Europe for a month. And this was coming after only being home for two days. I was not prepared. I wasn’t trying to be, and I didn’t pretend to be, but by then we were all used to being on the road together. It was an old hat. We just took it off for a few days, put it in the wash and put it back on before it was dry. Now, I’m not complaining. I know I’m lucky to be doing this. Few people get to do what we’ve been doing for the past few years. However, no more than 48 hours had passed since we were arrived in Portland after a 20 hour drive from St. Louis. Then we were crammed in Adam’s Mom’s car, speeding towards Bostons Logan Airport. Then to New York. Then across the Atlantic to London’s Heathrow Airport.
We had been to Europe before, once in ’06 to England and once in ’07 to the mainland. This time was different however, not only because we combined the two into a month long stay, but because the UK was on a much larger scale than our previous stint. The first two weeks of our stay were our greatest opportunity as a band. It was quite the mind-blowing experience for us, especially since every show was for an average of 1,000-plus people. The so-called “Party In Your Pants Tour” looked like this:
Oct. 17 – Glasgow, Scotland
Oct. 18 – Newcastle, England
Oct. 19 – Dublin, Ireland
Oct. 20 – Cambridge, England
Oct. 21 – Margate, England
Oct. 22 – Birmingham, England
Oct. 23 – Sheffield, England
Oct. 24 – Leicester, England
Oct. 25 – Manchester, England
Oct. 26 – Exeter, England
Oct. 28 – Bournemouth, England
Oct. 29 – London, England
October 16. Arriving in airports and awaiting the arrival of our luggage is always interesting. We’re always nervous about the safe passage of our guitars and Adam’s symbols. This time Adam is the victim as his snare drum case is broken. Bobby, Zebrahead’s tour manager is here to pick us up. He’s taking us outside where our bus is parked. Everything from here on out is going to be completely foreign to us. We stepped outside to a double decker bus, and met Lars, our German bus driver. Once on the bus we picked out our bunks that will be our home for the next twelve days. The jet lag is nothing compared to our overall culture shock. After meeting the guys in Zebrahead we had to drive to a nearby parking garage next to a Tesco’s supermarket. The plan is to park here because there are power hook-ups. This is where we hung out until we started the overnight drive to Scotland.
Oct. 17, Glasgow – Waking up outside the venue. This was also something we had never experienced. After driving overnight and sleeping until the afternoon (absolutely no sunlight comes into the bunks) I stepped outside to see our bus parked next to the Bowling for Soup bus in the back of the venue. I turned to see a line of kids that had already formed around the front of the venue. Some were gazing star-struck at the buses and it was a completely surreal moment. Bobby led us inside the venue and showed us to our dressing room, (what?) which today we would be sharing with the other opening band for the tour, MC Lars. There was a bathroom with a shower, fresh fruit, sandwich meats, chips, beer, water, etc. We had never seen anything like this. However, we were also under a strict time schedule. Everyday the schedule went something like this:
Load in: 2 pm
Soundcheck: 5 pm
Doors: 7 pm
Leftovers (us): 7:20-7:40 pm
MC Lars: 7:50-8:10 pm
Zebrahead: 8:25-9:10 pm
Bowling for Soup: 9:30-11pm
Bus call: Midnight
We were under tremendous pressure from all the crew to make sure to be on time with our set. Almost every night our time was 7:20-7:40. We would hear it from multiple people if we went two minutes over. It was worth it. On October 17th at 7:20pm in Glascow, Scotland, The Leftovers, a band I have been a part of for the last seven years, walked out onto the stage and played for more than 2,000 people. They could’ve given us five minutes in front of that crowd and I still would’ve been happy. Our nerves were obviously reeling, but adrenaline always makes you play better. And then it was over, like a millisecond had passed, and our first show in front of a massive audience was part of Leftovers history. Now we had the taste in our mouths, but we knew it was just the beginning.
Oct. 18, Newcastle – I woke up in my pitch black bunk and had only my cell phone to tell me that it was in fact 1 pm. I crawled out, put my jeans on, went downstairs and pushed the button to open the bus door. I opened the outside latch, grabbed by bag and headed inside the club. Again, there were fans already lining up outside. I couldn’t believe it, but somehow I ended up getting used to it. We couldn’t help sleeping well into the afternoon. Our bunks didn’t reflect the time. This ended up being the daily routine. Today, we found a Starbucks down the street and, after getting some much needed coffee, we went back to the club to see if our food was in the dressing room. As much as we were given free food, and it was a great priveledge, we still depended on it everyday, because we could not have afforded constantly buying our meals, not with the costs of the bus and England’s ridiculous taxes.
Matt and I went outside to the growing line of kids wrapped around the venue. Our label had given us stickers that we were to pass out to as many people as we could. We knew that each one of these shows was a great opportunity to get our name out there, especially when the majority of these kids had never heard of us. We went down the line, handing out stickers one-by-one. The kids were psyched; not only because they knew we were in one of the bands on the tour, but because we interrupted their boring four-plus hour wait that was still in store for them before doors opened. Later, again, the show was amazing. We had been on tour for almost a month before this and had already played over a hundred shows in ’09, so we were at the top of our game; and it wasn’t hard to give it your all for only 7 songs, so we did. Hearing the applause of 1,000-plus people is a feeling that can never be described…
Hey. I’m rambling, and probably running out of room, but check back for Part II of The Leftovers Take Europe