February 5, 2017 - 2:17pm … yup… I’m that far behind right now… again… it’s tough thinking back to yesterday when the days start melting together… pretty sure we can assume it’s emails and admin stuff up until when we left for the venue. … oh yeah! It was a 3.5hr drive that turned into like, 5hrs. We were warned about Dallas traffic (construction) and apparently it is a thing. … ah yes…. it’s all coming back to me now… in a flood of remembering... it… like it was Friday. We left the hotel for 11am to go by a place called Toucan Productions where Arvol (yeah I think I butchered his name in the last blog... thanks Facebook!) works… he said he could hook us up with some guitars… because of our “accidents”… well the one was semi-intentional… the other… sadly, very much an accident. Wasn’t sure how long this would take so I budgeted an hour. So, Toucan specializes in (I think) audio/visual backline productions. a mouthful (and again, a guess) but you walk in the front door and you can quickly tell they’ve done some shit. Staff was super nice… I think another one of the employees has a history with MDD as well. I hung off to the side and Arvol showed me what I have to assume is the Boss’s office. I’ll post a quick pic here… because that’s the only way even begin to describe it. … yup, guitars. … and each one has a story. .. I failed huge on getting a pic of the other way... I got video... but I don't feel comfortable posting it now that I see it. I think it’s neat going into places like this… especially involving instruments. Not to go all *spirit hands* but if you pay attention, “things” will speak to you… again, not in a *spirit hands* kinda way but in a “I like this, and I don’t know why” kinda way. … ok, I guess it’s a little… *spirit hands* … but take a musician into a store… show them a wall of 50 guitars… and before you now it, they’ll point. “… that one.” … or even worse… they pick up 10 guitars that are “all the same”… and there’ll most likely be one or two in there that just feel better. … and this is why there’s always money for new guitars! :-) … back on track… this “office” is insane… and that guitar that called out to me was a white Gibson Melody Maker signed by Joan Jett. (… soooo cool!!!) I didn’t spend much time in there… I figured we’d take a second pass with the whole group… this was a tour stop for sure! Arvol took us over to the warehouse where they kept all the lights and trusses and stuff… Reid and Brendan geeked out a bit… ended up in the repair section which I thought was cooler. I think it’s neat how things work so seeing a bunch of gear in various states of disassembly, that’s more up my alley. … I like fixing things… or at least opening things up to figure out why they’re broken. Arvol had the guitars stashed in here. A PRS Baritone (Mike Musok) which I’d done a ton of work with, and a custom modded Schecter… which just looks baddass. Arvol sanded off some sections and I think I heard him say (AND DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME) h took a blowtorch the body to give some texture. … it looks awesome, I sorta want one. We assured him we’d do our best to have them avoid a similar fate to Reid’s other guitars… then headed back to the front entrance and “the office”. *spirit hands* Robin was his name and he gave us a tour… and just as I thought, every guitar has a story. You can tell what people are into by how they talk about the things … you can’t fake passion for a collection… and if we had more time, I would’ve gladly listened to the story behind every guitar in there.. and that might have been 100+ stories. … I’m just going to stop talking about it because it’s too awesome. We grabbed a couple pics of everyone and headed out. … small side note, Robin wanted to get a pic of us for their socials, but we had to bug him a bit to get him to take a picture with us. I think it’s one thing to have a memory to to say “someone was here”, but better to have a reminder “everyone was together”. … and this is from someone who isn’t a huge fan of picture time. (lol.) We said our “until next times” and were en route to Ft Worth, TX. … we were a little behind schedule after the long stop at Toucan, but figured we’d only be a little late. … the traffic though.. just like Toronto… construction that just seems to not stop. We’re some what comfortable in the van but it sucks when you’re looking at the GPS and it just don’t seem to be moving… always 45 mins way. … but we made it… 90mins late… we tried! lol. I guess ALY (Another Lost Year) couldn’t even really sound check anyways until after a certain time because it’s in an office/industry area. We loaded in… and waited… and… holy smokes there’s like 8 bands on the bill tonight..?! As someone pointed out… “I wonder who’s going to win the battle of the bands??” That’s sorta what it felt like… because that’s a lot of bands… even if people are doing 30 minute sets… that’ll run behind schedule for sure… and we have a 90 drive after the show to our hotel… so here’s to hoping we can get out of there at a reasonable hour. … oh awesome… that’s a band playing after ALY… this is going to be a late night. <fast forward> We played well and ended up live streaming a few songs to the MDD page… well… MDD songs… which makes sense. It’s super awesome we have the ability to do that these days… it really does make the world a smaller place. We’ve sold CDs to every continent I think (except Antarctica) so it’s cool (Antarctica pun) that people can catch us “live” live all over the world… granted they have internet and Facebook. After the set we tried to strike/pack as quickly as we could. The plan was to load out after ALY was done, then head out asap after the last band had finished. … best laid plans. It’s tricky to keep everyone together and sticking to the plan sometimes… not a huge deal but considering how quick it got late, it didn’t help us get out of the venue any earlier. The other thing… waiting for merch to finish. You a) should wait for the headliner (ALY) to start packing up… it’s good form, but understandable if you have a monster drive a head of you and you’re on a bus tour or something… but you don’t have a bus. I figure we’re still ok because we can load out when/while packing up merch. Last band plays… finishes… people half shout “encore”… I use the force to convince them there is no need… the force is strong… 5 mins later we’re packing up merch. … and a few more sales are made. This is the other reason it’s hard to pack up before a show is “done” done. Sometimes you’ll sell another $50 worth of stuff in that last few minutes… even as you’re closing the boxes up. #lastchance Final merch sold, packed up… get outside… I hear some commotion at the van… Brendan has sliced his finger open. …?! … and it was one of those cuts that didn’t look that bad until I looked it… then it looked worse that it was… sometimes a bunch of blood makes wounds look bad!! (… thanks MMA/UFC.) My main thing… 1) How’d that happen??? 2) How much blood is going to get on your bass? Apparently one of the pedalboard cases slipped down and caught his finger. #rawdeal We’re off to the bathroom to get that cleaned up and bandaged. (… I have the first aid kit… I cut/nick my hands all the time… typically in the kitchen but often on the drums as well… first aid kit is a must!) So hopefully this doesn’t turn into a thing… won’t really know until the morning… actually it’s getting late enough that it’s going to be morning soon…. so let’s say we won’t known until the next show… tomorrow. We finally say our goodbyes and head out… 3am… 90 min drive… frig. … gas station dinner it is. (… see the world they said! Join a band they said!) Seriously though… it’s times like that where I think the average, sane person would think “this sucks”… and well, it kinda does… but that’s just what today is… and you’ve probably had a lot of days like that if you’re in a band long enough… most people quit though. #realtalk I had a starbucks frappathingy drink… partially hoping it’d keep me awake… partially hoping it’d taste like an Iced Cap… was craving. I still had “muffins” from hotel breakfast to snack on. (… it’s “muffins” because they taste like cake… you could put icing on them, stick a candle in it… nobody would notice.) … arrive at the hotel at 5am… bed by 5:30am. On some Age Of Days tours I’d simply stay up and write…. but I need to get more sleep on this trip… must prioritize… which is why I’m so behind on these now… I’m keeping notes though… well I am now. *cough* I set my alarm for 9:30am before I passed out… can’t remember if I showered before or after. … join a band they said. - Mike P.S. Super tired... so please excuse the spelling and grammar!
(as always lol *tear*)
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Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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