The tour with Shinedown and As Lions officially ended 4 days ago. 

My initial intention was to sit down and blog every day of the tour. That clearly didn’t happen. I knew that a tour of this magnitude was going to be a lot of work; just how much work was something I wasn’t entirely prepared for. 

I’ve always known that touring life was something that I want to do. Hell, I’m currently writing a book that highlights all of the highs and lows I’ve experienced while being a working musician. Reflecting on a lot of the shit that I’ve done/gone through while working towards the ultimate goal of being a paid musician really puts a lot of things into perspective. This business is an unforgiving fickle bitch. Most people see the aspect of being on the road as nothing but a party. Better yet, the perception of being a touring musician encompasses a life of glamour and constant vacation. It’s really anything but.

Life on the road is not only tough on a personal level, but it’s also difficult when you’re thrown into a van with 5 other people of whom you’re unfamiliar with their regular/daily routines. Tensions can run high and annoyances deep. Working through those circumstances is really the true testament of a band.

I found myself with very little free time this entire tour. Believe me when I say; I’m not complaining. When it comes to band life, I’m a fucking workaholic. I put my nose to the grind stone and push for every opportunity afforded to us. One will rarely find a moment where I’m not constantly searching for the next step for the band to take. I figured blogging about our experiences was going to be a good outlet to really showcase all of the hard work we have been putting into this band. We know we’re not entitled to or owed a goddamn thing. What we have we worked very hard for. We’ve been blessed that we’ve made some pretty clutch decisions.

Showing up to the first show really highlighted exactly how much work was going to go into making these dates as successful as they possibly could be. Here’s a little light shed on what goes into being an opening band on a national tour:

Load in

We were instructed to show up at 1 o’clock every day to every venue we were playing. Shinedown had a full production team behind them. What this includes is two Prevost buses, a semi truck containing all of the gear/lighting rig/sound stations (monitors and front of house), stage crew, merch crew, tour managers, stage managers, etc. Shinedown shows up at 11 to the venue and the crew gets to work. The lighting scaffolds get set up, the sound engineers start to run all of their lines and stage hands are present to get the drum riser and guitar rigs in place for proper performance. Both As Lions and Cold Kingdom wait in the wings until all necessary items have been loaded in to the venue and are in proper placement for the crew to take over initial setup. When given the instruction, both bands are afforded hired stage hands that assist in bringing all gear into the venue. Our gear is then set in a specific spot in the venue where it will be out of way of all working personnel in the Shinedown camp. The drums get set up with their appropriate mic placement clipped on to each individual drum; the guitar rigs are plugged in; in-ear monitors are set up and ready for soundcheck; merch is unpacked and set up appropriately for highest point of sale; guitars are restrung when necessary and we play the waiting game.

In Between

Once all gear has been accounted for and ready for loading on stage given the instruction, the band has plenty of time to roam the halls/basement/upstairs of the venue. We’re given what’s called a “God Pass”. The pass allows us to move about the venue with little to no question. Sometimes, as in Reno, there’s so much to explore that we’d run out of time to find all of the nooks and cranny’s available to wander into. Other times, there’s very little to see in a venue; a green room and the show floor. Very rarely would we get the chance to leave the venue in “fear” that the stage manager would require something from us. Should we not be available to comply with the requests of the stage manager, it reflects poorly on how we are handling our business. Being a baby band on our first national tour, it was of utmost importance for us to portray nothing but a professional demeanor. 

Stage Load

After Shinedown completely their soundcheck for the evening, the drum platform was disassembled as well as the ramps set up on each side of the stage for Zach and Eric. The lighting crew would remove the mirrors set up at the front of the stage that reflected the lasers provided by the Shinedown camp. Once all necessary performance pieces were removed from the stage, it was time for As Lions to load their gear onto the stage and prepare their soundcheck for the evening. Being from the UK, the bands management rented them a driver/tour manager/sound engineer to handle those pieces of the business every night. Inevitably, there would be a bit more time involved to get the pieces into place for him to set up his pieces of the puzzle. Mic snakes would get changed out and different lines would be patched into the main sound board in order to facilitate their sound through his equipment. Once all of their equipment was set up, properly mic’ed and ready to roll, the band would run through two of their songs to make sure everything was up to par for when they took the stage. We became very good friends with these Brit boys and did everything we could to help in moving the process forward more smoothly. 

After the two songs of sound check, it was now time to tear down their drums, find a place for them to strike that was easily accessible for when we completed our set, set up Chris’ drums and wheel out our rigs for placement. Some stages took a little more intricate thinking to be able to accommodate all of our gear and others were more than ample amounts of space for us all to fit and be able to dance around. We would run all mic lines to the drum mics so graciously provided to us from Electro-Voice, plug in DI lines into our guitars rigs, run the in-ear monitors for Dani and have a main mic line and a backup mic line ready for that rare instance the main mic goes down during the show. Some nights would be behind schedule and only allow us enough time to run one song for sound check. Other nights, we’d find ourselves with a plethora of time and be able to really dial in our monitors for show time. Regardless of the amount of time we had for sound check, we always found ourselves with a maximum of an hour before showtime. It wasn’t uncommon for us to finish with our sound check and start to see bodies flowing through the doors. Our sound check would always finish damn near the exact same time as doors being opened for people to file in.

Show Time

The hour before playing the show always seemed to be the time that would progress the quickest throughout the entire day (with the exception of the actual stage time, of course). This interval of time was always most brutal for me to go through. I was excited to play the show, but was also always nervous about how many people were actually going to filter in through the door to be able to see our band play. These crowds, after all, were ultimately what was going to afford us to continue this tour. If we weren’t getting in front of as many people as we possibly could, we weren’t going to be able to sell merch to self fund what we were doing, not to mention be able to successfully come back to these areas to be able to play for reasonable crowds. A band only survives by word of mouth and its fan bases willingness to “sell” your band to their friends. I eventually realized it was in my best interest to not venture out onto the floor to see how the crowd was filling out. It was smarter for me to wait until I actually took stage to witness the influx of people there to witness the carnage we produce on stage. I never play a different show due to the amount of individuals in attendance, but it’s always nice to know you’re playing for a relatively good amount of people. Especially when we’re this far away from home in a market who doesn’t know us from Adam. 

Every night when I’d take the stage, I’d look out into the audience and feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this experience. There was never a show I’d look out and think, “Dammit...I wish there were more people here.” The crowds were always amazing. We played to multiple sold out venues. Not a lot of bands, local or not, can say they’ve had that opportunity on their first tour. We’d get on stage and deliver our 25-30 minute set of rock with as poignant of precision as possible. We were playing for keeps. This was cut throat and we weren’t taking it easy. Every night of this tour, I walked off the stage feeling as though I stepped out of a swimming pool. There will never be a time I don’t give it my absolute all. I feel everyone in Cold Kingdom delivers the same sentiment every time we get on stage. To me, that’s what really sets us apart from most other bands trying to accomplish the same feat as we are.

Every night, it felt that as soon as it had started; it was over. We’d end with The Break every night, and every night I’d hear the cheers from the audience I’d get a feeling of “Bummer....that went far too quick” and I’d find myself wanting more and wanting to get to the next night to do it all over again.

Load Out

We just threw down for 30 minutes giving all of our exhaustion and efforts and leaving them on stage. At a typical local show, even the opening band would have the opportunity to simply tear down their gear off stage, put it to the side and enjoy the rest of the evening. When the headlining band is finally done with their set, that’s when tear down occurs and every band loads their shit out the door. A national tour is a completely different story.

Once our set ended, it was a mad dash to get all cables wrapped up, drums dismantled and everything Cold Kingdom related off of the stage. Once our gear was removed from the stage, we’d typically help the As Lions crew get their drums on stage and positioned in order to make a smoother transition for all parties involved. Then, we’d have to stand back stage and quickly assemble all of our gear back into order so we could load the trailer up. With the exception of San Diego where we got to leave all of our gear in the venue overnight, it wasn’t uncommon for all of us to miss their entire set. The guys were loading the trailer and Dani ran back to merch to make face with possible new fans and “sling” merch. Sweating our asses off and being drained from the set we just played, we were still required to move quickly and get all of our equipment out of the venue ASAP. When As Lions was done playing, our shit needed to be free from the hallways so they could do the exact same thing before Shinedown took the stage. It was always a mad scurry to get this accomplished in the amount of time allotted.

End of the Night Push

I never missed a Shinedown set. I watched them decimate the stage every night. I watched as they taught me what it meant to be a real working musician and be successful at what you do. The second the note of the last song would hit, the band knew they needed to be present either at the merch table or standing with a handful of CD’s out front of the venue. While we know it’s important to sell merchandise to a new market, we also believe in the notion of connecting with the people who will ultimately be our support system. 

Once Shinedown ended their set, it was a chaotic mad dash for everyone to either exit the building or congregate around merch. Some people wanted to purchase merchandise, others wanted a picture, or some wanted both. We got to a point where we had to open multiple CD’s every night before the show to keep the movement of bodies flowing steadily so we didn’t have a slew of individuals trying to open CD’s asking for signatures. Which, let me tell you, is a weird and new feeling to me to have people want to take pictures with me and ask for signatures. It’s a humbling experience and one I’ll never take for granted.

The final body would leave the establishment and our job of packing up merch would take over. Every night involved a count in and a count out of all merchandise brought in to the venue by the band. There we were, three bands, counting merchandise and calculating the amount owed to each place we played and to the promoters involved with the show. Luckily, we had a seasoned vet in Mike Grothe that came along with us on the tour who took care of all of that shit for us. God bless that man!

Once merch was packed up and the venue/promoter were paid, it was time for us to file into the van and make our way to our next destination. We’d either find ourselves driving through the night to get half way/full distance to the next show, or we’d post up at a hotel and wake up early the next morning to drive to where we were playing next and be there no later than 1 o’clock. 

As I stated in the earlier part of this post....I have found myself with very little free time this entire tour. Even now, as I sit at a hotel in Las Vegas, I find myself scouring for the next piece of opportunity for Cold Kingdom to work towards. There is so much for us to take advantage of, it’s just a matter of finding the right way to reach out and take hold of it. I refuse to settle for less than what I feel we’re worth. However, I know that’s going to take nothing but hard work and dedication. This is what I do best. It’s the salesman in me. I’ll always push and always reach for more. This industry can tell me “no” as many times as they want. It’ll be me laughing when I’ve surpassed their expectations of what a successful band should be. 

Thank you to everyone who supported this from the start and who continue to support CK. Thank you to the new-comers who are putting their faith into our brand of rock and roll. Thank you also to the haters; I need your fuel too!