By Art Daniels
A string of solo headline dates and gigs opening for Steel Panther brought us to the end of an adventurous tour. Here’s the third and final part of the tour blog (but read Parts 1 and 2 first):
Toronto, Sound Academy
Well, back to the big show. With “Small Canada Shows” behind us, we pulled into Sound Academy with all of our tails wagging like puppies. I was greeted by two guys who worked at the venue. Instead of first telling us where to park and load in, they were excited to see us. Apparently they had friends at last two smaller shows and they had heard how good the band was and were excited that they got to see us. Holy shit, word travels fast around these parts. Another thing that was great about playing these shows is that we don’t have to do much. They have people to load us in and set up the stage. We have to set up merch and sound check. It makes life so much easier. It also leads to more time to nap and hang out.
The show itself was also a huge success. The guys killed it on stage and again the crowd was singing along and going nuts. It was good to go back to some of the same venues with Steel Panther for two reasons. 1. We had a second guitarist this time and the songs sounded much more full and layered and 2. It was interesting to see the reactions of the fans the second time through. Both of these things went well as we cleaned up at the merch table. I even had picture and autograph requests. The lesson, as always is that I’m almost famous.
*RANT*
What the fuck is wrong with people? Why is it when they see a merch table they must immediately put anything down that is in their hands on to it, despite there being places all over to put things down on? Toronto seems to be full of people that can’t fucking get it right. I had some dude put two almost full beers on my table and then wander over to the Panther merch table. Guess where those went? Right to the floor. Fuck you very much. Some dude wandered over to me with three beers and three shots and put them right on the table. Are those for me? No? Pick your shit up and go. Get friends and get the fuck away from my table. Too drunk to stand? Not my problem, get your ass away from me. Also I had two dudes ask to buy beer. How fucking dumb are you to not know that I don’t sell beer and less than 15 feet (4.572 meters, eh) away on either side of me is a bar? Seriously? What the fuck?
OK, I’m better.
The surprise of the night was that Joey Fatone got on stage for Panther singing “Death to all but Metal”. Honestly, I know he was in a boy band and I have no idea which one. I refuse to google it. After the show when Dusty and I went backstage to make an appearance at the after-party, he went out of his way to tell Dusty he enjoyed the band. That was pretty cool. They also took a picture together. That was pretty cool too and it was time to head back to the good old USA.
We loaded up and headed to the border. Going back into America is much easier than leaving but we do have a Canadian and an Aussie in the band and even though they are legally in the USA, you never know. The border guard was cool but started quizzing the guys about hooking up speakers and wattage. I’m glad I wasn’t in the front seat for that one.
After we got across to Buffalo, we stopped for gas and two border patrol cops approached us in a car and asked if we were a band. We said yes and gave them a CD. A few minutes later the car came screaming back up to us with “Sweet Little Evil” blaring from the car and the guys giving us thumbs up. Then after that they came back and said they needed a picture. This is very different from the way the cops treat you in LA. We obliged and moved onto…
Cleveland, OH
This was the show I was looking forward to the most the entire tour. The venue was a 5,000 seat arena and there was a BBQ festival going on as part of the festivities that day. Plus, Cleveland is a strange city in the fact that it’s so old and new all at the same time. You can see buildings over 100 years old right next to brand new skyscrapers (or whatever is considered a skyscraper in Cleveland). You just know it’s going to be interesting.
The smell when we got out of the RV was amazing. As we were getting loaded into the venue, I asked one of the security guards how much it was to get into the BBQ event. When he told me it was free, I almost blacked out. That’s the best news I could have gotten. Until I found out that was just the entry. All the actual BBQ was extra.
ANYWAY, after that I found out that the venue would be selling my merch, I had free time to take more video and other fun things like set towels and beers on amps for the show. It’s the little things, folks. The show went well, even though there was a strange BBQ festival crowd that didn’t quite know what they were getting into when they came over to the show. Oh well, that’s life. The venue had catering and trust me, I took advantage.
There are a lot of good memories from this day such as hanging out with Panther and their completely awesome crew and exploring old bridges and railways that are partially not there. Apparently Cleveland does not tear anything down, they just leave it where it is and put lights on it so it looks cool at night. But the highlight for me of this night and really the whole tour was the six of us standing on the side of the stage while Steel Panther performed. This may have been the last show on tour we ever play with these guys and it was good to all be together to breathe it all in as a group. We have all gone through a lot together and it was nice to have a moment like this. That is until a bunch of girls who had been dancing on stage with Panther got pushed over to us to get off the stage. There was some confusion and we totally got called out with “Hey! The opening band doesn’t get first pick on chicks! You get the castoffs and the chicks we already fucked!” That was perfect ending to the tour until a barge floated past us and blew its horn. That was a show stopper. Literally. The guys in Panther freaked out and stopped the show to make them do it again. They did. It was awesome.
Louisville, KY
Wait…
As is the tradition with any tour, something needs to go wrong. At least this was minor. The day before we noticed that the tires on the trailer were shot and we needed new ones, so we had to kill a morning waiting for two tires to be put on our trailer. Thanks, Wal-Mart.
Now…
Louisville, KY
One day, I’ll get a lot of time to spend in Louisville. There is so much to do. The Louisville Slugger Factory, Churchill Downs and all the fucking bourbon distilleries I’ll ever need to visit. Sadly, this was not that trip. We had to play the last show of the tour.
Not much to say about this one. It went well, unlike last time when the sound was terrible. The guys played well and even broke out a few encore songs. The biggest bummer is that it was all over and time to go home.
We spent Memorial Day at Scott Frazier’s house and had a good time but mostly we dreaded the ride home to Los Angeles.
Which leaves us to now. The ride home. We went fishing and got drunk on moonshine in an RV park and that was good and besides a nasty thunderstorm in Texas, absolutely nothing bad happened* to us. Everything went fine. Nothing bad at all happened*.
Thanks to all who took the time to read my blogs and hopefully I can see you out on the road or the Future Villains shows in LA with Steel Panther for the first time in over a year. I hear it’s going to be a good time.
*Okay, I MAY have hit a bus mirror with the RV and busted out a back window but I’m not admitting to anything. If I had, that’s 3 buses and a cop car that has been hit with our tour ride. Not that I’m admitting to anything.
Cheers!
