Here is my tour Diary. It sucks cuz my brain has turned to mussssssh.
----------September 8, 2004----------
Im sitting in an easy 8 motel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Watching Misery on TNT. Today is Wednesday. Weve been on the road since Sunday afternoon. But it feels like forever.
We traveled Sunday night ending up at Dinos house. We got a good nights rest and took our time Monday getting to the Hacienda for the first show. The venue was in the downstairs of a building in Los Angeles. Very red and very mexican disco. We got there around 2:30, a couple of hours early, before the show even started. All Shall Perish went on around 9:30 or 10pm. The response they got was really good. Everyone was rocking out and having a great time. We sold a fair amount of merch and stayed until about 3am to see the other bands play.
From the venue we stopped back by Dinos before heading out to Arizona. We drove all night and got to Arizona around 11am on Tuesday. The boys went to stay at a friends house in Tempe. Ben and I got picked up by his Uncle who also lives in Tempe. It was great finally meeting his uncle. He is so much like his mom that it is scary. His house was really cool. Tons of paintings that he has done on his walls. He let us do our own thing while he got errands done and took his dog to the dog park. Majority of our time we spent sleeping, then going to eat at Chilis. And then sleeping some more.
We got to the venue in Tempe around 7pm. The set up was a bit odd. I guess it is the law in Arizona that people under 21 are not allowed in the same space as over 21 people with alcoholic drinks. So there was this big fence dividing the area in front of the stage and the bar. The area wasnt very big though, so I felt a bit squished behind my merch table. There were 4 local bands to play before any of the touring bands started. The crowd reaction to the touring band was good considering it was a Tuesday night. We packed up while the last bands were playing and headed out on the road. At 12:30am starting a 14+ hour drive to Colorado.
I had a horrible time sleeping in the van. I am such a light sleeper than any shift or swerve will wake me. Plus I am a total worry wart and am SO scared of crashing! I watched the sun come up over New Mexico. I took pictures but they did not do the sunrise any justice. It felt as though we had driven for 4 days. Mike started driving at 8:30am, I took shot gun and managed to get a bit of sleep off and on. Finally around 2pm we got a call telling us that the show tonight in Denver was cancelled! Luckily the show the next day was in Colorado Springs. So rather than driving all the way to Denver, we stopped here in Colorado Springs and are now in our motel room. CHILLIN.
----------September 15th 2004----------
I am home now, how is that for procrastinating???
When i left off i was in Colorado at an Easy 8 Motel. The next morning we checked out of our motel and headed out to find the Venue. We found it and basically hung out in the parking lot the rest of the day (about 7 hours) waiting until show time. We went bowling, played frisbee, drank alot of sode. Animosity, Crematorium and Vehemence showed up and were all entertaining as always.
Around 5:30 it started to become clear the venue was never going to open. The show promoter just didn't show up. Some locals informed us that he was at a funeral. We stuck around until about 7pm. No kids ever showed up, so we came the the conclusion that the show was never even promoted. This is the point at which the tour was officially named "The 900 mile D-tour".
A couple of phone calls later, Matt had gotten ASP on the Murderfest preshow. Which was the next night in Houston Texas, which meant that our "day off" was no longer a day off, but rather a mad dash to Murderfest.
We drove over night nearly 24 hours through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and most of Texas, arriving to the venue around....I dont even know what time! ASP played a great set, we sold some merch and hung out. It was a really chill night. From the venue we walked about 1/2 mile to a motel that our friends band was staying at. This motel had hourly rates! and sold condoms in the lobby! haha. Can someone say trashy? I hung out in the room while ben went to look for food. He came back up to the room declaring that it was "unsafe out there". He had been called a "cracker" and asked "Where the ho's at"? Also was approached by bums smelling of spray paint. Lovely.
The next day we arrived at Murderfest around 12. We met a lot of people who we had been in contact with over the internet, that was fun. Our friends from the band Suffokate played. ASP had another great set. I took tons of pictures that night of all kinds of bands. Dying Fetus who was headlining that night went on VERY late. We all wanted to stay to see them, but in all honesty by the time they went on I was dead.
Financially the Murderfest did not go as planned. The promoter had heart attact on friday and was not even there on Saturday. Many bands did not get paid and the second day was actually cancelled. That is in the past now, i just hope that the promoter learned to not bite off more than he can chew.
After Dying Fetus played everyone was hanging out in the back parking lot. Saying good byes and good lucks and heading out in a hundred different directions, continuing on various tours or heading home. Just as things were winding down, this truck come barraling out of no where and crashes! The driver was very drunk and stumbled out of his car. Luckily he crashed away from all the people and not INTO us.
We left shortly there after for the longest drive yet, Houston Texas to San Clemente California. We left houston around 2am Sunday and arrived in San Clemente at 4:27am monday. We were to stay at Trevor's house. His mother was waiting for us, with blankets and foam pads. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the floor.
the next day we went for pizza and then back to Trevor's. The show that night was at Chain Reaction, but Trevor had found another show about 30 minutes away in Cornona at the Showcase. A couple of speedy phone calls and ASP is booked on both shows.
The Chain Reaction show went great. Wonderfully recieved. We had to book out of there quick like with all the merch and people were stopping me to buy stuff as i moved through the club.
We raced down the highway toward the Showcase. We got there just as the last band was unloading. We opened the van door as we drove by telling people not to leave. We park and a bunch of people come help us unload. The set was incredible. People were super excited to see All Shall Perish play. One kid told us that there would have been at least 100 more people there if they had known about it sooner. We didn't even know about it sooner! haha. That night by far was the best night of the tour. So much energy and love from everyone around. Kind of ironic considering that when we left the Bay Area a week earlier, niether of those shows had been booked yet.
I know i am probably leaving a ton of stuff out. You should read Ben's tour journal when he posts it.
In summary, the tour was long and tiring, but we had a great time. There were some set backs it really made you realize that it is all in the company you keep. So we drove 900 miles out of the way, we had fun, laughed a hell of a lot and had great weather in Colorado. We met some great people. Dan from Crematorium makes me smile. Everyone one from Vehemence and crematorium were just super nice to be around. Navine and Sean from Animosity are hottie Mchotpants and getting to look at them while sitting in a parking lot all day isn't so bad. Seeing Misery Index was great. Such nice nice nice guys, including thier merch man, who was a lovable loud mouth. I saw some amazing sunrises and even though i was in a van with 6 boys, I watched those sunrises alone and felt at peace.
From here things could only get better. And they already are. Many exciting announcements coming. So stay tuned.
----------September 8, 2004----------
Im sitting in an easy 8 motel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Watching Misery on TNT. Today is Wednesday. Weve been on the road since Sunday afternoon. But it feels like forever.
We traveled Sunday night ending up at Dinos house. We got a good nights rest and took our time Monday getting to the Hacienda for the first show. The venue was in the downstairs of a building in Los Angeles. Very red and very mexican disco. We got there around 2:30, a couple of hours early, before the show even started. All Shall Perish went on around 9:30 or 10pm. The response they got was really good. Everyone was rocking out and having a great time. We sold a fair amount of merch and stayed until about 3am to see the other bands play.
From the venue we stopped back by Dinos before heading out to Arizona. We drove all night and got to Arizona around 11am on Tuesday. The boys went to stay at a friends house in Tempe. Ben and I got picked up by his Uncle who also lives in Tempe. It was great finally meeting his uncle. He is so much like his mom that it is scary. His house was really cool. Tons of paintings that he has done on his walls. He let us do our own thing while he got errands done and took his dog to the dog park. Majority of our time we spent sleeping, then going to eat at Chilis. And then sleeping some more.
We got to the venue in Tempe around 7pm. The set up was a bit odd. I guess it is the law in Arizona that people under 21 are not allowed in the same space as over 21 people with alcoholic drinks. So there was this big fence dividing the area in front of the stage and the bar. The area wasnt very big though, so I felt a bit squished behind my merch table. There were 4 local bands to play before any of the touring bands started. The crowd reaction to the touring band was good considering it was a Tuesday night. We packed up while the last bands were playing and headed out on the road. At 12:30am starting a 14+ hour drive to Colorado.
I had a horrible time sleeping in the van. I am such a light sleeper than any shift or swerve will wake me. Plus I am a total worry wart and am SO scared of crashing! I watched the sun come up over New Mexico. I took pictures but they did not do the sunrise any justice. It felt as though we had driven for 4 days. Mike started driving at 8:30am, I took shot gun and managed to get a bit of sleep off and on. Finally around 2pm we got a call telling us that the show tonight in Denver was cancelled! Luckily the show the next day was in Colorado Springs. So rather than driving all the way to Denver, we stopped here in Colorado Springs and are now in our motel room. CHILLIN.
----------September 15th 2004----------
I am home now, how is that for procrastinating???
When i left off i was in Colorado at an Easy 8 Motel. The next morning we checked out of our motel and headed out to find the Venue. We found it and basically hung out in the parking lot the rest of the day (about 7 hours) waiting until show time. We went bowling, played frisbee, drank alot of sode. Animosity, Crematorium and Vehemence showed up and were all entertaining as always.
Around 5:30 it started to become clear the venue was never going to open. The show promoter just didn't show up. Some locals informed us that he was at a funeral. We stuck around until about 7pm. No kids ever showed up, so we came the the conclusion that the show was never even promoted. This is the point at which the tour was officially named "The 900 mile D-tour".
A couple of phone calls later, Matt had gotten ASP on the Murderfest preshow. Which was the next night in Houston Texas, which meant that our "day off" was no longer a day off, but rather a mad dash to Murderfest.
We drove over night nearly 24 hours through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and most of Texas, arriving to the venue around....I dont even know what time! ASP played a great set, we sold some merch and hung out. It was a really chill night. From the venue we walked about 1/2 mile to a motel that our friends band was staying at. This motel had hourly rates! and sold condoms in the lobby! haha. Can someone say trashy? I hung out in the room while ben went to look for food. He came back up to the room declaring that it was "unsafe out there". He had been called a "cracker" and asked "Where the ho's at"? Also was approached by bums smelling of spray paint. Lovely.
The next day we arrived at Murderfest around 12. We met a lot of people who we had been in contact with over the internet, that was fun. Our friends from the band Suffokate played. ASP had another great set. I took tons of pictures that night of all kinds of bands. Dying Fetus who was headlining that night went on VERY late. We all wanted to stay to see them, but in all honesty by the time they went on I was dead.
Financially the Murderfest did not go as planned. The promoter had heart attact on friday and was not even there on Saturday. Many bands did not get paid and the second day was actually cancelled. That is in the past now, i just hope that the promoter learned to not bite off more than he can chew.
After Dying Fetus played everyone was hanging out in the back parking lot. Saying good byes and good lucks and heading out in a hundred different directions, continuing on various tours or heading home. Just as things were winding down, this truck come barraling out of no where and crashes! The driver was very drunk and stumbled out of his car. Luckily he crashed away from all the people and not INTO us.
We left shortly there after for the longest drive yet, Houston Texas to San Clemente California. We left houston around 2am Sunday and arrived in San Clemente at 4:27am monday. We were to stay at Trevor's house. His mother was waiting for us, with blankets and foam pads. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the floor.
the next day we went for pizza and then back to Trevor's. The show that night was at Chain Reaction, but Trevor had found another show about 30 minutes away in Cornona at the Showcase. A couple of speedy phone calls and ASP is booked on both shows.
The Chain Reaction show went great. Wonderfully recieved. We had to book out of there quick like with all the merch and people were stopping me to buy stuff as i moved through the club.
We raced down the highway toward the Showcase. We got there just as the last band was unloading. We opened the van door as we drove by telling people not to leave. We park and a bunch of people come help us unload. The set was incredible. People were super excited to see All Shall Perish play. One kid told us that there would have been at least 100 more people there if they had known about it sooner. We didn't even know about it sooner! haha. That night by far was the best night of the tour. So much energy and love from everyone around. Kind of ironic considering that when we left the Bay Area a week earlier, niether of those shows had been booked yet.
I know i am probably leaving a ton of stuff out. You should read Ben's tour journal when he posts it.
In summary, the tour was long and tiring, but we had a great time. There were some set backs it really made you realize that it is all in the company you keep. So we drove 900 miles out of the way, we had fun, laughed a hell of a lot and had great weather in Colorado. We met some great people. Dan from Crematorium makes me smile. Everyone one from Vehemence and crematorium were just super nice to be around. Navine and Sean from Animosity are hottie Mchotpants and getting to look at them while sitting in a parking lot all day isn't so bad. Seeing Misery Index was great. Such nice nice nice guys, including thier merch man, who was a lovable loud mouth. I saw some amazing sunrises and even though i was in a van with 6 boys, I watched those sunrises alone and felt at peace.
From here things could only get better. And they already are. Many exciting announcements coming. So stay tuned.