By Art Daniels
June 2nd 2014: So the tour is over and here I sit in the basement of Dusty Bo’s Family home. How did I get here? Let’s look at the last week or so and see what happened. Before you do that, (Check out parts 1, 2 , 3 and 4 of the blog if you haven’t yet).
Toronto: So to get to Toronto, we have to cross over into Canada at Peace Bridge near Buffalo, NY and after the last mess getting into Canada, we are ready for everything. How long does it take us? About 15 minutes. I guess Canada felt they got as much as they could squeeze out of us. That’s fine though, because we are looking forward to playing another show in the Great White North. Two things about this trip for me. This is the first time I have spent time in Toronto in nice weather. It’s pretty amazing when it’s not freezing. The second is that this is the second time I have spent an American Holiday here. I was also here last Thanksgiving. Now I’m here for Memorial Day. I might be a terrible American.
The show was at a place called The Sound Academy. It was pretty cool except for the fact it was way out of town. There wasn’t much to do except sit around until… remember Christine from Montreal? She took me up on my offer to see what I do all day, so she showed up. It’s always great to have company. Fortunately for her, she came on a good day to hang. The show was good and the crowd was really revved up that night. Canada loves the Future Villains! Three members (C.C, Dekay and Priya) of the band Diemonds came out too. We had a great time and Diemonds wanted us to come out and get all sorts of fucked up but sadly, we had to leave because of NYC the next day. After a quick after-party, we headed out. Getting back into the USA at the border? Four minutes.
New York City
New York City is the best city on the planet. I will not argue with you because I am right. There is nowhere like it. I love NYC, it’s amazing. Having said all that, being on tour there is the worst thing ever. I don’t know of too many bands that had an easy time. Let’s see how it plays out for us this time.
Since 9/11, it’s pretty hard to bring a van and trailer into NYC. You have to take the George Washington Bridge or the Lincoln Tunnel. The Holland Tunnel is off limits to that for whatever reason. Since we are playing Irving Plaza, we are taking the Lincoln Tunnel. It lets us out right near that venue. That was mistake one. We found out that you can’t bring a vehicle with a propane tank in there. Ever have traffic stopped so you can make a U-turn? We have, not a good feeling. Plus you have to trek all the way back to the GWB and then take a long route to the show. This was at bad traffic times and took us forever. Then when you get to the venue, you have to double park and slam your gear into the building and be sure you have everything because wherever you end up parking, it won’t be close.
We ended up getting there very late and while Clay, Kenny and I got the gear up to the stage area, David and Dusty set out to park the RV to wherever they were supposed to park. After they left, it hit me. I forgot my tour badge. I texted Dusty and he grabbed it! Crisis averted! I set up merch and thought to myself how lucky we were to get in. This might have been my biggest mistake of the tour because the next call I got was crushing. I looked down and saw my phone ringing. It was Dusty. Here is pretty much how the call went:
Dusty: We are going to be late. We just went down a road that was too narrow and we hit two buses and two police cars.
Me: ……………..that’s not funny, why did you call me????
Dusty: No man, that’s what really just happened. You need to let them know that we will be there as soon as we can.
Me: Please be full of shit right now.
Dusty: I’m not.
So that’s pretty shitty to happen. Clay had disappeared and it was just me and Kenny. I freaked out a little and to Kenny’s credit, he said not to worry about it because there was nothing we could do. That pretty much was the end of me worrying. I had to help out with sound check which was strange but we got it done. When Clay showed up I told him that he and Kenny were going to have to do a lot of White Stripes covers. We laughed a bit. It’s always good to make the best out of a bad situation.
The guys showed up a few minutes after doors so they couldn’t sound-check a song but that just means the first song would have to suffer. Not too bad. Too bad about the damage to the RV and all the vehicles that got damaged but at least the show can go on. Thank God!
So nothing else could go wrong, right? Wrong! The show started but Clay’s Marshall cab decided to be cranky and work every once in a while. Also, the Irving Plaza guy working the sound had no idea how to get the bass in the mix, because at one point I could only hear drums and vocals. What a fucking disaster. Every time they got everything working, something would go out again. I have to give them full credit for sticking it out and finishing the set as well as still putting on a kick ass show. A lot of other people would have walked off the stage. Not these guys, they played on. That’s a good job.
The only bright part about all of this is we got good hotel rooms in Jersey and got a few hours of good solid sleep. It was needed to put that shitty day behind us. Don’t worry about it too much, we are already laughing about what happened. You gotta move forward.
Pittsburgh
I do not like Pittsburgh. The last time I was there, everybody was a miserable prick. Maybe that was just because I was at some shithole called The Smiling Moose. Fuck that place. Fuck it hard. If you ever go to Pittsburgh avoid the Smiling Moose. Fuck that place. I don’t know if you can tell but I didn’t like it.
This visit was better than the last time and the venue was much better. It was on the newer side and was spacious. Great sound, nice staff. The show was amazing. The after-party was ridiculous. Well that’s what I’m told. I’m a little fuzzy, I’ll have to ask around.
Cleveland
Cleveland is a strange town. It got a lot of old buildings sitting right next to brand new buildings. It’s just not what you expect a major city to look like. It’s OK, though, I like it. I’ve never had a bad time in Cleveland.
Cleveland was the last stop for the tour with Steel Panther. It’s a sad day for us as we will miss everybody involved with the band. The production staff has been unbelievable to us as well. We all really want to drink a bunch after the show but both bands have places to be the next day, so we will see how it goes.
The show was great for a lot of reasons. Michael Starr came out and sang Highway Star with the guys and that was amazing and the Panther team pranked us. They put stickers all over the stage to stick to the guy’s shoes and they fucked with Kenny’s drum kit hard. They put powder all over his snare so when he hit it, it sent it into his face. The guys have dealt with way worse so they just moved forward. Right before the last song, the crew went out and lowered everybody’s microphones and took away more of the drum kit. It was pretty funny, I’m told. As you may have guessed I was in another room, selling merch. Oh well, hearing about it was pretty cool too. Not really, but let’s move on.
Most of us hit up a local bar and got really sloshed. Some dude just started buying us drinks and for the first time in this blog I’m actually fuzzy on what happened. Somebody fill me in. I do know I had a good time with people I will hopefully see on the road again in a few months. After the party, we woke up in the parking lot, alone.
Louisville
Dusty’s hometown. It really hit us when we got to the venue and we didn’t see everybody that we usually see when we get to a show. What an empty feeling. We weren’t too bad off though as Dusty’s awesome family was there. The show went well, except for the sound. We really got spoiled by the tour. Anyway, we played a killer show and sold a crazy amount of merch. It was a good night. After the show we got drunk at Dusty’s childhood home. Exhaustion plus booze made me really sleepy and I went to bed too early. The last thing I remember was Clay getting out Christmas decorations and asking “How serious are we about doing this?” As I look to the left of where I’m sitting, the box is still there, untouched. I guess not very serious.
The next day we slept late and went to Churchill Downs to drink a few and bet on horses. It was a great way to relax after a long month.
Thank You and Acknowledgements
I wanted to take the time here in this space to say thank you to the Future Villains for picking me to go on this crazy adventure. You guys had more than a few people who would have done it for free, but thank you for realizing that you get what you pay for and taking me instead. You guys have a bright future ahead of you. Just keep making the right decisions like no more dreadlocks in the band and have a Sasquatch around to sell merch and keep you on time. It was a complete pleasure to be there.
Thank you to my friends and family who supported me this tour and came to the shows. It’s great that I can show you all the sacrifices I made are paying off in some way. Let’s all have a drink soon. I have stories and battle scars to show you.
Let’s not forget Andrew at Metal Assault, who didn’t even think to ask if I could write before agreeing to this (some might argue that he should have). He had to take my submissions and make them into something readable. I know that wasn’t always easy. Andrew, I’m glad you took me up on my offer and let’s work together again soon.
Finally, thank you to everybody who took the time to read this blog. I hope it gave you a glimpse into a world that not too many get to see. It was hard to write at times because being hungover and exhausted is not the time to try to write coherently. If another opportunity comes up where I can do this again, I will be happy to do so. I hope you will want to read it.
The End
So that’s it. The Future Villains are driving back to LA and tonight I start the next leg of my summer and begin a seven-week run with my brothers in Gypsyhawk. It’s exciting to be back on the road with them for the fifth time and I hope that you will come see us if we come to a town near you. Maybe I’ll even let you buy me a beer.
See you on the road.
Gypsyhawk tour dates:
6/02/2014 The Highlands Tap Room – Louisville, KY
6/05/2014 Mad Frog – Cincinnati, OH
6/06/2014 Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
6/07/2014 Hardluck – Toronto, ON
6/08/2014 Mavericks – Ottawa, ON
6/09/2014 La Vitrola – Montreal, QC
6/10/2014 Bogies – Albany, NY
6/11/2014 TT The Bear’s – Cambridge, MA
6/12/2014 Firehouse 13 – Providence, RI
6/13/2014 Slake – New York, NY
6/15/2014 Jakes – Columbia, SC
6/18/2014 The Mothlight – Asheville, NC
6/19/2014 Silver Dollar – Texarkana, AR
6/20/2014 TBA – Austin, TX
6/21/2014 Rudyards – Houston, TX
6/22/2014 Three Links – Dallas, TX
6/23/2014 Zombies – San Antonio, TX
6/24/2014 Blue Max – Midland, TX
6/28/2014 Big Fish Pub – Tempe, AZ
6/29/2014 The Rock – Tucson, AZ
7/02/2014 Sisters Bar – Albuquerque, NM
7/03/2014 Triple Nickel – Co Springs, CO
7/04/2014 3 Kings – Denver, CO
7/05/2014 The Scene – Kansas City, MO
7/06/2014 Fubar – St Louis, MO
7/07/2014 Hi Tone Café – Memphis, TN
7/08/2014 The Rutladge – Nashville, TN
7/10/2014 Ace of Spades – Columbus, OH
7/11/2014 Token Lounge – Detroit, MI
7/12/2014 Alehorn of Power Fest – Chicago, IL
7/13/2014 Vaudville Mews – Des Moines, IA
7/14/2014 Bourbon Theatre – Lincoln, NE
7/16/2014 Burts Tiki – Salt Lake City, UT
7/18/2014 The Alley – Reno, NV