Tour Journals
March/April 2006

Friday, March 03, 2006
Sparks, NV - Las Vegas, NV - Albuquerque, NM - Oklahoma City, OK

Ok Ok. We got WAY behind on the tour journals.... Duh. So we gotta get caught up. I'm going to do another four in one sort of deal. Boo Yeah. Sparks, NV - Good show. We played here last year about this time, and I lost my $500 in ear monitors while crowd surfing during our set. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have announced from stage that they were worth $500. I should've said that my earwax is poisonous to the touch, and if you hold my monitors for more than 5 minutes you'll be eaten alive from the inside by fire worms. Maybe someone would've returned them then. Who knows. Today the only thing I lost was the track of time because I was having so much fun. (Oh, and about 20 bucks at a blackjack table). Hee hee. Las Vegas, NV - Note to self; do not bowl three games before attempting to play guitar and piano in front of a live Jillian's audience. We played this huge arcade/restaraunt/bowling alley called Jillian's. Its nice. We played there last time we were in Vegas. My biggest problem was that I magically turned my wrist from muscle and bone into rubber band cartilage. How, you ask? By showing Vegas some of the hottest bowling that they'd ever seen! (by a tall, pale, Canadian that moved to Ohio when he was six and plays in a rock and roll band). I bowled 3 games and was averaging up in the one thirty somethings. Thats pretty good for a guy who has been nicknamed Gutter Ball Sally. Jon and John accompanied me on our adventure... as well as our manager, Jeff and A&R guy from Capitol, Jaime. We got to see some good Vegas friends like my boy Will from Fenix TX (not literally my boy). I watched my friends play craps and tried to learn. I always thought that craps was the game monkeys played when they flung their poo at each other. Hmmm, I guess this world is big enough for two kinds of craps games. Albuquerque, NM - Its always good to get back to Albuquerque. This was our third time playing the Sunshine Theater, and it was probably my favorite. Not a whole lot went down today aside from the usual sound check, find some food, drink a Diet Coke, play dress up with John, and play a show with the other boys from Relient K routine. I met a security guard named Lance that was sponsored by Gatorade. He was an Empire State Building of a man, and he was also an Ultimate Fighting fighter. I made sure he was on my side. Now, no one can mess with me. Not even my friends. I'll have them crushed. Oklahoma City, OK - Again, we played a venue that we've frequented before. Yesterday's show and today's were both in places that we played last year with Mae. Needless to say, they were riddled with fond memories of tour dates past. I remember the one time we were in OKC and Dave from Mae and I got into a fight over who's nose was the most button-like. He punched me in the face, and then promptly won the argument. The blood of defeat tastes the same as the blood of victory, however. We had a grand ol' time playin' our usual licks and pickin' our guitfiddles and whatnot. Bryce Avery (from The Rocket Summer) brought his family with them, and we got to meet them. We hoisted his sister onto our shoulders and conducted a parade. I think it was of the ticker tape variety. Seventy six trombones and the da da da... don't know the words and don't want to look them up. Keep singing! (*Seventy Six Trombones plays in your head as you log off the internet and go outside to do something productive with your life. The song will be in your head the rest of the day) Matthew Thiessen

Sunday, March 05, 2006
Houston, TX - Little Rock, AR

This is John attempting to catch up some more on the oft neglected tour journals (or our newly christened "blog" [my wife thinks that a "blog" is a problem under her sink {which is, incidentally, my sink as well [I wonder how deep I can go with these parentheses? {I know a man who went 16 layers deep [he was fired from his editing job}]}]). Phew... glad we're out of that. Houston was great fun. We played in a room that the night before held a show by Minneapolis' own Prince (or ¬ [great, here we go again]), which all makes sense now because I remember showering after the show in water that had a slightly purplish hue. Other than that colorfulness not too much of moment happened that night. I got to see my friend Becca for a while, though, so that was cool. The show was fun, but it nearly nearly took a turn for the worse. After our set Dave attempted some freestyle walking on a thin rail. Perhaps he misjudged the thickness of said rail because he slipped and came crashing down to terra firma with a force I've only seen rivaled by Optimus Prime when he fatally hit the ground after a blow from that nefarious Decepticon leader Megatron. I'm just glad Dave is alright and that the Matrix of leadership is still intact.

Next stop for us was Little Rock, AR, and incidentally the final show before our week-and-a-half much-needed break. I finally got into SSX Tricky, the PS2 game that has taken the band by storm. The rivalry at this point had been between Ryan and Dave, but that day in Little Rock I vowed to be the master and took the necessary steps to ensure my success: (1) read the directions for maximum results, and (2) practice secretly at night for the element of surprise. Later we will see how the careful application of these crucial steps and some steady perseverance paid off for the Johnner. But I digress. Tonight's show sort of felt like an end-of-tour show for two reasons, the first being that we had a ten day break after it. The second and more poignant of the two was the fact that it was to be Ryan's last show with us. If you don't know Ryan he had been our second guitar tech from October on. He used to be the singer of rap-core band Don't Look Down, and now he's gone on to manage the folk band Liam and Me. He is a passionate gamer, an astounding musician, a clever chef, and a good friend. He will be missed. As a send-off we had him play guitar for "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been". It was a total cacophony of awesomeness. John Warne

Friday, March 17, 2006
Tulsa, OK - Memphis, TN

After our short-lived break of spa treatments, mudd baths, and microdermabrasions, we hit the road again with a stop in lovely Tulsa, OK. We were in Tulsa, OK? OK. Glad to have cleared that up. Joining us tonight was the Residence of George Washington, Michael Jordan, John Daly, Eddie Vedder, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a veritable House of Heroes. These legends can rock, I assure you. And although we did not get to share a stage with them tonight, our good buddies in The Evan Anthem came and hung out with us after their show at The Conjunctivitis down the street. The set was a bit loose due to two factors: (1) our break made us flabby and forget the set, and (2) I lost a shoe at one point. I guess we weren't good enough that my socks got rocked off, but after our break I think a shoe will have to suffice.

Memphis, TN, on St. Patty's Day is a wild and rollicking place to be. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for our Meet and/or Greet with our Fan Club kiddies. The restaurant had set out for us the most decadent and rich chocolate cake. The recipe actually calls for 16 pounds of chocolate per square inch. We attacked it with a vengeance. And at the Hard Rock we met probably the craziest Relient K fan in existence. I'm trying to think how best to describe him, but words fail at this point. I'll go ahead and stop there. Tonight's show was the debut of both "More Than Useless" in our set and our surprise therein. I won't tell you who comes out and sings, but I'll hint that it starts with a "B" and ends with "very". Josh White (our monitor guy) and I were wondering tonight what St. Patrick is the patron saint of. I insisted he is the patron saint of quality footwear, but upon further reflection I believe I mixed him up with St. Hubbins. I want to be a full-time dreamer. John Warne

Saturday, March 18, 2006
Louisville, KY

today was a rad show... Hoopes and i actually got to go home after the memphis show and hang out in our own rooms for about 5 hours. it was awesome. the show was at jillians which was really cool. we (all the bands on tour) had some time before doors opened, so we were all hanging out in this one room which we thought was a dressing room. it was fully catered and awesomely delicious, with buffalo chicken fingers and salad and burgers and all kinds of stuff. after we (all the bands on the tour) got super stuffed and felt very satisfied, we were informed that the food was indeed not for us, and we had 2 minutes to evacuate the room, because it was for some radio contest winners. oops. all i have to say about that, is im sorry that i ate your (radio contest winner) chicken. if you were wondering, it WAS good... if i ever meet you (radio contest winner), i will take you to KFC, and treat you to a meal. i am however, going to assume that i will never meet you, take the money that i would spend on that meal, and go buy a flashlight in case the power goes out... it will go out... someday. love, noj kcenhcs.

Sunday, March 19, 2006
Charlotte, NC

today we had some friends of mine on our show. they are called the class of 98. theyre on militia group, and just put out their first record. www.theclassof98.com. enough about them, lets talk about the new superman movie. first of all... can we please get a petition started and ask hollywood execs to start casting GOOD actresses in comic book movies. i dont ask much in life, but i do ask this. lets think about recent comic to screen adventures, then think about the heroines involved in these such films. kirsten dunst in spiderman. bad. jessica alba in fantastic four. bad. katie holmes/cruise in batman. bad. and now, in one of the most anticipated returns to the big screen, we get kate bosworth, to portray the beloved lois lane... we snatched this one from such great movies as blue crush, and win a date with tad hamilton. both heavily overlooked by the academy. all that i want is this superman to live up to its potential of being an awesomely awesome movie. this, is all that i hope. oh well, at least we get portman in V. jon schneck.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Norfolk, VA

if youve never been, get on that there interweb, go to your favorite travel website, and book ya some flights to Norfolk. while youre there, go to the norva. definitely one of my very mostest favorite rock and roll clubs in the U S of A. a while back, we did a promo show at a place called Fahrenheit, in norfolk. we did a little christmas acoustic show for about 250 people. it was fun. anyways, we met the owner of Fahrenheit and he told us any time we were in town, to call him up. guess what we did! we called him. he was awesome and gave us some pizzas and snacks and was an amazing host. so, if youre looking for a cool place with good food, check it out. the show was awesome, and we got to hang out with some of our very best friends, the guys in mae. im not sure how many of you are aware of this little known fact, but zach, the guitarist from mae, and myself, grew up together in a little town in florida. were pretty much the best friends two boys can be. its always awesome to hang out with him, and the others from the band. on a lighter note, ive been doing a lot of thinking. what would i do if i had a billion dollars? ill tell you what i would do..... i would move to hollywood, open up a movie studio, and cast good actresses in comic book movies. yes, i went there again. l.a.a.f., jon schneck

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Allentown, PA

All i have to say is, im from florida. the alligator capitol of the word... over a million alligators, one for every 10 people... ive been on several gator hunts, and fishing excursions and i have this to say... i have never, ever seen an alligator rock. apparently, though.... the crocs do. at least thats what they kept telling us at the crocodile rock in a-tizzle p-dizzle. the venue itself was half restaurant, half performance hall. it was awesome because if i jumped on stage, i hit my head on the ceiling... it made me feel really tall. it reminds me of that one time that i went to bangladesh... we were playing a show at a medieval festival on the kazi an alol stage, opening for usted ayet ali khan, and the trim on the ceiling was 7 feet. man, were those meat kalia curry milkshakes delicious. i love mcdonalds, but ill tell you what... thats the last time ill ever eat a McRasho-gollah... mecka lecka hi, mecka hiney ho. jon schneck.

Thursday, March 23, 2006
Farmingdale, NY

Today we played really close to Long Island. It was pretty fun. They had NCAA Championship basketball playing during our set, and I have to admit I was sneaking glances at the score board a little more often than I should have. I just recently (the last 2 years or so) started eating sushi. Its on my top 10 list of favorite things to ingest. I've toured our great country (and a few other almost as great ones), and I've sampled the wares of many a sushi artist. I thought I'd had it all until today. Matthew Hoopes and I were escorted by a friend to sit a the table where I would eat the best sushi I've ever had in my life. Hoopes (a more experienced sushi eater) agreed with my claim. Matty T.

Friday, March 24, 2006
Hartford, CT

So, I was in the dressing room talking to Tom's (from Maxeen) girlfriend. She asked me if the crowd noise was ever a factor in trying to play a show. I quickly explained that my in ear monitors are molded to every contour of my ear canal, and that I can really only hear my voice and guitars when we play. The sheer irony of this conversation was that as soon as I walked out onto the stage, it felt like someone was pumping a million decibels of "Girls Screaming, Volume I" into my ears. New England is one of my favorite parts of the country to play. They're always so happy to go to a show. That makes me happy to be a part of one. Matthew T.

Saturday, March 25, 2006
Clifton Park, NY

Today was a mixed bag. Our trailer had broken down in CT, so these dudes were supposed to fix it, and then tow it the 100 or so miles to Clifton Park. They said they'd be at the venue around 9pm. That would've been awesome, because we could've left NY early enough to get to our destination of Ohio at a reasonable time. I was really excited to get back to OH, cause I haven't been home since the Super Bowl. UNFORTUNATELY, the trailer didn't show up until 5am, and my day off at home had the duration of about 5 hours. Boo. A good thing about today is that I started singing 'TV Family' with The Rocket Summer. I had been wanting to sing with them for a while, so I'm glad that it happened. During our show, there was so much condensed sweat in the air, that the pipes above my head were dripping on me the entire time. If we didn't have a great show, I'll make like Milli Vanilli and Blame It On The Rain. Matthew T.

Monday, March 27, 2006
Grand Rapids, MI

My day started out pretty not awesome.
Scott: "Hey Warne, wake up. You have to help us load the truck."
Me: "Truck? What are you talking about? Truck? Ha ha... truck... five more minutes..."
Scott: "We lost a tire on the trailer and had to rent a Penske box truck. You have to drive it as well."
Me: "Oh cool, I was hoping to only get three hours of sleep tonight. I'm glad it worked out."
Apparently Josh our driver started the drive from Cleveland to Grand Rapids but didn't get very far out of town before something arrested his attention. He noticed a tire (very similar to one that belongs on our trailer) passing him on its way into the Express Lane without having first given the proper signaling. They rarely do, in fact. So the long and short of it was that we had to get our trailer fixed (AGAIN) and rent a truck to haul our gear around. I was the lucky man with the first shift. Red Bull and coffee are well and good, but nothing holds a candle to that extra five hours of sleep requisite to having at least a tolerable day. However it was salvaged by three things: I got an iTrip, the show was awesome, and I got to hang out with my friend Jill and her friend Ryan. And oh yes, the Words of Wisdom. John Warne

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Madison, WI

If someone comes up to you and, without warning, says, "Quite frankly, I do not like puppies," call that person a liar and look up to the closest telephone wire. Their pants up there aflame and swaying in the wind. My friend Joe Krube brought both his girlfriend and his new puppy to the show today. However much I trust him as a person of great veracity he claimed the puppy was part black lab and part something else. The dog is yellow. Figure that one out.
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My wife typed the above sentence (she nearly has her Masters degree)
The second best thing to happen today came when we met and greeted our fan club people. Olivia brought me some Jelly Belly's and some other stuff for the other guys. I'm not sure what the other stuff was because I only had eyes for the Jelly Belly's. They were scrumtrulescent. After our show I got back to petting the first best thing to happen today, and it licked my face. John Warne

Thursday, March 30, 2006
Urbana, IL

I woke up today and got off the bus only to find myself in the middle of the quad between classes with about 30 bazillion college student walking around making me miss the ol' college days. "Someone please save us, us college kids..." sang the University of Illinois college kids as I surveyed the scene. I thought that line would be most applicable in a situation where there is a discount on snacks. Normally you'd have to shell out three college kids for a candy bar, but on Thursdays there's a sale where you only have to pay two. What a deal.
Before our set Hoopes, Eric, and I, along with our buddies Bryce and Seth from the Rocket Summer, went to the campus Chipotle to enjoy Snapple and abnormally sized burritos. I say it's a winning combination. On our way back to the venue we found the streets to be flooded thanks to a fire hydrant's jet of water that some grown men were playing in. They had a Slip 'n Slide and everything. We frolicked.
Scott was in the best of moods today. He handed out candy bars hidden within the folds of his cloak to passersby with such a jovial goodly air that everyone was saving at least a college kid or two. It was infectious. In fact Scott was feeling so magnanimous that during the set he opened up a fire hydrant on us, drenching all with watery goodness and merriment. We frolicked. John Warne

Friday, March 31, 2006
Pittsburgh, PA

with a name like club zoo, you can only hope to expect the very best in entertainment. lets break it down.... C is for cheese sticks, my favorite food, and also my meal before the show. L is for lousy, for the way cheese sticks plus playing a show makes me feel. U is for uncomfortable, see previous reply. B is for Boxing, a sport i always wanted to try, but my parents would never sign the release. Z is for Zany, the way i feel when im with my 4 good buds in RK. O is for Outer space, which is where lance bass never made it. and Finally, O is for obvious, which means its obvious it was a boring day. but thanks for EVERYONE who came out to the show, we had fun sliding around the perspiration covered stage. see yall soon. j to the schneck.

Saturday, April 01, 2006
Columbus, OH

Newport Music hall. The last day of a tour is always a little bit like the last day of school. you all walk around getting phone numbers and email addresses and signing each others year books... okay well not the last part, but you get the idea. We couldnt have asked for a better send off than our show at the Newport. the show was sold out and the fans were amazing. it was really one of the best shows so far. in all seriousness though, it is indeed a sad moment. To put it in terms you may be able to relate to... take saved by the bell, for instance. if saved by the bell was our tour, as amazing as it is, once its over, there are a few possibilities of what can come... you may get saved by the bell, the college years... a tour geared for an older audience, with the introduction of an ex pro football player teacher. you could get saved by the bell, the new class, a rehash of the same tour, with a few different bands... or you could get mark paul gosselaar in NYPD blue, which is the tour that starts off weird, but then ends with a sense of belonging. whatever the case may be, this was a great tour, and i hope we have another great tour to follow, and i wish everyone involved the best, even you mr belding, cause remember, the last 3 letters of principal, spell pal. love, mathletes prez.. jon schneck c/o 99.

Thursday, April 20, 2006
Home

Well, since they changed the name from "Tour Journal" to "Blog", I guess I'm allowed to write here even if we haven't played a show. So..... I'm writing. Not too much is going on with us. I'm at home writing some new stuff, and waiting for the other guys to come visit so we can start seeing the new songs take some shape. I'm excited about getting to work on a new record, even though we're in the scary "I don't know how this is going to turn out" stage. As far as new stuff, we just recorded a cover of DC Talk's 'Between You And Me' for Gotee's 'Freaked' tribute album (6.20.06 - www.gotee.com), and Dave and I are contributing some side project songs for a compilation on Mono Vs. Stereo called 'My Other Band VOL. 1' (6.27.06 - www.monovsstereo.com). We have songs up on our respective myspace pages. www.myspace.com/agnesmusic and www.myspace.com/matthewthiessenandtheearthquakes. Whew. Look at all that information in that little tiny space! I must have magical powers. Matty T.

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