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August 27, 2008 Posted by: bigd

Finally

Man, everybody has been so nice to us since my last update! People have been so kind and generous, especially Connor and Sarah in Denver! Thank you guys so much for the BBQ, the pool, the beer, the angry dog, the company, the tub filled with snacks, baby wipes and everything else we could ever use on the road. Thank you.

As far as our van troubles go, they are over for now! We bit the bullet and rented a tour bus! Whenever I open the door to our bus, I feel like Jimmy Page. It's so cool. Anyone who says a tour bus is just okay, they are either wrong, spoiled, an asshole or just don't get it. It is awesome.

The band is in high spirits, good health and we're having such a better time on the road now. The fact that we can go to bed now makes all of the difference in the world. We're also making it to the shows on time now too!

After 12 years of being a band, we finally got a bus of our own! We've had them for Warped Tour, but we've always been sharing it with others. It really feels amazing to take this band to the next level. We're ready to keep moving on up and hi-jacking the ears of people all over the world.

Thanks to everyone for the support and kind words and actions.

Here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Sean P. Rogan
www.seanprogan.com

















July 30, 2008 Posted by: bigd

A Test

July 15, 2008

A Test

I have no idea where to start. It might be easier to list what’s gone right as opposed to what’s gone wrong on this tour of all tours. A good friend of ours, Jon Cheese, has the letters PMA tattooed on his forearm. Positive Mental Attitude. That is what we need right now. We are in the biggest test of our band’s career…hopefully we’ll pass.

We are about two weeks into the Shout It Loud Tour with Less Than Jake, Suburban Legends and Goldfinger. Every show has been at the very least, awesome. The things that have been less than awesome are our van, rental vans and borrowed vans breaking down, time after time, and our trailer breaking, not once, but twice in one day. It’s like Murphy’s Law, “if something can go wrong, it will.”

We tried to help the environment out and save a few bucks by renting a van converted to run on veggie oil. That veggie part broke on the first day. At least we can still run the van on diesel fuel. Then that broke. We’ve taken cabs to garages in the middle of nowhere, sent Eric, our tour manager, on buses to retrieve broken down vans, trailers with an odd amount of functioning wheels and we’ve been late to almost every show.

Even when the shows are not that far in between, we can’t seem to make it on time. We go to sleep around 3a.m. every night, not because we’ve been partying or hanging out, but we usually have to drive for a few hours after each show. We’ve been getting up around 7 or 8a.m. too.

We really can’t believe how piss poor our luck has been on this tour, except for the shows! We are so incredibly lucky to play these packed shows in front of people that really seem to be having a bona fide good time. We are pretty lucky.

However, we are all totally exhausted from the extreme lack of sleep, endless problems that arise, late nights, early mornings, and no air conditioning, while driving through the country, 3 people to a bench. It’s hotter than two rats screwing in a wool sock. It’s all a test.

We try to stay positive. Stay positive. Always stay positive…but it’s tough. We think it’s a test because we’ve been a band for 12 years, have played hundreds of shows every year, traveled across borders, oceans, desserts and time zones, and our luck has never been this bad. But because it is so stressful and taxing on us, we believe that when we get home in August, we’ll be so happy, relaxed and healthy, then we’ll write the best record that can possibly be written. We are very excited about writing. We’ve been paying our dues for a long time and this is a psychically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting tour.

I hope that it doesn’t seem like I’m complaining, I just want anyone who reads this to get a glimpse into our situation. We definitely have a good laugh at some point everyday about all of the shit that’s hit the fan. I’ve heard and said, “it can’t get any worse, right?” every day since we left Boston on July 2nd. It’s July 15th today.

I guess that’s all for now. I’ve posted some pictures below too of photos that I’ve taken. Thanks for reading and please come and say hi to us at the shows, it definitely helps our PMA.


Sean P. Rogan
www.seanprogan.com














July 18, 2008 Posted by: bigd

Shout Out Loud!

Hey everybody. I apologize for my lack of tour updates. However, here is the first of this Less Than Jake, Goldfinger, Suburban Legends tour.

Everything is going really well except for our traveling. The shows have been amazing but the van that we're renting needs some TLC. The van we own pretty much sucks so we decided to continue with our eco friendly style and rent a veggie oil van!

It costs a little over a buck a gallon and is really cool. However, the van just got back from another tour the day that we rented it and did get serviced. Now it's a bit under the weather and unfortunately our trailer is too. That means we have to miss our Cleveland show today and hope to make it to the next one. We NEVER miss shows but unfortunately, it happens.

We will also be doing video tour updates that we'll post here, myspace and on youtube.com. Keep your eyes out for them.

That's all for now.

sean



July 8, 2008 Posted by: bigd