Parkway Drive Tour - Part 2

Well, I'm finally finding time to update this thing. Things have been super busy for the past couple weeks. On top of the usual band happenings, we've got a ton of stuff going on with the record coming out in June. PLUS I found out right before I came home that all my roomies are jumping ship by the end of March, so I had to plan an unexpected move and find a place to keep all of my things until I find a new residence (I didn't) in the ten days I had at home...fun stuff.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the rest of the Parkway tour. My phone erased everything about 30 times on this tour so a bunch of pictures I took of sweet stuff are now gone forever. I may be upgrading to a new phone soon, my BlackBerry isn't cutting it.

First things first – here's the video of Mikey and our ex-guitarist and expert handyman Dave Yoha building our new tour vehicle that I promised last time. I still don't know what to call this thing. It's not quite a van or a bus...it's like a mini bus!

Not much to report about the middle of the tour, other than almost dying driving through the snow and rain every night. The most memorable part was probably in Montreal when members of the tour all pitched in to pay Marshall of The Warriors $200 to play two full songs in a G-String. Here's the video of "Transistor." Watch it...if you dare.

Here's a pic of a fort I made with Anthony after we'd lost our minds driving through the night at some ungodly hour:

Here are a couple tour updates Vans had Mikey make for the tour...enjoy!

The East Coast was amazing as usual, but Richmond, VA was probably the best show of the tour.

Surprisingly, the next night in Charlotte, NC was the worst show of the tour for us. It's strange because they're only four hours from each other. Now, I don't condone fighting and try to avoid it at all costs, but at the Charlotte show there were a couple guys front and center for our set who did not enjoy our band to say the least. They were taunting us with insults and even threw a can of beer at us before instigating a fight with some of our dudes after the set. They lost. To add insult to injury, they were kicked out and missed the band they came to see. My guess is next time they'll think twice before sitting through an entire band they dont like's set just to insult/pick fights with them. So remember kids, just because a band's music isn't tough doesn't mean they can't kick your ass ;)

Anyway, the next night in Atlanta was great. Our friend Chris from Jimmy John's brought us all sandwiches and the set was a blast. Our friend Corey Emond was out with Ice Cube and our tours crossed so he came and hung out and bought us all pizza after the show (that's him on the right):

Here's another pic of the Fellini's pizza crew:

Unfortunately the road beast had an oil line issue and we had to leave it (and Justin) in Atlanta while we drove a one-way rental van through a hurricane to get to the TX shows in time. Glad we did because the shows ruled and we priceline'ed the sweetest room ever at the Omni in Austin and made a beeline for the hot tub as soon as we got there. Here's a pic of the hot tub crew:

While we were in Texas, Corey hit me up and told me that he'd gotten Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr. AKA California Heir, to wear one of our crewnecks onstage at one of the shows. Pretty sweet. California love!

Justin met back up with us before we headed out to El Paso to pick up our buddy (and former TM) Juan and join the rest of the tour party for "tour paintball" on our day off. We were too busy blasting at each other all day to take any decent photos or videos, but here's one pic of the SYG paintball crew, minus yours truly:

The Phoenix show was at some awful venue we'd never played before called The Nile, but it didn't seem to matter because our set was a blast. We couldn't wait to get to CA so we went swimming at a friend's then drove straight through the night.

The Hollywood show was a headache because not only was it the last day of the tour but the show was two tours combined (the other being another metal tour w/Whitechapel & The Acacia Strain), which only added to the stress of having what seemed like a million people we know at the show to hang out/talk business with; label people, friends, etc. Before our set, Kelly Paiste (yeah, like the cymbal co.) took us and John Robinson out to dinner at Asia de Cuba next door to the venue. It was probably the best dinner I've had so far this year. If you're ever near one and have a ton of money to spend I highly recommend it. They were both very cool people and very nice. Thanks Kelly!

I think that about wraps it up. Such a fun tour and I hope we get the chance to tour with the Parkway Drive guys again soon, great dudes and crew. I'm home now and it's been raining all week but luckily I found a 30 minute window of sunshine yesterday between the intermittent showers to move some of my things into storage without them getting ruined, hooray! We leave tomorrow morning to head out East for the August Burns Red Canadian tour. Another metalcore tour...I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Peace out.

XXX

I'm still alive!

DISCLAIMER: I can't make the text on this entry larger for whatever reason because Google is stupid. Sorry for the eyesore.

Greetings, ppl of teh internetz. We're a little over a week into our U.S. Tour with Parkway Drive, The Ghost Inside, and The Warriors at the moment and I had the sudden urge to resurrect my blog from the dead and distant past. I'm going to try to keep the updates as regular as possible on this one (though I make no guarantees!) ...Video clips coming soon, enjoy!

Mikey had been working on the van with our old guitarist Dave for over a month (video update coming soon) while the rest of us finished up the new record in the studio (check out a montage of us at the height of our studio insanity here). He and I drove it down from the Bay Area to put the finishing touches on the interior with Junior before the tour started...but not before I discovered this little gem tucked away in the Ambrose family kitchen hahaha

This tour has been a lot of fun for everyone thus far. The first week we had the pleasure of hanging with our good friends in Gravemaker, as they were opening the tour. We weren't sure what to expect from the crowds on this tour because we sound pretty different from the rest of the bands on the bill but it's gone well for the most part. The first show was at Soma in San Diego. My dad came out and we got Thai food before the show, which I then went on to puke up right before our set, but other than that it went over great. Here's a pic from backstage:

The next day was Glasshouse in Pomona. Before the show we went to Native Foods with my friends Tom & Cathy. Tom's got a pretty impressive gun rack in his house.

We drove straight through the night from Pomona to "Da Bay" which was nice because I got a little sleep in my own bed, ate some Taqueria Cancun, and our buddy Doug hooked it up with some gear from the upcoming Rebel 8 Spring 2011 line. Stoked, thanks Doug!

...I could show you what's behind this door, but then I'd have to kill you.

All of the CA shows were great. The SF show was at the DNA Lounge, a venue I've been to a number of times but we've never played. The show was incredible and it was great to see so many friends and family come out and hang. We were all bummed to leave our home state, but we were excited for the next city; Vegas!

For whatever reason, the rest of the bands on the tour had a show with Retaliate that day, but we had the day off. So, in true SYG fashion, we headed to Vegas early to get our gamble on! We booked a couple rooms at the Flamingo hotel and they weren't able to add beds to our rooms to accommodate everyone, so they just moved us to a King-sized suite on the 26th floor for free instead! We definitely didn't mind.

We happened to be there on the same weekend as Magic, a fashion/clothing convention held in Las Vegas, so we had a lot of friends in town. We got dinner at P.F. Chang's with our friends Rob and Lisa, then Mikey and I lost our usual $200 on the casino floor while everyone else who gambled made money.

The House of Blues show was better than usual for us...no fights! Our good friend Jon Gula moved out to Vegas this past year and we got to see him for a bit. Jon is the ex-vocalist for one of our all-time favorite metalcore bands and past tourmates, Turmoil. Jon also did guest vocals on "Gaia Bleeds." After the show we went out with Doug, Josh, and Ricky from the Rebel 8 crew to a Famous Stars & Straps party and hung out for a bit before we had to start the drive to Salt Lake City.

The show in SLC was another good one, and yet another rarity for us with no fights :D There was a massive snowstorm and the transformer outside blew up, causing the power to go out during The Warriors' set; which was kind of crazy for a second because the entire venue was standing in darkness for about a minute straight. It didn't fully come back until about halfway through TGI's set, so the security guards had to illuminate the pit with flashlights so that people wouldn't get broken noses. Outside, it snowed about 6 inches throughout the course of the show, which made for an interesting drive to Denver afterwards. Before we left we ate at this place called The Pie Pizzeria which was incredible. If you ever find yourself in SLC, do yourself a favor and check it out!

Luckily Denver was a bit warmer, which made up for an otherwise uneventful show for us.

Kansas City was a little better. We went to our favorite local sandwich spot, Mr. Goodcents. My total was $6.66

We got to hang out with our buddies Tissue and Jason Shrout and the show that night was fun.

The next night was St. Louis at Pop's. The venue owner also owns the strip club next door so we all got free admission, which was convenient because it's the only place within miles to find food, so we all headed there for lunch before the show.

After the show we drove through the night to Cleveland (which is where we are now) so we could eat a delicious lunch at Melt: home to the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had.

Gotta go, time to gig!

XXX