Very Special Time In My Life

Today was a very special day in my life. I don't think I will forget today and how great it was as long as I live.

The past 4 months have been the best of my life by far. And today was a culmination of all the things that I love and that have made my life so amazing over that time.

Today was the most intense live show I have ever played. A sold out crowd, over cap with only 11 tickets even being available for walk up purchase. And as if that wasn't amazing enough, Crystal drove 5 hours to surprise me at the show. It is so nice having someone that I am so in love with and so crazy for. I can't even describe how happy I am to have her in my life.

Even though my throat feels like its eating itself, my voice sucks, and I feel like I haven't slept in 2 weeks I am still the happiest I have ever been. And I know you will read this, so just in case I haven't said it enough today, I love you Crystal.

And I miss my mom and dad and brother a lot the past few days. Family is getting more and more important to me lately as well as I've gotten older.

Sleep time, going to bed happy!

First 3 days of Attack Attack tour

This tour is sick! Every night we have broke 1k in merch sales, and have had awesome crowd reactions. Last night London, Ontario was the best show I have ever played by far!

I'm feeling lazy so I'm not writing any more right now.

End of From First To Last tour

The FFTL tour taught me a lot of things about music and being a musician in general. The first thing it taught me is that I hate doing tours booked by the Kenmore Agency. The tour was booked so late that there was no chance at drawing a crowd at 90% of the shows. The cool thing was how awesome FFTL treated us. Its not often you get the chance to do direct support for some of your childhood idols. They taught us a ton about how the music scene goes in phases and almost no one can prevent a fall from the top. I loved every second of that tour, and the coolest part is we made some long term friends. Matt Good has always been a dude I have looked up to and getting the chance to meet, hang out with and become friends with him is still kind of unbelievable haha. Manning is the man and taught me so much about bass playing and gear and is just all around the most down to earth cool dude on earth haha. And Matt gave me an Ibanez TS808 yesterday at his apartment and it made my bass tone sick! So stoked about that. And I broke my own rule and smoked weed with Travis haha. So sweet.

But anyway enough being a fan boy lol. After the last show of that tour we left for New York. 14+ hours and 1100+ miles. We are still in the van right now actually, driving through Maryland. We are going to get a hotel tonight, take showers and do laundry and get cleaned up and try to find a spot to take some sweet new promo shots. Pretty excited to shower, my hair and face are so oily that I left a grease imprint on the window today haha, disgusting.

I miss Crystal a lot too. Its definitely nice knowing I have someone I love so much and that loves me, its been a long time since I have been this happy. Everything in my life rules right now. From the success of Miss May I, to the support of my family, to my wonderful girlfriend, even my health and fortune. Everything is awesome. Can't wait to see what this year will bring!

Oh and we got the dates for the new I Wrestled A Bear Once tour in December, gonna be a sick run of sell out dates I hope.

New Orleans

Yesterday was definitely the best day of tour so far. We played at the High Ground just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. The weather was horrible at the beginning of the day. When we got to the venue the parking lot was flooded with 2 inches of water. The weather cleared up in the early evening so we got to hang out outside with all the bands which was sweet. Got to know the Burden Of a Day dudes and helped our buds in The Color Morale out and gave them a ride to the show and let them use all of our gear since their van was broken. I got to hang out with Matt Good from FFTL and get vocal advise and basically just be a little fan boy which was possibly one of the high points of my career so far. And then I hung out with their bass player and talked gear like little geeks with him and got to learn how he makes all of his tones on the albums which ruled. The set went well, I actually felt that we played up to par for the first time so far on the tour. My voice was strong enough to belt out all of the notes pretty well, can't wait for tonights show to give it another shot. Birmingham, Alabama - and I get to see my buddy Matt tonight who lives in Alabama so I'm stoked.

Bad/Awesome day

Yesterday was a pretty weird day. It started off with the 7 of us over sleeping at the hotel. We woke up around 10AM to the Mexican room service woman opening the door with a look of terror noticing that there were 7 dudes in a 2 person room haha. We rushed out and got in the van and started heading to Memphis, Tennessee. It was a 6 hour drive and it was all in the rain. We got to the show late at around 6, and the venue was shot. It was called the Hi Tone cafe and it was tiny which wasn't a big deal, small venues are fun to play just like large ones. The problem was the hole in the wall in the gear room that allowed 3 inches of rainwater to leak in and settle under everyones gear. The show was not all that bad after we finally got everything loaded. Burden Of A Day played for the first Time with us and they were awesome. The Color Morale ruled as usual. While they played I had a whole conversation with the bass player of From First To Last which is still crazy for me to believe considering they were my favorite band in high school. Our set was good and bad. My voice still isn't at 100% but I was able to belt out most of the notes so that it was halfway decent. My model T's input jack ripped out again during our set, so I had to walk off stage and get my diamond j, super embarrassing and from then on I was just super bummed. But when fftl played I definitely cheered up, Matt dedicated a song to us and that is for sure the most gratifying thing that has ever happened at a show. After the set I talked to all of the FFTL dudes and got to know them a bit more and they are seriously the nicest guys in the world, I'm so stoked that Rise picked them up and is pushing them like they deserve. After the show we went to this girls house to stay and she had a bunch of cats which sucked but whatever, I went to sleep fast and dealt with it. Now I'm in the van on the way to New Orleans. I'm pumped to play today. I am finally getting some confidence back in my playing. Everyone in the band did a awesome job of reassuring me on my voice last night so I am pretty pumped on tonights set. This is the 3rd time I have played this venue and each time has been great so I have high hopes for it.

Start of a new tour

Yesterday my band started a new tour. Crystal drove Rick and I to Troy at 6am to meet up with the band. We loaded the trailer with our luggage and set off for Dekalb, Illinois. Jerod drove the first 190 miles or so and I took over for the last 150. We made a stop in south Chicago at a Guitar Center. We got to the venue pretty early, load in wasn't even until 3 and we were there at 2. We played a place called The House Cafe, which in all honesty is not suited for large touring shows haha. Its a coffee house that is super nice, but the stage and building do not have the room for multiple touring bands and there gear. From First To Last backlined their cabinets on the stage and after we met them and hung out for a few before their soundcheck we all decided to use their cabinets for the whole tour package. The stage was so cramped that we couldn't fit our rolling cases on stage until we played so we didn't set anything else up before. The Color of Violence opened, and then The Color Morale played. I was super impressed with the color morale and am stoked to be able to play with them for the next month. When it was our turn to play I had to rush and get my road case on stage and figure out a way to hook my gear up. My voice was gone as soon as the first song started which was awful. I still have no idea what's going on with my voice so hopefully it comes back. But the set went well, I let the crowd do the singing for me which they were stoked on, so that kinda cheered me up. Our merch sales were sick! After the show we loaded up and went to Chicago to get a hotel for our day off. And today on our day off we hit up a mall and played skee ball and now I'm in the room watching TV. Good tour so far haha.