May 2005 - "Darren Over America" Tour

Tour Recap by Darren Siaw

May 13, 2005 - Day 1
The tour got off to a great start. Leaving Minneapolis was kinda chaotic. At that point, after cramming for 2 finals on Friday, the tour seemed like a walk in the park. I've been anticipating this tour for every waking moment of the last 6 months. We left on Friday at about 8pm, about 2 hours behind schedule. Just getting on the road at first didn't seem that new to me yet, I mean we've been on mini-road trips for weekend shows before. The trip started with just Todd, Paul and me in the car. Dave was still in LA and was gonna fly in to Traverse City right before the show. So we crashed at this awesome place called the Sportsland Bar and Motel in Tomahawk, Wisconsin about 3 hours into the drive. Todd needed his rest for the rest of the drive but Paul and I just couldn't pass up the chance for a cold beer on a Friday night. We totally had a blast chilling with these 2 old dudes, drinking and shooting the shit. They were a total riot. We played the in house game of shake the dice where the loser buys a round of beer, including the bartender, which was awesome cause I never lost a single game. It's always fun drinking in the middle of nowhere with random folks. I think at this point I knew the tour was gonna be great.

May 14, 2005 - Day 2
Got up early and it's back to the road. I think it's a 14 some hour drive from Minneapolis to Traverse City. So I got vetoed out from getting farm cooked breakfast and passed out for most of the day. Woke up at some gas station in Wisconsin and guess what they sold? A full liquor selection to choose from. So I got my 20oz Coke and a bottle of Jack and I was good to go! So we finally made it into Traverse City about 6pm, it looked like an upscale Duluth to me but it was beautiful. I could not believe my eyes as we pulled up to the venue, there was actually a line of kids to get into the show. I mean granted it wasn't just us playing but damn it's great to see that many people show up. That alone made the 14-hour drive worth it. We went on second after Heroic Villains. This place, the American Legion was basically one big hall and there wasn't a stage so all the bands played in one corner of the hall. There were lots of kids there even as we were setting up, and by the time we were ready, there was a wall of people in front of us. We tore right into "Housecat" and then it was ON. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous playing in close proximity to that many people but I'm still pretty bad when it comes to making eye contact. You could totally feel the energy but I just couldn't look at anybody, even the people standing like in front of me as I was playing. Dave asked the audience at the end to clap if they wanted 1 or 2 more songs and not a single person clapped for one song. I can't believe we sold that many CD's and T-shirts on our first night. We got to meet and talk to many of the kids and outside in the parking lot Dave and Paul met some kids who drove out for an hour just to check us out. I knew this gonna one tough night to top on the tour, I just didn't expect it to be that great the first night. We played with some really cool bands that night, I really enjoyed Slaughterhouse 5 and Victor! Fix the Sun. It was definitely refreshing playing to a younger demography cause I can't remember playing an all ages show in a long time. Traverse City was a total hit and run, I wished we could have hung out and maybe check out downtown but we had another 6 hours to Toledo for tomorrow. We're so coming back to Traverse City though. Thanks to Stacy for taking those cool pictures.

May 15, 2005 - Day 3
After Traverse City, I really believed that there was an audience - outside of Minnesota - for our music. My fear of everything going downhill after the first night started to set in. I was just being paranoid. I don't remember much of the drive to Toledo, but it sure as hell didn't feel half as long as the drive the day before. We got to the Happy Badger pretty early about 3pm. The Happy Badger is a really cool place, it's a café, an art store and a venue for live bands all in one and it's family owned. And damn do they make good sandwiches. I'm all about food on this tour, and apparently we discovered I have a larger appetite than the rest of the 3 guys combined. So the only other band playing that night was Seizures, which were really entertaining on stage. So the turn out wasn't nearly as great as the night before, but it was a Sunday and I wasn't complaining. I had a blast playing this show, the stage was huge and I got to bust out my Slash running and jumping around the stage moves. I think the people who were there had a good time and so did we. Now the real fun started after the show. We crashed at Sara's for the night, her parents own The Happy Badger and she helps run it. So we went along with Sara to the local bar where she was in the finals for some karoke competition. Dave and I were totally drinking like fishes. Put me in a bar with 2 dollar beers and I go out of control! Everybody in this karaoke competition sang their asses off and all of them were really good. Which made the drinking even more fun. I can't remember all of em but I remembered there was Bed Of Roses by Bon Jovi, With Arms Wide Open by Creed, some Blues Traveler song, What's Going On by 4 Non Blondes and Sara did With A Little Help From My Friend by The Beatles. We also found out Paul's a closet Bon Jovi fan, or at least Bon Jovi of the Slippery When Wet era. Man all the secrets are coming out on this tour. I, on the other hand, openly love Bon Jovi and I actually sang Bed Of Roses in front of my entire high school in Malaysia during some English language week or something. I did it out of a bet and it was stupid cause I ended up almost pissing my pants cause I had stage fright. So the big winner for the night for $1000 was a black guy who did Paradise City by GNR, and man did he had the Axl squeal down dead on. Poor Todd got dragged along and couldn't sleep and had to put up with a cloud of smoke the whole night. Big thanks to the Cohen family for showing us a great time and putting us up with a place to stay.

May 16, 2005 - Day 4
I remember waking up early super hung over and it was all frigging ass cold. I thought it would have been summer by now. I guess we haven't made it that far down south just yet. Packed up our shit and got out they're pretty quick. Hmmm where were we going now? West Virginia. Oh man the highlight of the day was the WAFFLE HOUSE. That's right, it's the gem down south. I think I stuffed myself and then passed out for the entire trip. Oh the joy of life. We have the sleeping spot in the back of the station wagon and it's absolutely great when I get bored of smoking and drinking coke for hours. By that time, every gas station was the same to me. It became my little ritual by then to get a hot dog at every gas station we stopped at. I used to think that that shit was nasty but man being out on the road, that stuff was like godsend. The best gas station hot dog I had was the one in West Virginia, it had coleslaw on it man. So we got into West Virginia pretty early and decided to kill time with a movie. Saw Unleashed, what a horrible movie. Jet Li kicked ass but the plot was kinda weak to me. The plan was to get some good southern BBQ before the show. We ended up at Joey's BBQ, oh man was that stuff goooood. We invited the cute waitress at Joey's to the show later, and she showed up! So Charleston wasn't our greatest show but I had a ton of fun and got wasted nonetheless and met lot of cool people. The bar was pretty filled with people but somehow I think it's more of a metal bar. Plus Todd was starting to lose his voice for the night. The bartender was super nice, hooked us up with drinks and offered a place to crash on top of the bar but we had to bail. I started getting sick that night. Third day and I just couldn't drink anymore.

May 17, 2005 - Day 5
We crashed the night before at some random motel an hour outside of Charleston. Woke up feeling pretty sick. I think Dave and Paul were starting to catch a cold too. We were all getting sick. Man the phrase 'pace yourself' really brought a whole new meaning to me on this tour. I simply can't drink like that every night on the tour and I gotta get at least some sleep if I wanna play well the next day and not get sick. So next stop was Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The defining album for me for the tour was The Faint's Danse Macabre. For some reason it kept playing in my head even when we weren't listening to it. Rule of the road is driver gets to pick the music. We all have varying taste in music although a lot of stuff we like do cross over. If I had it my way I'd probably play the entire Cure catalog for the whole tour. I got to listen to the Pornography album from start to end for the first time on the tour which is also my new favorite Cure album. Dave bought some CD's on the tour and we played Kraftwerk's Autobahn for the trip to Chapel Hill, and somehow the weird repetitive synths made the journey around the hills more soothing and pleasant. We got into Chapel Hill pretty early cause there was still some doubts if the show was gonna happen because the venue took us off their webpage even though they said the show was still on. Checked in at the Red Roof Inn and we had a good couple hours to kill. Todd went running and the rest of us, well where else can we go but to the local strip club for a taste of afternoon decadence. OK it really wasn't decadent at all, I was sick but we really didn't have too much to do. Right before the show Todd and I went over to Kinko's to check our email, and we got an email from the venue saying that tonight's show was cancelled. How convenient, we drove 6 hours out here to get a cancellation email on the day of the show? So the next hour or two was hell for us, as we scoured the entire town for a venue that could possibly tag us on to a bill at the last minute. It didn't happen. I was really sick and felt pretty shitty bout the show being cancelled at this very last minute. So what did we do? We went to good ole Qdoba for a burrito. So we got a taste of every kind of show possible so far, a good show, a mediocre show, a sucky show and a no show. You just don't know what's gonna happen the next night. I went back to the motel with Todd and passed out while Dave and Paul went out for drinks. Damn I wished I could have joined them. Chapel Hill looked really beautiful, it's basically one big college town with a cool vibe.

May 18, 2005 - Day 6
By the 5th day, I think I was really starting to get into the hang of it. I mean it became routine by then. You wake up, get cooped up in the car for half a day, get to the venue, set up and wait to play, drink and then pass out and repeat the next day. I love it! There's something bout being on tour that makes certain things out of the ordinary feel so right, like starting the day with a jack and coke, ya know to get the day going. For some reason we'd been watching a lot of Teletubbies every morning and it boggles my mind how mesmerized we get when it comes on. That shit is hilarious. We made it to Spartanburg fairly early. Spent the afternoon walking around town and visited the Visitor Information Center to see what we could do the next day. Morristown was only 2 hours away so we had time to kill the next day as well. Ground Zero Spartanburg kinda had the same vibe as Ground Zero Minneapolis except it's more metal. A lot of well known bands have played here before, Slayer, System Of A Down, Nonpoint, CKY, Incubus, Shadows Fall, Soulfly to name a few. I literally got goose bumps when I saw our poster on the same wall with a Megadeth poster. I think they last played here on the Risk tour. I was gonna play on the same stage that Dave Mustaine had played on. What a trip! Apparently the Mystechs are like superstars down here and to everybody we were known as the band who had some connection with the Mystechs. It was open mic night and I think the bands were playing to open for the Mystechs when they come back here in June. I met a lot of Alice in Chains fans on this tour. Every time I bust out an AIC riff during soundcheck, I'll get somebody cheering from the back. Met some really nice people that night. There were a lot of bands playing that night, Anomaly, The Yurricks, Gravel and some other bands. Thanks to Melissa and Dan for driving out to come see us. After the show Dave and I went for some good ole Waffle House not too far away from the motel. I was all waffled out by then, it was good but I just couldn't eat anymore.

May 19, 2005 - Day 7
Woke up and headed straight to the theaters for Star Wars. We got in for the noon show and it wasn't packed at all which was great. I wasn't nearly as excited as the rest of the guys for the movie, but I really liked it a lot. After the movie we hit up the mall, and then to the Beacon's. It's the local favorite for all your burger and fried chicken needs. I got a-plenty with my burger buried underneath a pile of onion rings and for the life of me I couldn't finish half my food. The drive to Morristown was not bad at all but I managed to sleep right through it somehow. I don't really get quality sleep in the car, I sleep out of boredom when I'm not in the mood to read. Made it to The Downtown with plenty of time for set up, being the only live band for the night. I think we played our longest set that night. We played well with an awesome sound set up but we played to almost nobody. Oh well another day on the tour.

May 20, 2005 - Day 8
We had nothing to do that day but drive. It was our day off. The Louisville show fell through. We thought maybe we could show up and play at The Happy Badger again, but they had enough bands for the night as it is. We stopped by Toledo nonetheless and chilled for a bit when Emil from the Mystechs called asking us how the tour was going. Turned out he knows of a place we could play about an hour away from where we were. So he said he'd call back to confirm, and we waited. Call came, show confirmed, we rolled out military style and headed on to Jackson, Michigan. We were to play at this place called the Thunderbird Coffeehouse. Really nice place, we showed up and were scheduled to play after the last band and the place was gonna stay open late for us. How nice of them. It was a nice change to play with a 'softer' band and to actually chill with a cup of coffee to their music. They were called In Civilian Clothing from Flint, Michigan. Sounded like a cross between Coldplay and Snow Patrol. So we had to cater our setlist to a coffeeshop setting and cut out the crazy antics for the night. Dave the lunatic was not there that night. It was a pleasant surprise for the night, from a no show to one of the best shows on the tour. They really seemed to dig us! An early night it was for us, we managed to get into Lansing by 1am. We decided to check into a nice hotel in downtown Lansing for the last night of the tour. Todd passed out as usual and us 3 musketeers went out roaming. Ended up at this bar called Rum Runners by recommendation by the hotel guy. Damn dueling piano or whatever you call that is really not my thing. We bailed right after our first drink and found this awesome bar down the road called Stober's. Got a couple drinks and we were ready to get some breakfast. Ended up walking 20 some blocks down Michigan Avenue to this place called Theo's. Pretty chilled night. Big thank you to Emil for hooking us up with a sweet show.

May 21, 2005 - Day 9
Got up in time for some Teletubbies. What was the plan? We roamed around downtown which really didn't take that long and then decided to split up and do our own thing. I had a craving for Chinese food, it's been a whole week from home cooking. Got my fix, met back with Dave and Paul and we headed right back to Stober's at 1pm for some quality drinking and shuffleboard! Dave was the undisputed champion for the day, which I think is still a fluke. Haha. We'll have to settle the score at Herkimer's in uptown someday. After 2 hours of shuffleboard we got bored. What else was there to do though. Obviously we had to pay a visit to the local strip club, it's only right next to the hotel. This is what growing up to Motley Crue does to me. I never really go to strip bars back in Minneapolis and of the few times I went I didn't really enjoy it. But there's something bout being on tour and doing random shit like this that makes it seem so fun. So we reconvened at 6pm and got to the venue, which was somebody's house. It was gonna be a basement party. Lot of people showed up but it started waning after like the 3rd band or so. I thought we played really well that night in spite of the lack of audience. Dave was totally worn out and was downing rum during the set. I really could have gone on tour for a whole year straight but I actually felt ready to end the tour after that night. I managed to sleep the rest of the 12 hours back home and woke up at a gas station in St. Paul. I couldn't believe I survived the week in tact.

Conclusion:
I felt that the tour was a great way to end 2 years of supporting the first album. Next on the agenda is definitely getting the second CD out. The tour was a great eye opener to what's out there and to also see what worked and what didn't. Like Dave said to me, going into this tour is like one big acid trip, you're not gonna come out the same. I definitely feel the tour has changed my perspective on a lot of things. I realized going down this path is just as hard as anything else in life, be it a day job or going to school. But one thing's for sure, no matter how much pain and suffering I go through for music, I'll always come back for more. It's only been two weeks but I'm dying to get back on the road again. We ended up coming out of this tour not hating each other and I think that says a lot. Hopefully we'll get to do this again soon, at the latest next year!


Tour Dates:

Saturday, May 14 - 2005:
American Legion // 1231 Hastings Street // Traverse City, MI 49684
w/ Slaughterhouse Five, Victor! Fix the Sun, Tanooki Sun & Heroic Villian

Sunday, May 15 - 2005:
The Happy Badger // 1855 South Reynolds Road // Toledo, OH 43614
w/ the Seizures

Monday, May 16 - 2005:
The Empty Glass // 410 Elizabeth Street // Charleston, WV 25311
w/ Vaeda

Tuesday, May 17 - 2005:
Nightlight Bar & Club // 405 1/2 W Rosemary St // Chapel Hill, NC 27516
*CANCELLED*

Wednesday, May 18 - 2005:
Ground Zero // 3059 Howard Street // Spartanburg, SC 29303
w/ Gravel, Anomaly & the Yurricks

Thursday, May 19 - 2005:
The DownTown // 219 W Main Street // Morristown, TN 37814

Friday, May 20 - 2005:
Thunderbird Coffeehouse // 129 East Michigan Ave // Jackson, MI
w/ In Civilian Clothing

Saturday, May 21 - 2005:
Bermuda Rectangle // 117 S Homer Street // Lansing, MI
w/ the Casionauts, Heroes Love Revenge, Romantis & Justin Spindler

More of Darren's musing about life, the guitar and Avenpitch can be found here.