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Our fans drive 5+ hrs to see us…
… And cover their cars in Bella Morte decorations!! (and we love them for it!)
“Bella Morte bound! St Louis or bust!”
“Honk if you love Skully!”
Fans bring us cookies…
And we love them for it!
Bringing People Together
I’ve noticed that we’ve been seeing a lot of fans that we hadn’t seen in ages on this tour. Last night in Milwaukee was a perfect example of that… Saw some faces that took me back to our early tours. It always rocks seeing those folks, gets me feeling all nostalgic.
Club Anything in Milwaukee is great. Every time we’ve played there the experience has been excellent. Our show last night rocked, and we even pulled an unplugged song out of our hat to close the night. And after the set I was lured back to the dance-floor when I herd Ladytron, and stayed there when the DJ followed it with Shiny Toy Guns.
The night before that we were in Kansas City after a very long drive from Salt Lake City. Had a fun show there for a small crowd. Before our set we saw a gay couple in a pretty serious argument… They almost got tossed from the club! However, during our set they were standing beside each other…. I asked them to kiss from stage and they did. It was a beautiful moment. Bella Morte truly does make the world a better place!
See you tomorrow night, Nashville!
-Andy
Lunch in Kansas City:
We live a simple life:
Tony!:
Live in SLC:
Tour Journal – Distance
We played Salt Lake City for the first time in years tonight and had a great show. It’s awesome to see how much audiences are loving our new songs from Before The Flood… Feels very good after how much time, heart and effort went into making the album.
Tonight I saw some faces I hadn’t seen in a while, but everyone was as nice and enthusiastic as ever. It’s funny, we play a city, make a few friends there and sometimes don’t return for a year or more. When we do get back I always expect things to be as they were, but they rarely are. Relationships go sour, others flourish. Same with friendships and local bands. In my mind, ten minutes has gone by since I last saw everyone, but the reality is that these folks have been living life the whole time. But regardless of the changes, I love seeing the friends I’ve made here and there who have made touring so much more fun.
We’re on the road to Kansas now, a drive that will last 16 and a half hours. I foresee lots of coffee in my immediate future.
-Andy
Dinner before the show:
In the bathroom picture messaging Eric, who was also in the bathroom:
Left on our van window after the show in LA:
Tour Journal – From Hollywood to a Ghost Town
Saturday night in LA was great. We always have a blast at Bar Sinister, and this show was no exception… The place was packed! We played our longest set of the tour and would have kept going if we could’ve. After the debacle in San Francisco we needed a show like that…
We had the following day off, so we got to hang out in LA. Tony hung out with his hot aunt, Jordan and Eric wandered the walk of stars, and I stayed at the hotel and watched football all day… which was great. The Steelers kicked ass and I got some time to veg out. Sunday night we moseyed down to the wax museum with some friends, but got there as it was closing. So we crossed the street and went to the Ripley’s Museum instead, which was basically like paying someone $15 to let you look around at articles on Wikipedia. Really, most of the exhibits involved manikins stationed beside wall-plaques that spelled out why the manikin should be worth looking at.
Today we started toward Salt Lake City, where we’re playing at Area 51. Along the way we saw a billboard advertising a place called “Calico Ghost Town.” We decided to stop, pulled off of I-15 and drove toward a 50’s-style diner called Peggy Sue’s. And the air was thick with bees! Like, thousands of them, literally. They were everywhere. I pulled up to the diner, baffled by the swarm of bees. We got out of the van, fearless adventurers that we are, and I asked a random guy what the hell was going on. Apparently, a truck carrying bees had been through, and some had escaped. It was crazy! No one was stung, and I can only hope that the bees were able to start new, happy lives in the desert. We got directions to the ghost town from a waitress and made our way three miles to the front gate. An older couple was manning the welcome station, and I believe they might have been the nicest folks I’ve ever met. We talked briefly about our band, and it turned out the guy was a guitarist that had done a lot of touring as well, mainly with old-style country bands. He waived the entrance fee and told us to have fun. And we did! The little mining town is definitely a tourist trap, but it’s still cool, and has one hell of a history.
After leaving we made our way back to Peggy Sue’s Diner for shakes. The waitresses were all great, and the shakes were to die for. Good stuff. Then it was back to I-15 east at eighty miles per hour. We’re at a hotel now, and tonight we’ll be performing at Area 51 in Salt Lake City!
-Andy
Calico Ghost Town:
We just had to:
Shakes at Peggy Sue’s:
Tough Guy:
Tour Journal – A Turd in the Hall
We made it to San Francisco with time to spare. Found a hotel not too far from where we’d be playing, checked in and headed to our second-floor room. We ascended the steps, started down the hall… and that’s where we saw it: the turd in the hall. Little did we know that this nugget of feces would be the perfect metaphor for the rest of the evening.
After a couple hours of relaxing we made our way to The Retox Lounge, a small, gritty rock n roll club that seemed to have promise. The promise was a lie. When we started setting up our gear I noticed that none of the mic stands worked. I mean, they could hold a mic, but they damn well couldn’t be adjusted to suit my height. But I looked past it, determined to have a good show. But seconds later, when the sound-man asked me for an xlr cable due to his not having enough of them, I knew we were in trouble. That trouble came to a head 7 songs in to our set… We were at the end of Regret when the synths and vocals went away. The PA had died. The sound guy scrambled around for 10 minutes to get it working, and eventually did… kind of. We tried one more song, but after we kicked in we had to stop because the monitors weren’t on. I asked the sound man what was up with that, to which he responded, “oh, did you want those on?” That was it. We told him to forget about it and did an unplugged song before saying goodnight. The fans in attendance were great, and found the whole thing as funny as we did. We truly have the best fans in the world.
Today, while leaving the hotel, we found yet another turd in the hall. Go figure.
-Andy
Backstage (in the van) in San Francisco:
Car on fire on I-5:
Some of the turds:
