Tour Diary: Paradigm, Part II

Days 3&4

As I write, we are driving through the Rocky Mountains, which as you can imagine are outrageously beautiful. I can count the times, aside from this tour, that I've been past the Mississippi River on one finger (with the exception of a plane ride to LA, which doesn't really count), as I grew up in Upstate New York and only really traveled around the bordering northeastern states and some of Canada. Needless to say, it's pretty exciting to be this far west.

We played in Denver on Friday which was not particularly notable, possibly excepting that it was the strongest show musically that we have played on tour so far. John, our guitarist, and I usually find ourselves traveling in the same car(when we go on tour we always take two cars. That way if one car breaks down, the other one can go for help. Plus, if you get pissed at one of your band-mates, you can relegate them to the other car) and we like to use these long stretches of road talk about how we can improve the live show and the direction of the band. These conversations are always time well spent; talking about new ideas before you play can give you a bit of extra spark to try something new on stage. The 8-hour drive from Kansas City to Denver was helpful, I think, because the ideas that came out were a little stronger and fresher than normal. Or, at least different than normal.

Morale among band members is generally pretty positive, although people's moods are subject to change day-by-day depending on the living conditions: amount of sleep, quality of sleep, the absence or presence of showers, etc. We are not the type of band that can sleep in a car for a week and take showers at the end of the tour. I know people in bands that do stuff like that, and I think they're insane. Maybe as a couple more tours go by, we'll be jaded to the idea of touring and will be able to deal with living hand-to-mouth for weeks at a time. As of this point, I'm not really into it.

I'll try to keep updates a little more regular--We're heading to Crested Butte tonight, of which I have never heard of until I found out we were playing there. After the Crested Butte show, we have a couple days off, which we plan to take advantage of in the mountains and lakes around Colorado.