|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For their Spring 2004 tour, Jagermeister once again tapped me to be their tour host/mc. This time around the lineup was Slipknot with Fear Factory & Chimaira and then jager sponsored bands alternating the opening slot throughout the tour. The bands and crew were new to us, of course, but the jager crew was mostly familiar faces from the year before. The night before our first show Jager brought us all out to dinner and we quickly bonded and it was apparent this would be a great experience. Moreso than any past tour I think everyone got along famously and there were lasting ties made. Our part of the show was largely similiar to the pas tyear but a little lighter since there were less change overs. We brought three new acts and wrote new pitches and twists for a few old favorites. The day to day fun was so good, in fact, that I largely forgot about taking pictures (but I did snap a few here and there - along with some short videos). However, Fran, our tour photographer extraodaniare was on the job and you find lots of good shots at: Below I have collected my IAM Diary entries from the tour and my photos. Many thanks to Jimi, Rick, & everyone else. We are looking forward to doing it again. |
|
Mmmm Tour In Orlando, had some small meetings and a great dinner. I decided to jump on the bus tonight. We head over to the venue at 7:30 am. Its a great bus, Jimi got us a sweet ride. |
 |
 |
|
Hard Rock Orlando Currently on the bus parked behind the Hard Rock. Everything is running smoothly and looks to be a good time about to happen. I'll do a catch up entry in a day or two. |
|
Redux This is going to be a fantastic tour. Everybody is very cool and last night's crowd set us off perfectly. I may have to slow down my post show show intake to stay alive but its gonna be good. |
|
Day Off We're somewhere in Georgia on our first day off - tommorow we play Birmingham. Last night's gig in West Palm was crazy - great crowd energy. We had lunch with Chimaira at Ruby Tuesdays and then hit a Target. Gonna try and get some work - like my next column together and be productive. |
 |
 |
|
Birmingham In birmingham right now - the show is being protested (YEAH!!!) Big article on Slipknot on the front page of the paper. The venue itself is amazing, an old industrial furnace complex - been taking pictures all day. Last night was interesting - our crew and chimaira hit Outback for dinner and then went on to hooters (where the amazing stretch nutz pulled a hooters girl around the room with his sack and got us cut off from the bar) Afterwards a number of people ended up at the bus and hotel - much drinking continued and bodies were strewn about the place. Welcome to tour life. To make it all complete, Scott threw up on the drive - he's laundering the lounge pillows now :) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Tabernacle I think we did our best show (Scott & I) last night thus far - yeah, its only the third night but hit stride and got the acts out just like I wanted and to tremendous response. Now, we just have to keep it up for 30 more. After the show some of Chimaira and a lot of Slipknot found their way onto our bus for some Jager shots and other fun. In terms of people and personalities this is a really good tour. At this moment, I am in the back lounge of the bus outside the venue for Atlanta (Tabernacle). We have a couple days off next week in Myrtle Beach - hopefully then I will be able to upload some pics & video. |
|
Little notes to myself Thats what most of these daily entries are - a way to share some quick info with people and to keep track of things for myself when I write my whole tour report later on. Last night at the Tabernacle went well. We've decided to cut the concrete block smash since the monitors block the view for much of the crowd. We also got a couple pieces on the merch table and sold pretty well - thats going to help us out a lot over the course of the tour. Plus, its nice to see people wearing your stuff, supporting you. The house of blues we are at currrently is next door to gatorland adventures. I remembered it being pretty cool 5 years ago when I was here with Godsmack and if anything, its improved - again, pics will be coming on the next few days off when I can upload and work in a better environment than a cramped back bus lounge. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
[Still] Playing Catch Up Myrtle Beach show @ HOB went well, though I did screw up and almost forgot an act - we just inserted it later in the show. Yesterday we ran around Paradise Cricle, our base of operations for our couple days off - rode Go-Karts, bar hopped, etc. Plus our driver had the bus cleaned inside & out. Managed about 7 hours sleep on the bus, then got up and hit a bar for a beer & pizza breakfast. Plowed through emails, messages, etc and now looking to do some writing and probably visit the Ripley's Aquarium here. |
|
Fish, Hellboy, Booze, Strippers, Booze Went to the aquarium, went to see Hellboy (quite good and really well paced for a 2 hour movie), got shanghai'd to some bars, got shanghai'd to a topless bar, came home to the bus and did shots. Argh. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Tour Video Not just pics this time - I am doing some very basic video as well: http://bmeworld.com/amago/Resources/jager1.wmv More to come... |
|
MIA Stretch Stretch didnt make it to DC with us - seems he found some companionship in Norfolk and got left behind. Dumbass. Tour rule: the bus waits for no one. Respect the coach (bus). Norfolk was an enthusiastic sold out crowd but a little weird due to liquor laws. Couldn't give out anything just hang posters and drink jager onstage - the latter of which being my main focus. I exceeded my own preference for intake by a bit but still managed a controlled evening. MC duties got shared with the local promoting radio station which cut back our time, that was already shortened due to set change issues in the cramped house, meaning that almost everything was done in a rush. Still, I got the audience reaction and particpation that makes it all so fun to do, so I'm happy. Plus there was an added bonus of good merch sales. I need a shower like no ones business. |
 |
|
How do you say Worcester? Josh (IAM: obmf) came by The Nation for last nights show and even Stretch managed to find his way to the show eventually - and was properly shamed for his actions. We had a good show, time constraints really hurt the gavage again but it all worked out. Today will be interesting, we have lots of visitors coming in and I think I am going to start stage diving for Chimaira. |
|
Happy Dead Guy On a Stick Day If the title pisses you off, then you and I have a problem: humor. One of the biggest things that fucks up organized religion is a total lack of humor. If you can't laugh at yourself and (perhaps redundantly) your god then I say you suck and your god probably thinks you suck too - laughter has a purpose and if you miss that you miss something very basic. Also, if you think that to properly address your god means that I can't have a beer or even get lunch at most places on a given day then you suck just for making things annoying to me ;) Now laugh fucker! We are spending the day in Worcester currently. Last night was interesting - I gave my first heckler put down of the tour to one vocal jerk off in the front row. The security and camera crew actually moved aside and begged me to blast him with gavage juice for being such an idiot. I think later on some of the people around him tossed his ass over the barricade just to get him out. Karma? I'm a little bit sore too - I took a 15 foot leap off a balcony into the crowd during Chimaira set. Apparently it looked great up until when all but two or three people moved instead of catching me. I took a pretty hard bump but I'm alright (Chin to chest, exhale on impact, disperse contact across the back). Tommorow night we play Roseland in NYC, thats always interesting. |
|
All Hail Weaver Weaver is one of the Jager crew guys on the tour - last night he pulled off a master prank: Knowing that we were all at a bar, he had a cop friend of his pull over him and his buddy in front of the bar. Then, as we watched him get pulled from the car and patted down his buddy told us that he had a warrant out on him. Suddenly Weaver took off running and the cop jumped in the car and went speeding after him. We were all completely fooled and trying to figure out what to do when they came back and let us know it was a prank. The bar has been set. Earlier in the night I went to see the passion of the christ. I thought it was pretty good - didnt make me believe but it was a good adaptation of the story to film (though I question the increased presence and role of satan). Currently I am on the bus outside of Roseland. |
|
Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad Also, happy birthday to Alan Campbell (one of my oldest friends). And for non-iam users the bug that was preventing deep diary browsing has been fixed, so I am toldd you can now all look at entries more than two weeks old - enjoy. |
|
So Lazy, So belligerant Welcome to NYC, the union would like to take your smoothly operating tour and cause tonight's show to run late and difficult...and so they did. Despite the best efforts by the unions to fuck up our night, the show went off but not without some stress for a lot of the crew. We escaped mostly unscathed but with our stage time very minimized. Otherwise it was a good night - and I have to mention the guy who showed up dressed as Winnie the Pooh and kicked ass in the pit, phenomenal (unfortunately I didnt get a picture). Its raining in Philly, I'm waiting on the bus for lunch in my new Jager Music Tour windbreaker - mmmmm, swag. |
|
I'm Cold Philly was Philly - lots of energy but always with that slight edge. They go back and forth between cheering for you and flipping you off - I kinda like it really. It was the last night for Evil Jared (of the bloodhound gang) he had Bam, Jimmi Pop, and some other local VIPs out for the show and provided us with party favors for the rest of the trip. Tonight is Rochester, NY and then a day off. Also, MTV recently covered the tour and decided to forego fact checking and thus refer to me as being part of the jim rose circus - if anyone wants to grass root an email / phone call campaign to let them know they should actually talk to the people involved and get their shit straight, I wouldnt object.... |
|
A Night We had a night last night - solid show and then after party, everyone went a little bit further than usual. I'm mostly recovered now, got a little lunch, and I'm at the hotel waiting for the bus to return from cleaning. |
|
Detroit Sitting on the bus outside Harpos eating a poptart. Almost everyone has a sort of half-cold, not knocked out but not feeling well. I have an annoying cough but thats about it. I spent the day off catching up on lots of minor stuff - its really easy to let things slide on the road. Still have a fair amount of writing to pound out. |
|
Do it Again The detroit crowd did not lack for enthusiasm, too bad the venue lacked for almost everything. The cramped space resulted in time delays which cut our sets short - I don't think we have gotten to really do a good gavage set yet. Still things are going well enough. I think I have shook my hint of cold but I am still really sore (slept wrong or something) and feeling irritable due to dealing with other issues. Tonight: Cleveland. |
|
Cleveland Doesn't Fuck Around It was a home town show for Chimaira - and it showed. During their second song, the crowd moved the barricade 5 feet or more and then broke it. As a result the show stopped while it was repaired, while the work was being done Ricki (the drummer) put on an amazing display to placate the crowd. I once again crowd surfed for them and by the end of their set we were 15 minutes behind and the barricade had been smashed again - three of the steel connecting pins were snapped and more bent. During the set change I talked to the crowd to get them to help the staff get the barricade back into place and fixed up. The loss of time meant we didn't do the gavage before Slipknot, which allowed me to enjoy the pizza sent by Jim (chimaira's bassist) to everyone from his family's restaraunt that much sooner. In addition to Jon (iam: _stigmata_) & Kayla coming to visit, Katzen was also in the crowd having played Cleveland the night before. A nice but brief chance crossing of paths. After the show we had a late bus call due to the short drive to todays show in Columbus and much fun ensued. I somehow ended up bartering deals for stupid stunts between other people without getting involved directly myself (though I was highly amused watching it all happen). Mark also got VERY drunk on absinthe and provided some fun antics like bus lounge moshing. |
|
Are the barricades getting farther away or am I getting
older Why does every venue these days seem to make it a ten foot leap to the barricade from the stage nowadays? (ok I know they do it to prevent people from getting to the stage as easily but it makes diving harder for the performers) Lats night in columbus, I was lucky to have a speaker stack I could jump from to surf the crowd during Chimaira's set. The stage was cramped and we had out usual time problems despite working around things well. I have actually decided to change up our sets in order tob etter deal with the time constraints - its going to be harder on me physically but it should improve our part of the show greatly. We're in Grand Rapids now, near the venue for tommmorows show. I am doing laundry and other boring tasks. I think I may go to Best Buy and a grab a wifi card since Slipknot travels a network and most of our hotels offer free access (beats the slow cell phone connection). I am going to try and finish my latest column today too (but I may be lazy and treat myself to Kill Bill vol 2) On a more serious note - be careful how you party: A girl in detroit overdosed and died at the show, but was revived by the medical crew - we watched her die outside the club but then found out she was successfully brought back. |
|
I did not finish my column Not yet anyway - I did however, pick up a wireless card & squishy toy blinky. Joy. |
|
Madison, WI - this is a day off? We played Grand Rapids last night and had the least time yet due to the worst club layout I have ever seen - it looked like it was built backwards and some areas forgotten. Loadout had to come off the front of the stage and be carried out behind the barricade and across a public walkway. Still, it went off well enough. An early bus call (1am) saw us take the drive to Madison for the day (no show) and then tonight we will make it the rest of the way to the next show in St Paul. |
|
FREAK ARMY: Now Recruiting in St Paul Finally back in the right size venue - 5000+ tonight in St Paul, sold out show. Tonight we will work the new set list, opening with gavage - test their limits from the start! We got here a bit later than planned due to some bus maintenance, so Scott & I helped the jager crew with posters and such. We also got in another shipment of product (read: free jager!!). Now, I am going to try and do some work on some projects I have been wanting to get off the ground - too bad there isnt a wifi signal here... |
|
St Paul I got to see a few IAM'ers and the show went pretty well. The crowd was a little hostile / edgy at times - almost like an NYC or Philly audience (we like you so we're gonna scream and throw stuff / we arent liking you so we're gonna scream and throw stuff). Regardless, they gave me the best crowd surf yet for the tour - I almost made it back to the front of house and when I came down, they immediately got me back up. Tonight is Chicago. |
|
Chicago Good show, a couple interesting notes... 1 - The security was on the verge of being overrun by the
end of the night and the additional barricades (ie bike racks)
were little help. Cop: you aren't drinking a beer are you? Overlooking the fact that someone was pummeled and the offender was likely getting away while they decided to do cup checks I am still annoyed by this. Sure, he was nice enough not to be a complete prick and look to cite me or push it further but think about the law / ordinance itself. I am not talking about public drunkeness but simple open container (and not even one that is obviously alcohol - this is an unmarked plastic cup). What purpose does it serve besides soothing the vocal prudish pricks who are so impaled on the sticks in their asses that they cannot allow the rest of us to calmly enjoy a beer in a public spot. Alcohol laws in general are reflective almost exclusively of the views and opinions of radically uptight people who are so confused about the word of their alleged saviour that they think that by stopping the rest of us from enjoying some beer or wine on certains days, before or afetr certain times, or in many places that they will get into some great afterlife party (which probably wont even have a bar). Believe whatever religion you like but I really have my doubts that any god is primarily concerned with where and when I drink my beer - so long as I dont get so drunk that I commit atrocities. |
|
Return to Dahmer land We once again played across the street from the hotel made famous by Dahmer - but this time we played the bigger room upstairs. The rave is still a very cool venue for running around backstage and in the non public areas. It was a good show, even though I couldnt stage dive due to house rules - damn lawyers. I was happy with the night but there nothing particularly notable about it, just a good solid show. The moment of the day actually came before doors when a couple kids on the line did a jackass style stunt for free ozzfest tickets: One of them waxed the other's ass hair with duct tape. |
|
Blackjack We spent our day off in East St louis at the Casino Queen. I'm down about $70 as a result, but Scott did pretty well. |
|
Kansas City The KC show had some twists and turns. Chimaira's bus broke down, and then their replacement bus broke down so they didnt make the show. Also on their bus was the lead singer for God Forbid - thus the first two bands were not set to play as doors approached. Fear Factory and Slipknot extended their sets and I was going to do a 30 minute set to open the show. But, the remaainder of God Forbid did make it to the show and decided to play without their front man - so I went back to just announcing and doing the set changes. Even though they didnt make it, Russ rejoined our bus crew and Fran (tour photographer) made it back from Florida after taking a couple days away for another photo project. I did get a little extra time though, one of the members of Fear Factory was missing as we were set to announce them so I was told to stretch time. We did a few more stunts and everything was fine except that left us short on acts for the last set change. I dug out the straightjacket and it went over well enough that we are putting it back into the rotation. |
|
Slipknot come home The des moines show was all the craziness you would expect from a hometown Slipknot crowd. The venue was moved due to prior sound issues and we packed them in the new one. Lots of family out for the show, I got to meet Corey's daughter - she's very cute and already a rock star, jumping up and down, throwing horns, the whole bit. We are in St Louis now at the pageant, nice house wifi connection ;). After the show tonight I am driving back to Austin for the day off tommorow |
|
I'm in Austin Drove 13+ hours after the showlast night in St Louis to spend my day off with Meghan and the weasels, I'll rejoin the bus in Houston tommorow night. Mmmm...home. |
|
Driving Again Once you experience the difference in touring between driving yourself and having a bus & driver you never again question the expense of tour buses ($4k-5k per week). I have to drive to houston to rejoin the bus and perform tonight. Being home was nice - but kind of teasing myself since it will be two weeks+ till I get back again. I got time with Meghan, played with the ferrets, and even got a fair amount of work done. Back to the road! |
|
Another mini-video |
| Sorry Houston 2004/05/01 00:17 I feel like shit. When we got in, I was all set to go but suddenly during Fear Factory I fell ill. It sucks. I am climbing into my bunk rather than go out post Slipknot. I am hoping to be ok to suspend or pull in Dallas tommorow. |
|
Water & Cough Drops. Heaven is being healthly and having fun on a great tour, hell is being sick on any tour. I am in the midst of the head cold or whtever weird strain is going around. I slept fitfully on and off in my bunk most of the day trying to sweat it out and save my energy for tonight. Last night went well, I felt bad for not being very energetic but we did manage to have Shan and Sinsect (James) do good pull onstage for the crowd. Thankfully, tommorow is an off day - I will get to steam myself in a hot shower and rest. |
|
Sore Throat I'm starting to feel a bit better, but it goes in cycles of up and down. Hopefully I can actually enjoy myself a bit with the day off. I am producing some truly nasty mucous and my throat is sore. |
|
Home Stretch I think I'm in the home stretch of my cold. The tour is also coming into its home stretch with a mere 10 days left. We're at the Fillmore in Denver tonight. |
|
Denver Denver came ready for a show. It was exactly what I needed to help me break out of the headcold coma I had been in. I was still run down by the ned of the night but I managed to make it through the whole night and hang out with the fans a bit afterwards. We're in Salt Lake City currently and the venue seems like a bad joke. It's small, beat up, cramped, and doesn't really even have a roof. If we get out of here with no one getting hurt, I'll be amazed. |
|
Salt Lake City = Wow 5 years ago I played in Salt Lake City, I wasn't impressed and I didn't have a good time. Yesterday we showed up in Salt Lake and things looked like they couldn't be worse. The venue was the low point of anything I have seen on a real tour. I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that I have played at parties in college apartments that provided better space and arrangements. However, in the end, it is always the crowd that makes the show and last night the Salt Lake crowd was incredible. We started late (and thus I was cut back to just doing announcement/intros) but the crowd was up and live from beginning to end. |
|
Las Vegas Appreciates Your Support We took our day off in Vegas and I made my usual contribution to the 'Keep Vegas Thriving Fund' ie the blackjack table. We play Mesa tonight and then we go back to vegas, maybe I'll try the slots next time. I'm feeling better each day but I still haven't completely shaken this cold thing. |
|
Mud Wrestling Mesa was a magnificient sight last night. A beautiful outdoor venue packed with people. Funny stuff happens on tours, often just because - case in point: After the show in the bus area peoplewere hanging out drinking and some water from a cooler was spilled on the ground. The innocuous comment, hey someone should mud wrestle bloomed into a huge pit being made and four girls mud wrestling just for the hell of it. Also, I gave Corey (of slipknot) a zerbert. |
|
Las Vegas (Again) Last night we were back in Vegas for the show at the house of blues. I made another contribution, this time via the slots, but not quite as much as before. Vegas was appreciative and enthusiastic as always - I love playing there. AFter the show I hung out a bit with Kerry King (Slayer) and his wife a bit. A bunch of us also went to Red Square and enjoyed very chilled jager shots in the ice locker. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, just when I thought I had whatever this bug was beat, but I am feeling better gradually. We are in San Diego at Soma - a club with a major stick up its ass about booze, yet it is having the jager tour. Funny how money can override prejudices (to an extent). And, of course, Happy Mothers Day!! |
|
San Diego, Simspons, Smoothie We are parked near the beach in San Diego (not far from the club we played last year with Saliva and Hed(PE)), I got a smoothie and now I am on the bus watching the simpsons and catching up on mail. The show last night went pretty well even though the whole no booze or alcohol related items onstage was weird. We took a group tour shot that is supposed to be made into souvenir posters for us all. With only three shows left I dont want to jinx myself, but the response to our part of the show has been great throughout the tour. Last time there were ups and downs but this tour every crowd has seemed very into our presentation. |
|
I shouldn't be negative but... How to ruin a show: Have more people in attendance that are there to be at the show and/or be seen at the show than are there to SEE the show. Yep, we're in LA. Almost everyone I know hates playing LA because its always a ridiculous scene of industry people making appearances and self important friends of firends being brought in as favors even if they have no real interest in the show. I have been at shows in LA where people in the VIP didnt even know the headlining act's name - you can bet your ass the people who paid for their tickets knew who was playing, or the people that would have bought tickets could they have afforded them or gotten them. I want to go in positive but an LA room is often saturated with people who are too indifferent or think they are too cool to particpate with the show. The redeeming factor is that slipknot fans are so intense that it may only take a few real maggots to keep the energy up, lets hope they were able to get tickets. |
|
Could have been worse So the LA show was decent, but I still think that in any other city that large a crowd would have been far more intense - it was very easy to tell the real fans from the people who simply got to come to the show via a friend or business. For the most part they were the ones there from the beginning and on the floor, as opposed to the people who couldn't bother to show up until the third band and then still spent most of their time at the bars, VIP, or lounges. Steve Joyner came by and hung out with us, it was nice to get a chance to see him again. It had been awhile. Today is an off day in San Francisco, then we have two show days and the tour is over. |
|
San Francisco Since apparently every venue and pile of dog doo in San Fran is a precious historic monument, they have a big stick up their butts about posters and others standard elements of setting up the house for a show. Also, there isn't a bus parking space in the whole damn county so we had to pack day bags and send the bus off for the day. Despite these venue snags, the show went off pretty well but on a very cramped stage. Some of the crew went down to the bay and went past the local Ripley's museum, which apparently has a huge billboard of me and runs my interview on a video loop - thats kind of cool. We have one show left - today in Sacramento. I am doing a photo shoot for No Fear and I have to do my last minute autograph and picture hounding with everyone from the tour. |
|
Sacramento & Home Sacramento did not disappoint - they went off and gave us a final show to remember. There was only one low point - the asshole that threw a mini jager bottle they smuggled in at Sean (guitar tech) and nearly cracked his skull, he was alright but I hope somewhere down the line that idiot gets what is coming to him. The post show was the usual mass goodbyes and farewells - with lots of last minute shots and drinking. This was such a fabulous tour and everyone got along so well it was harder than usual to cut the cord and pull out. I believe I made a lot of good friends and we'll be in touch and see each other down the road though, so there is that comfort. This morning we woke up way to damn early in San Diego at Rick's house and cleared the bus, dropped the trailer off in storage, and then went to the airport. The car ride, early morning, and farewell shots the night before all caught up to me in the form of vomiting back up my breakfast of ice water and cranberry juice but I survived. The ticket agent actually got us on an earlier flight with no layover so I am home four hours sooner than expected. Unfortunately, Meghan has a gig tonight with the cheerleaders in San Antonio so only the ferrets were here to greet me. Now I have to unpack and find some food. |
|
|