Day 11 Denver-Salt Lake City

Can I please talk to the new Spicy Shrimp Burrito
about the job opening?

Touring is great, touring is exhausting, touring is hazardous! Great because you get to be with people you like, people you care about, people you learn a lot from and people you share so many things with. It is also great because you make new friends and get to meet old friends and acquaintances. And of course it is great because you get to see new places and meet different people in different parts of the world, and you get to perform your music in front of thankful and energetic crowds.

It is exhausting because you are mostly travelling, so you don't get to see the sights, you don't get too much sleep, you almost never have the time to recoup properly and - the alcohol is both the reason and the cure for this.

Touring is hazardous, and if you read the last blog post, you know why. So, we woke up at this Wyoming truck stop, all of us cold to the bone since the heater in our van is broken, at least no one knows how to put it on, and the temperatures that night was pretty low. I felt like someone had just thrown me in a fucking wood chipper and sewn me back together with barbed wire. I got quite a few looks from the truckers, and when I had a look in the mirror, I really couldn't blame them. I addition to my fucked up head, I had bruises and grazes on both my knees, on my shoulder, my knuckles and my wrist.

Salt Lake City

You mean "cared"?

Andy reading his new mag

Fell back to sleep and woke up as we arrived at our hotel in SLC, just 2 blocks away from the venue, Area 51. That gave us some time to check in early and get a couple of hours of sleep before load-in at the venue. Niiiice! Then Andy, Layna and myself took a short walk in the hot streets of downtown Salt Lake City and had a dinner at a grill up the street from the venue. Of course I had a steak (wrapped in bacon, thank you). I mean, I fucking love meat. I could, if possible, eat only meat all day for the rest of my life. It is just too damn good. I know you vegetarians have all sorts of reasons for not eating meat, and I have no problems with that at all, but guys, you are so missing out on some of the most awesome food this planet has to offer. I wonder if America has meat flavored soda... If you don't have it here, it does not exist at all.

After setting up the stage, we realized how small it was. If Andy wasn't gonna fall off stage, my booth had to be pulled back a bit, so during the gig I could actually just lean into the wall behind me and it would still look like I was standing upright, so not much room for jumping or moving around. We kind of thought it would be a low energy show, but man were we wrong. When SITD came down backstage after their performance all excited about the show and the crowd, we knew it would become a great night.

Our backstage was set up in a shitty basement, and that basement was the backdrop for Andy's birthday. Before the show people had brought him some awesome gifts, and whether we wanted it or not, we just had to have some birthday shots before the show. Unfortunately there are some damn strict alcohol restrictions in SLC, so we weren't allowed to bring any kind of alchohol on stage, which was kind of a bummer since it was Saturday night and Andy's birthday and all. A few water bottles with mysterious content on stage fixed that :) And what a night! The SLC crowd were raving already during the first song, and during the third song people in the front had to push people back in order not to be pushed up on stage or fall over. This is by far the best crowd we've had on this tour. Thank you so much, Salt Lake!

Before the show a guy brought Andy a birthday cake, and when the main set was over, all our friends came on stage with a cake for Andy. And Andy shared. Oh yes, he did. After a while all of us on stage and the people up front looked like they were partaking a German scheisse movie. Pretty disturbing, actually, but a good intro to Floorkiller :-) The club was raving and it was a great end to the show.

The bars close early in Salt Lake, so wasn't too much time to hang out, but it was cool talking to all you nice and friendly people out on the patio. Thank you all for coming out the the show! Tonight is Boise, ID. First time there...