New Orleans is a Spooky Place

After our last show with Psychostick we ended up at a truck stop.  I took my first ever truck stop shower!  It felt sooooooo good!  For those of you who have never had a truck stop shower, don’t worry, you get the Snork, behind the scenes tour.

Each shower is kind of like a small, motel bathroom, set up in a long closet. It’s divided into 3 sections, the first area has a sink, the second a toilet, and the third is the actual shower. They provide you with a towel, a wash cloth (Kim let me borrow one of hers because she said the truck stop ones can be super detergent-y), and a bathmat.  There’s also soap in the shower in a little dispenser like hand soap in a bathroom. I brought my own shower stuff in though.

Toilet and Shower from the Sink area

Sink from the shower

Snork and Grumpy Cat aaaaaall clean!

Grumpy Cat got sprayed down with some of Kim’s alcohol & tea tree oil spray, then sat on the counter while I showered to steam clean. Now Grumpy Cat and I are all clean smelling :) At least until the next small, super smokey club :(

Next, it was off to NEW ORLEANS!!! And a day off!  We got the ok to park in the lot of the venue we were playing at the next night and went exploring down the road. Sadly all of the cool antique and clothing stores had already closed for the night.  We did have some epic N’awlin food at a place called Jacques Imos. 

Praying Mantis and Barbie on the side of a building

Walking back we passed one of those “Free Library” boxes, which was cool.  There was also a sewing studio with a Tardis inside.  On a related note, one of the coffee shops Kim and I stopped into the next day had “Bad Wolf” on their sandwich board outside and a Dr Who companions chart inside.

Giant pipe/dead body chute. Kimberly for scale.

That night we headed down to the French quarter. Despite being stuffed, we managed to eat some beignets and coffee.

White powder everywhere!

Afterwards we stopped into one of Jr’s favorite jazz bars, Fritzel's. We listened to a set there, then wandered down Bourbon Street. Bourbon street at night is a constant, overwhelming barrage of neon lights, loud music coming out of clubs, bars, alcohol to go booths, and gift shops selling the exact same things. It can be a lot to try to take in. Even though the shops are super touristy, I managed to spend too much money. Shops full of tutus, rainbow colored tops, masks and other fun stuff is dangerous for a Snork. 

The next morning Damian got up early and headed to a coffee shop to work while the rest of us drove to the post office.  They’ve had a few orders since heading out on tour, one of which was for an upcoming birthday. Quick note to all fans, though those that need to know this probably aren’t the ones that will read it.  Kim is the one that fulfills all the orders.  When you order something, she grabs what you want, packages it up, usually throws in a few personalized goodies, and mails it herself.  Unlike a lot of bands, there’s not an outside source doing it. She put a disclaimer on the site that says it can take a month for delivery. But once in a while, like this tour, someone doesn’t understand that, and orders something with a little message about how they need it soon.  Kim never wants to disappoint anyone, so we cross our fingers that we’re not sold out, scramble to find it in the trailer, try to find a post office that’s open on our schedule (which is the hardest part), and mail things out. Please keep that in mind.

Anyways... After our post office run, we got back to the venue to see that Josh was there!  Josh has been our VIP so many times this tour and in previous tours, and he’s going to be our VIP from now on until Austin!  There were also a couple of other fans there already.  Unfortunately for them, Kim and I really wanted to check out those shops that were closed the day before, so we ditched all of them and went back down the road. Kim is a terrible influence on me, and I spent way too much money again. Kim got a few things too. Most of what we got was from GLUE Clothing Exchange (they’re also on facebook). They were super nice and had some really cool stuff.

We also found some REALLY awesome dresses at a place called Retro Active One was a vintage cream colored dress that Kim really liked, but it cost $250. Another, that I really liked, was a red and black stripped dress that I think was from the 80’s. It was in the same price range. We met back up with Jr, and I asked him if I was really the boss and got whatever I wanted (which he’s always telling me) and he said yes.  So I told him Kim and I needed several hundred dollars for dresses.  He said that was ok.  Unfortunately, it was a bit after 6 by then, and the store closed at 6 :(  Boooooo! :( Plus, other than the cream dress Kim really liked, I don’t know if we really could have rationalized spending that much on those dresses.  There was SO much awesome stuff there though.

Right when we had gotten back to the venue the first time, it did this weird raining even though it was super sunny out, thing. Luckily it held off the entire time we were out, and I think for the rest of the night. Unfortunately Kim and I spent so much time shopping that we got back to the venue a bit late, and I was still setting up when doors opened.  It’s awkward setting up with everyone sitting around watching you and waiting to buy stuff.  I really don’t want to start selling until I have everything out because I want people to know everything we have.  Say you only have $20 and you buy a shirt, because that’s all I have up.  But for $20 you could have gotten a CD, patch AND poster, which you didn’t know I had yet. So in the future, if I seem like I’m being rude and ignoring you, just know that I’m frantically trying to get set up so that I can fully serve all your merch needs :)

Once again, this show was supposed to be all ages, but apparently they changed it or there was some sort of miscommunication. Some fans came to buy shirts and mentioned their 16 year old sister was there, but the bar wouldn’t let her in, so they were wondering if Kim could come out to the car and say Hi to her. That didn’t seem good enough, so I flagged down Jr and explained the situation to him.  He gave the 16yo a badge, talked to the promoter, and they let her come in as long as she hung out by the merch table.  So everyone got to enjoy the show! :D YAY!!!

Now that Psychostick is gone, it’s back to headlining!  We’re not done with equipment malfunctions though :( Kim had a string break in the middle of a song.

Professional Dance instructors. I have a video of their signature moves,
but stopped recording before Kim did the sprinkler :(

The audience was also out of tune, so Kim let them tune up while she tuned her guitar. She taught them how to remember what note they’re tuning the strings to by using Every (though she was tuning to drop D so it’s Devery) American Digs Ganga But Elvis. Or, as Damian learned, Every (Devery) Acid Dealer Gets  Busted Eventually.

Kim played Battle On this show and she actually stopped in the middle of the song because the audience wasn’t battling, as she had instructed them to do.  They seemed to do it for a bit, but then kind of petered out, so Vaughn got into the audience and started shoving people around.

Klaus showed up again!!!

Klaus stung me in this finger!

After Vaughn fixed her hat

I’ve also had another first.  I’ve now heard Kim preform her a cappella song “New Orleans” at the VIP acoustic shows on this tour, but that night, for the first time, I saw her perform it on stage.  She set her guitar down, took the mic off the stand, and sang it.  I had been proof reading the last blog during their set (well, trying too, the show was too much fun and I kept getting distracted), but as soon as she set the guitar down I shut my computer and sat and listened. It was awesome.  Kim is a truly talented singer. I think I forgot to mention in the last blog, but our VIP Jackson in Jacksonville, FL had asked Kim if she was classically trained.  She’s actually not trained at all, just insanely talented apparently.

At the end of the set, Kim was doing her whole “I’ve been deceiving you, I’m not who you think I am” bit, and someone yelled “Obama!” She started cracking up and ended up going off on this whole bit about not being Obama, and her whole performance was her Obama impression, etc. :)

After the show, after the fans left (except for our only VIP, Josh) the guys from the venue brought us food! They had cooked some jambalaya, made these little slider things with pork belly or something on them, and threw together a salad.  I obviously only had salad, but it was good and very much appreciated.  When one of the guys found out I was a vegetarian he grabbed some bread and jam for me :)  Josh got the super special-hang out and eat real New Orleans jambalaya with us-VIP party.

They also had a shower back in the green room that Jr took advantage of.  They were so great to us.  Definitely some Southern Hospitality. The sound guy was also super cool.  Not only was he a GREAT sound guy, but it sounds like he’s worked with a lot of bigger names, but wasn’t super arrogant because of it. He also really enjoyed OED’s set. I couldn’t see him, but I guess everyone else from the crew saw him back in his sound booth rocking out to the songs. He’s definitely on the list of people they’d like to work with again.

Sign from the women's restroom

Another fun bathroom sign

I Couldn't Think of a Title

Actually, I kind of stole that title from Psychostick.

Vanity moment.  Some photos from the Pontiac, IL show.

Shiny, laser-y hair! Photo by Phage

I couldn't decide what color neon fishnets to wear, so I wore all 4 - Photo by W Tegan Trost

After the last show I wrote about, we had a day off.  We drove part way to the next show, then stayed at a truck stop over night.  Our super awesome VIP was coming to the NC shows, and he slept in his car at the same truck stop.  It worked out because Damian was up early and wanted to go into Asheville, NC to hang out, so Justin drove him there.  Once Jr was up, he drove us to a grocery store parking lot in Asheville.  Justin met us there, after dropping Damian off at the spa, and he drove Jr and Vaughn to the music store.  Not wanting to get stuck bored wandering around a music store for hours, I went grocery shopping.  Jr gave me $100 for food and supplies, and NO, I did not come back with $100 worth of brie and cheesecake. 

By the time I was checking out, they were back, and we put groceries away and Justin drove us to get sushi!  Mmm...  Driving through Asheville we came across a guy playing a drum set on the sidewalk.  His set was Crush the same company that sponsors Jr.  Jr and Vaughn got out to watch him and take some pictures/video for Crush.  Apparently he was also playing left handing, which hurt Vaughn’s brain to watch.

After that, it was back to the RV for naps. I also altered a “Skull” shirt to wear.  Kim got some pictures of it :)

The next day it was off to Raleigh, NC.  This is where the photoshoot of my shirt took place :)  It sucked because we got there at 3, but they told us we couldn’t load in until 7.  Psychostick showed up at 6:30, and then we were finally allowed to load in.  Doors were at 8, and it felt rushed trying to get set up.  I think they let people in early because I was still finishing setting up as people were coming in.

The venue had an odd set up.  The back area, where merch was, was this huge open area with pool tables.  Then you went through this little hallway area to a tiny room with a tiny stage, bar, and a bit of standing area for the show.  The bathrooms were past the bar so you had to push through a sea of people just to use the restroom. It was a bizarre set up.

For any of you in a band or thinking of starting one, a tip based on something I’ve noticed at several shows, your logo/band name needs to be readable!  One of the openers had merch set up right next to me, and I have NO idea what the name of the band was!  They had it on a big banner behind their table, they had it on their merch, but it was a mess of splotches and I couldn’t make out what it said :(

Because the area was so small, the stage wasn’t very high, and the place was crowded, I didn’t get any pictures from the show.  There were some epic headbangers in the crowd.  The openers were super metal bands, and probably warmed them up for us :)  It’s fun seeing crowd interaction from show to show.  At some shows, when Kim throws out body parts, people aren’t sure what to think and have no idea what’s going on.  Then there are shows like this one where people are grabbing for the body parts and almost fighting over them.

For some reason at this show it became a thing for me to draw unicorns on things.  We have a sign I made a few tours ago with a unicorn on it that says “Yay! Plastic!” and lists the 4 major credit cards, letting people know we accept cards.  A few people have wanted the shirt with the unicorn on it. At this show, a guy wanted me to draw a unicorn ON his shirt for him.  Luckily Jr talked him into letting me draw it on paper for him. I also drew a dragon by request.  Then another fan wanted me to draw a unicorn on her Monster CD.  

Rob from Psychostick’s birthday was either that day, or after it hit midnight, I’m not sure which.  Either way, they celebrated on stage that night.  They sang him an awesome version of happy birthday, and Matty gave him a big kiss on the cheek. When they were giving shout outs to all of the other bands that played, they got the whole crowd to chant “One-Eyed Doll!” They’re such great tour buddies!

VIP party was small but fun.  One of our VIPs was from Finland! Her and her fiancé (?) were going to come to the show the next night as well. She asked if they could play their cover of “I am a Viking” at the VIP show the next night.  Kim made this whole big deal of telling her they couldn’t hoping to surprise her with it the next night, even possibly letting/making her wear the viking horns hat.  They didn’t make it to the show though :(  It did downpour, so maybe they decided not to drive in it?  If you happen to be reading this, please let us know you’re ok and we’re sad we missed you :(

Speaking of VIPs and horns, Kim was wearing her cow horns/ears at this VIP party and kept adding “Moo” into all of the songs.  You never know what you’re going to get at a One-Eyed Doll show/after party.  We also decided that my next career move is DJ-ing.  I’m going to DJ from my computer using my spacebar and go by the name DJ Spacebar.  Oh the things that happen when on the road and sleep deprived.

Wednesday we were in Charlotte, NC. This venue was almost the opposite of the last one. The room was huge and the stage was up high enough that I got some good pictures, but not so high that Kim couldn’t come down and play in the crowd.

Kim's signature kick!

After we loaded in, it POURED! That may have kept some people away, but it was still a really good show.  I think the roof may have been leaking too!  I saw them mopping a few times, and the sound guy was all freaking out at one point drying off the sound board, and they were pointing flashlights up at the ceiling looking for possible leaks :(

We weren’t allowed to use our fog at this show because of their AC and how giant the room was, which meant the lasers weren’t as cool. But my pictures turned out!

I love how intently both of these guys are watching her!

SOOOO pretty!

"Sad"

"And ugly"

Kim's riding a unicorn while playing

Unicorns vs Dragons

Dragon Vaughn holding a unicorn

Psychostick had a fan birthday this show.  I believe his name was Tony and he turned 16.  They sang their epic birthday song for him, and Matty abused him with his antlers.  I didn’t get a picture of it, but I got this decent picture of them on stage.

We also had the best slow-mo mosh pit of the tour this show. But, it was also a sad day because this was the last show our VIP Justin was going to be at.  I never got a photo with him because I kept thinking I’d get it at the next show, and then never got around to it. He got at least 1, but his camera went missing.  We finally found it in the trailer, but he'll have to wait until after tour to have it mailed to him.

As I mentioned before, our other VIPS from the night before didn’t make it :(  Since Justin was our only VIP, and he’d been a VIP and hung out with us for a few days, and we had a looooong drive to Florida the next day, we didn’t do an acoustic show that night.  We just got on the road as soon as we could.  We went through 5 states that night.  North Carolina to South Carolina to Georgia to Alabama finally to Florida!  Specifically, Destin, FL for our next show. 

Kim was actually on the poster!  This is how the tour was pitched to OED

Merch was set up in this little separate room area with counters out into the main room.  Psychostick was around the corner because the counter wouldn’t really work with Matty’s cart, and the opening band Beyond the Pale was in there with me. I had the pleasure of talking with Chad who was helping them out behind the counter. He likes my costume page so there’s a chance he’ll be reading this.  Hopefully I don’t embarrass you too much :)

Chad thought I looked 20-22.  I’ll just say thank you and leave it at that :)  I was asking him about Beyond the Pale and asked if they ever do any touring, or just local shows.  He said they’re getting to old to tour, they’re in their 30’s and have families.  I understand it being hard to tour while having a family, but 30’s is not old!  I won’t get into numbers, but OED and crew, Psychostick, Otep, most members of Mushroomhead, etc, etc, etc are not exactly spring chickens, to use that phrase that I’m 100% sure if I’m using it right.  Lol.

Matty thought this show was going to be a small one like the night before, but it was actually quite backed despite being a bigger room. I had access to an area on an upper level, and got some cool pictures and video.  I haven’t figured out how to get video off my new camera, so videos are going to have to wait until I get home.

At one point I went to the bathroom and over heard a girl (I think she was a girlfriend from the opening band) talking to the bathroom attendant about it being just the 2 of them on stage. It was awesome, until the girl said “It’s just the 2 of them but she’s got some pre-recorded shit and she’s right on time with that.”  WOAH WOAH WOAH!  NO!  There is no pre-recorded stuff she’s playing along to.  I didn’t want to stalk her out of the bathroom and sound like I was all offended because it’s “my” band, so I didn’t correct her.  Jr thought it was funny when I told him, but Kim actually sounded kind of upset, so I wish I had.  Fail on my part.  I honestly think she was just a band girlfriend who know about stuff like that and was trying to sound like she knew what she was talking about.  But, if anyone has any idea what she may have been hearing that supposedly sounds like backing tracks, Kim would like to know. Back to happy stuff...

One fan kept calling me "shiny merch girl" and wanted a hug at the end of the night :)  

At one point, I missed it, but I guess Kim threw the Pope hat back, and it landed perfectly on Jr's lap.  Then, as soon as he had a hands free section in the song, he put it on.  Apparently it worked out perfectly.

We also had a lot of professional dance instructors at this show too. They all showed off their signature move before the song.  Kim even showed us hers, which was the sprinkler (everyone reading this quick get up and do the sprinkler). She quickly said that she wouldn't be able to do it though because she had to play guitar.  She did somehow manage to fit it in a couple of times during short guitar breaks. 

I had trouble getting everyone in AND not blurry :(

Group hug

Yay!

Over all, great show all around!

Take your little Rock N Roll talons, rip out your little Rock N Roll hearts, and throw them at my feet!

Psychostick loves their tacos!!!

We had a great group of VIPs that night! Including the shiny merch buyer :) They were so excited and enthusiastic.  We had the best, knee-slappiest Committed ho-down of tour so far! You guys were all awesome and entertaining!  I really hope we get to see you at many more shows in the future.

No matter how much fun it seems like it would be to climb random dirt piles, it’s not such a good idea in Florida.  Not only were my feet and flip flops all sandy, but something bit/stung my foot. At first they just looked like mosquito bites, but they got worse before getting better.  The one near my toe looks better, but this is the one on my ankle 4 days later, finally looking better.

That night we parked the RV beach side to get some food.  We befriended this little guy on our walk to the restaurant

Kim and I also had way too much fun hanging out with the locals

I think he's pulling me in closer for some advice?

Arm wrestling!  I think I'm winning!

NOPE!  NOPE!  Definitely not winning!  AHHHH!!!!

Don't worry Melinda...

I got this!

AHH!  Maybe not!

This rooster is super freaked out by me trying to kiss him

Kim's quite taken by him :)

And apparently $2 claw games for lobsters are a thing...

The moon over the ocean that night was beautiful!  My camera somewhat managed to get a picture of it.

After Destin, it was Orlando, FL! The venue was called Bombshells, and sort of had an Asian theme to it.  It also had an odd set up. It was U shaped with the bar in the center.  The left part of the U had pool tables and was open to everyone.  The bottom part of the U was where merch was set up, then the right U was where the band was playing, and you had to pay/have a ticket to get in. You could technically not pay to see the show and still somewhat hear it.  I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t in the room or if it was bad sound, but the snare was really loud and Kim’s vocals sounded really distorted.  Also, since I was in another room, no photos from this show :(

This place was super smokey too.  I miss being in states where indoor smoking is banned.  It got so bad my eyes started burning.  I went outside at one point for some fresh air, but there were 2 guys standing outside next to the door smoking.

There was a guy working at the bar that was a huge fan since last time they were there.  He kept trying to take care of Kim by bringing her water, asked her if she needed a towel or something, and checking up on her during the signing. I say trying because as long as we have water bottles, I make all of the crew Emergen-C waters for after the show and I always have napkins and a mirror for her to clean up. It was super awesome that he wanted to be so helpful and took care of her :)

I think this day was also Josh from PS’s birthday.  I knew it was coming up because Kelly (the photographer) left us a gift for him in Cleveland. It was hard to hear what was going on in the other room though.

While packing up and loading out a guy came by who said he’s usually a photographer there, but wasn’t working that night.  He really wanted to know what was going on and who the bands were because that’s the most packed he’d ever seen that place! Go fans!

A series of these were in the bathrooms at the club.

If you can’t read the bottom part, here’s a close up.

I was really hoping that when you went to BeatTheDUI.org it just said “Don’t drink and drive.” Unfortunately there’s a quiz they make you take first, and you have to enter your info in order to be entered into a drawing to win stuff, before you can view your results.  If you finally do that, it tells you not to drink and drive.

We had 4 VIPs that night!  Pam, her granddaughter Megan, Tony (who is originally from Kalamazoo, MI!) and James. They were all great people and fun to hang out with.  Pam also has a cause I quickly want to mention.

Her first grandson Joey passed away from metastatic retinoblastoma. She’s raising awareness about proper vision check up for children in order to saves lives and vision.  There’s more information at lovejoey.com and videos on youtube I haven’t had a chance to watch any of the videos, but Pam says everything you need to know is in there.

Random place next door.  I don't understand.......

After out VIP party we got some food at this coffee shop/cafe called, of all things, Austin Film & Coffee!  It had a super punk vibe with stickers all over the trashcans, the bathroom was covered in graffiti artwork, and in addition to the usual booths that had a variety of mismatched chairs.  Plus there were some unique people hanging out on the patio.  They had coffee, good food, lots of vegan options, and microbrew beers (not that we had any of those, but it’s cool they serve them). I had a super yummy Vegan Chipotle Chik-un sandwich with pasta salad, and got a giant blueberry muffin for breakfast the next morning.

More Bee graffiti

I've somehow never seen this movie...

Cool moon!

In order to get to said coffee shop, we parked across the street next to an RV sales lot. We got back to the RV, and parts of their chain link fence were heated to an amber glow.  We don’t know if it was an electric fence, or there was a power line or something touching it, but we didn’t stay around long enough to find out.  Hopefully the trees didn’t catch on fire and we’re not suspected of arson.

The next morning I woke up to find us parked in some crazy posh shopping area’s parking lot. It seemed to have everything. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay there and play that long :(  Damian did some work at Panera and Vaughn and I hung out at Starbucks using their wifi until we had to head to the venue. As Vaughn and I were walking around, a guy yelled at Vaughn “Nice shirt!” he was wearing a OED logo shirt.  I had literally just woken up and wasn’t all there yet, but we really should have asked him if he was coming to the show that night. Another fail on my part.

We got to the venue, loaded in, and were setting up when we met the first opening band, Minor Influence. They happened to mention that their drummer quit that day, but they’d sold tickets and were there, so they were going to go ahead and play anyway.  Vaughn and Jr decided to help them out and each jumped on drums for a couple of songs.  I have some video that I can’t get off my camera yet, but in the meantime here’s a few pics

There were some interesting people there. My friend with the flashlight that helped out when the power went out at the Otep show was there. I’m also used to seeing women with their kids, and older women dressed sexy for the show, but this night there was an older woman dressed in short shorts and thigh high fishnets with her family, including young daughter.  It was odd.

The second opening band was more of a rap band, and the 3rd band sounded like Rage Against the Machine.  I thought they did, and 2 separate other people at some point was saying they thought they sounded like Rage.

A proposal

Those of you who have seen them live have probably seen Kim’s introduction to Plumes of Death.  She makes a joke about them being an easy listening, religious, hip hop, smooth jazz group and that their song has been covered by Celine Dion, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, etc. Tonight however, you may have heard it covered by Minor Influence! I also enjoyed seeing people laugh during the 3rd verse of Be My Friend.  Sometimes people don’t always get it or don’t pay attention to the lyrics.

That is a guy with one leg, and his prosthetic leg both hoisted into the air

Kim's playing somewhere in the crowd there

The show was good this night, but overall I wasn’t a fan of this place. The promoter gave us money for food, but didn’t provide water bottles, and the venue would NOT give water bottles to the bands unless they paid $2-3 for each of them. They did give us cups of water, but it tasted weird, it’s hard to keep from spilling on stage, and if it was left out of direct sight for too long, I didn’t trust drinking it with some of the people there.

Some of the fans were SO pushy too!  Something you should all know; a lot of times I don’t really have any communication with Kim before the show. That, and I can’t force Kim to do anything.  If there’s a song you want played or something, I can maybe relay the message to Jr who can suggest it to Kim. But if it doesn’t fit in the flow of the set, the audience doesn’t seem receptive to it, or Kim’s just not feeling it, she’s not going to play it. Personal messages are even worse. And do not, I repeat, DO NOT, rush Kim as she’s going on stage. Usually she’s not going onto the stage until she needs to be.  If you stop her as she’s going onto stage, you’re taking time away from the set.  You stopping her may have just cost everyone a song. She’s also in a completely different zone getting ready to rock your faces off.  Don’t suddenly get all up in her face as she’s trying to take the stage.  How is that acceptable for anyone? If you’re not careful, someday Kim may become one of these musicians that can’t come out and mingle before the set and has to be escorted by a pack of security to get anywhere :(

There was also a fan who was trying to get me to help him pressure his friend into doing a shot.  His friend was also holding a beer, and said he didn’t feel like he could do it because he might throw up.  I’m not going to pressure anyone into drinking, especially if they feel like they’ve already had too much. His friend was not happy and went to see if Psychostick would help him.

Something was up with the sound.  Every band had screeching feedback, and it was especially ear piercing between sets during sound check.  The sound guy kept putting an echo on Kim for some reason too.  

Also, someone stole my pen >:(

During Psychostick some drunk guys who were trying to start a mosh pit, decided that it was a good idea to throw each other into the front rows of people watching the show…  What…?  Is that a thing?  Not just pushing each other into people like moshers sometimes do, literally lifting up into the air and forcing them to land on the shoulders of poor innocent people.

Blurry Psychostick in Green

Blurry Psychostick in Blue

Blurry Psychostick in Magenta

Blurry Psychostick in Red

Psychostick does a funny cover of the Danger Zone and Take My Breath Away during their set. Rob says random funny things throughout their songs, and that night during the Danger Zone he wanted to go Shoe Shopping, Dangerously!!!  There were also people slow dancing during Take My Breath Away.  Pretty hilarious.

Apparently I should move to Florida because yet another person told me I looked like I was 22.  Thinking about it later though, it may be because there’s so much smoking going on in Florida.  Maybe I look younger because smoking/second hand smoke is aging everyone so much.  ALL of my stuff reeks of cigarette smoke now.  My hair smells, my clothes smell, my backpack smells, Grumpy Cat smells, my sweatshirt that stayed inside of my backpack smells, EVERYTHING SMELLS!  It’s so gross.  Ugh!

Jr brought me food, and this half full cup of root beer the size of my head

We had one VIP that night, Jackson, founder of Jacksonville, FL :)  The club scammed him a bit by selling him a more expensive “VIP” ticket.  From what I gather their VIP ticket only gave him access to a special VIP seating area, which I have no idea where that even was.  I didn’t see any real seating area other than the bar.  He wanted to hang out and do the acoustic show though so he bought a VIP badge. Being the only one he got a private VIP party.  Hopefully that made up for the shady club VIP.  He even got to wear Kim’s unicorn headband.

Did I mention I’m DJ Spacebar?  Well we decided that night that Kim is DJ Pants after Damian misheard me say PJ Pants.

After the VIP we went to Famous Amos for food.  I’m pretty sure this is the exact same one we ate at while here on the Otep tour.  There were some interesting dinner conversations at our table as well as a few tables down, but I won’t get into that.  Vaughn did see a guy wearing a Detroit Lions shirt and asked him about it.  Apparently he’s also originally from Michigan and lived in Grand Rapids for a period of time.  If I heard correctly, he went to the same high school as Vaughn’s dad.

After food, we went to a Wal-Mart parking lot for the night. None of us like shopping at Wal-Mart, but on tour it becomes a necessity.  Jr made the mistake of leaving Kim and I alone inside with his wallet. We got important stuff like water, creamer, sharpies and 6 pairs of devil horns, but we also ended up with new clothes and this deliciousness:

Translation = Wal-Mart uses cheap dye and this will fade

We got done shopping at 6 am, and it was pouring out. Jr had texted Kim as we were checking out to make sure we were alive since it had been a few hours, but he wasn’t responding to her texts about picking us up at the door, and not answering when she called. She even tried texting “You’re not coming, guess we better go buy more stuff.”  Finally around 6:30 Kim remembered the “Find my iPhone” app.  She used it to make his phone make a loud, piercing noise, usually used for finding a missing phone.  In this case it was used to wake up a Jr. So he came and picked us up so us and our stuff wouldn’t get soaked.

The next show was our last show with Psychostick :( :( :( It was at this little bar in Tallahassee, FL. It was an interesting place and group of people.  One of PS’s fans was celebrating her birthday and it was her first PS show ever.  She somehow got punched in the eye during the first song. A fight broke out too during the first band and a bunch of people were kicked out.  I heard later that they were then staring something in the parking lot and punching cars…?

It started out as a really boring night.  Other than talking to some people from the opening bands, no one was really hanging out at the merch tables.  I didn’t sell a single thing until just before One-Eyed Doll went on, and that was just some stickers. I passed the time hanging out with Matty and Alex from PS though.  So that was cool being the last night and all.  No, take that back.  I kept telling them that they’re not done and they’re playing the rest of our shows with us, so it’s not the last show :P *not in denial*

Rob from PS was jealous of all of my cool striped socks and would always ask me about where to get them and if they made them in men’s sizes.  I found a 4 pack of mismatched fun socks at Wal-Mart and got them for him.

Which leg is mine and which is Rob's?  I can't tell!

One-Eyed Doll’s set didn’t go so well this show.  There was something wrong with Kim’s amp so she had to borrow Josh’s. Then something happened with her guitar.  They only ended up playing about 4 songs, one of which was just Fight not the Fight/Monster mash up they usually end the show with.  People still really enjoyed them though.

I have no idea what the panda is all about...

Psychostick had some slight technical difficulty at one point, but over all they had a really great set.  They definitely ended on a high note.

Stop rocking to hard! My pictures are blurry!

Playing bass with a taco

The birthday girl

Cheers, with a shoe

More shoes

I think I mentioned it before, if PS does an encore, they do a super fun version of the Hokey Pokey. It’s really fun to dance to and one of my favorite parts of the show.  Most of the Florida shows haven’t really been a encore crowd though :( Rob knows the Hokey Pokey is my favorite, so he sarcastically told the crowd “We don’t do encores!” but the crowd didn’t get it, they all just assumed they didn’t do encores and left.

Salvador Dalí sticker in the bathroom!

Cool trees

Psychostick and One-Eyed Doll