On we roll. Out of the Midwest and into the end of this marathon sprint.
The first day of April is of course April Fools Day from who knows what Olde English tradition. To get Street Corner Symphony back for their Nerf attack earlier, we got water guns to even the score. During their Meet And Greet we attacked. It was well coordinated: flanked with Fredo and I stage right, the others stage left. There is a 5 second video somewhere–if I ever find it, I’ll post it. This final month is split up by some reasonable breaks and stops worth writing home about. In this case, one of those stops is home.
The tour is set up to swing through Denver the day before Easter and continue on after a travel day. A few of us took that opportunity to just fly to Seattle (the next city) and enjoy a bed and a house and a weekend.Here’s the final month of the tour:
- Wed, Apr 1, 2015 Adler Theatre Davenport, IA
- Thu, Apr 2, 2015 Peabody Opera House St. Louis, MO
- Fri, Apr 3, 2015 Midland Theater Kansas City, MO
- Sat, Apr 4, 2015 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
- Sun, Apr 5, 2015 Travel/Day Off Twin Falls, ID
- Mon, Apr 6, 2015 Moore Theatre Seattle, WA
- Tue, Apr 7, 2015 Aladdin Theatre Portland, OR
- Wed, Apr 8, 2015 The Warfield San Francisco, CA
- Thu, Apr 9, 2015 Wells Fargo Center for the Arts Santa Rosa, CA
- Fri, Apr 10, 2015 Silver Legacy Casino Reno, NV
- Sat, Apr 11, 2015 Day Off Burbank, CA
- Sun, Apr 12, 2015 Club Nokia Live Los Angeles, CA
- Mon, Apr 13, 2015 House of Blues San Diego, CA
- Tue, Apr 14, 2015 Fox Performing Arts Center Riverside, CA
- Wed, Apr 15, 2015 Yavapai College Performance Hall Prescott, AZ
- Thu, Apr 16, 2015 Day Off Las Vegas, NV
- Fri, Apr 17, 2015 The Golden Nugget Las Vegas, NV
- Sat, Apr 18, 2015 Travel/Day Off Albuquerque, NM
- Sun, Apr 19, 2015 The Moody Theater Austin, TX
- Mon, Apr 20, 2015 Majestic Theatre Dallas, TX
- Tue, Apr 21, 2015 Bayou Music Center Houston, TX
- Wed, Apr 22, 2015 Travel Day Travel Home
I decided I would fly Maria out as well. She got in a couple days early, so when our bus came to a creaking halt on Denver’s ugliest street, Colfax, I gave them a call. They picked me up and we went home for breakfast and chill time. I LOVE COLORADO!
During our Meet And Greet, VoicePlay and Street Corner planned some psychological warfare, surrounding us as we sang. Nothing happened though, so we’ll be on the lookout. Anyways, despite the altitude and loss of breath, the show was incredible. The Ogden is a classic rock box in downtown and I’ve been to a zillion shows here. Being on the stage was surreal, but the best part was that everybody I knew was there, even some former neighbors. I convinced Eli to let me say the closing words before Fix You and got to thank my mom.
Afterwards we went to the bar around the corner where I got to chat with my friends who came to the show. It was one of the nicest nights that the Sing Off has ever afforded me. I slept well. The next day was Easter, and I went to church with my mom. Maria, Christopher, and I went up to Red Rocks and looked at the billions of stars you could see and found an app that tells you what they are. We closed the night with a big dinner and left early the next morning.
Apparently the guys that took the bus from Denver to Seattle had some bus trouble on the way…that would be a sign of things to come.
In Seattle we got to see some sights but mostly just had our eyes out for the other group called The Exchange. They live in Seattle and we were ready for a confrontation that never happened. Just a show and the road. The nice thing was that the crew let Maria join us for the trip to Portland. I guess there were some issues with Richard Jackson taking exception to riders despite the entirety of the crew being okay with it. Either way, we cozied up in the tiny bunk and made it to Portland where she bussed back to Vancouver.
Our stops in San Fran and Santa Rosa were fun–I half grew up there as a kid when my dad moved out there after the divorce. San Fran is a beautiful city and we got to catch up with Deke. Santa Rosa was also gorgeous and we got to play basketball outside before the show. The best part of that visit was the free Rodney Strong wine bottles everybody got and the dance party after the show.
By the way, we paid out the March Madness bets here. Christopher’s bracket won him $15, with championship game score of 3-2. The NCAA championship game. Three to two. Beginner’s luck. #smh
The show in LA was fairly blasé, but the rest of the time there was great. I rented a car and brought Thomas and Courtney along to Venice Beach. A few beers and sunglasses later (oh and some amazing tacos), we cruised back to the hotel. The next day, my good friend Chris Schenk picked me up and we hit the beach again then hit the theater. He’s a great guy and I’m hoping he can be our video guy when we get to Germany.
That night we bypassed the bus-ride and stayed with some good friends, the Huettls. Their house had room for all of us and an awesome pool out back. We stayed up WAY too late playing beer pong and annoying their dad (their mom was hanging out with us). The next morning we just sat in the beautiful Cali sun and I took a few rides on their water slide. Jamal took the bus down the night before and insisted that we get back for sound-check…the same sound-check we’d done nearly 50 times. So we hopped in Austin’s truck and he hauled ass to San Diego where guess who missed sound-check…Jamal. We were pissed at him and he still hasn’t apologized.
On to the tour. LA one day, San Diego the next, Riverside after that. Whatever. So up in Riverside, we rented a car and got to meet up with Danny Rose at his new home office in LA. He produces Scorpion (TV show) and a bunch of other successful acts (not to mention being married to Bieber’s lawyer), and he seemed interested in helping as soon as we moved to LA. That’s another LONG story, but we’ll see what happens with that soon 🙂
A few shows later we had a day off in Las Vegas. Of all the BS on the tour with scheduling and weird routing, this was the one thing they got absolutely right. We gambled, we swam, we ate and slept and drank. Beautiful. We also left Kaleb. About an hour down the road, the other bus had to turn back around to pick him up, so to commemorate it we made him a little poster.
In Albuquerque something happened. Courtney took exception to an incident with shoes, and blew up on the bus about it. She called me an ass hole and every other mean thing she could muster. We had spent the entire tour listening to her talk trash about people on the tour and finding out that it was exaggerated or made up, so both Fredo and I got embroiled in a full on yelling match with her. You can’t say shit about us. We are friendly, respectful, hard workers, and we do more than our fair share. We take pride in that, and to say otherwise is out of line. Even the bus driver Tony thought it was a joke. I was so emotionally exhausted afterwards that I was brought to tears. I hate that kind of accusation and having to defend myself against somebody’s bad day. She still hasn’t apologized for what she said. That’s two on the tour now. I will forgive, but if you have done something to hurt somebody, you have to do something to make it right.
The tour was only a few days longer, and we made our way through Texas. With some good barbecue, warm weather, and a good night life, it was a great way to end the tour. Aaron had set up some time to write music with Dylan, a producer we met on the Backstreet Boys tour. He lives in Corpus Christi and we had organized our flights home to be a little later. For some reason, that fell through, so we hit the airport after a bunch of pictures and goodbyes (and a final performance of Ham Sammich). It has flown by and dragged along; it has been so tiring and so rewarding; it was way more than we bargained for and nothing like we’d expected. But that’s it. The SingOff Live Tour of 2015 has come to a close.
Maybe we’ll see you next year 🙂
