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Tour Diary May 30-June13thHey everyone! Wow, it has been a very busy and exciting time for us in the last few weeks! No time to sleep! There have been changes and additions to the band, our record has been released to the whole world, and we’ve begun the real touring now. But, before the real touring could begin, we had to finish the American radio visit promo tour last month…sorry there was no tour diary for that, but we were insanely busy and there wasn’t too much to write about, other than, “So we drove for hours, then we stopped to pee, then we visited a radio station, then we drove for hours, then we ate at Waffle House, then we slept, etc.”Anyway, after the American radio promo tour thingy was done we went home and finished rehearsals with the new band and played some LA little secret shows to warm up. I saw a few fans at the Viper room show we did and Pink was rocking out while we were playing, cool! It was all a little bittersweet at that point with all the excitement and anticipation because I knew Aaron would only be playing with us for one more week. I’m upset as I’m sure you all are that Aaron won’t be touring with us, but at the same time, I know it’s the right decision and it will all be good, we promise. We’ve got a great new band that’s playing amazingly…And remember, it’s still two people who create what the Calling is…and then 5 more who help me explain it to the world. Aaron and I are best friends and partners to the end! So, I’ve broken down this tour diary into what happened each day…I think I’ll be doing that from now on. I want to be able to get tour diary’s up more often for all you guys and keep you all up to date on all the insanity that is my life. Well, here we go…
May 30th-The whole band and crew met at LAX in Los Angeles to start our first journey together to Buffalo, NY. Our flight to Chicago ended up getting cancelled once we got to the gate due to bad weather. We spent four hours in the airport waiting for the next flight…a perfect way to start our first tour together! Once we got on another flight, we waited on the runway for an hour, and then almost missed our connection to Buffalo. We finally got in at 2 AM. The next day was going to be our first radio show together, and we were already fried. Half of the band got welcomed to the life of touring by having most of their luggage lost on our journey over by the airline we flew. So guess how long it was until they got their bags back? ….
May 31st-This was the first real show with the band in Buffalo…storming, wet everywhere, muddy feet, completely wet stage, standing in puddles, hoping not to get electrocuted, Aaron fears for his life;) We played a quick 20-minute set to a great audience, all standing in the rain to watch us. Thanks guys! Lucky The Calling “Mom” was there with her posse to cheer us on.
June 1st-This was a day off. My lady and I went to a mountainous retreat up state for 24 hours to chill before the real storm comes, the storm of touring life that is. We ran into Deb “Mom” at a rest stop and some other fans and had lunch together. It was good to see them.
June 2nd-We played Rochester this day, with more rain, in a big baseball stadium. We had the privilege of watching William hung perform and we got to meet him! I was so star struck;) Very interesting guy. That night was a really fun show and we were the last band of the night. The band was getting better and more comfortable.
June 3rd-Me, Chops, and Sacha flew to Orlando super early and we had the rest of the day off once we got there…So where did we go? Disneyland of course! Man, we ate everything, and it was frikkin crazy hot out! We went on all the lame-O rides, but all I wanted to do was ride Space Mountain. I had to do phone interviews to Australia while standing in line for Pirates of the Caribbean…the interviewers were wondering where I was when all they can hear is “Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me”… Have you ever listened closely to the lyrics of that song? I can’t believe that’s for kids, it goes something like, “we steal, we pillage, we rape, we kill, drink up me hearties yo ho”…that’s pretty hardcore. So the park was about to close and we finally headed over to the Space Mountain line and it was huge…so we started waiting in it and waiting and waiting…and I see that the line next to us, the “fast track” line is moving really fast. So, I say to Sacha and Chops, “Come on guys, let’s jump the divider and get in that fast line.” And they were all like, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, we’ll get in trouble.” Anyway after mustering up the courage, we jumped lines and made our way to the end of the line and the beginning of the ride. A guy says, “Fast Track tickets please.”… “uh, we lost them, er uh, Mickey stole them, uh, yah.” Needless to say we were escorted out of Space Mountain and then had to leave the park. I told those guys not to listen to me;)
June 4th-We did this Nickelodeon show, there were little kids, pie throwing, funny questions, weird stuff, blah blah blah.
June 5th- We flew to Austin, TX to meet up with the rest of the band and crew who were already there. We played this weird show on the “beach” but really on a lake, lots of drunk adults, 5 bands sharing one dressing room, happens to be like the biggest Harley type biker gathering in the country…do these people want to see us, or are they going to be like the hockey game crowd? Well, surprisingly enough, they did want to see us and it was a fun show, but way to frikking hot (I could only wear my leather jacket for 4 songs:).
June 6th-We all flew home to rehearse for Jay Leno the next day. Aaron and I saw this giant poster for "Two" on Sunset Blvd…Neon lights and arms that robotically moved! Then we saw a giant poster for "Two" at Virgin and at Wherehouse! It was very exciting for us to see that in our hometown since there were never giant billboards for Camino Palmero in Los Angeles.
June 7th-Jay Leno day! This was the last show with Aaron, it was emotional, but we still had a great time. I saw fans like Shannon from Spokane afterwards when I was leaving. Later that night I had a great birthday party that Jen threw for me at my family’s house. She got every bad food I like! Popeye’s, Greco’s Pizza, and Wienerschnitzel..I was really the only one happy to eat at that party though:) After the party, everyone went home to pack for a month and a half tour, since tomorrow morning we were leaving.
June 8th-Record released in America! And it was my birthday!(reminds me to thank all of you who contributed to the birthday book “Mom” gave me and thank you to all of you around the world who sent me happy birthday wishes by E-mail and by creating websites to post messages on)….Anyway, we got on a plane early morning, and flew all day to New York. We got in super late and went right to bed since we had to wake up at 4am the next morning for Regis. So my real Birthday was spent on an airplane. Aaron bought him and me copies of “Two” back home on release day, just like we did for the last record.
June 9th-We woke up way too early to do the Regis and Kelly show with whole band, acoustic. It went pretty smoothly and it was nice to see old Regis. Afterwards I went to do VH1 press and then over to rehearse all the rest of the day with the new lineup, Our keyboard player, “Arms”, became our new guitar player and we added a new player, Corey Britz on keyboard. We started to get ready for the upcoming days in New York and the European shows.
June 10th- We all woke up at 3am to go do the WB morning show with full band electric. Too damn early! Brain doesn’t work right…can’t think straight… We played Our Lives and Wherever You Will Go. I did more press afterwards during the day and then went yet again to rehearsal and then to dinner with RCA execs and the new band.
June 11th-I got to sleep in this day, yay! We went to Z100 and got lost for an hour trying to find it cause our driver was a moron…you know something’s wrong when your driver keeps turning the map upside down and then right-side up and then sideways and so on…we finally got there to do some radio press and then we drove out to Trenton, NJ to play a radio show gig at a Six Flags theme park. There was crazy traffic on the way, crazy drivers all trying to get on to the bridge out of Manhattan. There were thousands of honking cars, people getting out and screaming at each other, banging on windows. I was yet again trying to do phoners to Australia and couldn’t hear a damn thing once again. A big-mac truck tried to play chicken with our van as multiple lanes were merging… centimeters away from us. We finally got to Six Flags and entered through the back employee lot. We got lost for 40 minutes and ended up driving through “Animal Kingdom” by mistake. I started seeing signs that said, !!NO CONVERTIBLES BEYOND THIS POINT!! And then there were monkey’s all around our car…hundreds of them running around! We got out of there quick and found the stage. It was a good crowd that night. We saw The Calling “Mom” again! And a bunch of familiar faces that I haven’t seen in so long…Thank you guys for still supporting this band after so many years and so many changes! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you all. Thanks for coming to see the new band and me. That was the first full show with the new Calling lineup and it went really great. All the guys are so excited to travel the world, play shows, and meet you all. They are super excited to go to Europe in a few days too. Anyway, we drove back and got to sleep that night at 2am
June 12th-After only 2 hours sleep, Chops, Arms and I woke up at 4am to go do CBS’s morning show acoustic. Wondering why they are named Arms and Chops? Well, Justin or “Chops” never shuts up with his guitar and Daniel, or “Arms” is a work out freak and has giant biceps, so I guess we tease him out of jealousy:) We got to play a bunch of songs acoustic that morning, some short, some long. I got to go outside and eat ice cream…very early for ice cream. The Calling “Mom” and crew once again came and supported us, even that early in the morning! Thank you, guys! Right after the show I ran to the airport to go to my Florida home for a quick 24 hour relax before I headed over to Sweden to start our first European tour and more. Until next time…very excited about the near future. The record is out everywhere now and I’m hearing great things from everybody. “Our Lives” is slowly climbing the charts in America and getting great reactions at radio across the country…the more you guys call your local stations and request it, the better. That’s the stuff that helps the most. Thank all of you who’ve bought “Two” already and to all of you who haven’t checked it out yet, please do! We’ll be seeing you all soon! We love you all!
Alex Band and the Band;)
