Despite the passage of only two weeks, our start on the Dave Matthews Band Tour now seems like a blur. In an epic drive, Brande drove from Long Beach, CA, to Milwaukee to retrieve me. I experienced the last 17 hours of the drive into Massachusetts. The drive was long and we hit construction making us later than we’d hoped, but that’s how touring goes.
The Massachusetts shows provided a wicked accent and the biggest donation anyone has ever given me. While I enjoyed the Boston area accent Brande made me well aware of my own Midwestern take on the word “bag.” Now I’m self conscious about it. (Editor’s note: seriously, you need to hear how Brian says the word ‘bag’. It makes me heart all of Milwaukee.)
I digress. We finished the Mass. shows and headed to Hartford where Brande split off for Virgin Music Festival and I picked Jessica up for a four show run on DMB. We had one volunteer per Hartford show and both did great to boost our numbers. Both volunteers even braved the post show mass exodus of the less than sober crowd and sold wristbands with me.
The next day put me on a 7-state drive to rejoin Warped Tour with Joe. Upon arrival we received a warm welcome back from our friends in the Take Action area (by warm I mean roughly 95 degrees plus Midwest humidity). The early mornings and late drives on Warped are a stark contrast to the DMB Tour. The first few days are always hectic, gathering forgotten supplies and adjusting to the change in schedule. Whether it was regarding the oppressive heat, general fatigue, or randomness, Joe soon became familiar with the phrase “Welcome to Warped.” This phrase especially applied on August 9th, when we returned to Massachusetts for Warped.
Not only was the whole tour late, but the semi truck containing everything we owned except our three tables got lost. At that point there’s no amount of improvisation that can save you before that truck shows up. So we waited and waited until the truck rolled in around 1:30 pm. The Oxfam interns helped us unload our stuff and we rushed through setup. The rest of the day turned out to be very productive with everyone taking turns floating and tabling.
Buffalo, New York, offered one of the cooler shows I’ve experienced and it boosted our energy. Volunteers and weather affect our work the most on Warped so when we have volunteers and/or great weather we get pumped for the day. So thank you to all of the volunteers that have helped us thus far. I hope to see some of the old West Coast volunteers in the coming days…
1 comment:
Nice post! You have said it very well. Keep going.
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