I'm getting behind!

I think I left off with our day off in NYC. Then of course we had to play a show in NYC…  Once again, we were FINALLY going to be on the second level for a change instead of the downstairs stage. Once again, that didn’t happen. This time it was because Metallica was playing a special show for their fan club on the top level, and they needed the entire second level for production…

We didn’t have the same sound guy as last time, but our usual sound guy did stop by and say hi earlier in the night, and said bye to me before taking off. The sound guy we did have turned to me at doors and asked if I had any requests for house music. I blanked and all I could think of was silverchair, but when Kim tried playing a “silverchair” station while we were packing for tour, we kept getting all of these terrible 90’s radio songs. I can’t remember what the guy said he ended up putting on, but it played a lot of Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails, which would have been other go-tos if I could have brained at the time. AND, the station ended up playing not one, but TWO silverchair songs.

Speaking of NIN, Jack has this epic 90's Trent Reznor look in the photo (see next photo)

See?

I also wrote a little note to myself about something that happened that night but I can’t read it. Clearly that means it was super important and we’re all going to die now since I’m not writing about it.

While we’re all waiting to die, I’ll tell you about the next show in Cambridge, MA. There’s not a whole lot to say. There was a giant AC vent blowing on me at merch all night, so I spent a lot of my free time in the back of the crowd dancing around to stay warm (and because it’s what I do). I ended up getting a really bad cough that night :(

The next night was Long Branch, NJ and one of the saddest nights ever because it was Open Your Eyes’ last night *cries* Kim and I surprised them with hand made Fangirl shirts.

I got mine signed :D

This place was a tiny, tiny little bar. I’m not sure why they booked a 3 band tour package plus 2-3 locals. Ben had to store the drums in a back closet and walk them through the audience to set up the stage.

Comron's backbend while playing

One-Eyed Doll sounded really good in the audience though. 

Kim (you can see her knee) playing for a beaming/laughing (?) Sandra!

There were chains hanging from the ceiling above the stage (you can see one hanging above the OED banner in the next photo), and at one point Kim whipped her hair around and it got caught on one.

After the show Kim prepared a feast and we had a "Good Bye OYE"/"Welcome to the crew Joe" party on the bus. It was fun, but also really, really, Really, REALLY sad :(

The first show without OYE was in Duncannon, PA. The venue was HUGE compared to the last place, but the staff there was kind of weird about everything. It was also a smoking venue. My lungs still hadn’t recovered from the AC a couple of nights before, and this just made my cough worse :(  This was the first show with the band Fractured Fairytales who would be joining us for a week of tour.

Take your little rock-n-roll talons...

Bury them into your little rock-n-roll chests
And rip out your little rock-n-roll hearts
And thrown them at my feet

*picks up heart*

Tour’s mostly over, so I feel like I’m not really ruining any surprises. Wednesday 13 “ends” their set, everyone leaves the stage, then the crowd usually starts some sort of encore chant/yelling for Wednesday. They come back on and play 1-3 more songs, starting with the song “I love to say F*ck.” This night, when they first left the stage, half of the crowd was chanting “F*ck” while the other half was chanting “One more song.” Eventually it was just a room full of people chanting “F*ck” in unison.

They also must have had an issue with someone trying to get on stage or something, because during the last song there was a security guard standing on stage awkwardly behind Roman the entire time watching the crowd. It was super distracting and awkward :/

Philadelphia was another weird one. We played at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown. That meant we couldn’t load in until they closed the restaurant at 5, and there was no where to park. We had to pull up on the street blocking a lane, unload, then park in a lot somewhere else and be driven back to the restaurant. Merch was all awkwardly set up, on the registers/their shop area, but we made it work. Um… I don’t remember much about the show other than it was short because the conditions were weird, no one could use fog, etc. I did grab a pic with Wednesday just in case I don’t have another chance to before the end of tour

Hopefully I do because this one is slightly blurry…

Even though it was a short show, it still ended up being just as late of a night, and we had an early day the next day. We were playing a festival in Sinking Spring, PA called Shocktober Fest. We were supposed to “load in” at noon and the festival started at 2. However, when I woke up, super tired, the coffee maker wasn’t working. I hid in my bunk under the covers until Junior got it working again. Because it was a festival, it was a loooooong day. Between that, and all of the smoking going on, I hid on the bus several times for a break. Over all it was fun and a good show. No pictures though because there was so much going on. I do have a funny story. If you read my blog over the summer you know we played The Gathering of the Juggalos. For those that don’t know, during their set, a few people threw ears of corn on stage. This tour we have a pumpkin full of goodies I throw out into the audience, including plastic food and gardening tools Kim got from the dollar store. One of which was a mini ear of corn. Since this was another festival, I thought it might be appropriate to bust out the corn. It got to the part where the audience yells “Trick or Treat,” Kim looked over at me, I pulled out the corn, looked at it, and threw it at Kim. She just started cracking up. I’m pretty sure someone got it on film and uploaded it to Facebook. I’ll have to see if I can find it.

*Just spent way too long looking for it and couldn't find it. If someone has a link, let me know*

After the past few stressful shows and a loooooooong festival, we luckily had a day off. I think we did laundry that day, then headed to Richmond. We found a cool downtown area which had an Insomnia Cookies and a local place called Red Eye Cookies. Originally we were going to go “cookie-hopping” and try both. But we got to Red Eye and found out they had been there about 2 years, and a year ago Insomnia (which is a chain) moved in across the street, so we ended up just staying at Red Eye and supporting local business. Plus they were better, cheaper, and had milk combos (including almond and soy milk!) The guy working the register had never had a macadamia nut on it’s own, and Kim & I had some hidden on the bus, so Kim went a brought a little cup for him to try. He introduced us to the owner who we got talking to. He ended up giving us 2 free shirts and offered to bring 5 dozen cookies to the show! He was such a sweet guy, if you’ve ever in the Richmond, be sure to stop into Red Eye and grab a cookie!

The next show was in Richmond, VA, obviously. We can’t load in until W13 is all loaded in, so Ben, Joe & I ended up wandering over to the Edgar Allen Poe museum.

Red Eye delivered 5 dozen warm, delicious cookies to the show! Originally we were going to have them for VIP, but as soon as VIP started, the local started sound checking, so they went outside. The staff and W13 guys got some cookies though, and we passed them around at the merch table during meet & greet.

After the show, in order to repay them for their generosity, we had an after party at Red Eye. Well, Kim & Junior did, I was tired so I stayed on the bus doing merch numbers and my restock list. The point of having the after party there was to bring them business, but the owner insisted on giving everyone cookies on the house. He is way too nice. Seriously, go support Red Eye!!!

Next was Charlotte, NC. We weren’t sure how this show was going to go because Korn and someone else were also playing that night, and if I remember correctly, there were no locals. It ended up being a really good show though!

Love the colors in this, even if it's not in focus

Colors and fog are epic in this!

And more epic fog swirls in this!

Next we were off to Huntington, WV. We parked near by over night, and load in a bit later, so I had some free time after I woke up. I wandered around and found Ben’s cleaner’s.

Ben's cleaners!

My merch was awkwardly set up between 2 booths, and the green room was BEHIND the stage upstairs. I don’t remember anything specifically interesting that happened at the show, but there was a girl wearing a TARDIS dress. I never got a chance to tell her how cool it was :(

Canada, eh?

After… whatever the last show was, I think it was Columbus but I’m too lazy to check, we had a day off. As usual it was mostly spent sleeping, driving, eating and doing laundry. We did decide to cross over into Canada that night/early morning. We got through with no problems this time and decided to check out Niagara Falls.

The downtown-ie area is like Vegas or something!

Ahh! It's a dragon!!!!

These lights are kick drums!

Because of the schedule we keep, we didn’t actually go see the Falls until 2am. We could see white water off in the distance, and hear the Falls. It was cool because there weren’t really any people around, but we couldn’t see as much as we would have been able to in the daylight. I got some decent pictures though.

Steam rising into the air

This sign is very detailed, it's almost giving instructions.

Cool fountain at the place we went to for dinner

The first 2 shows in Canada were both in Toronto at Rockpile, the awesome venue we were at last tour. Even though we weren’t headlining this time, they still treated us amazingly. 

The crowd Thursday night didn’t really seem to be into any of the openers. Not so much they didn’t like them, but everyone just wanted to sit in back at the tables and observe. I decided to take the opportunity to stand right up front for Open Your Eyes’ set. Ben eventually came and joined me, and slowly through out a few more people came down. I always figure that if no one else is going to go up and enjoy the show I’m going to enjoy my own personal concert :)

The awesome thing about playing the same venue 2 nights in a row is not having to tear down at the end of the night, or set up the next day! Because of which, I got to sleep in the next day, and had time to kill before doors. OYE found a place to play pool and invited John, Ben and I along.

One of the openers that night (whose name I don’t know, gah!) was this cool, horror Rock-a-billy band with a girl that played upright bass. 

The crowd Friday night was better, but there were also way more drunk/rowdy people people :( During “Be My Friend” I set the candy pumpkin down on one of the boxes Kim stands on to do the motions for the chorus. A guy in the audience started rifling through it. The second time I set it down I made it a point to set it BEHIND the box. This time the guy reached AROUND it. I stopped dancing and was about to take it from him/kick his hand when he took a piece on candy out and set it back *angry* Now I make it a point to try to set it out of reach of the audience…

They weren’t much better during Wednesday 13’s set. Some guy managed to crowd surf, and at the very end of W13’s set someone tried ripping one of his masks off or something. I don’t know for sure what happened, but he started yelling at them and left the stage pretty angry.

The next night we were in Ottawa. I noticed a bunch of super cute Canadian accents at this show. Plenty of “aboot-s” and “eh-s.” There was also a fanboy who knew who I was and was telling his dad it’s because “Kim always tweets aboot her.” Lol. 

Whenever I'm side stage and try to get a pic of Kim doing a backbend at the end of "Break" I always end up being on the awkward crotch side. I was finally on her head side this time, but the lights totally blew out the photo...

This was also the night of the great face bashing incident… Some of you have seen the picture on Facebook/Instagram.

So here’s what happened…  Kim had been sick for a while and was trying really hard not to over do it with her voice. A few songs into W13’s set Junior came and told me Kim wasn’t coming back for a second meet & greet after W13’s set. So I was picking up her stuff and clearing off the table she was using. I went to fold up her chair, but instead of the bottom folding up, the entire backrest came off. Right into the bridge of my nose. It started bleeding pretty badly. Not gushing, but a pretty steady drip. I ran to my backpack because I knew I had kleenex in there somewhere. But, of course, I couldn’t find it. I’m digging and digging around, meanwhile my other hand is now full of a puddle of blood. I’m dripping on the floor, and I keep finding it randomly on my things. One of the tub lids has a spot, a make-up bag that was in my backpack has a big stain on it, I need to wash the W13 hoodie I bought because I kept finding blood drips all over it, etc. It’s getting to the point that I’m debating if I should sacrifice a t-shirt or something when I FINALLY manage to find the kleenex. There are only 2 left…  Luckily I managed to clean up enough to make it through the crowd to the bathroom with out causing a scene or bleeding on anyone. I get to the bathroom and there’s a pretty big, open gash on my nose. I wash up, and grab a handful of paper towel. I make it back to the merch table pressing one against the still bleeding wound. And of course we’re in Canada so I have no cell service. I try getting on Facebook to send a message to Ben and Junior on the off chance that they happen to be on, but the wifi isn’t working anymore. I starting to get worried because it won’t stop bleeding and I’m afraid it’s going to need stitches. Just as I’m about to leave the table unattended and go to the bus, Ben stops by to check on me!!! He kept an eye on the table while I went to the bus to figure out what was going on. I got to the bus and Kim helped me clean it and cut a bandaid to put over it. She also made me sit and eat something since I’d lost a bunch of blood (it probably wasn’t actually enough to make me pass out or anything, but I think she wanted me to take some time to relax). I eventually went back in at the end of W13’s set to make some final sales and pack up.

The first bandaid completely filled with blood by the end of the night and I had to change it before bed. When I woke up the next morning the new bandaid was full again and I was getting worried again that I might need stitches. Finally after a couple days of slow seepage it stopped bleeding on it’s own. It seems to be healing well and hopefully won’t leave a scar. If it does I’ll have to come up with a cooler story about how it happened :)

We made it back into America with no issues, and our first show back States side was in Webster, NY. It was at this old, historical building called Harmony House. It was kind of a weird venue for a rock show, but it had a lot of cool history. The restrooms were labeled “Olivia Newton” and “Elton” (Get it? Because they’re Johns! Gosh, it’s not funny if I have to explain it to you…). The openers at this show were kind of weird as well. The first 2 guys were rappers, there was a boy band, and a metal band with a screaming singer and a rapper. None of them were bad, they’re just a lot different than the openers we’ve been getting on this tour.

I also had a pretty clear view of Sandra of OYE from where my merch was set up. She is for sure a BEAST on the drums! <3 <3 <3

Blurry Kim FLYING over the drum set

After Webster, we finally got another day off! And it was in NYC! We parked in our usual spot overnight and took off on our separate ways the next day. Junior and John went to a Moog store and nerded out over synths for hours. Kim had the hotel room to herself so she had a bit of a spa day then met up with Kyle from W13 for lunch. Ben and I bussed into the city. We started off getting some brunch at a place Ben found that has 24 hour breakfast. I’ll have to remember it for next time because it was good! We got our tour tradition, Times Square selfie, then took the subway to lower Manhattan to check out the Gothic Renaissance and Halloween stores (I broke down and bought a new pair of fangs because I couldn’t find mine when I was packing). We then wandered over to Webster Hall where we’d be playing the next night because it was across the street. After that we wandered a block over and found a cool little toy/comic book shop. I ended up buying a small stuffed Grumpy Cat in a shark costume and what I’m calling my new “Grumpy Hat” since I stupidly forgot to pack a warm hat this tour. Ben started getting tired of walking around so we took the subway back up to Times Square where he went to a movie and I met up with Kim & Junior.  We had Dim Sum for dinner, wandered around a bit, then found a couple of little dessert places. We met back up with Ben, but Kim ended up going off to get a message while I went to the Apple store and finally got a new phone! (Thanks Kim & Jason!!!!) We all got back together, then ubered back to the bus to drive it into the city at night while there was less traffic.