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Today I Caught The Plague: Exclusive “Adventure Metal Across America Tour” Journal 2 with guitarist Ben Davis

Day 7: Nashville, TN: So, are you as excited as I am for the new Taylor Swift video to be released? Anyone? No? Well seeing as TICTP could very well be featured in it I don’t see why you wouldn’t be! What a day in Nashville!

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Day 7: Nashville, TN: So, are you as excited as I am for the new Taylor Swift video to be released? Anyone? No? Well seeing as TICTP could very well be featured in it I don’t see why you wouldn’t be! What a day in Nashville!

We caught wind early yesterday that Taylor was shooting a video at Rocketown which is the venue we were performing at. The directors were looking for different looking people for the shoot. People with tattoos, people that looked cool and people that dressed differently. So, needless to say as we walked into the building the casting director pointed right at us and gave an eccentric “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes” to all of us. Not knowing we weren’t actually there for the video shoot. After signing a few waivers us, and the rest of the cast (mostly consisting of young Taylor Swift like teeny boppers and young boys utilizing the skate park next door) began shooting for our big television debut.

The concept of the video was to have all these unique individuals skateboarding, riding bikes, playing basketball and just hanging out while her new song “Both of Us,” which is about embracing your individuality, plays in the background. I should mention Taylor was not on scene that day. She apparently filmed her parts earlier. I know, we’re all a little heartbroken too.

Expect to see guys like Eric, Matt, Steve and our merch guy Jelko skating up a storm. Mike, David and myself aren’t very good at skateboarding so I don’t know if we will be featured. But, we had fun anyways!

On another note it was Travis from Scale The Summit’s birthday today! So, after the show we decided to get everyone together and enjoy some of Nashville’s finest margaritas and mexican food!

Finally, we only have a 4 hour drive tomorrow so Hotel it is! Tonight will be the first time I sleep in a bed in 7 days. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Day 8: Little Rock, AR: We learned many years ago that small town shows can turn out to be some of the best shows you’ll play on the road. In 2009 TICTP did a 3 month, 75 show tour across Canada. Which if you’re Canadian raises some questions because in Canada there are really only a handful of large cities. Definitely not 75. So, more often than not we were playing cities that we never even heard of before like Humboldt, Saskatchewan, New Minus, Nova Scotia, Dauphin, Manitoba, the list goes on. We really weren’t sure what to expect at a heavy metal show in Arkansas. But, just like in Canada, Little Rock Arkansas proved to be no different. We had a great show tonight! We got to meet some cool new friends and one of those cool new friends Jimmy gave us a place to crash. Jimmy is a huge collector of horror movie memorabilia and Steve, Eric and myself got to sleep in his “man cave”. The room was just filled with movies, old toys, photos, autographs, and a life size Hannibal Lecter mannequin which scared me a couple of times in the middle of the night…and maybe once this morning.

We have a busy couple days ahead of us. I’m glad I got caught up on some sleep. We drive to Fort Worth, TX today, and tonight we make an 11 hour drive to Albuquerque, NM. Which means another van sleep…In the meantime I’m in good spirits, it’s a beautiful sunny day in Arkansas and clear weather ahead. So time to throw on some Circa Survive and enjoy the countryside!

Day 9 & 10: Fort Worth, TX & Albuquerque, NM: The last couple of days have been pretty exhausting. We had to do an eleven hour drive overnight from Fort Worth to Albuquerque. Luckily both of the shows turned out really well. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened the past two days. The next entry should be a good one. We’re going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow and then we’re playing in Vegas! Stoked!

Day 11: Flagstaff, Arizona: We didn’t end up making it to the Grand Canyon today. The drive was seven hours so we had to head straight to the show. The show tonight was…interesting.

First off when we got there there was no sound guy and the P.A. that was provided was a 4 or 5 channel mixing board with a couple of old speakers and microphones. This doesn’t really work well for us or Scale the Summit. We just cut out some vocal mics and didn’t mic the guitars and bass. Scale on the other hand is very lucky they have a really knowledgeable sound engineer with them because they use Axe FX which go directly into the P.A. They don’t use guitar amps. To put this in normal terms, shit was whack!

The turn out tonight consisted of the opening bands and two of our friends Tyler and Ricky who drove 5 hours all the way from Phoenix. Which I’m going to say was really awesome of them to do! Big props to them!

it would seem as if the show was a bust at this point but we played as we always do and about fifteen people walked in from the streets as they heard us playing. We started off the set joking around and not taking the show all that seriously but by the time our 4th or 5th song kicked in we realized we needed to step up our game a little because now people were actually there listening. We made the best of the situation, and made some new friends. It’s important to always keep a positive outlook. Whether the show be packed or empty you can always somehow turn a bad night into a good one. Just stay positive!

Even though we didn’t make the canyon today we decided to drive the couple of hours to the canyon tonight. We’re going to sleep in the van, and get up in the morning and see it in the day time. The drive to Grand Canyon national park at 2:00am is possibly the scariest drive we’ve ever done and we’ve driven through the Rockies in a snow storm and across Newfoundland in fog as thick as cement. I kid you not, Mike and I (Driver and shotgun extraordinaire) saw fifty plus full sized elk in a two hour drive! We stopped counting after fifty. These things come out of nowhere, run across the road and have antlers that stick out 2 feet on either side of their head! If one of those hit our van it could cause thousands in damage. Obviously we millennium falcon’d our way through all them and dodged them like imperial star ships! If Mike is Han solo I guess that makes me chewy…I guess I could use a hair cut. GRRRRRRRRRRR! Anyways, Time for bed. Guess who’s in the coffin tonight? GRRRRRRRRRRR!

Day 11.5: Grand Canyon: Today was one of my favorite days I’ve ever had on tour and I’m only half way through it. Did I mention that I’m playing in Las Vegas tonight? I figured I would do an entry before I have a Vegas adventure.

We all woke up at 8am, the sun was beating down pretty hard in the van. Not that anyone in the coffin would know. We ate breakfast, and then headed to the canyon. I know everyone says this but it’s really big. I mean REALLY BIG. Apparently, for every two inches of depth its two million years! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Obviously I haven’t, this is the first canyon I think I’ve ever seen.

My favourite part of the day is when we drove for twenty minutes away from the main resort and went to what they call desert view. We all kind of separated at this point and just took everything in. I grabbed my acoustic guitar out of the trailer and sat right at the edge and just played whatever came to my head for a good hour. It was hands down the most inspiring site I’ve ever seen. We still have a four hour drive to get to Vegas so I better catch some sleep. I have a feeling tonight may be a late one…

Day 12: Las Vegas, NV: What happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas. C’mon, I’m not going to tell you everything that we do. What a night though…

Check out the song: “From Bulwark to Bane”

“Adventure Metal Across America” Tour Dates:

05/26 – Howell, MI @ Bledfest
05/27 – Joliet, IL @ Mojoe’s
05/28 – Columbus, OH @ Skullys Music Diner
05/29 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose
05/30 – Richmond, VA @ Kingdom
05/31 – Charleston, SC @ Jimbos
06/01 – Nashville, TN @ Rocketown
06/02 – Little Rock, AR @ Dowtown Music
06/03 – Dallas, TX @ Tomcats
06/04 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theatre
06/05 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Cinnabar
06/06 – Las Vegas, NV @ Cheyenne Saloon
06/07 – Fullerton, CA @ Slidebar
06/08 – Camarillo, CA @ Rock City
06/09 – San Jose, CA @ Refuge
06/10 – South Lake Tahoe, CA @ American Legion
06/11 – Ogden, UT @ Mojo’s
06/12 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
06/13 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
06/14 – St Louis, MO @ Foxhole
06/15 – Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
06/16 – St Paul, MN @ Station 4

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