Headlining tour!

I never finished my blog from the last tour.  I have a bunch of random stuff written that I'll organize and post when I have some time. For now, here's what's been going on with the Witches Tour!!!! Whoo!

Flying over the ocean is cool when all you can see is sky and water

LAND!

Tour has been getting off to a rough start. The shows have been going great! But the RV and crew have been having issues. Some of you may have seen on the One-Eyed Doll Facebook page that 2 days before we left, Junior was frantically looking for a replacement stage tech. Vaughn had to drop out do to some life stuff. Then we got to Colorado and discovered the RV heat wasn’t working. That made for some COLD nights. Junior ended up buying a couple of space heaters, so we weren't popsicles.

Crew this tour is completely different! It’s sad not having old friends around, but that means you fans and I all get to make new friends :) We have Junior’s long time friend Erik driving for us.  His band, Dream in Red is also going to be playing at a few of the CA shows. We have Kenny running the lights.  We stole her from Des Moines, IA. She’s helped us load in and taken care of us several times when we’ve come through there. Super excited to have her on the crew.  Taking Vaughn’s place is Billy who worked at Aftershock in KS where OED has played several times. This is his first tour ever, so feel free to see if he needs a hand with anything.

We made it to Grand Junction with no other problems. Stopped at the FedEx to pick up new merch. There are 5 new shirts, a new hoodie, and lots of other new goodies for this tour.  Sorry guys, I’m going to rob you blind. We got to the venue early enough for me to sort out all of the merch for the first show too, which is always awesome! We didn’t have tubs for shirts at the merch table though, so I just had piles of everything laying around. It was slightly chaotic, I was having kind of an off night, but it all worked out :)  

Saw lots of familiar faces at the show.  You guys are all awesome! Thanks for coming back.
The only opening band this show was Glass Delirium out of Denver.  They were pretty awesome! They also played with us 2 nights later in Denver.

OED’s show went amazingly for being the first show of the tour. They accidentally played for almost 2 hours. Kim said she kept going because everyone was still so into it.  She kept waiting for people to leave or seem bored. Being the first show, she was testing out a bunch of new songs they don’t usually play on tour, so I can’t guarantee they’re going to play these in future shows. Some highlights were a new one off of the new Witches album called “Black in the Rye,” which I’m sure you’ve all heard now via the live stream in Colorado Springs. They played “Suckerfish” which I’ve never seen live before. When she was introducing the song, she was making fish faces, but someone mistook it for kisses or something, so Kim exclaimed “Let’s all make out!” and proceeded to make out with the audience via the microphone. They also played “Meth Monster” and “Envy.” She did “New Orleans” a cappella, which I’ve only seen at VIP after parties or IN New Orleans. After she was done she felt like there was an awkward silence so she put Junior on the spot and made him do a drum solo. It was pretty epic for being made up on the spot.

This venue is huge, but this time the crowd was mostly right down in front. The fog and lasers looked awesome! The staff here is also so sweet and helpful.  They really took care of us. I think I may have written something last time about how much they tried to spoil us.

Sean made that cool staff!

The next day was a day off already. We went to Humphrey RV and got the heat fixed.  YAY! He said it might partially be due to the Colorado altitude/lack of oxygen. If so, that would explain why we’ve been having issues with it since

Outside the RV place

The inside of the RV place had a cool place we could hang out in while they were doing repairs. It was set up like a little camp site and they even had bird noise ambiance. I sadly did not get a picture of that.

That night we made it into Denver, and were treated to dinner at “Terminal Bar” by an amazing fan named Jeff.  He gave us the VIP treatment and even a behind the scenes tour of Union Station where it’s located. Union Station is a really cool place.  There’s the bar, a coffee shop, ice cream, and all sorts of little places. Then there’s a big common area in the middle you can hang out in. It’s like a bar meets a library (there were people there working on laptops) meets a college common area. Junior, Kenny, Erik and Billy played a table top shuffle board game while Kim and I got to hear amazing stories about Jeff’s life.

Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Old vault door

Carving in the wall they're slowly uncovering

Paintings on paint brushes

Common area from the second floor

Terminal Bar after hours

Cool chandeliers

Denver!

Old suitcases and a vault

Portable bar

Blue prints

Champagne anyone?

Trains

Unfortunately our amazing night didn’t end on a high note.  We drove the RV to a truck stop to fill up our water tank so we could all take showers. Long story short, the 100 gallon tank broke and started flooding the bays.  By some miracle the heads and other equipment down there came out dry, and we managed to keep the water from running into the inverter. So at the moment, we can put liquids down drains, but we have no running water.  We’ve been brushing teeth with bottled water and showering at truck stops when we have time.

Kim accidentally gave a new meaning to the question “Would you jump off a bridge if your friends did?” When your mom asks you it as a kid, she’s asking if you’d do something stupid just because your friends did. Kim was telling a story about how her old drummer jumped off a cliff into some water, and she jumped in after him to save him. In her story, the saying turns into - If your friend was in need, would you be altruistic enough to help them?  Obviously there is some common sense involved before jumping off a cliff, though sometimes gut instinct takes over and common sense goes out the window. Like in Stephen King’s “Revival” that I started reading before I left, there’s a story about a dog that falls out of a boat. The son jumps in to save the dog, then the father jumps in to save the son.  The father and son both ended up drowning while the dog swam to safety. 

The next day was the Denver show.  What a crazy night that was! We were playing at a restaurant called Moe’s Barbecue. They wouldn’t let us load in very early.  When we did load in, we were working around people there having dinner.  It was really awkward trying to set up a large amount of merch in a very small area, all the while working around people who were there just trying to eat or have a drink. I somehow managed to get all the important stuff set up and the shirts organized into our new bins.

It was a sold out show and a non-stop night! I think I managed to fit in a total of 6 bites of food over the 8 or whatever hours I was there.  And that was just to keep me from passing out. It was so chaotic I can’t remember everything that went on! Lots of cool people there. Sean of Do Thy Bidding, who made the amazing magick wands you’ll see for sale on the merch table, was there again that night.  Michael came again as well. Also, super sweet, amazing, Kim and I want to kidnap him and bring him to every show, fan/VIP Ben was there again *waves if he’s reading this.* He brought Kim and me roses *blushes* They're STILL sitting on the front dash of the bus, but they're super wilted :( He also brought us cookies and other goodies :) Andrew who’s been a long time fan/VIP made it to this show. He brought along his mom who he’s turned into a fan :)

My roses :D

Also, for those of you who’ve read my old entries, remember this sweet picture I got with Enigma in Vegas last tour?

Apparently we turned him into a fan because he came to the Denver show! He said he won’t be in Vegas this time, he was just there then because he was doing a show, but we might see him in Austin.

I can’t really say much about the show because I was waaaaay in the back behind the bar where I couldn’t see anything :( It must have been awesome though because, as I mentioned earlier, it was SOLD OUT!  There was a big sign on the door and a few sad people hanging around outside.  Craziness!

Next day was Colorado Springs.  In the past when we’ve been there we played at The Black Sheep.  This time we were at a new venue called Sunshine Studios. We walk in and who’s there? Scott we met on the Tantric tour when he was playing bass for them!

Me, Scott and Vaughn!

So glad our paths crossed again because he’s such a nice guy. I guess he’s part owner or something of this venue/recording studio.

This time we had lots of time to load in, and lots of space. I finally got just about everything on the table! I even got a break for food! Andrew and his mom brought us Qdoba and Andrew watched the table while I went to the green room to eat.  He used to load/do merch in the Denver area before Kim and Junior ever had a crew.

My apologies to the first few opening bands if anyone from them is reading this. I was so busy with finishing things, working, eating, etc, that I didn’t really get to listen to you.  I think the first time I really got to pay attention to the show (I was right next to the stage so I had an awesome view), was half way through Suspension 9’s set. They were awesome, they had a whole style/act going on. So many opening bands just show up in whatever jeans and t-shirt they were wearing that morning and play their songs while looking super bored. Yes, it’s about the music, but it’s so much more fun and memorable when you’re entertaining. You don’t have to have a crazy goth look, have a guy on stage just dancing and getting the crowd into it, or breath fire like this band, but move around a little.  Look like you’re having fun and not being forced to play.  Interact with the crowd. That’s my little bit of advice to up and coming bands. At one point the aforementioned dancer got down into the audience and was trying to get them to dance.  He had Andrew’s mom by the shoulder and was swaying around with her, getting her to dance. It was pretty awesome (someone really should keep a count of how many times I use the word awesome).

The band right before OED was The Last Savior of God. I had a chance to talk to/hang out with their lead singer/guitarist Dylan before the show.  He’s a pretty cool guy.  He also made the show entertaining. At one point during a song he looked over and stuck his tongue out at me. I’ll admit, I had a bit of a fan girl moment for some reason. He also did a bit of the Kim thing and came out into the crowd to play. It’s a bit easier for him because he has a wireless pack for his guitar and isn’t dragging a cable. However, that may or may not be part of the reason it came unplugged during a song. They kept playing/singing as he tried to fix it and had entertaining banter between lyrics about trying to fix it.  It was super metal \m/

Also got to see the former drummer of Robot Peanut Butter who opened last time we were in Colorado Springs!

One-Eyed Doll's show was awesome (there's that word again)! There was a live stream of it as I mentioned at the beginning. Someone recorded it and you can watch it here on YouTube.

Chewbacca made it to the show

This night we got to do our VIP vocal recording in Sunshine Studios! I missed ALL of it though because I was busy packing up my stuff. Well, more talking to people about OED while trying to pack up, and getting very distracted. For most of our CO VIPs this will be the last time we’ll see them this tour, so I’m glad I managed to catch them before they left and got some hugs and pictures.

Sean and I :D

Sean made me a custom little box for taking care of and selling his wands this tour. I don't have a picture of it yet because it's stashed away in my cubby behind my tutus where it'll stay safe :)

That's Ben!!!

Andrew!

Remember how Mike got sick in Colorado Springs on the Mushroomhead tour? Well after the show I found out Kenny had been throwing up all night. She thought it might be a bad egg salad (why did my computer just auto correct eggsalad to exiled?) sandwich she ate, or a flu that’s been going around in her circle or friends. Either way, she, like Mike, spent most of the night in the bus sleeping :(

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, something got left on and drained the RV battery.  We ended up just staying the night parked in the venue’s parking lot because Junior was too tired to deal with it. In the morning he got it working just fine.

Next we had 2 days off! We went to this awesome little Natural Food store and stocked up on yummy food. We then went to Home Depot to buy more tubs, and completely organize all the new merch. We pulled into the parking lot and this couple came up to Junior crying. I was on the bus still so I don’t know the full story.  Something about her grandmother passing away, driving all the way there, losing their wallet, and being stranded with no money. Junior said if they helped unload the trailer and fold some shirts for us he’d buy them a night at the Motel 6. Not a bad deal. A motel room in exchange for a little labor. They did end up helping us unload everything from the trailer, but then mysteriously disappeared and never came back. Junior scammed some free labor out of some scammers!

We spent something like 7 hours out in that parking lot organizing and folding shirts. Afterwards, we celebrated all our hard work (and left Kenny with some peace and quiet) with dinner at IHOP.

IHOP had some interesting blueberry pancake art

A quote from the night I’m going to leave  you with, with no context:

“I’m not asking you to touch eyeballs Erik, I just want you to laugh down my throat!” ~Kim   

Our second day off was rough. I half woke up because we kept stopping then going. I managed to check the time on my phone and it was only 8 something am, so I attempted to go back to sleep. Then I heard Jason on the phone asking someone if they had an ER.  That woke me up! Kim started having an issue with her throat the day before, so my immediate thought was that her tonsil exploded or something terrible.  It was actually because Kenny was STILL throwing up. We finally found her an ER where she ended up getting 3 bags of fluids because she was so dehydrated. Kim also got some antibiotics for her throat, so she’s doing well :)

I honestly don't remember anything else that happened that day, it was such a blur. I'm pretty sure I slept as we drove the rest of the way to Lubbock, TX for the next show. But that will have to wait until the next blog! :P