It sucks. I absolutely hate it when tour ends. Even if I feel like I couldn’t stand another second of it I still hate it when it ends. The road is an addiction in of it’s self. Plenty of bands have gone down the long, hard road of addiction but, I’m talking about something else … . .
Our terrific audio-engineer, Jay Minger, once described loading our equipment in and out of shows as part of the physical rhythm of the night. I got on board immediately. That’s what being on the road is … perpetual motion. There’s no stopping on tour. The moment we’re done playing Stone Cellar and sleeping through a light show we’re getting gyros and haircuts in Neenah with Rhonda … … and, icing our faces in the morning with our coffee.
(Sidenote: Icing your face is our new “wake up and get going” technique that I kind of concocted as a product of being a bit of a night dweller. Simply wake up, hungover or not, get an icepack or a bag of frozen veggies and slap it on your face. It’s cold but, extremely effective.)
Maybe we think Aberdeen will be chill on a Monday and we can haul up at a hotel and relax … instead they pack the Eagle’s Club and have a huge blowout for us afterwards. Then a quick face icing and a short truck (for us at least) to Fargo finds us a sweet radio show and a great crowd. Followed quickly by meeting the lovely Chelsea Ray and her wonderful roommates. We didn’t have a show that next night after The Nestor and they didn’t see us so we (constantly moving of course) found a coffee shop, grabbed the acoustics and did it to it. Oh, but the nights not over … . with one high-octane acoustic set under our belts, great new friends and a few sodas all we needed was a piano at Chelsea’s place and we were right back at it with what must of been three or four more hours of sing alongs … …
From bar to venue to theater to coffee shop … good, bad, fun, shady, plus show or empty crowd it ends up being what it is … . constant. I don’t actualize those details in myself from show to show. I don’t know if Chris, Clint, Jay or Yorg do. I’ve come to realize that once my blinders go up and my focus is on game time that every show, every night and every crowd (big or small) deserves the same passion, focus and drive as the next. That’s what makes the road monotonous and perpetually new all the time. That’s why I hate it when the road finally ends … . .