Updates
Posted July 6, 2007
As I write this, we're moving through the wilds of Canada. Having grown up in Northern California, I thought I knew trees and mountains, but these are something else. Yesterday was the Vancouver date on Warped Tour, and we're headed towards Calgary right now, for our first appearance ever there. I like Canada, I really do, but it is probably the most difficult county to enter for the purpose of touring. That's why we've only ever come here as part of other tours Warped, Rancid, Social Distortion, etc. We've been saying this forever, but we plan on coming up here next year to finally do our own headling tour that covers all of Canada.
Warped The first week has almost come and gone. It's been fun so far. ALL of the shows have been excellent. Amazing crowds in Pomona, Ventura, Mountain View (by San Francisco) and Vancouver, BC. Donny is out with us, so we normally include a pedal steel song in the set. The best thing that's happened so far is our visit to the Kwik-E-Mart. Now, if you aren't a Simpsons fan, you might want to skip this next part, as you probably won't know/care what I'm on about.
I am a HUGE Simpsons fan. I watch it constantly at home, and I always pick up the DVD sets the day they are released. When being interviewed, a common question is "What are your future goals for Tiger Army?" For some reason, when I'm asked that, I always forget one of my hugest goals for the band and in life is to have some sort of involvement with The Simpsons. Of course, the ultimate would be to have Tiger Army on the show, but I'd settle for much less. TigerBat graffiti on the wall as Bart skateboarded by would suffice. Anyway, at the risk of sounding like a shill, The Simpsons movie comes out this month, and to promote it, eleven 7-11 stores nationwide have been turned into Kwik-E-Marts (you know, the place where Apu works). I knew it was happening, but Geoff Kresge texted me that it had actually happened on Sunday night. My first thought was "I'm going to be on tour all month, how am I going to get there?" Thanks to some quick thinking by our tour manager and the magic of the internet, we discovered that there was one in Mountain View half a mile from Warped. It was night, the show was over and the busses would leave soon. For some reason we had bikes in our trailer, so three of us rode bikes in the summer night to the Kwik-E-Mart. We could've been Bart, Nelson and Milhouse (I don't know who I'd be, except NOT Milhouse). A few Squishees, Buzz Colas and Krusty-O's later, we left Springfield and rode back to Mountain View.
Ironically, I met a guy named Chris years ago who worked on the show and was a Tiger Army fan. He invited me down to the studio where The Simpsons are made. This was during a period where we were on the road ALL the time and I never got to do it. He did give me a killer drawing of Snake as a psychobilly playing a Gretsch though.
June was one of the busiest months ever for Tiger Army. We did the signing in Fullerton for over eight hundred people on release day, the BFD radio show for LIVE 105 in the Bay Area, flew to Detroit for the Myspace secret show, shot a video for "Forever Fades Away," played the record release show in Las Vegas, various photo shoots, press, and of course our first TV appearance performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which was an amazing experience. After doing this stuff nearly every day in June, Warped has been like a break! A lot of our friends are here: The Dear & Departed, The Unseen and more. We did our first signing in Mountain View and more will follow when possible. Check in with Albert, our merch guy and he should be able to let you know when/if they're happening. BTW, our set times have ranged from 1:30 - 6:30 pm so far. Just a heads up.
That's it for now, we'll see you on Warped (and if not there, perhaps on one of our Fall headlining dates that are being announced soon)!
Always,
n13
