The last time I posted we were in still in Tennessee... hmm let me refresh my memory. So we finally got the gladiator van fixed, it took the dealership three days, and we were delayed even more because they had put a part in backwards (Idiots). As soon as it was back in our possession, we loaded up our belongings and set out for Columbus, Ohio to crash at Jon's brother Tom's house. We watched There Will Be Blood, and Planet Earth, and eventually arrived at our destination when the sun was coming up. We awoke to a huge breakfast, and met Jon's nieces and nephew. His 5 year old nephew Thomas was one of the most hyper kids I have ever met. He started wrestling with Sam and I, and we both received swift kicks to the stomach, and were clocked in the face multiple times. After breakfast we thanked Tom Rick and his wife AJ for all they had done for us and headed for upstate New York.
We arrived at Buffalo, the birth place of our very own Jon Rick around 5, and went out for some real "Buffalo" wings. We wolfed the wings down and headed for our show at a bar called Broadway Joe's. On the way we purchased some "Tilt's" which had quickly become the beverage of choice on this tour. If you don't know what Tilt is, its an energy drink thats basically a rip off of Sparks. If any representatives of Tilt want to set up a sponsorship, we'd be more than happy.
The show that night went really well, a few of our good friends Jay, Manuel, and Gary, had shown up, as well as a ton of Jon's hometown friends. We made close to a hundred on merch which is always great, and its really cool to see people walking around with shirts that I designed.
The next day we woke up at 3 in the afternoon, and bummed around Jon's house. We ate linner at Mighty Taco which is just like Taco Bell but classier, and your not eating dog food. Then we went out bowling. As always Jon "Dad" Rick, showed up with his own ball and shoes and owned everyone. Dave reached the revelation that he too was a talented bowler, with his unorthodox technique of running straight at the lane and whipping the ball down it. After bowling we went to the restaurant Tully's which proved to be your average TGI Fridays/Applebees/Ruby Tuesday restaurant, except it was real expensive, and nothing special, I don't recommend you dine there, EVER. When we arrived back at Jon's casa I was laying on the floor, and to my disbelief, glanced under the couch and found the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Power board game. We finished watching the movie Gran Torino, which was amazing, and without hesitation set up the game. Now Pizza Power is one of the strangest, longest and most confusing board games I have ever played. You must move your turtle around the board (I chose Raphael, because he was the most bad ass), battle evil villans like Shredder, and Krang, and then once you collect a certain amount of cards, you head to the techno drome, for the final battle. The final battle involves the player catapulting dice into 3 separate trays. This may sound easy, but trust me, ITS NOT. We started at 2:00 AM and ended at 4:30 AM. By the end we were all pulling out our hair, but we loved every minute of it. Dave prevailed as Leonardo and won the techno drome haha.
We woke the next day some time in the late afternoon (as usual,) and embarked for Rochester, New York. This would be the final show of the tour. The ride only took an hour or two, (I can't really remember)but it was nothing compared to the other rides we've taken. When we arrived we were greeted by James the promoter who was a really nice guy, and we went to the back of the van to have a toast for the last show of the tour, with Keystone Ice of course, the grossest beer ever. When I walked into the venue I was greeted by the sounds of some short bald guy belting his lungs out to "Livin on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, after that another middle aged man took the microphone to sing his karaoke rendition of "Take my Breathe Away" by Berlin, it wasn't pretty. I went downstairs to the stage and caught the set of this band called Floozie. They were real rockin' but they made the mistake of covering "seven nation army" by the White Stripes. It was a great rendition, and I dig that song, but of all the songs to cover they chose that one? Why?
Anyways we went on, and hell broke loose. Halfway through the second song Dave jumped up and started doing pull-ups on a pipe hanging right above the stage. The sound guy started screaming through the monitors "GET OFF THE PIPE!, GET OFF THE PIPE!, GET OFF THE PIPE!" It was hilarious, and I could barely play my bass I was laughing so hard. At the end of the third song I tried walking out into the crowd like I usually do, but tripped on a monitor, and flipped over onto my back, leaving me sprawled out between the stage and the floor. Needless to say I finished the song on my back.
Before our last song, "Guardian Angels" the promoter approached the stage and told me that they were tearing the stage set down in a few days and if we wanted to, we could totally trash it. I immediately spread the word to Dave and he was ripping the walls apart before the song could begin. During my bass solo I walked out into the crowd, and went crazy. The cable in my bass snapped off, leaving me with no signal so I threw my bass down, ran over, and hopped on the mic with Dave, I then proceeded to smash G Scott's cymbals as hard as I could with my bare hands. The Tour ended with a bang.
It was our last night so we decided to rent a hotel room, and drive back to Purchase,NY in the morning. We ended up staying at the luxurious La Quinta Inn. We couldn't be real rock stars and trash it because we were paying for it, but we did have a great time. Dave and I were doing relay races in the hallway in our underwear at 3 in the morning. The very lovely Dora woke up at nine the next morning and raided the Continental Breakfast, bringing bagels,muffins, yogurt,and breakfast burritos back up for us to eat. We were kicked out at one, because we couldn't pay for another day, and set out for Binghamton to eat lunch at G Scott's house. Mr.Corey's house is set up in the boonies next to this beautiful lake that shimmer's like diamonds in the sun. It was a gorgeous house.
After lunch we set out on the long ride home. The sunset was beautiful, and it seemed to last forever. One by one we said our goodbyes to each member, and eventually I was headed back to my own bed, in Connecticut.
I'm really grateful to have lived such an amazing experience, and do things that some people may never have the chance to do.
Some things I'm going to miss:
-Playing shows almost everynight
-Having a permanent stain of black spray paint on my right hand (Spencil successfully tagged every stop on the tour, including Jon's UHaul trailer haha)
-Meeting interesting people
-Playing for no one
-Eating fast food every day
-Doing push ups in Sonic parking lots
-The Tennessee sunset
-The Southern Hospitality
-Being squished into the back seat of a van
-Not knowing where I was going to sleep that night
-Jumping on the beds in hotel rooms I didn't have to pay for
-Not showering for a couple days straight
-Playing at sketchy bars
-Causing trouble
-And most importantly being surrounded by a great group of friends.
All I can say is, you haven't seen the last of me, and you haven't seen the last of Wyldlife.
-Spencer
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