Archive Sunday #30

After a few days rest coming home from Omaha, we were excited to make an addition we had been dreaming about since we started touring. I honestly forget who introduced us, probably a friend of a friend, but we all ventured up to Green Lake together after practice to meet up with John McRae to see if he'd be a good fit for our touring sound engineer. We talked for a couple hours mostly about his experience at local venues and then about whatever came to mind to see if he would gel with our group dynamic (especially with long hours in tight quarters). Needless to say we all got along really well, and invited him out to join us on our next run of shows.

So about a week later, we loaded up Bertha and headed out east again to the Neurolux in Boise. It was our second time playing this venue, so we knew what to expect. But we quickly put John's skills to the test when Ethan realized his guitar was broken at sound check. Luckily John knew how to quickly patch it up, and saved us a stressful trip around town looking for a left-handed replacement. The show went well, and it was nice to catch up with Stef Chura after a few weeks apart. It's always rewarding to come back to a venue with a sparse crowd and notice that more people came out this time. While it could be total coincidence, it kinda makes you feel like you're doing something right haha.

The next day we made our way to Salt Lake City to play the Urban Lounge. The venue had a really familiar layout, but it was our first time there. I remember looking through all the tour posters on their wall while John rung out the PA, and I noticed Soccer Mommy was coming by right after us. After soundcheck we all walked down the road together in search of food and eventually settled on this little Mexican spot with a nice outdoor patio so we could enjoy the nice weather. It was another super fun show, and it was cool being able to catch Stef's set from the comfort of our greenroom right beside the stage.

We got up early the next morning to make the long trek to Denver. Right out of the city there were some steep mountain passes, and once we were coming into Wyoming we noticed Bertha was not happy haha. We all started to smell the sweet, maple-syrup scent of coolant and could tell the engine was struggling to keep up. We debated turning around cause once you're in Wyoming finding any sort of civilization is pretty tough. But ultimately we decided to risk it for a few more miles, and slowly pulled into a one car garage in Evanston, Wyoming. Luckily the mechanic there was super helpful and had us on our way in a couple hours while we explored the small town and watched the preparations for the rodeo next-door.

Super late at this point we high-tailed it all the rest of the way without stopping all the way to Denver. We had already let the venue know of our van troubles earlier, but once we got there we apologized profusely for wasting anyone's time. Luckily everyone was super nice about it, and we even managed to sneak a couple minute line-check before doors. One thing we always  noticed is that a lot of times with super stressful and annoying lead-up to shows it somehow makes the show itself better once we finally get to actually play. Something about how music makes you focus on the moment and how it allows you to release the day's mounting frustrations really makes the show extra special. It's definitely not 100% but I think this was one of those nights that after a super long and anxious day, once we got on stage everything melted away and we played a really good show.

The next day we went to the Denver airport and then placed all our trust in John to drive the van with all the gear across Kansas and meet us in St. Louis after we played a festival in Philadelphia. So us four took our guitars and flew out to Philly to play Made in America festival. I remember we all got to the festival grounds around lunch-time and proceeded to spend an hour walking around with our gear trying to find our credentials. But we finally found our greenroom and managed to grab some catering before our set. It was a short-and-sweet set and afterwards we wandered around the grounds catching sets from the pretty diverse line-up including Jamie XX, Lil Wayne, and Adventure Club.

WT: I remember Made in America being a challenge to navigate backstage. Festivals really run the gamut of good and bad touring experiences; there are so many moving pieces, and if the people at the top don't have everything dialed in, things spiral out of control pretty quickly with volunteer and staff not knowing where anything is or what they're supposed to be doing. And you never really know beforehand whether it's going to be smooth or rough. I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with the Fyre Festival horror story, but honestly, a lot of festivals look like they might potentially fall apart during the advance stages, only to go without a hitch on the day of. Meanwhile, a lot of well-established fests are a total mess behind the scenes.