Stay Vocal

My first day with the band was surely the most memorable. I met up with them in Massachusetts, where I showed up just in time to help dismantle their merch tent and treck through the insane downpour of rain. After leaving the venue, we drove to our friends Matt and Tiffany’s house, where most of us dried off and ate some amazing vegan food.

At about 4:30 in the morning, we woke up at a gas station to the driver’s statement of “Hey guys. We have a problem. We’re missing a tire.” As we all slowly climbed out of the van, we saw that one of the tires on the trailer had completely shredded away. Who knows how long we had been riding the rim? Unfortunately, this wasn’t a car that we could just jack up, so we emptied almost the entire trailer out to let weight off. Luckily, the gas station wasn’t busy at the time and hopefully the attendant enjoyed the CD that the band gave him.

Unlike most bands, The A.K.A.s enjoy spending most of the day in their merch tent talking with fans and trying to recruit new ones. This turned out to be great for me too, as many people were intrigued by the ReUse merch line hanging along a rope on the side of the tent.

Not only did The A.K.A.s and I help promote ReUse on Warped Tour, but we also helped our good friends Tara and Erin at Warped Eco Initiative. They are on Warped Tour promoting green energy with a solar powered stage, as well as running the Warped Tour bottle and can clean up. Each day, dozens of people scour the venues collecting thousands of bottles and cans to recycle, which in recent years would simply be thrown away. Every concert tour needs a Tara and an Erin.

Another highlight of the tour was that I finally got to meet Emile Goss in Buffalo, who has been a huge help with SV as of late. Up until then, I had really only seen his South Park avatar, so it was good to find he wasn’t actually a cartoon!

Going on Warped Tour for seven days, was just enough time for me to start to get frustrated and homesick. Pittsburgh was a great way to end my stint on Warped Tour, as it’s one of my homes away from home. I saw a lot of friends at the show like Jeff and Scott from The Atomic Family and #2 and Jesse Jones from Anti-Flag.

I have to say, it was a bit sad to leave the band, as I grew a lot closer with them real quick. But when I took my bags out of the van and headed towards a house to sleep in, it felt great. I’d like to thank The A.K.A.s for letting me tag along and let me relive my merch glory days. I’d also like to thank Lisa with Warped Tour for making it easy for me to be on the tour, especially getting me a meal ticket! I definitely had enough of the soynut butter sandwiches and instant packets of miso soup during the first few days.

CLICK HERE to see even more pictures from my stint on Warped Tour 2008.