Monday, March 22, 2010

Tour Life


In addition to the five people making up the musical members of TMR, Lyrycyst, and Adam Cappa there are also five other people on the road with us. One is the wife of Lyrycyst, one is a band manager, one is a baby (literally a two year old), one is a photographer/videographer, and one is a Husband/Chef/Handyman/RV Mechanic/Source of Much Needed Reason; we’ll call him Nick Bellanca. All of these people united create a night of folk rock, hip-hop, and worship. It is a random mixture of musical genres and personalities, but somehow it works. We are all still working out the kinks of loading ten people in and out of an RV day after day, shoving luggage into small spaces, fandangling musical gear into the small undercarriage compartments on the bus and finding places to sleep ten bodies at night. These ridiculous games of “Bag Tetris” have been one of the most challenging aspects of the trip thus far. Oh and then of course there are ten different opinions to weigh, consider, hear out, and acknowledge before any forward progress is made. Let’s just say that we’re a slow-moving crew. In spite of our turtle-like pace we’ve been accomplishing great things.
We’ve had a fair share of sight seeing thanks to the boundless energy and curiosity of Adam Cappa. We’ve captured priceless memories in the form of video and photos thanks to the artistic eye of Jerome Love. We’ve rocked a crowd of 900 crazy kids in the Skydome at Northern Arizona State University thanks to the booking expertise of Steven Cooper. We’ve found one of the greatest cafes in the west at Macy’s CafĂ© in Flagstaff, AZ thanks to the recommendation of National Public Radio. We’ve strolled the strip in Vegas on St. Patrick’s Day thanks to luck of the Irish I’ve got flowing through my veins. And this has all happened within the first week of our tour.
The wide-open road lies before us. Right now we’re driving north out of Flagstaff to gaze upon the most majestic hole in the ground that this planet’s got to offer; The Grand Canyon. From there we head east to land of Dorothy and Toto. We play a show in Kansas and then for the entire month of April play shows five, sometimes six, days a week. April is going to be completely filled with music.
As we move forward keep us in your prayers. We’ve been taking a hefty thrashing in regards to health, comfort, and predictability, but hey that’s what being a musicianary is all about! The further we travel the more I realize that this tour isn’t about our music, or the advancement of any of our individual goals. This tour has become a gauntlet of trials, valleys and mountains, satisfaction and desperation. This tour and its unpredictable nature have forced everyone of us to let go of our selfishness (no room for that in this RV), our pride (no room for that with nine other ego’s to deal with), and our schedule (the road is narrow at times, and sometimes it’s not even paved). We push on like one big turtle on a mission to finish the race set before us. Godspeed this turtle on.

1 comment:

  1. This all sounds pretty rad. Good to see you guys are doing it. Bummed I missed it in L.A. I didn't really see all this until you guys were long gone.

    Godspeed and good luck.

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