This blog is the sixth chapter in my daily journals chronicling my first tour as a rock artist. In my first four tour journal entries (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4), I recalled my weeks spent trekking across Europe, during which we played nine cities, I got the flu, and nearly got hit by lightning! In my most recent blog, Part 5, I chronicled reuniting my intrepid crew to tour North America. While performing in New York City, I bashed my brand new taiko drum, to the delight of the crowd. In Boston, a fan shocked me by asking me to sign a gorgeous hurdy gurdy. My adventures continue in Part Six…
Saturday, May 24
5:00 pm
Hanover, Maryland
I awoke to the rhythms of the gently jostling bus and, to my shock, observed that it was 1 pm! I don’t remember the last time I woke up after 11 am, but it was definitely before my daughter was born, so a decade ago or more. I stumbled into the bus’s front lobby and saw almost everyone else, awake and chatting. I am always the first guy to wake up, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Today is a day off, and we are staying the rest of the day and half the night in Hanover, Maryland, so our driver can get some sleep. The bus stopped around noon in the parking lot of a mall called Arundel Mills.
Realizing I hadn’t eaten a proper meal in over twenty-four hours, I met up with a few of the guys at a restaurant called Nando’s. Pete raved about how good the food was, and he did not oversell it. Delicious!
After dinner, Morgan and I found a store in the mall called Last Stop. I don’t often find retail stores with matching names to songs from my album The Singularity, so we grabbed a selfie to commemorate the occasion.
Sunday, May 25
7:25 pm
Washington, D.C.
We arrived in Washington, D.C. and parked outside the city’s famed venue, The 9:30 Club, around noon today. With a few hours to kill before soundcheck, I set out on adventures in our nation’s capitol. A few of us crossed the street to grab sandwiches at a place called Dragon Hero. How could I resist a restaurant painted and themed in a fantasy setting: it looked like it would sell Dungeons & Dragons games. I ordered a delicious hot sandwich called the “King Arthur” and it was truly “The King of the Sandwiches!” (Please read that in the God voice from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)
Afterwards, Paul, Pete and I went to the National Mall and took a leisurely stroll from the National Gallery of Art all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial. The Sculpture Garden, the deceptively massive Washington Monument, and the impressive water display of the World War II Memorial were all awe-inspiring to behold, especially in today’s absolutely gorgeous weather.
That was a lot of walking for me, so I returned to the venue to leave time to relax before soundcheck. Stepping foot into the famed 9:30 Club, I could immediately see how it earned its reputation as one of the city’s coolest venues. The performance space oozes rock and roll energy, the kitchen and food services are shockingly world class (my chicken tacos were delicious), and the backstage area is exceptionally clean and comfortable. One of the most famous aspects of The 9:30 Club is that they bake custom cupcakes and leave them out for their artists, and in this they did not disappoint.
The seating in the green room also featured upper bunks, the perfect place to chill with my band. As we were getting ready for the show, Brendan needed help shaving the back of his mohawk and enlisted Igor, who also has a similar hairstyle.
Later, Gene sat me down for an impromptu drum lesson, including a useful warm-up technique. He told me that if I am going to keep smashing the taiko with that level of intensity, I need to start warming up or I’ll shred the muscles in my forearms, a warning I am taking very seriously. As he showed me what to do, I kept thinking “Holy shit, I am getting a free drum lesson from one of metal’s most prominent drummers!”
I found out this morning that today is Pete Griffin’s birthday, so I made secret plans with the rest of the guys after soundcheck to inspire the crowd to sing him “Happy Birthday” during the show. I’m curious how it goes tonight!
Monday, May 6
1:45 am
Washington, D.C.
The consensus among the crew guys is that tonight’s show at The 9:30 Club was arguably the best one yet! Our fans were lined up around the block and brought a thunderstorm of energy in with them!
Photo (Clockwise from Top Left): Becky Healey, J.D. Casto, J.D. Casto, J.D. Casto
Brendan leapt out on to the thin metal barricade during “Incinerator,” perching precariously at the edge of the crowd, grabbing on to an exhilarated (terrified?) guy’s sweatshirt, for both drama and balance. As I raced my hands across the neck of my guitar on the song’s brutal riffs, I watched him like a hawk, praying he didn’t fall!
Inspired in part by Brendan’s increasingly punk antics, I’ve felt more confident and empowered to prowl the stage, make more eye contact with fans, and move to the front of the stage during my difficult guitar riffs in “Escape from the Machines” and “The End of Tomorrow.” I am starting to feel more like a rock star up there.
After “A Son’s Path,” I made an announcement to the crowd that we had a very special birthday boy with us, and Brendan launched us into “Happy Birthday” for Pete. The whole crowd joined in! Unsurprisingly, given the caliber of my musicians, the completely unrehearsed song was flawlessly harmonized, as Morgan and Paul supported Brendan’s lead vocal with beautiful backing vocals and an expressive violin line.
Pete seemed genuinely surprised, so my secret plans had indeed remained secret! He was perhaps even a little moved by our gesture. The instant we concluded the song we launched into the searing “Last Stop,” the most brutal song in our set. The transition was shockingly effective. Maybe we should play “Happy Birthday” every night LOL!
I must have been really hammering the hurdy gurdy during “Black Sails,” because it drifted badly out of tune. I handed the instrument back to Jai for a quick tune-up before “Blood Upon the Snow,” and told the crowd an anecdote to buy him a minute. After a minute, I glanced back to Jai at his workbench on the side of the stage, and he shot me back an expression like that of a weary trauma surgeon losing a patient. Uh oh. This wasn’t going to be a quick fix. I had to tell another story and buy him some more time. I found out after the show that he needed to not only re-tune the instrument, but had to remove and replace the delicate cotton around the strings at certain contact points, all while the pressure was on. Thankfully, he got it done and handed me back a perfectly tuned hurdy gurdy. (When he goes on to his next tour after working with me, I’m sure he’ll be grateful to just be working with guitars once again!)
The night ended with a gorgeous rendition of “The Skye Boat Song,” aided by our lighting director, Jack, who took advantage of the venue’s gorgeous disco ball to envelop the audience in a cloud of twinkling lights.
After the show, I celebrated with band and crew with slices of the delicious house-made pizza provided by the venue. And I finally got to enjoy one of the club’s legendary chocolate cupcakes. Pete was gifted this incredible whiskey for his birthday, and we all got a little tipsy from it. Maybe it was the alcohol, but Pete was uncharacteristically forthcoming about his emotions tonight, describing how, when playing the final beautiful note of “Skye Boat,” he felt overwhelmed with gratitude for the fact that his life had brought him to the point where he could take part in something beautiful like this. He then complimented my improved guitar playing over the last year, and Igor chimed in to add that my playing had improved markedly even over the last month. I was a bit overwhelmed. A compliment like that from guys I admire so deeply made me feel so cool I almost didn’t know how to process it.
I am now back on the bus, and we will pull out around 3 am, as we begin our two-day trek up to Canada. I can hardly believe my North American run is already halfway done.
Monday, May 26
9:00 pm
Albany, New York
I awoke around 11am, just as our bus pulled into the parking lot of the Crossgates Mall in Albany. We will spend twelve hours here so our driver Bruce can get some dadgum sleep. Suddenly, I had a day to kill at a mall.
I got a late breakfast (lunch?) of Dunkin’ Donuts at the food court with Morgan and Omer, passing the time talking mostly about our mutual love of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. By the end of that meal, I had had enough of the mall.
I went back to the bus and set up my travel rig at the little table in the back lounge. Comprised of my new laptop, a portable piano keyboard, MIDI fader controller, numeric keypad, and headphones, this travel rig was designed by my intrepid tech team to allow me to write music while out on the road. I spent the afternoon sketching. My keyboard shortcuts and workflow here are just different enough that every step of my process went slower. It took forever, but it felt great to write something again.
Around 5:30 pm, our team walked over to a Brazilian steakhouse, organized by our Brazilian drum tech, Baldo. The restaurant staff pulled a few tables together to accommodate me, Baldo, Timmy, Omer, Gene, Jai, Igor, Jack, Brendan and Paul. The company and food tonight were both outstanding. While downing Caipirinhas and eating delicious meats, Baldo and I chatted about our mutual love of Sepultura, Brazil’s most famous metal band, creators of Roots, one of my favorite metal albums of all time.
I’m currently hunkered down at the bus, settled in for the night. Tonight, we cross the Canadian border as we head into Montreal.
Tuesday, May 27
7:15 pm
Montreal, Québec
After eventually falling asleep after 1 am, I was awoken, along with the rest of the guys, at 5:20 am and forced off the bus to present our passports to Canadian border officials—I was half asleep the whole time, just trying to stay awake enough to not accidentally say something stupid in response to the agent’s questions. I crawled back into my bed around 6 am and was lulled back to sleep by the rocking of the bus as we headed into Canada.
I awoke at 11 am in Montreal, and stepped off the bus onto a bustling, idyllic city street. The sun shone warmly down on charming red brick buildings, between which wove beautiful, sharply dressed people of all types. I chatted with Jack at the loading dock and he recommended I cross the street from the venue and find a charming coffee place called September Café. I followed his advice and was struck by how gorgeous every single person inside was. I got an avocado toast with a shockingly delicious latte and found Igor outside in the warm sun.
From there, I wandered a few blocks until I crossed a cute pedestrian bridge over a serene, crystalline blue river, dotted with kayakers and paddle boats. I strolled riverside along a bike path, past cafes and ice creams stands.
I grabbed a late lunch at the pub right next door to the venue and chatted with a cute waitress after I overheard her asking who was playing next door tonight. The whole city felt like a fantasy paradise. I was completely blown away by Montreal. I could live here!
Our venue for tonight, Théâtre Beanfield, is a gorgeous, vintage movie theater that has been converted into an incredible performance space. Lo and behold, the venue has a laundry facility backstage, tucked away in the back corner behind the dressing rooms. By the time I found it, Gene was just finishing up his clothes. As I was clutching my dirty laundry, I asked him how the machine worked, expecting him to point to the “on” button. Instead, Gene Hoglan, one of the world’s most brutal drummers, gave me a thorough, step-by-step walkthrough of the entire process, showing me where the venue stored detergent and dryer sheets, and offering suggestions on how best to operate the washer—like a heavy metal Martha Stewart.
I thought, “Holy shit, I am getting a laundry tutorial from one of metal’s most prominent drummers!” He even sang back to me (perfectly, I might add) the exact little chime that the washing machine would produce when it was done.
Heading backstage that afternoon I noticed too that nearly half of us were wearing our complimentary t-shirts from The 9:30 Club, which started to look like a hilarious uniform.
As we took to the stage for soundcheck, the fog machine and lights created a spectacular vision reminiscent of a Spielbergian science fiction movie.
We practiced a lighting cue for “Redshift” that would draw attention to Omer putting on this ridiculous pair of meme-inspired sunglasses he picked up. (Omer’s sense of humor continues to emerge. I love how this guy acquires new props and costume apparel the longer we tour!)
After soundcheck, Brendan approached me with a radical idea for the set that I knew would be risky to implement last minute. He proposed we end the set earlier, after “Tears for the Dead Life,” and move two more songs to the encore, “All Along the Watchtower” and “Godzilla.” (To this point, we had only ever played a single song as an encore.) Furthermore, Brendan suggested reordering the final three songs so that we once again end with “Godzilla.” I am intrigued by this idea. While “The Skye Boat Song” always ends the night with a lovely, emotional tone, I suspect that ending with “Godzilla,” as I had always intended, could be effective. We’re going to try it tonight. I hope it is not a trainwreck.
Wedneday, May 28
3:00 am
Montreal, Québec
The Montreal crowd was great, and I am thrilled to say the new encore concept worked beautifully!
I assumed that hurdy gurdy in Boston would be the weirdest musical instrument a fan brings to one of my shows, but sure enough a local Montreal musician named Lateef Martin was like ‘hold my beer.’
After the show, I met this guy who brought and demonstrated for us his custom instrument called The Lethelium Bike Harp. Sure as the name suggests, it is a harp-like instrument built from bicycle components. I took one look at this thing and I knew I had to have one.
Returning to the bus, I got buzzed on this great vodka Paul passed around and hung out with him, Jai, Igor, Morgan and Omer for hours, munching on late night snacks in the front lounge. Our energetic conversation drifted from topic to topic, ranging from the end of capitalism to Hideo Kojima videogames to topics too taboo to list here.
Timmy and Jack sauntered in after 2 am just as Paul began attempting to throw a Cheeto into Jai’s mouth from across the bus. (He succeeded after several attempts!) Finally, the bus lurched forward and I am now about to crawl into bed as we trek into Toronto.
Continued in Part 7.
-Bear
