It seems like I keep saying I’m going to stay on top
of this writing every week thing, but then I get so busy with other things and
I don’t take the time to sit down and actually just write. But I am always thinking about what I want to
write about, and making notes so I don’t forget about the things that are happening
out here on the road. It’s Monday, I
have no show to prepare for, no traveling to do, so my main goal for today is
to get this entry written and posted to you by this evening. Now we’ll see whether or not that actually
happens. It is a beautiful day up here
in Northern Wisconsin and I sure wouldn’t mind being out on the lake all
afternoon. I have a bunch of stuff to
catch you up on from the past few weeks.
Here was a new experience for us: we played the
after-party for a cage fighting event. Yes,
that kind of cage fighting, where two people get in a cage and beat the hell
out of each other. When the gig was
booked we had no idea what to expect from that kind of a show. Our first thought: maybe we’ll set up and
play in the cage; that would be an interesting twist. Of course that was not what happened. But the point is, this put us a little out of
our normal element. When we have a fair
gig we know there will be a tilt-a-whirl off in the distance; when we have a
bar gig we know there will be some drunk guy in the back at the end of the
night yelling “Play some Skynyrd”; but a cage fight after party??? We were completely
in the dark on this one. It turned out
to be pretty cool though. The fights
were outside under a tent, and the after-party was inside this building
adjacent to where the fights were occurring.
I had never been to any fighting event before this;
boxing, martial arts, MMA, nothing. So I
was actually kind of excited to see it live for the first time. I was just standing in the back watching for
a while when the promoter for the show found me and brought me right down to
ringside for a couple fights. That was a
completely different experience.
Wow. Being right up next to the
cage for the fights was awesome; you’re just so close to the action. I actually saw some guy’s eyes roll back into
his head after a hard punch to the face.
It was pretty intense.
We played our show once the fights were done, and afterward
were hanging out for a bit before we went back to the hotel. That’s when things got a little scary. We saw some fight break out over on the other
side of the room (because when you have drunk guys that just watched other people
fight in a cage, I guess they feel they need to fight too). It’s not such a big deal that a fight broke
out, but what happened next. One of the
guys in the fight walked past us as he was leaving. My thought: guy gone, no more fighting. But then as he was coming back in his
girlfriend stopped him as he was heading back to fight some more. It’s what he said to her that got our
attention; and I quote: “don’t worry baby, I just put my gun in the car so I won’t
shoot anyone tonight; I just want to beat that guy’s ass”. WHAT???
Why was this dude packing? Is this
Compton? I’m a pretty firm believer that
alcohol and firearms don’t mix. It makes
me wonder how many people at our shows are carrying guns on them. That’s a pretty scary thought for us: a guy
has his gun with him at the bar – his girlfriend comes up and flirts with
someone in the band – he gets pissed off and shoots us. There’s nothing cool about that
scenario. I’m sure there are people at
our shows with guns. I really hope they
just have enough sense to not pull them out at a bar, EVER. I’m pretty sure I can think of at least one
of our fans that carries a gun at our shows, but he’s also a border patrol
agent. I am somewhat confident that he
won’t shoot me. But I guess you never
know. My point is, maybe just leave your
guns in the car or at home that night if you’re know you’re going to be
hammering beers all night.
So that was our experience with playing the cage
fight after party. Also, I was starting
to come down with something that evening, which is never any fun. The one positive was that we had 3 days off
for me to recover. The negative was that
both Josh and I got the same cold at the same time. Since we room together (which is probably how
we both got it at the same time), it was just nonstop back and forth coughing
and hacking up nastiness for a couple days.
Pretty gross stuff actually. I’m
sure you don’t really want to hear the details.
So I’ll just move on.
Oh, by the way, I’ve been writing about trying the
new things at fast food joints lately, like the Doritos Locos Taco and the Big
Mac. I tried something else the other
day: the oatmeal for breakfast at McDonalds.
It was actually pretty tasty.
Kevin has been swearing by this oatmeal for months now, so I finally
broke down and tried it. For fast food
oatmeal, it was not bad. I have to say I’d
recommend it if you’re in search of some breakfast and see the golden arches.
Speaking of food, why is it that every time we have
an overnight drive after a show I get a bag of Doritos? There must be some sort of Pavlovian thing going
on here. Doesn’t matter where we are or
what kind of show it was, if we’re driving overnight afterward to get to the
next destination, I’m picking up a bag at a gas station. I don’t know why I do it. There must be some strong subconscious force
at work here; either that or brilliant subliminal marketing by the Doritos
company. Alright, enough about food too.
The Spooner Rodeo was two weekends ago. This has become one of our favorite
summertime shows. And for some reason,
we seem to have become the ‘unofficial’ official band for the after-party at
the rodeo. This was our fourth year in a
row playing there. I remember a few
years ago when they asked us back; they said they hardly ever have the same
band two years in a row. But then they
had us back again for a third year because it was their 60th
Anniversary of the rodeo (or 65th, I can’t remember which) and they
wanted to have us play for that. Then
they had us back for a fourth year, which I’m pretty sure is what makes us the ‘unofficial’
official band. But I think I have
figured out why I like playing this gig so much: the crowd is right up in our
face, and they are there to party and have a great time. I can feel the energy from the crowd hitting
me in the face as we’re playing the show.
I was talking about this the other day with someone. That’s the high for me: being able to feel
that the crowd is having such a great time through their energy that they’re
giving back to me; their reactions and attitude; that the music that we are
creating and playing is making them feel that way. That’s the rush. This blog is called “The Road is My Needle”, because
the road is the vessel that allows the high; but this is my drug – that moment
when I can feel that what I’m doing is having that kind of effect on a crowd. Those moments are out there all over the
place, but they’re fleeting and most definitely few and far between. But that is why we do this; so we can feel
that rush, if only for a few seconds. It
makes me understand why people get addicted to drugs and become junkies. Hell, I’m addicted too. I spend months at a time away from my family
trying to get my fix. But, as musicians
we can’t help it. We crave those
moments. Those moments are the reason we’ve
spent countless years working on our craft.
And that is also why we have gone back to Spooner for the rodeo for an unprecedented
fourth year in a row.
Also, I heard something like this several times from
fans while we were there: “I was so glad when I heard you guys were playing the
rodeo again this year. I had so much fun
with you guys the past few years. You’re
the reason we keep coming back to this rodeo”.
Yes, it definitely inflates my ego to hear that, and you know it fills
my attention needs, but it is also verification that we’re doing something
right as a band. I think we need that
verification from time to time; to be reminded that people do enjoy what we’re
doing.
Along with the high that I just described is also
the low that comes afterward. This
happened to me at Spooner: we finished our last song, and I walk off stage
going from being in front of hundreds of people (and feeding off that energy)
to being completely alone. I do this on
purpose. I enjoy this immediate transition
from one extreme to the other; plus I think it is an important transition to
experience. I want that alone time for a
few minutes right after a wild show so I can calm myself down and take a moment
to reflect and internalize on what we just did.
But those moments when I’m alone after a show like that are also some of
the loneliest moments I’ve ever experienced too. It really is probably too quick of a
transition between extreme feelings: taking ten steps to walk behind the stage takes
me from pure ecstasy to complete loneliness.
But like the high, for some reason I crave the low too. I want to experience the feeling of complete
loneliness just as much as I want to experience the high from the crowd. I just wish the high would last longer (don’t
we all). The one thing I don’t like
though is when someone finds me when I’m having those private moments after a
show. I just want those two minutes of
reflection before I go back out afterward and meet with fans. Like I said, I crave the low too. Inevitably though someone will find me and
want to talk; and of course I don’t want to be rude about it, I just want a
moment for myself. I know, I’m being
selfish here. I already get the high
that most musicians would kill for; do I really need more? Probably not, I just enjoy feeling both
extremes.
Here’s a random thought I had the other day: I
wonder how many times I’ve changed strings over the past five years of
touring. Or how many strings I’ve
changed. I bet we could at least
estimate it. Let’s see, we do between
180 and 200 shows a year, so I’ll low ball here and let’s say 180. I change strings usually after every third
show, but sometimes more often; again let’s be conservative and say three shows
to every set of strings. So each year I
change strings at least 60 times. Over
the past five years of touring then, I’ve changed the strings on my guitar at
least 300 times. And that doesn’t
include the electric guitar (which I change strings on much less often). Wow, can you imagine how much time I would
have saved over the past five years if we had a guitar tech to do that for
me? Actually, I can do the math on that
too: it takes me about 15 minutes to change the strings, stretch them out, and tune
the guitar. 15 minutes times 300 occurrences
over the past five years comes to an astounding 4,500 minutes of string
changing time. I definitely should
invest in a guitar tech. I could write
so many more songs with all that time.
Or wait, I could use that time to be writing this blog more often. Speaking of, I do need to change my strings
either tonight or tomorrow.
Oh, going along with that, I wonder how many strings
I’ve broken over the past five years of touring. (I don’t break them too often, but by some
freak occurrence I did break 3 strings in two days this past weekend). I won’t try to calculate that one, but I was
just thinking about it as I was writing.
I bet I’ve broken somewhere between 50 and 100 strings over the past
five years though.
We were in Chicago last Thursday night at Bub City. I love getting to play in Chicago b/c it's a relatively new market for us, but a great opportunity for us to expand our fan base in a major market. This trip to Chicago was nice though because my old room mate John from my freshman year of college was out at the show. It was awesome to see him again, since it had been a few years since we've got to hang out. Little known fact about John: he actually played in an old band of mine for one show. He played bass for the show my old band did with O.A.R. at the end of our senior year of college. Not the only time he's been on stage with me, but the only time he's done so in a musical capacity. But that's a different story. I was just excited to see my old friend again (even if we didn't really get to hang out that much.
This past Saturday night we headlined the Northland
Mardi Gras Festival in Ladysmith, WI.
Our friend Ashley Buchart was on the bill as well. We were scheduled to switch sets back and
forth between the two bands, so a really fun night of music was expected. We were in Milwaukee the previous night, so
we knew it was going to be a long drive (about 6 hours) to get to the gig. The bad part about that is that the show in
Milwaukee ran until about 2am, then we had to tear down right after that so we
could leave at 9am. Getting to bed at
4am sucks when you have to be up early and drive so far, not to mention set it
all up again and play a huge festival show like that. But hey, we’re definitely road dogs at this
point, so we sucked it up and made it happen.
They had two stages set up at the festival and we
were going to take one stage and Ashley’s band was going to take the
other. When we got there, Ashley’s band
was set up on one stage as planned, but there was another band playing on the other
stage. Long story short, we couldn’t set
up on the stage until that band was done and got all their gear off the stage,
so we had to scrap the plan of switching back and forth with Ashley’s band that
night. They graciously just went ahead
and played their show and let us have the late night slot to ourselves so that
we could have adequate time to set up and get everything ready. But if we would have known that there was
another band on the stage we were going to be on and that we wouldn’t have been
able to set up until an hour and a half after we thought we were going to be
able to, we could have gotten some more sleep the night before. But no worries, we were there and able to
adapt, and made it all work.
The show went really well. The place was packed, and the crowd seemed to
really be into what we were doing. Like
Spooner the week before, I just got this great vibe from the crowd. It made for a really enjoyable show. I know the guys and I are hoping they’ll want
us back again next year to headline the Saturday night again.
Also, the guys from the Bergstok Guitar company were
there that night. If you remember, this
is the company that built Josh and Kevin their own custom guitars. I’m sure they enjoyed seeing their products
on stage in front of so many people. I
know Kevin and Josh are enjoying playing their Bergstok Guitars.
(Left to Right: Josh, Mike Gavin, Kevin, Sean Berg)
Back to Ashley for a moment: She’s great. Her band and my band have been on the same
circuit for a couple years now, so we have gotten to know them as our paths
have crossed. She actually has a song
being released to radio next month. I
couldn’t be happier for her, and hope she is super successful. She deserves it, and definitely has the
talent. But, since this blog is kind of
become a very honest look from a touring musician, I must honestly say I am
incredibly jealous right now. That is a
huge dream of mine – to release a song to radio and have the backing to support
the song and see if it climbs up the charts.
Seeing her have some success like that just motivates me to work even
harder to make it happen for me as well.
Guess I’ll keep plugging away until we make it happen.
Well, I think that catches you up on what’s been
happening the past few weeks with me.
Now for the promotion. I’ll try
something different here:
Don’t forget to sign up at the top of the page for
our email notification so you’ll know each time I post a new entry.
Lastly, here is my song quote for this entry.
I was out on a jog last week and this song came on
my I-Pod. As I was listening to it I started
thinking about these lyrics, thinking that, at least in my mind, they pretty
accurately portrayed us and our fan base.
I hope I’m right. What do you
think?
“We don't have
no plastic L.A. Friends, ain't on the edge of no popular trends; Ain't never
seen the inside of that magazine GQ. We
don't care if you're a lawyer, or a Texas oil man, or some waitress busting ass
in some liquor stand; if you’ve got soul we hang out with people just like you”
– Lynyrd Skynyrd; “Red White and Blue”
