14th
It happens..
So it’s been about a month since we embarked on our summer adventure. We left Texas knowing this summer would hold some great times and some less than great times. Getting to share the stage with Gavin and Collective Soul has been such a cool experience for us. Some of the most exciting parts of touring is what happens when everyone is hanging out after the show. So many stories are told and random conversations happen. We have had a few really cool moments. Summerfest was one of these! This is something that we had heard so much about and it did not disappoint. There were close to 10,000 people. It was an insane show! We were on the stage with Collective Soul and Gavin Degraw while Train was also playing 100 yard away. All bands we look up to. Such a cool experience. We left Milwaukee and made our way to St Louis where we played a 4th of July show with Train underneath the arch. There is something amazing about the 4th. The great outdoors, good food and drink and fireworks! Can’t get much better. After St Louis we made our way to Tulsa where a few of our friends and family came to hang out with us!
I feel like sometimes our job is to drive professionally as much as it is to be musicians. We have clocked some serious miles in the last few years. In the many miles we trek there are always close calls and we have been lucky enough to avoid some serious accidents. Thank the Lord! Well we weren’t so lucky 2 days ago. We were in Minnesota playing an outdoor festival called Basillica Block Party. We were opening for Matt Nathanson and Counting Crows. 2 amazing artists! The show was amazing. There were 15,000 people there and the weather was amazing. Cities 97 (the radio station) had invited us out and has been playing “Come On”. It was pretty dang cool to see people in Minnesota singing along. The night was full of great moments. Between our set and Matt Nathanson there was a sandwich eating contest. Who could eat the most Jimmy Johns foot long subs! These weren’t any amateurs. The #2 and #5 eaters in the world? Yea there is such a thing. They had 6 mins to eat as many as possible. The winner threw down 21 sandwiches. It was insane and kind of disturbing how much food they ate. We enjoyed Matt and the Counting Crows. We were stage side for the Counting Crows singing along and soaking it up! After the show we loaded in the van at midnight to head to meet back up with the Collective Soul and Gavin boys. We had a 22 hr drive ahead of us to Myrtle Beach which we were going to drive straight. Geoff kicked off the first leg and drove the graveyard shift till about 5. Jamey relieved him and we were making our way just outside of Chicago when we all woke up to the van swerving to barely keep control. Yep a kind gentleman from out of town was not sure what to do with the toll signs so he decided to give a strong brake on the highway. Our vehicle does not stop that fast so Jamey did all he could do to miss the vehicle. All in all it was just a mild fender bender that could have been much worse. We sat on the side of the highway repairing our vehicle to try to get it back on the road. Thanks to Denton Hunker beating our bumper with a steel pole he borrowed from the cops we were ready to roll. A few bruises but good to go! We made it to Myrtle Beach in 27 hrs..had a great show last night and now are on our way to Orlando!
