Sauget, IL – Feb. 5^th

On an average of about 4.5 hours of sleep a night, we start out to Sauget and, I'll be honest, we don't know what to expect but are thinking it is probably nothing to get excited about. 

Trucking across Kansas, Evan gets us up and moving after a long night with Bangladesh.  However, we jump up and are ready to go.  The storm hit early that morning so we see our first signs of bad weather; there are slick roads and ice is beating down on us from the dark grey skies.  We ride for a while and I'm getting tired so I pass out for a couple of hours before my long haul the rest of the way to St. Louis.  Finally, the Arch appears in the distance in a…honestly I can't explain the way it looked.  It's dark, foggy, and the only light reflecting from the Arch is shining off one of the inside walls.  If you've ever seen the Arch up close, you know it is massive and made of shiny metal.  The city lights are reflecting off of it which gives it an, almost, alien or sci-fi look…really cool!

So we cross the Mighty Mississip and make our way to Pop's.  It is literally right across The River from St. Louis.  The sign comes in view and I turn to my co-pilot, who happens to be The Colombian, and say "Daaaaammmmn!"  There is a big sign and the club looks great from the outside, not to mention it is a 24/7 club and sits between two strips clubs!  Gus and I look at each other and again say "Daaaaaammmmn!"  So we make our way to the back where we load in.  This club is fantastic!  They have two stages and the main is huge.  They have these large photos of nationals hanging that have played there recently.  They include the likes of: Megadeth, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Dream Theater, BLS, Tommy Lee, Jimmy Page, David Lee Roth, Down, Dio, Tesla, Satch, Slash, ETC.  Of course, we play on the small stage but "lemme splain", as The Colombian would put it. 

The sound guy actually mic'd all of the toms and even the hi-hat.  Greg says, "Do you know how long it's been since I sound-checked my hats?", and proceeds with the rest of the kit.  It sounded great and even Josh, the sound guy, replies "Damn your drums sound good!"  Of course, Greg thinks they sound like shit from the weather change fuckin' with 'em, but they sound great.  This makes us excited regardless of the Indie-rock bands we shared the bill with.  The crowd was nothing to get excited about, although we sold some CDs, but the impression we made on our contacts there and the promise of future shows on the main stage, we walked out of there feeling really good!  They also offered showers in there huge rockstar room which we gladly accepted, but that was an added bonus! 

We drive to a Wal-Mart parking lot to spend the night and get some rest before an eventful day to follow…

-Aaron

Drive Days - Feb. 6^th-7th

I awake to Columbo waking up to go into Wal-Mart and sponge bathe his ass.  I then get up to do the same while the twins are still bundled up keeping their balls warm in a nice comatose sleep.  I meet Stav inside by the $5 dollar DVDs and see a man that I just know is going to steal.  Unfortunately, I am still trying to get over the habit of catching shoplifters.  I don't have that job anymore, but it's still hard for me not to observe and witness theft.   I guess that's a good thing since I am partially responsible for keeping an eye on our gear.  I point the guy and his tattered shoes out to Stav and tell him to keep an eye on him while I go to the restroom to shit and brush my teeth.  No sponge bathing of the ass actually took place, at least not on my end.  The twins later awake with warm balls and enter Wal-Mart to do a quick shit and shop.  We all buy some necessities (beer, food, and vitamins) and get the RV warm and ready to hit the road. 

We're off to Cedar Rapids to camp out for the night before waking and heading to Minneapolis for our show on the 8^th.  After several hours of driving we see a Welcome Center just North of Peoria that has public wi-fi, so we decide to stop and get in some .com.  Unfortunately for us, the Center ends up being at the top of a long winding, icy road.  We get up the curve and half way up the hill when for some strange reason we quit making forward progress.  Well shit, the car is in drive, Aaron has his foot on the gas, and the emergency brake isn't on, what could be the problem.  Fuck, ICE.  We're stuck for the first time, and have no chance of making it to the Welcome Center.  So much for the .com.  At first, Evan, Stav, and myself try getting behind the RV and pushing to get Aaron going.  That sure as shit wasn't happening.  We then decide to navigate Aaron back down the hill and the bend in the road in reverse.  Slowly but surely we get her down and get back on the road. 

After a little more driving we pull over at a rest stop to chill out and crash for the night.  Man, it's fucking freezing outside.  Luckily, we had plenty of beer and a bottle of Southern Comfort to keep us warm.  We park on the curb outside of the building with the restrooms and vending machines.  Aaron then decides to move the RV up a little to make room for the other idiots that were traveling in the shitty weather.  Once again, we're in drive, foots on the gas, no emergency break, no movement.  I imagine that you can figure why this has occurred yet again.  Fuck, ICE.  The right front tire wasn't even touching the ground and was spinning out of control.  We heaved and hoed, but nothing happened.  We said, "Fuck it, we'll figure it out in the morning," and continued to booze and hang out before going to sleep for the night.  Funny side note:  Evan got so drunk off of half of Aarons bottle of whiskey that he stole a pack of my cigarettes and lied about it.  The guys crashed kind of early while I stayed up drinking, talking to the girl, and using the .com.  I end up going to bed at around 5 a.m. 

I awake at 7 a.m. to take a leak and toke a smoke.  While smoking a stogy in the lobby of the rest stop (not sure if that was allowed, but hey, we're in a band) a trucker approaches me and we start to bullshit.  His name was Joe and seemed like a pretty cool mother fucker.  He confirms his "cool mother fucker" status when he asks me if I smoke.  You would think the answer would be obvious seeing how I was smoking a cigarette.  But, he wasn't talking about tobacco.  I said, "Hell yeah."  We then proceeded to his truck that had huge cab with a bed and his dog name Leyna.  Leyna was one cool bitch.  Literally.  We proceeded to get stoned as shit and bullshit about music and life on the road.  Mind you, I am on 4 collective hours of sleep in 48 hours.  Great times, I love this shit.  I was made for this.  Fuck a job and a place to live.  I say this because when we get back I will be homeless and jobless.  What a rock star, right?  Well, let's hope so, anyways. 

While bullshitting with Joe, I tell him of our predicament.   Ironically, he was stranded there as well waiting for a truck to come and give him gas.  Joe informed me that he was getting a big bag of salt to throw under some of his tires and that he should have enough left over for us to use.  After the smoke I go back to the guys in the RV and tell them of my fortunate encounter.  Shortly after, Joe arrives with half of a bag of salt mixed with some pink shit and a big ass shovel.  Before I could even grab the shovel out of his hands, Joe starts to clear out the tires.  We pour the pink salt shit and wait. 

After about 30 minutes, we give her a go.  Nothing.  Evan, Stav, and myself again jump out and heave and ho.  After enough of the hoeing, we're free.  Aaron begins to drive away.  By drive away, I mean he wouldn't stop fearing getting stuck again, so we had to jump into the moving RV just as you would see in a movie.  Thank God.  Or Joe.  If it wasn't for me wanting to get stoned with a random truck driver at 7 in the morning, we would have been there for a little while longer.   

We're back on the road and heading to Minneapolis for our show the next day.  Aaron is driving, Evan is skippering, and Stav and I are chilling in the back shooting the shit.  Out of nowhere, I hear Aaron and Evan, "Oh shit, Oh shit, hold on."  I look up and see a green Explorer in front of us and we are gaining fast.  The fuck decided to pull out in front of us and go 35 f.m.p.h.  (f. stands for fucking).  Aaron pumps the breaks, but this guy's ass was made just for us.  In slow-mo, I see us ram the la douche square in the rear.  Everything that was in the back of the RV is now towards the front, including myself.  We catch our breath and follow the asshole when he exits.  He stops at a stop sign and a man gets out of the passenger seat.  It appears that he is going to come talk to us.  Not the case.  He grabs a big duffle bag out of the seat and walks off.  The driver then drives off, and we think that he is going to meet us in the gas station to exchange info. or whatever.  Also, not the case.  He bailed.  Just took off.  Quick goat thinking, I figure that he was getting head from the hitchhiker, so he ditched him at the corner and took off.  No damage was done to the RV besides the license plate being a little bent out of shape.   

We stop anyways to get gas, take leaks, and get some food.  Low and behold we just happened to stop at the biggest truck stop in the world.  Pretty fucking cool.  They had all kinds of shit in there, including a restaurant that we decided to indulge in.  The food rocked and it was fairly cheap.  Aaron contacted his aunt, whose RV we're driving, to tell her what happened.  And bless her heart, she offered to book us a room at a nearby hotel.  And, we gladly accepted.  We went to the hotel and proceeded to drink, take showers, do laundry, and just plain take it easy.  Good nights sleep ahead for all of us. 

-Greg

Detroit, MI - Feb. 8^th – 9^th

Days are beginning to blur together.  We had to cancel our Minneapolis show due to the interstate being shut down because of ice, so we pack up and head for Detroit.  It was a long drive so we make several stops.  Outside of Battle Creek, MI, we stop to gas up and get some water.  I walk in to pre-pay and Greg is right behind me.  At this point, we are out of beer and if you know Greg, you know that running out of beer just doesn't fly with him!  He follows me in and asks the clerk if they sell beer and the clerk replies that we are in a dry county.  Greg says in an uncouth manner "you gotta be fucking shittin' me?"  Everyone hears him, juke box cuts off, moms cover the kids' ears and everybody turns to look at the asshole that just profaned in public. While I'm pre-paying and shooting the shit with the clerk, I ask "So where y'all get beer 'round here?"  He looks at me and says "what?"  I ask again and he looks at me like I'm speaking fucking Chinese.  I realize that my southern draw just doesn't work in this part of the country so I ask again in "English".  "Where do you go to get beer?"  He understands me this time and gives directions after asking for a free t-shirt.  Unfortunately for Greg, I am not driving 2 miles out of the way to get beer so he'll have to survive on the other essentials (water, food, and vitamins) until Detroit.   

We pull up to the venue about 24 hours until we're actually scheduled to play.  We barely make it out of the RV before a guy from the club walks up and asks if we want to play that night also.  We were like "fuck yeah!"  So we unload our shit while Greg schmooses the bartender and door guy.  This place is the shit!  You wouldn't believe the national acts that have been through here.  Everyone from Pantera to White Zombie to Dangerous Toys to Yngwei to Dio to Foghat, etc. including Corey Feldman, ha!  Everyone you can imagine!  And they had posters of half naked chix covering the bathroom walls. These people love us right off the bat, cool motherfuckers too!  They just couldn't believe that we came a day early to promote.   And we did too.  Greg brought about 10 people in just from bullshitting with them on the sidewalk.  And, I'll be honest; when you pull up in an RV everyone wants to know who you are.  So we party and get ready for our set.   Unfortunately, we end up not playing a set this night.  The band that canceled showed up.  I don't have a clue why anybody would call and cancel and then show up, but these guys did.  It was a successful night though.  We got to know everyone at the club and even sold some CDs.  Then we crashed in the parking lot of a CVS for the night. 

Next morning comes early.  By morning I mean noon.  We found a McDs with wi-fi so we could do some internet stuff and 4 hours later we head back to the club.  Since we loaded in the night before, our equipment is already inside which saves us from having to heave around that heavy-ass shit before we play, which is nice.  Inside we are greeted with a warm welcome back and again feel right at home.  The time has finally come for our set.  The sound was good, the stage was big and we fuckin' rocked…to crickets.  What a tough crowd, couldn't get a peep out of them.  But we started drinking with them afterward and everyone was telling us how much they enjoyed our set and we just had a down-right shindig with everyone.  Met some beautiful ladies with a "bodyguard" (family friend that wouldn't let them come see our RV) that looked like Steve from Jerry Springer.  He was not friendly with us at all.  I think he was jealous that the chicas were partying with us instead of him. 

Anywho, Detroit rocked and we leave for Chicago.  Overnight a ridiculous storm blows in and covers the ground in ice and snow.  We get as far as Kalamazoo and the interstate comes to a standstill.  Forget it; we are not making it to Chicago which really sucks for us because we were booked at the legendary Elbo Room.  We were REALLY looking forward to this show!  But the road isn't even visible at this point and showers sound pretty good anyhow.  Greg gets us a hotel room for the night and we indulge in some pizza and phillies from Godfather's and I take full advantage of a warm bed and good night's rest.  Now we are back on the road headed to Indiana.  The roads are good and signs are promising that we will make our destination.  New Haven here we come! 

-Aaron

New Haven, IN – Feb. 11^th-12^th

We're headed to New Haven after a good night's rest in Kalamazoo, the sun is shining and the roads are clear.  Well at least the interstate.  We pull off to stop for some coffee and gas; sitting at a stop sign on the access road, there is a semi truck sitting in the median waiting to turn left.  This guy is sticking out into the road by about 6 ft.  We can clearly see that this is not safe.  All of a sudden a Taurus appears to the left with there breaks locked and horn blaring.  BAMMMMMM!  This car slid right into the back of the semi trailer.  Fucked it up!  And the rear wheel of the semi trailer.  All of us are like "let's get back on the interstate before this shit happens to us"! We do and the drive is nice, no snow and no ice in Indiana. 

We pull up to our destination at Jilli's Pub about 3pm and go inside.  We walk in the door and Jill and Doc are already there working the bar.  So we indulge in a few afternoon beers and some darts to pass the time.  This place is the shit and everyone is so nice!  Just our kind of people, always keeping it real!  Apparently, we just can't get away from the storms because about 30 minutes after we arrive, the snow starts to fall.  Doc and Jill offer to put us up in a motel for the night which we gladly accept since this storm seems to keep following us and we're expecting 5-6 inches this night.  We go check in and use the wi-fi before heading back to Jilli's to hang out and promote for the next night.    They go ahead and let us load in tonight so our gear can stay warm before we head back to the motel.   

The A.M. comes early and we all get up and head to the library for a few hours to use their internet.  It's seriously a pain in the ass to not have an internet card for use anywhere.  We will be getting one as soon as we get back home.  Anyway, we head back to Jilli's to get everything ready to rock.  They feed us and hook us up with some drinks so we can loosen up and get ready for our show.  Apparently, the local T.V. station has called to confirm that we are playing tonight.  I never saw them there but maybe they mentioned us on air.  This show has obviously been well promoted and we are stoked.  So, Plow takes the stage about 8:30pm and totally kick ass!  They are probably the best cover band I've ever seen. Playing songs from the likes of Tool, Marilyn Manson, Pantera, System of a Down, etc.  And nailing them perfectly!  This gets us completely ready to get on the stage and rip it up.  We go on about 10pm and by now people are packing in, despite the weather, and we totally rock out for them.  Not our best performance but we had so much fun we didn't care.  And so did everyone else!  They even had us play an encore which is always cool.  We stayed 'til close and partied it up with everyone, playing drums and dancing and just downright livin' it up!  What a blast!  And the hospitality was something to awe over.  I can't believe how much these people took care of us.  If you're ever in New Haven, IN, plan to check out Jilli's Pub!

After our soirée, we retire to our two bed, one bath house on wheels for the night.  It is cold outside and the ground is covered in fresh white powder. Our septic tank has been full for three days now and frozen so we can't dump it and tensions are starting to surface. It is apparent that the stresses of the road are starting to take toll on us.  I wake up about 4am because I'm freezing and I realize the generator nor the engine is running which means we have no heat.  Frustrated at the situation, I wake Evan up to ask him why.  Drunk and half unconscious he replies that he doesn't know and I get up to turn the car on.  Now, somewhere between walking to the front to turn the engine on and getting back in my icy bed I must have triggered some rage in Evan because we just start brawling.  I could give exact details but for the sake of not reliving this ridiculous display of complete and total bullshit, I'll keep those to myself.  Not to mention, that you're only hearing my side of the story and the only reason I'm saying anything about it is because we promise to keep it real. Anyhow, this happens so suddenly but seemed like it took a lifetime.  Evan continues with his tantrum until everyone else passes out.  I am so full of rage I can't stop shaking, but I finally doze off.

There have still been no apologies made and I didn't expect it. Communication is virtually non-existent for us the next day.  I did learn a valuable lesson from this however, and I hope the others did too.  Life on the road is tough.  It is difficult for people to live, breath, eat, and shit together day-in and day-out, especially four "brothers" that know each other so well.  People say things they don't mean and it begins to escalate.  You have to communicate and not let things build up because at the most random time, something small turns into something big and then it's too late.  You have to deal with it rationally or someone will get hurt or worse, all of this; work, blood, sweat, and tears will be for nothing because it will all be gone in the blink of an eye. 

-Aaron

Connecticut – Feb. 14^th–16^th

On the road again, after a beautiful 7 or so hour drive through Indiana, Ohio, and into Pennsylvania, we pull off at a Super 8 motel for the night.  Maybe I'm just a Prima Donna but I can't go more than two days without a shower, especially when playing shows in between.  Besides we've joked this whole time about being heavy metal sissies, so maybe it's true, I don't know.  The way I look at it, we're suppose to attract people not scare them away so if we all stink to high hell who's gonna come to the merch booth and take pics with us, so forth and so on?  Anywho, we get back on the road early the next morning and head the other half of the distance to South Windsor (Hartford), CT.  Again, it is a beautiful drive through…I guess what would be the Appalachian Mountains, if my geography still serves me well.

We finally arrive in Hartford about 6pm and pull up to the club.  It is a pretty cool place.  The smallest club we've played on this tour but they have good sound equipment and 1000s of dollars in lighting.  Remember this is Valentines Day so the turn out is not so good.  Badmonkey goes up first and totally kick ass.  Their bass player didn't show so they were minus a lot of low end but they are a killer cover band.  They played Wild Thang by Tone Loc and it sounded fantastic, even some Sublime.   We go up about 10:30 and I'm glad no one was there because my throat is f'ed up.  The excesses of partying must be getting to me.  We just wing our set since I debated even playing and surprisingly sound really good.  We are so tight right now its unbelievable, except for my voice at this point, but no one cared.  I think there were about six people in the venue and every one of them bought merch.  Now, when you sell 100% plus merch at a show, you know you're doing something right!  I don't care if it is only six people because next time it will be sixty. 

We hang out for a while afterward and again we are surrounded by down-to-earth genuinely nice people, which I must say, is the highlight of being on the road.  We have had such a good time meeting people on this trip that it makes all the other bullshit transparent.  Who would have known that there were such good people in the world when all you hear about from the media is the bad shit?  Billy from Badmonkey even tried to help us get some more shows in Connecticut by sending emails to his contacts.  We weren't able to jump on anything this time but gained promises for future shows.  Can't beat that!  That's exactly why we're out doing what we're doing.

The drive to Danbury the next day is short and sweet.  The weather is a beautiful 48 degrees with a warm sun and signs of an early spring.  Better weather than in Texas that day and we are due it!  We stop at Chili's and indulge in lunch and some 2 dollar Coors Lights 'til about 11pm before crashing in the RV.  We are parked right by a Hampton Inn for use of their internet access and Evan has slyly talked the front desk clerk into giving us the network key so we figured we'd just stay in the RV.  Well, Greg wakes up about 3am freezing, and because his chica called, and he goes outside to use the phone.  He comes back about 30 min. later and says "get up bitches; I'm getting us a room."  I reply, "we should have done that hours ago, seems kinda pointless now, yeah?"  He says "well, Ashley says if we don't get a room she's gonna spend the money on shoes and she has plenty of shoes, believe me!  Besides, you want a shower or what?"  I say "hell yeah" and we proceed to the Hampton where Greg, now, has schmoozed his way into a double room for the price of a single.  And this hotel is nice!  I don't even want to go back to sleep cause I want to get as much out of this place as possible!  First, we do laundry, score!  Then Greg and I relax in the Jacuzzi, score!  And then we go to breakfast; where not only do they have the normal stuff like muffins, cereal, and toast.  They have biscuits, eggs, ham, fruit, etc., everything a band on road needs to get their day off to a great start, hat trick!  After Greg and I fill our plates he says, "let's get outta here nigga, I feel like we just robbed these mothafuckas!"  So, we head back to the room where Evan is on the computer and Goose is sleeping.  They both jump up when they see what we've brought back to the den, and run down stairs to fill there plates while its hot and fresh.  Mind you, this is 6am so there isn't a creature stirring except the employees of this hotel and us four rock stars.  They pretty well let us have a run of this place, again cool people, and we do it respectfully.

So that pretty well sums up the tour to this point.  We play tonight here in Danbury before a 2 day gap between our next show in Baltimore.  This sucks, but we will use the time to check out some clubs in New York City and Philly for our next run.  We are about 3600 miles from my drive-way so we are very hopeful for shows to start popping up in the south or it will be a long truck home. 

-Aaron

New York & Philadelphia – Feb. 17^th-19^th

NYC was the shit and we have pictures to prove it… We rolled into Jersey about 2pm, got a hotel, and jumped the bus to Manhattan Island.  Columbo (Gus) said we should go south to get to the "Heart of the City". It was frickin freezing.  We walk south about 30 or 35 blocks and never reach our destination…  In the mean time we manage to stay in the good part of the city until Greg spy's some people smokin a blunt, and says, "Who's smoking the weed". He then proceeded to take a $20, throw it in a shoe that homeboy happened to be selling, and walked with the goods.  Gus does the deed of ripping Greg's ass for the inconsiderate decision of putting us all in danger as we see it, and Greg hangs back with his ipod and the understanding of his ill timed decision. Afterwards we walk back the 35 blocks to Times Square and decide to fill our gullets at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  The wait is at least an hour; so we wait…

The food is delicious, the beers are hearty and the view is breathtaking. Our booth is right at the window overlooking Times Square. We had a blast, especially since we got to watch the tourists run as the rain decided to pour down upon them…. Just our luck though!! I was singing before we entered the city; "It's raining, it's raining, on the streets of New York City; It's raining, raining, raining deep in Heaven…"(Dream Theater-Trial of Tears). I think that was the jinx. But oh well; we ride the subway to the other end of the island. The Knitting Factory is where we're heading to promote for a future show in NYC… All four walk up to the door and Aaron tells the door guy that we're "here to see Chantelle" the booking agent. She's "not here tonight" says the box office chick. "OK, here is a press kit for her; we've been in touch and just wanted to personally drop off a promo package while we're in town".  The box office accepts and appears interested. We decide to hang by the door to find out our next destination when the "new" door guy introduces us to Shay the GM.  Aaron tells him who we are and he proceeds to hook us up with VIP passes for the rest of the night. We make sure and lay out matchbooks, CDs and stickers for promotional purposes, meet the locals and have a good time; but there are other venues to scout. They understand and let us know that we are welcome at their venue anytime we're in the area… That's all we wanted to hear; we've done what we came here to do. Don Hills Rock Club is our next destination…

After walking 10+ blocks, we find our next destination. Big Sean; 250lb. black hardcore security dude (cool as fuck) stands in our way of a private party going on at the club.  Although we proceed with our purpose, we don't quite feel comfortable until Paul (Pauly); ex NYPD who grew up in Brooklyn comes outside to regulate.  To our fortune he likes us cause where from Texas.  We talk to him for about 15min about Austin and NY, and really get a feel for what the movies call "Mobsters".  This motherfucker has seen everything you can imagine and is what we would call a "Goodfella". Cool people with great stories have been the highlight of this tour so far for me.

We decide to go ahead and hit up our motel in Jersey since we have walked about 30 miles, and are by this time, physically tired and ready to relax… We get lucky and hit up the last bus to Jersey for the night thanks to modern technology in AT&T cell phones and Aaron's call to the motel… 

 We arrive at 12:30 am and head to the RV for more beers which are stashed in the fridge.  Afterwards, we hit up the motel room to get online and take a shower… At 5am I get the urge to get up and check on the RV and trailer even though it's backed up to a fence.  We go to sleep…  At 11:45am I walk out to load up my suitcase and guitars. The RV backdoor is unlocked. Some cunt "Jimmied" the door handle and broke in. Luckily we're educated in theft from past events and loaded everything of value into the motel room; except for the goddamn Garmin GPS Navigation system which has shown us the way throughout our ventures around the country… Stolen!! Video Camera(broken so who gives a shit), Stolen!!  I file a police report, leave the motel, head to a Best Buy, buy a new Garmin and head to Philly…

We role up to the Trocadero; legendary venue that's been in the same place since 1870. That's where Lamb of God filmed "Killadephia".  Brian(door guy), John(bar tender), and Marianne('hot' bar tender) make Shrapnel feel right at home even though the booking agent isn't there to except our promo package… We drank like fish and had a great time.  Greg even got some bought 'bad' sushi and threw up right in front of the RV door… We stepped over it of course!!

Shrapnel are ready to return and blow Philadelphia out of the water. Until then… thanks for the hospitality, pics, and fun; we'll see you soon my brothas and sista!!

Baltimore; here we come!!

-evan