Happy Monday, y’all! It’s currently towards the end of our day off and I’m sitting in our hotel day room in Scranton, PA. I just finished an amazing FaceTime call with my beautiful roommates back home, and had spent the rest of the day playing dodgeball against other Warped bands in the 3rd Annual Glamour Kills Dodgeball tournament (i’ll get to this later). These past 7 days has been a week of rain, fun, and beautiful lush green as we’ve been traveling through the northern part of the East coast and the New England states.
the boys wearing their finest Canadian Tuxedos at our show in Montréal.
The last I left you we had just returned stateside from our northern adventures into Canada, and since then we haven’t moved much; we’ve even managed to stay in the same time zone! Can you believe it? Our week started with New York and New Jersey shows, playing our first show back stateside in Holmdel, NJ, and our next in Buffalo, NY. Our date in Buffalo can only be described as a wet, muddy mess. The venue experienced a torrential downpour during the afternoon, which was conveniently in the middle of our set. The venue that day was spread out across a field, a grassy hill overlooking the amphitheater, and a small concourse towards the front of the amphitheater. By the end of the day, all of the grassy areas were essentially a mud pit! The fans couldn’t avoid the gross and ended up having mud fights/mud wrestling through a few sets throughout the afternoon, and the stages had to be constantly wiped off so performers didn’t slip. Luckily, our stage was on the cement concourse, which meant we didn’t have to deal with the mud issue, but playing while it rains like that certainly isn’t easy on performers or fans. The boys braved the elements and played a great set, but we were all dripping wet by the end of it. It was crazy and messy, but the venue was conveniently next to a theme park that gave all tour staff free admission, so no one could really say it was an entirely terrible day.
me in my crazy weather getup. complete w/IFD poncho.
an Instagram from some fans at Buffalo. M-U-D-D-Y.
Our week continued on, rain-free in Scranton and Boston (both beautiful and wooded venues), and we made our way to Philadelphia, Long Island and Hartford to end the week. Boston was a hometown show for many bands, but we had a longer drive down to Long Island that night so we had to leave the venue much earlier than other nights. Usually hometown shows are where bands get to celebrate with family and friends, but because of this early drive time on the Boston date, the Camden/Philly show the next night became the scene of homecoming parties. Every night if we have time, the tour throws a post-show barbecue for staff and guests. When you think about our days, a fourth meal is pretty necessary since many of us don’t end our work until close to 10pm. Boston natives Bad Rabbits chose to make this barbecue their own and played a complimentary extended set that night. Complete with Michael Jackson AND Rage Against the Machine covers. The whole crew danced the night away at what will hopefully go down as one of the best barbecues in Warped Tour history - everyone’s been raving about it all week!
the sunset over the venue in Boston, MA.
The East coast is always really fun because things are all so close, and many of the bands on the tour are from one of the major cities in the area. This means that more friends, family, spouses, and industry types are out this week than most other times during tour (not more than in California, but close). Everyone is in chipper moods the drives are not very long, and the consistency of time zones really makes folks happy. Thanks to these short drives, the tour is able to do a few more fun things than usual during this stretch, including things like the Glamour Kills Dodgeball tournament that happened today. For the past three years, clothing company Glamour Kills has been hosting a dodgeball tournament on an East coast off-day. Bands from the tour come out to face off against one another in a hilarious showcase of brute force, and exceptional dodging skills. We were invited to partake this year, and although we were out in the first round, it was insane amounts of fun, and we all had a blast! Aussie band Parkway Drive took home the First Place Trophy, followed by We Are The In Crowd in second, and Crown The Empire in 3rd. We all had an amazing time, and I am so happy we were able to participate! I'm pretty proud of our little participation trophy we took home if i do say so myself.
The official 2014 I Fight Dragons Dodgeball team. (rom top to bottom, left to right: Chad (drums), Tony (TM), Packy (guitar), Brian (vocals), me, Ashlee(Chad's GF))
For now we're packing up and leaving Scranton, heading into our week of shows in the midwest. I promise more updates again as soon as possible, and for those of you following along, THANK YOU! This has been my most successful blogging attempt ever, and i'm so excited to be sharing such a fun summer with you all. Until next week,
xoxo
-M