Living Life

Okay, so i'll try to make a recap of all the notable things that have happened since I left - i'll try not to make a novel out of it as well. Sorry it has taken me so long.

January 6th -8th

Said goobye to the fam and went to Minneapolis-St.Paul International airport. Flight was delayed by an hour. Arrived in Los Angeles, had no gate for our flight and had to wait on the tarmac for 20 minutes. Finally got off the plance, checked in for my flight, killed some time. Boarded the plane but because of a storm, had to wait on the runway for 2 hours. Lucky, was able to sleep during most of the 11 hour plan ride - a first for me, usually I can't sleep on planes. Landed in Nadi, Fiji at 8am. Hung out, ate some breakfast and waited for my flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:15. Found out that our flight would be delayed until 12:45, then dealyed again until 2:15, then again until 3:30, and again until 4:15. Spent 8 hours alone in a tiny, tiny airport with no AC and bastard kids running around and screaming at the top of their lungs. Finally went to board my flight, walked out onto the runway right as a torrential downpour started. Got onto the plane soaking wet. Arrived in Brisbane around 7pm. Got to say hello and hug Rosie for the first time in over 2 months. Went to our hotel, ate some food, fell asleep.

January 9th -

I knew that Silverstein (the band that we had toured with this whole past summer) were suppose to play in Brisbane that night. I talked to their bass player, Billy, over email a little bit but still didn't know the details of their show or if they had time to hang out in Brisbane. Rosie and I decided to spend the day shopping around different neighborhoods for places to live. While looking for apartments in an area called New Farm, I looked out my window into a cafe and who do I see? - All the Silverstein guys. Rosie pulled over quickly and I ran in and asked them what was on the menu for today and they about shit themselves. Hung out with them for a while, had a juice and caught up. As we were getting ready to leave, I looked across the room and saw my buddy Nick Lucas, whom I had met in London a couple years ago but hadn't seen in probably a year. I ran over to him and said hello and he also about shit himself. So it was a great time seeing old friends and what a great introduction to my new life in Australia. I took it as a sign that we should concentrate on finding a place in the New Farm area.

After more apartment searching and some dinner Rosie and I checked out the show which was a lot of fun. Kids in Australia love Silverstein. They had a great reaction and played a great show. Aftewards, Rose and I went back to our hotel and I got some much needed, jet lagged sleep.

January 10th - Present

Since then, Rosie and I have spent the last two weeks in Rosie's home town of Byron Bay. It's a great little town right on the ocean that has beautiful landscapes, great shops and places to eat, and plenty of tourists. It's settled down a little now, but the town just had an influx of kids on school holidays clogging the streets, beaches and hotels. The tourists and the weather has kept us at Rosie's house, just relaxing. Up until two days ago the weather has been pretty rainy and cloudy, far from the lazy, sunny days on the beach that I had imagined. But now things are backt o normal. The sun is out and it's bloody hot.

This past Saturday (which would've been Friday for you Yanks) Rose and I packed up a lunch and went to Whites Beach, which is a little secret beach a little ways from Byron. It was like something out of the movies. It was a beautiful day, we had the whole beach to ourselves, and we had a great swim. Here's some photos of our day there....



The walk to the beach



Whites Beach



The view from my towel

When we got home, I felt a little uncomfortable so I took off my shirt, only to see that I had been sunburnt to hell. It could've been a lot worse for spending all day in the sun, but it still hurt like hell.



You might not be able to tell how bad it got from this photo, but here is Rose and I with our sunburn and me holding a aloe vera leaf from the plant outside of the house - that little guy was my savior. I opened him up and slathered all the fresh aloe goo all over my sunburn and it really did the trick.

So that's it for now. I'll post again probably later tonight with the story of the 5 mile rainforest hike that Rose and I did yesterday. Word. See you then.

Letter From Australia

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. Let's see...Our Europe ended well and a great time was had by all, I played my last shows with Comeback Kid and they were a blast, Festivus and Christmas were both full of holiday joy and awesome hangouts with family and friends, made a last minute trip with my Pops down to Chicago and Springfield Illinois to visit family, chilled with my parents and watch tv for new years and it was the best - a lot went down.

And then it was time for me to leave. I spent my last days in Minnesota, U.S.A. spending as much time with my family and friends as possible. Even with the impending doom of having to say goodbye to my loved ones for a long time, I was still able to have some fun, some good laughs, and make some good memories. I threw a going away party at my parents place 2 nights before I was set to leave and it turned out to be a huge success. There were friends, food, and root beer a plenty.

I won't go into detail about saying goodbye to my friends and family because it's impossible to articulate what I went through those last two days, but suffice to say - My family and friends are the most important things in my life and I will miss them dearly.

Now, however, it's time to begin again. I'm stoked to have a clean slate and to have Rosie by my side as we start a new life down under.

I've been Australia three days so far and I'm so excited to live here. The air is clean, the sun is bright, the ocean is beautiful, the days are long, the food is delicious. I'm having a great go of it so far.

I'll write more again soon. Including a hilarious story of the it's-a-small-world variety and my awful plane rides over here. For now, I just want to sit back, relax and enjoy not wearing a winter coat and long underwear.

Pictures

Here are some pics from previous days. First in Paris, then Durango, and then a couple from Madrid


Load out in Paris. Notice the line of cars behind the bus and trailer.


Museum du quai Branly where Rosie worked.


















Durango

Zurich, Pinarella, Karlsruhe, Vienna

So it's been a while between updates and I apologize. The internet situation over here is pretty awful at best. If there is a club that has internet, the router usually implodes on itself when 35 dudes with laptops storm the place like a bunch of mexicans at the Alamo. So I haven't been able to call, write, or basically do anything that requires the internet. But the club here in Berlin is hooking us up nicely. Ok, here we go....

Zurich, Switzerland -

Arrived after a 14 hour drive and felt like i had been at sea for 5 years. If there is any drive over 6 hours, the bus starts to feel like a ship that's been out to sea for 5 years. Anyway, got to the show, played, it was fun except it was a smoke fest. Didn't really check out the city because we got there too late and it was too cold. Packed up and took off for Italy.

Pinarella, Italy -

Another day of arriving too late and not being able to check out the city. Actually, there wasn't too much to see in this town. It was just a small beach town that you could tell would be pumping in the summer but in the middle of November is pretty dead. We did make a quick wak to the beach though. It was worth it to see yet another beach and another ocean and to watch Gaz get peed on by a dog. The show was insane. The stage was so wet that it felt like we were playing on ice. I got to do laundry this today so that was a bonus.

Karlsruhe, Germany -

Karlsruhe is the home of our tour manager Nanouk and it also kind of feels like the closest thing to home while in Europe. We've played Karlsruhe and more specifically the same club, named Substage, every time we've come to Europe. Nanouk's girlfriend Doris cooked us up a delicious dinner as she usually does and the show was great as it usually is. Once again, we arrived too late to go out and do anything, but I was content to hang out and eat some good food and catch up with people. During our set, I jumped into the crowd during our last song and was swallowed by a sea of humans and ended up lying on the floor, not knowing what was going on or where my bass was - good times. My instrument and my body came away scratch free, so that was nice.

Vienna, Austria -

We arrived late once AGAIN, which was a bummer becuase Vienna has to be in the top three most beautiful cities in Europe. Thankfully, I was able to check it out last time I was there so I wasn't too bummed. This day marked a special occasion. A couple of the guys in This is Hell also have another band called Soldiers. We all decided it would be a great time if Soldiers could play a show or two on this tour on an opening slot, considering that 3 out of the 5 members were currently on the tour. Nanouk agreed and the Soldiers guys chose Casey and I to fill in for their absent bass player and guitar player. We felt priveleged to be honoray soldiers and were stoked to play in a band other than CBK. The fun thing about playing with soldiers was the Casey and I decided to switch so that I was playing guitar and Casey was playing bass. We learned the songs in a couple of days and played our first show in Vienna. Even with the mistakes that we made, it went pretty well and everyone had a great time. Oour next show is tomorrow in Hamburg and we're stoked. Anyway, besides that we all hung out in the luxurious dressing rooms all night to escape the cigarette smoke that was killing our throats and lungs. The kids in the audience were a little tame this night but we made our own fun, including giving gifts to those who didn't smoke a cigarette our whole show, and goofing around with the This is Hell guys who were watching us on the side of the stage. Other than that, it was a pretty chill but fun day.

Berlin, Germany - So now we're hanging out in Berlin. We've got some friends at the show that we're catching up with and I just got done eating a delicious dinner. Warriors are going to start soon and i'm pumped to see them rock out. See you soon!


The very cold, very dark beach in Italy


Parkway Drive rocking in Karlsruhe

Barcelona, Spain

Holy living crap, I apologize for the horrid grammar and spelling in that last post. I was writing it in the few seconds I had left before my battery died. Please disregard the awfulness of it.

Anyway

Barcelona, Spain -

We arrived in Barcelona on a beatiful sunny afternoon, loaded in and then took off to sight see. This was one of the cities where I wanted to spend as much time seeing and experiencing as much as possible, and that is exactly what I did. The day started off with a walk with the Parkway guys to the beach which was nearby. When we arrived the Parkway dudes were flipping out over the waves, which were pretty fair. They all tried to figure out a way to get a hold of surfboards to have a surf but to no avail. A bunch of the dudes had a swim and some of us just checked out the scenery. I noticed that the beach had several seafood restaruants that I earmarked for later. When the boys had dried off we headed off to the metro to catch a train in the city. The dudes in This is Hell joined up with us making for a massive collection of brothers. While on the train, I asked a woman in Spanish if she could give us directions to a famous street called La Rambla. She responded in perfect english, complemented me on my spanish and then gave us directions. We got off at a stop that led us to La Rambla, which is an old street with lots of shops and cafes. At this point, the parkway guys seperated from us and went on their own. This left Casey and I and This is Hell. When i'm on tour, especially in Europe, I relish going off by myself and blending in with the locals and seeing what the city has to offer. It's nice to be able to go at my own pace and not have to wait for someone to finish getting a falafel or something. If not alone, I usually prefer to go with my main man Casey(one of guitar players) who is an awesome travel companion. He provides much entertainment, is very easy going, down to try new things, and is overall a totally righteous bro. Speaking of which, he started posting updates on the Comeback Kid website and they are a must see! He really has a way with words - comeback-kid.com

Anywho, so after the parkway dudes took off, I decided to follow suit and go off on my own. I just can't hang with large groups. The sun was starting to set and I wanted to make sure I got to see the Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral by famed Spanish modernist artist Antonio Gaudi. I hopped back on the metro, transferred trains and arrived quickly at the Sagrada Familia just as the sun was starting to set. The cathedral is famous for it's very orginal and unique style. It almost kind of looks like a sand castle. It's absolutely gorgeous. The cathedral started construction in 1882 and is still not complete! It has very dramatic towers and the inside is quite enormous and artfully crafted. It's a must see if you are ever in Barcelona. It's unlike anything else in Europe. I took my time at the cathedral, snapped a lot of pictures and stared at the amazing peice of art. I finally was forced to leave when the cathedral was closing for the night. I still had plenty of time before our set, so I hopped on the metro once again to make my way to see some more Gaudi work. I decided to take the train to Park Guell, a famous park that was designed by Antonio Gaudi and also has a house within it that Gaudi lived in for a time. I arrived at the park after a 20 minute walk from the metro and I was immediately satisfied that I had made the trip. It was dark and the park was mostly abdoned. I walked up to the entrance gate and entered a new world. I felt like Dorthy in Oz or Alice arriving in Wonderland. The park featured amazing building at its entrance which once passed, opened up to a large sqaure, then a staircase decorated with mosiac dragons and fountains. The staircase led to a huge area with large columns, then another staircase leading to the rooftop of the columns that provided an unbelievable view of Barcelona city. You would have to see this place in person to understand the beauty and magic of it. I felt like I had entered a fairy tale and was expecting a giant or unicorns to come charging out of the forest. I would jump on the unicorns and ride them to the river of hot chocolate and then deliver golden coins and lolly pop dreams to the village children for the summer solstice. The best part about being at this park was that not only was it off the tourist season, but it was night and I had it all to myself. It was magical. I made sure to sit and enjoy the view and the quiet as long as I could before I had to go back to a sweaty show. But alas, rock and roll called me back and I had to leave my wonderland and head back to the club.

When I arrived back at the club, I met up with the Parkway guys and Casey again and I convinced them to come with me to one of the seaside restaurants to get a seafood paella. Getting a proper paella in Spain was at the top of my list of things to do while I was in Spain. Casey, Gaz and Jeff from Parkway, Jay from Cancer Bats and myself all rolled up to a nice, classy restaurant that I had seen serving pealla earlier that day. Gaz and Jeff had never even heard of paella before but were willing to give it a shot. 45 minutes later we were all looking at a huge plate were a gorgeous seafood paella once stood. We all rubbed our stomachs with content and toasted to a good meal.

The day ended perfectly with an awesome show with kids going crazy, singing along and having a great time with us, which left us all thinking "why had we never played in Spain before?"

After our set we had to immediately pack up and head out for the long 14 hour drive to Zurich, Switzerland. For only having been there one day, I left Barcelona feeling like I had experienced a great deal of the city and culture. Definitely a highlight of this tour.






Sagrada Famila




Park Guell

Rotterdam - Paris - Durango - Madrid

It's been way too long since my last update and too much has happened to post everything, but i'll sum it up for you.

Rotterdam, Netherlands -

Nothing much happened on this day. The highlight of the day was when Casey and I went to a bagel and coffee place and got delcious bagels with avocado on them and some amazing coffee. The show was fun. Tons of stage dives and sing alongs. Got done with the show, loaded up and blasted out of there.

Paris, France -

I always have a great time in Paris. It;s probably one of my favorite cities in Europe. It's just so beautiful and has so much history and awesome things to see. We arrived at the club around noon and because the club was on such a narrow street, there was nowhere for our buses to park. Therefore, we had to stop the buses in the middle of a busy street and unload right there in front of the club. We ended up holding up traffic for a good 10 minutes, creating a long line of cars that were honking and yelling french obscenities at us, which we responded to with laughter. Good times. After loading gear into the club, Casey and I headed off to check out some sights in France - one of which being the Muse du qui Branly, where my girlfriend Rosie has some artwork featured. The ticket machine at the metro was broken, so Casey and I just hopped over the railing and boarded a train to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at a street that was a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, grabbed a couple of baguettes and made our way to the Branly Museum, which is across the street from the Eiffel Tower.

The Museum was built to feature artwork by indigenous people throughout the world. It is a huge building, located right on the river showcasing unique and beautiful architecture and landscaping. When the museum was being constructed, Rosie and a few other australians were chosen to paint the ceilings of the museum with recreation of a painting by an australian aboriginal artist. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, so I wasn't able to see her work up close, but there were large glass windows that I could look through and easily see her work from the street. It was so awesome to not only see the Museum but to see something that Rosie helped create that will stand in Paris for years to come. it made me so proud. I was sure to tell everyone about it and show off my girls talents, haha. After the museum, Casey and I walked around the Eiffel Tower, which is always breathtaking. Then we went back to the neighborhood where our club was and got coffee. After haning with the dudes for a while, I decided to go for a little walk to kill time before we played. I chose a random street, started walking and 15 minutes, to my surprise I had arrived at Notre Dame Cathedral. It was my 3rd time seeing it, but it was an awesome sight to be hold again. I spent some time inside appreciating the architecture and sat down for a while to unwind. After, I just kept walking. By this time, It had gotten pretty dark and I realized that I had never seen Paris by night, and it is a truly beautiful time to see it. Hours later, I arrived back at the club, watched the other bands and then played one of the funnest sets of the tour. The crowd wasn't all that big, and there was a tv in the dressing room broadcasting the show. So we were just doing silly things on stage to entertain ourselves and the others that were watching backstage. This ended up being one of the most hilarious nights of the tour. Kinda had to be there. The show finished, we had some more laughs, the buses arrived, we blocked traffic again, loaded out and hit the road. Saying goodbye to Paris once again.

Durango, Spain(or Basque country) -

What a glorious day this was. We arrived in Durango and even though it was an overcast day, I was stoked. I hung outside after loading when Gaz, Pipey, Winston, Luke(parkway drive, and Charlie(the warriors) came walking by and asked me if I wanted to come with them to the beach. I agreed, thinking it would only be a short little journey. I was in store for much more though. Our destination was Mundaka beach, a world famous surf spot. The boys in Parkway are avid surfers and this beach was a must for them. We were given directions by a local to the beach and it ended up involving two bus trips and a little bit of walking. Luckily, we had Charlie with us who speaks Spanish pretty well so he was able to show us to the right buses and basically save us from getting lost. The bus rides were an ejoyable part of the day for me. I got to hang out with Ben(also known as Gaz, Rosie's younger brother) and talk Lost while enjoying the beautiful Spanish countryside. After an hour bus ride we finally arrived at what had to be one of the most lovely places I had ever been - a little Spanish town, tucked into a hill overlooking the ocean. We hung out at some cliffs overlooking the ocean and the surf, which was low but had massive potential and the dudes were loving it. Gaz, Luke, and Pipey decided to have a little dip into the ocean which resulted in them screaming like girls because of how cold the water was. After they dressed we walked through the town, making our way to the headland which had some old ruins. We hung out for a while, enjoying the views, taking pictures and then decided to head out. We had perfect timing on the way back, catching every bus without having to wait longer than a minute and walking into the club just as they were serving dinner. Good end to a great day. The show was alright. Not too crazy but fun. Some dudes threw rocks at one of the buses and broke a window, luckily it wasn't the bus I was on. Dudes has some drinks and then we hit the road, good times.

Madrid, Spain -

Casey and I went for a walk after waking. Had some awesome coffee and a croisont. The coffee in europe is so good, it's unreal. THis day wasn't the best for me. It started out awesome because before the show started, Gaz, Casey, and I went for a walk to find food and ended up finding a dope spanish restaraunt where I ordered grilled sea bass, and the other two ordered steak. Unlike everyone else who ate fast food and kebabs, we were sitting down at a nice restaraunt and loving life. It was an awesome time. We felt like kings. Later, I felt like death. Right before we were about to play, I started to feel a little off. When it was time to go onstage, I felt like I was going to die. I stood in one place the whole set and barely moved a muscle. I felt like I was going to puke or pass out or puke and then pass out in puke at any given moment. The one time I attempted back up vocals, I became really dizzy and started to fall into Kyle's drums, but was able to stable myself. When the last note of the last song wa struck, I ran off the stage and into the dressing room, then ran into the bathroom ready to be sick. Oddly enough, nothing came up. I went outside for some fresh air and started to feel better. When I got back on the bus, I took a ginger pill to calm my stomach, drank some water and went to bed. The next day I woke up feeling pretty good. I still have no idea what it was. At first I thought it might've been the fish I ate, but I don't think it was. I actually think it was probably from all the cigarette smoke I was exposed to at that show. Every single person at the show as smoking and the club looked like it was on fire. Whoever says second hand smoke has no effect on people doesn't know what they are talking about. As soon as I was out of the smoke, I started to feel alright. Cigarette smoke in Europe is seriously out of control. Every person here smokes, which means that playing shows here is awful. Thankfully countries are starting to ban it now, like England. But a lot of Europe is still so bad when it comes to cigarettes. I can't believe it's 2007 and there are still places that allow smoking in places. There have been a few times where i've had coffee on this tour from smoky coffee shops and I can seriously taste it in the coffee. Anyway, thats my smoke rant. Sorry.

OK, this is getting too long, so i'm going to break it up a little. Next post i'll post pictures and then write about Barcelona, which deserves a whole post of it's own. Anyway, that's all for now. Next up...Barcelona Spain, Zurich Switzerland, and Pinarella Italy. See you soon!

Manchester - Glasgow - Sheffield - Yeovil

Nothing crazy to report really. The last few days have been pretty standard touring routine. Get up, load in, soundcheck, hang out, play a show, go to sleep. But anyway..

Manchester - It was rainy as hell this day, typical english weather. I went for a walk with some bros around the city, bought a new pair of jeans since I accidentally left a pair in Germany. Went to Pizza Express with a bunch of bros for dinner. Pizza express is this gourmet pizza restaraunt chain that is all over the U.K. They actually serve amazing pizza by U.K. standards. We always try to hit up pizza express as much as possible when we're over there because we usually don't get served the best food at the venues in the U.K. See, with tours in Europe it's in the bands' contract that the promoter and venue provide dinner for all the bands on the tour. The food is usually either hit or miss. In the U.K. it's usually always a miss. So pizza express is essential to our survival. The show was mindblowing. Parkway Drive make everyone else look like little girls. Our set was pretty amazing as well. I slipped on a the stage and landed face first, which provided me and everyone else with a good laugh or two. Chilled with bros after the show then went to sleep.

Glasgow- Started off the day walking around the city with Travis (This Is Hell) and Casey. Bought a gingerbread latte at a coffee shop that was pretty gross. It was abosulutely freezing in Scotland. All of the bands had one tiny dressing room to share, so we all squeezed into it and had some good laughs and hang sessions. Show was alright. I didn't have much energy because of going crazy during our show the night before. Went to sleep a couple hours after the show, dudes stayed up and partied.


Glasgow

Sheffield - Took a shower at the venue when we arrived to the club - I hadn't had one in three days, blech. Got a coffee from a place that sold Byron Bay cookies, which was cool. I bought one later and it was delicious. Soundchecked and then Casey, Puc and I went to Pizza Express. Destroyed some pizza and then went back to the show. Sheffield is usually always an awesome place to play and this night was no different. All the bands had a great reaction. I did a guest vocal apperance for This Is Hell and, my typical luck, the mic broke on me so I just jumped into the crowd like an idiot and sang along with kids. Managed to give myself a nasty little cut on my leg from the barricade too. Good times. We played a new song "Industry Standards" and it went really well. This is one of the rare songs that we actually sing instead of scream and I do some of the singing myself. I was nervous but I think it went pretty well. After the show, got some fish and chips with Liam(Cancer Bats) and Casey. Came back to the bus and had a rad bro down session with Casey and Liam. Went to bed and watched The Lion, The witch and The wardrobe.

Yeovil - I had never even heard of this city before we played it, but it's a nice little town in the middle of nowhere which has a surprisingly decent music scene. Started off the day walking around with Jed (parkway drive merch guy and Rosie's older brother), Casey, Winston, and Luke (all parkway drive dudes). Got some food and Marks and Spencer, an awesome grocery store. Walked around some more with Jed and Casey, got some coffee and the bought The Wind That Shakes The Barley on DVD, a movie about the IRA and the Irish Civil War, which I have yet to watched but I'm stoked. Check it -
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_wind_that_shakes_the_barley/ . A pub across the street form the club was providing food for us for free. We could choose anything on the menu. I chose Surf and Turf. Got my steak medium rare with shrimp. Not everyday you get a free surf and turf. It was delicious. The show was absolute chaos. The stage was less than a foot tall and there was no barricade. My guest vocal apperance for This Is Hell went better this show. Every set for every band was great. Our set was mental. There were two security guards, Nanouk(tour manager) and Puc(our bro) all up front trying as hard as they could to keep kids from falling all over us and our gear. It was hysterical. I'll post photos when I get them. Probably the craziest show on the tour besides Moscow. After the show, hung out with dudes and then took a sleeping pill since we were taking the ferry and there have beens some crazy storms in Europe lately, resulting in rough seas. Once again, I stayed asleep during the ride. Good times.




This Is Hell - Yeovil


Cancer Bats dudes at dinner in Yeovil.


Cool mural of Morrissey at the club in Yeovil

Now we're in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Casey and I had amazing coffee and bagels this morning. Probably one of the best coffees i've had in a while. Now i'm just chillin on the bus writing this thing. Show starts soon then we're off to one of my favorite European cities - Paris! See you then, kids.





Check these dudes out -

Parkway Drive - myspace.com/parkwaydrive
Cancer Bats - myspace.com/cancerbats
This Is Hell - myspace.com/thisishell
The Warriors - myspace.com/thewarriors