Warped Tour part two!

Warped Tour Blog #2

It feels like 10 years instead of 10 days ago that I wrote my last blog! Warped Tour is a rock and roll summer camp/traveling circus/it’s oooown world.  I suddenly had a moment of disbelief where I realized, “OMG, I’m on Warped Tour!” because I’ve dreamt of being on this tour for years.  I’m so glad I get to be on nearly the entire tour, besides the week where I’m going to Japan for the summer festivals with Bennie Becca.  I realize when the tour is over, I’m going to miss it terribly.

I’m so ill prepared for being here it’s ridiculous.  I have all the wrong clothes, all the wrong shoes…it’s just too hot for anything! Every day I learn something new whether it’s about the music industry, my music personally, myself, or other people.  This experience is something I could try to explain but the description will never do justice.

Every morning I wake up, never feeling like I’ve slept enough, and I rush to get ready.  We have to get up early enough to get a good tent spot. Breakfast is from 7-9 so hopefully there is enough time for that.  Sometimes the bus is located extremely far from where the tents are set up, so getting the tent materials to the venue can take up all the time we have for breakfast.  All the venues are different, so sometimes you’re pushing your tent materials up a gravel road, or down a grassy path, or hopefully on flat pavement.  Doors are usually at 11, so after setting up the tent, my tour manager Kyle and I will try to hit the lines.  We take headphones, an iPod, CDs, and tons of flyers and try to meet as many people as we can.  There are tons and tons of bands doing the same thing, so often times people get really annoyed because they’ve been listening to other bands all morning already.  You also find yourself maneuvering around other bands and their headphones so you can’t get to as many people as you hope.

When doors open is usually around the time I know where I’ll be playing that day.  If I’m lucky, I’ll be on the schedule to play the Ernie Ball stage.  I also try to play as many tents as I can in a day, so we check to see if the KIA, Altec, and Girlz Garage tents have availability for me.  They always try to make time for me to play and I’m so appreciative.  After finding my set times, I put posters up all over the venue with my set time on them. This is a really monotonous process and every other band is doing the same thing so you’re competing for space.

The rest of the day is spent promoting, trying to get people to our tent to listen to the album, and hopefully they will buy the CD or a shirt! My main goal is just to get more people to know who I am, regardless if they have the money to buy anything or not.  The only sort of break we will take in a day is for lunch, whicb is from 12-2, and our food is generally taken back to the tent to be eaten since there are only two of us to watch the tent and promote.  The catering line itself is always massive and takes ages to get through!  But you end up meeting people and having interesting conversations.

We usually take the tent down around 7 or so, grab dinner, and then pass out flyers to the people leaving the venue.  Often times people take your flyer then drop it directly after you give it to them.  It’s frustrating but the most important thing I’ve found with being out here is to not take things personally.  The best part of the day besides playing is the barbeque/bar at night.  The bus calls can range from 10pm-3am so sometimes the parties can get pretty insane.

My favorite place that we’ve been so far on this tour was Canada!  It’s incredible!  The audience seemed to be most responsive to my music and eager to make purchases.  Not to mention we were surrounded by beautiful nature during those two days.  When we left Montreal, there was a fireworks show that we watched from our bus windows.  I also had the best shower that I’ve had yet in Montreal.  Having hot water in a shower and time to enjoy it is really rare on this tour.  So it feels like heaven when you are able to have that!

It’s my last day on Automatic Loveletter’s tour bus and I’m really sad . I love these guys and we’ve become good friends.  It’s also a really clean bus and everybody is respectful of each other’s space and things.  I hear  that’s pretty rare, so we’ll see when I change buses tomorrow how it goes. I’m just really lucky to even be on a bus, because a lot of bands on this tour are traveling in vans.

Everyday is a new experience, and everyday I’m thankful, regardless of thetrials and tribulations of the day.  I’m getting down and dirty with the rest of ‘em :O)

Posting a seperate photo blog as soon as I can charge my camera!

July 27, 2010 at 3:53 pm | Blogroll | 1 comment

One Response to “Warped Tour part two!”

1. Georgia says:

   August 2, 2010 at 2:28 am

   Hello! Is there was a list somewhere of exactly what days/venues Becca will be playing during Warped Tour 2010? I tried looking here and on the Warped Tour website (and also did a google search) but I couldn’t find anything. I would really love to see Becca perform and I want to go to Wapred Tour and while I can find Warped Tour dates/locations, I don’t know which ones Becca will be playing at. Thank you!