Back Home Again In Indiana.

We always have high expectations when playing any shows in Indiana, particularly Piere's in Fort Wayne. Today was no different. Everyone is always super excited for the shows there, the venue is great and the staff is one of the best around. It's always a good time there.

To add to this excitement my girlfriend Ali, and my roommate Dave were planning on coming up. I was pretty stoked to get to spend some time with them and had all of my business sorted out and taken care of early in the day as to maximize my evening enjoyment. The day went really well and thanks to the great help at Piere's it was a very easy set up for the show.

I am amazed at how good real diner food is, considering its simplicity. I grabbed a bit of food with one of the guys at a diner connected to Piere's. It was a really good omlette. Again with the breakfast food.  Stuffed, I went back in to relax for a while until the time when Dave would get there. Then Ali arrived soon after that. It was fun to hang with them, as always. We "maxed and relaxed" for a bit before it was time to watch the show.

In "Small World News", it turned out that Ali was actually good friends with the front man for our main support act, iExist. A really nice gent he was. We talked a bit about the business and all that fun jazz and swapped info as we both live in the same city.

Back to the point. The show was going great, it was a favorite of mine because the venue provided a seller for me. That meant that I could more or less enjoy my evening with my friends.  Then came the BIG surprise.  There I am, standing by merch checking up on things. I turn around and see one of my  best friends Jerry(Sick Puppies Merch guy). Here's the catch, he didn't tell me he was coming, he had me put his friend on the list plus one so I just figured he knew someone in town. Much to my amazement there he was. The incredible part of this is that Jerry lives in California. He had flown all the way in just to hang out and see the show. He's an incredible guy and gave me an incredible surprise with his presence.

The show was stellar and although it was the smallest crowd we've played for at Piere's I felt it was successful.  It sounded great and people really enjoyed themselves. All in all I had a phenomenal day in Fort Wayne and thanks to all of my wonderful friends (including those from the band) and lady it was a day that I won't soon forget. The downside to all of it; Two a.m. van call to the hotel, 5:30 a.m. van call to St. Louis.

Lesson of the day:
The people you surround yourself with can make a lot from little and can make a huge difference on the type of person you are.
The people you

Wake Up Call.

Sleeping in was great. I woke up a bit early, cleaned up, and got ready for the day. The first order of business for the day was getting to a radio program where the guys were scheduled to do an acoustic performance and an interview. After dropping them off, the crew were off to the venue to prepare for the nights show.  It was a busy and fast paced morning to say the least. The day went smoothly, no incidents and no deaths (always a positive).

Having not eaten all day, starvation had set in for most of us. The venue was part restaurant so we treated ourselves to huge overbearing meals. Stuffed silly, it was nearly showtime.  Slinging merch went swell, as usual and there was a pleasant amount of people present for the show. Odd, for most days, there was only one opening band before us so the set and the night went quickly. It was freezing cold at night, as it has been for much of this tour.  We got back to the hotel and into bed around two a.m., the best part was that we had to be ready to leave at six a.m.. I'll leave the math to the mathematicians, but the long and short of it is, there weren't enough hours in the day.

Sorry the past couple of days have seemed quite boring. It's another day in the life. Generally speaking the days are either super exciting or the polar opposite. The past few days, while still exciting have seen few major events. A lot of driving and setting up and odds and ends type things. It will get more thrilling though!

An Easy Day.

Madison, Wisconsin is a pretty swell town. The Annex was today. Generally uneventful is usually a term used to describe dullness and boredom. I like to think of days that are generally uneventful as a good thing sometimes. Having most of my work done for the week (advancing shows, booking hotels, making sure that things are getting taken care of properly, etc.) I was able to have some time to relax for a bit. Although the relaxing came to an end when I had to walk a mile and a half to the bank. It was a long walk, both ways. And pretty cold. On my way back I picked up a sandwich from a place that advertised it had been voted "America's Best Sandwich". While I can't say that it was irrefutably our nation's best sandwich, it was indeed a very fine meal. The show went really well as to be expected. The guys all are really feeling the vibe and enjoying playing together. It's been a really great time thus far. The crowd was great, a lot of familiar fans and many new ones. Post-show things were fairly quiet, a quick trip to the hotel and then back to pick up the gents and it was time for sleep.  A good nights rest was inevitable. We got to sleep in late as the drive was only a couple of hours to Libertyville, Illinois. Until....

The Wheels Go 'Round.

Well, to conclude last nights bit, The Machine Shop never fails. The show was great. It wasn't the biggest crowd we've played for there but it was a Sunday night so that explains a lot.  The guys sounded great and the new songs went over really well. We all had a good time and the people from The Machine Shop are great, they really run a great venue and it's a pleasure to be able to play there so often.

The night after the show was fairly calm, a quick load out and hanging out for a bit before van call to the hotel. It had been a very long day with (extremely) little sleep the evening before as we had travelled.  A few Triscuits for dinner and I was out.

Today was a travel day. Generally travel days seem very long and due to the nature of them they can be quite boring. Fortunately I was able to sleep for a good portion of the trip so it seemed to go very quickly. The weather was good for driving and we made great time. Tomorrow is The Annex, which we sold out in our last appearance here. It goes without saying that we hope for a duplicate outcome tomorrow night. Now here I am, in our hotel room thinking about finding some food. It seems the day is just starting, at 9pm. It's time to venture out into the world and try to enjoy our last evening off on this short run. Another day in the life.


P.S. I hear there are actually people reading this now. Welcome aboard, and enjoy yourselves.

The Machine Shop.

I'll begin today's post with last night. As there was no real sleep to separate today from yesterday I will use the commencement of our drive to Flint as the chronological barrier.  Sleeping on the floor of a van isn't easy, and while I am definitely not going to complain about it as I am very thankful for my part in this tight knit group, it does make for very long strings of days.

Surprisingly enough the drive kind of flew by.  After catching about 40 minutes of sleep from 3-4am, it was my turn to ride wing-man with Vic.  Dozing off was tempting but wingman is an important role, so I stuck it out. Vic and I drove for a long time and had a couple of good laughs. We stopped at about 8:15 for shift change. More awake now than at the start of my shift I considered keeping my wingman title for the remainder of the eight hour trip. (Eight hours seems short, but in some circumstances it can be forever.) At the best of my judgement I decided to try and get a little more sleep as to not be worthless once we got to The Machine Shop. I fell to sleep around 8:35ish and slept all the way to 10:22.  It was a good sleep too with a comical ending that left me thinking that a wrestling match in my dream was ended when my opponent tapped out. What was actually tapping was Paul, telling me we were getting close. Comedy.

The Machine Shop is probably the most rock and roll place in America. If not it's definitely in the top ten. An incredible vibe takes over the entire place with old-school tattoo art covering the walls and a real bare-knuckle boxer attitude. Flint is a rough part of town and this gem fits right in with what I can only imagine is the lifestyle of Flint's inhabitants. Nonetheless the owner and the staff at The Machine Shop are true class acts. Really really nice people who love good music.

Food: Bob Evans. Like I said, we all love breakfast, and that's what we had at about 3pm.  After that hearty meal it was time to go back for sound check. A few errands later and doors snuck right up on me. So here I am, writing this during one of the opening bands (Future Leaders of The World). I will leave it off here, with the most interesting parts to come. I will definitely have time to catch up tomorrow as we have another eight hour drive to Madison, Wisconsin.  Until then, farewell.

Lesson of the day:  Don't underestimate yourself!

Day off, where did the sun go?

Saturday was one of our two days off on this short tour. We all slept like babies (using the term loosely, as I've heard that babies actually wake up every couple of hours crying frantically for a beverage or something of that nature. Only one of us does that.) I woke up to a text from Rek requesting a trip to the beloved "Perkins". As anyone who knows a bit about the HURT camp would understand, we are breakfast fiends. Breakfast is incredible at any time of the day, no matter where you are, no matter if you are actually hungry or not.  We made the journey in the frigid wind and ate ourselves silly on omlettes, chicken buscuits, pancakes (cakes from a pan), eggs and all kinds of other things that were terrible for us. Fantastic!

After our brief trip to Perkins, a stroll about what must be America's least inhabited mall, and a quick round to Target we returned to the hotel to rest more.  It was really cold, and while the weather said it was 37, it felt much colder thanks to the intense winds.

Another little but much needed nap. Awaking again to a request to eat, this time from Michael. "Meet in the lobby to go to dinner at a place called Zins at 7:15." Dreading rolling out of my warm bed, I got up and got dressed for what I thought would be a casual dinner. What I actually got was far beyond what I expected.  Zin's was a most incredible restaurant. Well designed with a modern layout and food that exceeded its visual appearance.  A "tapas" type restaurant, Zin's provided us all with much more food than we bargained for, although not eating it was clearly not an option. Each of our 4 (3 for some) were most excellent to say the very least. Small but delicious portions led us through a labyrinth of flavors and genres of food. From Mac And Cheese to the very popular Scallops dish, we sat and ate for almost 3 hours. It was a great time and an even better meal. I also want to say thanks to my girlfriend, Ali who is the best for putting up with this stuff! I can be hard to deal with sometime, so thank you!

Returning to the hotel on life support from a self induced food coma, we cleaned up and prepared for the long journey to Flint, Michigan.  The eight hour drive was almost certain to test us, especially since we were leaving at 12:30am.  After a quick shower and a brief sit down we piled in the van and commenced our push North.

Lesson of the day:
1. Eat at Zin's.
2. Enjoy each day; good food and great friends doesn't ever hurt. (No pun intended)

I'm Wearing A Babushka!

First off, I want to apologize for my absolutely horrendous and grotesque efforts at proper grammatical structure and attempts at spelling on my last post. I was typing on my phone on the bumpy ride in the van. Also sorry I'm a couple days behind. I'll catch up. Now onto the goods.

Cedar Rapids was Friday. We always have a really good time there, the people at the club are very helpful and nice folks. Those little things are what makes our day go super easy and much more pleasant.  Despite being crazy busy like usual it was a good day to catch up on work and get things pretty much set for the rest of the tour as far as preparation goes.  We all got to eat at a really good little Thai restaurant just down the sidewalk from 1st Avenue Live.  I haven't had Thai for a long time, so while I only really got to sit and eat for like 20 minutes, it was a good solid meal.

Showtime was crazy.  There were well over 400 in attendance and as always at 1st Ave., it was hot as the dickens. (Pardon my senior citizen wording) The crowd in Cedar Rapids is always a great, energetic bunch.  Friday's show further proved this point.  With exception to a bit of initial technical difficulties, the show went well, and I feel that the fans really got to see a great set. It was a fun one for sure.  After the show, in usual fashion, the guys came out and signed autographs for the fans. I feel that it was one of the longest lines for a signing that I've seen in a long time and it seemed that everyone at the show stopped by to at least say hello.

After all of the ruckus of signing and packing up, we had the chance to relax and unwind a bit. It was really fun, and after a long day it's nice to blow off some steam, kick back, and joke around.  Beyond exhausted we returned to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning as the sun began to come up.  In true rock and roll fashion we ate breakfast in the hotel lobby (of course not having even seen a bed) while many others woke up early for whatever jobs they had to go into the world to complete. I'm certain they must have thought we were nothing more than absolute silliness.  I'm fairly certain we were all so tired we were laughing at anything.  The best part of the entire escapade was Paul's choice in head gear. Known only as a "Babushka", we all envied his fine fur head piece. Post-breakfast, we returned to our rooms. I'm can say with almost complete certainty that I was asleep before my body even touched the bed. That is how we wrapped up the night of the show in Cedar Rapids, a great night it was. Lesson of the day: When in any situation where rocking is an option, ask this. W.W.M.J.D. What would Mick Jagger Do? Rock on folks. Rock on.

Welcome to the show.

Ames, Iowa yesterday. Out of the hectic rush that it was and a lot to do the day and the show went pretty well. I spent my day before the show making phone calls, emails and other miscellaneous efforts to ensure that our tour goes smooth. That is often easier said than done. I did get a chance to take a break and have lunch with Vic though. He's a really smart bloke, very humble. Then came showtime. A good rush comes about as it's the first show that we've really done in a year and a couple months (with exception for Pointfest). Although it wasn't a huge crowd, energy was good and the set sounded really good overall. Good times. The people from the venue and the fans were all great, really nice people. It's rock and roll, I love that so many people from so many walks of life can come out and leave the world at the door, even if it's only for an hour or so. We had a good time after the show as well, capped off by my first gyro. It was really good, even though I was hungry enough to eat my own hand. Either way, it was good food. Getting a good night of sleep was a great after such a long day. Sleep can be hard to find in this lifestyle but ensuring that I'm on my game all day long is imperative.

Well, we are on our short trip to Cedar Rapids now. We are all excited for the show as the cro there is great. Until then I'm going to relax and enjoy some music before the exciting parts of the day come. I'll end with a valuable lesson I was reminded of today: Everyone has a valuable lesson to be learned. Even if they don't know they are transmitting that lesson, it's important that we try to decipher it and grow from it.

Ready To Go.

The days fly by in this business. Even today on a day "off" it was just about pedal to the metal all day long. Near insanity.  I'm really trying to make this whole tour go by as smoothly as possible so we can all have a good time. I feel like the preparation is going to be well worth all of the work once things get flowing. Between getting documents created and printed, sending and receiving constant emails and phone calls, and making sure that every detail I can think of has been pre-arranged it has been a very long day.  It has been a good day though, a lot of fun with the guys. I even had some alone time over a good bowl of soup and gathered my thoughts. Soup is an incredible thing. I can't really emphasize that. Soup and bread must be one of the major keystones at the epicenter of all things that human-kind have done right over our brief history. It was nice. 

Then it was time to get the gear ready. The trailer got packed and hooked to the van, doors locked and ready to go. Just a little more than three hours will pass until we all call it home for the next 9 days.  We have a pretty decent first drive, hopefully all is smooth and incident free. 

Ames, Iowa tomorrow (later today). I've never been there but we are all excited. It's a venue that has never hosted national shows before so we will be the largest act that has ever passed through. It's been a long time since we've played a regular show and I think it will be a treat for the people who come out.  

All that being said, I need to get a few winks of sleep before faring off on this endeavor. It can and will take a lot out of a person so rest is a vital necessity. I will try to get a bit of it and be back at it again in no time.  Until then, I am off to relax to a bit of Bob Marley. Goodnight world.

Good times, good times.

Today has been a long day thus far. It's late and I've been up and at it since the early hours of the day.  Being anxious and excited kept me awake last night and adrenaline kept me awake through the remainder of my trip today. I woke and caught a plane from home to Chicago. Chicago is a beautiful city and I could ramble along about its incredible micro-global society and old-time city feel where you think you may be able to step back into time where life was more simple. Short lived was my stay, I picked up the van and was off to St. Louis (St. Peter). It was a long and somewhat grueling drive as I was fatigued. Some good music got me through and Frank Sinatra brought the whole thing home and made the last hour fly.  Finally getting here was great. It's been so long since I've seen the guys that it feels good to get away from the humbug of what life at home can create and really get into my element.  It was good to see the guys all doing well as well as meet the bands new drummer, Vic.  A nice guy that Vic, a rambunctious lad with a good head on his shoulders. Everyone else was good as well. After a quick last run through of the set (GOOD) we all relaxed and had some great pasta (ALSO GOOD). The night was swell and it was good to catch up on stories and laugh off some steam before we get things going.  Tomorrow will be the last real day of preparation, and though most of my leg work has been completed I always have to stay on top of the gameplan because it can be ever-changing. A great time nonetheless.

It's late now and I think I am about to go to bed. Sorry today didn't carry any exciting news or deeply insightful thought, if anyone is even giving this a read.  Today was a day for recollection, not necessarily for breaking new ground. As for today, revolution is put on hold as we look into the past. I think it is important to be conscious of these things as the world proceeds to move forward at an exponential rate.  Anyway, that's enough of my nonsense ramblings as I am almost certain that I am too tired to write something really valid.  Maybe tomorrow will lead to more thorough stories of grandure and excitement. Until then, Goodnight World. 

Sorry for all the nonsense today, I will try to better organize tomorrow.

Welcome to Another Day In The Life...

Here it is. The inevitable is occurring right now at my fingertips. I am writing my first "blog" (Although I dislike the term). This has been an item that I have been thinking about doing for quite some time now, and am finally taking the committing step. My work here will be based on the daily life of me, Tanner Steel, in and throughout my journeys of the world.  I am a vagabond and a student of life, an opportunist and a philosopher. I am a thinker and a student. Most of all I am just a guy making it day to day in life.  I wanted to write a bit here and there though to let my thoughts on the world out as well as give a sneak peek into a world few really ever see. Over the next couple weeks I will be posting about my travels around the country with the band HURT, whom I work for. I will share my daily insights on life, music, philosophy, food and other general outbursts as I see fit. Enjoy the ride, it's half of the trip.

Day (-)1:
I am here. Ready. About to leave on what feels like what will be a very short escapade into rock and roll. A teaser of what I have done in the past two years and hopefully a taste of more that will come in the following months. I am leaving on my first tour with HURT in more than a year. It is strange to me because the business of music I feel is what makes me who I am, and drives me day to day. It is the job I acknowledge myself by even when I'm not a participant. Sitting here chatting with my girlfriend Ali (<- Lovely), I am excited. Even though the event will last only 13 days, spanning seven shows in only 5 states, I feel that it will put me back in the swing of things and in place where I feel most at home. We will see how it goes, although it's always a great time with those gents. True class acts they are, family to say the least.  Well, it's about bedtime, and this short initial post will heed more. I'm hoping for at least one post per day depending on the action and excitement of our travels. Until then, I will try to find someone to actually read this. Otherwise I am sending out signal to infinite nothingness. So if you find yourself here, stick around, good times are just around the corner.

P.S. Conan O'Brien rocked the house tonight!