Monday, March 22, 2010

Tour Log #3: The Grind

A few shows ago we spent the night in the van as we took turns driving the eleven hours from Phoenix to Artesia, NM. One way or another, everything you do on tour will eventually lead to a sore back. Sleeping in the van when its moving is no exception. Head-banging, playing guitar, and sitting for a liberal amount of time are other causes for the "sore-back" affliction. If we decide to hire a tour manager again, my vote is for a massage therapist tour manager who also does front of house sound and lights. All this to say that the daily Grind has set in, and we're back on the move like it's the only thing we know.

I feel like we're living with a bit of a scarcity mindset. Since our lights and scrims were stolen we've stripped our live show down to bare bones, and I think sometimes it might look and feel a little weaker than usual. Maybe we're tired of playing old songs, maybe the crowds seem less enthused, not sure. Maybe I'm less enthused. One thing I do know is we haven't yet hit our stride with our live show this year. When you have to pick 10 songs from a list of 45 released it becomes hard to iron out transitions, picking where the new songs will go and which songs they will replace. In the last six shows we've chipped away, swapped, added and done away with songs in attempt to assemble our most current and fluid set list, so hopefully it's all uphill from here. We're cautiously optimistic that Texas will be our redemption, even in the aftermath of SXSW and the over-saturation of insinscenester garbage it brings. We like Texas, so we hope to put on a few good shows for them.

7 comments:

  1. Man I just cant wait to have you guys at our place tomorrow night (The Revolution, El Paso)hopefully even in the labor you can find some pleasure at "our house."

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  2. I feel like a hypocrite, but savor the flavor, brother. You guys have all of my respect.

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  3. I think the AZ crowd was lame.Totally not your fault.

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  4. He never promised to make life always fun, exciting or even easy (although yours does seem pretty close at times), we & life are works in progress, but by the time TCC gets to PD in Pa. in Aug., you guys will have come up with a working formula!

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  5. i agree. even living in spanaway (just south of tacoma) and playing shows in tacoma and stuff can take a toll on someone. let alone going all over the country. people say it is their dream but most do not realize how hard it really is on someone. by the way, looking for a tour manager? i am for this idea. and i am a huge fan of driving who already works graveyard shifts. this is genius.

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  6. just wait til you have like 20 albums like mxpx...they can't even remember all their songs

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  7. I wouldn't know much, but I think that the songs you get tired of singing might not be the ones worth singing. A lot of the time musicians want to publish almost everything they write, but the songs that you never get tired of are the songs that you can't ever live without. And most of the time, those songs are about a bigger picture

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