Tour blog #1

Alright. I am on day 7 of tour and I haven't blogged yet. But it honestly hasn't been a lack of determination or interest - it's been entirely a lack of time. We've only had 2 days off in this amount of time (one of which was spent almost entirely driving), and it seriously has felt like one incredibly long day rather than a series of days.

We've been pretty much just playing shows, driving, sleeping, driving, playing shows, driving, repeat.

But it's been so fun!

I flew in to Boston, where Lauren and Matt picked up Luke and I, and then we headed back to their place in Rhode Island. It was pretty late, so we chatted while Lauren made buttons and sewed bear pouches for their Armoured Bearcub dropcards, while Luke passed out on the couch. Then they made me an awesome air mattress bed with multiple Harry Potter themed blankets. I wouldn't expect any less.

The next morning while I continued to sleep, they went and picked up the rental cars that would be our new homes for the next month. Then it was en route to Justin's house to get him and Kathleen (our merch girl).

Hamden, CT - We had our first show here, with Mike Lombardo opening for us. Hayley was with him as well, and it was awesome to see her. I was blown away by how many people came to this first show. I think the final number was something around 160 people at the show, and the venue itself was awesome too, as it was a real music club place. It was my first time playing a Parselmouth show as the main guitar player, and also the first ALL CAPS show Luke and I ever played, so I was pretty nervous considering. It's funny, because I very rarely get nervous about performing, but there was so much new about this first show that I felt a ton of pressure. But it went well. People seemed to really enjoy the new Parselmouths songs I played, and I couldn't even believe how many people were singing along to the ALL CAPS set. People were singing so loud I could barely hear myself singing, and one time I even accidentally started singing the Owl City lyrics to Lumos Flies because I saw a girl in the front row mouthing them. Oops!

That night we had to go pick Eia up at the Newark airport, and then we stayed the night at Lauren's parents' house. The next morning was spent eating wonderful bagels and then piling in the car for our first show with the entire group.

Morgantown, WV - We were expecting this show to be pretty small, but the turnout was great! I think there were 30-40 people crowded into the library by the time we started. Hayley was still traveling along with us for a few days (until we got to Akron) so we made use of the fact that we had 3/5 of the fiveawesomegirls in attendance and filmed a bunch of stuff with the audience involved.

This was our first hotel night. Not much to report there, expect that we all realized we were going to get very used to staying in hotels.

Akron, OH - This show was gigantic! We played in this huge auditorium in a library in Akron, and there were just so many people filling all the seats. This was definitely the biggest show we'd played yet, and I think Luke and I took over 30 pictures with people over the course of just this one night. I think one of my favorite parts of touring is meeting so many awesome people in all of the different cities. I feel like I have had so many great little conversations with people, almost like my twitter @replies and YouTube comments are coming to life. It's been neat. Also I got the audience to do the wave. It made me happy, haha.

This concluded the hayleyghoover portion of our tour; after going to her flagship Chipotle with her, we had to say our goodbyes and leave her in Ohio. Then it was another long night of driving.

St. Louis, MO - We played a show in the basement of a church, and again, had way more people in attendance than we expected. There were some very, very enthusiastic fans at this show, and I had a really great time hanging out with everyone here. It's funny, now, what things I remember about each show. I know these happened really recently, but we've played a LOT of shows and they're all starting to blur together in my mind. But I do particularly remember that at this show, there was a birthday cake with dinosaurs on it, and someone made us a huge dish of pasta. I ate two plates of the pasta. Mmmm. Tour is good.

This night we got to stay at our friend Monica's house, which was nice. She made us some amazing salsa and we all had a laptop party while Luke played video games with her two little sons.

Manhattan, KS - Even though we just played a show at this same venue a few months ago, it was super, super fun to play here again. K-State University is amazing and the woman who organizes our shows here (Karin) is just wonderful. Also, we met up with Alex, Jason and Steph who are currently on The Next Great Adventure (our rival tour that's currently going in the opposite direction from us) (actually they're some of my best friends and it was really great to see them). The show was awesome and everyone performed really well. Jason taught his Skyway Flyer set to Luke and I in about 10 minutes so we ended up doing that with him, which was fun (albeit a little stressful; I wrote a lyric or two on my hand in sharpie, haha). I think this show still holds the record for the furthest distance a fan drove to see us, which was this family who traveled TEN HOURS. So awesome. I don't think my Mom would have EVER driven me ten hours to see a band I liked. And I have a great Mom. But still, she would have laughed in my face I think.

Denver, CO - This library was awesome. We played in this little triangle shaped room, and people brought us cookies! Also, I forgot to mention, the day before this show Lauren taught Eia how to play ukelele in the car, so after literally one day of practice, Eia decided to give it a go, and I think it went really well! Eia is a small person so I think she looks really cute playing a ukelele. After the show, we had another really long night of driving. Night driving sucks.

Cody, WY - This show was another one that we were expecting to be very big. I remember before we got there Matt told us, "12 people have RSVP'd for our Cody show. 7 of them were us." But we got there and I think there at least 30-40 people at this show too! Everyone was really enthusiastic and having a great time too, so honestly, that's what matters in having a fun show. Thankfully after the show we didn't have to drive far; we just got a hotel right there in Cody and actually got to go to bed at a normal time for once.

Yellowstone Day Off - We finally, finally got a day off! We did have to spend most of it driving (getting from Cody, WY to Coeur d'Alene, ID in one day) but we got to take our time doing so, and spent the afternoon perusing Yellowstone. We got to see Old Faithful, and the Paint Pots, and experienced a traffic jam caused by Bison being on the road. It was a really relaxing, fun day getting to be tourists with everyone else on tour. I think it was my favorite day so far.

I feel like just highlighting the shows leaves out a ton of the finer points of tour, which includes the hours and hours spent in the car, the hilarious gas station stops, the silly things purchased in various cities (like our big-eyed stuffed animal tour pets) and all the restaurants we've eaten at. One thing I love about touring with Matt is that he doesn't eat fast food, so we've been completely skipping the McDonald's, the Dairy Queen's, the Wendy's, the Arby's of America. This is great because 1. it's way healthier for everyone and 2. we get to experience a lot of really fun little cafes and grills and diners. Maybe this is just because of how much I love food, but I think the stops for food at fun places have been some of my favorite parts of tour.

Anyway, things have been crazy and hectic and busy, but I am loving my summer and the experiences I get to have right now.

Last google search: I am typing this in the car so I don't have internet, so I'll tell you instead that we just passed Exit 74, Labree Rd.
Chipotle burritos: 13