I'll sneak up and hit ya like fuckin TORNADO!

In Springfield MO,I heard whispers of tornado warnings and a couple of us thought, "How sweet would that be to see a tornado?" So after the show, as we were loading up gear and shaking a few hands, the clouds started rolling in. All of a sudden there was epic lightning everywhere... With no thunder and no rain. We don't get that in Salt Lake. We piled into the van to try and find a grocery store before heading to our host-for-the-night's humble abode. And like the blink of an eye, rain started coming down hard from every direction and intense wind picked up... And the sirens... How scary... Loud eerie sirens straight out of Silent Hill moaned into our ears. We tuned into a local radio station and they recommended everyone get in doors and underground if possible while the tornado passed. I guess being in a vehicle isn't a smart place to be. So we flipped around and went back to the venue, parked the van, crossed our fingers that it would be okay and went inside. Even though anyone who's seen Twister would agree with me that it would have been a better idea to chase the tornado and chuck soda cans at it... But maybe I just like to party? So then we were in the venue with our faces glued to the window until things calmed down. And when they did we headed out in search of groceries before settling down for the night.

The next day was Glenpool Oklahoma. We played a very hot and well insulated garage... This deep into the tour, shows like these point out why it may be bad for you to skip out on eating and sleeping so much. But we made it through our puny 20 minute set without passing out somehow. Kids in Oklahoma are great. After the show we stuck around for a minute to shower before beginning the long night drive to New Mexico.


Albuquerque... What can I say? Possibly the best show on the tour. House shows typically are the most fun. We played in our friend Megin's living room in front of a bunch of the raddest kids we've ever met. Being our 3rd time through this town this year, I felt like each show and New Mexican experience in general has progressively gotten way better. After the show our hosts cooked us some spaghetti and garlic bread and we took all the coins from the donation jar to go buy drinks... Finally this band thing starts to pay off. Haha. After dinner Jeff and Matt passed out quickly while Brian, Chase, our hosts and myself started to party... A loud obnoxious bunch we were. And sometimes I surprise even myself with how incredibly classy I can be... Probably the 5th or 14th sweetest guy you'll ever meet.

Look, Mexico! We played El Paso Texas after departing from NM. Great show and a lot of nice people were met. Many grains of sand were blown into my eyes however... Afterwards it was decided that we would drive straight to Tucson Arizona that night. And while I normally handle night drives, I was a bit "under the weather" and very sleep deprived at this time so I decided to put the first shift of the drive into Jeff's hands so I could nap. It was estimated that it would only take 4 and a half hours, and with the Arizona time change we'd even get the illusion of it being 3 and a half... When Jeff woke me up to drive I looked at the time I was stoked to see that we should be there in maybe an hour... But to my dismay when I updated the GPS it informed we that we still had 2 and a half hours... Perhaps he was looking at the Kilometers per hour and not the miles? I do not know... So I, with the help of a few Form Of Rocket albums and a giant energy drink, was able to get us there in an hour and a half. Take that Ricky Bobby.

Arriving in Tucson very early in the morning... We pulled up to some friends of ours' house where there would be some staying. Where I'm sure nothing but dull things went on. Meanwhile I ran of with a friend of mine, watched the Arizona sunrise and then tried to get a couple hours of sleep in. I awoke and ate an excellent vegan Denver scramble from Lovin Spoonfuls before meeting up with the gang.
Day activities included the mall... Sitting around... And then we snuck into a swimming pool at an apartment complex at which none of us were a resident of. Perfect for a day as hot as this one. Later on I disappeared briefly once more for a walk in a park. And when I returned it seemed some of the excitement had died down. Some of us ventured off with intentions of exploring an abandoned and supposedly haunted hotel... Which didn't go so well as some of the company we kept was rather talkative and the on sight security guard heard us from a mile away. We then decided on the approach of just conversing with him... Turned out to be a nice guy, but still wasn't that into letting a bunch of crazy kids run a muck in the hotel late at night. FAIL. So we returned to our hosts' place of living and were drilled with a guilt trip for leaving Chase behind before trying to squeeze in a moment of sleep.

I awoke what felt like minutes later with the sun creeping through the window and people talking. Brian's ear had gotten pretty messed up the last few days and he was pretty sure he blew his eardrum or something. There was blood and lots of pain. So sadly, the last day of our tour that should have been spent in Flagstaff Arizona had to be canceled and we dealt with the 13 hour drive back to Salt Lake instead. I suppose we're just fortunate this happened at the end of the tour.

So we've been back for a bit... And in a few days we head out on the road again with our pals in Crooked Ways to cover the West Coast once again. This was the first tour we've documented with a blog... But it wont be the last. I'll try to be a little better at it on this up coming one. Promise, crossies don't count.

Listen to:
Defeater
Energy
Maker
The Swellers
All Teeth