Today was an interesting day, to say the least.
The band spent more time playing music in the backyard than playing music in front of an audience.
After dealing with yesterday's van-related roadblocks, we had to deal with a few curveballs that today threw at us. The promoter for Out of Reverie's Eugene, Oregon show pulled a milk carton and disappeared at the same time that a few bands from the Longview, Washington show dropped out and forced that show to cancel, too.
It was just the pick-me-up that the band needed after it could not make the Fresno show on Tuesday due to the van trouble.
Out of Reverie set out on a west coast tour to play one show in the first four days (and a thousand miles)? I don't think so.
After some intense band discussions and a little bit of arguing, the four guys decided it was better to look for some replacement shows than cancel the whole thing altogether.
Luckily, after hours of searching the internet and making phone calls, Shine coffee shop in Sacramento agreed to add Out of Reverie to their Tuesday lineup and let the boys play an acoustic and/or toned down set.
It was not the optimal show, but at this point the band was ready to take whatever it could get.
After that, Rene Teran's buddy in Eugene, Oregon offered up his house for a show. Following some extremely bad luck, the tides seemed to be turning.
Sure, we wouldn't be riding into throngs of adoring fans at full-on rock and roll venues, but at least the band had places to play.
Consider it another lesson of the road learned.
Concert promoters drop out. Bands drop. But the touring band cannot drop out. While it may be more economically viable to turn around and head home, the guys just couldn't do it.
Call it pride, call it foolish, but they've got to finish what they started. A few set shows are still on in Washington, Idaho and Nevada and some really nice people in Sacramento and Eugene are helping get them there.
Out of Reverie is not going to make any money on this tour, but they will make it through. I tried to do my best Will Smith impression to cheer them up. Check it out on Krauss' Tumblr.
Don't let all of my written optimism fool you, though. A couple of the guys were thinking about quitting. But who wouldn't?
The constant bad breaks were enough to allow doubt to creep into anyone's head, but when worst came to worst the guys stuck together and will look to finish what they started.
That is not to say that today was all about dealing with venues and promoters and bad luck.
After we figured out the whole mess, we managed to have some fun.
Once again, having a place to stay played a crucial part.
Dain Griffin's aunt played a wonderful host for a second night and day and allowed us to use her house as a base while the van was being fixed and we contacted venues.
Sam McGee even found time to get a little Xbox in with Griffin's little cousin.
But most of the day was spent trying to pass the time. Griffin and Teran spent most of the day at the mechanic while the rest of us tried to find last minute shows.
You can only search the Internet for so long, though. And the rest of the day was spent trying to distract us from the previous two-days unfortunate events.
We headed out in our newly fixed van and hit the local CVS for some drinks and Teran decided to "chill out."
We hung out. Watched Youtube videos. Did whatever we could to keep spirits up. Later in the night after all of the technicalities had been worked out, we decided to relax and hit the hot tub. We may even of had a few brews.
Then, we just kind of sat around in a half-drunken state and talked about life and love and music. We talked about all that we had fought with during the tour. The band had only played one show, but it feels like we have been here for a week.
A couple of the guys decided to take a walk around the neighborhood at night to clear their heads. It was a much needed reprieve.
When asked if he wanted to head out a little stroll by Krauss, Teran responded with, "There is no such thing as no."
As the night creeps closer and closer to an end, I can only hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
And I really think it will be.
We have dealt with so much in the past few days and I am confident that my next post will actually mention music.
Tomorrow there's a show.
