TOUR DIARY 1
Current mood: chipper
Dear Diary, Oct. 10, 2007
We've seen these roads before, yet this time we see them with "new eyes". Lucked and plucked to front load shows for an "idol" is day and night when it comes to sweating it out in clubs across this beautiful country. I like it though….I think it has been a fantastic order of events. Get a taste of what is to come, and maybe just maybe you will see a full circle develop. I've decided to tuck the sweet taste of multi-platinum shows into my pocket. I pull it out every time I start to question my choices…if it were not for that sweet taste, "hope" would be all I have to pull from my denim. Still enough to succeed, but having tasted the sugar helps choke down some of the bitter taste this business creates.
"Little Rock…. Are you ready for a lotta Rock?"…that has been my threat to the band since we've started playing this town. Somehow nobody thinks it would go over well as a set opener. (I have no idea why) "Sticky Fingerz" was a nice way to start the tour though. Awesome club on a Wed. night. Reminded me of a mini- House of Blues…which was awesome because there was great sound, and nice size stage! We played with Boulder Colorado's "Rose Hill Drive"…can we say talented? Wow…they were in Rolling Stones 10 bands to watch for in 07. I'm not gonna lie, the crowd was a little lite, but it was a Wed. night, and we had only had the show booked for a few days…couple that with it being 21 and up, and you wipe out a large part of the folks who would have come out. It's all good though… we had a blast with the ones who did come out, and the club fed us so what else can you ask for?
Inside Sticky Fingerz
Artistic Blur Shot of myself and Wendy (Our favorite Little Rocker)
Trip highlites included:
Derek spraining his ankle while freestyle walking.
Not finding a Wal-Mart in Arkansas (Isn't this the birthstate of Wal-Mart?)
Dear Diary, Oct. 12, 2007
"This Kansas wheat won't break us and another drink won't make us free .The oven's wide open, hold your breath and see. Hold your breath and see . . ."-J.R.
One of the great things about these smaller tours is that you get to play shows with a ton of different bands. It always makes me nervous at first….seems finding bands that play pop/rock can be a bit of a challenge, and I'm not always sure how the metal heads or Emo kids will take us! Once again, going in to "JC's House of Rock" the entire band was a bit worried. Turned out (as usual) to be a great night, and we were received very well! Talked to a lot of the bands after the show, and think we made some new friends. The common denominator no matter what style of music you play is that the in's and out's of the business are the same, so no matter what, we always have something to talk about. I stand behind the fact that there is no need to change who we are to be accepted. For those that came out, we didn't pull "The Part that Walks Away" off the set because it was "too light", but because I've been nursing a cold since we kicked off the tour…I've been on a steady flow of "Mucinex" and Advil…what can you do, the show must go on.
JC's House of ROCK
Trip Highlights included:
Buying "Big trouble in Little China" for $5 at Wal-Mart
Eating at Fat Ernie's
Hearing the owner of JC's tell us all the murder stories that happened in the club. Guess a few folks were hacked up in the basement..rock n' roll!
Dear Diary Oct.13, 2007
"That John Denver is full of Sh&%…"
I was so excited to see the "Rocky Mountains", so it would be just my luck that we roll into town with a ridiculous amount of over cast sky. I kid Dann the entire time…"Dude there are no mountains in Colorado." We had high hopes for this show even though we had never played in or near Denver, but Dann spent years of his life in this area, and this would be his first show back in a couple of years. On a personal note, I had several friends that had moved to this area, and was looking forward to seeing them as well. We played "THE TOAD TAVERN" which had just been completely remodeled, and was the perfect set up for a rock band…. nice size stage, great sound and lights, and awesome staff. We again played with several great bands, and actually ended up headlineing this show. The shows have increasingly gotten better, and this show has been the highlite so far. It felt like "home". We played a long set throwing in a ton of "oldies" so we were completely unprepared when we were encored…Speaking of unprepared…I couldn't figure out why I was so out of breath…somewhere between the verse and chorus of "Blue Skies Red", it hit me that we were at a pretty high altitude, and that may have been why I was so winded. I imagined myself as an olympic athlete in training…If rock n' roll were an olympic sport…I would rock out in Denver everynight…maybe they should put some sort of trainning center here? I'm glad I thought of thatJ Anyway, the feedback was amazing, and it was a great night all around. Big thanks to Brian for letting us hang out and shower up at his house! You and your family rock!!! Also, mad props to the entire TTT staff!
Before we brought the Rock to THE TOAD
Got the windows pimped and ready for the Cali Sun
Sorry no Mountain pics...(it's all a hoax anyway)
Trip Highlites included:
Getting our ride pimped with window Tint from the kind folks at "Jazz it up!"
Putting faces to all the stories Dann has told for the past 2 years
Dear Diary Oct.14, 2007
I've learned that being on the road… days off can be bittersweet. You'd rather be doing a show and staying busy…(oh yeah, and making gas money),but on the other hand it is nice to get a chance to just relax. This particular day off was pretty lame, but the night made it all worth it! After 15+ hours in a van we ended up in Phoenix, AZ…The plan was to catch our friends DAUGHTRY in concert, but we missed the show due to the long haul on the road. Luckily the guys were in town the rest of the night. We were only in town about 20 mins before Chris gave me a call to come and hang out…I guess the guys were getting ready for a few days off themselves, and were looking to have a little celebration. We headed over to the hotel they were staying at, and spent several hours catching up and enjoying some drinks. I know I say it all the time, but these guys really are a class act. I'm so excited to see where they will be 5/10 years from now…I mean multi-platinum on your first record!!! Get out of here…Dann and I actually got an exclusive listen to some new tracks the band is working on for the next record…judging by that…album 2 should take them to another level. We ended up staying the night in Phoenix with DAUGHTRY and our friends Shar and Allyson, and then headed to Cali for a week of shows…
Buddha tells Joey..."The secret to selling Merch is in the drink"
Dann still rocking the Mo'
Dear Diary Oct. 15, 2007
So we finally made it to California….saw some pretty cool sights along the way. Passed a windmill farm…what a crazy site to see….hundreds of windmills strewn across the fields and hills. I'm sure it would get old if you were to see them everyday, but there was something beautiful and peaceful about them…like tourist we all grabbed our camera phones trying to snap pictures that could justify the sight, but to no avail. We have come to the conclusion that cameras can not even come close to capturing the real beauty this country has to offer…(or maybe we just don't have nice enough cameras) Just past the windmill farm were some life size concrete dinosaurs…I made the joke that it looked like the place Pee-Wee stopped off in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure…come to find out, it really was the place they filmed the scene…or so that is what one of the locals told us. Who knows…maybe they were just out for a laugh…"let's have some fun with these midwest boys and tell them whatever they want to hear". Anyway, it was cool all the same.
So we have several days to spend in Cali…lucky for us we made some amazing friends on the DAUGHTRY tour and we totally lucked into a place to stay while we were in the Govenator state… Not just a place to stay, but a second home. Our dear friend Shar invited us right in and let us crash in her guest house. It was amazing, as soon as we got in, her husband Justin had made homemade chicken, mashed potato's and corn on the cobb…way better than the fast food we had been throwing down our throats…and that was just the first of many amazing meals to come! If this wasn't enough, Shar's mother, Kathy, had made us homemade cookies, muffin's brownie's and a birthday cake for Will! We were totally spoiled. I can't thank the family enough…I could go on about how amazing everyone including all the kids have been to us… we are indeed lucky!
Dear Diary, Oct. 16, 2007
So we had a day off before our first Cali show…we've been spending our downtime watching movies, and trying to trackdown free wi-fi! When we are not doing that we are usually sleeping, or passing football. That seems to be our latest addiction… seems I do actually have a little atheletic skill still left from my youth. It took a couple of rounds before I found my groove, but I am def. able to hang with the other gents….so much so I'm considering using my musical career as a stepping stone into professional football. "Go ahead dream it you "insert bad word here" dreamers"…I know I am. Anyway, I'm trying to stay active on this trip. ( although I have not even come close to the usual fitness schedule I keep when I am home). After looking at these massive California hills for 2 days, I decided to finally make my move and climb to the top…I wanted to see the view from the top and get an "official biggest loser type workout". I started out running, but once I got to the hill and hit the incline, it turned into a brisk walk, and that turned into a paranoia of coming across snakes and spiders due to the fact that the hill I chose to climb had no "path". I blazed my own trail, and after a few tricky manuvers I made it to the peak…o.k. so it wasn't a freaking mountain, but it was an nice hike. I spelled my name with rocks at the top…I can't take credit though, I just followed the lead of earlier mountain/hill climbing achievers. I felt accomplished…in fact, if I were to actually update my "myspace" emotion, I would change it to "accomplished"
Dear Diary, Oct.17,2007
Our first Cali show was at a club in Riverside called "Lake Alice"…like all the clubs so far, the staff was really great to us. We played with a local band called "Question the Gas Price"….a perfect name for a Cali band if you ask me. Anyway, they rocked the house first and drew a nice crowd. We played second and tried to strech out our set to cover the full time slot…we actually did 2 sets which we haven't done for a long time. We had some awesome friends come out. Some we made from the DAUGHTRY dates, and even a few who we just made through word of mouth. It was great to play for some new friends who had not seen us live before…I think the set was overall pretty tight, and we made the best of a typical Wed. night crowd. It was a 3 hour a drive from where we were staying, but being the spoiled kids we are , we had yet another amazing couple let us crash at their house….Lisa and her husband treated us like royalty, and even bought us breakfast which I'm still upset about! If anyone need to be treated to breakfast, it would have been them. Thank you guys so much foreverything!!!
Dear Diary, Oct. 19,2007
Our next to show was back in Paso Robles, one ouf the towns we hit with DAUGHTRY. Paso is a really cool town right in the heart of wine country. We played at "The Downtown Brew", and had an awesome Friday night crowd. A very cool band called "Machine" who could have not been any nicer to us, opened the show…it was nice to play last because we had a ton of friends come out, and we were able to mingle. The show was a bit strange for us…we seemed to not be hitting our stride. Derek broke a string, and I had to do a solo version of "Summer" which would have been fine if I woud have had my acoustic. We made the best of the situation, and everyone seemed to still enjoy our stories. We had a ton of opportunities for places to stay, but we ended up crashing in the van due to us all having a little too much "celebration juice". There must have been something about this place. As if we didn't do enough celebrating the night before, we continued the next day having some drinks and watching the Buckeye's beat Mich. St. I enjoyed the Blueberry Brew, and several free shots that were sent our way…although, I didn't "pay for them"…I "paid for them"….you know what I mean? We had a blast, and we had enough time to dry out before we hit the stage that night for another show with "Machine" at Grover beach.
Highlites Included:
Seeing all our friends
Waking up after a night of rock to 100's of Classic Cars and 1000lbs punkins? We had no idea there was a festival in Downtown Paso on Sat.
1 OSU beating Mich. St
Marla's awesome food
Free Drinks!
Dear Diary, Oct. 20, 2007
Sat. night we got to play Grover Beach which is a cool working class community right on the ocean. Again, we got very lucky, and there was an amazing staff at O'riley's who took great care of us. We switched the line-up tonight, and opened the show for "Machine". I think our set was pretty tight, but I felt a bit awkward due to strange stage sound. Since we opened the show, I was able to really sit back and catch "Machine's" set. Very great band, and I can't thank them enough for everything they did for us. We had a good turnout, and we did very well with merch! I want to thank Marla for coming out again with the Kitchen staff, and for bringing more food! I can't say enough how nice it is to eat food that doesn't come in a sack, (Although, In- n- Out Burger in Cali is a must). We closed the bar down and decided that it would be awesome to spend the night on the beach…in theory this was a good idea, but by the time we found a place to park the van, it was a bit chilly to say the least. I opted to open the windows and have the sound of the ocean put me to sleep inside the nice warm van. Dealing with a sore throat and cold all tour, I thought it best to not push my luck…the other guys took blankets and pillows and did it up surfer style…Of course it wasn't long before I heard some noise outside the van…wouldn't you know it…it was Dann and Buddha coming back to regain feeling in their numb body parts… I do have to give mad props to Derk and Will for sticking it out the entire night. Of course Will had a military style sleeping bag to keep him warm, and Derk could sleep through World War III…that kid can sleep, and when he is out…he is out! We rolled out of town around 8am. I slept the entire 3 hour trip back, but I woke up to the smell of fire…It was crazy to see the California wildfires in real life… Shar was watering her roof so that the embers flying through the air wouldn't ignite. Things you never think about growing up in Ohio…You just can't explain how it all looked and smelled with words..I'll try to post pics.
Dear Diary, Oct.23, 2007
So we had a few days off before the Whisky show. We killed time by watching the endless news coverage of the California fires. I still can't explain how strange it was to watch it on the news, and then walk outside and see it in real life. We were in the Castaic area, and there were threats of evacuation, but the biggest inconvenience we had was that they closed down the dining room of the Jack in the Box….bummer, we actually had to go one morning without Blueberry French toast sticks. Anyway, after hours of watching the depressing tragedy in person and on t.v., we all decided it was time for a change. Will headed into the main house to rock some "Battleship" with the family, Derek and Buddha (have you met Buddha at a show yet? He is the guy that takes care of us, and makes sure everything runs smooth…make sure you say hi to him at the next show…he is now family) anyway, they decided to climb the same hill I climbed a few days earlier….there were no fires on the hill so they were safe! As for Dann and I, we made the big adventure to Carlsbad CA. Home to Josh Steely of DAUGHTRY, and he and his wife's boutique clothing store "THE DEN". When we met up with the guys in Phoenix, he invited us down to check out some duds. We made the trip with no traffic problems, and Bonnie at THE DEN took great care of us…we got some sweet new threads and headed back not before making a quick stop at an In-n-Out burger. What can I say…the "crazy life of Rockstars"….hey if it is any better, one night we did have several, several drinks and watched "PREDATOR"….(not sure if that helped or hurt our ROCKSTAR status)
FIRE!!!
One of the "In n Out" stops
Dear Diary, Oct, 24, 2007
So today was the big day. Our first time at the legendary Whisky a go-go. So many greats have graced its stage, we were all looking forward to bringing our show to the sunset strip. We got to the club at 3 for soundcheck, and since we were chosen to headline the night, we got the first soundcheck. The entire staff was class act, and everything ran smooth. There were 4 other bands on the bill, and all of them were amazing, and all had completely different styles…we knew it would be a great night.
After soundcheck we had several hours to kill so we thought it would be cool to check out High Voltage (a.k.a. LA INK) We are all huge Kat Von D. fans so we were all stoked…..that was until we made the 3+ mile walk one way, and there was no sign of Kat or anyone from the show for that matter…It was all good though, we needed a workout, and Buddha bought some swag.
We headed back to the whiskey just in time to catch all the acts. Just as I thought, they were all amazing. Around 11:20 we hit the stage and did our thing. We had a blast, and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. Even cooler was the fact that it was an all ages show so our under 21 crowd was able to come out. I can't say thank you enough to everyone for all the support. I wish we could have stayed longer, and I apologize to those who were waiting for us to load up and we didn't get a chance to say goodbye, but they were in a rush to close the bar so we had to get our trailer packed up. For those that did hangout, we had a blast. So after our good-bye's we headed out…The plan was to stop in Vegas which we did, but all we did there was get gas and watch Buddha turn his $2 into $25 at the gas station Casino. I think we were all just excited to get home which is why we made the trek back straight through. Nothing like a cross-country trip. Looking forward to our East Coast dates…
Gotta love the all ages shows!!!
We are so greatful to this lady and her family!
And finally...if we only learned one thing from this trip, it was that Dann can really work a "pole"...what???
-T
