion... or vice. That alone should motivate you enough to do what it takes, see the big picture, and make sure finances get dealt with. Don't cripple your band (aka business, aka baby) trying to set your budget according to whoever is able to contribute the least, regardless of the reason. If you are, this should be a red flag it's just for fun and not really worth investing in in the first place - Mike. I swear I think about posting/updating this more often... usual excuses apply... things get busy, I start posts and rant... rants become novels... I decide to post later... but this gap also includes summer holidays! Summer has been awesome for me... so what's been going on since April?
.. frig, it's been probably longer than that looking at my iCal. Basically, this year started off good, steady... then got rammed really quickly after taking on another Parabelle album back in January. I didn't have a ton of time in the schedule but Kevin asked about doing another acoustic/electro sounding thing similar to the "remix" of This Life a the end of the Starry Eyes album. I have a lot of fun working on these kinda projects... outside the obvious stuff like acoustic/vocal, I get to build up the instrumentation somewhat on my own... it kinda feels like a school project. You get the main ingredients, you cook it up, serve it, and sorta wait to see what the reaction is going to be... not just from the fans, but from the band too! Long story short, stupid me blocked out 2 weeks in the schedule to get it done, as I had another album starting right after... Kyle and Kevin were up for a few days tracking and then I ended up spending a lot more time on it than I'd originally planned... which is sorta normal... whether it's two weeks or six weeks, I'm going to work on it until I think it's "done". ... it got finished and released a couple months ago I think... maybe back in April? Yes, I think it would've been April because the Age Of Days album came out around that time. After the Parabelle 'Air' album, I went into co-producing/engineering the next Vince Hawkins and Company Slave album. I had a lot of fun working on this... I love riffs... and I love (good) solos. I think I also had the largest drum kit so far in here as well for that... sorta left field since when I think "blues rock", I'm not thinking "6 piece kit, with 20+ pieces of brass". All good though, it was fun. The recording process rolled along nicely, with very few hiccups... always a bonus on the larger projects! I think it comes out sometime this fall on Grooveyard Records. I'm looking forward to sharing some links once that's up. I'd link to the label page but I just checked... they have an auto-play. After that (good ol' iCal!), Fallen Heirs were in to do a single. Often, I discourage bands from just doing one song. Time wise it's not efficient... but it is a great way to test the waters working with new people, plus I highly encourage bands frequently release material these days. It'd been a while since they'd released anything, and we'd been talking about working together for a while at that point. I had time for a song. They wanted to do a song. Sounds good to me. Another efficient and hiccup free project, I feel like we were done within a weekend... then editing/mixing obviously. They are super nice guys too... and party responsibly. The track is called "Wake Up", I'm fairly certain it's on YouTube. Yeah I could link to it... I'm still debating linking to everything in this post. It takes a while! I'm a busy guy! ... and it's really nice outside! After that, I had a chance to play for the FLYING BURRITOS!!! in the Exclaim Cup hockey tournament. Why am I bringing this up? Because it was awesome. I honestly don't do much outside of the studio... which is good because I love it, but also bad because your brain needs to step away at times to gain perspective. I play hockey a couple times a week which is good, but despite feeling like I'd been hit by a truck by the end of the tournament... it felt f*cking awesome. It felt like I'd been on vacation for a week... barely thinking about music, bands, or studio life at all. We ended up winning our division (lowest), in Disney/Hollywood fashion... in a shoot out... against the only team to beat us, in our opening game. Again... it was awesome. Post hockey super-greatness, The Joy Arson were back to record the 3 remaining tracks on their debut EP. I just got the masters back a couple weeks ago actually, and it sounds awesome. Lots of 90's influences, but hey, we're all 90's kids around here... hovering around our 30's now. I'll definitely be posting some links once it's released... I think in October... apparently alongside the new Breached EP... there's a release show for both here in Toronto... which we did sometime between January. That turned out awesome too... those guys are making some moves so I'll be surprised if you don't hear about it... if you call yoruself a rock fan. From there it was into... no it wasn't... (thanks iCal)... I had a band called Red Steps in to track the beds for their debut album. I've worked with their drummer a few times now so he passed me some of their demos/EP. I really liked what I'd heard so I was happy to get the word they decided to scrape up the money (inside joke) to come in. I'm not sure what state it's in right now since they were tracking overdubs/vocals at their place... looking forward to hearing the end product though... regardless of whether I get my hands on it for mix. So... from there it was into Age Of Days rehearsals. I decided back around Christmas that next tour, I would take some time off before to practice up... I also just simply wanted to take some time off this summer. Work has been non-stop for about a year and a half now... which is awesome... but you go through periods where you just have to grind through it... and grinding through the creative process sucks... it's still good when you know you can grind through it... but when you have too... and you're tired... it sucks huge. Rehearsing was fun though... and the idea of heading out to do a few dates with Halestorm was f*cking awesome. Nobody seemed to know who they are in Canada... big surprise <-- sarcasm. Once things got rolling on tour though, post near death experience, no joke, it was an awesome "vacation" and the shows were good. I sorta regret not keeping a journal... well the detailed type I normally would... but perhaps sometime I'll type it up what I remember and post it... in a few years. I still have last summer with Buckcherry done and ready to post... it might be more fun to post down the road though at this point. Who knows... my blog, my rules! We ended up flying back out for a weekend to play a couple more shows with Buckcherry and shoot a video for "I Did It For Love". I used to hate videos, but years ago, after watching a few from Soundgarden, I've accepted that 97% of all drummers look stupid in music videos, 100% of the time... so I just try and have fun with them. You are at the mercy of the editor! I'm not supposed to say too much about it... but it's a pretty standard rock video. Hot chicks, muscle cars, rock band... we could've used better catering but hey... Canadian music industry we're talking about. Unless you're part of the 1%, you'll probably find yourself at a Walmart deli counter trying to figure out how much shaved ham is necessary to feed 12 people. The band performance filming was fun... actually... I'll do a post about the video (please hold me to it!) once the video is released. Hopefully it's out in the next few weeks. After all that, I spent some time up at the family cottage... that was July. Age of Days did a quick festival appearance (first of five on the bill!) in their hometown of Fredericton this month. It was a pretty sweet bill as far as affordable small town festival rock bands go. Monster Truck, Big Wreck, Buckcherry, Sebastian Bach! All the bands were awesome, Sebastian was very entertaining... I love watching pros work a crowd. Skid Row was slightly before my time but I still recognized a bunch of the songs... couldn't sing along to every song like some people though... *cough*MattMcLaughlin*cough*. Big Wreck was the highlight for me though... Thornley is a monster talent. I'd briefly worked with him years ago on a project that unfortunately never saw the light of day. It's one thing to hang with people in the studio, it's another to see them on stage. I believe the greats always shine on stage... "great" will always be argued... but watching Big Wreck was great. It was only fitting they were sound checking when we showed up that morning... and just finishing up their set when we had to head out... they sounded awesome. I think that about brings everything up to date... better late than never! I'm currently working on a few tunes with singer/songwriter Rory O'Hearn and a birdie told me Rebel Hero might be heading in soon to work on a few new tracks. Along with that, men's league summer hockey playoffs are in full force, men's league summer hockey playoff beard is in full force, and Age of Days will be back to rehearsals soon for an upcoming tour this October with Papa Roach. Super stoked. On a final note, that Papa Roach tour also involves some US dates. I told myself back in my teens I wanted music to take me to every province in Canada... territories, you're still on the list! Last year, finally hitting Manitoba, I'd reached my goal. This year, I'm hoping to start that adventure again with visiting all the states down south through music... should be good times. :-) - Mike P.S. Don't hit a moose... it f*cking sucks. P.S.S. This post is probably full of typos... I apologize. I limited myself to an hour though! |
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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