Me dancing on stage at the Eau Claire, WI show, c/o Patrick
My last blog was posted on August 23. I was so busy trying to get what I had already written posted before I lost wifi, that I didn’t have time for something, so here it is.
HAPPY(belated)BIRTHDAY MOM! :D
Also, at the moment (when the beginning of this is being written) we’re driving from Bismarck to Williston, which means no new shows to talk about. So I thought I’d take a moment to mention a few things I’d forgotten to write about in previous blogs.
On the last tour, Mike brought along his drum to play for VIP acoustic songs. Well, he’s stupid and not here this tour. Which means we were lacking a drum. While in Vegas Jr managed to find this drum on Craigslist that he bought. It has little teeth in it!
In Denver, I was a Very Important Porcupine
Brandon also finally brought us some of his awesome tea! So we had a tea party in Denver with our VIPs and his delicious tea! Sean, who made Kim a magic wand last tour, made her a pen out of a bone as a gift. I don’t have a picture of it. Sorry :(
On our day off in Chicago, while most of us were napping in the RV, Vaughn went back inside Sam Ash for a little jam session. The posted this candid picture to One-Eyed Doll’s Facebook page:
And someone apparently got a video of it
At Cheers in South Bend, IN they had the weeks worth of events (with the exception of the day we were there for some reason) on a chalkboard where I set merch up at. On Saturday they had “Know Lyfe” listed. Unless there are 2 bands named Know Lyfe, same spelling and all, they’re a band from Michigan I’m pretty sure I saw play way back when I was in High School.
In Eau Claire, WI they had catering for all the bands! There was a whole spread with fresh fruit, stuff to make sandwiches, hummus, chili and hot dogs, and cookies - of which I ate 8 over the course of the night *innocent look* I’m pretty sure the Otep tour was fueled by cookies and coffee. We’ve actually been eating pretty well this tour though. Most places have been giving us food or giving us money for food.
Apparently, not only is Cody from Minneapolis an awesome sound guy, but he’s a great photographer. He somehow found Vaughn’s instagram and liked a picture a picture of his.
Since the beginning of tour, Kim has been nominated by several people to so the ALSA ice bucket challenge. She did the research to make sure money was actually being donated to the cause, and made sure to make the cause clear in her video. It was raining in Bismarck, so she collected rain water and froze some. Here’s the video
She also plans on donating money to the cause as well. If you’d like to donate, you can do so at http://alsa.org I’m going to guilt trip you into donating now. It’s hard enough staying healthy on a tour schedule, but Kim had cold water dumped on her while wearing shorts and a tank top sitting out in the cold. Hopefully she doesn’t catch pneumonia from this :( Also, it took a few days, but I think her clothes finally dried. If Kim can do it, you can donate whatever you’re able, even as little as $1, to the cause. *end guilt trip, for now*
Some things I’ve learned about North Dakota; There are absolutely no Bank of America’s in the entire state, and my cell phone has been in roaming the entire time we’ve been in this state.
After our rainy day in Bismarck, we were in Williston, ND. This show was our tour package combined with Tantric and their touring opener, “Emperors and Elephants.” We got to the venue around 2 and they let us load in. We even had helpers and one of the guys from Tantric’s crew helped as well. I originally had a cool spot for merch right by the front door. Dealing with people while setting up was not cool though. There were lots of creepers, I overheard someone say, in a super reckneck accent, “I ain’t never heard of One-Eyed Doll, I’ll tell you that!” some douchey band guy going on and on about places he’s played and people he’s played with. At one point he was bragging about playing for 2,500 people at the Machine Shop in Flint. Those of you who have been to the Machine Shop know that it can’t even fit 2,500 people. And to top it all off, some guy asked me a couple of questions about door times and prices and I told him I wasn't sure, he tried to get me to go with him to find out. Not in a ‘so I can know as well’ way, but more of a creepy ‘you’re going to come hang out with me’ way. I told him to go find out, but I needed to go get some stuff out of the bus. After that I hid in the bus until doors.
Hiding until doors was a bit difficult because no one would tell us when doors or set times were. They told Jr they usually just “fly by the seat of our pants.” That makes it hard to know when to be at the merch table, and for the band to be ready to play. I found out about 12 minutes after doors opened that they had opened. No one was really there yet though, so it was no big deal. Also, I learned EVERYONE else decided to set up merch down stairs. So Vaughn, Damian, Jr and I quickly moved everything to this awesome area downstairs.
This venue had water bottles printed with their name and logo
That night, and the next night, our tour package was booked together with Tantric and their main support, Emperors and Elephants. Despite the fact that One-Eyed Doll and Psychostick are a co-headlining tour, E&E insisted on playing right before Tantric that night because they share some sort of equipment. Matty told them they owed us one, and they followed through. The next night E&E went on first :)
This was also a sad night because it was Wild Throne’s last night on tour. Something came up, and they cut their part of the tour short. It’s hopefully moving them towards bigger and better things. I’m excited for them, but they’re already missed. Seriously, go check them out. Like their Facebook page so you can keep up to date on what they're up to!
L to R Back: Some guy from the club, Alex of PS, Jeff of WT, Josh of PS, Noah of WT in Matty's antlers, Rob of PS, Josh of WT, Tantric's crew guy (who's name I can't remember, sorry); Front: Jr of OED, Me, Matty of PS, Kimberly of OED. Vaughn and Damian were missing somewhere :(
Apparently Hoochie Mama used to come up on Josh from WT’s Pandora, and he never realized it was OED until they played it one night. So in his honor, Kim played it for him at their last show.
Dancers and Josh
If the place doesn’t seem super busy, and no one’s really hanging out around the merch area, I’ll turn my lights off and go watch OED’s set. Something I’ve noticed; I get really nervous at the beginning of their set! I’m not even the one on stage preforming, but I feel my heart beating faster and me getting all nervous waiting for them! Then they start and it’s super awesome. I don’t know if I’m still excited for each show, or nervous for them because I’m not sure how the crowd is going to be. Over all this show was kind of weird, there were only about 6 of us on the dance floor area in front of the stage, and everyone else was sitting around it, or up on the second floor.
If you choose not interact with Kimberly, she will force you to interact with her
But after the show there were tons of people buying stuff, hanging around, wanting to have Kim sign stuff, buying VIPs, etc. Where were all of you during the show?!
"What's for dinner, honey?"
"People!"
*Ahem* Lyrics please!
Kimberly's a unicorn!
Boooooo!!!!
Kim jumping over the drum set
As mentioned before, Tantric was headlining this show. During Psychostick and E&E Scott, the bassist came over and talked to me for a while. He’s a super sweet guy.
I missed the VIP party that night because we had to load everything out up a flight of stairs. Not only did it take a super long time, but it meant that the boys couldn’t load much gear out during everyone else’s sets. So we had to wait until after Tantric to load EVERYTHING. I sounds like that may have been a good thing though, because the VIP party got out of hand. Kim thinks because people there work so hard, when they party, they really let loose. I guess the VIPs that bought them off the table were a bit intoxicated. One of them they convinced to go help load out so they could get him out of the RV because he may have had other illegal substances with him. Not cool. There were some VIPs that pre-ordered, and a few cool fans that bought them off the table. I feel bad for them because it sounds like they may not have gotten to enjoy the VIP party as much as some that are a bit calmer. I think they at least had some fun.
That night we stopped at a Love’s Truck stop for the night. We filled up on gas, had some food, bought a few things from inside, and Vaughn got this video of me and Kim dancing in our PJs at like, 4am. Check it out HERE
The next morning I woke up and there was a sign on our windshield. It said there was 1 hour parking for people making purchases in side. Vehicles will be towed and no further warning will be given. I looked around at all of the trucks parked around us and none of them had signs on them. Thanks Williston for discriminating against RVs. I guess our hundreds of dollars worth of gas isn’t good enough for you…
“North Dakota is stupid” ~Damian, on the phone, before the call was dropped, because North Dakota…
Cool car being towed behind a bus
Next we were in Minot, ND, where I found goggly eyes in the merch:
Damian, Vaughn, Scott from Tantric and I were all wearing our Pao! shirts. I got this pretty sweet picture, but Damian was missing when we took it :(
This night’s crowd was way better than the night before. Kim said they made up for the lack of participation the day before. At one point this older guy covered in tattoos, with tattoos all over his face, leaned over to me and said “They’re amazing!”
People's minds are melting, they don't know what to think
Kim's backbend in color
Kim's backbend in black and white
Why Tantric finds the need to put a white sheet over their drum set on stage I'll never know... It's also blocking our cool LED screen. Thanks guys...
This shot's epic!
I like this one too :)
During the “La la la la” part of Fight, Kim sang “Melinda” (Ma-lynn-da-a) *blushes* She also had me sign her muscle before the show. If you zoom in on the last picture, you can see part of it :P
After the show the tattooed guy came up and asked me if my name was Melinda. He said I must be pretty special for Kim to have my name tattooed on her arm. *super fan-girl-ness*
This venue was playing some cool girl metal between bands at one point, which was cool. There were also plenty of not cool guys there. Nothing against Tantric, but some of the crowd they draw is super not cool. There were a bunch of drunk bro-guys harassing me and Kim. When they finally realized we weren’t going to put up with their crap, they went next door to Tantric’s table to harass the lead singer’s wife, who runs their merch table. Kim took her aside and told her she could hang out behind our table if she was uncomfortable, and she should call security to get one of the guys out from behind her table. She said they were ok for now, and she didn’t care that the one guy wandered behind her table. Kim also told her to be careful and watch her drink because guys had been pressuring us all night to drink, and they’re the type of guys that seem like they’d slip something into your drink. She said she actually already had the bar get her a new drink because she thought someone may have slipped something in it. Not cool! And to the guy who said he may be willing to buy a shirt if he could buy me a shot - if it takes you getting me drunk to buy something, then I don’t want you to buy anything. Please forget you ever saw this band. We don’t need people like you as fans. People like you are one of the many many reasons I don’t drink at shows on tour.
Our drunk, coked up VIPs from the night before luckily didn’t come to this show. They also, thankfully, didn’t scare off our VIPs Dani, Calvin and Bill from the night before. They were back, plus 2 new VIPs Tiffany and Chris. I actually got to enjoy this VIP party, and it wasn’t crazy and over the top.
After Minot, we were off to Fargo, ND. I woke up that morning with a TERRIBLE headache. That and I was nauseous on and off, which made eating/taking something for it hard. Luckily I got some coffee, water, and food in me, took some more ibuprofen, and it went away.
Cool alien thing we passed
We drove the RV through a truck wash so it was all shiny for our VIPs, and filled up our water tank (we’d been having problems with places saying they had RV dumps/water fill up then getting there and they don’t). It didn’t completely matter though because it rained yet again in North Dakota.
This show was just Psychostick and One-Eyed Doll. Jr and I went to this sub shop down the road called Erbert & Gerbert’s before the show. It reminded me a lot of Jimmy John’s, and it was really good.
There was a super cute fan girl at this show. Every time Kim or Jr interacted with her I thought she was going to cry or faint. She was so adorable.
The crowd was great at this show as well. It was hard to get pictures with everyone moving around so much, and the tall guys in the front row who were super into it.
I was trying to get a photo of the sad face Kim makes after the "Why does making friends have to be so very hard?" part of "Be My Friend" but when she said "and then you go like this" the guys in front of my did it and blocked my shot! :D
Loooooove this picture!
Bob the squid!
Choose your religion - Unicorns, Dragons, or Squids if you're undecided
Dragons getting ready to Battle On
Vaughn!
Calvin helping Kim remember the lyrics
UFO!
We also made some new fans out of a couple of Bronies. The one guy had Kim sign the brand new My Little Pony shirt he was wearing. He even had MLP dog tags and those rubber wrist bands.
Matty from Psychostick was wearing his super cool Pao! shirt for this show :) I kept trying to get a good picture of it on stage. I probably looked like a creeper taking so many photos of him.
Jr and Matty
After EOD and PS preformed the shortest duet ever
Kim pretending not to know these guys
Alex wears these shades when they cover the Top Gun song
Finally got a good picture of this guy making this shirt look good!
Do you want a taco?
Matty playing bass with the taco
This is how Vaughn was dressed loading out. Doesn't he look handsome?
At load out my brain was not working, and I could not think of what the trailer was called. So now we shall refer to it as "the shed on wheels that moves, that we pull behind the house on wheels that moves." Dani and Calvin, who were our VIPs at the last 2 shows, were our only VIPs that night. Dani wasn't feeling well though so she went home :( She let her friend, Bob, take her spot that night. Calvin brought us cupcakes from a local bakery and some coffee :) Yay presents! Thank you again Calvin!
CUPCAKES!!!! And Kimberly's finger
Our first VIS - Very Important Squid
This was the best, most special VIP yet. First Kim played a song Calvin wanted to hear. Then they were deciding what to play next, and I yelled "Schizophrenic Bum!" A bit of some back story....... When I first met Kim and Jr, after my first 2 shows, I had the pleasure of hanging out with them on a day off. We were sitting in a coffee shop in Grand Rapids, MI and Kim was telling the story of her time in China. Kim is full of so many amazing stories. The other day she was telling one, and it started off with her quitting her job and being homeless for a little while because she was waiting on this opportunity that was postponed. It reminded me of the song "Schizophrenic Bum." Fast forward a bit....... Before the first tour I went on with One-Eyed Doll, they had a thing of Facebook asking people to name as many OED songs as they could. Someone listed Schizophrenic Bum. I'd never heard of that one, so I looked it up. I found a video on youtube, most likely from a coffee shop performance of her. That's all I knew of this song. Fast forward back to that night..... Kim played Schizophrenic Bum for me!!!!! I got to experience it live! It was amazing, and Kim's voice is beautiful and I really can't express how magical that experience was for me! *fan girl faints* I seriously love this girl. Then Jr requested Butterflies, which I don't think I even knew existed! So we all got to experience that! Thanks Jr! Then Jr started playing blues riffs on the guitar, and we took turns going around in the circle singing the squid blues. My squid blues name is Kill-amari (like calamari) :D Then we all sang along to "Easy Like Sunday Morning" and "Never Gonna Dance Again" while Jr played them on guitar.
That night we finally drove out of ND. My cell phone has service again, it's not raining, I got a shower, and I'm at a coffee shop with wifi! Life is good again. Well, sort of. We did have yet another run in with the police again. Damian passed a sheriff/highway patrol car (I'm not sure, it was like 6am and it woke me up) who had someone pulled over on the shoulder. It's state law that you move over into the left lane when passing a patrol car with it's lights on. Damian didn't realize that. The guy followed him and pulled him over for it. He was actually really nice about it though. He even let Jason know the registration expired on the 10th, he thought it was the entire month of August. He didn't even give us a ticket for it. This may partially explain the situation in Denver. But no where on the ticket did the guy mention that it was only the 10th, and then he pulled the registration sticker off so that other people wouldn't see the August and think it was still good. *rolls eyes* Jr's supposed to be getting that figured out today, since it's our day off. The only shady thing about this was Damian was told he had to call the number within 30 days to either set up a time to contest it in court, or find out how much the ticket was. But not to call for a couple of days because it takes a couple of days to go into the system. Really? You can't tell him how much it is and it takes 2 days to be in the system? Do they not have computers and networks in MN? Oh well, at least he wasn't a jerk like so many other people we've dealt with.
