Nashville, TN home of the Titans

The last two shows in Columbia, SC and Nashville, TN were amazing. The crowd really made it memorable, bringing their game faces and Christmas cheer. I've had some recent issues arise which I would like to share; the first was pretty much my fault, the second wasn't and the third was a bit of both. Aparently bad things happen in threes.
The first:
I'm going to get right to it, I smashed my face with as much force as humanly possible (for me) into the rim of Tim's brand new bass drum. Luckily the drum was alright. I was facing the drums on stage rght with my left foot perched on the drum riser giving me the all too familiar comfort of the power stance. I had been getting agitated by one of my cables cutting in and out, in an attempt to release some of the bitterness I jumped back a bit not noticing Trev standing next to me. I bumped into him, not too hard, but enough to lose my balance. In an effort to regain equilibrium I went for the all to familiar stance with my foot on the drum riser again, except this time I was much closer to the drums and put my foot on his drum rug. I went to shift all of my my weight to my left foot (on the drum riser) and climb up staying on the beat with a casual head-bang. The head-bang, which has treated me so well over the years was my downfall, the same way Santanio Holmes' hands were the downfall of the Jets on Sunday but I'll get to that later. As my body climbed to the same altitude as Tim's nest his rug slipped on me and I laid one of the most serious head-bangs of my life straight into the rim of Tim's decadent new kick drum. I crumbled much like Sonny Liston did in the first minute of the first round in 1965 against Mohamed Ali. Luckily I didn't knock myself out. After the freight train of hurt was laid on my face I caught myself and continued playing...shows gotta go on of course. I was super out of it finishing up "Across The Ocean" and "Escape" and I think the blood gave me a little more character. I would now like to take this time to apologize for bleeding all over Skate High's (VA) stage..................now back to business. I got some ice and had my lovely little tour manager Mr. Don Henson run out and grab me butterfly bandages, liquid bandage, and super glue. I didn't end up making it to the super glue but the the other two saved me. Its been about three days and the cut on the bridge of my nose is nicely scabbing, the laceration at the bottom of my right eyebrow is sealed and ready to turn into a minor scar, the area around my eyes is now a shade of greenish-yellow flowing abstractly with a few shades of purple dabbled in here and there. Guess I'll always remember that one.
The second:
I've had some bad luck with my head recently. It'll stop working sometimes while I'm playing or even just turning it on and the green light will start to change between green and a red. I suppose it is Christmas time and this is the Twelve Days of Christmas Tour and its festive but still, come on! It crapped out on me mid set in North Carolina, the day after I landed a hay-maker of epic proportions with my head on a drum set. Luckily im on tour with my good friend Lucas from Oh Sleeper and he had my back.
The Third:
Mr Henson let me know that bad things come in threes so I should watch out, naturally I just start thinking about what could go wrong. Then I look down at my phone which is running my favorite fantasy football app and think to myself, wow, I could probably lose my playoff game which I am currently winning by 17 if Joe Flacco does work against a lack-luster Texans pass defense and Adrian Peterson decides to put up a rare but possible dismal game. Well as you can imagine, it happened. I'm sure most of you couldn't care less but if you do then you know how much fun, pride, and respect is on the line in fantasy football with your friends. Which leads me back to Santonio Holmes. Ahh yes MR HOLMES, I love the guy, he catches three game winning touchdowns in as many weeks, he looks great out there in a strictly platonic way, hes amazing....until Sunday. If he had caught a wide open ball in the end zone for a 17 yard touchdown I would have beaten a formidable foe by around 8 points. Instead I'm out. Routed by 4 points and left for dead in a match up determining 5th and 6th place. Woof. There are definitely more situational outcomes that could have happened but I like to dwell on the one that is the most "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" So I will blame that drop, straight through his arms and landing on the turf like someones glass-made dream being dropped from a 4 story window onto frozen white pavement. I am still a little bitter...but I love fantasy football and thinking about waiting another year for it to start again is certainly not the bees knees.

Yours Truly,
Woody

Rockin out on the twelve days of xmas tour

So we've been traversing through winter-wonderlands day-in and day-out. We've only really been fearful for our lives when we lose traction and have tractor trailers passing us going the other way on a two lane highway. Other than that its just the nostril hair freezing temperature that blows and makes you wear two socks, shorts under your pants and three jackets. We are from NH so its sort of like second nature at this point but it certainly doesn't mean we like it.
I've been working on a tour update that I'm hoping to have up on YouTube soon as well as an "Across The Ocean" video from two shows over the pond in England. I loaded it the other day but the quality is horseshit so I need to upload it in HD, if ya know what I mean ;)
I was told recently to make a Tumblr and start doing my little updates through that, I think its a great idea and will be making one relatively shortly but don't worry I'll let you know when I do, fa sho.
Back to the subject of this tour with Haste The Day, Oh Sleeper and Conditions, I just have to say it is a breath of fresh air to tour with bands that play actual music and combine that with genuine charisma both on and off stage. The combo of great people and great friends is very homey feeling, which is very fitting for this tour because it is the Twelve Days Of Christmas Tour. We're heading down to Maryland tomorrow, then Delaware and eventually South Carolina, cant wait. They don't get snow down there right? Alright well Haste The Day is playing "American Love" so I'm going to go bask in my freshman year of college as well as our old Drifters days. "Promise me, you'll stay with me forever, forever...."

Never Felt So Good

So Prague ended up being one of my favorite places on the tour. The buildings were wild, almost Alice and Wonderland-esqe, we walked around a castle, saw where archers used to make it rain from, went into a bad ass Cathedral, saw two wild clocks, found an absinthe bar, needless to say we made the rounds. On top of seeing all this cool stuff the show was one of my favorites of the year. The kids made it amazing and it was an awesome experience having kids come out to represent your band when your over 3,000 miles from home.
So after Prague we went to Austria, Germany for three days, and Italy for two to finish it up. Italy was good but we didn't have anytime to see anything cool besides the gloomy landscapes off the highway and we weren't in any awesome areas so we just hung out at the venues. Matt and I utilized our time wisely and won the FAA Cup in FIFA as Chelsea, it only took us about ten different times of starting the tournament to win and did we ever, the final game was a 6-0 beating of Fulham, count it. We are now better men.
The language barrier was in full effect when we were in Italy, luckily we had our good friend Matteo there to translate and teach us unforgivable phrases. However, I did manage to communicate how I wanted my haircut to an Italian-only speaking woman, and she nailed it! We ate a ton of pizza in Italy, it was in the festive spirit, and it was awesome.
We said farewell to our friend Tom who drove our asses around for the past month at around 6am in Milan, Italy. We will miss the frequent "FUCK ALL!" and "BLOODY WANKA!" from the front seat, as well as the FIFA coaching and overall football expertise. Hopefully one day we'll have the honor of showing him our country and how awesome American football is.
The plane ride home was rough. I've never been so happy to be in NYC than I was once we landed. We were coming in on the runway to land and we were dropping quicker than a blouse in a brothel, this was after 8 and a half hours of random gut wrenching drops shakes and shifts at 33,000 feet above the Atlantic...woof. Then our second plane, to Beantown, got canceled so after much confusion and no help from American Airlines we hopped in cabs en-route to La Guardia from JFK. Made the flight and quickly realized that I as going to accomplish flying in the smallest plane I've ever flown in, right after flying in the biggest plane I've ever been in. After much delay and weather warnings (that just caused the palms of our hands to become more sweaty and give us more time to contemplate our lives) we took off and actually had a decently smooth flight.

Finally, I can watch football again. Half mast just thinking about it.

Yours Truly,
Woody