When the guys in Miami trio Jacobs Ladder told us they were leaving on their second national tour of the summer (and their ninth national tour to date), we asked them to send us some recaps of their time on the road. Local musicians, if you're going on tour -- even a long weekend in Orlando or somewhere counts! -- and you want to send in a tour diary to share here, e-mail us here.
Jacob's Ladder Tour Diary, Days One, Two, and Three -- From Bassist Sammy Gonzalez
Friday, August 21: Churchill's, Miami
Finally, last Friday was the kickoff for our Obey Your Mastour kick-off with Your Best Friend, from Saginaw, Michigan. We love our tour mates and had been looking forward to this. Upon arriving to Churchill's, our frontman Oren and I did a quick sound check, and THANK GOD FOR THAT -- after playing two notes, the tuning peg on my bass broke off! Damn, that sucked. But luckily my good friend Marty went to his shop a little early for me and repaired it before we played. Thank you very much, Marty!
As the night went on a quick rain shower destroyed the mixer for
Churchill's back acoustic stage -- pretty bad, considering we had
scheduled a full line-up of performers for that stage. Meanwhile, the
meatball sub I had eaten earlier wasn't sitting too well. I somehow was
able to throw the acoustic acts on stage in between the rest of the
bands, although I had to take an abrupt stop in the bathroom to throw
up my delicious lunch.
By the time we went on to play at 12:30am, 205 had walked through the door -- a total of 124 just for us! The show was a lot of fun; we played a lot of new songs, and the crowd was really cool. A big thanks to the kids that knew our lyrics -- it makes a big difference to us.
YBF graced us with a sick skull with bull horns attached to tie to our van's fender. Thanks guys! Mad cool!
I got home at 4 a.m. and enjoyed a nice slumber.
Saturday, August 22: Tattoo Artistry, Cape Coral
I woke up with a hangover and not too much sleep. I was excited for tour -- 26 shows in 30 days! We had a really short two-and-a-half-hour drive to Cape Coral to play a really small room in a tattoo shop. It was definitely a younger crowd and a really small room, but nothing's better than 105 hot, sweaty, kids crammed in and rocking out with us.
A very, very nice girl named Jordyn let us and YBF stay at her house -- all seven guys! She had a bomb-ass house, ordered us pizza, and let us drink and swim in her pool till 4:30 a.m. There's nothing better than nice hospitality on tour.
Sunday, August 23: The Back Booth, Orlando
Today was our drummer Brian's 24th birthday. We embarked on a three-hour drive from Cape Coral to Orlando, to play the Back Booth. The venue was really cool, and the sound awesome. In the middle of the set, Brian somehow managed to drop his new Blackberry in a cup of water. Is that a birthday buster or what?
A girl named Nicki let us stay at her house, and Steve from YBF went on a crazy food shopping spree for the event. We drank beer, ate chicken wings and pizza, and watched a bunch of 40-year-old men in tights run around on Pay Per View: Summer Slam Fest, two thumbs down!
After hours of blow drying the Blackberry, leaving it in rice, and trying a bunch of other remedies, Brian finally got his phone working. Oh yeah!
