I met up with the band about 5 days before we headed out. It's a good thing I did because there's a LOT of new merch, which meant a LOT to pack. They also had to mail out all of the "Something Wicked" pre-orders they decided to release last minute. So if you ordered it, and got a package full of colorful tissue paper, I most likely packaged that up for you :) Some of the rest of the crew helped out too. We have a couple of newbies on this tour. Riggs is back (YAY!!!) He has some CDs of his Thrash Metal Band Draghoria available for free. If you're interested, stop by the merch table and let me know. On lights this tour, we have long time friend of Junior's, Mando. He's awesome and fit in right away. I feel like I've known him for years already. And driving this tour, we have Felicia. Now there's 3 girls and 3 boys! :P
We headed out to Vegas a day early so we could take our time and relax a bit. They rented a really nice practice space when we got into town to get 1 last practice in (and I finished sewing tags onto Kim's clothing line prototypes, which are available for sale at the merch table). Kim streamed some of the set up and practice. You can watch it on the video section of their Facebook page.
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| So Legit! |
Vegas was.... interesting. The very first show is always difficult because it's the first time doing everything for real, and it usually takes a few shows to work all the kinks out. On top of that, it was a free show, and it's a restaurant that's open, so there were people coming in and out and everywhere. They did block off the main area for the VIP soundcheck, but after a certain point they just started letting people in. Merch was also a little rough because it was my first time setting up and figuring out where everything was going to go. There isn't a lot of room for merch, so I couldn't do my full set up. The show itself went really well though! It was a lot of fun and the Vegas crowd is always awesome.
Co-Op, who will be joining us the end of tour, played this show since Vegas was originally going to be the last show. I didn't really get a chance to meet them, but they seem nice. I was standing next to a couple of them when they watched OED for the first time. I'm pretty sure I witnessed some minds being blown. Also met DollSkin for the first time. I haven't really had a chance to talk to them much yet, but they're super awesome as well. They put on a great show too, and I'm excited for this tour!
After Vegas we had a day off, but it was spent driving to Colorado. The bus was not a fan of the mountains and we had to go really slow.
Next show was Colorado Springs at Sunshine Stuidos!!!! One of my all time favorite venues. I finally got to do my full set up, but it still took forever and was stressful. The show was great though. And we celebrated Doll Skin drummer Megan's birthday. I got to fan girl all over OED's set, but I don't want to say too much yet since it's early in the tour and I don't want to ruin any surprises. I'm sure a lot of you watched it on the live stream, but just incase I'm keeping my lips sealed for now.
Next day was Denver. Denver is always an awesome show. Sadly, all of the larger venues were already booked for this night, but the promoter really wanted us to play, so we played at a small bar. It was cool because it was a fun, packed show. I couldn't set up my full merch display, but the sound guy was awesome, the show was silly and epic, and it was a good night. Well, mostly.
As I was telling Johnny Zero, we have the best worst luck. Remember when our trailer hitch came unattached and wrecked the trailer? But luckily it didn't hit anyone, it was a day off, and we were in Kim's cousin's hometown. Well, we had some good bad luck this night too. Let's see if I can explain the night's events without giving anything away...
One-Eyed Doll is a couple of songs in. Dom, with DollSkin, comes running in asking where Riggs is because a city bus just hit our bus. I tell him he's probably side stage/green room. Long story short, Ben and I both have things we need to be doing, and can't be outside talking to the bus driver/police so we send Felicia out. They want the owner and need the insurance/registration. It pretty much comes down to, either they're going to have to wait until the show is over to talk to Junior, or they're going to have to come in and stop the show themselves, because we're in the middle of a rock show and we're not stopping :) In the end, it gets worked out, we just have to replace the driver side mirror. The good luck part is we have 3 days off, so we have time to get it fixed.
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| Fixed it! |
And that pretty much brings us to the present. Since we're stuck here for a bit, we got a hotel room so we can shower and everyone can sleep since the sleeping/driving schedule is messed up at the moment. I've been sitting in the room taking advantage of the wifi. Someone last night told me about a bunch of good places to eat, and we'll probably find something cool to do, get the mirror fixed, then head off to Kansas City!
