Fall Tour blog #1

I have been terrible about blogging on this tour. It sucks too, because there are so many small moments I would love to have recorded down from this experience, but there just has been no time.

I got myself into a pretty good blogging rhythm on summer tour because we just spent so much driving - I would get my laptop out in the car and rehash all the fun we'd had in the days before… but on this tour we planned our route a little less crazily; so that we don't have as many ridiculous drives. On the one hand, this is fantastic, because it leaves a lot more time for hanging out and for sleeping, but on the other time, it's taken away my blogging time.

But here I am, sitting in Effingham, IL with a bit of spare time while Luke's in the shower, so I am going to do my best to write some semblance of a tour blog.

To sum it up lamely, this tour has been so amazing. There have been very few low moments and sometimes it really just feels like I am on a very extended vacation with my best friends. Every show we've played has more than exceeded our expectations on attendance, awesomeness, and enthusiasm. Completely.

We started out the tour in New York, where we played at the Sidewalk Cafe and got to hang out (albeit briefly) with mememolly and Caitlin Hill, spent time with my author friend Robyn and YouTube friend Rosi Halse, and ate some delicious pizza. Sammy G was with us for this portion of tour as well, and we had a hilarious little party at her house that night (which included a creepy panda mask, glitter EVERYWHERE, and too many pictures).

The next day was the real first day of tour, and we piled all our stuff up in the van (currently only sort of named 'Velocidad' as per Jason's suggestion, because nothing better has come to us) and headed out to Philly. Our show there at the Milkboy was probably my favorite show of tour so far. We packed this little cafe, met a ton of awesome people, and the energy was just so high. Also, this was the show where a group of fans got into a car accident on their way to the show, and rather than going home, they brought the broken headlight from the crash to the show for us all to sign. I think this is also the show where Mike signed someone's turkey sandwich.

My favorite part of this show was during the "World of Warcraft" song; a fan handed me a foam sword onstage when Luke wasn't looking, so during the second chorus I pulled it out and we started swordfighting onstage during the song. It was hilarious, mostly because he wasn't expecting it, but also it's always fun to make the shows different and exciting, and this one definitely makes my top five list for that reason.

Next was our show in Boston, which was totally awesome. We played at the Lilypad, which was fun for me because I saw Hank Green play the same venue two years ago at LeakyCon. We also got to hang out with Brittany and Joey of WinterSpringPro, which was a blast because our whole tour party is in love with them. We also packed our third venue of tour, which is a great feeling.

Unfortunately we had to leave Sammy in Boston that night, since that's where she goes to school, so we were down one person in our van. But this started the beginning of the actual 6 for Triple Rainbow Awesome Tour, which was okay too.

The next night was kind of special for Luke and I, as lame as that sounds. We were playing at The Space in Hamden, CT, which was the first venue we ever played at back on summer tour. I mean, that wasn't very long ago (I think it's about about 4 months), but it was kind of cool for us to compare how much we've improved as a performing band since that show. Many of the fans that were there were also at the show back in June on Roflcoptour. We had a great time, and the show was just as large as it was in the summer.

Our show the next day was a little different in nature. We weren't able to secure an all ages venue in Washington DC, so we just had a meetup near the National Mall. It went over so much better than I would have guessed. We showed up and there was a huge circle of fans already there waiting for us, doing ice-breaker games with each other on their own. We played a few acoustic songs per band, had an ironic t-shirt competition, and watched Mike try to solve a Rubix cube in under 2 minutes (like his song "Hey Molly" claims he can).

One of my friends from high school named Adam stopped by the show (he's studying at Georgetown right now) and it was a strange experience having him see what my life is now compared to when we were in classes together 5-6 years ago. Especially since his little sister is a huge fan of me and the other guys on the tour, and was texting him the entire time begging for pictures of Jason hahaha.

After that we were en route to Pittsburgh. I don't think I have ever been to Pittsburgh before, and I think going to brand new cities is always exciting. One of my best friends from my childhood named Heather has been going to school in Pittsburgh since we graduated HS so I was really stoked about this show (as this was also the first time she was going to be able to see me perform at all). We played at this weird little venue called the Shadow Lounge that looked really shady from the outside, but as Alex put it, looked like the Bronze on the inside. Apparently it was actually a hip-hop venue most of the time, which is pretty hilarious for a bunch of nerdy/pop/dance bands to be performing at.

Our favorite little 5AG fan Noah (the young boy who I ran into at the HP theme park this summer who has more energy than our whole tour combined and pretty much has all of our 5AG videos memorized) was at the show, and was bouncing off the walls talking to Hayley and I all night. I had him come onstage for "Don't Unplug Me" and let him sing a bit of the chorus with me, which I think made him almost faint in excitement. It was adorable.

Also Hayley surprised us and came to our show that day, which always makes for a great time. The amount of real life time I get to spend with Hayley, in general, is disappointingly low. So I was glad to see her. That night, after we all went out to dinner and had the most amazing mac 'n cheese in the world, we got a small block of hotel rooms and had the most fun we'd had since that first night at Sammy's with Rosi. Tour!

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