I'm sitting inside the venue in Houston. The boys are playing a live set on the air in front of tons of people who have never even heard of them before... and everyone's LOVING them. Bob @ Dan Electro's said people are calling asking about their show tonight. The radio host said everyone's calling their kids and telling them to tune into this band right now. There's people dancing. One guy walked up and said their stage presence is incredible. And to top all of that off, the boys sound great and the looks of joy on their faces is so classic.
This makes a lot of it worth it. I know my boys are going good places. Like my dad said, rock n roll is gonna be alright. And it makes the van trouble today seem meaningless (had to get a new water pump... $326... there goes food haha).
Yay.
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The more you do this, the more you really confirm the notion of tour managing as a highly paid, non-conventional form of babysitting. I mean at various times over the years I've always felt this way, but it really clicked in my head a few months ago when a friend of mine was calling me from the road. It was a simple statement of buying a "new toy" for the band so they'd leave him be for awhile that just made it snap more clearly. And that's precisely what I did.
You see on the last tour, by some fluke accident, the boys got into a little TV show known as Lost. Mostly because I had Season One with me (by accident) and the boys had already watched everything else in the van several times over. Getting into Lost really helped killed time in the van for everyone and not only that -- but also killed time anywhere we had an extra few minutes to pop an episode in. Ha!
Well since this isn't Spaceballs and we can't magically pick up a copy of the rest of Season Three... the boys needed something new for the van rides. Besides singing Disney in dutch (you'd be shocked at how awesome the Little Mermaid sounds tho). So I had my friend Casey take me to Best Buy while we were in Austin and I bought Season 1 of Criminal Minds and Entourage. We shall see if these can top Lost.
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After running out of gas and driving all night, we made it to San Antonio. My friend Melita, who I hadn't seen in forever, let us come over to her house during the afternoon to kill time before the show. FINALLY, SLEEP!!! But only for about three hours before we had to go load-in. We were worried about this venue, initially. None of my SA friends had heard of it and the outside looked like a hip hop nightclub. But to our surprise the place was HUGE and the stage was incredible. The boys were so excited to play on it. The show went well, got some cool photos (posted below). Just wish there had been a few more people to fill out the place. Would've helped the sound quality too. There's nothing like the echo of sound in a huge cement place when close to no one is inside the venue to soak it up.
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So I decided I was going to keep a tour blog going for this tour. I started on my myspace and I'm lazy to copy and paste the first two here... so I'll just start with DAY THREE on here.
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The Albuquerque show went well, much better than expected actually and the club was really cool. Just wish it wasn't snowing so hard.
The next morning we were running late and pulled one of those barely making it to the club on time drives. But we made it to Odessa and the first three songs of the boys set made everything worth it. Why? Because all the drunken cowgirls jumped onstage with the boys and danced their asses off with the boys. I wish I could've framed their facial expressions of how much they were enjoying that. More so, I wish I could've framed the faces of all those same girls jealous boyfriends!!! haha.
Then it was time to start our all night drive to San Antonio. Hay & Me took the driving shift because we always do really well keeping each other engaged and awake on drives. We love to talk to each other though and especially seem to dig those "deep" conversations. Anyway...
So we're leaving Odessa and I asked Hay if we should get gas while we have the chance. He seemed confident we could make it a hour and we'll just hit something on the way. Well, I should've gone with my gut instinct (and I-10 recollection) on the gas station situation... because we ended up running out of gas 12 miles outside of Ozona, TX. Which is basically in the middle of nothingness. More importantly, desert. Ha!
After a phone call to Texas Roadside Assistance and an one hour waiting game for the deputy to show up, we were helped! Two gallons of gas were brought to us and we made it to the next gas station to fill up.
Don't worry, we did film a lot it. There will be a video soon, I'm sure.
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Mama Schwartzy / Blog
Day Six: BAND AID Van Gunn - Houston
I'm sitting inside the venue in Houston. The boys are playing a live set on the air in front of tons of people who have never even heard of them before... and everyone's LOVING them. Bob @ Dan Electro's said people are calling asking about their show tonight. The radio host said everyone's calling their kids and telling them to tune into this band right now. There's people dancing. One guy walked up and said their stage presence is incredible. And to top all of that off, the boys sound great and the looks of joy on their faces is so classic.
This makes a lot of it worth it. I know my boys are going good places. Like my dad said, rock n roll is gonna be alright. And it makes the van trouble today seem meaningless (had to get a new water pump... $326... there goes food haha).
Yay.
Reply
Day Five: Babysitting
The more you do this, the more you really confirm the notion of tour managing as a highly paid, non-conventional form of babysitting. I mean at various times over the years I've always felt this way, but it really clicked in my head a few months ago when a friend of mine was calling me from the road. It was a simple statement of buying a "new toy" for the band so they'd leave him be for awhile that just made it snap more clearly. And that's precisely what I did.
You see on the last tour, by some fluke accident, the boys got into a little TV show known as Lost. Mostly because I had Season One with me (by accident) and the boys had already watched everything else in the van several times over. Getting into Lost really helped killed time in the van for everyone and not only that -- but also killed time anywhere we had an extra few minutes to pop an episode in. Ha!
Well since this isn't Spaceballs and we can't magically pick up a copy of the rest of Season Three... the boys needed something new for the van rides. Besides singing Disney in dutch (you'd be shocked at how awesome the Little Mermaid sounds tho). So I had my friend Casey take me to Best Buy while we were in Austin and I bought Season 1 of Criminal Minds and Entourage. We shall see if these can top Lost.
Reply
Day Four: No Sleep Til Brooklyn
After running out of gas and driving all night, we made it to San Antonio. My friend Melita, who I hadn't seen in forever, let us come over to her house during the afternoon to kill time before the show. FINALLY, SLEEP!!! But only for about three hours before we had to go load-in. We were worried about this venue, initially. None of my SA friends had heard of it and the outside looked like a hip hop nightclub. But to our surprise the place was HUGE and the stage was incredible. The boys were so excited to play on it. The show went well, got some cool photos (posted below). Just wish there had been a few more people to fill out the place. Would've helped the sound quality too. There's nothing like the echo of sound in a huge cement place when close to no one is inside the venue to soak it up.
Reply
Day Three: Middle of Nowhere, Texas
So I decided I was going to keep a tour blog going for this tour. I started on my myspace and I'm lazy to copy and paste the first two here... so I'll just start with DAY THREE on here. ---------- The Albuquerque show went well, much better than expected actually and the club was really cool. Just wish it wasn't snowing so hard.
The next morning we were running late and pulled one of those barely making it to the club on time drives. But we made it to Odessa and the first three songs of the boys set made everything worth it. Why? Because all the drunken cowgirls jumped onstage with the boys and danced their asses off with the boys. I wish I could've framed their facial expressions of how much they were enjoying that. More so, I wish I could've framed the faces of all those same girls jealous boyfriends!!! haha.
Then it was time to start our all night drive to San Antonio. Hay & Me took the driving shift because we always do really well keeping each other engaged and awake on drives. We love to talk to each other though and especially seem to dig those "deep" conversations. Anyway...
So we're leaving Odessa and I asked Hay if we should get gas while we have the chance. He seemed confident we could make it a hour and we'll just hit something on the way. Well, I should've gone with my gut instinct (and I-10 recollection) on the gas station situation... because we ended up running out of gas 12 miles outside of Ozona, TX. Which is basically in the middle of nothingness. More importantly, desert. Ha!
After a phone call to Texas Roadside Assistance and an one hour waiting game for the deputy to show up, we were helped! Two gallons of gas were brought to us and we made it to the next gas station to fill up.
Don't worry, we did film a lot it. There will be a video soon, I'm sure.
Reply