Life on the road directly told by artists in the midst of touring.
Big Business...
Here's who's in the van:
Jared Warren--Bass, vocals
Coady Willis--Drums (I'm also writing this)
Toshi Kasai--Guitar, vocals, various and sundry instrumentation
Dusty Warren--Merchandise, Tour Management, Ultimate Fighting, Hats.
Just to bring you up to speed- Been on tour about a week and a half at this point. A few days ago, we got a call from Tool asking us to open for them on the last leg of their current tour (which starts in a week- June 24th). So we figured we'd play some arena shows, you know, for sh*ts and giggles. We've been on the phone trying to cancel and reschedule our current tour dates. The Big Biz tour will now pick up where the Tool dates leave off, extending our time on the road by about a month.
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007.
The Knitting Factory, NYC
Started today out with a nice, balmy AC-free drive from Boston. (Kids, before you go on tour next summer, make sure your AC works. Whatever money you might spend, it's worth every penny. Experience talking.) Spent some time sitting in traffic on the way into the city, which made us about an hour and a half late for soundcheck. The soundguy was a bit miffed, but fortunately he was a pro and we got through soundcheck quickly with very few tears. Joe (who drums for our East Coast tour pals Panthers) and I shot-gunned some PBRs in the upstairs shower to improve morale. People began to show up, it seemed pretty packed out midway through Panthers' set. Thought we played pretty well, maybe a little fast. It was one of those shows that goes by in a blur. All I know is there were some dudes with beards moving around quite a bit, and my drums were sticky with beer afterward. Success!
Friday, June 22nd, 2007.
The Ottobar, Baltimore
I always like playing this place. The people are really nice and the sound is really good. Natty Bo beer is on tap, straight from the Land of Pleasant Living. But my favorite feature of the Ottobar is the secret passage to the apartment next door which functions as the dressing room. As you go towards the side of the stage, you might notice a coat hanger on the gray carpet wall. Pull on the hanger, and a hidden foot-thick soundproof door is revealed! The only thing missing is a big moose head mounted above with cameras in the eyes. Maybe I'll open a bar based on Hogan's Heroes. You talk into the teapot to order your drink, then you have to go into an underground tunnel and through some barbed wire to get to the VIP area. Colnel Klink can be the doorguy, and Shultzy will work security. God, I'm tired.
This was our last show with Panthers, wish we could have done some more. Diamond geezers, one and all.
Sunday June 24th, 2007.
Copps Coliseum
Hamilton, Ontario
This is our first show with Tool. Our guitar player, Toshi, can't cross the border into Canada for this show, so we're playing our first arena show as a two piece. Everybody on the Tool staff is really nice and helpful. I get the idea they've been at this job for awhile. They got us loaded in and set up with a quickness. We did a quick soundcheck, and let me just say that hearing our band blasting out of that behemoth PA system did not suck one bit. About two hours later, we were on the side of the stage, waiting for our signal to go on. The lights went down, and about 5,000 Tool fans started screaming. It was probably a good thing that the stage was lit in such a way that you couldn't really see that far out into the crowd. We played our set and it seemed like toward the end they started warming up to us a little. I was prepared to get booed off the stage or maybe lynched, so that was a pleasant surprise. It was actually really fun, we had some tequila shots and bourbon in the hockey team locker room after the show. That's pretty much it. I didn't see any mountain sized piles of coke or hookers being used as furniture or anything like that. But who knows, this tour's just getting started!
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