After Georgia, the Warped Tour made its way down to Florida for four of the hottest, stickiest days yet on the tour. Our favorite day out of the four was Miami. The venue was right near the downtown region and it was in a really gorgeous park. It started pouring in the middle of the day, but we were fine as we've rain-proofed our tent! It cooled everything off and and after that the weather was great. After the show we walked down to an area called Bayside, and had some delicious Chili's for dinner. We hung out with our friends Johnny from Fearless Records and Ryan from Epitaph Records and shortly after it was time to leave for our next date, Charlotte, NC.
The next few days on the east coast were really fun for us because even though we aren't from that area of the country, it was a good feeling to be back east! We were the closest to home we'd ever been, and thats super comforting when you're gone so long! Alesana is based out of Raleigh, NC and Baltimore, MD so their families came out to visit. It's funny to see where these crazy guys came from...
Leaving the east coast, we headed to the midwest for shows in Ohio and Michigan. For the Cleveland date, our bus driver Jenevieve had some friends come over and set up shop. The bus became a mobile hair salon, tattoo and piercing parlor where the guys and gals from Addicted Body Arts of Parma Heights, OH did some amazing work. We spent the next day in Detroit at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Lions. The stadium was amazing and we got to field-level when we went to take showers inside the underbelly of the stadium! As the first two Canada dates were directly after Detroit, we took a couple hours to pack and organize everything for the trip across the border. The day was really fun, but the best part was that Starbucks set up a tent in catering so we got free iced coffee ALL DAY. It was incredible...it's the little things that count, you know?
xoxo Bank!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Warped Tour. Day 10-13. Dallas, Texas - Atlanta, Georgia
So, remember how I said our day in Kansas City was going normally? Well, it was until Warped Tour fell into the path of a TORNADO. We didn't suffer any physical damage, but it rained harder than I've ever experienced and the wind was insane. Right before it started, we began to pack up our tent because we could see crazy clouds and wanted to get loaded in before the earth melted down...only we didn't get done fast enough!
As soon as we collapsed the tent and eliminated our only shelter, thunder struck and I am not exaggerating when I say that we were soaked completely through instantly. In about five minutes, Warped Tour turned from a functioning festival into a parking lot of chaos. Tents and gear were being blown away, kids were freaking out, running around screaming and the 150 or so vendors stripped everything down to nothing. We all loaded out as fast as our handtrucks would roll and once everyone's merchandise was put away safely, the fun commenced. People were dancing in the rain, showering, and having a great time.
After Kansas City, we hit up Dallas for a sick ampitheater date and then had July 4 off in Austin, TX. A bunch of buses from the tour were in town so we got to see our friends in The Higher play at a cool indoor/outdoor venue called Emo's downtown.Our next day of tour was in San Antonio. Alaska, Nate and the other guys from Tonight Is Glory came to see us and they helped us out yet again behind the booth
After a rain scare, we decided to pack up early and relax for the night. Adam, the stage left guitarist for Alesana entered the Sumo Saturday contest(a weekly sumo tournament with prizes like getting an extra case of water every day for a week or getting to pick your own set time for a week, etc) so we watched him crush in the first round and get cheated out of a round two victory.
We managed to recover and make our way to Houston and after two days off in Memphis, TN, we rejoined the tour of the Atlanta, GA show. We'd never been to Georgia before so it was definitely a cool experience to meet people from a completely new part of the country.
XOXO BANK!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Warped Tour Day 8 & 9. Denver, CO - Bonner Springs, KS
Today, the Bank crew is in Kansas City, KS. It's another ampitheatershow which is good because it usually means real showers, betterlayouts and our guys in Alesana get to play inside the mainstage.Today is also the first day we've has to deal with real amounts of rain so it wil be interesting to see how that plays out...
Aside from the rain though, KC has been completely normal compared to the past couple of days we've had. To start, the drive to Salt Lake City from New Mexico was 16 hours long and we had to do it during the day. All 16 of us crowded into the front lounge and sat through Lethal Weapon 1, Just Friends, and Van Wilder...and after all that we still had three hours to go! By the time we arrived in the city we had time to hit up a Macaroni Grill (where the waitress got starstruck and messed up eveyone's orders) and head back to the bus for bed.
The SLC show went well, especially as the weather was much more agreeable in Utah than New Mexico. The coolest part about the venuewas that it was surrounded by gigantic snow-capped mountains. Eventhough we wre just in a parking lot, the view made us feel like wewere in some remote, majestic landscape.
From SLC we hit up Denver, CO for one of our fun shows to date. The venue was awesome! Everything was set up directly in front of Mile High Stadium! There was lots of grass, shade, and room to move around. A bunch of people had heard of us there, so it was nice to feel a bit of familiarity in a place we had never been before. We had the help of some friends we met on tour last week (Nathan and Alaska of the Texasband Tonight is Glory) and a street teamer named Jono. They passed outstickers, flirted shamelessly and were excellent salesmen. We hope to see them again on the tour!
XOXO BANK!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)