We had a great time with good friends and we were super thankful for alot this year. We'll have to do it again next year! (Ghoul)
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It's kinda strange writing for the tour journal when we're not on tour, but Thanksgiving to us is a very serious event.
This is our second annual Thanksgiving at the Over It house in Huntington Beach presented by James Ulrich. This year was a bit of a bummer because we lost Pete.
His girlfriend was in Los Angeles visiting and they both went down to San Diego for dinner with Mike Green and his family.
Speaking of girlfriends, my lovely lady was out of town visiting her family, but James' girlfriend was around and helped us all out by bringing the wine.
This year we had nine people at the table. We had both of our two roommates (Eddie and Ryan), our good ol virginia friend Jeff and his girlfriend Bree, and our hawaiian brother Joey with us for dinner.
It would be obnoxious to try and list the menu, so I included a picture of the table set up before we grubbed out.
I have to credit Ryan for hooking up the honey baked ham. Nicko made some side dishes and Eddie was good for moral support... I guess. We had a great time with good friends and we were super thankful for alot this year. We'll have to do it again next year! (Ghoul) |
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You can only forestall the inevitable for so long. And so the best tour of our lives came to
a resounding close in sweet 'ole Saint Louis. Yet, boy did we go out with a bang.
Our show went really well; by the end we were visited by a conga line of what appeared to be North
Pole elves and Santa Claus, some of whom were dressed in drag, and one of whom brought out an
entire drum kit for the duration of our last song. Apparently the crowd had mixed feelings about
this ribald display: Matt Relient K's uncle, who happens to be a preacher of some kind texted him with
the message that the show was a little "intense" right from the get-go, so could he just come out
and say his greetings early-To our interpretive dance squad-Thanks for sending us off in stiches.
Near the end of our evening in Milwaukee I was recruited in spite of every effort at modesty to sing lead vocals
for "Middle Name", an MXPX anthem from the formative days of my music career. Whoa, let me just say
it again, Mike Herrera INSISTED that i relieve his singing post for an entire song; apparently he
was convinced i would own it. I guess i did, Tommy Rat said i did well, i honestly don't remember
the details, but judging from the look on my face in these pictures it was a moment to inspire giddiness.
I look like such a dork in that photo, but Seth insisted that it was crucial that we leave it for
future generations of web-goers.
So with all that said I think the four of us can agree that Relient K certainly contributed more than
their fair share of the magic we beheld at the Pageant. Halfway through their set, Matthew called us
onstage and began a serenade in our honor. On the spot, he made up lyrics, a melody and enough sensibility
to get the whole band and crowd jamming out to the chorus of "i'm not over it yet!", a previously unheard and unrehearsed
jam in our honor. How cool do we feel? Very cool.
Anyway...the tour is over and we survived. I can't wait to tell you guys more about it as we
return to southern California and dive headlong into these new songs we are currently crafting.
This has been an experience that will unavoidably shape every word and every hook we pump out in the coming weeks.
Thank you again and again to the amazing bands, and crew that made the last two weeks possible.
Most importantly, thank you to all of you reading out there. Thanks to the loyal, the tried and true and the brand new.
We will see you all very soon. (Peter)
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This was our first legitimate trip to Milwaukee, playing for actual kids! We've been through with warped tour before and one time we may or may not have stopped by a tiny EMPTY club with A Wilhelm Scream and Stole Your Woman... but neither of those really count (You two or three who matter from that one know who you are so thank you once more :) .)
We played a HAUNTED venue called The Rave. Everyone that works there claims to have seen shadow people and other paranormal activity. There is an abandoned pool in the sub basement, directly below our dressing room, where three kids drown years and years ago. It gets worse...
Jeffrey Dahmer roamed these club halls and across the street at the Ambassador Hotel, one of Jeffreys victims escaped butt naked, roaming the streets until cops picked him up for indecent exposure. Since the potential naked victim was intoxicated, the officers returned him to the custody of Dahmer who took him back to their hotel room and chopped him to pieces!
Milwaukee is scary. There's nothing cute about it. The show was fun, but the best part was kickin it in the scary ass basement! We went on an expedition to find the pool, but we were spoiled by a number of girls (that nobody knew) tagging along and blowing our cover. I guess it's all boarded up and locked up and taking a group of 20 to try and find it doesn't work.
Senses Fail came in town a night early so we got to see Buddy and Heath (midtown) for a bit. At the end of the night we got the hell out of town, thankful we hadn't been spooked.
(Ghoul)
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Ahh Chi-town, nothing beats the pleasure of a tee shirt worthy day in the Windy City, when normal
circumstances would surely call for a blizzard. So we arrived today at the Congress Theatre,
to discover one of the most cavernous, dome-covered concert halls I have ever seen. The cupola
above looks uncannily like a flying saucer, so either the aliens have finally landed, craving some MXPX
or i am once again the lenient master of a wild imagination. Likely the answer is both, which is
cool with me.
It sure is taking me long enough to mention that today was Mike H.'s birthday, which we celebrated
in a number of ways. Over it made him a gift of the new limited edition dvd of From Dusk Till Dawn, and i
personally stuffed a package of lemon-lime aquadrops in our hero's pocket. That has certainly become a rite
of tour for me; passing on the aquadrops to my favorite singers. Its the least i could do really.
During MxPx's show, Tom stopped the band in order to conduct the crowd in a resounding chorus of Happy Birthday,
with the assistance of our very own Seth attired in nothing beyond his union jack underpants. Cute, but all apologies
to any audience members he may have blinded during the festivities.
The tour will be over before long; i've never wanted to go home less than i do at this particular moment.
Thanks for having us Chicago. (Peter)
VAN PLAYLIST: Our Lady Peace: Healthy In Paranoid Times Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 Relient K: Apathetic EP (wow) House of Heroes: Self-titled full length Mos Generator: Whatever Jeff put on rocks. |
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Greetings from Cleveland, the point from which Howard the Duck first redeemed the entire universe
from the unforgiving judgment of the dark overlords of the universe at some point in 1985. It
feels great to be here, checking out yet another infamous House of Blues. You've got to love
these clubs, even if they make you leap through hoops before they even fool you into believing you
may be eligible for a photo pass...Ok that feels much better; aggression diffused and i can carry on
with more interesting matters.
I have to say tonight's show was a huge breath of fresh air for me personally. I was returned to my
governing station in the state of Over It merchandising which allowed me to chat with some awesome
Ohio natives. Thanks to you guys (you know who you are) for the great conversation and for keeping
me company. Also featured in today's photos you will find Seth's new best friend and mentor
David Meckler, a great guy who'd rather be called a jerk than incompetent. Amen Brother.
On a sidenote, I heard a whisper through the grapevine that sound guy Jason may have recorded this
evening's set, so keep your ears to the ground for some potentially radical live tracks one of
these days. Im going to leave it at that and take up that task for which i have of late been oh so
remiss : the van playlist! Check it out, and remember, CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!! (Peter)
VAN PLAYLIST: George Gershwin: Mr. Ray Brady's introductory Mixtape Vendetta Red: Sisters of the Red Death Tom Petty: Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever Cole Porter: Favorites Police: Zenyatta Mondatta |
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Okay, remember how MxPx's bus broke down two days ago and we carried some of them away from Michigan Stage? Well I went to sleep early last night and I didn't have any idea we'd be doing the same thing. I woke up in the middle of the night at an Airport. We followed some of the tour folks back to East Lansing to return the van they rented... and at 4am we picked up Tommy (Tour Manager/Legend), Tim (Monitors) and Jeff (Production Mangager) to complete the rest of the drive to Detroit. We rolled into Mo-town at 6am and checked into one of the nicest hotels we've ever stayed in, The Athenium in Greektown. It was a really nice break for us to get away from the single block of the Shelter and explore a new corner of Detroit around the State Theater. During soundcheck we were able to score a rare and most excellent clear picture of Leprechauno playing on Yuri's drums. You can refer back to the Michigan State pictures to see Leprechauno in the middle of the backseat wrestling match with Adam and Mike. Peter and I wandered over to the baseball field that the Detroit Tigers call home. Check out Peter and the Tiger! When we got back Nick asked me to walk with him through a very bad neighborhood to get some errands run. That was sketchy!! We made it out alive and got back to the venue safely. The line for the show was three city blocks and was more impressive than any other line we've ever seen. It was an AWESOME show and the highlight was when Peter came out to sing 'White Lights' with Rufio. He decided to carry his camera out on stage during the sing-a-long and captured some really cool photos of Pete and Scott singing together! After the show we went back to the Athenium and rocked the Greektown casinos until the sun came up. (Ghoul) |
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Remember Peter's crazy story from the night before about super late night partying and transporting some of the MxPx dudes from Michigan State to the next town? Well that night never really ended for me. At the party I was the designated driver and I managed to stay awake until 5:30am when everyone was finally ready to jump into the van. So I drove 2 1/2 hours to Big Rapids and helped everyone get into their hotel rooms safely (believe me, everyone needed help.. infact Adam never made it inside, he wouldn't budge). It was 8am and I had to be at the venue with the MxPx amplifiers/drums by 10am so I stayed up and kicked it in the hotel hot tub to kill some time. I showed up at the Venue, dumped the gear, did some set up and headed back to the hotel around 1pm. The funny part was that Adam was still sleeping in the van! You can imagine I was delirious. We were playing at hockey arena/sports complex for the school Ferris State University and the venue was really cold. It kinda helped me stay awake. We shared a room with Rufio tonight and there was more acoustic jamming. They fellas even wrote a snazzy tune about Rufio's tour manager, Buck! I guarantee we'll be hearing that melody in a future Over It/Rufio jam. The show went really well and the FSU kids were really cool. To me, the best part of playing was the flat wall behind the crowd. There are certain rooms that project the vocals back from the PA to the stage and when we are singing we can hear EXTRA well. We call it God-vocals. This place had it. We had a big party in our dressing room after the show I went to bed before I even found out what was going on that night... (Ghoul) |
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Seems fitting that returning to our fair land should be such a royal pain in the @$$. The agents at Port Huron made me really miss our affable Canadian border man. I guess we looked dangerous on this particular morning what can i say. Its still nice to be home. There's a significant element of psychological strain that comes with leaving familiar borders. No matter how many ways i find to tell myself that when you boil it down its all the same, the proverbial foreign experience is exhausting, without fail. So today we're on the lovely campus of Michigan State University, and Autumn is in full swing. I dont know if these photos can do any justice to this color scheme of nature in decline, but let me say it is intoxicating. There's a unique and undeniable beauty to the imminent death of the natural world, and i daresay its not the certainty of spring on the horizon. The world just looks great with the life frosted out of it. Amen. Our show tonight was packed into probably the biggest auditorium we've ever played. Even full of excited college students the godlike reflections were remarkable. Backstage became the scene of my favorite acoustic jam session in recent history. Between Jon and Scott Rufio and myself we have the makings of the next Tenacious D; or at least a worthy group of apprentices to those two geniuses so look out It was great, but perhaps the most interesting facet of today's events was the breakdown of Mxpx's lovely tour bus. As a result we've taken on the task of carting as much of their gear as possible- divided between Rufio's trailer and ours. So faced with this opportunity to relive a blast from the past and slum it with us econoline gypsies, Mike (singer of MXpx), Adam (merch guy) and James (Mexican Leprechaun) decided to join the Over It caravan for the night. We ended up partying at a nearby house belonging to twelve really hospitable MI staters, and the evening's events culminated in an epic backseat ultimate fighting struggle between the MX guys and our various and sundry articles of luggage. This was truly one of the most surreal experiences i have yet to witness. What a night. Let me just say that i am all too proud to be the guy who keeps Mike H's sidekick safe for him while he dives into battle. I never thought i'd get a laugh like that. Thanks for rocking with us East Lansing, we cannot wait to return. End of story. (Peter) |
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Hopefully you are all recovering from an exceptionally ghoulish Halloween. We are in Canada! Believe it or not, we had no trouble at the border. They didnt even peek inside the trailer, and our immigration agent loved our 8x10 signed to Canada, love Over It. I'll bet he's rocking the cd even as we speak, eh? Ok, in all seriousness, Toronto is a beautiful town. We arrived at the Ramada in the evening and spent the night with the Rufio guys playing poker and discussing Ashlee Simpson (mad props to our boys in the band.) till the wee hours of morning. In the morning before our show, we headed over to Brampton (a Toronto suburb) for a session with our boys from PunkRadioCast. These guys do a killer live internet show featuring all the coolest independent music and live in-studio appearances from bands on tour. So we chatted with Marc and Danny for a good while on the air, and performed acoustic renditions of "Shine", "Partner in Crime", and "Honestly, How Stoked Are We" before they sent us off feeling like true punks. Thanks too for the warm shot of Canadian Whiskey in my belly. Cheers dudes. The Kool Haus show rocked in short. Canada is cool because they have the best grocery stores (Ride the Loblaws Movator ASAP people, you'll never forget it.), Monopoly money as currency, and quite the spectacular skyline. Enjoy. ps. Extra special thanks to Jason the sound wizard; not to mention Bean and the ever-so-sweet lab Bonnie for their hospitality. (Peter) |
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You can only be in so many places at once; namely, the one you're in. Hello everybody!!!! It has been a little while since i shot a thought or two out into the digital stratosphere and so, so much has become of us dudes since we last corresponded. So far, our tour with Rufio, Relient K and the almighty MxPX has been a whirlwind of love, mayhem and rites of passage. Nothing short of a life-changing experience. Last thursday, we met the tour at the brand spankin' new Atlantic City House of Blues. Truth be told, my memory of this first day feels disconnected; like some kind of dream. When it comes time to share a the stage with your heroes, past, present and perhaps even future, I find it best to just let the good times roll, to let these times just carry me through, without much consideration for what might go wrong, or how awestruck i am at the unbelievable nature of my good luck and dreams come true. So that's A.C. for you all in a nutshell; unbelievable. thanks to all the kids for coming out for us and reminding me that it was actually our show too. Thanks to Rufio for keeping our feet on the ground like brothers ought to do. Thanks to Relient K for setting the bar for us both as awesome people and entertainers alike, and thanks to MXPX for pressing on as my heroes even though now i can stop and give you all for a high five in the hallway backstage. Thanks to the production crew for getting us up there and making sure every piece was in place. Day two brought us home to our nation's capitol, Washington DC and the legendary 9:30 club. I keep replaying my first 9:30 club experience in my mind; I was an ecstatic 15 year old. I snuck out into the city to make the show, and i was belting out the lyrics to Life in General at the top of my lungs. How surreal is it to come home and take this very same stage with that same band nearly a decade later? I can't really describe it. We had an awesome show, packed full of beautiful faces, both familiar and new. Saturday was a long one. did i mention that this tour has pushed me to take care of more business than any other previous effort? Its madness, in a word. Apart from just getting there and putting the lyrics in the microphone there is so much stuff to be done. Acoustic performances, dealing with merch vendors, trying to remember to photograph a glimpse of the myriad of incredible images before these eyes, and most importantly, finding time to just kick it with all of you- you get the picture, the list goes on. So today, street team guru Alex carted Nick and Myself through central Jersey to Jack's music shoppe in the charming town of Red Bank. Needless to say it was a great warm-up and we even made out with a few new jazz and police records after our acoustic set. Thanks to everyone who made it out. Our show at the massive Hammerstein Ballroom was simply, well, massive. The crowd was incredible, even after i waltzed on stage and barged in on Rufio's set during White Lights to steal the microphone from Clark first, and then Scottie. What are friends for after all? Afterward I stealthily made my way uptown for a well-deserved evening of family guy, pajamas and sushi with my special lady. Thank you New York. I think the other guys went out to The legendary Blue Note jazz club and chilled with our old friends Peter Toh and the Royal Tease. Watch out for those guys, incidentally...the grooves and sensibility will doubtless infect you, and boy does it feel like true love. I think yesterday was the most exciting Sunday evening show i've ever attended. Relient K absolutely owned it, bringing out church field trip groups from all over the east coast. Mxpx nearly got abducted by a legion of storm troopers (yes, those scary white-suited men from the darkside of Star Wars), and we even got our paperwork in order for the trip to Canada, which brings me to today. Wish us luck people, hopefully the gracious folk at the border will think we rock or something. Talk soon. (Peter) |
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We drove and we drove and we drove some more, down through the peaks of Oregon into the Forested hills of
Northern California. Seven weeks ago we swallowed our last in and out burgers and now I feel the final
stretch of our journey turning to face the call of our humble home. But first, as tour will often force
one to do, we turn home a deaf ear, and head back out into the desert to debauch ourselves and go bowling in Vegas.
We did of course stop at In and Out, which was duly delicious of course, and gave us the strength to shake the roof of Frisco's
SLim's and even a flea market/ Montgomery ward in the styx of Bakersfield. My apologies to the the bunny, birds, serpents and ahh hell
even that scorpion in the next store behind the stage.
While everyone was out making small or smaller fortunes gambling this morning i slept,clinging to seth for warmth in our icy
desert hotel room recovering from the bumpy all night drive. Then on to Gillians for some rock and roll.
Joey from Hidden in Plain View was kind enough to let me sabotage his bowling score in order that i break my decade
long streak of not stepping onto the lane's glossy veneer. I did win him at least one spare after a moment's practice and
some encouragement from T.J. Spitalfield so i guess i made up for my less-than-Lebowski class skills. I have to note that Kids
in Vegas know how to get down, considering the fact that the night air bakes you the same aS in daylight. Thanks for rocking with us people!
(Peter)
Van Playlist: H.I.M. - Wings of a Butterfly Keane- Hopes and Fears Fall OuT Boy- From Under The Cork Tree A Wilhelm Scream- Ruiner Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country |
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We slept all day in the van. Peter was a jerk and took pictures of all of us sleeping. I took the funny picture of Alex curled up on the bench next to Pete. Thats pretty much all we did all day. Even after a long late night, we were in the van relatively early heading south from Portland to San Francisco. James drove the first half and thats when Peter snapped all of his pictures. Nick, Alex and myself were all still sleeping off a long night at the Jupiter Hotel (James was awake driving and Peter was awake snapping, so neither of those jerks have sleeping pictures). If you look at my sleeping picture, you might notice that I sleep with my eyes open. You can certainly see my eyeball. It's scary, and I get teased about it all the time by my band and my girlfriend. I will make no efforts to change. Later in the afternoon, we stopped for some delicious taco bell and slept some more. Made some phone calls and then took a nap. I did the second shift and discovered Mt. Dew Amp Tall Boy cans which are 20 ounce amps... pretty rad! We hit up our friend Cole from the band Once Over who happened to be in town in Napa so we went to his house and slept again... this time for a full night. Check out Once Over on purevolume or myspace. (Ghoul) |
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Today Harry Potter shook the foundations of my universe. Though not without every effort to delay
the inevitable and read slowly, i finished the Half-Blood Prince around 2:15pm pacific
time a few minutes after rolling into Portland. Have you ever felt a sense of duty when
you've seemingly seen it all only to realize that life up until that point has been the prologue to
the real story? That's what its all about folks. Let the adventure begin. There will always be
sacrifices where love must prevail boys and girls. That's what i say...And onward into Tyrannosaur
Canyon till J.K. Rowling is again prepared to share the goods.
All of this and i'm parked around the corner from the alluring and infamous jupiter hotel; where the
furniture is ikea and the doors are chalkboard. The other bands on tour all highly recommend a night
of leisure in and around the jupiter logde, which is very much like something from the jetsons.
Retro-future is the all the rage in the northwest. I have to recommend Persian pastries and roll cakes
and stuffed grape leaves and other delights if you must know, just because that is what is keeping me
alive this evening thank you miss kiki.
much guys for all the fun now that i have a moment.
This has been an outstanding tour of very entertaining and delightfully talented dudes thank you very
sweetly. We had a great show at loveland. Enclosed are photos of the walk up to it and a dumpster called
love. See if you can find waldo's butt!
(Peter)
Van Playlist: The Academy Is- Almost Here Our Lady Peace- Healthy In Paranoid Times Kanye West- Late Registration Elvis Costello- Very Best Of; Volume 1 Strung Out- Twisted By Design |
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While Hidden In Plain View and The Academy Is played some bumbershoot festival... we had a day off! It worked out really well because my twin brother Jared moved up to the Seattle area this past year and started working for Microsoft. After sleeping in... a handful of us headed down to Snoqualmie Falls. My favorite TV show ever is Twin Peaks and they filmed the entire series around Snoqualmie Falls and the next town over, North Bend. After the falls we headed over to the Double R Diner to have some cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee. Somehow after that we all ate gigantic gyros from a rad greek place before we headed into Seattle to catch up with our northwest bu |
