February 10, 2017 - 11:20am Sitting in a Motel 6 "lobby" in Hol… something... NM… maybe AZ… not sure yet… and this sounds funnier than actually knowing. We drove 3.5hrs last night, another 3 to get to Scottsdale, AZ. I have no data and barely any cell reception. Writing these is hard enough... no reception isn't helping. *** I set my alarm for 10am… the radio station was a 15 minute drive but I needed time to get cleaned up (somehow) and grab a couple things from Walmart. Dane was up too… Brendan and Reid... still very much out. We walked over to the Walmart… I grabbed more merch supplies and a pack of gum… just in case it’s the closest thing to a shower I’m going to get right now… I actually went into the Walmart bathroom to brush my teeth and get changed… but there was… pooh on the floor… and I just wasn’t able to handle that right now… definitely too early since I felt like I was in a daze. Reid was up when we got back and we headed over to Clown… I wanted a smoothie. … apparently there’s lunch provided by Hooters at the KBAT 99.9 thing… which I’d be really excited about normally… because I love wings… but I had no appetite right now… sorta wish lunch was provided by Sleep Country… but way she goes… wings will do. Got cleaned up best I could then we headed out… somehow it took us 40 mins to make a 15 minute drive… highways… and our GPS was laggy… so you approach a turn and then the signage is bad… then… you’re 6 mins both ways to turn around. The best was the actually radio station parking lot… the address on the GPS was past the entrance to the parking lot… so we’re already 15 mins late… and now we’re another 15 mins to simply turn around… can’t win right now. We finally arrive and saw ALY’s van in the parking lot. I went inside… my best Canadian apologies ready to go. Chris Muttley met us (myself and the Hooter’s girls/rep) at the door… we were 30 minutes late (I think)… he still seemed happy to see us though… and let us know we weren’t too late…. late for lunch I guess. (… wasn’t hungry at all… which was a shame since I LOVE wings.) Navigated through he radio station and found the ALY camp and the sweet, sweet, hot, smell of lunch provided by Hooters. I’m torn… I want to eat, but wings for breakfast is already not sitting right. … oh yeah! ALY is here already… eating… I’m so out of it... should probably just sit off to the side and dodge any pressure to perform… maybe I’ll hold the camera… odds are they’ll want to live stream… that’s my excuse. We hung out for maybe 30 mins eating and socializing. The Hooters rep and Hooters girls were pretty cool… very chill… but I was kinda wondering what the Hooters girls would be doing… it’s not hard to entertain 8 guys in bands who’ve been away for a few weeks… they entertain themselves enough… I hope they got paid to hang out at least… I wonder if they eat the food… that should be part of the “Hooters uniform”… wing sauce stained finger tips and corners of their mouths… and this is why I shouldn't own a Hooters franchise. (… see… I’m by myself right now and very much entertained!) *sad* … I packed away as many wings as I could (because I’m weak) and we… I can’t remember if we did the interview first or performances… so I’m going to go with performances… because it makes more sense. … I’m also going to add a special guest appearance by Big Bird since I’m trying to remember this a few days after the fact and I’m allowing my memory some wiggle room. Big Bird is a honey garlic fan by the way… I didn’t mention I thought it was weird he ate wings to begin with… (… I’m sorry everybody… even though I’ve been up for a couple hours… already tired again… lol… join a band they said… see the world they said… ) *tear* ALY performed a couple songs first. It’s tough essentially driving 5-6hrs over night then trying to play… especially sing… it’s pretty early in the day when you haven’t really slept…. they sounded good though. Everyone was on stage, Angel (drums) played a Djembe which I thought sounded good. So many bands use a cajon for acoustic performances now… they’re kinda played out to me… … and lord knows I’ll probably be sitting on one within the next year if everything works out… or I come up with a better idea. *cough* They’re still just as entertaining between songs… even though they only played a couple songs… the banter between Adam (bass) and Clinton (vocals) is worth the ticket price every night alone! Brendan ended up playing guitar and joined Reid and Dane on stage… I held the camera so we could live stream to Facebook. (… that really is a thing these days… live streams… #DearBands… get your music out there, but get your personality out there too! So many opportunities to get some behind the scenes content as well.) It sounded good though… and the live stream didn’t crap out… which was good. We moved over to Muttley’s broadcast room for the interview portion… it was sort of a gang approach with everyone there sorta all at once with Clinton and Reid answering the bulk of the questions and dialog. This was a bit of a blur but Clinton had a lot of kind words for us. #RealTalk - It’s been a bit of a grind for several reasons… and it’s tough to headline a tour where the venues aren’t doing as much for promotion as they really could be. It’s tough… but it’s nice to hear it from each other on the tour, especially on the record in a radio interview that people see the work going into it… there’s definitely been a couple “Lemonade Stands” and I’m sure there’ll be a few more still… we’re in good company on this trip though. Interview was a bit of a blur… we finished up and then did picture time in the hallway... exchanged some merch/swag, hung out in the parking lot for a bit (1,005F again) then made the decision to head to Albuquerque… I was pushing to stop in Roswell, NM… we have to pass through anyway!! … easy sell. ;-) … maybe 3hr drive… was dark by the time we got there.. ended up getting a hotel through Hotwire… had a pool and a hot tub… I’m down! When we arrived I remember looking behind me while checking in and all these army people were behind me. … ok, that’s a bit odd. … I’m always awkward as F around military. I’m awkward around cops too but my mind just goes to 10,000 questions I can’t bring myself to ask… since eventually the answer would be “maybe you should join the army…” … and I’m not army material… I’d have my mouth slapped off within the first week… for sure. Checked in, Reid and I headed straight for the pool/hot tub. We actually bumped into a couple army guys dressed for the bar in the elevator on the way down. "Looks like we're heading to the same place!" I said jokingly... as we were in bare feet and swim trunks. "..." "... I'm just joking." "Yeah, not unless it has cold beer." (... my delivery on the joke was good... I don't know what went wrong.) ... then Brendan joined us for dinner. (… how Brendan was still remotely functioning, I have no idea.) Ended up walking over to Applebee’s… my stomach said salad… fingertips pointed to club sandwich, salad and fries. (… I should just stop eating fries… fries are my “beer”.) We could see ALY’s van across the road. We (half) joked about trying to meet up with them… but I was the buzzkill reminding people we haven’t really slept in a while and should get to bed as early as possible. (…. Mike “Fun Ruiner” Langford) I tried working in the lobby after we got back… problem is I crashed for 20 minutes in the hotel room once we got back… so I was mega groggy. … decided to tap out… get some sleep… there’s always breakfast. - Mike
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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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