Yo, I did an interview with New Band TV (once you get there, scroll down and you'll see it). Those guys rule, they picked me up from the airport when I had been traveling all day long to get to LA, and we had a blast doing this short interview. Check it out.
Just checking in real quick. We just got off of tour with Waking Ashland, Sound The Alarm, Graduate and Jonezetta. It was a blast. We are in the middle of mixing our record now. Well, we're just listening intently to the mixes each day, that's about as involved as we get. Anyway, once that's done we have to PICK A SINGLE and shoot the video on March 10th!!! Wow, that's soon. It's gonna be shot in NYC by Fashion Bleeds, so if you're out that way, look out for a message on here, we may need "extras".
I've never gotten full from a continental breakfast...
Today in the not-news... I decided in a spur of the moment at 1 AM this morning to sleep in the bun (not a bus, definitely not a van). We brought a merch person along on this tour, so there weren't enough beds in the hotel room, and it just seemed easier to crash out there. Anyway, it was pretty cold out there but no big deal as long as I had my trusty sleeping bag. I woke up around 9 AM and came into the hotel to eat, have some coffee, read, shower and stuff. When I finally made my way up to the room 2 hours later, my shaving cream was STILL FROZEN! I laughed to myself. Come to think of it, I better go make sure that Keith made it through the night...
1.21.07 Album done, home from vacation, tour tomorrow!
I don't bout you, but where has '07 gone? It's been flying by! It's already been 3 weeks since the start of '07, can you believe it?
I was actually just on a vacation in Dominica, so I've actually been having nothing but fun so far this year. I saw some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my whole life, and it changed my perspective a bit on how much importance we place on the silliest things here in America. Here was a semi-third world country that lived off of the fat of the land, and they were SO happy about it! Life isn't about money there, it's about survival. It was good for me to see it.
Also, It's Lauren's birthday today, so I'm so glad I got to be with her before we start our tour. I fly out to meet the band in LA tomorrow to start the tour. See you on the road????
PS~ The album is done, and is being mixed next month. I can't WAIT for all of you to hear it in May!
We just got home from tour today! I didn't realize it until it was over, but this is the first time out tour dates page has ever been completely naked. It's kinda scary to look at it to be honest. We are definitely not having any band problems, so don't jump to any conclusions. The real reason is that we are going into the studio in less than three weeks to make our new CD. The songs are coming along nicely, and we won't rest until they make your heart scream! So far we have 11 songs - the demos have been fun to make, but there's nothing like honing in on new songs when you have nothing else to focus on. With the year I've had, I could use the distraction.
PS~ I just did this fun little interview about the elusive animal that is "the song", read it if you've got a few.
Sorry I've been so scarce, then again I think phantoms are pretty cool...
Just a few tearful moments ago, my Mother "lost" her battle with cancer. I say "lost" because it makes it sound like the cancer has won. Somehow, our family has been given a true sense of peace tonight because we know that the cancer has not won. We can smile because we know that the cancer no longer has dominion over her beautiful spirit. It did it's best to trample her while she was in her body; but now her spirit has been released from it's faulty shell, and is free and in Heaven for what will no doubt be an eternity of joy.
Less than 2 months it's been since her diagnosis was confirmed, I guess we're all in a mess of trying to understand what has happened, but I think I know. The words "it had to be her" keep running through my head. I believe that my Mom is a sacrifice for so many others to know the Lord. Her faith was so strong, so unmoveable, so genuine, that it just had to be her. Of all of our family and friends, she was the centerpiece. I know that God will continue to use her life to show others that time is short, that we shouldn't wait! The time is now, and that these bodies aren't meant to live forever.
Over these past few weeks, I've seen my Dad cling to Jesus, and trust His Will 100%. I've seen aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends and enemies alike pray for my Mother. God is watching, and He's listening. Our prayers were not in vain, I know that. He knows that this woman is special, and I have no doubt that she is already in His arms.
Here's to you Mom, we will NEVER forget you. We love you deeper than words can express.
Last night was amazing! I couldn't possibly put it into words, so let me just link to what my sister wrote on my Mom's blog about it. She witnessed it. Check it out!
I've delayed on telling you this news, but lots of you have noticed that I haven't been myself lately. Ignoring e-mails, not answering my phone, escaping small talk at the shows; none of it is me. Two weeks ago, out of nowhere, my precious Mother was diagnosed with (what the doctors say is) an inoperable, incureable form of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She's so young, and full of life, it's hard to imagine how a disease like this could spring itself on such a beautiful person.
So, the real reason I'm writing, is to ask for your help. If you pray (or even if you don't) PLEASE pray for my Mom, Jeanette Castady. Pray that if it is in His will, that God would completely removie this cancer through a miracle of the Holy Spirit. No matter what, I know that God will be glorified through my Mother's life. She's loved the Lord since far before I was even born.
Thanks for your time, prayers, ears, shoulders and e-mails. If you feel led to read more, learn more, or help out further please visit my Mom's blog at jeanettecastady.blogspot.com. We are also holding a benefit concert with Plain White T's, The Fold, The Scissors and Michaelane this coming Tuesday in Willowbrook, IL.
Tonight was precious. Josh from Smoking Popes is doing a residency at Schuba's each Tuesday of this month, and on this particular night he had The Fold (acoustic) open up for him, along with Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio. I had never met Dan, but he was an awesome guy. I even struggled to accept a compliment he gave me on my voice, it was really cool and unexpected.
Something about the way the Popes songs sound acoustic were REALLY special, and nostalgic. These are the songs I grew up with, and dreamed I'd be able to write someday when I was starting out in my first high school bands. They played mostly songs from Destination Failure tonight. If you've never heard it, hopefully they will be re-issuing the album soon through Victory Records. I think I heard them say something about that on stage. Smoking Popes will ALWAYS be very close to my heart. Not just a band that I used to listen to, but a band that I will never grow out of. I realized that tonight. I wish them all the success in the world.
I'm way behind. I'm just going to write when I feel it's necessary from now on, cool? But to sum up some stuff that happened over the past two weeks... We played some Indiana shows with The Honour Recital in the last week of June. Those guys are super cool, I know good things are in store for them in the near future. Mark, Keith, Aaron and I (along with Elaine and Lauren) went to a BBQ at my brother's house before one of the Indiana shows. My bro Greg lives right over the border in IL. It was cool, I love stuff like that, and his kids are getting cuter every day, so I want to see them as much as possible before they start getting zits. Anyway, the second show with Honour Recital was AMAZING, those guys REALLY draw a crowd in their hometown of South Bend, IN. We were honored to be on the show, everyone was really nice to us and we sold a lot of CD's.
Next was Ribfest in Naperville, IL. This was a myspace effort because we had no idea what to expect playing a town fair like Ribfest, even though it is only one town over from where we live. It worked pretty well, and served as a PRE-Cornerstone party for a lot of the people there. I couldn't believe how many people were going to both, probably at least 30 of us, no joke! It was awesome. We had a huge crowd after the show too, and we signed a bunch and met a bunch of cool people. It was really fun. Afterwards, we all got some ribs and watched Reo Speedwagon. ha.
Cornerstone and Lifest were REALLY fun. We played to huge crowds at both. It really makes us happy when you all come out and show your support! We're still not used to having a record out, it just makes all the difference for us. The reports tell us that over 10,000 people have bought our record worldwide so far. Not bad for 4 months time! We're excited!
North Lawrence, OH - This week we began a relationship with Andrew Buck at APA. He's an awesome guy with a lot to bring to the table, so we're BEYOND excited to be signing with him. This is definitely a landmark in our careers. It's like... you need to write great songs, then you need a killer label, then you need a smart agent. After that, who knows, but you need to take those steps to do this right. We're excited.
We played a festival today with Copeland, Relient K and Anberlin. It was fun, and we hung out all night afterwards with Anberlin and Relient K. It was cool to hang with Matt on his stomping grounds. The festival was about 20 minutes from his house, so afterwards he let us sleep over. SOLID guy, I tell you. Oh, and Anberlin are cooler than any other band I've ever met. Each one of them is totally genuine and mellow to talk to. Even if they're busy they pretend they're not just to put you at ease. We'll be seeing them all again next week at Cornerstone.
Lacrosse, WI - There is a guy in Lacrosse named Steve Harm who runs The Warehouse. I met him in 1999 or so, which marked the time that Showoff actually started to have to work for things in our career. The major label novelty had worn off, and Steve was really the only promoter who saw us as a worthy band - out there trying to make something happen with our lives, and he truly valued us as such. He still gives me the same respect today, and as you can imagine we have a very strong bond because of it. I mean, come one, who else would give us a show on a Monday? This time around we had seen him the two days prior to this show at warped tour. He was driving all over WI and MN flyering for The Warehouse. Who does that? I'll go ahead and answer my own question... VERY FEW people in his position would do that.
We got to talking about how our lives are very similar, him as the venue promoter, me as the traveling musician. We've both given up a lot to live a life that satisfies us on a deeper level, something the 9-5'er could never fully understand. It was a good talk, and one I never thought I'd have with someone in his position, but that's just Steve. I love the guy!
Minneapolis, MN - Still on Warped Tour. This marks our second time in Minne in one week. I'm excited to be back, we made lots of friends here at the Segue Cafe, and they all showed up today! We passed out fliers all morning once we found out our set time. We would be closing out the Hot Topic Stage tonight. 6:15 set time. This gives us plenty of time to promote!
The show went awesome. We played our first note as Saves The Day finished up their last song. This was probably one of the coolest moments for me on warped so far (besides the day before when Chris from STD assured me that the line for the shower would pass quickly) I grew up with Saves The Day, so to stand at a microphone opposite them was truly surreal. I just wanted to LISTEN! =) Tons of kids wandered over and we played to a full crowd once again.
BBQ was cancelled tonight, so we hung out a bit with our buddies before heading to LaCrosse around 10 PM. Plain White T's let me hear their first single from their new record. It just got mixed and mastered, and it sounds awesome. I'm just SO excited for them. New label, new team, and all of their ducks are in a row to do big things. Oh, so proud. I don't know if I've ever known anyone else who knew what he wanted as much as Tom does, and it's definitely happening for him.
Warped Tour! Okay, well we haven't slept since Bridgman. We had to pass through Chicago on the way from MI to WI, so we stopped at my house to take a quick shower, then jumped back in the ol' beast and headed to Warped Tour. We probably rolled into Milwaukee, WI around 4:30 AM, at which time Mark tried to catch a few Z's before the mad rush began. Herein lies the problem... When you do warped tour in a "not-bus" (more specifically without a driver who doesn't need to perform later that day), at least one guy has to drive all night and then spend the next day as a zombie. Because Mark's nature is to be a workaholic, he volunteers for the job regularly. He awoke promptly at 8 AM to make sure that we were checked in as soon as we could be with the warped people, and didn't shake one of us to help him (what a guy!?). He got us a tent to borrow for our merch, and got all of our catering tickets and band credentials. I thank him profusely, I always try to encourage such loyalty in my bandmates. =)
I wandered through the maze of stages and booths when I woke up at 9 AM. I saw lots of friends, and my anxiousness subsided a bit as I realized that we had safely arrived and things were going to be okay. We found out our set time at 10:30 AM or so, we play at 5:50 PM today. Relief. This is the fun part of warped tour, one lucky band won't even get to brush their teeth before they get picked to play FIRST that day, promply at 11 AM. It could happen to any of us, The Fold was blessed to not have this happen today. So we hurried up and got our tent situated and peddled our fliers all day long to innocent victims. These people were being bombarded by hundreds of bands and companies all day long trying to get them to support their respective causes. I thank ALL OF YOU who took our flier, really. We hand wrote each one with our set time and stage, so I hope people knew that we cared. =)
The actual performance portion of the day is only 1/2 hour long, no matter who you are. NOFX, Saves The Day, Underoath, The Fold... all of us get 1800 seconds up there. Our set went well, it was well attended and we had a blasty. That night I got to catch up with my buddy Chris Behm, who used to be in The Fold but is now tour manages Silverstein. After spending some time in the sweetest tour bus I've ever seen, we all went to the band BBQ which is usually held in the parking lot or some random place like that. I looked forward to it all day, because some of my fondest warped memories were from past BBQ's, standing next to Billy Joe, Fat Mike, Tim Armstrong or Travis Barker eating baked beans and talking about nothing.
Bridgman, MI - This show was booked to bridge the gap between some dates we had booked before heading out to Warped Tour. Either way, I'm glad this place was on the agenda. These people were awesome, the whole crowd stuck around and were genuinely excited to see us play. Lots of 'em singing along, and I'm just having a blast with these in-ear monitors. Such a new level of enjoyment for me! Thanks Shure! =) I know, I'm a BIG dork. Oh well, most guys in bands are, you'll find.
We took a day off yesterday and we all teamed up on getting the bus conversion in order. We have a lot of ideas, and NO time/motivation to finish them up in a timely manner. Oh well, slowly but surely. It seems like between each tour we get one or two big things accomplished. Lately, Mark's been kicking butt; we now have power and lights in all of the bunks, and cabinets along the right side of the living area.
The show tonight was okay. It was the final commitment we had to our nightmare of a booking agent. Thank GOD that is over.
Madison, WI... Tonight, this happened (thanks for the picture Katy). The show was SWEET. We packed out a small room in Madison for our friends Ice Cap Fortune's CD release. I produced their new CD, "Taking A New Shape", so it was extra special for me. They go on their first tour ever tomorrow, and I just pray that they have a good time. It's a rude awakening sometimes the way the road can be. Other times it's the best. Some bands never have to go through the hard part, but then they take the good stuff for granted.
We had the pleasure of playing with an AWESOME band from MN called Epic Hero. You should check em out!
This picture has nothing to do with anything, but it rules. Tonight was a first for me: I used IN EAR MONITORS. SO many people have told me about 'the wonder of the in-ear', but I never took myself seriously enough to spend $800 on something that (in my mind) only I would benefit from. Well, I take it all back, it's just a matter of peace of mind... Now, I can really learn my voice because I actually HEAR IT, EVERY NIGHT! And that, in turn, makes it better for the crowd because I know I'm not beating myself up in vain, I hear what they hear. I enjoyed every minute of our set tonight.
On a side note, THANK YOU MAPLE GROVE! We've had a rough few weeks so far this month, and we needed you guys last night, you delivered 10 fold. Thanks for dancing, singing along and SMILING at us. No thanks to bad booking agents, budget cuts and false promises. That is all.
Tonight was the closest thing to a proper hometown show we've had since our record came out. We have only opened for bigger bands (Tooth & Nail tour & The Smoking Popes, both at Metro) since our record came out... So, it felt REALLY nice to play this show. Our friends came out, which is always nice (thanks for the picture Sara!) It was actually our first time playing an Arlington Heights show as far as I can remember, so that was cool too. It felt like the start of a cool thing, and we have already made plans to go back in a couple months with This Is Me Smiling! We hope you can come.
April 25th was in St. Petersburg, FL at Janus Landing. This was a cool night because the last time I was at Janus was with Showoff and we were on tour with Lucky Boys Confusion at the time. It was a full circle kinda feeling to be back there with The Fold, I'm in awe of how far this thing has come. We're incredibly blessed! Janus is an outdoor venue, so it was different to play as the sun went down; in FL, by the beach. Come to think of it, it was pretty awesome actually. =)
April 26th was the last show of the Tooth and Nail tour. The show was at a small club in Fort Lauderdale. Emery and Anberlin took us out for dinner beforehand, and let us order whatever we wanted! WOW! These bands are SO cool to us, we're definitely going to miss their great attitudes. We've made some awesome friends, and we hope to tour with all of them again soon.
I was a big brat tonight. It was House Of Blues, Orlando. The show went GREAT, and we played really well; I think I'm just bummed out because I know this tour is almost over. It's been so great, and I fear that we won't be on another tour that is this exciting again. Highlights were probably seeing a HUGE display in the Disneyworld Virgin Records with THE FOLD on it, and dinner with Lauren at House Of Blues. We went all out and got the most expensive meal we've had in a while. Yum.
Tonight we played in Jacksonville, FL. It was our second time at Murray Hill Theater, and the people there are officially "super cool". They took us to Panera during the day, and Lauren and I got to eat a REAL meal for once. We were excited to play to a sold out crowd, I even walked one lucky boy in through the front door. He looked really bummed out that he couldn't buy a ticket, and so he asked me if I could help. First I thought he was trying to break into our vehicle, because he was lurking around pretending to talk on his cell phone; then he spilled his cause, and I realized why he was there. I was glad I helped him, because he was a cool kid, and it felt really good to help him out. What's it to me, right?
The show was awesome, the crowd was ruthless, and I even saw a CIRCLE PIT during our set. That always cracks us up, because we are NOT that type of band. We're more of a "sing along as loud as you can so that I don't have to" type of band, but we haven't exactly reached that status either.
Atlanta, GA. Ha. We dressed up like thugs. I wore a bandana on my head, a double XL t-shirt and huge shorts; we'll get some footage of this soon, I promise. We entered the stage bumping and waving towels over our heads to Ludacris' "Welcome To Atlanta". It was a night to remember, for sure. On a totally different note: Lauren is here, and I feel complete. That's her in the picture, she is AMAZING!!
The in-store during the day was kinda hurried, but we played three songs, then Emery, then Anberlin. Stephen explained what "Paperthin Hymn" was about, (which I was always curious about) but I struggled to hear him because I was dining at the food court's chinese restaraunt. I guess I'll never know.
Ah, back on schedule, where each day has it's own post. =) Lauren flys out today to spend the rest of the tour with us, so I better write this now before I swear off all responsibility for a few days.
Last night's show was a blasty-blast. It felt like Friday from the first note we played. My voice felt great, and I tried out some new stage-moves. haha. I know, huge loser. Monitors were awful, but we ignored them and had fun. Some girls brought us oil for our van, and I had some awesome conversations with people. A lot of them seemed interested/fascinated/skeptical about Tooth & Nail, and the "Christian" connotation that comes along with it. That's something that The Fold embraces, but I see some bands stand in opposition of it. I think it's all about your heart, and why you play music. We don't do it for ourselves.
I hope all of these posts aren't starting to sound the same, I just don't know what else to say about a tour that is WAY above all of our expectations. We're just thrilled to be a part of it. Emery and Anberlin are SO nice to us, and Jonezetta and CC are our buds.
I'm exactly one week behind. Let me get out the old laminent and recollect again:
Boston... CRAZY! We played a club called Axis which is next door to another club of equal size (1200 capacity) called Avalon. As if that wasn't enough it's across the street from FENWAY PARK!!! My friends in Action Action played the show at Avalon with The Sounds and Morningwood, while we played the Tooth & Nail Tour at Axis. It was cool to see Action Action, and The Sounds made BIG FANS out of The Fold. We bought the CD the next day and haven't taken it out of the CD player yet. I loved talking to Mark from Action Action because he and I have known eachother since he was in The Reunion Show and I was in Showoff. It's good to run into old friends in random parts of the country. The street was SO CRAZY that we actually weren't even able to park our vehicle; we just double parked on the street next to the tour buses, played our show, stalled as long as we could and then took off for the next stop.
Philadelphia. Fun show, until some kid said that we sound better on CD. I couldn't be too offended, because he said he really likes the songs, but it did hurt. I don't think kids realize what we put into this, so I probably took it more personally than I should have. Oh well. I got over it. We hear 1,000 compliments each night, so I need to learn to take some criticism every now and again. Luckily this is the first we've received in a while, aside from a review or two on our album. We ate Philly steaks after the show, and then moved on to the next city.
Washington DC. After a day off which we spent at The Crumps house outside of Baltimore, (which happened to be the resurrection day of our Lord and Savior) we played the 9:30 Club in D.C. The show was AWESOME, and the crowd was amazing to us. The only bad thing that happend is that I started the set without a microphone, and it took me half a song to realize that the crowd had a good idea in telling me to step over to Keith's mic as a temporary fix. Oh well, we bounced back quickly and had a good time playing. The things people say to us really keeps us going. Lots of people pray for The Fold, and that means more than anything else. One guy said that he saw an angel floating over me while we were playing, and that God told him that I had something special to offer that I didn't even realize. That took me aback, in a really good way. I don't think I'm anything special, but this just made me realize that it's really out of my hands.
Heart - ford - Connect - I - Cut! My sister is gonna die when she reads this one. When we were in Jr. High School we had to learn all 50 states and their corresponding capitol. For Hartford, CT my mom made up a name game to go with it. It went something like: "Your HEART is connected to your bloodflow, but if your bloodflow gets CUT off, you will die." Looking back, it was really morbid, but you better believe we aced that test. Oh yeah, with flying colors.
The place was packed, and we had a blast. The sound guy layered on the delay and reverb, which made for a REALLY fun vocal performace by ME. I tend to get carried away with improvisation when I know the sound guy is with me. haha. Then, afterwards, this picture happened: (left to right, God forgive me for not knowing the other two girl's names) Ty from Jonezetta, Mick from Jonezetta, Micah (Jonezetta's merch guy), Daniel, Christine (our new friend), Aaron, and Robert from Jonezetta. They are our new favorite band.
Norfolk, VA. Emery and Anberlin hyped up this club REALLY HARD before we got to it, saying it was the best club in the WHOLE COUNTRY! It pretty much lived up to our expectations. There were hottubs in the dressing rooms, and the club definitely treated us better than we deserved. There were about 700 people who came to the show, which actually made it one of the smaller shows of the tour, but we had a blast and definitely connected with the crowd. We finished this week with over 5,000 records sold in a month and a half, and that just blows my mind! I only know this because we have to fax in our soundscan sheets every Wednesday night, so I just got the updated number. I know that sounds like another language, but trust me, it means something. For those of you who don't have our album yet, I MUST point you to this link. Sorry about that.
This brings us to tonight. Carrboro, NC. This show reminded me the most of New York, because we had SO MUCH FUN on stage. We felt completely at home, and I think the crowd saw that. I even wore a short sleeved shirt on stage which I haven't done in about 5 months. haha. The crowd yelled at the top of their lungs, moshed, and even crowd surfed during our set. It was very flattering. Now, we are at someone's home in Carborro, cooking some vegetable oil that we collected from a local Chinese buffet. Tomorrow morning we will filter it and then drive for free to the next few shows. NICE!
The Big Apple! We played at the Avalon, which is a site for all to see. You could get lost in this place, and we all did! Several times. So, in all of the panic of playing such an exciting town as NYC, I forgot to wear earplugs when we went on stage. It wound up being a cool experience because the sound on stage is AMAZING at The Avalon. I guess that's the reason I started wearing earplugs, so that even if the sound on stage was terrible I could still get in my zone vocally; maybe I should test the waters a little bit each night before putting them in.
The crowd was really cool to us. They smiled at us a lot, and let us know that they were with us. Afterwards was picture time. I don't know if I've ever taken so many pictures before. One girl even sent the picture to us later that night! I'll post it here to embarrass us both. lolzzzzzz!!!!! We got a little rambunctious when we were selling our merchandise afterwards. Gonzo (our merch guy) even busted out his megaphone. Sorry if we yelled in your ear or forced you to buy something you didn't want to. =)
I guess you could say that I've been having so much fun I forgot to journal. Last night (Tuesday) we went 80's dancing with some guys from Anberlin and Emery, it was SO strange to feel the awkwardness you feel in a situation like that, and then look over and see these guys going through the same inhibition (or lack their of). Anyway, a blast, I never dance; total peer pressure that I even WENT!
Let's work backwards:
Chicago, IL (4/10) Starting such an awesome tour on a Monday night in your home town was some pressure. We didn't totally feel the crowd to be honest, but they probably didn't feel us either. Monday, mind you, that's probably the biggest factor. Being a grumpy Chicagoan myself, I feel their pain. I sat in the same traffic they did, and I definitely wanted to see Emery and Anberlin as much as they did! haha. Good times, I ate at Wrigleyville Dogs afterwards with my wife! What am I complaining about????
Cleveland, OH (4/11) I LOVE THIS TOUR! This is the night that things started to click for us, both on stage and off. The crowd wanted to hold back, but we wouldn't let them. Lots of them were singing along, and we encouraged that with lots of yelling at them. The show was a blast, and SO MANY kids talked to us afterwards. That's why we do it, we want to get to know what's going on with these kids! Awesome time, and then, 80's dancing. A blast that I will never forget.
Buffalo, NY (4/12) A good time. Aaron's guitar cut out on the first two songs, which is a sure way to throw off your mojo. Somehow, even with a mellow crowd, we bounced back. They never got to the point that Cleveland did, but I could tell that they were taking it in. I told some lame joke about how "this technical difficulty shall pass", and then we finished our set. Doing well, and loving this tour. Tonight, all the bands are having a time for prayer after the show. Let me go on record saying that it rules when we can be on a tour that loves Jesus! We will always tour with bands that we love musically, I'm not saying that we judge anyone who doesn't believe, but there is so much cool stuff that goes on (and so much UNcool stuff that DOESN'T go on) when we're all on the same plane with our Faith.
We jumped in the handi-van after a day or two at home to head to Danville, IL for a show at The Edge. It's funny because we played in Danville, CA exactly one week ago (I'm not even kidding, see our past tour dates at http://thefoldmusic.com/pastshows.php). Anyway, this show was cool because Lauren, Elaine and Heather came along. They always revitalize our longer drives because they make us laugh, and just view the whole experience differently. It's so easy to get in our bunks and sleep, but at least we think about staying awake when we have "company". What am I saying? We still slept the whole time.
The venue was really cool to us, we ate sandwiches and macaroni salad, and even OVERpaid us for playing. WHO DOES THAT? The Edge in Danville does, that's who! We also met an AWESOME band called Greenwood. We can't wait to see them play again some time, they really made my jaw drop. Sorta Pinback meets Armor For Sleep if you can imagine that; sweethearts, every one of them!
We felt like the show went well; not the best turn out, but we didn't really know if ANYONE knew about The Fold in Danville, so we weren't getting our hopes up. We're seriously not in this for our own glory, that stuff isn't all that important to us at this point. We're a baby band, so we look to different things to keep us encouraged. Overall, very pleased and looking forward to the future.
That said, we can't wait to start the Tooth and Nail tour tomorrow!
Our last day in the west. We got to spend it with our California parents Sandi and Randy (see the "thank you's" in our CD booklet for TTSP). They SPOIL us with food, candy, vegetable oil, hugs, they buy our shirts, force people to come to our shows, etc... it's a completely lop-sided relationship. Probably much like that of a real family, we play the ungrateful kids, they are the parents that won't stop loving us. We try to show them our appreciation, but their kindness seems too amazing to match with our words or actions. Even as I sit here driving through the country I'm looking at the boxes, bags and more boxes of food they've given us. We are blessed. The show was a bit different, we played in a sanctuary which is always a challenge. Our amps and drums boom in rooms like that, so it's really hard to get the vocals to a point where they can be heard. There were quite a few people there who had never been to a concert before. That was a strange thing, they really gave us the rockstar treatment, which is not something we're too comfortable with. We'll work on it! The important thing to mention here is that we get to sleep in our own beds for a few nights soon. I miss Lauren SO MUCH!
Chris Loach, our hero. So, we booked a show on this date that was supposed to finance our whole tour, let's just say we were supposed to get paid LOTS of money for a show at a certain college. Well, that all fell apart about 1 week before it was supposed to happen. Chris Loach is a new friend of our's, and so I asked him if he could pull off making a show happen on the 31st at the last minute. He jumped at the opportunity, which ruled. Anyway, he had almost 300 people there to watch us with less than a week to promote. We love you Chris Loach! Highlight of my night: Chris let us choose our dinner from a local italian restaurant; I got pork chops and buttered noodles. Scrumptious.
I just finished typing in all of the e-mail addresses that we've collected from our e-mail list at the shows over the past week or so. If you're reading this, maybe you can help me figure something out that has bothered me for some time: How can you tell if these people are writing underscores or hyphens in their e-mail addresses???? Do certain e-mail companies (i.e. @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com) allow hyphens and not underscores, or vice versa? Not to mention that some of these people have the most illegible penmanship I've ever read! I've struggled with this stuff for the past 10 years of my life. =) Sometimes I enter in several possibilities of what the person might have written, but that's no good! If anyone can shed any light on the hyphen vs. underscore phenomenon, I would be grateful. Until then, I run the risk of an ulcer.
The past few days were very successful financially, we may actually be able to pay our bills after this tour, which is VERY rare. Thanks to Kevin Looker, and all of the fine venues and people who let The Fold bumrush their establishments for these last minute tour dates. We had a blast, and met quite a few cool people!
Tonight was the last night of our micro-tour with Sherwood. When we got to the show, we were informed that there was another show going on 20 minutes away that might knock our show off of the radar. SO, we ate A LOT of tacos (compliments of the venue, they were AWESOME. I might add that I was the first to create a double-decker taco, which soon became the taco of choice amongst all 3 bands), thinking that our show might not go on. In other circumstances we may have been frustrated by this, or worried, but for some reason none of us were. We're just like "Alright! Let's eat and hang out!" Plus, our A&R guy from Tooth and Nail was there, so we were enjoying the hang time.
The show did end up happening, and it was a good time actually (minus me not being able to sing because I ate too much). There were maybe 30 kids there tops, but I don't mind that so much as long as they act like they want to be there. The sound system was the best all tour, and we just had fun. Sherwood and The Fold roused eachother a bit on stage, and in one last act of kindness we drew some pictures on their RV with glass marker. After the show we collected 50 gallons of grease, and drove on to Chico, CA. Nate from Sherwood called me the next day to tell me that they had a good laugh the next morning when they walked out of their RV to see a hidden message we posted on the window of the loft over the driver's seat. haha. It's not important what it said. We win!
Today was a cool day. We left Canada late the night before and slept in a parking lot outside of a Wal Mart in a suburb of Seattle. We woke up and headed to the vegistroke headquarters to have a little warrantied maintanence done on our ve-hicle. It was awesome to see the guy who invented our vegetable oil system getting under there and looking at the work of his hands. Such a good guy. I wandered around Lake Stevens a bit, and found a cool thrift store where I bought a new shirt and jeans. I felt a little ripped off when the bill came to $44, but in retrospect I think I got a good deal, considering that I will be wearing these clothes for quite a while.
Now, on to the show... Tonight we had tour-itis. We probably sounded like snot-nose brats to the crowd, jaded as could be, but it was just one of those nights. Nothing really went wrong during the day that would have caused us to have a bad show, it just happened. I was just thinking before the show that it's been a while since we had a bad show. There goes that! Everything was awful on stage, worst sound I've ever heard: feedback, weak monitors, disinterested crowd, missed notes, broken equipment, you name it. I don't blame anyone from the venue, or the sound guy, they did their best. We didn't handle it well either. I apologize if you were at the show, we promise to be better next time!
Canada. The promoter was a great guy named Jessie. He actually WALKED us over the border, it was amazing. Definitely never had that happen to me in the Showoff days. It was more like "Get over the border if you can, or the show will go on without you." Ouch! The story didn't go so smoothly for Tokyo Rose, they got their merch ceased, and had to pay $1200 to get it back. This was The Fold's first experience in Canada, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Continuing on with my story, Jessie found out that we had never had Tim Horton's (Canada's equivalent to Dunkin Donuts maybe?), so he took ALL OF US (that's The Fold and Sherwood) to eat a nice meal at Tim Horton's. Amazing! Now, on to the show... There were over 200 kids there, and they were screaming our lyrics in our faces. Not sure how they have the record, is it even for sale over there? I never know for sure. Anyway, they bought up most of our merch, and we can't wait to come back to Canada.
Tonight's show was WIERD! We played a skate park, and for some reason we had to play outside. They had a really good reason why, I just can't remember what it was. SO, the three heads of state from Sherwood, The Fold and Tokyo Bros got together and made an executive decision that the PA system couldn't handle the rock. We played acoustic! It actually was kinda cool because of the outdoor, cold, acoustic campfire vibe. I'm always up for a break from the norm. We ate a bunch of pizza and headed onward to Canada.
So, the kids [in Ogden, UT] say that they are nowhere near as crazy as SLC, but I find that hard to believe. As Sherwood claimed from the stage, this was the best crowd of the whole tour so far. Awesome, awesome, awesome. We were happy to be there, and will be back soon. The elevation definitely messed with my breathing, but oh well. I even jogged before the show, but it didn't help my stamina. I need to start body-building, like Travis Barker. =)
Lots of people have been ordering merch through our website, and that makes us REALLY happy. Thanks guys!
First off, why can't all venue parking lots offer wi-fi and power? It was amazing to be able to sit in our little shuttle bus and check e-mail/update my tour journal with a beautiful view of the snow-cap mountains near Cedar City, UT. Wow! We all got to stroll around town a bit, because we were there early for once. The promoter's friend made some AMAZING vegan meal for us which included un-tuna, homemade hummus, and that cucumber sauce in sandwich form. Our stomachs loved him for it. I bought a new toothbrush today. Mikey from Sherwood ate a few of my Cheez-it's last night when we were hanging, and then today he surprised me with a whole new box. Love that guy! The show was cool, the venue was very caring, the kids were INSANE and made all of us touring bands smile quite a bit. I want to go back to Cedar City as often as possible.
Tonight was se-mi-un-e-ven-t-ful (that's a really big word, that's why I broke it down into syllables for you) to be totally honest. The show was advertised as 21+ which doesn't bode well (Sherwood taught me that word) with this tour. That, mixed with snow, plus Sunday night equaled a somewhat lower turnout than we all expected. The sound was the best so far, so that made up for it. Then, the next day was a day off, and we really got to know the Sherwood guys better than we did before. LOVE those guys, they are the perfect blend of optimist/seasoned veterans on the road so we hit it off instantly. Sometimes it's hard to explain why certain bands get along better than others, but I think we just have a ton in common and that totally helps.
We also just got wind that The Fold will be doing the Mancow show when we get home from this tour. The show is based in Chicago, but has several million listeners all over the place. This is huge news, and we're very excited. More details to come!
Day one. Sherwood & Tokyo Rose tour. There were lots of other bands on this show for some reason; SIX bands total, which is always a little hectic, but the headliner (Sherwood) exercised extreme patience about it and the show was a great success. We had fun playing too, lots of kids were up front in our face screaming lyrics back at us, which really made it special. We're not used to that. This will be a fun tour, I already love Tokyo Rose's songs, and Sherwood will inevitably become one of my new favorite bands. I know it. Already I have their melodies dancing around my head.
Today was cool. It was day 1 of the Tooth and Nail tour, and it consisted of all 6 bands (Emery, Anberlin, Far-Less, The Fold, Jonezetta and Classic Crime) meeting up in Austin, TX for a South By Southwest Showcase of the Tooth and Nail Tour. Lots of the people were new to us. We will be meeting back up with the tour in a couple weeks to take Far-Less' place as the third band each night for the midwest and east coast leg of the tour. The show was cool, but I think that all bands agree that showcases are weird in general. It's kinda like being a mannequin in a window display or something. We were happy to be a part of it, though, no doubt. My friends from Chicago's Q101 showed up to the show (see my March 2nd journal), which was amazing. Some of the most genuine, honest, hilarious people I've EVER met in my life.
The next day was really cool. We had a day off, which is something we're not used to in camp Fold. My goal for the day (wife's orders) was to find the perfect screen-printed poster to go in our basement living room at home. It needed to be 18X24" to fit in, and fun to look at. I walked around Flatstock (SXSW's silk-screened poster convention) for hours and hours until they were ready to close the doors for the day before I made my final decision; which was, of course, totally spontaneous and possibly the wrong choice. Oh well, she says she'll love it anyway. Check out Jay Ryan and Leia Bell if you want to see some cool stuff in the realm of wacky silk-screened posters.
Next, we discovered that Red Bull had their own private getaway from all of the elitist non-sense that inevitably surrounds these festival/showcase style events. Me and the boys got our very own key to the action (thanks Greg Hammer), and partied MTV Beach House 2K6 Extravaganza! Kennedy wasn't there, but John Norris was, and there was even talks of Paris Hilton and My Chem Ro showing up for the action. I did not see that portion of the action. We did, however, create our own "Chicago Only" wing of party, which consisted of lots of laughing, Ditka, and a lament about how much we miss Portillo's. Sweet home, Chicago.
I also collected my first batch of veggie oil for our van tonight.
Smoking Popes! Tonight I fulfilled a dream. Some of my fondest memories include having a rude Chicagoan blow the smoke from a Marlboro directly in my face during "Let's hear it for love" at the Metro and/or Fireside Bowl. WELL, tonight we got to play WITH them on their first tour since 1999. It was amazing, I said it on the microphone (and I'll say it again) we were both humbled and honored to be there. The show sold out before Josh even picked up the phone to ask us ifwe could play. This band has been dear to my heart since I was 15, and here was the singer calling my cell phone to ask if we'd play. "Ummm, YEAH!" They haven't lost an ounce of what makes them special. Thanks Josh, for a night to remember!
Vegas strikes! Today we had some trouble. We love our new vehicle, but I ain't gonna lie, today we had issues. The darn check engine light kept coming on, and we could only go 20 mph when driving uphill with this problem. No fun. So, plan B. We finished one last full band show, then Mark and Keith kept the bus in Vegas for a few days while The Ford Dealer (more like The Ford Stealer) fixed us up for good! So that this tour was not a complete loss, Aaron and I jumped in Chasing Victory's van and finished out the tour acoustic style. Good thing we got some practice these past couple of days. Believe it or not, the tough guy crowd's actually LOVED it. We even had about 1,003 requests about The Fold making an acoustic record at some point. We'd love to, as soon as we get the time!
Then, on the morning of the 7th, Aaron and I rented a car (my dream car actually) and went from Redding, CA to meet up with our boys and get home for a few good night's sleep. Tour is always a fun challenge, and sleep is not always possible. It all worked without a hitch, God is so good to us. Oh and thanks to Chasing Victory and all of you peeps who donated to our cause. We spent every last penny you gave us, and you've single handedly made it possible for us to make it through!
The Troubador in Los Angeles is for dinner tonight! We really love that place, best on stage sound you've ever heard. Not sure what it sounds like for the crowd though. Hmmm, I wonder if it's any good? Just before the show, Aaron and I took a cab over to DJ Rossstar's place for an interview and a couple live acoustic songs. It went well, I've known that guy (DJ Rossstar, Ross if we're naming names) since my Showoff days, and he'll never let me forget it. Love him to death, it's been fun to watch him go from 15 year old Jersey kid, to sought after radio show host. Reminds me a lot of my friend Ryan Manno who did the same thing within the Chicago/Chicago suburbs circuit. I can now listen to him any given morning as Mancow's sidekick. Crazy what a little (or a lot) of ambition can get you in this world. Love what you do, and do what you love.
Phoenix was an expiriment for us. Project arranged this to be a day off. "NEIGH" we say! No such thing when you're starving for meals. =) We booked our own show at a really cool place called Modified Arts. We decided to make it even more special and we played acoustic. It's SO much fun to break out the acoustics every now and again. I think I'm comfortable that way because it's the way we wrote most of our songs. Anyway, the crowd wasn't huge, but they made up for it by being super duper cool to us. Look out for "Hope in Distance", they rule. If they aren't the next band you hear about from AZ, then I've lost all faith in mankind. J/k, I lost that months ago.
I LOVE these kids. They remember our names! Thanks El Paso for an awesome night. You bought us out of lots of stuff. Tomorrow we headline a show in Phoenix.
The only noteable thing that happened at this show was in regards to cool people we met. The first was just this kid named Matt. He came right to our table and bought two shirts, it just made me smile really big to see his excitement. The second thing was the wierdest thing that ever happened to me at a show. The show was over, but for some reason I sat there at the merch table finishing typing an e-mail. About 20 minutes later, I still sat there, and a lady came up to me. "I'm sorry, do you still have those sweatshirts available?" I replied "Does a bear poop in the woods? You know it!" I broke our designs back out to see if she might save our night a little bit financially at an otherwise rough show. She bought the following: 6 hoodies 1 track jacket 5 shirts 1 CD Needless to say, we were beside ourselves. People don't realize how much bands depend on merchandise sales. ESPECIALLY The Fold. The bill was rather large, so the lady asked if she could write a check. A $250 check, hmmmm. This raised all sorts of red flags, but for some reason (once we got her drivers license number and husband's phone number) we let it slide. Long story short, Mark went to the Dad's work in the morning to asked why the check was bouncing when we tried to cash it. 2 hours later, the money was in the account and The Fold set out for the next town. Close call! We now have a new band rule: "no personal checks over $40!"
What was up with me tonight? I think somebody put something in my water. Halfway through our set, I felt as if I was dreaming. I wasn't playing badly, actually everything was flowing quite smoothly, I just felt like it wasn't really happening. The strange feeling continued until I went to sleep last night. I've stayed FAR away from drugs since I became a Christian, but I swear I ate or drank something VERY odd that made me feel a way I never want to feel again. Maybe it was Project 86's deli tray? Oops, don't let them know that you read that, Andrew will kill me. Actually, he OFFERED me a sandwich off of their tray; said that protien helps your vocal abilities. I tried it, and it worked. Except for the whole "out of body experience" issue, I still haven't figured that one out.
Tonight we had a really cool show in a suburb of Albuqurque, NM called Rancho Rio. There was 500+ kids there, and they were insane to hear bands play. Starved, actually. There was one kid in particular named A.J. (I tried calling him "age" but he insisted it should be phonetically spoken as more of an "adj" sound) who was very particular about telling me how he grew his hair out JUST FOR THIS SHOW. He likes to headbang, A LOT. I made sure he took two Tylenol before sleeping. We unloaded almost 40 copies of our new cd, and a great time was had by all. We can't wait to come back. There was one point where The Fold and Chasing Victory looked at eachother and said "We love this tour!" It's all about the people who come to the show. They were great.
It is good to be back with our friends. Chasing Victory are some of the funniest, most loveable guys I've ever met. The singer, Adam, was rousing the crowd at the show tonight, and he said "I wanna see you girls moving, I know girls back home who chew tobacco!" I was dying laughing... only in South Georgia. Project 86 are the older, wiser types but we are no less excited to be back in cahoots with them. Both bands give off energy both on stage and off that makes us fear for our lives! We enjoy being the cheese in their metal sangwich, if you will. I will, and I have!
If you came to this show, we love you! You guys really made us smile tonight. We played an intimate "going-away-party" type show tonight where we were able to invite old friends, new fans and loved ones alike. It was a really good idea. Big props to Mark, our drummer, for thinking of it and making it happen.
The first thing that happened was we got to see a big display that EMI and Tower Records put together for our new release. It made us tingle all over, and hug them a lot. It was cool to actually see our CD in a store for the first time, what a sense of accomplishment it gave us, I was thanking God all night. It's been such a long time coming. I didn't know if we'd ever see this day.
We started things out like an ice cream social of sorts; minus the ice cream, plus our new CD. It added up to MAJOR memories being made all over the place. It was quite beautiful to watch all of you pack the place as we grew closer to showtime. We really just wanted to talk to you guys all night... but alas, we are a band, and bands play music. I guess we're not that interesting to talk to anyway. But YOU are!
We started playing about 7:15, no opening band, just the two of us. =) It's always a little awkward to play under fluorescent lights, but we were down for the challenge! We got to play some songs that we haven't played in a while. We're more used to 20-30 minute sets as the opening band on tour, but tonight we got a full hour or so. I think we came close to filling it. We're enjoying having a choice in which songs we get to play. A 14 song album affords us that luxury. We've been getting extra live footage for our first video, which you may have heard will be for the song "Gravity". It's also the newest of the songs we've been performing live, so it's always a little nerve-wracking to play it. It's my personal favorite to listen to, so it's a good thing that we're starting to get comfortable playing it live. I can't wait to get crackin' on the video for it. That will be another journal entry all together.
Anyway, I'm noveling here... That's what I get for typing this in the van whilst on a 28 hour drive, I am also my own editor, proofreader and publisher if you must know. If you're reading this, you obviously care. I thank you for your extra special attention this week. You've made it the most memorable week of our life as a band. Thanks for buying our CD, and sending us sweet e-mails. We look forward to our future together!
We played in Naperville, IL. It was in a gym, but it was a benefit for the hurricane victims. The kids were cool, and we made a ton of new friends. We played after a screamo band, which is always fun. It ended up being a cool event, and $1300 was raised to send off to the victims.
So, I've told many of you about my dog. I thought about making her a mazispace on the internet, but I think that would cheapen her beauty. So, here she is!
We're still not sure if she's a rat terrier or a jack russel or a beagle, but we know that she's the sweetest doggie to ever live.
Oh yeah, and I fixed the message boards, and am about to post a bunch of new tour dates. See y'all soon!
Today is January 20th, and I just finished this here website. I'm feeling a temporary sense of accomplishment. =)
It's snowing outside, which looks strange because it's not that cold outside. They say 5 inches, and then it will all melt by tomorrow, which is Lauren's birthday, my favorite girl in the whole world. My second favorite girl in the whole world is my dog (actually she's probably tied with my mom), who is sleeping right next to me, and I'm about to make some coffee. I won't soon forget this moment. We have a couple weeks at home, which is a nice change of pace.
I just want to thank all of the awesome people who have been encouraging The Fold lately. Especially Jeter, Caleb, Tate, Melissa, Christian and Frazier. We are so excited about this year!
I'm way behind. I'm just going to write when I feel it's necessary from now on, cool? But to sum up some stuff that happened over the past two weeks... We played some Indiana shows with The Honour Recital in the last week of June. Those guys are super cool, I know good things are in store for them in the near future. Mark, Keith, Aaron and I (along with Elaine and Lauren) went to a BBQ at my brother's house before one of the Indiana shows. My bro Greg lives right over the border in IL. It was cool, I love stuff like that, and his kids are getting cuter every day, so I want to see them as much as possible before they start getting zits. Anyway, the second show with Honour Recital was AMAZING, those guys REALLY draw a crowd in their hometown of South Bend, IN. We were honored to be on the show, everyone was really nice to us and we sold a lot of CD's.
Warped Tour! Okay, well we haven't slept since Bridgman. We had to pass through Chicago on the way from MI to WI, so we stopped at my house to take a quick shower, then jumped back in the ol' beast and headed to Warped Tour. We probably rolled into Milwaukee, WI around 4:30 AM, at which time Mark tried to catch a few Z's before the mad rush began. Herein lies the problem... When you do warped tour in a "not-bus" (more specifically without a driver who doesn't need to perform later that day), at least one guy has to drive all night and then spend the next day as a zombie. Because Mark's nature is to be a workaholic, he volunteers for the job regularly. He awoke promptly at 8 AM to make sure that we were checked in as soon as we could be with the warped people, and didn't shake one of us to help him (what a guy!?). He got us a tent to borrow for our merch, and got all of our catering tickets and band credentials. I thank him profusely, I always try to encourage such loyalty in my bandmates. =)
Madison, WI... Tonight, this happened (thanks for the picture Katy). The show was SWEET. We packed out a small room in Madison for our friends Ice Cap Fortune's CD release. I produced their new CD, "Taking A New Shape", so it was extra special for me. They go on their first tour ever tomorrow, and I just pray that they have a good time. It's a rude awakening sometimes the way the road can be. Other times it's the best. Some bands never have to go through the hard part, but then they take the good stuff for granted.
This picture has nothing to do with anything, but it rules. Tonight was a first for me: I used IN EAR MONITORS. SO many people have told me about 'the wonder of the in-ear', but I never took myself seriously enough to spend $800 on something that (in my mind) only I would benefit from. Well, I take it all back, it's just a matter of peace of mind... Now, I can really learn my voice because I actually HEAR IT, EVERY NIGHT! And that, in turn, makes it better for the crowd because I know I'm not beating myself up in vain, I hear what they hear. I enjoyed every minute of our set tonight. 
Tonight was the closest thing to a proper hometown show we've had since our record came out. We have only opened for bigger bands (Tooth & Nail tour & The Smoking Popes, both at Metro) since our record came out... So, it felt REALLY nice to play this show. Our friends came out, which is always nice (thanks for the picture Sara!) It was actually our first time playing an Arlington Heights show as far as I can remember, so that was cool too. It felt like the start of a cool thing, and we have already made plans to go back in a couple months with This Is Me Smiling! We hope you can come.
I was a big brat tonight. It was House Of Blues, Orlando. The show went GREAT, and we played really well; I think I'm just bummed out because I know this tour is almost over. It's been so great, and I fear that we won't be on another tour that is this exciting again. Highlights were probably seeing a HUGE display in the Disneyworld Virgin Records with THE FOLD on it, and dinner with Lauren at House Of Blues. We went all out and got the most expensive meal we've had in a while. Yum.
Atlanta, GA. Ha. We dressed up like thugs. I wore a bandana on my head, a double XL t-shirt and huge shorts; we'll get some footage of this soon, I promise. We entered the stage bumping and waving towels over our heads to Ludacris' "Welcome To Atlanta". It was a night to remember, for sure. On a totally different note: Lauren is here, and I feel complete. That's her in the picture, she is AMAZING!!
The place was packed, and we had a blast. The sound guy layered on the delay and reverb, which made for a REALLY fun vocal performace by ME. I tend to get carried away with improvisation when I know the sound guy is with me. haha. Then, afterwards, this picture happened: (left to right, God forgive me for not knowing the other two girl's names) Ty from Jonezetta, Mick from Jonezetta, Micah (Jonezetta's merch guy), Daniel, Christine (our new friend), Aaron, and Robert from Jonezetta. They are our new favorite band.
The crowd was really cool to us. They smiled at us a lot, and let us know that they were with us. Afterwards was picture time. I don't know if I've ever taken so many pictures before. One girl even sent the picture to us later that night! I'll post it here to embarrass us both. lolzzzzzz!!!!! We got a little rambunctious when we were selling our merchandise afterwards. Gonzo (our merch guy) even busted out his megaphone. Sorry if we yelled in your ear or forced you to buy something you didn't want to. =)
Tonight was the last night of our micro-tour with Sherwood. When we got to the show, we were informed that there was another show going on 20 minutes away that might knock our show off of the radar. SO, we ate A LOT of tacos (compliments of the venue, they were AWESOME. I might add that I was the first to create a double-decker taco, which soon became the taco of choice amongst all 3 bands), thinking that our show might not go on. In other circumstances we may have been frustrated by this, or worried, but for some reason none of us were. We're just like "Alright! Let's eat and hang out!" Plus, our A&R guy from Tooth and Nail was there, so we were enjoying the hang time. 
The next day was really cool. We had a day off, which is something we're not used to in camp Fold. My goal for the day (wife's orders) was to find the perfect screen-printed poster to go in our basement living room at home. It needed to be 18X24" to fit in, and fun to look at. I walked around Flatstock (SXSW's silk-screened poster convention) for hours and hours until they were ready to close the doors for the day before I made my final decision; which was, of course, totally spontaneous and possibly the wrong choice. Oh well, she says she'll love it anyway. Check out Jay Ryan and Leia Bell if you want to see some cool stuff in the realm of wacky silk-screened posters.
Next, we discovered that Red Bull had their own private getaway from all of the elitist non-sense that inevitably surrounds these festival/showcase style events. Me and the boys got our very own key to the action (thanks Greg Hammer), and partied MTV Beach House 2K6 Extravaganza! Kennedy wasn't there, but John Norris was, and there was even talks of Paris Hilton and My Chem Ro showing up for the action. I did not see that portion of the action. We did, however, create our own "Chicago Only" wing of party, which consisted of lots of laughing, Ditka, and a lament about how much we miss Portillo's. Sweet home, Chicago.
Some of my fondest memories include having a rude Chicagoan blow the smoke from a Marlboro directly in my face during "Let's hear it for love" at the Metro and/or Fireside Bowl. WELL, tonight we got to play WITH them on their first tour since 1999. It was amazing, I said it on the microphone (and I'll say it again) we were both humbled and honored to be there. The show sold out before Josh even picked up the phone to ask us ifwe could play. This band has been dear to my heart since I was 15, and here was the singer calling my cell phone to ask if we'd play. "Ummm, YEAH!" They haven't lost an ounce of what makes them special. Thanks Josh, for a night to remember!
The Troubador in Los Angeles is for dinner tonight! We really love that place, best on stage sound you've ever heard. Not sure what it sounds like for the crowd though. Hmmm, I wonder if it's any good? Just before the show, Aaron and I took a cab over to DJ Rossstar's place for an interview and a couple live acoustic songs. It went well, I've known that guy (DJ Rossstar, Ross if we're naming names) since my Showoff days, and he'll never let me forget it. Love him to death, it's been fun to watch him go from 15 year old Jersey kid, to sought after radio show host. Reminds me a lot of my friend Ryan Manno who did the same thing within the Chicago/Chicago suburbs circuit. I can now listen to him any given morning as Mancow's sidekick. Crazy what a little (or a lot) of ambition can get you in this world. Love what you do, and do what you love.
We started things out like an ice cream social of sorts; minus the ice cream, plus our new CD. It added up to MAJOR memories being made all over the place. It was quite beautiful to watch all of you pack the place as we grew closer to showtime. We really just wanted to talk to you guys all night... but alas, we are a band, and bands play music. I guess we're not that interesting to talk to anyway. But YOU are!
