TOURS

DANIEL'S WINTER MAYHEM TOUR DIARY ------------------------------------PREVIOUS | NEXT

12.18.09 - Day 1: Tempe, Arizona and the Vekornauts

Had a fantastic sleep on the floor last night! Went to bed around 12 am and woke up around 7:30ish. Woke up to Mario playing Call of Duty. Had a weird ass dream too. Shit was crazy. Like, I knew Mario had come inside from sleeping in the van around 4 or 5 and started playing COD. And that manifested itself in my dream. I dreamt that he was playing the game then went outside, for some reason, and (In my dream, mind you) I was all “I want to play!” So I picked up the control and did a round. But for some reason I sucked balls, and I told myself that Mario might get mad, so I put the control down and left before he came back.

And here’s the trippy part folks!

That actually happened! Mario was playing, got up, went outside, and while he was out, someone came, played, and fucked up his score! Haha!

Craaaaazy!

I think I actually might be the Seventh Son! XD

Haha! Beyoootch!

But, now on to serious matters. . .

Today was overall was pretty busy. After I worked on some art for a couple hours, it was time to get ready for the show. Sound check was at 2:00 PM at the venue, and we had some decent time to make it. First thing first: loading the gear into the trailer. Normally not a hard task, but now we have other stuff to consider. SO! I put my brain to the task! I love do the load up! Lots of people say I must be good a Tetris, but FUCK TETRIS! All about Ms. Pac-man, hoe!

When all was said and done, I had that shit PERFECT! Everything fit in its own little niche. What can I say? I’m good. Haha! But seriously, the gear ran like this: 3 cabs, 1 head, 2 big head racks, 1 drum rack (broken into 3 parts), 3 really big/heavy merch boxes, 3 smaller merch boxes, 1 merch bag, about 5 or 6 backpacks, 1 drum pedal bag, 2 drum toms, 1 drum snare and 1 bass drum (all in cases), 5 guitars, and finally 2 basses. A lot of shit, I know! But I got that shit crackin! And with the help of my fellow band mates we got it to perfection!

Funny thing was, loading in made us around an hour late for sound check. Haha.

So, there some of us where: Mario, Balmore, Conan, Blake, and I, heading to the venue for soundcheck. The rest of the Vektor dudes stayed behind to finish up some last minute business and such. It was 3:00 PM (2:00 for my Westcoast thugs) when we finally pulled in. We unloaded our perfectly loaded gear, and did a quick sound check. Me and the boys did a quick run through of a couple songs, then Blake, Mario, and I went over to Guitar Center to pick up some essentials. Or how Mikey from TMNT would say, “Yeah, the BARE essentials!” haha! Good times.

I bought a new heavy duty, foamed to the be-Jesus out, strap. Then we jumped in our ship, and went back to Vektor’s HQ to handle our merch situation. We have a SHIT load of shirts; about 25 from Small - XL of 3 designs. And we had to figure out a formula, Mario and I that is, so we can make our merch selling faster and more efficient. We ended up devising a plan of taking the smallest merch box we had and stocking that up after every show instead of taking in the BIG merch box like we’d normally would do. And once again, I put my brain to the task. During the last tour, I pretty much handle all the merch stuff nightly. It was a self appointed job, and I took it seriously. Still, do in fact. I came up with a whole system, and arrangement for everything. With all that knowledge from the previous tours, and a lot of pointers watching Mrs. G handle it before me, I came up with a new system and arrangement based on space/stock/and what sizes we usually sell most of. That took roughly about 2 hours, I think. Lot of shirt folding and rolling. But an overall success!

Now, with the merch packed and ready to go, me and Mario headed to the venue, where everyone else was. We hadn’t eaten all day at that point yet, so we were pretty famished. Laura, the promoter for that show, had said she’d hook it up with some grub-age like the last time we played there, but it was looking more and more that that wasn’t gonna happen.

As soon as we got there, I found my merch spot and set up. And while I waiting for customers, my stomach was in starvation mode! Then, all of a sudden, Conan comes up to me and says, “Hey, some kid out there wants to get punched in the face for a shirt, again!” (last time we played that venue some little dude took one in the kisser for a shirt. Moronic, we know, but it’s still pretty fucking funny) I was like, “Fuck, yeah! I’m down!” We headed through the back exit to a group of dudes, and a few dudettes, and I said, “Alright, who’s it gonna be?” And this guy’s all, “Me.” And he got all ready and shit, and we all got ready. Conan busts out the camera and begins filming.

If that’s not hilarious, I don’t know what is! Kids are fucking down in this hot ass place! Must be the heat. And right after he took that punch, I walked up to him and told him, “Sorry, dude. We don’t really have a shirt for ya.” And everyone started busting up! But I was only kidding of course. I went back inside and got him a free shirt and a sticker to go with it. The guy’s name is Cock, apparently, by the way. Cock, from Tempe, Arizona. Then some chicks saw the sticker and started complain that they wanted one. “Let someone punch you in the tit, and I’m down,” I told them, and they were like “That’d hurt!” Haha! Then one of them said, “She’ll show you her nipples (referring to her friend) for a sticker.” I was a tad bit intrigued, to be honest, but more important matters came to my attention at that time! Mario was at the Whataburger next door and asked if I wanted something. Don’t get me wrong, tits are tits! But I was fucking HUNGRY! So, unless those ladies want to put their boobs on a plate, I wasn’t that interested.

I said my good-byes to everyone, then made my way to the Whataburger. Whataburger, my California family, is a fast food chain we don’t have the luxury of having in our fine state. It’s alright. No In-and-Out that’s for damn sure. I order up a burger and fries and ate with Blake and Mario, where we fucked around and joked about dumb-ass shit. Mainly consisting of David’s (singer and guitarist of Vektor) dog Trapper. Fucker’s a crazy dog, but he’s pretty chill.

After my I got some shit in my belly, I walked back to the venue solo and was greeted my many an “EXMORTUS!” We have a decent following here and people really seem to dig what we do. We always love coming out to the AZ, cause, well, they’re all like family really. We know most of them, and many on an even personal level. And every time we come out we always seem to have a killer time!

And this show was pretty good as well! Granted, we have had better shows in Arizona, but this one wasn’t nothing to brag about. We tossed in a free shirt during the 4 corners and people went fucking nuts! I was laughing my ass off on stage. It was pretty brutal. I’m not even sure who got the damn shirt when it was all said and done. We did the new song, “Entombed With the Pharaohs”, as well. People seem to like it, so, fuck yeah! After the set I went back and handled my merch again and waited to start loading up the gear.

All the usual homies came out tonight, like Keli’i (cause he played haha), the always awesome Shelbie and her sister Candy, Katie, and all our awesome fans and Vektornauts, as they’re so cleverly called! I met a few new friends too! Christie, whom I’ve shared several online conversations with, and overall pretty cool chick! She didn’t say bye though. . . Jerk. Haha! And Karen, whom I’ve apparently met before but have no recollection of doing! Haha! She has a thing for my basses, I guess. And was pretty bummed I didn’t bring my main guns because they’re retired. But I painted the Metal Gear Fox Hound emblem on the new one just for her (cause she complained to me a couple of days before when I said I might not be bringing the others this time around) and the fucker didn’t even know what it was! Women! Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t kill ‘em. Am I right fellas?! But she was cool. Bought a shirt, then she wanted our autographs for her friend’s niece or some shit. So we all signed it for her and all that jazz. Then she went on her way.

With the venue pretty much vacant, we all broke everything down from the stage and packed that shit in the trailer like a tight hooker! Slowly but surely! Haha! Once we had that all that good and ready, we all traveled back here to the Vektor pad, where I currently sit typing away.

So concludes a pretty well tour kick off.

Now the REAL fun begings!

Quote of the day: “Trapper is that you?! We were just talking about you!” - Mario yelling as Blake answers a call.





		TOURS DATES \| DIARIES \| PHOTOS \| VIDEOS DANIEL'S WINTER MAYHEM TOUR DIARY ------------------------------------PREVIOUS \| NEXT 12.18.09 - Day 1: Tempe, Arizona and the Vekornauts Had a fantastic sleep on the floor last night! Went to bed around 12 am and woke up around 7:30ish. Woke up to Mario playing Call of Duty. Had a weird ass dream too. Shit was crazy. Like, I knew Mario had come inside from sleeping in the van around 4 or 5 and started playing COD. And that manifested itself in my dream. I dreamt that he was playing the game then went outside, for some reason, and (In my dream, mind you) I was all “I want to play!” So I picked up the control and did a round. But for some reason I sucked balls, and I told myself that Mario might get mad, so I put the control down and left before he came back. And here’s the trippy part folks! That actually happened! Mario was playing, got up, went outside, and while he was out, someone came, played, and fucked up his score! Haha! Craaaaazy! I think I actually might be the Seventh Son! XD Haha! Beyoootch! But, now on to serious matters. . . Today was overall was pretty busy. After I worked on some art for a couple hours, it was time to get ready for the show. Sound check was at 2:00 PM at the venue, and we had some decent time to make it. First thing first: loading the gear into the trailer. Normally not a hard task, but now we have other stuff to consider. SO! I put my brain to the task! I love do the load up! Lots of people say I must be good a Tetris, but FUCK TETRIS! All about Ms. Pac-man, hoe! When all was said and done, I had that shit PERFECT! Everything fit in its own little niche. What can I say? I’m good. Haha! But seriously, the gear ran like this: 3 cabs, 1 head, 2 big head racks, 1 drum rack (broken into 3 parts), 3 really big/heavy merch boxes, 3 smaller merch boxes, 1 merch bag, about 5 or 6 backpacks, 1 drum pedal bag, 2 drum toms, 1 drum snare and 1 bass drum (all in cases), 5 guitars, and finally 2 basses. A lot of shit, I know! But I got that shit crackin! And with the help of my fellow band mates we got it to perfection! Funny thing was, loading in made us around an hour late for sound check. Haha. So, there some of us where: Mario, Balmore, Conan, Blake, and I, heading to the venue for soundcheck. The rest of the Vektor dudes stayed behind to finish up some last minute business and such. It was 3:00 PM (2:00 for my Westcoast thugs) when we finally pulled in. We unloaded our perfectly loaded gear, and did a quick sound check. Me and the boys did a quick run through of a couple songs, then Blake, Mario, and I went over to Guitar Center to pick up some essentials. Or how Mikey from TMNT would say, “Yeah, the BARE essentials!” haha! Good times. I bought a new heavy duty, foamed to the be-Jesus out, strap. Then we jumped in our ship, and went back to Vektor’s HQ to handle our merch situation. We have a SHIT load of shirts; about 25 from Small - XL of 3 designs. And we had to figure out a formula, Mario and I that is, so we can make our merch selling faster and more efficient. We ended up devising a plan of taking the smallest merch box we had and stocking that up after every show instead of taking in the BIG merch box like we’d normally would do. And once again, I put my brain to the task. During the last tour, I pretty much handle all the merch stuff nightly. It was a self appointed job, and I took it seriously. Still, do in fact. I came up with a whole system, and arrangement for everything. With all that knowledge from the previous tours, and a lot of pointers watching Mrs. G handle it before me, I came up with a new system and arrangement based on space/stock/and what sizes we usually sell most of. That took roughly about 2 hours, I think. Lot of shirt folding and rolling. But an overall success! Now, with the merch packed and ready to go, me and Mario headed to the venue, where everyone else was. We hadn’t eaten all day at that point yet, so we were pretty famished. Laura, the promoter for that show, had said she’d hook it up with some grub-age like the last time we played there, but it was looking more and more that that wasn’t gonna happen. As soon as we got there, I found my merch spot and set up. And while I waiting for customers, my stomach was in starvation mode! Then, all of a sudden, Conan comes up to me and says, “Hey, some kid out there wants to get punched in the face for a shirt, again!” (last time we played that venue some little dude took one in the kisser for a shirt. Moronic, we know, but it’s still pretty fucking funny) I was like, “Fuck, yeah! I’m down!” We headed through the back exit to a group of dudes, and a few dudettes, and I said, “Alright, who’s it gonna be?” And this guy’s all, “Me.” And he got all ready and shit, and we all got ready. Conan busts out the camera and begins filming. If that’s not hilarious, I don’t know what is! Kids are fucking down in this hot ass place! Must be the heat. And right after he took that punch, I walked up to him and told him, “Sorry, dude. We don’t really have a shirt for ya.” And everyone started busting up! But I was only kidding of course. I went back inside and got him a free shirt and a sticker to go with it. The guy’s name is Cock, apparently, by the way. Cock, from Tempe, Arizona. Then some chicks saw the sticker and started complain that they wanted one. “Let someone punch you in the tit, and I’m down,” I told them, and they were like “That’d hurt!” Haha! Then one of them said, “She’ll show you her nipples (referring to her friend) for a sticker.” I was a tad bit intrigued, to be honest, but more important matters came to my attention at that time! Mario was at the Whataburger next door and asked if I wanted something. Don’t get me wrong, tits are tits! But I was fucking HUNGRY! So, unless those ladies want to put their boobs on a plate, I wasn’t that interested. I said my good-byes to everyone, then made my way to the Whataburger. Whataburger, my California family, is a fast food chain we don’t have the luxury of having in our fine state. It’s alright. No In-and-Out that’s for damn sure. I order up a burger and fries and ate with Blake and Mario, where we fucked around and joked about dumb-ass shit. Mainly consisting of David’s (singer and guitarist of Vektor) dog Trapper. Fucker’s a crazy dog, but he’s pretty chill. After my I got some shit in my belly, I walked back to the venue solo and was greeted my many an “EXMORTUS!” We have a decent following here and people really seem to dig what we do. We always love coming out to the AZ, cause, well, they’re all like family really. We know most of them, and many on an even personal level. And every time we come out we always seem to have a killer time! And this show was pretty good as well! Granted, we have had better shows in Arizona, but this one wasn’t nothing to brag about. We tossed in a free shirt during the 4 corners and people went fucking nuts! I was laughing my ass off on stage. It was pretty brutal. I’m not even sure who got the damn shirt when it was all said and done. We did the new song, “Entombed With the Pharaohs”, as well. People seem to like it, so, fuck yeah! After the set I went back and handled my merch again and waited to start loading up the gear. All the usual homies came out tonight, like Keli’i (cause he played haha), the always awesome Shelbie and her sister Candy, Katie, and all our awesome fans and Vektornauts, as they’re so cleverly called! I met a few new friends too! Christie, whom I’ve shared several online conversations with, and overall pretty cool chick! She didn’t say bye though. . . Jerk. Haha! And Karen, whom I’ve apparently met before but have no recollection of doing! Haha! She has a thing for my basses, I guess. And was pretty bummed I didn’t bring my main guns because they’re retired. But I painted the Metal Gear Fox Hound emblem on the new one just for her (cause she complained to me a couple of days before when I said I might not be bringing the others this time around) and the fucker didn’t even know what it was! Women! Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t kill ‘em. Am I right fellas?! But she was cool. Bought a shirt, then she wanted our autographs for her friend’s niece or some shit. So we all signed it for her and all that jazz. Then she went on her way. With the venue pretty much vacant, we all broke everything down from the stage and packed that shit in the trailer like a tight hooker! Slowly but surely! Haha! Once we had that all that good and ready, we all traveled back here to the Vektor pad, where I currently sit typing away. So concludes a pretty well tour kick off. Now the REAL fun begings! Quote of the day: “Trapper is that you?! We were just talking about you!” - Mario yelling as Blake answers a call.