Energy, Fallen From The Sky, Debaser Tour Journal
I meant to post this a month ago but completely forgot. This is the month of July from my perspective, the drivers seat of our van.
7/2 - Introduction/Boston, MA
Listening to Bill Hicks
This was the first night of our tour with fallen from the sky and debaser, who from now on will be referred to as ffts and dbsr. Today started off with me sleeping late, albeit on my own couch. Our van had been in the shop all week, so I went to pick it up this afternoon. We now have air conditioning. Us and dbsr are sharing our van, so 10 guys in one van headed due south, we kinda need the ac for this one. However, the vans making a weird noise now. We'll see what happens I guess.
I got to the show late, Dan was up at Bridge 9 picking up our merch (because with all things Energy, it's imperative that we wait until the last minute), Keith was on a bus en route from NY, Tank was late and Joe got there right after I did with the dbsr guys. We loaded in and braced ourselves for the show that night.
Now, here's the deal, ffts has asked us to tour in the past but we haven't been able to until now. They are a good band and seem like nice dudes, and this summer was a good opportunity for us to take our buddies dbsr out on the road. I always feel like when we take bands we don't know that well out on tour, that we're just a huge disappointment to them. I feel like people hear us and go "wow, melodic punk/hardcore, good singer, good record, bridge 9 records, this tour is gonna be so great". Sorry guys. 38 people paid tonight. In our own hometown. There was another show going on tonight in haverhill. This band called Title Fight played and I'm sure they had a good turn out and hindered ours. Although I've never listened to them before I hear all the talk. They are a hype band especially in the north east right now. But hey, good for them.
Don't worry, we're playing a couple cities on this tour that I know will be great, and maybe I won't listen to Bill Hicks every time I write, so hopefully not every entry will be such a downer.
7/3 - Wappingers Falls, NY
Listening to Rancid 2000
Keith and I got up today, had coffee and cleaned out our van from the past couple tours. What fucking pigs we are. We drove to Dan's and organized our merch with Sick (our merch guy, old friend, and social studies buff). Got all the troops (NRG/DBSR) together and headed to New York. We played a basement show near Poughkeepsie. This was definitely one of my favorite shows we've ever played in NY state. Some house shows have a real awkward party vibe, tonight just felt like a good show in close quarters. It got hot as fuck when we played. I was definitely pleasantly surprised with how well tonight went. We also found out today that our Philly show got canceled because in true punk rock form, the kids living in the house didn't pay their electric bill and the power got shut off. Our luck. Made a couple phone calls and hooked up a show at some skatepark in the city. We're actually playing with a band that hooked us up with a Philly show last 4th of July, so it should be a good time. That, vegan cheesesteaks, and fireworks will make this quite a nice Independence Day. I drove 3 hours straight to Philly after our show and now have the pleasure of sleeping in the van because some seemingly drunk guy hanging out his window yelled to us "Hey that looks like a nice trailer (its not), must have some nice stuff in it..." when we pulled up to Racheal's apartment in south Philly. Fucking people.
July 4th - Philadelphia, PA
Listening to Sheryl Crow (in my head)
We got up today, made a quick star bucks run, and went to the FDR skatepark in philly. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the skatepark under I-95 that's featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and in some CKY videos. We played on the ground, powered by a generator, with borrowed equipment. Our set was awkward as fuck. I guess that's what you can expect with any last minute Energy show. We split a set with the Mad Splatter. We left immediately after we played because it was so awkward and no one wanted to buy merch. We drove to Govindas and got some vegan food. While we were eating, our friend Klint from RGN SUP and Josh of Petition fame came by and we all hung out for the day. Klint took us to this place called B2 and got vegan soft serve and milkshakes. We saw the Liberty Bell and Joe got yelled at for taking his shirt off in the museum which was the first time in his 21 years he had been called "sir". We went back to Josh's apartment and made some pasta for dinner. Then we went to the art museum and caught the end of Sheryl Crow's set (we missed the Roots) and watched the fireworks. Fireworks are one of the only things that always make me feel like a little kid, and we missed our hometowns display this year, so this was kind of a nice break from the rigors of the road. Tomorrow is our first time playing in DC proper. The only thing I know for sure is we're getting pizza at the show which is always a nice treat.
July 5th - Washington DC
Listening to Alkaline Trio
We left philly late, hit traffic on 95 and got to our show really late, but that's ok because the club hadn't opened yet. We played the basement of some art gallery much like the CCAS in Baltimore, one of our favorite venues on the east coast. However tonight was super awkward. The 2 or 3 kids that knew who we were, were in fact, friends we had made in Baltimore who drove down to see us. Like I said in my last entry, the only thing I knew about this show was we were getting pizza courtesy of the promoter who plays in the band the Scare. Other than getting fed, there was nothing I really enjoyed about tonights show. We're staying outside of DC tonight at a very nice condo. We have about a 7 hour drive tomorrow to Wilmington, North Carolina. We're hemorrhaging gas money left and right on this tour, which is starting to get old after 3 years.
July 6th - Wilmington, NC
Listening to Ramallah - Kill A Celebrity
Today started off like any other day on an Energy tour. We woke up, went to a grocery store and starbucks and settled in for the drive. Wilmington is one of those cities that's slowly but surely becoming a good spot for us. We owe this primarily to a guy named Scottie. Its seriously so hard to find hardworking, trustworthy promoters. Any asshole can find some shitty bar or VFW hall and sign up for a myspace for their "booking agency" or "promotion company". Scottie is one of the hardest working people I've met on the road. He believes in what he does and busts his ass to get it done. As a touring band it really means a lot to see anyone else put in the time that we do to keep independent music going. A lot of people fake it. Its taking us some time but we're weeding out all those who half ass it. I won't out them publicly but I have plenty of horror stories. Tonights show was great for all the touring bands. An overall great effort by everyone involved and you can't really ask for more than that.
July 7th - Charleston/Goose Creek, SC
Listening to Don McLean - American Pie
We say this all the time but South Carolina is our favorite place to play. Much like NC, we owe everything we have here to our friend Nick. Sadly, he moved up north earlier this year, but he did so much to get things rolling for a lot of bands in this area. The kids down here treat us like we're one of their own local bands. They are unconditionally supportive and proud of everything we do. Last year our drummer sprained his wrist mid-tour and we were forced to head home a couple weeks early but we knew we couldn't cancel our SC show. We sat in our van and arranged some pseudo-unplugged versions of our songs. It was one of the most heartwarming things I've been a part of. The kids in the crowd and the other band on the tour knew how bummed we were that we had to bail, but were there for us to make the best of it. When we played here back in the spring, our friend Tanya suggested we do another acoustic show in a local music store. She worked it out for us and got a good 30 or so kids to come out, it was really cool. After this, we got some food and headed to the real show that night. Some fest-type show with a million bands. We worked our way into having all the punk and hardcore bands sandwiched together between a half dozen metal bands. Good vibes all around for that chunk of the show and painfully awkward vibes for the rest of the night. One of the best Energy shows of all time.
July 8th - Atlanta, GA
Watching Cash Cab on TV in our Motel 6
Back in May we played in Rochester, PA and a kid introduced himself to me saying he had just confirmed an Energy show in Atlanta in July. Cool. I like getting familiar with promoters so I know how they operate and what to expect. So I appreciate the kid saying hello. This would be the last time I see or talk to this kid. Every few days on tour, I call ahead to the promoters to make sure everything is still going as scheduled. There's less surprises this way and we know how to budget our time and money much better. This kid however, would not answer his phone. Even the day of the show. So we risked it and drove 5 hours. Ryan from FFTS finally got in touch with the kid via text message who said he's on vacation and the guys from Foundation were running the show. Sounds a little fishy but we wait around a couple more hours for people to show up. We played this venue back in February to about 30 kids. The amount of kids is not the issue here, just making a reference point. Its the fact that tonight there were half that amount. If 30 kids is all we can pull in a city (and in some cities that's being generous), that's fine, so be it. But what changed sinse the last time we played? A lazy, immature, irresponsible promoter took charge and left 5 touring bands out to dry. The guys in Foundation did their best on 2 days notice and everyone seriously appreciates the last ditch effort to salvage what someone so carelessly dropped the ball on. Hey, maybe we're crazy for thinking a promoter would actually promote a show these days.
July 9th - Orlando, FL
Listening to David Cross
Orlando has always been a fun place for us to play. We've made a lot of good friends here. Tonight's show easily made up for last night's debacle and today's 8 hour drive. Small room, packed with kids singing along over the broken PA. Right out of a Minor Threat show. Awesome.
July 11th - Tampa, FL
Significant Fest. We're not a fest band. We don't suck any dick to get on the big fests or put any effort to get in with the clicky bands or get on their tours. Its just not worth it. However, every year we've been a band, we get asked to play Significant Fest. We agreed to do it this year because the original plan was to play 2 or 3 shows down here with Slapshot who we toured Europe with back in December. We booked this whole tour around it and Slapshot had to cancel. That's basically the only reason we're here right now. Year after year this fest gets weaker and weaker which is a shame because I believe Tom is a good guy. He does his best and if 150 kids over the span of two days is the best Tampa has to offer, well that's too bad. I like playing Tampa, kids have always dug us here either because of this fest or one of our dozen or so other trips down the east coast. Yesterday was great, for a show, we played well, so let's just leave it at that.
July 12th - Miami, FL
We drove from Tampa to Coral Springs to visit my friend Jeffy from Know The Score at his tattoo shop. Greg from DBSR got some work done while Jeffy and I shot the shit. The rest of the guys drove the van down to Miami to hang out. Greg and I rode down to the show with Justin from FFTS. The show tonight was a lot of fun but was in a really sketchy area. We payed a homeless guy $5 to watch our van (read: not slash our tires while we played). Money well spent. We played great, sold some merch and drove back to Orlando which is where I'm typing this from. On to tallahassee tomorrow.
July 13th - Tallahassee, FL
Soul Vegetarian cart. Hot fucking venue with kids singing along to our songs. What more can you want? Ffts' van died last night. Bummed we didn't get to say goodbye, but I'm sure those guys are stoked to be home.
July 14th - Tupelo, MS
I called this promoter from Tallahassee because we heard a few of the other bands bands had dropped the show and had a feeling it would be lousy. He assured me everything would be great and that we are a "big" band so we'd definitely get taken care of financially. Cool. That's all I need to hear, we start on our way. The Tupelo show was "supposed to be" an early show so we needed to cut down the 8 hour drive. After our Tallahassee show we drove a couple hours and got a motel. Now the motel room, and three tanks of gas later we pull up to the Tupelo show. What a disaster. Everything's running late and there's no one here. If anyone thinks I'm a rockstar cause I get bummed out when touring bands (and I mean any band, not just mine) don't get paid, then fuck yourself. Just because something is not about making money, doesn't have to mean, in any way, that it IS about losing money. Its getting old.
Long story, short. I got lied to and us and dbsr lost about $200 today.
July 15th - Johnson City, TN
Another double header for us. Early acoustic set in a hot topic, late show with only us and DBSR at the Hideaway, one of my favorite venues in America. All set up by Wes, one of my favorite promoters, ever. Both shows were fun. Got some Little Ceasars pizza and stayed at Wes' place. This is tour, you play shows, drive all day, eat pizza and sleep on a floor. Our van started overheating today going up a hill with the AC on. One step forward, well, you know.
July 16th - Louisville, KY
Lewis Black has an album called Anticipation where he explains that the best part of anything is the moments leading up to it. The idea of something is often better than the thing itself. Tonight, that was Louisville, Kentucky. We showed up early, the promoter already had a case of water for us and dbsr (which is rare these days - water, the source of all life, is such a hassle to ask for at shows.) Keith and I found a really good coffee shop, we ate chinese food, fuck, there were even kids with Misfits shirts on at the show. Things were looking up so far, maybe tonight's gonna be great, we all thought. We played Louisville like two and a half years ago but no one in the band could remember how it went. Sad, maybe. But we've played so many shows in the past three years and so few memorable ones that its all just a blur. We really didn't know what to expect. I wanted so badly for tonight to go well. I guess you just shouldn't get your hopes up too high. I think this is the 12th out of 15 shows so far that we've had to settle for less money than we agreed on. We would have been forced to turn around and go home a long time ago if it weren't for dbsr splitting gas money with us.
July 17th - Williamson, WV
Where the fuck are we? We drove hundreds of miles today, not on interstate highways to get here... We pulled up to this community center to a half dozen kids pacing around making phone calls. Something's clearly wrong. I single out the promoter and find out what's going on. He didn't put a deposit down on the venue when he was supposed to (weeks ago) and a family had rented the space for what appeared to be a child's birthday party. Instead of trying to reason with the owner, one of these hillbillies mouthed off to her and she called the police. Obviously, we had to leave. We relocated the show to the National Guard Armory up the street. At this point I'm stressed out and trying to think of reasons not to knock this promoter the fuck out for not having his shit together. Well, much to my chagrin, the show went pretty well. We sold more merch tonight than any other night on the tour and us and dbsr actually got paid for a change. Still, for some reason it felt strange. Not a show vibe at all. It seemed like everyone was there simply because we were what was happening that night and had we been competing against anything else going on in the town (like a football game or tractor pull) no one would have been there and I'd have to bite my lip and drive off to the next city.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
July 18th - Zanesville, OH
Columbus, OH has always been pretty cool for us. We've played there a lot starting back in 2006 on our first little tour outside of New England with Sinking Ships and Down To Nothing. we've played basement shows, big clubs, small clubs.. Its always been cool. But our luck, our friend Aaron who has always hooked up good shows, moved out of cap city. So here we are in the suburbs at some church basement. This brilliant promoter made dbsr open and us play second, followed by three christian metalcore bands. We hit our last note and packed our shit up because we didn't feel at all welcomed at this place. The promoter called me out on this move at the end of the show when he paid me. I told him we were trying to leave, but since he wouldn't pay us until after his band played (which was last), we sat in the parking lot all night. He stiffed us on the food he promised us. Not getting fed isn't really a big deal - we've done hundreds of shows where there wasn't a hot meal and a bowl of Blue-only M&Ms waiting for us and I'm sure there will be hundreds more. But since clearly there's not a lot of cash floating around on this tour, when I get an email the day of the show saying "we'll feed you" we pretty much have to base the rest of our day around those words. Now 10 empty stomachs are in some unfamiliar town and nothing is open because its late. Great. No room at the inn. How Christian. After tonight's show we drove hoping to find a cheap motel, but there was this thing called "Jamboree in the Hills" and every place within a 50 mile radius was over $80 or booked solid with cowboys. What is with these people? We drove to Indiana, PA and stayed with some band. I forget their name, because I slept in the van again and didn't feel like meeting anyone new at 4 am.
July 19th Blairsville, PA
We played this place called the Corner Pocket tonight. We haven't been here since last summer, but the place is cool, and the owner Frank is a good dude. Tonight's show was decent. I thought we played pretty well and kids dug us. I saw a car accident outside the venue which was pretty much the highlight of the tour. After the show, I pricelined us a hotel. Last night away from our own beds, real food, and friends and family. Might as well get a good nights sleep and a hot shower. 5 hour drive tomorrow, then a 3 hour drive home. Can't wait.
July 20th - Albany, NY
We stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at last night. So comfortable. If we had more time we would have gone swimming and possibly wreaked havoc on the golf course. Yeah, a golf course. Gotta love those $30 resorts. Well we drove all day through the Appalachians. Stopping once for gas and taco bell. When we stopped we ran into our friend Mike who's now singing for Shai Hulud. I talked to the dudes at Bridge 9 to warn them that once again we were coming home from a tour with no money. Sorry guys! Tonight's show was awful. This was the 2nd least amount of people we've ever played in front of. Four. The smallest was three, back in the spring with Defeater in Dallas, TX. The depressing part is we got paid pretty well, enough to get us back to Massachusetts anyway, because there was actually about 30 kids that paid. Depressing knowing 26 of them left before DBSR. We packed up in a hurry and drove the fuck home. The end.
7/2 - Introduction/Boston, MA
Listening to Bill Hicks
This was the first night of our tour with fallen from the sky and debaser, who from now on will be referred to as ffts and dbsr. Today started off with me sleeping late, albeit on my own couch. Our van had been in the shop all week, so I went to pick it up this afternoon. We now have air conditioning. Us and dbsr are sharing our van, so 10 guys in one van headed due south, we kinda need the ac for this one. However, the vans making a weird noise now. We'll see what happens I guess.
I got to the show late, Dan was up at Bridge 9 picking up our merch (because with all things Energy, it's imperative that we wait until the last minute), Keith was on a bus en route from NY, Tank was late and Joe got there right after I did with the dbsr guys. We loaded in and braced ourselves for the show that night.
Now, here's the deal, ffts has asked us to tour in the past but we haven't been able to until now. They are a good band and seem like nice dudes, and this summer was a good opportunity for us to take our buddies dbsr out on the road. I always feel like when we take bands we don't know that well out on tour, that we're just a huge disappointment to them. I feel like people hear us and go "wow, melodic punk/hardcore, good singer, good record, bridge 9 records, this tour is gonna be so great". Sorry guys. 38 people paid tonight. In our own hometown. There was another show going on tonight in haverhill. This band called Title Fight played and I'm sure they had a good turn out and hindered ours. Although I've never listened to them before I hear all the talk. They are a hype band especially in the north east right now. But hey, good for them.
Don't worry, we're playing a couple cities on this tour that I know will be great, and maybe I won't listen to Bill Hicks every time I write, so hopefully not every entry will be such a downer.
7/3 - Wappingers Falls, NY
Listening to Rancid 2000
Keith and I got up today, had coffee and cleaned out our van from the past couple tours. What fucking pigs we are. We drove to Dan's and organized our merch with Sick (our merch guy, old friend, and social studies buff). Got all the troops (NRG/DBSR) together and headed to New York. We played a basement show near Poughkeepsie. This was definitely one of my favorite shows we've ever played in NY state. Some house shows have a real awkward party vibe, tonight just felt like a good show in close quarters. It got hot as fuck when we played. I was definitely pleasantly surprised with how well tonight went. We also found out today that our Philly show got canceled because in true punk rock form, the kids living in the house didn't pay their electric bill and the power got shut off. Our luck. Made a couple phone calls and hooked up a show at some skatepark in the city. We're actually playing with a band that hooked us up with a Philly show last 4th of July, so it should be a good time. That, vegan cheesesteaks, and fireworks will make this quite a nice Independence Day. I drove 3 hours straight to Philly after our show and now have the pleasure of sleeping in the van because some seemingly drunk guy hanging out his window yelled to us "Hey that looks like a nice trailer (its not), must have some nice stuff in it..." when we pulled up to Racheal's apartment in south Philly. Fucking people.
July 4th - Philadelphia, PA
Listening to Sheryl Crow (in my head)
We got up today, made a quick star bucks run, and went to the FDR skatepark in philly. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the skatepark under I-95 that's featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and in some CKY videos. We played on the ground, powered by a generator, with borrowed equipment. Our set was awkward as fuck. I guess that's what you can expect with any last minute Energy show. We split a set with the Mad Splatter. We left immediately after we played because it was so awkward and no one wanted to buy merch. We drove to Govindas and got some vegan food. While we were eating, our friend Klint from RGN SUP and Josh of Petition fame came by and we all hung out for the day. Klint took us to this place called B2 and got vegan soft serve and milkshakes. We saw the Liberty Bell and Joe got yelled at for taking his shirt off in the museum which was the first time in his 21 years he had been called "sir". We went back to Josh's apartment and made some pasta for dinner. Then we went to the art museum and caught the end of Sheryl Crow's set (we missed the Roots) and watched the fireworks. Fireworks are one of the only things that always make me feel like a little kid, and we missed our hometowns display this year, so this was kind of a nice break from the rigors of the road. Tomorrow is our first time playing in DC proper. The only thing I know for sure is we're getting pizza at the show which is always a nice treat.
July 5th - Washington DC
Listening to Alkaline Trio
We left philly late, hit traffic on 95 and got to our show really late, but that's ok because the club hadn't opened yet. We played the basement of some art gallery much like the CCAS in Baltimore, one of our favorite venues on the east coast. However tonight was super awkward. The 2 or 3 kids that knew who we were, were in fact, friends we had made in Baltimore who drove down to see us. Like I said in my last entry, the only thing I knew about this show was we were getting pizza courtesy of the promoter who plays in the band the Scare. Other than getting fed, there was nothing I really enjoyed about tonights show. We're staying outside of DC tonight at a very nice condo. We have about a 7 hour drive tomorrow to Wilmington, North Carolina. We're hemorrhaging gas money left and right on this tour, which is starting to get old after 3 years.
July 6th - Wilmington, NC
Listening to Ramallah - Kill A Celebrity
Today started off like any other day on an Energy tour. We woke up, went to a grocery store and starbucks and settled in for the drive. Wilmington is one of those cities that's slowly but surely becoming a good spot for us. We owe this primarily to a guy named Scottie. Its seriously so hard to find hardworking, trustworthy promoters. Any asshole can find some shitty bar or VFW hall and sign up for a myspace for their "booking agency" or "promotion company". Scottie is one of the hardest working people I've met on the road. He believes in what he does and busts his ass to get it done. As a touring band it really means a lot to see anyone else put in the time that we do to keep independent music going. A lot of people fake it. Its taking us some time but we're weeding out all those who half ass it. I won't out them publicly but I have plenty of horror stories. Tonights show was great for all the touring bands. An overall great effort by everyone involved and you can't really ask for more than that.
July 7th - Charleston/Goose Creek, SC
Listening to Don McLean - American Pie
We say this all the time but South Carolina is our favorite place to play. Much like NC, we owe everything we have here to our friend Nick. Sadly, he moved up north earlier this year, but he did so much to get things rolling for a lot of bands in this area. The kids down here treat us like we're one of their own local bands. They are unconditionally supportive and proud of everything we do. Last year our drummer sprained his wrist mid-tour and we were forced to head home a couple weeks early but we knew we couldn't cancel our SC show. We sat in our van and arranged some pseudo-unplugged versions of our songs. It was one of the most heartwarming things I've been a part of. The kids in the crowd and the other band on the tour knew how bummed we were that we had to bail, but were there for us to make the best of it. When we played here back in the spring, our friend Tanya suggested we do another acoustic show in a local music store. She worked it out for us and got a good 30 or so kids to come out, it was really cool. After this, we got some food and headed to the real show that night. Some fest-type show with a million bands. We worked our way into having all the punk and hardcore bands sandwiched together between a half dozen metal bands. Good vibes all around for that chunk of the show and painfully awkward vibes for the rest of the night. One of the best Energy shows of all time.
July 8th - Atlanta, GA
Watching Cash Cab on TV in our Motel 6
Back in May we played in Rochester, PA and a kid introduced himself to me saying he had just confirmed an Energy show in Atlanta in July. Cool. I like getting familiar with promoters so I know how they operate and what to expect. So I appreciate the kid saying hello. This would be the last time I see or talk to this kid. Every few days on tour, I call ahead to the promoters to make sure everything is still going as scheduled. There's less surprises this way and we know how to budget our time and money much better. This kid however, would not answer his phone. Even the day of the show. So we risked it and drove 5 hours. Ryan from FFTS finally got in touch with the kid via text message who said he's on vacation and the guys from Foundation were running the show. Sounds a little fishy but we wait around a couple more hours for people to show up. We played this venue back in February to about 30 kids. The amount of kids is not the issue here, just making a reference point. Its the fact that tonight there were half that amount. If 30 kids is all we can pull in a city (and in some cities that's being generous), that's fine, so be it. But what changed sinse the last time we played? A lazy, immature, irresponsible promoter took charge and left 5 touring bands out to dry. The guys in Foundation did their best on 2 days notice and everyone seriously appreciates the last ditch effort to salvage what someone so carelessly dropped the ball on. Hey, maybe we're crazy for thinking a promoter would actually promote a show these days.
July 9th - Orlando, FL
Listening to David Cross
Orlando has always been a fun place for us to play. We've made a lot of good friends here. Tonight's show easily made up for last night's debacle and today's 8 hour drive. Small room, packed with kids singing along over the broken PA. Right out of a Minor Threat show. Awesome.
July 11th - Tampa, FL
Significant Fest. We're not a fest band. We don't suck any dick to get on the big fests or put any effort to get in with the clicky bands or get on their tours. Its just not worth it. However, every year we've been a band, we get asked to play Significant Fest. We agreed to do it this year because the original plan was to play 2 or 3 shows down here with Slapshot who we toured Europe with back in December. We booked this whole tour around it and Slapshot had to cancel. That's basically the only reason we're here right now. Year after year this fest gets weaker and weaker which is a shame because I believe Tom is a good guy. He does his best and if 150 kids over the span of two days is the best Tampa has to offer, well that's too bad. I like playing Tampa, kids have always dug us here either because of this fest or one of our dozen or so other trips down the east coast. Yesterday was great, for a show, we played well, so let's just leave it at that.
July 12th - Miami, FL
We drove from Tampa to Coral Springs to visit my friend Jeffy from Know The Score at his tattoo shop. Greg from DBSR got some work done while Jeffy and I shot the shit. The rest of the guys drove the van down to Miami to hang out. Greg and I rode down to the show with Justin from FFTS. The show tonight was a lot of fun but was in a really sketchy area. We payed a homeless guy $5 to watch our van (read: not slash our tires while we played). Money well spent. We played great, sold some merch and drove back to Orlando which is where I'm typing this from. On to tallahassee tomorrow.
July 13th - Tallahassee, FL
Soul Vegetarian cart. Hot fucking venue with kids singing along to our songs. What more can you want? Ffts' van died last night. Bummed we didn't get to say goodbye, but I'm sure those guys are stoked to be home.
July 14th - Tupelo, MS
I called this promoter from Tallahassee because we heard a few of the other bands bands had dropped the show and had a feeling it would be lousy. He assured me everything would be great and that we are a "big" band so we'd definitely get taken care of financially. Cool. That's all I need to hear, we start on our way. The Tupelo show was "supposed to be" an early show so we needed to cut down the 8 hour drive. After our Tallahassee show we drove a couple hours and got a motel. Now the motel room, and three tanks of gas later we pull up to the Tupelo show. What a disaster. Everything's running late and there's no one here. If anyone thinks I'm a rockstar cause I get bummed out when touring bands (and I mean any band, not just mine) don't get paid, then fuck yourself. Just because something is not about making money, doesn't have to mean, in any way, that it IS about losing money. Its getting old.
Long story, short. I got lied to and us and dbsr lost about $200 today.
July 15th - Johnson City, TN
Another double header for us. Early acoustic set in a hot topic, late show with only us and DBSR at the Hideaway, one of my favorite venues in America. All set up by Wes, one of my favorite promoters, ever. Both shows were fun. Got some Little Ceasars pizza and stayed at Wes' place. This is tour, you play shows, drive all day, eat pizza and sleep on a floor. Our van started overheating today going up a hill with the AC on. One step forward, well, you know.
July 16th - Louisville, KY
Lewis Black has an album called Anticipation where he explains that the best part of anything is the moments leading up to it. The idea of something is often better than the thing itself. Tonight, that was Louisville, Kentucky. We showed up early, the promoter already had a case of water for us and dbsr (which is rare these days - water, the source of all life, is such a hassle to ask for at shows.) Keith and I found a really good coffee shop, we ate chinese food, fuck, there were even kids with Misfits shirts on at the show. Things were looking up so far, maybe tonight's gonna be great, we all thought. We played Louisville like two and a half years ago but no one in the band could remember how it went. Sad, maybe. But we've played so many shows in the past three years and so few memorable ones that its all just a blur. We really didn't know what to expect. I wanted so badly for tonight to go well. I guess you just shouldn't get your hopes up too high. I think this is the 12th out of 15 shows so far that we've had to settle for less money than we agreed on. We would have been forced to turn around and go home a long time ago if it weren't for dbsr splitting gas money with us.
July 17th - Williamson, WV
Where the fuck are we? We drove hundreds of miles today, not on interstate highways to get here... We pulled up to this community center to a half dozen kids pacing around making phone calls. Something's clearly wrong. I single out the promoter and find out what's going on. He didn't put a deposit down on the venue when he was supposed to (weeks ago) and a family had rented the space for what appeared to be a child's birthday party. Instead of trying to reason with the owner, one of these hillbillies mouthed off to her and she called the police. Obviously, we had to leave. We relocated the show to the National Guard Armory up the street. At this point I'm stressed out and trying to think of reasons not to knock this promoter the fuck out for not having his shit together. Well, much to my chagrin, the show went pretty well. We sold more merch tonight than any other night on the tour and us and dbsr actually got paid for a change. Still, for some reason it felt strange. Not a show vibe at all. It seemed like everyone was there simply because we were what was happening that night and had we been competing against anything else going on in the town (like a football game or tractor pull) no one would have been there and I'd have to bite my lip and drive off to the next city.
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July 18th - Zanesville, OH
Columbus, OH has always been pretty cool for us. We've played there a lot starting back in 2006 on our first little tour outside of New England with Sinking Ships and Down To Nothing. we've played basement shows, big clubs, small clubs.. Its always been cool. But our luck, our friend Aaron who has always hooked up good shows, moved out of cap city. So here we are in the suburbs at some church basement. This brilliant promoter made dbsr open and us play second, followed by three christian metalcore bands. We hit our last note and packed our shit up because we didn't feel at all welcomed at this place. The promoter called me out on this move at the end of the show when he paid me. I told him we were trying to leave, but since he wouldn't pay us until after his band played (which was last), we sat in the parking lot all night. He stiffed us on the food he promised us. Not getting fed isn't really a big deal - we've done hundreds of shows where there wasn't a hot meal and a bowl of Blue-only M&Ms waiting for us and I'm sure there will be hundreds more. But since clearly there's not a lot of cash floating around on this tour, when I get an email the day of the show saying "we'll feed you" we pretty much have to base the rest of our day around those words. Now 10 empty stomachs are in some unfamiliar town and nothing is open because its late. Great. No room at the inn. How Christian. After tonight's show we drove hoping to find a cheap motel, but there was this thing called "Jamboree in the Hills" and every place within a 50 mile radius was over $80 or booked solid with cowboys. What is with these people? We drove to Indiana, PA and stayed with some band. I forget their name, because I slept in the van again and didn't feel like meeting anyone new at 4 am.
July 19th Blairsville, PA
We played this place called the Corner Pocket tonight. We haven't been here since last summer, but the place is cool, and the owner Frank is a good dude. Tonight's show was decent. I thought we played pretty well and kids dug us. I saw a car accident outside the venue which was pretty much the highlight of the tour. After the show, I pricelined us a hotel. Last night away from our own beds, real food, and friends and family. Might as well get a good nights sleep and a hot shower. 5 hour drive tomorrow, then a 3 hour drive home. Can't wait.
July 20th - Albany, NY
We stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at last night. So comfortable. If we had more time we would have gone swimming and possibly wreaked havoc on the golf course. Yeah, a golf course. Gotta love those $30 resorts. Well we drove all day through the Appalachians. Stopping once for gas and taco bell. When we stopped we ran into our friend Mike who's now singing for Shai Hulud. I talked to the dudes at Bridge 9 to warn them that once again we were coming home from a tour with no money. Sorry guys! Tonight's show was awful. This was the 2nd least amount of people we've ever played in front of. Four. The smallest was three, back in the spring with Defeater in Dallas, TX. The depressing part is we got paid pretty well, enough to get us back to Massachusetts anyway, because there was actually about 30 kids that paid. Depressing knowing 26 of them left before DBSR. We packed up in a hurry and drove the fuck home. The end.