Day #1: San Diego, CA
After a week of hard rehearsing and getting to know the girls I'd live with for the whole month, it was finally time to depart. We'd shared milkshakes, minivan rides, clothes...I even stayed at Tennessee's house for the whole week (thanks Judy and Pete). But now it was time to pack up the gear, say goodbye to Los Angeles, and embrace bus life.
However, the powers that be decided to give our bus a flat tire before it even came to pick us up. As we waited with our gear in the heat our lovely tour manager Chris "The Butcher" told us, "better before the tour than on the road."
Finally, the big green monster arrived. After an over-excited exploration of the bus amenities, we flew down the highway to our first stop, San Diego.
Pulling into the venue we discovered the Arctic Monkeys in the back lot assembling what would soon become the tour's ping pong table. Ping pong you say? I had a feeling we'd get along swimmingly.
But being 3 hours late, we had no time to waste! After Tennessee quickly introduced me to the boys, we scurried off to soundcheck. The crowd began to fill the venue (named Soma) and we retreated to our dressing room, anxiously awaiting our first show together after only one week of rehearsal. I was jumping for joy I was so excited!
We finally took the stage. My heels were far too high for rocking out, but I made it through the show relatively unscathed. And the crowd seemed to rock just as hard as my orange hair was flying around - about three songs in a mosh pit formed right before my eyes.
Playing the Like show together was great, and after it was done, I was a bit relieved to have the first one done and out of the way for nerve's sake. But now it was time to see The Arctic Monkeys play their first show. For a while I rocked out with Tennessee in the crowd and made some new friends, then I moved to watch them from the side of the stage. I was truly blown away. I couldn't believe we'd be touring with them for a month and get to see such a great show over and over again.
Exhausted from the week and the emotional buildup of the first show of the tour, we ended the night by taking a cute photo in our bunk beds. And yes, we did choose to sleep next to each other for the duration of the tour.
Now it was back to Los Angeles....