Weird Helmet Guy

After a snow filled day off in Georgetown during which i went into DC to take a walk around, it all looks quite good covered in snow.
I did find it a little unusual to see this key hole on the outer gate saying 'Welcome To The WhiteHouse'


It was also a little strange to see the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial frozen practically solid though.

You probably could have walked on it but i wasn't too interested in trying out the theory myself.

Next day we were off back to the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA for a show. This one had the unusual distinction of having the first stage invader of the year, complete with a very unusual piece of headgear. He apparently walked straight past all of the security before climbing up onto the stage. Apparently the security thought he was one of the crew. I don't think any of us dress like this. Check out the video!!


After that we were of to Myrtle Beach for the smallest show of the tour(not including the warm up in Boulder). We only managed to get in half of the screen and that was it. Oh well, easy day for my crew guys eh


Next up we were off to Atlanta for a show at the Civic Centre which in all the times i've been to Atlanta i've never been to this venue. It was a good show but also tonight i obtained my new desk mascot. This skeleton sat atop my desk for the entire Sams Town tour and this year he has a new flag to carry thanks to my good friends Ashlyn and Lyric.


Now we're off to Nashville for a show at the Grand Ole Opry.



This is quite a famous venue for the recording of the TV show of the same name which has hosted the best in country music so in honour of this the guys decided to break out their cover version of 'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town' and they invited Morgan from our opening act M-83 onstage to sing the female part of the song.


Today unfortunately wasn't a great day for some of our crew. There had a been a nasty bug going around the bus during the tour and today it reared it's ugly head as our long serving monitor engineer Clarke missed his first show in almost 4 years, he was hospitalised with Gastroenteritis and a bout of pneumonia and would have to spend the next couple of days recovering in a hotel room in Nashville before flying out to meet us in Houston a few days later. Another of our PA crew had the same thing and unfortunately was not able to rejoin the tour and had to be flown home.
Luckily they both made full recoveries within a couple of days.

Ray apparently thought that the illness surrounding our bus was too much to deal with so he put on his best "Asian outfit" in an attempt to combat this.

So we were onto the final run of this tour with a 14 hour drive to Houston for a day off on Superbowl Sunday. We managed to shoehorn the show again into the Verizon Theatre in houston amid everyone having thoughts that the tour was cursed as Lew Lew, our stage manager had to be taken to hospital after suffering chest pains during load in and one of my lighting guys almost knocking himself unconscious on a motor. Luckily they were both ok and returned to work that day with a full bill of health each.
Next day i managed to disprove the theory that 'Everything is bigger in Texas'. Except my lunch portion apparently


And all of a sudden we were onto the final show of this leg at the always fantastic Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie, near Dallas. This is probably the best venue in North America of its size.


I especially like the handrawn posters that are made for each show for each band to sign and are then displayed all around the backstage areas.


There is a poster backstage of the Pat Metheny Group backstage which bears a pretty striking resemblance to our own Dave Keuning. What do you think??

It was a great end show to the tour even in Brandon did stumble over the name of the area and almost called it Grand Rapids but managed to correct himself in time.

Even though it was the last show, Geoff apparently thought the tour was already over and had another of his trademark mid show naps.


So there we are off home we go for a week before flying to London to start the european leg of the tour.