Days of the week are no longer a thing for me, instead I categorize days by the name of cities Warped Tour hits. Today, we’re in Indianapolis and soon we’re off to Toronto followed by Buffalo, NY. On our days off, I sometimes question why no one’s out about town, then I’m reminded it’s a Monday or Tuesday afternoon — people are at work. Ultimately, I’ve lost all concept of time and I’m kind of all about it.
Downtown Denver overlooking the Warped Tour Venue.
Stesha and I recently finished a five-day run (a.k.a. five festivals back to back) in the Southwest accompanied by what may be the highest temperatures we’ll face on tour. Apparently, temperatures in New Mexico and Arizona had highs around 102° and Las Vegas hit a record high of 121° on show day. No big deal. I’ve never been more grateful for shade under our tents. These shows literally brought on the heat, but so did our team. Our volunteers really stepped it up and ran with our ideas on how to engage with more people.
A constant when it comes to back-to-back shows is an early bus call. With a 10:30 PM call in Las Vegas, it may or may not have left a few disappointed. But getting out of that heat ASAP was most likely worth it. I set my alarm every morning for 7:30 AM in an attempt to 1) wake up and gather everything I need for the day 2) prepaee to load-out from our trailer to our on-site location. It usually plays out with me pressing the snooze button and jumping out of my bunk at 7:45 AM and being on-site by 8 AM. Somehow it works out.
Waking up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and hearing the high was only going to be 104° was a relief to what we powered through in Vegas the day prior. Plus, we had a busy day ahead of us with two signings scheduled — an early signing with Tonight Alive and another with The Summer Set.
Publicizing these mini-events is fun. People really listen to you when you have a fake English accent walking/dancing/running around with a white board. Yeah, that happened (thanks Natalie for getting a bit weird with me). The heat didn’t really take a toll that day and it only got better the following day in Denver, CO – it rained.
Tonight Alive signing at our tent in SLC, UT.
Waking up in a different part of the country every morning is actually really nice. Even though I’m certain it’s caused me to zone out way more than I used too (which is really saying a lot) and I constantly think about how far I am from home. As our bus driver reminds us everyday, “You’re on tour. Live it up.” We don’t get to experience much of the cities we are in, but having the chance to interact with locals does give a slight insight into what daily life could be like in these cities.
Being in so many cities in such a small period of time and exploring a few on our days off, I’ve realized that living in big cities – San Diego and Los Angeles – my whole life has jaded my mindset of what American life truly is. But that’s a whole other blog post. So stay tuned for way more posts and photos. July is about to get a bit crazy.
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