visthestone-blog

[visthestone-blog]

Fragments of Time Part 1: Get in the Van Day 1.

    Greetings! As I sit in my pajamas watching Deep Purple play live on Granada Tv in 1970, patiently waiting to leave to go on tour. I figured I would start a series of posts about my very first tour whilst I was in Noisem. Bear with me as I try to remember everything or at least most of what went down on this short but sweet run. In this series I’ll also be including some stories from some of the other dudes. Well I hope you enjoy! 

      It was the beginning of June in 2013, I was eighteen and just finished my senior year of high school. We had just gotten back from Memphis less than a week before the start of this tour. The tour was with Ringworm, Encrust, and Mutilation Rites. It was only a few days long, nothing crazy for a bunch of kids that are just starting out. We had to get an adult to come with us because we were all under twenty one years old and only two of us had our licenses. I only had mine for less than six months; I barely even drove on the highway. Dom had one of his friends drive us, his name was Butt Crack. He was a high pitched, weird, spice smoking, scruffy dude who drove a tiny mini van. I vaguely remember packing our guitars, merch, and our over-packed personal bags. But I can remember driving into Pennsylvania some one put in a Cd that we got from Dom, we blared this Cd while driving through (I’m guessing) York; The beginning was loud and maddening, feedback warped into torturous low electronic delay that got more and more intense until you hear a loud UGH!! And then after that was exploding blast beats, agonizing screams, and brutal growls. This was the first time I heard Full of Hell; I loved every single second of the album and it’s still one of my all time favorites.  

   Once we got deeper into Pa, we stopped at a Wendy’s to eat. Butt Crack asked me if I could spot him on some food because he only had enough money for gas. I really didn’t have a lot of money and he said he would get something cheap so I agreed to pay for his meal. As soon as we got to the cashier to order our food, he orders the most expensive meal on the menu and I ended up just getting a small kids meal. Half the money I had was gone and I was so pissed that he straight up played me like that. I barely knew the guy and I felt kind of bad because I didn’t want him to starve while we were chowing down in the van on our way to Toledo. But whatever, it wasn’t going to happen again.

  We arrived in Toledo later that day. It was an eerie little city; there weren’t a lot of people in the city at all. It reminded me of one of those post apocalyptic zombie cities that you see in the movies. But anyway, we were late to the show. I don’t really remember much from this show other than Yago having bass troubles and one dude was doing some goofy hardcore dance where he kept launching his upper body forward and his arms would flail behind him like he was a chicken with arms trying to eat corn but didn’t know how to work his own arms. 

We stayed at a Renaissance hotel on the Maumee river after the show. It was a pretty fancy, I honestly have no idea how we paid for it. All I remember from this night was Butt crack and Tyler putting a plastic bag on a smoke detector so they could smoke cigarettes and It was freezing cold in the room. But I asked Sebastian and Harley what they remember from the first day of our first tour. 

“The Toledo show was kind of dead, we had technical difficulties and even Ringworm cut their set short. I remember Butt Crack trying to get hookers, most everyone smoking that spice shit with him, maybe a few beers? we took it easy that night” - Sebastian.

  “We had agreed to do this tour months in advance. Dom had set us up with a few shows with Ringworm during the home stretch of their US tour with Mutilation Rites and Encrust. When we agreed, we still hadn’t had a vehicle to tour with at this point, Instead we had planned on taking Orion from Ilsa’s van that I’d until they wrecked and totalled it out whilst touring Canada right before. However, Dom was also able to help us out with locating someone with a van which ended up being an old friend of his named Butt Crack. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, he was married, had a 3-5 year old kid a mini van and shit. Seemed like an average dude so we (my parents too) instilled our trust in him. Anyways, back to the main point. Butt Crack came and picked us up at around 10 or 11am even though we were trying to be out way earlier given the long drive. We had packed the gear in the night before so that was already prepared, just needed us and our personal bags. So we hopped in and went going. As soon as we got on the highway, Butt Crack ducks down behind his steering wheel and hits this bowl he pulled out of the center console. I thought it was weed so of course I thought that was tight. It smelled way strange though, really chemically. We soon found out it was spice or, ‘potpourri’, that synthetic weed shit that has now been known to kill people.     We couldn’t argue anything about that. After all it is his van, he did do us a huge favor agreeing to this and all, so we just dealt with it. About 45 minutes up the highway we make a stop in Frederick, MD to get some gas, snacks and also to buy a couple bottles of Mad Dog and I think some rum. Butt Crack was shamelessly pouring the rum into his drinks all the way to Toledo. It was a long and interesting ride nonetheless, keeping an eye on him, making sure he didn’t get too fucked up.     We ended up being a little late to the venue. But not as much as we were expecting. When we were still an hour out, I had the feeling we were gonna bomb and not even make it to the show but it turns out, everyone was a little late so all was a'okay. We loaded in our breakables and all. We planned on sharing cabinets with Encrust which worked out fine. After that a few of us went over to the super market across the street and tried to buy some more liquor because in Ohio, you can buy liquor at the grocery store! How wild is that? At the time we were blown away because we had never seen that before, nowadays I live in LA where alcohol and groceries go hand in hand. Regardless of that though, we got the most awful whisky imaginable. It tasted like carbonated, watered down whisky and of course it was because it only had 35%. Due to that whole thing, I ended up missing the first band, React, also due to just hanging outside instead. From what I remember though, they were an intense basketball jersey type Hardcore band. You know what I mean? It wasn’t bad, just not my cup of tea. However, we were slotted next. We all set up pretty quick, except Yago who was having problems hooking up his bass head into Encrust’s cabinet causing the guy to unfortunately come up and help him out. The set went over pretty good. We played well I think. There wasn’t really much of a crowd there, it was the same that whole night. Probably only a total of 20 people came out and this place could easily hold 200+.     After us was Encrust. I believe I missed their set this night for some reason. I can’t really remember much of the in between stuff a lot of times. I think I only caught some of Mutilation Rites and some of Ringworm too. After the show though, we decided we’d get a hotel room to stay at for the night. That took us down the street a couple blocks to a Best Western plus that was decorated fancy as hell. It had rose gold plated walls and mirrors in the elevator ceiling, really wild stuff. We all crammed into the one hotel room spread out between the two beds and the floor. I remember having a specifically non smoking hotel room, but due to the bad influence of Butt Crack, whom was periodically hitting that nasty shit from his pipe, all of us smokers were smoking. After a few hours of this and after Butt Crack’s attempt at ordering escorts to our room, we finally all got tired and fell asleep”  - Harley. 

    That was the first day of our first ever tour or at least what most of us could remember of it. Now that we are looking back on these experiences, it’s a lot crazier than I remember. I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing and digging up old photos of this trip. I’ll be working on part two of this series later this week. Have a great week! 

[visthestone-blog]

Flying High Again Part 3: Flying 101 with T boogs.

    This part is for all you birds that are leaving the nest for the first time and all you  peeps that are freaked out like I am. Hopefully, this post helps you out and gets you stoked to travel somewhere new. Sorry it took me a while to get to this point, but yeah here goes nothing. 

    First of all, pack a few days ahead to make sure you don”t forget anything you need. Do not be like me and pack a few hours before you leave. I’ve forgotten my inhaler, deodorant, and as silly as it sounds, I’ve totally forgotten to pack any underwear. What should you pack? Well it depends on what you’re doing, where you are going, and how long you’re going to be. Be sensible when it comes to packing; don’t be a dummy and pack just pants and a hoodie if you’re going to Canada in October. Try your best not too over pack too; I’ve learned the hard way. Nothing is more annoying than walking to a train with an awkwardly huge suitcase, heavy backpack, a laptop bag pulling your hair, and a guitar case while you are fully layered up for the Russian winter. Also, it can get expensive if you pack more than you need. Certain airlines charge $25-$70 for a checked bag, unless you are flying Southwest. Do your research because every airline is different. 

     The day before you travel, you should check into your flight as early as you can. You want to make sure you have a decent seat on the plane. Southwest has open seating, so the earlier you get on the plane the better seat you can choose. I always try to go for the isle seat on or near the wing of the plane. I choose the isle because I’m a moderately tall human being and it’s nice to stretch out the legs during a four hour flight. Also, I don’t want to have to wake up the person next to me to go to the bathroom. I sit on or near the wing of the plane because it’s the most stable place to sit on the plane. The exit rows have even more space than a regular row of seats. After you check in to your flight and triple check to make sure you packed your underwear, you should brush your teeth and get ready for bed. Or if you’re like me and want to sleep on a plane but can’t (because of obvious reasons). You could stay up all night, watch movies, play video games, whatever you want. This is probably not the best thing to do to your body, but it works for me.

     When the day comes for you to venture to the airport and start flapping your wings, take a shower because you stink and no one wants to smell you for an entire flight. I’m kidding (ha ha), taking a warm shower will help make you relax. But it is considerate and makes everyone’s trip better if you don’t smell like ass. Some dude kept farting on the flight to Memphis and it made everyone miserable, so don’t be like that dude. After you take that shower and start to get ready to leave, keep in mind what you’ll be going through when you get to the airport. Let’s say it together! -Airport security! If you want to dress to impress that frisky TSA agent while they’re feeling you up to make sure you aren’t hiding any dangerous substances in your bum, go for it by all means. I just want to get through the line as fast as I can to get to my gate. I usually just throw on some comfortable pajama pants, shoes that are easy to get off and on, and sometimes a hoodie if its cold. I throw everything that isn’t a phone or a wallet in my backpack, it avoids all the mess when you have to empty out your pockets for security. Before you leave the house, make sure you have a nice empty water bottle and some tasty snacks because everything at the airport is overpriced and snacks are essential. If you are like me and you instantly get anxious when you wake up the day of the flight, take a Benadryl or your anxiety medication if your doctor prescribes you any. If it is anxiety medicine just take half of it so you can get to the gate. Once you get to the airport and that lovely TSA agent checks you out and asks what that portable Marshall amp is, immediately check the screen for departures to make sure your gate didn’t change without you knowing. It sucks when you get to your gate and the city is Dallas instead of Phoenix; Yes it’s happened to me but things happen.

    Now that you are at your gate, it’s time to cut loose and relax. What I like to do is read a book while listen to some good tunes. Something that also really helps me out before a flight is the checking out www.turbulenceforecast.com. It’s a site that shows real time pilot reports of bumpy rides. It lets me know what I should expect during flights and usually it’s pretty spot on. If you are at least twenty one years of age and you like to rage, you can head to the bar and have a drink. I’ve tested this out first hand, it doesn’t work for me as well. Before my second tour with Lody Kong, I got WASTED at the airport before the flight. I thought I was doing okay but I felt everyone’s eyes stare at me. I was dressed like a bum, stumbling off in a corner with sunglasses on and earbuds blasting deafening music. I ended up sober as the plane took off. These days I buy three or four small bottles of alcoholic beverages at a liquor store (usually assorted flavors of 99 brand vodka). It’s cheaper than drinking on a plane, and I like to share with the people next to me. I like to crack one open and dump half in a bottle of overpriced ginger ale and drink while I wait to board. So by the time I get settled in my seat, I feel pretty good. I keep my backpack with my laptop under the seat in front of me and my headphones in my pocket.

    The most important thing you can do is keep still and relax all of your muscles while you are taking off. If you tense up, you will have a bad time during the climb. I like to get to know the people sitting next to me and talk about stuff. Most of the time, they’re a really nice person with an interesting background. I’ve met a girl that was fluent in five different languages, a guy who makes rings out of old bullets that he’s shot while hunting, and I’ve even had an awkward conversation with a small elder Italian woman who spoke little to no English. As you reach your cruising altitude the nice flight attendants will offer you snacks and drinks. Take the snacks if you forgot to pack some, you’ll need to sober up a little when you land so you know where to go and what to do if you have a connecting flight etc etc. But when they offer drinks, don’t ask for a drink with caffeine in it. You want to be drowsy and sleepy during the entire flight, it will make the time cruise by and hopefully youll fall asleep. Cranberry juice mixes very well with 99 Apple Vodka and Ginger ale goes excellent with 99 Grape Vodka, by the way. Don’t forget to offer some to your neighbors before you crack one open for yourself, you don’t want to be rude. If you’re still stressing about the flight take the other half of your medication. I hope you packed a blanket and/or a travel pillow, because you will zonk out very quickly. 

     About an hour or two before the flight ends, I usually open up my computer and play video games for the remaining time. It makes the time pass so much faster and it also makes couch feel like first class. There’s nothing like playing Skyrim while sipping on Jack and coke thirty thousand feet above the rest of the world. If you are lucky enough to snag an Emergency exit row seat, you can play the entire flight because the exit rows almost always have an electric outlet. 

  Next thing you know, you’ll be landing in another place far from home. This part can be just as scary, maybe even more terrifying than taking off. Again, the best thing to do is keep still and relax. Read a book (Killing my Insomnia by my bandmate Igor Cavalera Available now on Amazon), fiddle with your phone, do anything to distract you from thinking any stupid thoughts that will freak yourself out. If you have T-Mobile, they give you a free hour of Wifi on any airline that uses Gogo inflight wifi. Pretty neat huh? If none of this is working just remember that we live in an age of incredible technological advances. Planes can land themselves now, not many people know but they do. There is an auto pilot like function that lands the plane safe and sound. Pilots still need to land planes manually every once and a while so they don’t forget how to. I actually learned that fact from the dude who makes bullet rings. I’ve had a few rough landings on flights but that’s always bound to happen. It’s just another pothole in the road.

   I hope you enjoyed reading these series of posts. I think it’s kind of silly that I’m trying to give people advice on flying, but whatever. I enjoyed writing these and I hope it helps anyone that has trouble flying. If you have any questions about anything, I’ll be happy to answer them. I don’t really know what I will write about next, but if you have any suggestions let me know. Sorry for my bad grammar and punctuation, if you see any mistakes in my posts. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day. :)

[visthestone-blog]

Flying High Again Part 2: Peace out, Baltimore.

    We left off where things were starting to pick up. I auditioned for a band on the opposite side of the country and luckily I got the part. Excitement and joy instantly took over any negative thought I had at the time. It was time to pick up the guitar again and do what I forgot I loved doing.  

    In Phoenix, I was told that they were working on a tour in Europe. I was beyond stoked about the news, I’ve only ever been outside of the country a few times, and that was just Canada. It was kind of the same feeling that you get when your parents tell you they’re planning a family vacation to Disney World, after you’ve heard so much about it by your friends that have gone many times. But to get to over there and actually see the sights, eat the food, and learn about the culture you need to saddle up on a big metal griffin. It was about thirty seconds that all of these thoughts started popping up in my mind. How long are the flights? How safe are airplanes in other countries? How safe are these other countries? I started to panic on the inside, my stomach started to turn as my breath started to become shorter and shorter. I usually tend to over think everything and freak myself out; I’ve been trying to work on it lately. 

   A few months later, I was at home for the holidays, patiently waiting to tell everyone the incredible news. I remember a night that I was hanging out with friends in Ellicott City looking at records and old video games. The guy driving was going about a hundred miles per hour, weaving in and out of traffic, and texting while driving. I almost wanted to get out and walk home. Fortunately, we made it there and all was well. On the way back, I got a message from Igor and Aggy to get a ticket to fly out because the tour was all set up and ready. So as we were speeding back to my house, I was told I was about to fly out to Phoenix for a month to prepare for another month in Europe. Thank god I went to the bathroom before we left, because I would’ve pissed myself. I immediately started looking for cheap one way tickets out west as I was worrying about making it home alive. It’s hilarious because throughout the entire reckless drive back to my house, I was more worried about the flight that was going to happen in a few weeks than I was worried about dying in a car crash.

   It was a few days after Christmas and I was all packed for this trip; I had an early morning flight to Phoenix. My dad made a really nice dinner before I had to go to sleep. Chicken tortellini with sun dried tomatoes and garlic-y olive oil goodness. It smelled incredible, looked like a work of art, and tasted heavenly. I felt so bad because my nerves took over my appetite and I could only eat a few bites. That night I couldn’t sleep, I ended up throwing up the tortellini I ate. By the time I started to fall asleep, my dad woke me up. Before I knew it, I was half way to the airport and wide awake from anxiety. My body was exhausted; I even had trouble getting my guitar to the check in counter. I took a Benadryl before the flight to try and knock myself out. It kind of worked, but what really helped was this dude sitting next to me. We talked throughout the entire flight. I was drugged up talking about music and movies with this dude that I had very little in common with. That flight helped me realize that what I was putting in my own head was a self-constructed nightmare; and that’s all it was. 

   Over the past two years, I’ve experienced some weird situations on flights that turned out to be completely normal. Even though I still get freaked out before every flight, It gets better each time. I know there are people out there that are afraid like I am, and I know there are some that haven’t even stepped on an airplane because of it; But it’s a fear that is definitely worth getting over and hope those who are afraid can over come it and see how amazing and beautiful the world is. 

  I’ll post part three either tonight or tomorrow. I’ll ACTUALLY talk about my routines before flights and whatever.. After these series of posts, I’ll post more fun stories that have pictures along with it and they probably won’t be as long as thes posts. Thanks for reading if you’ve gotten this far!        See you later.

[visthestone-blog]

Flying High Again- Part 1: F.T.S.

   If you know me, you know I’m not the biggest fan of flying. I flew a few times with my family when I was a wee lad on vacation, but I don’t remember any of those flights. The flight I actually can remember was the one that made me afraid of flying, what a surprise. It was my first time flying solo and I was about sixteen. I was traveling out west to visit my family, with a layover in Kansas City. The take off from what I can remember was smooth and everything was going wonderful. So I got comfortable and started to fall asleep in the cold, awkward and cramped seat. Thirty or forty minutes cruise by and I wake up to the plane violently shaking. I hear other passenger’s luggage shift as the lady next to me explains that we are flying through strong jet stream. Suddenly the plane falls and everyone screams; at that split second I thought I was going to die. I can even remember the horror on the other passengers’ faces. Ever since that flight, I’ve had the fear that I would experience that horrible moment again, but the next time I could be the last. So yeah, I stopped flying after that.

     Two years later, Noisem was booked to play 2013 Scion Rock Fest in Memphis. As soon as I was told we were playing that show, I immediately felt sick and shaky. I did not want to go; I tried looking for reasons not to go. Dom convinced me that I had no choice but to go. He even flew with me to Memphis. When the day came for me to leave for the show, I felt sick again. I couldn’t eat, I barely slept, and I even threw up in the Airport Bathroom. Fast forward to the next morning. We arrive safely in Memphis and I walk off the plane with sore knuckles. My knuckles hurt so bad from clawing the airplane seat for the entire flight. And the flight back home wasn’t any different; I puked, I shaked, and I clawed. I hated every second I was on that plane, I never stressed myself out like that.   

      September of 2014, I was no longer in Noisem, I got a job, and went to college for a semester. The Noiseboys were doing great without me; They were on the cover of Decibel, they toured with Carcass again, and they were back in the studio. I was so depressed and I knew I made a mistake, but it was too late. In 2015, Igor and Aggy came out to see the A389 Bash. They stayed at my house for the night; We talked a lot and they made a joke about stealing me for Lody Kong. I told them I would love to. Summer of 2015, I made my way out to Phoenix to hang out with Igor and Aggy. The same thing happened before my flight to Phoenix  and When I flew back home. At least I didn’t dig my fingers into the seat again. We talked a lot about Lody Kong and I learned a few songs. We had a great time while I was out there. Next thing I know, it’s December 2016 and I’m waiting at the Airport gate to go to Phoenix for a month to prepare for another month in Europe. This time was different, I was sick and tired of being so stressed, I really just wanted to relax. So at this point I was trying to find ways to keep myself at ease while flying. I tried staying up all night to exhaust myself. It didn’t work that well. But there was  a cool dude that talked to me the entire flight. We talked mostly about music and movies; we had absolutely nothing in common but it wasn’t a bad flight. To save time and space (if anyone is actually reading this garbage haha) I’m going to skip ahead again. I’ve had a lot of flights this past year and about six out of ten times, there has been something sketchy that has happened that gave me panic attacks. But I have experimented in ways to make flying easier for me. In the next post I’ll explain more about these “Experiments”. Thanks for reading, if you’ve gotten this far....  :)