Seabound/Iris US Tour 08

In Conclusion

2008-04-04T20:11:00.001-07:00

Days 21, 22 & 23: The Journey Home

- By some miracle and for the first time ever on tour, I didn't get catch a cold. Everyone else seemed to be coughing and dying from the plague and I escaped the "Iris Virus" somehow. This never happens and I'm always the first one to get sick. Maybe Airborne really does work after all. Hahaha!

- So anyway, the morning after the LA show, we all converge at a Denny's for a last breakfast together. We stuff our faces on more food than we can possibly eat and then say our goodbyes (again). I walk down to Amoeba Music after breakfast, as this was my first opportunity the whole tour to do some CD shopping. Of course, I find nothing I'm looking for. Oh well.

- Ned, Andrew, and I then make the long trek back in the van to San Francisco. Ned and Andrew will begin the mini Stromkern tour in SF, rent a new van there, do a show in SF, then drive back to LA for another show... and then drive back to SF to return the new van. Making for a total of 4 times Ned has to drive that same stretch from SF to LA in a matter of days. Ha-ha! He asked me to help out on the Stromkern tour, but i have to fly back tomorrow for jury duty at 8 am the next morning.

- We get to Tyler Newman's apartment that evening, unload all the gear into his place and then wait for the guy who's going to drive the van the rest of the way back to Portland (where it was originally rented from). He shows up fairly quickly, so Tyler takes us out for sushi and then bar hoping around the city, drinking until 1 or 2am. I crash out on the air mattress on the floor and wake up at 7am.

- I begin my long journey back home to Boston by grabbing the 8am train to Oakland airport. My flight is at 10 and takes me to Salt Lake City, where I have a lovely 4 hour layover (mountains everywhere you look and nothing to do). By the time I get into Logan airport in Boston, it's 11pm. I'm exhausted to say the least, but the tour is now officially over for me.

- However, 7am came too soon and I was at the court house for jury duty by 8am. They inform me when I get there that I didn't need to serve and that I "should have gotten something in the mail telling me so". Nope, didn't get the memo, but that would have been nice to know before I flew all they way from California! So they have me do it anyway since I'm already here. I sat around for hours and shuffled from room to room, given stern speech after stern speech about how serious a matter being in a jury is and finally at 2pm, they tell me I'm not needed after all. "You can go home, thanks, bye". Uh... um, ok. Ladies and gentlemen, how about a round of applause for our government! Whatever.

- So, what's next for me? Well, I will be backline tech for Combichrist again in May for the tour with Mindless Self Indulgence and The Birthday Massacre. That should prove interesting for two reasons: 1) we'll all be in a van instead of a tour bus this time 2) I will be working for free. Now why the hell would I do that? Well, it's complicated. After that, I will be teching again for CC, but in Europe (and I'll be getting paid this time). After that? Well, I'll be working in some sort of capacity for Imperative Reaction on their tour this fall with [:SITD:] and Aesthetic Perfection. I have a pretty full schedule, plus I've been talking with a few other bands about helping out on their tours this year as well. Stay tuned for more!

Day 20: Los Angeles, CA

2008-04-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

Venue: Safari Sam's

- As stated before, we stayed in a motel south of SF, but had to drive northeast for a while to get over to I-5 south. This added an hour or so to our trip, though I find I-5 a rather pleasant drive compared to some of the others we've had to do (like, oh say, DC to New Haven for example).

- I had my noise-canceling headphones on for most of the drive. At one point I looked over and saw Ned hunched over with his fingers in his ears. Apparently Andrew and Reagan had been arguing about religion for hours and Ned was at his cracking point. I handed him an extra pair of earbuds I had and he was able to work on the Stromkern set list on his laptop for the rest of the trip. Stromkern will be playing a couple shows after the Seabound tour is finished.

- Safari Sam's is in a small shopping plaza on Sunset Blvd. There was a rockabilly band playing on stage when we got there, with a few bored looking goths waiting outside. The promoter comes with us to check us into a nearby motel (which took a couple tries since some were already booked up). Our motel ended up being literally the next building over from the venue. Convenient, but seemed like it might have a pay-by-the-hour option as well. Hahaha! We had a six-legged guest in our room too. Man, touring sure is glamorous! Did I mention the paper bath mat? Yup, it's real paper, alright. Bath mat... place mat... ehh, what's the difference?!

- It's really nice to be in t-shirt weather again. I'm not a huge fan of LA but at least the weather is nice. Load-in and soundcheck were the usual affair. My job has now gotten a bit easier now that the laser doesn't work and not part of the show. The Seabound show isn't quite the same now without it, but there's not much we can do about that. However the banner had to be nailed into the wall, which took some doing.

- The catering tonight was actually really good, with better quality food than normal. And there was a lot of it too! Though a someone brought us non-alcoholic beer (apparently he was straight-edge and basically didn't know better). Shortly after, our dinner orders were taken and I could hardly finish the food. I normally lose weight on tour, but I think this one might be an exception.

- System Syn was the local opening band tonight. The band is fronted by Clint Carney from Imperative Reaction and this was my first time meeting him or hearing his band (my first impression is that they sound similar to IR). In the past I'd been his stand-in on keyboards for the IR shows and I will be working with him on the IR tour this fall.

- The night felt a little anti-climatic for a last show of the tour... to me anyway. Both bands performed well and the audience was into it, but it might have been that we were all so exhausted that the energy was a bit lower. It was also really hot on stage and I brought everyone more water. Seabound also got accidentally locked out of the backstage when they finished the last encore. It was almost a Spinal Tap moment with the band leaving the stage and nowhere to go.

- After the show, the night became a blur of running around, load-out, drinking and saying some goodbyes. The end of a tour is always a weird point and always very awkward. We loaded everything straight into the hotel rather than the van since it was right there. Frank was being video interviewed at 2am on the steps of the motel. Ned and my room became the afterparty spot (band and crew only) and drank cheap red wine 'til 2 am (seemed like a good idea at the time). Tomorrow is long trip back to San Francisco for Ned, Andrew and myself.

Day 19: San Francisco, CA

2008-03-30T16:26:00.001-07:00

Venue: DNA Lounge

- Packed up the van (man, I'm tire of unloading all the gear into the motel rooms everynight) and headed out towards San Fran. Damon is still the only one who can legally drive the van, so he's back at the wheel again. We stop for lunch at yet another Subway (apparently the only place we're allowed to eat or something) and then continue driving for a few hours.

- We load into the DNA Lounge and set up. The Seabound banner was rather difficult to hang from the tall lighting truss (had to balance precariously on the top of a railing while hanging it). The next challenge was the laser, which has now decided to stop functioning. It took the entire soundcheck and time before door to bug hunt it. We took it apart, checked the power voltage, checked all 50 pins on the cable to the laptop.... nothing, dead.

- Dinner was Mexican food provided by the in house kitchen. Not bad, though I had to eat it while tending to the laser (trying not to get sour cream in it. Hell, maybe it would help at this point. Ha!).

- I ran into my friends Jordan and Channing tonight, who it turns out were at Neo the same night I was when I was staying in Chicago (though I didn't see them that night for some reason). It's a really small world. And as usual, the 'mans' were at DNA tonight (Dave Heckman, Tyler Newman, Eric Gottesman) as well as someone totally unexpected: Davey, the singer from AFI. He was in the audience right up front during Iris' set, singing his heart out to every song. Andrew talked with him for a while before hand and apparently he's a big Iris fan.

- Martin's wife drove up from LA to see the show tonight. He disappeared with her afterward and we're told Frank & Daniel will be driving separately to LA with a fan. We're now wondering if there will even be a Seabound performance tomorrow or if that's the last anyone will ever see of them. hehehe.

- For attendance, there were roughly 400 paid and the bands even got a backend that was almost as much as the guarantee. Iris once again sold out of almost all their merch and will be getting more for LA. It was a really good show.

- The Seabound show was so good in fact that woman actually started throwing their panties on stage at Frank. He says that's never happened to him before. Well, guess you're a rockstar now, Frank. Though, no surprise, some asked for theirs back at the end of the night. Hahahaha!

- Every time I turned around tonight, someone was being interviewed by someone for something in our back stage. Must be nice to be so important. However, just like NYC, the second the show was over, we got kicked out of the dressing room to make way for the club night. Words can not describe how much it sucks to try and tear down the gear after a show and lose your backstage at the same time, but not be able to load out because there are 400 dancing people blocking your way. Load-out was pretty tough at 1am, but we somehow managed to fight our way though and load the van.

- Stefan booked us in a cheap motel south of SF, thinking it would help our drive tomorrow as well as cut down on cost. Unfortunately, all it did was add to our drive time as we had to head back north to get to I-5 to go south.

Day 18: OR to CA (travel day)

2008-03-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

- This is the first tour I've been on where we actually had two days to get from Portland to San Francisco. Normally you have to haul ass right after the Portland show at 2 or 3am and travel all night into the next day for 10 hours to SF. It's a very twisty, steep, dangerous trip through the mountains as well. Not fun at all in bad weather at night. This is also the first tour I've been on where everyone gets their own bed in hotel rooms. normally its 4 people to a room and 2 people per bed.

- Today our goal was to drive from Portland OR to Redding CA. Damon is the only one allowed to drive the van at the moment until we can fax our licensees to the rental company. We encountered probably every kind of weather imaginable on the trip. Sun, warmth, rain, cold, sleet, snow, wind, hail, you name it. It was insane, but I guess that's Oregon for ya.

- We stopped for lunch at a shopping mall off the highway. I had a rather expensive and really horrible turkey sandwich and felt ill the rest of the day (always fun in a long car ride). Somehow we all found ourselves at a Best Buy again (man, the Germans love Best Buy) and then at yet another Starbucks. The most interesting shop we came across in the mall was the "Magic Castle of Swords". Um... yeah. Thought about purchasing a couple swords and giant statues of Anubus for the stage show. hahaha!

- Back in the van, drove 5 more hours. Stopped off in the town of Weed for some dinner. All I could stomach was a small cup of soup. Then we drove another hour or so to Redding. Stayed at the Value Inn, a rather no frills motel that actually had decent wi-fi service. Exciting stuff, I know. San Fran should be interesting tomorrow. Only two shows left for the tour.

Day 17: Portland, OR

2008-03-29T00:43:00.000-07:00

Venue: Mt Tabor

It's late, I'm tired and not really motivated to write. So, here's the short version:

We drove to Portland, ate at Subway along the way again, GPS got us lost, found the venue, loaded in, soundchecked, it took forever to setup the lazer and banner for some reason, ate the catering (shrimp, cheese and crackers), had a beer with Ned Wahl (original bassist for Chemlab), went CD shopping (found nothing), went back to the venue and ate another catered dinner (pasta this time), ran into the guys from Alter Der Ruine who are also on tour (they were cool), watched the band Son Of Rust open the show tonight (the singer plays a Guitar Hero controller), some drunk dude kept tipping me for simply "looking cool" doing my job, had to run the fogger for Iris and Seabound, was ordered to fog and keep fogging, over fogged the room and set off the fire alarms, the show went on anyway (just very foggy), packed up the gear after the show and loaded the van, drove to the Jupiter Hotel (same rockstar hotel we stayed at on the Chemlab tour), and called it a night.

Day 16: Seattle, WA

2008-03-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

Venue: El Corazon

- Woke up and had a very leisurely breakfast (yet another grand feast). Damon and Cynthia are really spoiling us. I slept pretty well with ear plugs to block out the snoring.

- After breakfast, we did some sight seeing. Damon got us complimentary tickets to go up to the top of the Space Needle. We met up with our friend Mike who is also the promoter for tonight's show. Got a lot of photos of the city from above, like every other tourist. We then headed down to the fish markets and touristy shops near the waterfront. Grabbed a rather excellent seafood lunch (mmmmm, prawns) and were bombarded by some grunge street performed butchering Tears For Fears songs on an acoustic guitar.

- We got back to the house and loaded up all the gear into the van and headed over to El Corazon. Damon is doing all the driving since he know the city so well. I noticed that there are already poster for the Imperative Reaction tour I will be on... this September. Apparently, Ted doesn't waste any time promoting! We set up and soundchecked. The usual drill, though it feels weird to be back at it after such a long time off.

- Nice thing about being in Seattle is that I have a lot of friends there. Jason (from SMP and Chemlab) came out tonight, as well as Shaun (from Glis) and Warren, my friend from Boston. I also was finally introduced to Tom Shear, even though I'd run into him numerous times before. I only got to talk with them briefly before I had to get to work come showtime (my job never ends).

- Washington has weird laws about alcohol and we weren't allowed to have any beer on stage or even backstage because it was an all ages event. Apparently the laws are so bad, they don't even remember how to spell "alcohol" anymore.

- The sets went really well and Iris did several encores to a very enthusiastic crowd. Monitors were a bit of a problem for them but show sounded great. They just about sold out of all their merch as well and are now trying to get more shipped. Seabound was also well received and sold an impressive amount of merch as well. Martin was having issues with his monitor and accidentally kicked it away several feet. There was so much fog that I couldn't even see what had happened. The monitor guy eventually fixed the problem. Reagan once again joined Frank onstage for a version of Watching Over you and it really sounds tight now. The crowd loved it.

- Load out was the usual affair and some of us went back to Damon's house with all the gear while the party animals went to an afterparty instead. I chose to just chill with a beer at Damon's, since I've seen what most afterparties are like. I'm told we didn't miss much, but apparently the guys were given a standing ovation when they walked in. I find that very amusing.

Day 15: Chicago - Portland - Seattle (travel day)

2008-03-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

- At 6am, after a few hours sleep on the couch, Rachel wakes me up and drives me to the Blue Line station, where I take a train to O'Hare airport. This was the cheapest option, however proved to be quite the adventure. I had a large duffel bag filled with Seabound merch, an Ultimate brand keyboard stand, my duffel bag of clothes, and my laptop bag full of electronics. I looked pathetic trying to get through doors and turnstiles.

- Ok, try to follow this: I fly from Chicago to Seattle, have a 1 hour layover and then take a small plane (with propellers) to Portland. I am met in Portland by Damon's girlfriend Cynthia, who then drives me back to Seattle. Um... yeah. Damon is the guy who will be taking over merch for the bands. He had Cynthia drive him down to Portland so he could pick up our van. It was cheaper to fly to Portland than Seattle, even though I had a layover there anyway. So everything worked out... just in a really weird way. To put it simply, I traveled for 14 hours straight.

- It's rainy, cloudy, wet, cold and gross on the drive up... of course. Cynthia informs me that she can't see very well without her contacts in, which she didn't have in. Oh, ok, good (*tries to relax*). :-)

- Once in Seattle, we met up with Damon and then picked up ze Germans at the airport flying in from Dallas. We get to Damon and Cynthia's place and are treated to an incredible barbecued feast by our hosts. Easily the best meal of the tour. Their house is huge and all 9 of us each have our own bed (well except for me, I had to share a queen size with a snoring German. Hmmmmm... now why does that sound familiar?) Most people went to bed early after our long travels today (I still say I had it the worst of it though. Ha!)

- Damon & Cynthia also have many various pets including dogs, cats and iguanas. Not only that, put not all the pets have all their limbs... or are still alive. All are welcome, doesn't matter if you have a pulse. hahaha! (ok, I'll explain, Cynthia had her old pet iguana stuffed when it died).

Days 11-14: Some Time Off In Chicago

2008-03-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Day 11: Friday

- So, the tour moved on without me to Texas, though it almost looked like it wasn't going to happen thanks to the snow fall this morning. But they're flight were only slightly delayed and they took off alright. I used the day for recuperation. I woke up early in order to get the bags of merch and keyboard stand they're leaving behind with me. And then promptly went back to bed and slept in 'til the afternoon.

- I spent the rest of the afternoon, raiding Ned's rather extensive CD collection. He's got good taste in music! hehehe. I know a few people in Chicago, but half of them are away. The rest of them seemed to be busy, so I was pretty much on my own today.

- Later on, I ventured outside in the snow and freezing cold in search of a Bank Of America. Stefan had paid me everything I was owed up 'til now for the tour and I wasn't crazy about carrying around so much cash. I found a BoA several miles away and completed my mission. I grabbed some groceries on my way back to Ned's and continued going through the CD collection the rest of the night. Exciting stuff.

- BTW, Ned has crazy "stairs-o-death" to his apartment. You just have to see them first hand (and try to walk up them when intoxicated). Between the stairs and his ninja cat, I was doomed.

Day 12: Saturday

- Seabound and Iris have a show in Austin at Elysium today. I however will not be able to blog about it since I haven't a clue what they're doing. Ha!

- I got another late start to my day (yup, so lazy). The snow has mostly melted now and I set out in search of a Walmart or Target to buy a new duffel bag for the merch that was left behind with me. The bag we were using use to belong to Ronan from VNV Nation (at least that what the guys at MET told us) and now has a huge hole in it. I ended up walking 4 miles or so before I found a Target. I grabbed a some swim trunks while I was there just in case any of our hotel have a pool (I already missed one opportunity to swim on our day off in PA).

- The walk back proved interesting. I was bombarded with phone calls from various friends and wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I missed the turn onto Ned's street and kept heading south instead. I walked a good 2 miles before I realized something wasn't right. The sun was going down and I was now "in the hood" and about 2 steps from inadvertently reenacting a scene from Judgment Night. Sure enough a gang of 10 nice young men took an interest in my presence on their turf. When I turned around to high tail it out of there, 3 of them started following me. However, my walking pace is something just shy of sprinting (hahaha, no but I do walk pretty fast) and they lost interest after 1/8 mile. They probably just wanted to mess with me, but I wasn't sticking around to find out.

- After a few phone calls to Ned, I managed to find my way to Wade Alin's house where I was suppose to be having dinner tonight. I got there about 1/2 hour late but could have been worse. Dinner was excellent and it was great to see the Alin's again!

- Never one to rest long, I headed out to the club Neo for the night. My friend Angelina was bar-tending and she arranged for her friend Marc to pick me up at 10 (when the club opens). I ended up staying from 10pm to 5am when they closed. I drank for 7 hours, Jager shot after Jager shot, Belgian ale after Belgian ale... and I don't even drink normally. I don't remember paying for any of it either... hmmmmmm. Well, the night is rather fuzzy to me, as you might imagine.

Day 13: Sunday

- Ugh... what a hang over!

- I just don't remember Sunday at all. I think it involved a lot of pain (and some napping).

- OK, I do remember eating a hamburger from Burger King and thinking it was a sorry substitute for an Easter dinner.

- Wade's band The Atomica Project (or 1/2 of it anyway) did a free show at the Darkroom that night (same club Seabound and Iris played). It was really cool and chill music, much in the vein of Portishead.

- Pretty sure I left as soon as they were done and went back to Ned's to pass out for the night. Gotta try and get back on a normal sleeping pattern again.

Day 14: Monday

- Seabound and Iris are performing in Dallas tonight. Again, I'll have to wait and hear from them how it goes.

- I checked out a couple local CD shops and then went out with Angie to her tattoo appointment. We got there too early, so we stopped in to visit her friend Jo-Jo next door. Jo-Jo had just completed a video documentary/interview shot by Clive Barker. Jo-Jo has a rather extensive doll collection and fairly grotesque dolls at that. Quite an interesting guy.

- While Angie is getting tattooed, I grab lunch at Flash Taco (it came highly recommended) where they blast MTV boy-band videos on large flat screen TVs while you eat your burrito. I then head down to Restless Records where I am suppose to say Hi to Chris Connelly for Angie. Apparently he works at a CD store these days. I didn't see him though. After she's done, she take me on a brief sight seeing tour of some of the cooler indie clothing shops and whatnot.

- Went out later for dinner and drinks with another friend Rae and, as always, stayed out too late. Went back to Ned's and got a few hours of sleep on his couch before I had to get up at 6am to start my journey to Seattle.

Day 10: Chicago, IL

2008-03-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

Venue: Darkroom

- Woke up, loaded up the van, and got out on the road towards Chicago. Made a few stops along the way including a quick bite to eat at Wendy's paid for by the bands (woo-hoo, free fast food).

- Hit some traffic coming into Chicago, but not too bad. We loaded everything into the venue, set it up and then had another bite to eat from the catering that was already laid out (it's nice when the promoters are on top of that). Ned and I then took the van back to his apartment and cleaned it out completely and threw the last row of seats back in. The van will have to be returned tomorrow before they all fly to Texas.

- I will be staying behind in Chicago while the the bands move on the TX. Basically the airfare was too much to fly me out as well, so I'll fly to Portland instead in a few days and help pick up the new van, driving that to Seattle where I will meet up the the bands again. In the meantime, I will be staying at Ned's apartment with his girlfriend Rachel.

- We return to the venue in time for soundcheck. Everything goes smoothly and before we know it, it's show time. There is a line outside again, so I go out to photograph it and walk smack straight into a road sign on the curb. Sure, not too embarrassing. My friend wade showed up though (he was our soundguy on the Chemlab tour) and it was great to see him again. Another friend of mine, Ema also showed up and I hadn't seen her in years. Matt Berger (the drummer for Stromkern) was also in town visiting. So it was quite the reunion.

- Dinner was provided from Boston Market and so I stuffed myself on chicken, mashed potatoes and corn bread. I'm happy. hehehe

- The Darkroom seemed pretty packed for both bands tonight and it was great night for merch sales. This is Tori's last night with us doing merch, she flies back to England tomorrow. I had a fairly easy job tonight since both sets went off without a hitch. The crowd was equally responsive for each band. There was one local opener, but I didn't catch the name though.

- Frank brought Reagan up on stage to do a duet of "Watching Over You" for the first encore tonight. They practiced it a lot during soundcheck so that they could get the harmony's right and it worked out very nicely.

- Load-out was a bit strange since the van had that extra row of seats, we had to pile everything on top of them. Luckily there were only 6 people to drive now since Andrew and Ned both live right down the street from the venue, I'm not going with them, and I think Reagan stayed with Andrew (I might be wrong about that). The rest went to the hotel (Stefan drove, this is the first time I've seen him do that) while I took a cab with Rachel and Matt back to the apartment. We hung out for a bit and then I went to sleep in the coldest room in the house: the Stromkern studio. It's freezing in there for some reason, so I slept in my clothes under several blankets.

Day 9: Detroit, MI

2008-03-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Venue: Luna

- Managed to catch the continental breakfast just in time. Don't really feel rested, but you never do on tour. At least I got some food into me.

- About half of the tour is really sick with a cold now. I have done everything in my power to avoid catching it, but as we all know this will probably be impossible due to the small confines of the van. Tori seems to be having the hardest time with her cold. I think this is also her first time on tour and the exhaustion only makes things worse with a cold.

- Had a long drive in the rain to Detroit (well, to Royal Oak actually). Reagan took over for me driving after a while and I tried to nap sitting straight up in the cramped back seat. It sort of worked where I wasn't really asleep but sort of dreaming at the same time. Strange experience.

- Luna is an interesting club with a mini 3-wheeled car perched over the doorway and a stained glass window that looks like something out of the Kama Sutra (I'm sure I'm showing my ignorance here). The promoters are really cool and I recognize Cowboy Dave and Mark from previous tours. There are over 100 pre-sales for the show tonight, so it should be a good show.

- OK, how do I put this delicately? Stefan, Christoph and the soundman for the rental company sort of "butted heads"... which started to make it look as if we weren't going to play at all. Quite a few hours went by before the promoters put their foot down and we moved on with setup and soundcheck. Without going into the messy details, basically the board didn't have enough channels for the monitors again and we also needed to change the setup of the PA system. The local soundguy was less than happy with that idea. In the end everything worked out, but it wasn't looking very promising for awhile. There was nothing I could do but sit around until the conflict was sorted out.

- There was a line outside and doors had to be pushed back about 1/2 hour. I felt bad for the people freezing their ass off out side. I got a photo of the line and a few people recognized me from this blog (always a weird feeling, but cool). If I hadn't been running around so much tonight, I would have at least got their names to mention in here (sorry ladies).

- The show went really well, especially considering how the day started out. The opening band was called Mankind Is Obsolete and from the look of them, were were all expecting screaming metal band. They turned out to be the best openers we've had. The music was more melodic than we thought it would be and they really had their act together. They even lent us some of their lights. Apparently they've been on tour for 6 months now, so that explains why they've really got it together. A local opener always brings way too much gear, takes far too long to setup/breakdown and almost always sucks. Remember kids: 'Simplicity is the key!'

- Iris and Seabound were both very warmly received by the crowd of roughly 150-200 people. Even the local soundguy came up to us afterward shaking our hands and congratulating us on a great show. there was much drinking and dancing afterward (well, some of us anyway, others of us stayed sober and loaded the van). We drove far outside of Detroit to a Best Western and passed out around 4am in the freezing rooms (you could drive a truck through the gap under the door).

Day 8: Pittsburgh, PA

2008-03-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Venue: Pegasus

- Pulled into Pegasus and loaded in. The PA wasn't ready, so went to the hotel and checked in. Ned and I grabbed a bite to eat at Panera Bread down the street and then drove everyone back to the venue.

- My friend Jim was the promoter tonight. He also did the Chemlab show at Pegasus last November and it turns out we left a whole bag of t-shirts behind. Whoops! He's going to have to mail it to me since I have no room in the van for them now.

- Upon our return to the club, Christoph determined that the mixing board was not adequate for the monitors and Jim had to rent another one for the show. This is very unfortunate since that pretty much guaranteed that he'd lose money on the show. Communication got crossed somewhere and the whole situation sucked. But the show went on.

- I was pretty on top of things tonight and thought the show would go smoothly. And basically it did, except for one problem: the lighting rig kept shorting out. However this wasn't my problem to deal with for one. Instead, our friend Slava and his team at Audiolust (they've done light for several of our shows now) had to run around all set trying to find another power source for the lights. They eventually ended up running a line from the DJ booth and using that power. However, that created a new problem: no music after the show. This made for an awkward silence after Seabound's set and they went on stage for a 2nd encore in order to fill the void. It all worked out.

- The turnout was our smallest yet (65 or so people), which didn't really surprise me. Jim said Haujobb had about 75, while the Cruxshadows packed the place with 300. Apparently they like themselves some goth in Pittsburgh... not so much the electro-pop. The energy level tonight could be described as "chill".

- After the show, the bands signed autographs and took photos with people, that sort of thing. Load-out was fairly standard. I was exhausted by the time I got to bed around 3am.

- Took a lot of pictures to make up for the past couple days.

Day 7: (day off) Grove City, PA

2008-03-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day

- We have the day off today, so we took our time checking out and getting on the road. The trip was fairly uneventful (I did the driving again). It's nice to finally not be in a rush for once. Normally, the days are pretty hectic.

- We grabbed a hotel in Grove City on our way to Pittsburgh. Stefan, Frank, & Christoph went shopping at the nearby outlet mall, while the rest of us rested up at the hotel.

- We grabbed dinner across the street and my fate for the rest of the tour was decided over pints of Guiness. The bands fell that I'm valuable to them and worth the extra cost to fly m to the west coast. However, they can't really afford to take me to Texas with them. So, I will be killing time in Chicago while they are doing those two dates and then flying to Portland OR to help pick up the rental van.

- Most of the day/night was spent working out the details and finances for the rest of the tour.

Day 6: Rochester, NY

2008-03-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Venue: Water Street

- The closet door in the hotel room fell apart. Um... it's all Ned's fault, he touched it last.

- We drive to Rochester and load-in to the Water Street venue. I think it's safe to say they have the friendliest staff we've encountered yet. The promoter had our entire catering laid out for us when we arrive too. Very nice!

- Soundcheck goes smoothly and we're told ticket pre-sales were about 100, so expectations are pretty high for the evening.

- Dinner tonight was barbecue and damn good barbecue at that. I went with a small order of pork ribs but I didn't get any of the side dishes I ordered. Seems to be my lot on tour. Stefan on the other hand ordered the largest combo meal I've ever seen. We were all in awe of it, so we had to grab a photo.

- Despite the soundcheck earlier, the show's sound was messed up. The whole left side of the system kept cutting out, as well as the monitors. There was no end to my running around the club trying to relay messages to everyone about thats going wrong at any given second. But at least it was the first show Ned's bass rig didn't mess up and he even had some dedicated Stromkern fans show up. Now if only Andrew's laptop set would work every time. hehehe. Oh, and eventually we got the sound issues sorted out.

- There was an official after party at another club and Andrew, Frank and Tori went to it. However, I was far too tired to attend, so instead the rest of ze Germans decided to hang out in my hotel room and drink til 3am. 90% of the conversation is in German and so every now and then they have to stop, back up and give me the short version in English. I hear so much German now, I almost feel like I understand it... but I don't really have a clue. Hahaha! I'm exhausted but at least we have a day off tomorrow.

Day 5: New York City, NY

2008-03-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

Venue: The Madison

- Checked out of the hotel and ran into several bands talking in the lobby. Tom Shear from Assemblage 23 had just arrived and will be headlining Blacksun tonight. We, on the other hand, have to head to New York tonight.

- The drive was uneventful, but I hate driving in NYC. Way too stressful for me, but I got us the in one piece and luckily we had a parking spot reserved for us.

- The lighting and PA were not setup at load-in, so we had some down time until soundcheck at 5:30. Some people went sight seeing, but I was too exhausted and chose to take a nap in a dark corner of the club. One of the club's bartenders started yelling at us for being in our own green room (and I mean this guy seriously unpleasant, to put it lightly). We were re-located to a different room, which worked out better anyway.

- Doors were at 7 and there was one local band opening at 7:30. Can't remember the name, but they were really good (and easy to work with, better yet). Things ran fairly smoothly during set transitions. Iris sounded probably the best they have yet and got a really good turn out. But Ned was having problems with his bass setup again. I did what I could to get it through the rest of the set, but we're going to have to bug hunt it later.

- I ran into two friends from Canada at the show tonight, Kim and Richard. I met them on the Combichrist tour last year and seem to keep bumping into them randomly. Joey from CC was also suppose to show up tonight, but got stuck at work late. There was a guy at the bar, wrapped in a carpet, lying on the floor with a sign saying "Please stand on carpet". Uh... sure dude. We were all wondering does he just wait in line with everyone else outside with the carpet under his arm? And the club just lets him in with it? And they don't consider it a liability having a weirdo lie on the floor so people will step on him? What exactly is his deal anyway?

- Seabound set went pretty smooth, but Martin couldn't hear himself in his monitor for a few songs. So I was running back and forth through the crowd trying to let Christoph (our soundman) know the situation. There was a girl in the front row desperately trying to touch Frank as he sang. After awhile it became apparent that she was high as a kite. She started off like a psycho obsessed fan and then simply went psycho. When she started yelling and punching people, I had to run to find a security guard and get her out of there. Violence = Not the reaction you'd expect to Seabound music. Hahaha!

- Load-out was insane and one of the reasons I really don't enjoy playing in NYC. Live shows are always early and then the second you're finished, the club kicks you out so they can start a hip-hop club night right away after you. I think by the time Seabound left the stage, we were in the van and driving to the hotel 30 or 40 minutes later. Trust me, that's a fast load-out.

- Check into a hotel in New Jersey and made a late night run to a local diner for food. Got to bed relatively early for a change (3am).

Day 4: New Haven, CT

2008-03-15T13:17:00.001-07:00

Venue: Toad's Place (Blacksun Festival)

- Pulled into a Best Western around 8am and got 2 rooms for all of us to get some sleep for a few hours before load-in at noon. We had been driving all night and we're all in pretty rough shape. The 2+ hours of sleep were almost a joke, but it helped a bit.

- Loaded in at Toad's Place and soundchecked soon after. The great thing about Blacksun Fest is that they run a really tight ship and things go pretty smoothly and on time.

- At 4 pm we're done with soundcheck and are ready to check into our hotel and get some sleep before showtime. I notice a rather large puncture in the van's front tire and realize we were lucky it didn't blow out on us on our long drive up here. So Stefan sent me to go get the tire replaced (no rest for the weary) which took up the rest of the afternoon.

- Got back in time for our catered dinner at Toads. The food was plentiful and very very good at that. This is now my first chance to sit back a relax a bit before Iris have to go on. I find a wi-fi signal and update the blog.

- Hungry Lucy is the first band up, followed by Cessium_137. I catch a little of both sets and run into some old friends while wondering around.

- At 10pm, Iris go on stage and play a 40 minute set. The club is pretty full at this point (several hundred people or so). Things run pretty smooth and the change over is much easier thanks to the stage manager (and long time friend) Renee and her crew (and not to mention Jonathan, the organizer of the festival). The band Attrition goes on after at 11pm and I get another quick break for a change.

- Seabound headlined the festival at midnight. I had to run the fog machine again, as well as make adjustments here and there to the green lazer we use behind Frank during the set. Hard to explain but it has to be angled just right and tends to get bumped around before showtime.

- By 2:30, we're loaded out of the venue and head to the hotel. Andrew has an after-party for the band in his room. Dan, the guitarist from Stromkern is there since his other band is playing in town. We sit and drink Belgian beer to 4am, while recalling various funny tour stories. Some where around 5am, I'm finally in bed and asleep. What a very long day/night/day!

Day 3: Washington DC

2008-03-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Venue: Rock & Roll Hotel

- Returned to MET records in the morning for more merch.

- We packed the van with everything including the luggage for the first time. I seriously had my doubts, but somehow we everything and everyone fit. We then began the drive to DC (I drove) and got stuck in traffic trying to get to our motel. Stefan decided to cancel the reservation and go straight to the venue. This means that we will drive all night to New Haven and try to miss rush hour traffic.

- We stopped at a Panera Bread for lunch, while Stefan and Frank went to Best Buy (Frank needed to feed his dvd collection and Stefan lost his power supply for his laptop, though he didn't know what to call it when asking for a new one).

- No hazer or lights ready when we got to R&RH, but the catering was good. My job seems to never end. Either I'm driving (at my own insistence), loading/unloading, setting up, breaking down, running errands, moving gear, moving gear back to where it was the first time, ect.

- Both bands sets went smoother, but Reagan's in-ears cut out.

- Frank sang a version of "Floating" with Iris for the first time ever live.

- I had to help do lights and fog for the show, as well as tech. Did I mention I'm very busy on this tour? HA!

- Reagan and Andrew had a small tif during load out, over who will drive the van to New Haven. It appeared to be alcohol fueled, so I settle the argument by simply volunteering. Easy enough and besides I know the route like the back of my hand.

- A bag of sandwiches Stefan took with him from catering actually turned out to be a leaky dripping mess of various fruits, which of course spilled all over the van. We will be finding fruit in our stuff for days to come, I'm sure. Andrew scooped most of it up and fruit was promptly thrown from the moving van at 70 mph down the highway.

- I drove all night the whole way to New Haven. That was fun. I didn't really mind the drive actually and I'm now pretty use to all night drives. I prefer driving since I'm not usually sleepy behind the wheel and have anxiety nightmares when I try to sleep in the van with someone else driving. Control freak, I guess. We stopped for a break at 4am at an all-night Roy Rogers for coffee. Mmmmm, yum... *barf* (actually I didn't even try any of it).

Day 2: Philadelphia, PA

2008-03-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

- Got up at 9:30 just in time for the continental breakfast. The whole crew was already there finishing up. No time for a shower afterward, I'm just going to have to smell today.

- It's beginning to dawn on everyone that we might not be able to fit everything in one 15-passenger van. We began trying to pack all the gear to get to the venue and that all just barely fit.

- I drove Seabound to Metropolis Records, just down the street from our motel, so they could pick up their merch for the tour. The place wasn't at all what I expected, but it was cool to see just the same. Just a one room, fluorescent lit office area with a large storage room full of industrial music CDs in the back. Seabound got their first look at the new live album that was just released. We stuffed the bags of shirts and boxes of CDs into the van in what little space we could find and headed back to the motel.

- I then drove Stefan and Andrew to picked up our merch girl, Tori, at the airport and then ran some errands at Target and Home Depot. This ended up taking a few hours while I sat in the van waiting. Returned to the motel around 2pm.

- And once again we tried to pack everything into the van, stuffing merch into trash bags and then stuffing them in any nook we could find. We all managed to stuff into the van as well and drove over to Shampoo (the venue). We all help load in and find that the PA system hasn't even been setup yet.

- So I drive Stefan, Frank, & Christoph to New Jersey to find a Sam Ash. Frank needs a specific in-ear monitor system for the tour and the Sam Ash is the closest location that has it. Despite having GPS, it takes us a long time of driving in circles to find it. Frank and I discuss the history of Seabound while Stefan and Christoph sort out the in-ear.

- Ok, this is dragging on a bit, I'll wrap it up. Sound check went well. The show was a bit chaotic. Ned's bass kept cutting out and I had to run around looking for different cables to re-patch it. Seabound's set went smoother. Both bands sounded great.

- Several hundred people showed up to watch the show. The audience at these all ages shows always freaks me out since its seems that its mostly made up of 15 year old girls running around in their bras/panties thinking that it constitutes "club clothes". The reason for such a young audience is that no alcohol is allowed upstairs where the show is. So, the 21+ plus crowd is downstairs drinking. The positive side is that the younger kids buy more merch, so it usually works out alright for the band. But you feel very old up there.

Day 1: (travel day)

2008-03-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Boston - New York - Philadelphia

- Took the 8am Greyhound bus to NYC and then on to Phili. A far too cramped ride with the guy next to me taking up not only his seat, but 1/3 of my seat and kept falling asleep on me. The college freshman sitting in front of me appeared to be in love (or something just so adorable like that) and insisted on slobbering all over each other the whole way. Finally arrived in Phili around 3pm. Waited around until 5:30pm to be picked up by Ned, Andrew and Reagan (driving down from Chicago in the rental van).

- We then drove to the Quality Inn we're staying at for the next 2 days and waited for ze Germans. We check in and find there's 5 rooms on hold, each with 2 double beds. Ned and I are in one room and we both can't get over the luxury of not having to share a bed with "a passed out, snoring, sweaty drummer draped over you". Once the first batch of German arrive, we do the introductions and then make dinner plans. The cast of characters this time around include:

Reagan = singer for Iris
Andrew = keyboardist for Iris
Ned = bassist for Iris
Stefan = tour manager
Christoph = sound guy
Frank = singer for Seabound
Daniel = drummer for Seabound

and arriving later on:

Martin = keyboardist for Seabound
Tori = merch

Yup, that's ten of us in one van, plus gear, plus luggage, plus merch. Awesome! It's going to be very, very cozy. My job tomorrow morning is to "make it all fit" according to Stefan.

- We went out to dinner with Joe from Metropolis Records at an Italian place near by (at Stefan's treat). I had an awesome Crab Imperial (yup, I had to mention the food). After dinner, we discussed the plan and itinerary for the whole tour. Still sounds like I'm probably not going to be on the whole tour.

- We have to pick up Martin at the airport at 11pm and, since I'm the only one sober, guess who drives the van to pick him up. (Truth be told, Stefan asked for someone not to drink at dinner, so I volunteered). After missing the terminal he's waiting at, I have to drive around a 2nd time before we find him. Mission accomplished, so I guess the tour can go on.

Intro + Tour Dates

2008-03-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm working as the backline tech for the bands Seabound and Iris. There will be 10 of us crammed into a 15-passenger van, so it's going to get a bit cramped to say the least. I only know 1 person on the tour before hand and that's Ned Kirby from Stromkern. I've also met Andrew from Iris once before, thats about it. It's always strange being thrown into a situation like touring with people you've never even met before.

Now, here's the deal: Stefan Herwig, Seabound's tour manager, is only hiring me as far as Chicago at the moment. Me working the rest of the dates completely depends on the merch sales of the first 4 gigs. If sales are going well by NYC, then I still have a job after Chicago. (So please buy some t-shirts, guys!) I'm traveling to Philadelphia tomorrow by bus (instead of flying to cut down on cost and increase my chances of getting the rest of the tour). I've marked the dates I'm confirmed for so far with (*).

Seabound/Iris 2008 US Tour Dates:

Mar 12 @ Shampoo, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (*)
Mar 13 @ Five, Washington D.C. (*)
Mar 14 @ the Blacksun Festival, New Haven, Connecticut (*)
Mar 15 @ The Madison, New York City, New York (*)
Mar 16 @ Water Street, Rochester, New York (*)
Mar 18 @ Pegasus, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (*)
Mar 19 @ Luna, Detroit, Michigan (*)
Mar 20 @ Darkroom, Chicago, Illinois (*)
Mar 22 @ Elysium, Austin, Texas
Mar 24 @ Club Dada, Dallas, Texas
Mar 26 @ El Corazon, Seattle, Washington
Mar 27 @ Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon
Mar 29 @ DNA Lounge, San Francisco, California
Mar 30 @ Safari Sam’s, Los Angeles, California

http://www.myspace.com/seabound
http://www.myspace.com/iris2