this blog was started 21st June: So I'm writing this on a highway somewhere in California and I'll post it when I get somewhere with internet access. We are meant to be in San Fransisco right now and we are most definitley NOT. One day in and we've already missed a show. There are a few people I'd like to punch right now, most predominantly our bus driver who is falling apart. More on that later. The others are playing a game called Apples to Apples but a couple of rounds in, I dropped out because they were not playing logically. For those who don't know, it's a game where you're dealt red cards with phrases, nouns, on them, and then another descriptive green card is dealt and everyone puts down one of their cards that they think most relates to the word, the winner of the previous round makes the judgment. And they weren't being logical about who won - I don't care about winning or losing, I am NOT competitive at all, but someone picked Mr Spock over Vladimir Lenin for the term 'successful' and someone else picked as the winner for effervescent 'corn dog' cause he thought it was funny. I just can't do that, call me stiff but it's not LOGICAL and I can't fucking stand it, so I dropped out of the game before I started getting angry. They all think I am fucking weird because of this but whatever.
So why are we not in San Fran, working? Well.
Last time I left you. I was waiting in the hotel for everyone to arrive. They did, a couple of hours later. I went down to the venue and met up with everyone. Beside the girl (V) and dude (D) that I've talked about, the Boss took on another girl, S, and also on our bus are two guys, Pablo and Josh, who are selling a clothing line, and also Mara, who is doing merch for Charlotte Sometimes AND... Clandestine. (flail, I know.) She's the one you have to report to for the FOE-to hunt that people are talking about. It's her first tour as well and she's awesome.
On the first night, our bus was parked 3 along from Cobra and therefore 4 along from TAI... so that was kind of weird and fun as I got to say hey to a lot of folks hanging outside their buses under their tents. There was a good vibe that first night, everyone putting up their tents and hanging out. Walked straight into Ryland's super tall chest right outside my bus and we were wearing the same damn plaid Urban Outfitters shirt in different shades, so that was a bit lol. And allegedly Alex can skateboard, which I never would have believed had I not seen in myself. So many people have bikes and boards and I wish there was room and money for me to have a bike - just a one speed cruiser like the ones I was riding at the beach in LA. I love them. I also made a bit of a dick of myself re: my camera.. for the last week the flash had not been working at all when the light was low. Even when it was on automatic, you could hold down the button and it just didn't take, it tried and blinked and nothing. I spent $40 on a cab to a repair shop in LA and they couldn't even look at it on the spot, their technician had gone home. So when I saw Jack TCG, (some of you already know what I think about Jack) I just thought 'oh fuck it, whatever, I'll ask him, what else am I gonna do?' and the second I put it in his hands and he tried it, IT WORKED AGAIN. And I'm just like '.... yeah, it was fucked for a week, how did you do that?' and he's all 'lol, show me when its broken again.' Facepalm.
So after we pack up the bus, cause the stuff was all over the parking lot D, V and I went back up to the hotel to shower, order food and sleep til 6am. We got pizza and met this dude in the lobby, Chris Brooklyn. He's done 6 years of Warped, he's a stage manager this year and, get this, he was the creator of Punk Rock Holocaust. If you've seen it, he shot and directed all of the daytime footage and was the one that got all the bands signed up. He bought us ice-cream sandwiches and hung in our hotel room for a few hours and told some mad stories and gave some mad advice about dealing with production - he thinks that I need to tell production the deal I've got with the Boss, and they will 'adjust' it because he thinks I'm getting screwed and that they have re-assigned crew to other people for much less shitty treatment. The production office are great at taking care of the crew, apparently. I kind of think I am being screwed, because of the terrible organization and naivety of the Boss, and also cause he's stingy bastard. Basically if he is charging me for a bus spot, he's obligated to pay me, and if I am to work for free, he should refund my bus money. He originally tried to make me pay over $1000 for catering, and I said flat out that I couldn't do that, and we've ALL ended up with catering anyway and I don't think that it was something that Boss is going to be charged with.. So it seems that money would have just gone into his pocket. Anyway, Brooklyn reckons it has to go one way or the other - get paid or get my bus money back - and if the Boss says no, I won't, Production will say, 'well, we have these jobs open, would you like to do one of those, N?' S is in the same boat and we're trying to work out how to approach it.
Anyway. After 4 hours sleeps, I woke up, completely awake in the mind, and we head down to start setting up. We were actually a little too early... I kind of imagined that we had to be all pitched by around 8, and it's really more like 10am, so I snagged some fruit from catering even though I didn't have my proper pass yet. The venue was in the middle of a race track and so we had to cross a big, soft dirt road, which is fun to wheel things through with only a broken, upright dolly - by the time the kids came in, it was covered with a nice board and plastic cover. Setting up was easier than I expected.. despite me having to create a table out of two garbage boxes that I found and a spare wire rack, covered with my bedsheet. I now have new sheets. The day went kind of fast. V kept saying 'oh, I have to go back, I don't feel like I've been sat in the booth long enough' cause it genuinely felt like not much time between breaks. It felt like I spent more time in the catering line than I did on the booth.il
points of the day:
+ the booth actually looking decent despite us not having ANYTHING like the kind of preparation a lot of the other stands had (not our fault, the Boss didn't know what was actually needed and we had no time to make him get it before the tour.)
- only selling two shirts the whole day, despite a lot of interest in the boards
+ seeing TAI... and Cobra side of stage
- the sound being AWFUL - was told later by about 4 different members of The Academy Of Cobra Starship Is... A Fucking Animal With Its Fangs Up about how shitty it was and how in-ears failed and no one had any levels correct. They were all so salty.
+ new TAI songs - well, Carden's guitar parts sounded good, that's about all I could hear
+ Alex playing keyboards, why did no one tell me about this in advance? waaahh, radness in solid form.
+ walking back from Cobra and totally having forgotten the Audiz were playing on this tour until I heard Don't Be So Hard and running over and seeing them playing out of the back of a truck.
- seeing fucking Jeffree Star EVERYWHERE I turned
+ seeing Mike from Treaty everywhere - I hung out with him randomly in Chicago and NYC this month and now he's here til Denver.
+ Boss's friend, Magic Mike, taking pity on the situation and trying to help us out and buy us things and make the Boss get organized.
+ lots of excited hellos, hugs and high fives from people who I was slightly worried would question me being there. I'm a huge fan of a few bands on this tour - I think everyone here, all 600, is a fan of at least one other band unless they're a jaded asshole - but a couple of these bands, they know me from shows, as a full on, line-up-for-shows, get-a-setlist-signed FAN. For the record, I started trying to work Warped 08, looking at sponsors and non-profits, before the lineup was even announced. They're not why I'm here. I just have to make that clear, because I will probably talk about them a lot here, but I was worried that they/others would be all 'um, are you just here to follow us around?. Anyway. They don't seem to think that. Ace.
+ meeting Travis McCoy and finally getting to say how proud I am of him for his recent treatment. Cause seriously. Go read his blog.
+ Fucking fruit sorbets at catering - SERVED IN THE FRUIT AS A BOWL. Pineapple inside half a pineapple. Orange inside a scooped out orange. ETC. What the hell.
- hands feeling and being constantly dirtier than ever before
- being salty with sweat
+ not actually giving a shit or feeling like I was gross
-/+ catering lines - fucking long and tedious but you talk to everyone so much.
-/+ Chris Crocker being in catering. I actually thought 'fuck, that girl looks like Chris Crocker.' but it was actually him.
Basically. The day finishes, Magic Mike makes a list of all the gear we need (crates, a 4-wheel dolly, tables, pens, cashbox, tape, erasable board, everything) and makes a plan to get us to Walmart or Home Depot. We walk around a bit, and finally end up back on our shag-wagon. I lie down and try go to sleep and pretty soon I realise we're not going anywhere. Bus call was 10pm. It was a 9 hour drive to San Francisco. AND THE FUCKING, FUCKING BUS WAS OUT OF GAS. Here's where the rage starts. WE HAD BEEN THERE FOR OVER 24 HOURS AND THE DRIVER KNEW WE WERE OUT OF GAS AND DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ANYONE. HE ALSO SLEPT ALL DAY WITH THE AIR CON ON WHICH ATE THE LAST FEW DROPS SO WE COULD NOT EVEN GET TO A GAS STATION. Magic Mike drove to get some in a can, came back, but because the bus had been empty so long, everything was DEAD. I don't drive but I think they had to change filters and all this stuff, and then the battery died? I'm not exactly sure of the technical difficulties but basically at about 1am I accepted that we were not going to the next show and fell asleep inside the sauna of a bus. Woke up and went to take a shower, and there was a mechanic just finishing up. The bus driver, who is this old, falling apart guy with a weird-ass Southern accent. (seen TAITV? 'Beelll!! Git yur dawwggg!!' - like that but worse) and I think he may be blind or mentally retarded. He called S out of bed the other day cause he couldnt plug his phone charger into his phone. Anyway as I was going back on, he was like 'we maght hev to stay heer til toosday' and 5 minutes later the mechanic actually fixes the bus. Boss then asks if I could put it on my credit card and he'll pay me back later and let me just say the answer to that is HELL NO. I've been told by someone else that he doesn't even have a bank account, let alone a card of his own. Anyway I just said I didn't have enough on my card, which is true, but still.
So. So. The bus works. We roll out of there and about 5 minutes down the highway, it stops again. Purely from overheating. As I said, this thing was not meant to tour, and yeah, it just stopped. It started again and we rolled into this parking lot by a Target and Chilis where Boss made the decision to call and get his old bus brought and use that until we get the repaired Prevost next week. So we all just fuck off to get lunch and shop at Target. When I get in a bad mood or stressed I tend to be a bitch to service people, and at lunch they brought my food and I was like 'uh, is there pepper on these fries?' they say yes, and I thrust them back at him and just say 'no. can't eat that. get me fresh ones.' and as he walks off I'm just like 'who the fuck puts pepper on fries?' I still agree with that sentiment - like, sure you can put pepper if you want, but who serves fries already with pepper on them? Why would you do that? The other bus arrives and we transfer all the gear, which took a while and it was FUCKING hot. Finally we leave in the new bus - an old, gutted coach with a few sets of seats, two fold out couches and a mattress. Pretty ghetto but a lot more space. We drive straight on to Ventura, CA and arrive at about sunset. Park in the outside lot of the venue where Magic Mike is waiting for us - his son lives right across on the beach so we go to his house, swim in the pool, do laundry, and go out and get the most fantastic pizza in existance. In the boot of his car, it was like... merch girl Christmas. Tables, crates, dollies, signs, pens, it was insane. S almost started to cry in gratitude - it was what we KNEW we needed but what Boss had not organized at all.
Written right now: Ventura show the next day was completely amazing. Sold a lot, the band sets I saw were incredible... fucking KATY PERRY, this girl rocks my world right now. Oreska Band - Japanese ska band, all girls, also fucking amazing... I saw my Bel who is over here visiting and we watched The Academy together... I shot Cobra from the photo pit and then went into the crowd - they brought out water guns and Alex spotted me at one point, I flipped him off and he shot me straight in the face. Oh lol. I met Joe Trohman from Fall Out Boy, he was there watching the TAI set and we talked when we were kicked off the side of stage during the last song. Also got another boost of confidence re: them not minding me being a huge fangirl - waved hi at Adam as I was running off after their set to break down my tent, I was all 'see you later that was awesome i have to go yeah' and he's like 'of course, come talk any time!!!' so yes. Discussed the new album and the Aussie PATD tour with Michael before their set, which is just exciting, and all in all it was a very good day, re: the job, re: the bands and re: hanging out with Bel. After the show bus call was 1am so there were a lot of gatherings in the parking lot and Bel came found my bus and we snuggled, chatted and snuggled with a few others including a very drunk and sweet Gabriel - call me a complete fangirl but I love the way he calls people 'girl' and 'baby' in a totally non-sleazy way. Guy's got charisma oozing out his ears, he was born to be famous. I'm not even starstruck by him, there's just something about him that people pay attention to.
Anyway, I'm in Phoenix now. We had two off days which could have been more enjoyable than they were, but whatever. It is so hot here that I think I am going to die. I'm in the net centre that GuitarLab has provided for us, on a break... mmm, air conditioning. Last night we parked in the driveway of the venue cause we couldnt get in til 6am, and had a sit-out with Farewell and Tat. Fucking best and funniest conversation I have had in a long time, with Marshall and Will from Farewell, about 'punishers.' I'm not even going to try explain it here, but oh man. Will knew Awkward Turtle as well and so we loled, and Tat's merch girl put pink dye in a bunch of people's hair.
First video interview soon, a short one with Marshall from last night. Also will post some pics ASAP. Let me see what I got for you right now...
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