Bride Nine Tour Recap

So this October I met up with Polar Bear Club in LA to finish out the Bridge Nine Tour which featured a great set of bands all on Bridge Nine Records. Ruiner, Crime in Stereo, Polar Bear Club and Strike Anywhere.
Due to Unholy's tour falling through because of fanatical problems, I had a void to fill this month. I couldn't just sit home and get depressed . Thankfully PBC offered to take me out. I flew out to LA to meet up with them halfway through the tour. I've never enjoyed LA in past visits, but this time broke the cycle. We managed to Get into Sacred Heart, the hospital used to film a little TV program called SCRUBS. Which happens to be Goose and I's favorite joys of life.



Worlds most Giant Doctor



I was really excited to be hanging out on this tour, not only are the PBCers my favorite humans to hang out with but I was also a fan of the other bands. Strike Anywhere one of my favorite bands. "Exit English" would make my top 5 favorite records. So needless to say I was pumped and hoped I would not make a fool of myself. 2 of my past bands have ripped that record off completely.

After watching Strike Anywhere one time I could tell this band who had been playing now for 10 years still could write amazing songs and STILL meant ever word they said. You can just sense the honesty of the band when they played, something few bands have. Every night I got sucked right up front by the energy the band gave off with a dopey ear to ear smile on my face.




Other than the amazing bands every night, I enjoyed being out on the road with PBC. It was nice seeing my friends for more than a few days when they're home. I was great to see them in their element doing what they love. No matter how much any of them could complain about being on tour so much or about any of the many pains of actually touring, as soon as they got on stage any idiot could tell how much they love playing music.




Here are some more pictures from the tour (my camera on my phone sucks):


West Coast may actually be the Best Coast


LA Tarpits


Halloween in SC Myself and Goose.


Deafter. (jumped on the last 2 shows)

"Home"..

So I'm back from the Summer Slob Tour '09. I miss everyone already.

The last run of shows were really awesome. Most of the shows were between 200-400 kids. Not too bad! I had a blast playing in Unholy and can't wait to go out again. We have at least 2 months off which is a total bummer. Although this tour was well attended, it was not really a tour for us. As been explained to our management several times, we need a METAL tour! Some hardcore kids can get into us but the idea crowd would be long-haired, devil horn throwing head-banging maniacs! They love to buy records and black T-shirts with monsters on them. Every show on this tour there would be 2 or 3 of them at the shows. And they would always be up front getting wild! We need 200-500 of them watching us every night!

Along with buying records these metal heads love talking to Steve-O our long haired shred-master guitar player These dudes will talk his ear off all night and buy him beers. It's really incredible. Every night! A couple people will say a few words to Billy, the drummer of the opening band will talk to Andy and of course older dudes that recognize JD from Another Victim or The Promise will shoot the shit with him. What's left for Jay? Girls?......hahaha. Girls don't like metal IDIOTS!! This is fine with me, I like to chill by myself after the set anyway. I like to think about how things went and be thankful I'm playing music.

After every tour I ask myself if I enjoyed myself and if I really want to continue being broke. The answer is always yes. Tour is really perfect for me. Obviously playing music, but I enjoy driving long distances.......yeah weird I know. I love listening to music and watching the miles go by. When you drive you get to see everything. Mountains, lakes, bridges, weirdos, bears (yep saw a black bear just walking around on this tour) I love it. Call me a hippie if you want but I can't get enough of that shit.

This tour package was packed with characters. Let me tell you about them.. ok?

First Evergreen Terrace, my personal favorite of the tour. I award Josh with the MVP of this tour. A fucking wild man. Best story teller I've ever met, packed with the best stories I've heard. Along with his brother Caleb (filled in on drums this tour) they are an unstoppable comedy team. Chris their new bass player brought alot to the table as well. Kinda funny in a way where he didn't know he was doing so.... you get me? Drew and Craig brought a quiet wit to the team that just balanced everything out. Band was built perfect for touring and keeping everyone else on the tour in high spirits.

Acacia Strain although they kept to themselves very important to this tour. Their fill-in guitar player Dave dub as the "Hardcore Fagha (father)" made early load in worth it. This man would buy $100 worth of items at Wal-Mart or any other mart almost every day. What was he buying??? Where did he get all this money??? No idea, we'll never know. What we do know about him is that he had the meanest stage presence, played in "Blood Has Been Shed" for a while, and now plays bass in a Reggae band back home.

Cruel Hand.... well I can sum these dudes up in one quote...... "Yeah we we're going to be on time for load in but then we found a pool" Awesome guys, love water and not wearing shirts.

Well now I'm home bored and have no friends. I'm going to go ride my bike and hopfully find some bums that want to hang out.

tired

The past couple have days have been rough. A couple over night drives and sleeping in the van. Drained me pretty good. My on stage energy has been at an all time low, as well as my mood. Tonight was pretty cool though. We actually hung out after the show with all the bands, went to Buffalo Wild Wings and a bar after. Everyone fought over the 3 girls that hung out. I've luckily realized that this is a waste of time. Beside that fact that any girl hanging out with 3 three bands is most likely lacking an interesting personality and the only skill they have in dropping names and getting drunk, you're going to end up frustrated. I just stay away from girls as much as possible on tour as "gay" as it sounds, I'd rather hang with the boys and cause trouble.

If I haven't mentioned the Evergreen guys are awesome dudes. We've started to hang with the other bands a bit. They seem pretty cool.

Anyway here's some pics


Evergreen Terrace w/ Brian Stage Diving


Acacia Strain

July 17th

Tonight was the first night of the Acacia Strain part of the tour. We played Doylestown, PA/ Never heard of it? Well, it might be because it looks like it's been cut off from the rest of the world since the civil war....we except for the Startbucks and Verizon Wireless store. All Locally own stores and restaurants. Full of Lawyers, Doctors and their wives looking at us like a traveling freak show. (which I guess is not to far off). Annnyway. The venue was moved( unknown to us) to a pavilion in the woods...... yep. The first day of "real" tour started in the middle of the woods. Only thing that could make it worse.....rain? Sure enough. But despite all of that the show turned out to be pretty ok. Well besides kids not coming within 10 feet of the stage while we played. Cruel Hand and Evergreen Terrace did very well. Acacia Stain is playing as I type. I'm sure Canadians are swinging from the rafters... what?

Today is also the first day with our new road dog Brian Magee. Should spice things up a bit. Did I mention that everyone has been lifting on this tour? Imagine and Golds Gym in the middle of the woods full of tattooed dudes mixing protein shakes. Pretty incredible if you ask me. I have yet to join in, maybe a couple push ups here and there but no iron pumping.

Well back to mesh short land.

Playlist:

Weakerthans; _Left And Leaving
Small Brown Bike- Nail Yourself to the Ground
Minus The Bear - Acoustics
Ted Leo - Shake The Sheets

Encouragement

We met up with the first half of our tour a few days ago. The tour includes: Evergreen Terrace, Thick as Blood, and The Word Alive. The first two shows were awesome, alot of kids packed into small venues. Kids seemed to be in to us even if they didn't buy merch.

Evergreen Terrace is full of incredible dudes. I've already had real conversations with all of them. Which is odd because it takes a while for bands to actually start becoming friends on tour. They're all extremely friendly. The other two bands are pretty cool as well. Thick as Blood, are wild dudes who are constantly making they're own fun. AKA smashing shit. The Word Alive are young dudes and a little more chill, also friendly.

We played some interesting venues including a pizza shop with a stripper pole and a christian venue with an Aerosmith type cat walk sticking out from the front of the stage with a lightbox at the end. Real Fantasy stuff right there. Needless to say I jumped off the lightbox at least 3 times during the set. Before the show we had to join the crew in prayer. Awkward but we were respectful. The people were awesome, made us food had food for us all night, offered to fix anything wrong with our van and trailers ect. Bet part of the night was when the presented to us a BIBLE which had our band name inside........ UNHOLY! YESSSS! but later we discovered it actually said Unholly. Either the man misspelled our name or refused to write it. Either way I'm fine with it.

We've been playing a couple decent tour games. "Sandwhich Punch" as always, "Can You Surf That" (my personal favorite) and "The Coin Game", which basically is whoever has this Pokemon coin we found at the end of tour loses. It's more exciting than it sounds, you wouldn't get it. What do you know idiot?

We meet up with the "real" tour in a few days. Shows should be bigger and hopefully some kids will buy merch (fingers crossed). I don't miss home. I literally have nothing home waiting for me besides bills and work. Even Goose will be gone by the time I get there. Oh I do miss my bike.

Billy looks like Vin Deasel.....

Later Skater!

Day 4

First two shows were pretty bunk, but interesting The first night we played West Virginia. Last minute bar show There was about 15 people there but they all seemed to be into it.. The city was pretty run down and infested with meth heads. (I now call all drugged out people "Meth Heads". They might not be on meth but I think it's funny) we walked around for a while saw nothing but empty store fronts and abandoned buildings.

The second show was in Atlanta. I was pretty pumped going into this show. Little did I know that this was also a last minute show. A promoter backed out last minute but the dudes from Foundation stepped up and helped out. Energy from Boston played which was pretty cool. I had met them a few years ago and they are pretty cool guys. There were maybe 5 people there that weren't in bands. Our set went pretty well, some kids got into it. Energy was pretty tight. They are a pretty awesome band, great guitar tones and great vocals. After the show we stayed with Thomas and Champ from Foundation. Pretty chill pad nice Pitt.

Last night we played Goose Creek, SC. At first it looked as if it was going to be the worst shows of tour. But after a some bulletins and message board post by locals and a price drop a bunch of kids came and had a great time.

Tonight we're playing Tallahassee, FL and meeting up with Evergreen Terrace and Thick as Blood. Van rides have been pretty chill. A lot of brick breaker. I also started reading the Satanic Bible. It's a pretty decent read. It's not as silly as one might think. It;s really just Anton LaVey's take on life. There are a few silly chapters but so far so good. We've hit Starbucks everyday so far on tour, which is second nature after the Earth Crisis tour. Everybody is hooked on the refills. Savings!

Witnessed a pretty brutal car accident today. 5 cars involved. All smashing into each other like a something I saw at the State Fair once. No one was injured just a bunch of broken cars and broken hearts.

The south is a pretty interesting place. I both encourage and discourage anyone wishing to go there. The people range from polite upstanding people to dumb as rock meth heads. I try to talk to as many of both sides as possible, always entertaining. When in the South always remember to reach for the big bag of Tom's Hot Fries. They are a delicious vegan treat that should not be ignored.

Things I would like to do in the South that I haven't gotten a chance to do:

-Take a Fan-boat ride.

Ever since I saw Police Academy (3 I think) and they chased the bad guys on Fan-Boats I thought it was bad ass. I wanna jump some river boats and ride up on land so I can jump onto a fleeing crook, while a friend most likely Brian Magee makes helicopter sounds through a mega-phone.

-Wrestle a Crock

I think I could take one. If not Billy can step in.

-Take a tour of the Coca-Cola plant.

I wanted to do this in Atlanta but we didn't have time. Love the Coca-Cola.

-Get Malaria

So I can beat it and bring it up at parties

Jay's Van Playlist:
Attack in Black - Marriage
Lot's of Danzig
Cancer Bats- Hail Destroyer
Bronx - ST
Piebald - We are the Only Friends That We Have
Carpenter- Law of The Land

Brick Breaker High Score: 9210 Level 15
I'm getting better!

One

I decided that I should actually start doing this thing. As cliche as blogs are now a days, I feel like it might be important for myself to keep a record of the next upcoming years. I've recently joined Unholy a metal band from Syracuse that will be touring as much as possible. We have a tour starting tomorrow which will be my first playing with the band. The first half is with Evergreen Terrace whom I had no idea was still a band. Then we will be meeting up with The Acacia Strain, our label mates (Prosthetic) and Cruel Hand. I'm not a big fan of AS, but I do like Cruel Hand. Either way I will enjoy myself I'm sure.

I love touring and I've never had less than an amazing time. It always just feels right to me. I never want to go home or get sick of playing. I love playing music more than anything. There was one moment in my life where I decided this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was in Europe with my old band Earthquake. It was the second to last day of an incredible tour. We had been received very well and made a lot of friends. This tour might have been the wildest time of my life. Staying up every night partying, screaming smashing everything. Anyway! We played a venue called AK-47, I can never remember the city but it was in Germany. This was one of maybe 5 of our headlining dates. When it was time for us to play, the crowd number tripled. These people were her to see us??? The venue was packed! As soon as we hit the opening note kids went wild! This had never happened. Maybe a few of our friends we met dance a little for us at past shows but this was different. The venue exploded with pure euro intensity (which may be very awkward but 100% sincere) We played our usual set with everyone singing every word! When we had finished the crowd cheered for more. We had no more. Sean (our singer) asked if they wanted us to play one of the songs for a second time. Sure enough they wanted it. They went even more crazy than the first time. They still wanted more, so we half assed a couple covers one of which I sang. After finally convincing the crowd that's all they really wanted we started to break down. I may or may not have shed a tear and hugged everyone. I told Mike our guitar player that this was the best thing I've ever been apart of and thanked him for letting be apart of his band.

So after that night I've done everything to make music my main focus. Funny party of that story I havn't told many people is I tried called my girlfriend at the time to share this with her. She didn't answer, so when I finally got ahold of her....she dumped me! I also decided that girls were the devil and switch to guys....... ok maybe not but that's what you wanted to hear.

Anyway I will try to update this as much as I can or want to. we'll see.

Check our dates here and come hang. www.myspace.com/unholy