It’s been a very interesting past few days. On Friday night we learned that Austin had to fly home the next day in order to settle some issues with work and therefore we had two shows we weren’t expecting to be without a bass player. We sat outside our host home on Friday night discussing our options and settled on having Robby (drummer for Quiet Science) play. He had volunteered to learn our songs. We arranged to get to the venue early to run through the songs with Robby and arrived at the venue around 3pm, unloaded, and practiced on the floor in the middle of the venue in Kissimmee, FL. The run through went fantastic and we all felt really confident of the decision to have Robby fill in on such extreme short notice. The show that night went fantastic. We had some friends from Florida come out and it was great to see them. That night we drove to Merritt Island, Florida and drove up to a very nice hotel on the beach that Quiet Science had arranged for us. The next day we awoke to a beautiful sunny Florida and had lunch with Quiet Science and their parents on the pier and had gator meat for the first time in our lives. It was quite the experience.
That afternoon we set up for our show at The Mezzanine, which is a young adults service. They were having a special event showing the movie “Stop the Candy Shop.” A movie about the growing child sex-trade. It was a horrifying and moving film that produces a lot of feelings of anger and disgust that something like this is not only allowed, but one of the fastest growing business that targets 11-14 year olds… We were glad to be apart of a show that could help more people be informed and contribute to stopping this terrible trade. For more info visit: http://stopthecandyshop.com/
The next day we spent just hanging out in Merritt Island and got free tickets to visit the Kennedy Space Center. I made a comment to Robby and said, “We don’t make a ton of money doing this right now, but we certainly do get to experience some really cool things. What other job or endeavor do we get to wake up in different places, meet tons of cool people, do something you love like playing music, and visit tons of really cool places?” I’ve really been appreciating what we do more and more and all the blessings that come our way in the process. We are given so much that we don’t deserve. That evening we spent Halloween with Quiet Science and their family eating great food, watching football, passing out candy, and sitting in a hot tub. QS dressed up as Twilight and I got a great picture of Nate as Edward. Truly a great night and day off.
Tuesday we woke up, went to check out of our hotel and found out that our room for 3 days had been FREE. We left Florida in our rear view mirror on a 10 hour drive to Asheville, North Carolina to stay with my Aunt. When we arrived she took us to a fantastic pizza place. We got to experience the dramatic mountains of that region with a van and trailer and my Aunt’s driveway was smack dab in the middle of steep slopes and winding curves. We stayed in a beautiful home and woke the next morning to a sun rising over the mountain tops and spilling sunlight into our windows facing the splendid view.
Our show in Creston, NC was 2 hour north and was a long, winding, and mountainous drive. We got to the venue early to practice with bass tracks since we left Robby in Florida. We got comfortable with timing and our set and relaxed until the show started. It was a small show, with about 10 people there. The owner of the venue commented to Jon and asked if it was even worth it for us to come out there and Jon explained our motto of 1 or 1000. That we give the same show no matter the numbers and that if 1 person’s life is impacted its worth it to us. We’ve seen and heard too many stories of lives that been effected by our music in the most unusually and peculiar circumstance to get caught up in how many people are coming to shows. Of course, we aspire and aim to play for more people and effect a greater number of people, but our eyes remain focused on a cause greater than ourselves and personal goals of achievement. I feel like success would make it harder to focus on the original intent and vision and brings a new set of troubles that are more difficult to manage. I think it would be an accurate statement to say that success and wealth are the difficult thing to manage, not poverty and lack. I’m not belittling poverty or the affects of it, but a tower built to great heights has a greater ruin than a mud hut that falls over.
After the show we met 3 guys who rode in the back of a pickup truck for 45 minutes to make it to the show and were so excited that we had come back. Those are the kind of stories that make you appreciate the 10 kids at your show, because you have no idea what they did to get there and what they are going through in their life. They might need the show more than we could ever imagine.
On Thursday we drove to Nashville to attend a meeting, hang out with some friends, and rest before moving on to our last show in Minster, Ohion on Saturday. Nashville is like the middle ground of the Mid-West and its a great point to stop, play, and pass through on tour. Last night was a great time catching up with some new and old friends. Today is another day off until we make the drive to the show tomorrow, then we go home. I’m looking forward to being home, reseting, and gearing up for what’s next. We’ve already got tours in the works for the beginning of next year and I’m excited about the future.
