http://billytalent.buzznet.com/user/journal/ en-us http://billytalent.buzznet.com/user/journal/2467111/ We then got up early and drove our rental car to Cleveland. We are now prepared for a show followed by a day off somewhere in Nashville and then our first time in New Orleans. The day off was another typical day off in a parking lot beside a cheap hotel. We discovered a golf course close by and I played for the first time. I was horrible. I shot a 93 in 9 holes.

April 24th. New Orleans, LA.
Crazy long drive but we finally made it to New Orleans. We spent all of our time in the french quarter. We bumped in to CHALI 2NA from Jurassic 5 right outside the House of Blues. We played lollapalooza in 2003 with J5 and talked with him for a bit. Jon met Robert Plant in a record store. He did have a picture on his cell phone but he dropped it in the toilet and the picture is gone. The House of Blues in New Orleans is very small and the show was great. Everyone was so close. I am really looking forward to coming back here again. It really is unlike anywhere I've ever been.

Now our next three shows are Radio shows in Baton Rouge, Houston and Dallas. Radio shows are usually a big mish mash of bands and I spend the days checking out everyone's gear and watching bands. Our set times were really early but the crowds that were there to watch us were great. There was a karaoke party one night and the drummer from Finger 11 got up and sang "Try Honesty." It was pretty funny. The last show in Dallas was massive. MCR ended up playing in front of about 20, 000 very excited fans. I got a great seat on a speaker on the stage right beside the crowd and watched everyone crowd surfing. Then Tommy Lee walks up and comments on how good my seat was. Bus call was soon and we are now off to Austin for the first time.

April 28th. Austin, TX.
Today we play at Stubb's barbq. This is an outdoor venue and is also the home of the famous "Stubb's barbq sauce." I spend the day walking around Austin and getting a stock pile of hot sauces for my home. We are also planning a barbq in our next day off parking lot so we prepare for this as well. Another great show with the mighty MCR and Bob Bryar gets up and plays a song with us.

April 29th, Monroe, LA. Day off.
I wake up to the sound of people talking outside and water being sprayed all over the bus. We are inside a bus wash station and half the guys are already at the grocery store next door buying meat and vegetables for our barbq. We start cooking around 3pm and don't stop until around 9pm. It's really great when the band and crew get together and hang out all day. Spirits are up going into the final leg of this tour.

April 30th. Birmingham, AL.
Today we play at a place called Sloss Furnaces. After exploring around the furnaces for about an hour I start over hearing "haunted" and "ghosts" where ever I walk from the locals. I got back to the bus and looked up Sloss Furnaces on the internet. It turns out this place is one of the most haunted places in North America. A couple of us went into the most "haunted" area after looking at all the footage on the internet. I ran off by myself and was kind of making fun of the whole ghost thing. I then found myself alone walking out of a boiler area and said out load " I do believe you guys are hear, sorry for making fun". As I walked outside and around a corned I felt a rock hit me in the back of the foot. I turned around to laugh at the guys for trying to scare me by throwing a rock at me and there was no one behind me at all. It didn't freak me out or anything, it just was what it was. We play our show and spend the whole evening in the furnaces scaring the shit out of each other.

May 1st. St Louis, MO.
I'm really burnt out and I'll spend these next two days sleeping, doing laundry and watching TV. It's been a month since I've been able to just sit in silence. Our show isn't for another 48 hours which is really rare so I take full advantage of doing nothing.

May 3rd. St Louis, MO.
It's now show day and I'm rested up enough to finish off these last two shows. We'll be leaving the tour early and we will miss two shows in Philly and the last show at Madison Square Gardens!! We are all bummed about missing these three shows but right when we are done tomorrow we have to fly to the U.K to get on another bus that will drive us to Belgium. We've been booked to headline a festival over there and then go back to the U.K for two shows on the weekend before we fly back home. This will be a crazy 7 days but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let's just get through these two shows first.

May 4th. Columbus, OH. Last show with MCR.
We hung out with all the guys in Drive By and MCR last night. We all know this is coming to an end and we probably won't see each other for months or even years. Sleep. Columbus. Home. Belgium. England. England. Home.
I'm ready. I can honestly say this was the most fun I've had touring the states. It's great when you can surround yourself with good people and share 5 weeks with each other doing what we do. Bob plays drums with us again. I get up and play the cowbell in one of their songs. Soon I will be jet lagged in a foreign country where the locals speak flemish and we play in front of 14,000 people at midnight.
I love what I do.]]> Buzznet billytalent 2008-06-05T14:15:00Z http://billytalent.buzznet.com/user/journal/2232551/ Canadian rockers Billy Talent are currently on tour with My Chemical Romance, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk has been writing to Buzznet about all the shenanigans that have taken place so far. [cut=More!] From earthquakes to bullet holes, Billy Talent are having quite the adventure across the U.S., as they explain in the first installment of "One for the Road," Buzznet's new series of checkups with bands on tour.



We were about 3 months into writing our 3rd album when we got the call from My Chemical Romance. They were doing one last tour through the States in support of their album Black Parade and asked if we would come out and support them. We jumped at the opportunity to get on the road and hit some areas of America with them, which we have never been to. After playing so many shows with them in Europe last year, we knew we would have a good time.

March 29th. Railto Theatre. Tucson, AZ
What a great place for show number one. This place reminded me so much of the Brixton Academy in London — it has a sloped floor, so everyone has a good look at the stage. It's a pretty amazing club both to play at and watch a show. Today was time to see everyone in the bands and crew and try to remember everyone’s names. It's a very unique situation to be in. Reconnecting with old road friends is awesome, and everyone is in good spirits about the upcoming tour.
 
April 3rd and 4th. The Warfield. San Francisco, CA
We have played at the Warfield a couple times. This is a very interesting part of town in San Francisco. The drug problem just seems to have gotten out of hand and there are a lot of lost souls wandering the neighborhood. I'm starting to feel a little like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day." We play our show, leave everything at the venue and then come back and do it all again the next day. Kinda weird.
 
April 6th. Bamboozle Left. Irvine, CA
We bumped into the guys from Anti-Flag today. Great to see them all. We toured across Canada with them a while ago and have become good friends. We also ran into Darrin Pfieffer. Darrin plays drums in Goldfinger. We get to see him a bit more often because he lives in Toronto now. He’s crazy too. So many stories to tell — from the classic Twinkee in his ass to him going into the crowd with a cordless mic and instigating a wall of death, and then lighting his cymbals on fire, there never seems to be a dull moment when he's around. Another great friend that I haven't seen in about a month and only get to spend about 4 hours with him.
 
April 8th and 9th. Crystal Ballroom. Portland, OR
We really are playing some great rooms. Sorry for going on about the venues, but when you play so many live shows, you really feel lucky when you play at a great place. The Crystal Ballroom a very great venue. It has a bouncing floor. While MCR were playing and we were in our dressing room, the door to the washroom in our room was practically banging back and forth from the amount of kids jumping up and down. Another cool thing is that it's on the 2nd flood of a building and it has a huge glass wall. When you stand on the street below you can see the lights of a rock show blasting through the glass.
 
April 14th. Fillmore Auditorium. Denver, CO
So, we're officially in the middle of the tour now — we're really having a good time and the weeks have been flying by. We've been able to hang a lot with the MCR guys. A funny thing happened today … The My Chem guys travel with 2 amazing remote control cars. Bob, the drummer, built a ramp and Jon and I both dared him to try and jump them over top of us — which he did. It was hilarious … I guess you had to be there.
 
April 17th and 18th. Congress Theater. Chicago.
We showed up in Chicago for a day off on the 16th. About a week ago we got a notice on our tour bus about WhirlyBall on the day off. It wasn't an invite but a notice that anyone who doesn't show up will be kicked off the tour. At 8pm, all three tour buses showed up at the WhirlyBall court. For those who don’t know about this game, here are the rules: 5 against 5. Everyone is in a bumper car holding a scooper. I think it's called a Scooper? - you race around and chase a ball and scoop it up and then try and throw it through a basket. It's a pretty awesome game. For the last battle of the night it was MCR vs. Billy Talent. We destroyed them.

We all showed up to the bus and Jon, from our band and Jarret, our guitar tech, both said at 4am they were awoken by their beds shaking back and forth. Turns out there was a 5.2 earthquake that morning.

These two shows in Chicago turned out to be some of the best shows so far. I’m now starting to realize how huge MCR is in America and these small theatre shows are very special. The tour continues, and I'm writing this in another random hotel room. I walked into my room and decided to open the curtains to let some light into the room. I'm on the 8th floor and there's a bullet hole through the glass. I changed rooms.

Catch Billy Talent on their remaining tour dates with My Chemical Romance:
4.22: Cleveland, OH @ The Agora Theater
4.25: Baton Rouge, LA @ Baton Rouge River Center
4.26: Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia W. Mitchell Pavilion
4.28: Austin, TX @ Stubb's Amphitheater
4.30: Birmingham, AL @ Sloss Furnaces
5.3: St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
5.4: Columbus, OH @ Lifestyles Pavilion[/cut]
 ]]> aaron solowoniuk bamboozle bamboozle left billy talent bob bryar music my chemical romance Buzznet billytalent 2008-04-22T10:32:00Z