Wed 24th Nov – Tempe, Marquee Theatre I turned up late from the hotel on purpose knowing there was nothing around, but no way as late as James who’d been missing since the day before having his first tattoo, done by Evil Dave (Incision tattoos). He ended up missing sound check. We played here last year and I was excited to be in a good venue again, even though the shower was bust. Had fun watching all the other bands rip the crowd to pieces and when we hit stage all hell broke loose. We had technical problems form the start which became a major distraction for the show and so we came off a little deflated. The crowd was good though and still loved it, thankfully sparing us. Was a bit of a downer to also find that Himsa and BT had left early and so didn’t hang out much. And guess what… no bras! Thu 25th Nov – Los Angeles, House Of Blues We were woken at 8am by our tour manager Big Martin to the news that our bus had broken down 40 miles outside Pheonix and a new bus was arriving shortly. So, we swapped buses in the middle of the desert after only 3 hours sleep and carried on towards LA as soon as possible. Obviously, the crew arrived before us and so we had a late sound check. Bam and Brandon from Jackass suddenly appeared totally out of the blue and the other good news was tonight had sold out. I hung around and saw great sets by all the bands before us and I was nervous we were not gonna be able to keep up after last nights onstage shit. But… I was totally wrong. This could have been the show of the tour (I can’t say right now ‘cos its not over yet) and we came offstage on a total high. We had a laugh for once afterwards and some great people were there to witness it. I stayed over in LA with friends. Fri 26th Nov – Anaheim, House Of Blues Tonight was sold out over 3 weeks ago. Bleeding Through’s “Home town” gig. Arrived on time for sound check and a chance to chill before tonight’s show started. The venue’s security seemed a little confused with our passes which meant us and our guests kept being hassled the whole time. Some of our friends didn’t even make it in. Missed some of Himsa tonight as I fell asleep on the bus before. Shit. I was kinda feeling a little lazy before we hit stage but once we got on all was good. Managed yet another blinding gig with Dani being on top form, mid set pulling some of my missing underwear out of his pocket to get a cheap laugh from the crowd. Bastard. I invited some fans backstage who had made this their third straight show at the front and were even making tomorrows! Now that’s dedication. Hung with the Himsa guys and Sarah until we pulled out at the usual 3am leave. I’m still ill 🙁 Sat 27th Nov – San Diego, Soma Never been here before. The venue was a huge old cinema with below par facilities. Another day with no shower. Didn’t eat all day either. Bummed out zombie state was strong today. Did do a little toy shopping though at a flea market near by. The positive was, the ticket sales was approaching 2,000 and all the bands took advantage of the enthusiastic Saturday night crowd. Great show for all. We had a little party afterwards which finished with us getting kicked out of the venue. It then moved onto Bleeding Through’s bus, ending with Martin and Thomas (B.T. Merch guy) having a belt whipping session. I was shocked. I mean, what’s wrong with a kiss? I guess I’m just old fashioned. Set off without Sarah so she had to run after us down the street. We left early as we had to change bus again the next day. Wow, must have been good tonight, seven bras onstage!!! Sun 28th Nov – San Francisco, Fillmore Thought we’d been here before but I was wrong. Met the guys from AFI before the show, which was a pleasure. Also got to hook up with my old friend Ghost of G.G.F.H. Watching from the balcony I noticed a pretty violent pit tonight for Bleeding Through. Big guys just running into each other and punching anyone who came near them. Even girls are in there. I don’t see the sense but hey, I’m onstage. It looks dangerous. We got news today of someone who was seriously hurt in Denver I remember at the end of our set as we walked off stage, lots of security guards went into the pit and I instructed our tour manager to check it out, as I was concerned something had gone seriously wrong. I saw a couple of fans jumping into the pit from above before the end of the song and thought it was way out of line. I want people to know we, as a band, do not condone anything like crowd violence. We spend a lot of time and effort trying to entertain our fans in other ways. It’s a shame when something like this happens and we hope the person injured is ok. Anyway, back to tonight show. We did our fourth straight good gig to another sold out audience. Pretty hot without a shower, yet again. Thankfully, a day room tomorrow half way to Seattle to try get back to being human again.