We're heading to Santa Rosa, CA, and it's a pretty long drive again. We stop somewhere in southern Oregon and book a couple of rooms at a hotel. There's not much around and after showering and relaxing for a bit we start a barbeque right in the middle of the hotel's parking lot. We take out all our camping chairs and sit down while enjoying some venison steaks and burgers that my parents in law brought at the St. Paul's show. Totally awesome.
Too bad it's hot as hell today. Even at night, although the temperature drops a little, it's still pretty hot and everybody just hides either on the tour bus or in the hotel rooms. It's kind of a lazy day and the bus leaves around 2 AM. We hang out for a bit longer, in the back lounge before we go to bed...
July, Tuesday, 14th - Santa Rosa, CA
Today's gonna be pretty busy. First of all we're meeting our friend Scott Ferrara of EMG Pickups to shoot a short video for their online EMG TV. He picks us up around 11:30 AM and drives us to the studio where we're gonna shoot. The studio's very nice and Maus and I play a few of Lacuna Coil's classics. It doesn't take long and it's actually a lot of fun.
EMG TV's Scott Ferarra at the controls.
When Scott drives us back to the bus we pretty much immediately leave again to play a couple of acoustic songs at the local radio station (KXFX The Fox!). Andrea and Cristina join us as well as our Tour Manager, Gus and our Sound Engineer, Mick and we hit the road. The acoustic set goes great and the people at the radio station are totally thrilled!
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We then drive back to the venue and we have a few hours before the show. There's a sushi reastaurant not too far and since I didn't have any sushi since a few weeks it seems like a great idea to go and check it out. It's actually really good! I love sushi, I could eat it every day.
Despite the stage's size (probably the smallest of the whole tour), we have a great time again. After the show we hang out with Scott and some other people for a while and sign some autographs outside the bus (there's actually a lot of people waiting out there). Tomorrow's gonna be another busy day: we're gonna be in LA...
July, Wednesday, 15th - Los Angeles, CA
This is gonna be the biggest show of the whole tour. We're playing at the House of Blues on Sunset. It's supposed to be a sold out show and a lot of people we know will be there: label, endorsements, press, friends. When I said today was gonna be busy, I wasn't kidding: the first interview's at 11 AM. Gus, our tour manager, wakes us up and we're parked right outside Westwood One's studios. We only have enough time to drink a quick espresso on the bus and then Andrea, Cristina and I walk in. After a quick chat and another cup of coffee we start a pretty long (we go on for about an hour) but interesting interview. We even manage to make sense when we answer, even though we just woke up! Almost like real pros.
When we get to the HoB Adam, our manager also joins us and we get picked up by our label's A&R and head for another acoustic set at GoTV, not too far from Hollywood. Two songs and a short interview later, we drive back to the venue where we'll do some more interviews, a meet and greet with a bunch of people and sound check.
Tonight we'll also project a video that CriZ, our drummer, worked on for a while, during the intro for the first time. When we watch it on screen during the sound check it really looks great. We also meet our friends Lynda (Line6) and Allen (ESP Guitars) and hang out for a bit. There are so many people here tonight. Basically, everybody we know in LA's at the show. We can't sit down for five minutes before the show and when it's time to go on stage everyone's totally tired and ready to go to bed!
When the intro starts rolling and the video starts, the reaction's awesome! It works great and it's just the beginning of an amazing show. L.A. has a reputation that it isn't the greatest place to play, but tonight's one of our best shows we've ever played anywhere! Everything goes the way it should and we have a great time.
After we're done playing and we take a shower, we hang out some more with a few friends for the rest of the night. The bus isn't leaving until 4 am and tomorrow morning we'll have to get up because we're supposed to record 2 songs for Fuel TV at 11 AM.
July, Thursday, 16th - Los Angeles, CA
Man, I hate getting up early. And even worse, playing loud music just right after I woke up. But, at least, I don't have to sing! Andrea and Cristina aren't at all thrilled about singing this early. But it's a great opportunity and it actually turns out pretty good. Our performance is good, although we all look like zombies.
Early morning rock and roll at Fuel TV.
But the ones who have the most fun are the people in our crew: it's supposed to be a day off but they have to get all our equipment out of the trailer, set up and then (when we're done) pack everything and put it back. And everything under a roasting sun…love you guys!
When we're finally done, we stop to quickly grab some food and get the hell out of LA. It's almost rush hour and we'll drive to Las Vegas where we'll play our next show. Obviously, getting out of the city takes us way longer than we hoped and our generator decides to turn off a few times leaving us to boil inside the bus, stuck on the freeway in the middle of L.A.'s crazy rush-hour traffic. It'll be around midnight when we finally reach our destination. Although the streets are full of people and there's a bunch of stuff to do, nobody really feels like going out and we all pretty much go to bed.
Cristiano "Criz" Mozzati showing the love.
July, Friday, 17th - Las Vegas, NV
After L.A.'s crazy two days, this feels like we're on vacation. Incredibly, there's nothing to do today. I only have a quick interview and a meet and greet and that's about it.
It's funny that every night, before the show, we all look like we're gonna pass out but when we walk on stage and the adrenaline kicks in, we totally wake up and have a great time.
After the show, most people head to the Hard Rock Casino where our friend Todd's playing a showcase. Vinnie Paul is here too tonight: Seventh Void are signed to his label and everybody hangs out at the Hard Rock pretty much all night. Lots of drinks and loud music; some people go gamble (and lose money, of course) and some people stay on the bus and relax.
July, Saturday, 18th - Sparks, NV
Today’s looking like it's gonna be another quite relaxed day. Just a quick meet and greet with the local radio and the winners of a contest and the show and a short interview. This is definitely quite nice. Too bad there's nothing around the venue and, even if there was, nobody really feels like walking around because it's really hot again.
And it's only gonna get hotter during the show! The venue's quite busy and Dommin, Seventh Void and Kill Hannah have a great time playing. When we go on it's so hot on stage that it feels like I'm gonna melt. Luckily after a while we get used to it and once again the show goes great.
We gotta leave pretty early tonight. There aren't any showers at the venue and we wanna stop at a truck stop (ah, the glamourous life of a touring band...) for showers and dinner (or better, midnight snack)
After we're done eating, CriZ and I decide to gamble some money at the slot machine. As I pull the lever for the third time, it happens! Three bars!!! Jackpot! CriZ still hates me for that... Of course he doesn't win anything! Well, not that I can afford buying a house now: I only won $20... but hey! I didn't have those 20 bucks before.
