It's been so long since my last update I'm already halfway through the next tour! Yes sadly the 90's band festival tour Summerland is over. Honestly though, not going to miss having Sugar Ray's "Every Morning" stuck in my head... every morning. Gotta say that since this was a much smaller tour than I've been on, the vibe was a lot different in a really good way. Normally we would have 4-6 production buses. This tour all the production was all on one. Production includes all management, sound, lighting, video, rigging, etc.. Basically anyone not directly tied to the band. This made for some really good camaraderie within our bus. Not only that, the interaction with the bands was very good. A lot of these bands have been touring for around 20 years and said it was the most fun tour they can remember. All that to say, it was a good tour and I'm glad I took it.
One of the coolest times we had were the aftershow jams in the parking lot. The artists would break out the acoustic guitar and share new songs they were working on or covers or just whatever. Some of the techs play pretty well too. It was a really awesome experience. Here John Wozniak of Marcy Playground is serenading us.
Wolftrap in Washington DC was a great venue to play. A HUGE theater style amphitheater.
Early on in the tour we played a place called Billy Bob's bar or tavern or something.. Woke up to find our bus was in a horse stable.. This guy was greeting us as we got off the bus.
Here in Atlantic City we had a day off before our show. A lot of the band and crew knew members of the Offspring that were playing the House of Blues next door. If you can't tell we got backstage passes.
My first stadium gig! Ha! The audience barely fill up to the white tent. They were practicing soccer during soundcheck.
We played the Paramount on Long Island, NY. Home of Dee Snider. He decided to show up and rock out with the band Lit. And yes you pronounce their name like "I just lit your house on fire"
Early morning bus stop at Denny's. Mmmm. Left to right.. Sam, Tom, Tyler, George, and Paul. Just need John and Ringo..
Any guesses what this is? Oh yeah only the fanciest places for us. Got to dry my hair with this guy.
I hope my music friends can blow this up. This was on the table at catering in some city I can't remember. It's pretty funny. Arranged by accident.
Schlomi from Marcy Playground... don't tell the other bands, but they were my favorite.
John, from Marcy Playground. Sad to say Marcy has officially disbanded. Although they just released an album earlier this year. You should check it out.
So by the time Summerland was over my next tour, Uproar Festival, had already been a week into rehearsals. Uproar is a rock festival. Our stage, the main stage, has 5 bands, Adelitas Way, Papa Roach, Staind, Godsmack, and Shinedown. Actually we lost Papa Roach. The lead singer had to have vocal surgery after about 6 shows. He's ok but recovering. They release an album in October so they wanted him better for that. From the picture of me below I need to work on my "rock on" hands.
The tour is mostly endorsed by Rockstar energy drink. They have rockstars all day long. Even if you don't want to get all jacked up on energy, they have alternatives just to make people thinking you're drinking rockstar. Look closely at the bottle.
So I want to redecorate my house and alwasy looking for ideas, so I take pictures of hotel rooms. I liked this one. It's from the Hutton in Nashville.
I'm also looking for a new bed. So any really comfortable beds I sleep in I take pictures of the tag. Ha.
Here's our first show in Kansas City. It was really tough to say the least, but we pulled it off.
During the Shinedown set the lead singer and the guitar player come to FOH to play a ditty. Here's Zach, the guitar player, and Eddie their super cool FOH sound engineer.
Shinedown
Oh Arkansas. We played this edgefest or should I say mudfest. Wasn't sure if it was even going to happen. The roofing structure seemed scetchy and there was bad weather around us. Ended up making it happen but with a lot of mud! That's our bus btw in the background.
Amazingly behaved crowd stood patiently waiting to come toward the stage.
MUD!
Godsmack
Godsmack, Jim on the left doing lights. Frank on the right on sound. Both guys are from Boston with heavy accents and hilarious.
I guess this is my lot in life... ha, on both tours recently we've been stuck in Walmart parking lots for hours waiting for hotels. Rocking my hometown apparel. During Summerland we landed at a Walmart around 4am and decided to buy superman pjs. After that we wore them every night before a day off. It's called roadie Friday in the business. Ha. By the end of the tour we had our whole bus wearing them. We even wore them during our last show in Laughlin, NV. A lot of fun.
One of the Shinedown techs HAD to buy this 5 pound gummy bear. Manny's showing it off here in Grand Rapids.
One of my responsibilities on this tour is to load the truck. I took pictures at the beginning so I could remember. :)
Jeff tuning up Staind.
So I met a new friend on the Summerland tour. Maybe even a little more than a friend. :) On uproar we had two days off and then the show in South Carolina. Marie-Claire was on her way home from a gig in Atlantic City and got to drop by for the 3 days. Really glad to see her.
Wow, so during rehearsals for Uproar Rat emailed me to jump on another tour a few days before this one would be ending. I've never heard of the guy, but I guess he's been around forever. Name's Morrissey. I think it's loungy music. Whatever. Pretty much the opposite of this one. Takes me through December 10! Going to take a long vacation after this. It's a theater tour. They say no meat in catering. They don't even want you to eat meat on days off too. Not sure how they would know. Really excited to play Radio City Music Hall too. Schedule below.
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