Well, I’m kind of behind of this blog. Let’s see… I think I left off with the One-Eyed Doll day off in New Orleans. We had an actual show in New Orleans the next night. My Run 2 Cover photos turned out waaaaay to blurry, but here are some slightly less blurry photos of Stitched Up Hiz-art:
Since there were no locals, in order to kill some time, instead of Decker doing his normal drum solo during their set, him, Junior and Brandon did a 3-way drum solo. I have a video of it that will be released at some point, for now you'll have to settle for pictures.
Tommy brought Kim and I these BEAUTIFUL pink roses that I wasn't able to get a good picture of :(
The next day was also a day off. We somehow managed to get everyone from all of the bands together for brunch. *Picture stolen from Facebook because I didn't get any*
Then we all wandered around and checked out the thrift stores.
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| I need Rabbit Ears and Fabulosity! |
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| Dorian was tired and fell asleep. We may have been a little mean to him... |
No cool photos from Fort Worth because merch was kind of a ways away somewhat blocked by a wall. I do have this picture of our window that randomly spiderwebbed from the inside while we were parked there. No idea how it happened. It's currently all taped together with Gorilla tape.
The next night we were in AUSTIN!!!!! I personally don't have many photos because Austin is always so crazy. I took me twice as long to set up because I had to hug and talk to everyone as they were coming in.
Being Austin, Mike was there!!!!!!!! Always good seeing Mike. I always try to kidnap him while we’re in Austin but it never seems to work… :(
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| I stole this from Mike... :P |
Paul Doll, who we usually see in Houston, moved to Austin for culinary school, so him and his friend Stephen were there helping out. Paul also got to breath fire during the intro of Ember. My pictures just turned out dark or as a giant ball of light, so I stole this from Facebook:
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| I stole this from either Matt or Joel, I can't remember anymore, sorry! |
Nancy Silva Project played with us again! Again, no photos because Austin is crazy chaotic. Show went great, and Kim actually made it through meet and greet without being kicked out at 2am. Sadly, we had some issues loading out. They close down 6th street at night, so we couldn’t pull the us up front to load out until after they opened it back up around 3am. Luckily we worked something out with the staff, we moved everything to the front of the bar so they could clean the back while we waited. Then, once we finally got the bus out front, Erik opened to trailer to discover and poster boxes had spilled all over and broken. So Riggs and I carried everything out and piled it on the side walk while Erik and Jeff attempted to put the trailer back in order. I don’t even know what time we finally left that night.
Next was Houston. Sadly we didn’t have time to go to the awesome coffee shop or thrift stores before load in :( Scout Bar is always awesome though. For the first time, the side room was opened up and merch was set up in there. I stupidly didn’t get many photos here either. Sorry…… Another good show, Vanilla Sugar played again (I finally got a CD, they sold out last time and this time I think I got the last copy). Lots of awesome fans, but you’ll have to check out Facebook for their photos.
Next, we had 2 (TWO!) full days off in Houston! Since Jeff lives in Houston we used his apartment as our home base. The first day we managed to get up slightly early and he took us on another field trip to NASA. This time we got special escort passes so we could go to place we weren’t allowed to last time. I uploaded about 160 photos to Facebook. I’ll spare you and only post a few here.
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| Giant dehydrator |
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| "Group" photo outside the restricted access doors we got to go through |
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| Current Mission Control and Scientist doing Scieney things |
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| Doing very important things at Old Mission Control |
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| Sending messages! |
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| Wearing a special visitor badge! |
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| ALMOST (but not) touching a Space Rover!!! |
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| Giant Robot Spider. I have a photo from last time from the tour above, this time I was right next to it! |
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| Not touching Space Suits |
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| Some older suits |
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| We all got souvenir expired REAL space food! |
There’s also this note I wrote myself, which you get no explanation or context for:
“Every trip to NASA should start with Eddie Murphy’s Boogie in your Butt and Kim dancing with her purse tucked into her leggings. And end with Erik failing food rotation school.
Erik = Lieutenant Tots”
The next day was spent mostly running errands. I sadly called work and told them when to expect me back :( I was hoping to get to go swimming at Jeff’s but it was raining so the pool wasn’t open. One of the errands we ran was grocery shopping. Matt gave us 2 HUGE bag of mushrooms, so we had a giant mushroom feast while we had access to a kitchen.
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| Thank you Matt!!!!! |
After our relaxing days off, we were off to San Antonio. Once again, being Texas, lots of familiar faces. Unfortunately, this venue has a church next door so they do this thing where doors are at 6, but music gets pushed back until 9 because of the church… :( I did my best to try to start a dance party to keep everyone entertained, but I was about the only one into it. Plus the music they were playing wasn’t really Snork approved.
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| Decker and his doppelgänger as special helpers |
Next show was Lubbock, TX. It was a Thursday night, and not a huge turn out, so I got to watch almost all of each of the bands sets, including the opening band (sorry, it’s been a while and I can’t remember your name!)
This was also one of the first times I got to stand in the crown and just enjoy One-Eyed Doll's full set! They're still just as awesome and entertaining as they were when I saw them live for the first time 4-ish years ago. Only now they get to play a longer set :)
The sound system was a little rough at this show. By the time OED went on the 1 or 2 monitors they had weren't working. The sound guy was super awesome doing everything in his power to make it work. I think he was embarrassed by their equipment, but he was a great sound guy none the less. Kim said because it was so rough, they just kind of let go and had fun, and I think that's why it was such a great show. You could feel the freedom out in the audience.
Then we were onward to Tulsa, OK.
It was a Friday night, and for some reason there were no locals. They had a cool balcony that was closed that night, so I could sneak up there and take pictures. I got some of Run 2 Cover from the floor because there weren’t many people there yet, so I got to be front and center for their set.
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| Christian |
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| Colin and Brandon |
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| Colin, and Christian in the background |
Since there were no locals, Decker, Brandon and Junior did the 3 way drum solo thing again. I think it was even better this time around. I recorded it again, but sadly missed the beginning because I ran to grab a bottle of water for a girl who was 7 months pregnant and looked like she was going to pass out. Once again, you’ll have to wait for it to be released. I also have a billion photos of SUH because there are so many of them, and they move around so much, and are always blurry...
And, as always, One-Eyed Doll was awesome :)
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| Special Helpers |
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| Erik and Ben playing |
Next we were off to see our old roadie Billy (who I for some reason didn’t get a picture with) in Kansas City, MO.
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| Erik and I again, plus honey, Kim's tea, and my coffee in the background, lol |
So many unexpected people showed up. As well as many adorable people I was looking forward to seeing.
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| Amber! |
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| More Amber! |
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| Tegan |
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| THESE adorable girls!!! <3 |
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| Natalie and Sara |
Dorian was looking pretty sweet in an OED “Be My Friend” shirt that night (though, he always looks awesome in whatever he’s wearing each night), but my attempt to get pictures of him on stage were epic fails. Too much rocking out on stage + low lighting + me being in back = my camera sucks.
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| If you squint, you can pretend to see the eye logo in the corner |
SUH has a new song “That was Yesterday” that is AWESOME!!!!! But for some reason they only play as an encore… So this night I rallied some OED fans and got them to help me chant “One More Song.” And they played my song *swoon* It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! *fan girls* Unfortunately, because the venue pushed load in back, showed up late, locals went over, etc etc etc, we were running late, which I didn’t realize, and the encore put us even further back… *sigh*
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| Special Helpers! |
Then it was off to WITCHita, KS. The place we played at was a little bar called The Elbow Room. They had to move their booths just so there would be elbow room for people. I was set up awkwardly in the back corner on their pool table. It worked out for me though because I could stand on my hoodie tubs and see the stage really well. It also sucked because since it was such a small place, any one talking was super loud and distracting… Bars that happen to have a stage usually means lots of obnoxious drunk people :( Venues that happen to have a bar (I don’t put alcohol sales before having a good show) are SOOOOO much better. And if Kim had her way, she’d only play awesome, all ages, no alcohol venues. Any who…
We kept track of the time, and SUH managed to start their set early so I could hear my song, because they’re awesome like that! <3 You Guys!!!!!
I believe this was also the night both Mixi and Kim individually complimented me on my make-up, which pretty much meant I did my make-up that same way for most of the rest of the shows… :D
After Wichita we had a day off. I really don’t remember what all went down, probably because it was mostly spent sleeping. When I woke up we were parked outside of a Walmart or something, and there was this epic rainbow.
We stopped at a REALLY nice laundromat to do a bit of laundry to get us through the end of tour. Riggs met up with a friend and went off to hang out and see a movie. Jeff and Erik ended up going back to bed while Kim, Jr and I had sushi. It was still pretty early (for us), so while we were there we started searching for 24 hour coffee places we could go to with wifi. Jr ended up finding a 24 hour Mate place. Mate is... kind of a ceremonial tea. I'm not sure how to explain it. If you're really curious, research it. It's really interesting. One of the other guys at the sushi place warned us that it was run by a cult. It wasn’t that bad, but it is run by a community. I really don’t know how to explain it. Either way, the two guys, both named Emmet, were REALLY nice and awesome. We hung out there for a long time working on stuff online. The drinks were good (you get one free refill of regular, hot Mate!), Kim and Jr got some food which smelled amazing, they gave us a free homemade granola bar thing, and I bought a muffin for breakfast the next day that was great. Plus the decor of the place is super cute and made me feel like I was in a Hobbit house. When we’d had our fill of tea and wifi, we headed to the venue to park for the night.
The next show was at Sunshine Studios in Colorado Springs, CO. Sunshine is always awesome. This is where we get to see Scott, and where they stream the show! We actually got to load in a bit early, so I was all set up early and actually had time to hang out with everyone in the green room before doors!
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| Party in the green room! Brandon, Me, Mixi and Minnie Mouse |
CO is another place that I look forward to because we get to see people like Sean Hathaway of Do Thy Bidding who makes our magic wands, Brock, Andrew and his mom, Jozeph, many other people I’m blanking on right now (sorry!). Last tour we got to see Ben in CO but he couldn’t make it this tour (miss you Ben!).
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| Brock |
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| Jozeph as Calvin with Hobbes |
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| Making Calvin faces |
The locals always seem to be awesome here too. The first band, (whose name I can't remember and can't seem to find online) was a female front metal band, and I really liked her outfit. The second band, (may have been "13 Nails") had awesome costumes.
I was talking to the dragon after the show and I guess it wasn’t just for Halloween. He makes a new costume for each show he does! The last local, Suspension 9, played with us last time we were there. Brock thinks they live there back in the green room because they’ve played every show he’s seen there. They’re cool because they like to put on a show, not just play music. This time we got a little bit extra of a show when the lead singer accidentally caught his beard on fire a bit doing fire breathing. Oops!
I thought we were behind schedule after the first opener, but somehow SUH managed to start early again, which meant getting to hear my song again <3 Unfortunately, the encore didn’t end up on the CD they burned, and it doesn’t sound like it made it in the live stream either *cries* If anyone happens to have a video from any of the shows of the encore song, please let me know. I’ll love you forever! (Though, if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’ve met me on tour/know me and I already love you forever already :P)
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| Minnie Mouse drumming |
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| All of SUH in one photo, but they're blurry :( |
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| One-Eyed Doll!!! One-Eyed Doll!!! One-Eyed Doll!!! |
