11/22/10 – The Late Great Tour Blog (Part 1)

It’s November 14th and we are on our way home. We are about two weeks into this tour and as I sit here trying to keep my mouth shut, insanely nervous that I might be forced to cancel tonight’s shown because of harsh singing while sick, I realize that I haven’t posted a tour blog like I usually do. So now that it looks like I have some catching up to do, I apologize in advance for those who feel that this will be too much to read.

This tour started with myself leaving separately from the rest of the guys. I felt bad about it at first because it means one less driver to share the load as the guys trek from Los Angeles to Orlando, Florida. But the reasons I stayed behind were very important. As it is, I’ve been compiling music for the next album since July. I’ve recorded about 18 possible songs from home. The quality isn’t fantastic but it’s enough for me to figure out if I like the direction I’m going. Our label wants to hear some demos and I was pretty sure I could out-do what I have done so far and I wanted to collaborate with some people that forced me to schedule some song-writing sessions after the initially planned departure date for the tour.

However, after I heard the plans of the guys, I no longer felt bad. They drove a full 30 hours before stopping. They pretty much drove straight to New Orleans so that they could celebrate Halloween in the notorious city. That was followed by a day of shooting deadly weapons in a friend’s backyard and then making it to Disneyworld where a fan of ours was generous enough to get the guys a complimentary admission.

I arrived in Orlando on Tuesday and marveled at the Harry Potter shop at the airport. At least the extra time at home allowed me to have 6 more songs that are contenders for the next album for a total of 24 songs. When I met the guys back at the hotel, we were all happy to see each other, but as Billy explained…I’m kinda happy to see you because it’s been a while, but on the other hand, I’m not so happy to see you because now it means the work will start.” We were expecting this to be one of the more brutal tours as far as traveling is concerned.

The first day of tour is always crazy. But we pulled up to the venue and immediately noticed our dear friends in the The Birthday Massacre. This is a band that took us on our first national tour back in April of ’09. We had done some West Coast runs before but nothing like this. We have become so very fond of everyone in that band and to be reunited on this tour is a bit like a dream come true. If we could do every tour with them, we would. Not only have I become a big fan of their music and truly enjoy watching them every single night, but The Birthday Massacre is full of very kind and very fun people to be around. When we started loading in our gear, I noticed the people with Aural Vampire. This is a band from Japan that has played in the US before but only at Anime/Comic conventions. This was to be their first real US Tour. There was a bit of a language barrier but luckily, Steve, from their label, helped us make the initial introductions and break the ice. I also saw some of the guys in Black Veil Brides walking around and said some initial “hellos” in passing but never really got a chance to really make their acquaintance. This is a band that has a lot of buzz going on about them and they seem to really be skyrocketing. They definitely are building quite the rampant fan-base.

As the show began, I saw the singer of Aural Vampire creep out on stage in a black corset and dress and a mask over her eyes. Every time she would smile, she would reveal her fangs. Then there is Raveman. (I think that’s how it is said). He has this mask that lights up in crazy ways. It’s hard to describe this group. It’s almost like if Daft Punk had a horror/anime element to them. I haven’t quite seen anything like them before and they are definitely going to be fun to watch on this tour. Then we took the stage. To me the highlight of this night and every night is when we play ‘Closure.’ Though we are asking fans to contribute videos and photos to the music video we are making for this song, I also wanted to make sure that we are getting plenty of great live footage. So we are filming every single night. I love getting the crowd to sing “Goodbye” with me. It’s very powerful and on a couple of nights, I’ve seen a few tears being shed. We definitely had Dommin fans in force that night judging by the loud responses. As we hit the last note of the last song and the curtains closed on the stage, I was met by a tall skinny guy with crazy black hair who came up to me on stage as we were packing our gear. It was none other than Andy Sixx, the singer of Black Veil Brides. He came out to me telling how much he had loved the show and loved the music we were doing. Apparently the guys were watching from the side of the stage. As he was telling me all the bands he was into and how he understood what we were doing, I saw that we have a lot of musical tastes in common. It was a flattering way to met someone. And I’m grateful to the tweet he sent out to his more than 50,000+ followers on Twitter about us. As we left the stage, we saw everyone in The Birthday Massacre watching us and we were greeted like little kids who graduated kindergarten into the arms of their proud parents. They have seen us grow from the band we were to the band we are and to see them with smiles on their faces and proud of us really feels good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch Black Veil Brides’ opening but as the curtain opened for their show, the wild screaming fans made everyone take notice that this is a band to be reckoned with. Beneath the loud crowd, I could make out the shredding guitar solos and the sing-along choruses.

This is definitely a solid bill of bands that are all different but united in darkness. 
I’ll end this tour blog here for the moment. 
To be continued…..

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