Tour has been so far:

Ball4Real, baby wipes, Kaddisfly, Hansen’s Root Beer, The Simpsons Movie, Chuck and Larry, hotels, days off, sleepless nights, friends, Long Island, Friday’s, Fuse TV, motorcycles, Harley Davidson, Smashing Pumpkins, MSTRKRFT, mobile internet, sunscreen, and lastly no sunburn!!!

Ironically, our day in Cleveland, OH began with a concert attendee stating, “it never rains at our shows!” I can guarantee that statement as patently false. Not only did the sky literally open and flood the zone enough for our dance floor to become a mobile raft, what I believed to be ice cubes tossed around by a disgruntled person, turned out to be hail. It was somewhat awkward when I discovered that my rants, originally directed at the invisible person, were actually spoken to the sky. Nonetheless, we managed to survive, donning truth® ponchos and wading through knee deep water.
 Traveling the eight hours or so to New Jersey, we seemed to enter an entirely different climate. After two weeks of perfecting my tan, the harsh sun of NJ (also known as Philadelphia apparently) managed to decimate my efforts as my skin now matches my hair. After infusing my blood with energy drinks, I even managed to gain the courage to speak on the mic … well, for about five seconds to make a pair of “bffs” smell each others’ beyond sweaty sneakers. After spending the day outside in the humid heat of around 100 degrees, I must admit I feel slightly guilty and empathetic for those two.

So I thought I’d take some time out to discus the different types of showers you come across on the Vans Warped Tour.

A lot of shows are held at amphitheaters which usually have a couple of showers in the green room.  These are normal showers but the catch is, there is 800 people trying to use 2 showers so the lines tend to back up and there isn’t always hot water in the showers.  wait time + a 5min shower = about 90min

Some venues have no showers to offer what so ever so warped tour gets a few rooms at a hotel and runs a shuttle to and from the venue.  These are really nice showers in a hotel room but the catch is the travel time to the hotel and the wait for the shower can be crazy long.  Travel time + wait time + 5min shower = upwards of 3 hours. 

The quickest shower on the tour is the finding a hose or anything else that is spitting out a steady flow of water (misting tents are great).  These is a really quick and easy shower, there is no wait and gets you just as clean.  The odd thing about this shower is that you are often showering with an audience.  These can be kind of weird for some people but hey if you want to get clean in a hurry this is your best option.

There is also the lucky people who have a shower on there tour bus. There is no wait and no travel time.  However, the catch with having a shower on the bus is that you may only shower for about a minute.  Turn the water on to get wet, turn is off to lather up, then turn it on again to rinse off, and then you are done.  It may be quick but very convenient.

Also, please note, it is polite to spend no more than 5min showering…you will be timed!

Till next lesson,

Mickey

After my day off in Wisconsin Dells, I was ready to take on the last half of the tour.  Our team took on both Milwaukee yesterday and today in Cincinnati beautifully.  That was very much needed rest and relaxation.

In other news, I’ve just been getting homesick lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the experience of touring, I love meeting new people, listening to music all day, working and living with my team members, but I miss my friends and family.  A lot of my other team members at least got to/get to see their friends in their home cities about half-way through the tour while my hometown and all my friends are practically the last couple of days of the tour so I have to wait the full two month.  Kind of sucks.  I’ve just been coping and calling them as much as I can.  All I can do for now is wait.

But yea, everything else is going great.  Like I mentioned, I feel re-energized (and feel good that we won’t have any more stretches more than 6 days long…whew).  We only got one more month (actually more like 3 weeks left) which blows my mind thinking of how fast the past month of shows has just flew by,  I still have so many more bands to see, so many more people to meet…I just hope I leave this tour exhausted from all the things I’ve done instead of wishing I had done more.  Which is why I’m going to start today and hit the water park that only open to Warped Tour people!  Tomorrow it’s off to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to check out the Warped Tour exhibit (which I’m REALLY excited about).

O and btw…I just caught myself on Fuse right now dancing on the Family Force 5 stage like an idiot HA!.  I hope everyone is watching clips of us on Fuse, you can watch it all on their website at fuse.tv.   I’m known to some as “the guy on the laptop that opened up Warped Wednesday”, haha.

Alright, to all my So Cal buddies out there, I better see you all at the San Diego or Carson (my hometown!) show!  It’ll be a great welcome home present!

What a week…we have in fact completed the 12 day stretch of touring, and enjoyed some much needed time off in Wisconsin. I got to meet up with my favorite person and visit Beans and Barley (only the best healthy café/ grocery store) today. Consumed an amazing egg white omelet with multigrain toast. I am happy. Recharged.

 The week was intense to say the least. The new Tegan and Sara album came out with a vengeance in my life, and we embraced the Midwest with our dancing, hugs, games, and scintillating conversations about the lies and misconceptions presented by the tobacco industry.

 I have to give a shout out to the people of Minneapolis, Minnesota because I had the best time ever there! Amazing people in the zone all day, and a night on the town to remember. I delighted in some fine dining, checked out an unforgettable jazz club, and generally enjoyed what the city had to offer. I’ll be back to visit this place, no doubt about that.

     We’re going to start heading back to the East Coast, some important dates like the Camden show bordering my hometown of Philly as well as the New York show. I can’t wait to see some familiar faces. Though, the idea of the tour being over in just under a month is an overwhelmingly depressing thought at the moment. This has been one of the most amazing adventures of my life, and I’m looking forward to the rest of this Warped journey.

 Today was the Milwaukee show, another great city with beautiful women surrounding the truck. Some guys followed me to the bathroom and complemented my dancing. Pretty funny. If you are coming to any future tour dates, seriously, come to the zone and see what they were talking about. I’m like Elaine from Seinfeld meets Nsync.

Till next time…I’ll be listening to Tegan and Sara and Straylight Run like a mad woman during off hours…music is after all, the universal language…

PEACE.

Well the tour is almost half over / half through. Last week I was watching Poison the Well in West Virginia and unfortunately lost my camera shortly after. Thanks to Eddie from Buzznet, I was able to buy a new one at Best Buy a few days ago in Chicago.

Now we are in Wisconsin Dells on our very first day off in 12 days. I’ll be home in a week and can’t wait to see my friends, as well as celebrate my birthday in my hometown of NYC! I also managed to catch Kaddisfly perform the past 2 days, which has been one of the many highlights this summer for me.

Only one more month left!

“if we just keep talking,that’s probably going to be your whole blog.”
-Justin

Having just completed twelve days of work straight I can say Justin is wrong as I have much to talk about and will not have to rely solely on his wit and charm to fill these pages. Where to start is the real question. Every day blurs into the next but each day has all sorts of memorable moments. I got see new found glory again yesterday in Chicago and my friend Alex was able to come by the show at the very end and hangout before our very early 9:00 p.m. bus call. He watched Underoath while I caught MxPx’s set and then we both ran over and watched Killswitch Engage. Today Jeremy from Mayday Parade came by the tent and played one of the games with a bunch of kids and also during this stretch my friend Will from Straylight Run came by and had a trivia game with a fan. i am also stoked that my friends Monty jumped on the tour for the next ten days. I haven’t caught their set yet but it is still nice to see more familiar faces walking around this huge place. I also was able to see a preview of the movie Super Bad which was super funny. (har de har har)

I’ve had some trouble sleeping lately and have been getting a bit carsick which is no fun. J9 bought a dream catcher and her bunk is above mine so I am afraid maybe she is sending all her bad dreams down to my bunk. It’s okay though because tomorrow is our first day off and I am looking forward to a real shower and a bed without wheels.

I have to go represent at the kickball tournament which is inside the metrodome today so this is going to be short and sweet.

Locals Only,
TaRa

P.S.
MAPS I got your back!

SAMESIES!!!

After ten grueling days, we have only two more days to accomplish before getting a day (well, actually 12 hours) off. It is slightly disturbing to wake up in a city just to realize that you have no clue as to where in the US you currently exist. As much as I would love to pretend to complain, it has actually been fantastic. We were lucky enough to have the other truth® team help us out in Charlotte, North Carolina. I even received an opportunity to watch a video of Scotty dancing to the YMCA – I am sure he knew that cruise ship training would come in handy and make him the shining star of a wedding. My only major disappointment was when Warped Tour lied and claimed we had a show in Washington, D.C. The show actually occurred in Maryland, which sadly prevented my sister from coming to watch me talk to multitudes of strangers and dance (poorly) in public.
 I have taken a great liking to commandeering Trife’s DJ equipment when he is at lunch; and, by equipment, I mean I replace his I-pod with my own. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoy choosing the songs that blast out of our speakers. I even get permission to dance; however, after ingesting two Red Bulls, my “skills” may be interpreted as a genre of limb flailing. Today remained no exception, as Tara decided to host boy band hour. Nothing is funnier than watching teenage males rock out to Backstreet Boys, N Sync, and Kelly Clarkson. I guess there lives a pop princess in every punk rocker.

Yesterday was my home town show! I was soo excited to be back in the DC area.  It was so awesome to be able to see my friends and family.  I really have to thank all my friends who came out…Ashley, Chris, Bill, Jenny, Molly, Andy, Amy, and most of all my little sister Aly.  All of them made the day so exciting cause I’d be working and then out of the corner of my eye I’d spot one of my friends and get so excited and that feeling happened over and over again throughout the day.  Then to top off the day at night my parents came by and I got to hang out with them.  It was just great to get a little taste of home after being away for a month.  Now just a little over a month and
I’ll get to see them all again. For now, the tour bus is home sweet home and it’s a pretty nice home if I do say so myself.

Peace,

Mickey