2005/03/27 15:38

I am packed and ready for tour. Later tonight I grab a rental and then around 2am we drive to houston to catch a flight to NY (via Chicago). Off the plane it will stright to the hotel bar to meet up with the rest of the jager crew before the pre-tour diner/party. Tuesday night I'll be onstage at Irving plaza in NYC starting off the tour.

2005/03/28 14:10

It would appear that NYC is in the midst of some cataclysmic storm - or at least that is the airline story as we sit here delayed almost two hours. It looks clear and sunny outside the chicago airport but the weather inside is always the same. I should have brought more reading material

2005/03/30 13:37

In New Hampshire - last night at Irving Plaza went well. There was the usual first day 'hiccups' but I think we are in good shape for the tour.

Last night I scared some DOT workers when I 'killed' a package of peeps in the street in front of the bus. Heh.

Shower time.

2005/04/01 12:59

We are at the Hampton Beach Casino tonight - six years ago this was the first night venue for the godsmack tour I was on (my first true national tour). I'm seeing 'ghosts'.

My focus is out of whack, or I just havent found my rhythm yet - something. Usually on the road I have a very good efficiency and get things done. The last few days I have found myself putting things off for no reason and sometimes just spacing out. Oh well, I'm sure I'll pick it up eventually.

2005/04/02 02:27

Good show and response last night, we got to shine a bit when we suddenly went from doing five minutes before Future Leaders of The World to having to fill time for 13 because of a tech issue.

After the show the submersed crew joined us on the bus for drinks and I hung out with Alter Bridge and got to know everyone a bit better. All in all, a fine night.

I think I may have scrtched my throat at some point though and it feels like the onset of a headcold or such.

2005/04/03 14:03

Our bus is about a quarter block from the venue - no big deal except for the heavy wet snow falling down on us all day. The venue and weather sucked yesterday too, but I'm still happy with how the shows are going.

Our bus generator seems to be fixed now - mmmm, electrical power.

Tommorow we have a day off, but it's in Detroit.

2005/04/04 14:19

Bad weather + good show yields mediocre attendance. We still had a good time and there being no show today meant most everyone joined in the partying.

I had been feeling like I was catching a cold but I woke up today feeling great - guess running around in shorts in a snowstorm and drinking was just what I needed.

2005/04/05 15:14

Asleep at 5am after a few beers and two $20 buy in games of "Carnie Texas Hold'em". Up around 10am to a ringing phone. Back to sleep for another 2 hours then up to unload the bus. Cup of orange juice, sort boxes, bottle of water, hang banners, soda and sandwich, hang posters, find an acceptable toilet, check email on the bus, look for a clean shirt and take a baby wipe shower.

Doors in 2 hours, show in 3 hours.

2005/04/06 13:09

Pontiac, MI. Former church is now a rock venue. No shower, thank you for baby wipes and deodorant. Catering buyout = no dinner. Three shots of jager onstage before the guest opener. Energetic crowd. More shots. Aftershow nightcap with Alter Bridge. Big Lebowski on the in bunk dvd, overnight roll to Davenport, Iowa just short of an overdrive. Day off in nowhere. Shower, laundry, search for food and entertainment.

2005/04/07 14:08

I just lost an entire entry to a fucked up bus generator. I am itching to kick someone in the nuts. We were told it was fixed. Power cutting off every 20 seconds to 15 minutes randomly is NOT fixed.

Being unshowered and picking over the cheese section of a cold cut platter for food doesn't help my mood. $15 of crap from the local saveway is not $50 a head catering. Right now Nebraska is on my shit list, I hope the crowd is at least decent.

2005/04/08 14:50

Well the Nebraska crowd did kick ass and the show was a lot of fun. So, now on my shitlist is Kansas City. The club is subpar but the real problem is the near death experiences. Yes, I almost got killed less than an hour off the bus. The entire area around me is a crime scene. Jimi, Weaver, and myself had to leap -LEAP- out of the way of a car running from the cops as it came screeching into the lot. Guns were drawn, an officer dove into the open drivers side window and the car ultimately crashed head on into Alter Bridge's bus. Lovely morning.

 2005/04/09 16:06

Whether it was despite or to make up for us almost getting killed, Kansas City packed the club for us last night and returned our energy with gratitude. After nearly being run over the rest of the day did seem a bit mundane though. At 2am we rolled for Denver and we sit here now enjoying our bus, the nearby Ramada, and a day off before playing the Fillmore tommorow. I am thinking of doing the gavage, the crowds on this tour react very strongly to the stunts and it will almost certainly be too much for some of them.

2005/04/09 22:54

Snow in Colorado?! Heheheh. There is talk of a snow day tommorow if it falls as forecast.

2005/04/10 11:17

Snow day confirmed. Denver show is cancelled. We are going to roll for Anaheim and try to clear the blizzard to the south.

2005/04/10 14:28

Blizzard update:

We are still in Denver, it sucks major ass outside the bus, we're hostage to the road closures till later tonight.

2005/04/11 02:19

We are now on hourly road watch to see if we can get out of Colorado.

2005/04/11 15:15

We finally got out of Denver around 6am. It looks like we'll be on the bus rolling all day. Joy.

 2005/04/13 16:41

Yesterday could have sucked. I don't care for House of Blues much (with the notable exception of the one in Las Vegas which kicks ass), I don't like Disney (which is where this HOB was), and the crowds in Anaheim can be very low energy. So, I was very happy when the crowd was good and the evening enhanced by a visit from Mr & Mrs Kerry Fucking King. Needless to say there was lots of drinking on the bus - I don't know what we were looking for but if it was at the bottom of a bottle of Jager we would have found it. In Scottsdale today, then tommorow we have a short day off in San Antonio - which means Meghan should get to visit me.

 2005/04/15 01:26

Scottsdale went well, solid crowd, good show - got some time cut due to changeover difficulties but no big deal really. Some local promoter idiot found his way onstage without permission and fucked up a little bit of our night but in the end it was a minor bump if anything. We rolled at 1am for San Antonio and got in around 9pm. Meghan drove down to see me, so I got some fun and my mail. My internet access has been sporadic (poor signal in the west texas deserts) or limited by time so I am enjoying the hotel wireless right now.

2005/04/16 18:55

If you're gonna get stuck in a rut, I guess good shows are the rut to shoot for. Everything yesterday seemed like just business as usual, autopilot, etc. The crowd could have been bigger but the response was still strong. We're in Lafayette today. I hit a mall for pizza and a pretzel, also grabbed a dvd for Meghan. I got a little mobbed by people around the food court but not too bad. Its nice to know you still draw.

2005/04/17 14:33

We have some add on bands for tonights show - Theory of a dead man and no address, so its a six band show. Not much of note otherwise. I need to do laundry (first, probably last, time since the start - thats well planned packing). Its Allen Falkner's birthday, wish him well - you probably owe him on some level for something if you are involved with BME and IAM. I know I do.

2005/04/18 17:01

Did laundry, got some lunch at Pizza Hut, now I am getting some correspondence and other general stuff done. Last night's show was fun, adding no address and theory of a dead man made for a nice change of pace.

2005/04/18 17:03

I tour the US twice a year. I have travelled and performed on four continents. I work in a fringe industry and keep some rather unusual company. And yet, I still know I have seen very little of what the world has to offer. So, it strikes me as at least a little incongruent when I hear a early to mid twenties lunch waitress at Pizza Hut in Lafayette say:

"I thought I'd seen it all."

Just how small must her conception of the world be? I grew up in a very rural small town region of upstate NY and despite being there for years and visiting since leaving I know I haven't even seen all it has to offer but somehow she had reached a point where she thought she had seen everything in the world. I know this sounds trite but the world is only ever as small as your mind. If you are under the delusion that you have seen it all or that you can't be surprised or awed due to your extensive world knowledge then you are really only living with your head in the sand like a cartoon ostrich. Open your mind and your eyes to a good time and go exploring.

2005/04/19 14:46

Today's venue is small. In fact, small is too big a word for it. On the bright side though, Baton Rouge is nice enough and though tiny the place does seem pretty decent otherwise. Its clean sheets day for the bus bunks too!

Yeah, I just really don't have much to write about today.

2005/04/20 14:26

Judging by my experience thus far today, Jackson, Mississippi is home to people who think their job is to make more work for you when you are trying to do your job. It is also home to a starbucks that can't take an order properly. Tonight's theme shall be drunk and disagreeable I think...

2005/04/21 13:58

Can't say my opinion of Mississippi has improved much. Despite having a good show I witnessed pretty much everything I find deplorable in human beings several times over. Sure, there were good points too but overall I am not at all sad to be gone from there. In Georgia now, tommorow is a day off and we head back to Texas - Houston, specifically. I am very dirty. Our bus generator is screwed up again, but should be fixed tommorow with a simple parts switch.

2005/04/22 16:27

Its good to step back and evaluate yourself on a regular basis, to ask if you've still got it (or ever had it to begin with). Last night I got a good indication that my edge is still holding when a few people lost consciousness during my stunts. The funny thing being I wasn't even going for it that much. There are ways to manipulate the presentation and increase the "overload effect" on the audience but I have been playing up the humor more and just having fun with the crowds - with great success too. Even so though, the fainting was a reminder that its still a strong effect to watch someone "skullfuck themself with a power drill".

Day off in Houston today, we are at Woodlands resort and conference center - guess how happy they are to have a fully tattooed freak walking around the pool bar. Not that their happiness is much of a concern of mine.

2005/04/23 03:27

Tour bus insomnia. Laying in my bunk, surrounded by snoring, waiting for an early morning load in.

2005/04/26 12:39

We arrived in Greenville, SC to find that the local reps had more or less done our setup work for the day. Thats nice enough, but often when people try to do my work for me it makes more work for me fixing things - not a big deal. They also brought a bunch of food, so the rest of the crew is incredibly happy. Of course, since I don't eat any of the food they brought it doesn't do me much good. So, I still had some work to do and I don't get to eat anything. My real problem though, is that the rocket scientists can't figure out why I'm not doing a big happy dance with them.

Let's see how the rest of it goes.

2005/04/28 12:34

This is a tour of collisions.

As noted previously, the Alter Bridge bus was hit in Kansas City. Yesterday, both our bus and the Jager RV were hit while parked but both were minor. Two days ago in Greenville I hit my head on a wall and by most accounts (including my own) probably had a mild concussion - not my first. My outermost horn over my left eye is still a bit scabbed and irritated from the hit which happened due to a jacket hood blocking my peripheral vision as I tried to quickly negotiate a tight turn backstage. Despite the trauma, I am feeling much better and back in a groove of sorts. The audience response has always been good but now I am having fun again too.

We are in Biloxi with the day off today. Scott is gone for his sister's wedding to our friend Fred and Fran is off for some other project. It's just Jimi, Weaver, Russ, and myself left to wreak havoc on the hotel and casino.

2005/04/29 15:39

The jager RV got hit again - while parked, this time it was damaged but they still got to Biloxi ok. Today we get more guest bands (Xies and Silvertide) and lose Future Leaders of the World for the day. Only two more shows to go. Interesting thing about this venue (coast coliseum) they use a prison work gang for stage hands.

2005/04/30 03:13

Yesterday was TJ's (submersed guitar) birthday. We got after him a bit with shots of jager but not too bad. I don't know how he ended up though. Weaver filled in for Scott helping me out onstage, everything went pretty well. There were some tech difiiculties with getting the Xies onstage but it all worked out and none of it was on our end. Our main amusement was Jimi downing a whole bag of crawfish - still no explanation as to why beyond that they were there.
Today is another day at the Casino. It poured rain all morning and is still a bit nasty out. Russ and I hit the buffet, food was decent and I got mobbed briefly by staff who recognized me from tv. I'm going to try and get some work done out on the bus since we have two more days off before we close the tour with two shows in a row.

 2005/05/01 14:10

Get Fuzzy kicks ass, to wit:

"...I'm superstitious"
"What was that? You're super stupid?"

I am fairly selective these days about my media diet. Get Fuzzy is one of three comics I read on a daily basis - compared to when I would read every strip I saw, even crap like the lockhorns, whenever available. I like the humor and it references both rugby and ferrets on a regular basis.

Looks like sitting around the bus again today, there is nothing nearby worth the walk beyond the casino & hotel - I know, I hiked in all directions of the last few days. Savor the irony, people are constantly trying to get onto tour buses, even if just for a peek, and I am simply trying to get off mine for a few good hours. That said, I still love the damn thing. The coach is as close as I come to a cathedral. It's better than a cathedral actually. It is a home with many practical advantages, it fulfills basic needs, and it symbolizes so much of what I love and hold dear of my work and career. The bus is to me as the ship is to the sailor.

2005/05/02 14:08

Last day off. We roll at midnight for Chattanooga, TN. Two show days in a row and then homeward bound. I should be home at a reasonable time on the 5th.

I've had casino access for five days and not gambled at all. I wasn't intentionally avoiding it, I just never felt it. Though I never had an issue with it in the past either. I enjoy gambling but more as a social activity than anything else. The low stakes games on the bus are the draw. Weaver has decided he isn't gambling anymore after a bad first night. Jimi has been playing like crazy and is still about even - though his time on with ups and downs earned enough comps for him to treat us all to the buffet. All hail the grand carnie!

2005/05/03 16:34

Welcome to Chatanooga: Our 'venue' is an old steel factory or something similiar. There are abandoned buildings around us and literally a pile of shit (compost) in the parking lot. Woo hoo.

 2005/05/05 14:22

I'm back home in Austin, have been for a couple hours.

A recap of our last show:

We hit Little Rock in good spirits after a night of focused drinking after the Chattanooga show - sake, jager, & beer powered a discussion of future plans in the back lounge of the bus as it started to roll. Not surprisingly, there were some lingering after effects when we arrived in Little Rock. Weaver and Jimi both felt a little hung over but it was the last day and an easy one at that so no problem. Well, no problem other than boredom and mischief. We started to play baseball with random objects and a shovel in the parking lot - then we just started throwing things that might explode for our amusement - like beer and soda cans. After that satiated our needs for awhile we began to focus on pranks. The last day of any tour is prank day. We had previously arranged and this night executed a customization of future leaders 'short bus' by adding a stop sign and message sign on the door. Fresh off that success we quickly found a camera and printer from the Jager RV crew and went after Submersed with series of prank photos that were delivered afterwards via a fedex pack. The Alter Bridge band and crew witneseed all this and began to wonder what we had in store for them. Sadly, we were lost for a good plan and instead just let them think something was done - they are probably still looking for it and I guess that will pass as the prank. After we closed the show there was the barrage of goodbye shots and photos. It was also Jimi's birthday or Jimi de mayo as we came to call it at midnight. There was cake and revelry for that as well. We rolled at 1am and dropped off Jimi and Russ at the hotel for their flight the next morning. Scott, Weaver, and myself rode the bus for the night. Scott and I got dropped off in Austin this morning and Weaver is riding back to San Diego.