Warped Tour Dates in Florida

Dear all –

I’m writing this as we drive to Charlotte, NC to our fifth of six Warped Tour dates – Four in Florida, NC, and NJ. Mr. Dave Weisse is joining us us our tour manager / merch handler / procurer. Our GPS tells us, in her sexy British accent, that we’ll be arriving sometime around 5am. Load in for the show begins at 9am, so it appears we’ll be sleeping in the car tonight.

Warped is a lot of fun. Tons of people, bands, oddities, promotional giveaways, and sunstroke. For a band traveling in a van with no crew, however, the scheduling can be brutal. We’re playing the Hot Topic / Kevin Says Stage, a solar powered setup with a really nice sound system. Here’s how it works pretty much every day:

9:30 am – arrive at the venue, battle for a parking spot
10:00 am – carry your gear and merch a quarter mile across a field in the blazing sun, check in
10:30 am – find out what time you’re playing, modify posters, fliers, picket signs, and other promotional materials accordingly
12:00 pm – Work the crowd, pass out fliers, try to get people to come see you play. The lineup for the Hot Topic stage isn’t posted on the big board, so it requires some explaining.
1 – 5 pm – Sometime in this range, we play our set. It changes every day. Up until our set starts, we try to promote as much as possible. When we’re finished we’re soaked with sweat and smelling delicious.
6:00 pm – Grab some dinner. Catering is surprisingly good, varied, and balanced.
6:30 pm – Carry all our stuff back across the desert and pack up.
7:00pm – Hit the road to the next destination. If we can get there early enough, we often have a place to stay. Today it ain’t happening.

Not that we can really complain. We’re reaching a lot of new people, and getting to know some really good bands. The production managers are very helpful and accomidating. Some bands even show up without a show to play, just wandering around in the sun, promoting and trying to sell CDs. Those guys are warriors with a work ethic we could never touch.

The highlights so far:

- Playing next to the ocean with a cooling breeze as dolphins lazily swam by in St. Petersburg (sounds like an airbrushed t-shirt you get at some trashy boardwalk)
- Meeting the cast of the film Superbad up close and personal in Miami
- Checking out The Automatic (Automatic), K-os, and a few other cool acts on the tour
- Sleeping over at our friend Emily’s house
- Kicking it with The Box Social, The Urgency, and meeting an endless stream of crazy people
- Huddling under a tent with six other bands trying to protect our gear from a flash flood

Progress on the record is good, and you can expect some new tracks to be posted soon. We’re shopping for an album mixer with some exciting prospects in the lineup.

Updated celebrity encounters: Michael Cera, Bam and Missy Margera, Jonah Hill, “McLovin”, Michael Rappaport, Rupert Grint, Paramour, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, NFG, blah blah blah.

Night.
Matt