Split Chain: Tour Diary - Day 7 - Washington, DC

We woke up in Richmond, where we’d crashed for the night, and met up with the guys from Tarantula who dropped off the drum kit at our Airbnb so we could load it into the van. On the way out, we made a Walmart stop—Tom grabbed some Magic The Gathering cards that Bert later cracked open at the venue.

The drive to Union Stage in DC was a short one. After loading in, we took a walk around the city, checking out monuments and talking about how surreal it all feels—especially hearing about it from someone who's not from the U.S.

We eventually made our way back to the venue. As the guys were getting ready to play, the guy handling lights came up and asked Bert and me how we felt about strobes and haze. We told him to have fun with it.

Split Chain: Tour Diary - Day 3 - Atlanta

Running late getting into Atlanta from Kentucky. The guys had a show at The Masquerade opening for Silverstein—a makeup date from the tour that got canceled due to severe weather. .

It was 4:02 PM, doors at 5:30, and still about an hour left on the drive.

We hit Atlanta traffic right around 5 and didn’t pull up till like 15 minutes after doors. As soon as we loaded in, me and Oli ran straight to merch. I started folding down all the shirts into size runs to make it less chaotic, and we managed to sell a few right away.

Once the boys hit the stage, I started running around trying to catch a few different angles. Kids were moshing in the middle of the room, so I ran down from the balcony to try and get in it—but by the time I made it, the pit had closed and the crowd surfers were out. Started filming that instead.

At one point, this tall dude tapped me and was like, “You wanna get on my shoulders to film?” I told him if he could lift me, just launch me to the front. He picked me up and next thing I know, I’m crowd surfing with my camera in the air, filming the whole ride.

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y-T_QlqDAs

Split Chain: Tour Diary - Day 2 - Louisville (LDB Fest)

We were on the road by 10 a.m, making the three-hour drive from Columbus to Louisville for LDB Fest. The guys spent most of the ride trying to piece together a setlist, since they only had 20 minutes to play.

As soon as we crossed into Kentucky, the rain started—coming down hard, then easing up, then slamming again all the way to the venue.

Once we got there, we set up the merch table next to a band called Big Ass Truck. Bert immediately hit it off with them, matching drinks like old friends.

The festival flew by, and before we knew it, we were back in the van, inching closer to tomorrow’s destination: Atlanta. After about an hour, we pulled off for Waffle House and found a spot to crash for the night.

Split Chain: Tour Diary - Day 1 - Pittsburgh

Today kicks off the first day of tour with Split Chain—I’ll be tagging along through May 2nd, documenting the ride as we make our way down the East Coast.

Caught a train to Hoboken to meet up with the guys and load into the van with our driver, Josh—a Canadian from Windsor who honestly could moonlight as a stand-up comic with how funny he is. Once we hit the road, I spent most of the ride with my back on the dash, filming and chatting about music and whatever else came up, usually random tangents.

We looked into booking a cabin for after the show, but quickly realized it didn’t have a bathroom—which, with seven people, was a no-go.

Eventually made it to Preserving Underground in Pittsburgh. Such an amazing spot—really felt like a true community hub, with all kinds of people, young and old, coming together. After the show, we packed up, hit a Walmart for food, and drove on to Ohio to crash so tomorrow’s haul to LDB Fest won’t be as brutal.

Writing this from the van en route to a Days Inn somewhere in Columbus, Ohio—it's 1:28AM, but there's a Waffle House across the street, so I’m not complaining. I brought about 40 rolls of film for the trip, but for these end-of-day posts, I’ll be sharing snapshots from my little Contax digicam.

Just woke up at 6:40AM and found out the Waffle House is to go orders only (horrible).

I was planning to sit there and work on this post, but looks like Waffle House will have to wait for another day.

Behind The Scenes at Split Chain’s First Headline Show

Jasmine from Epitaph Records asked if I’d be down to shoot Split Chain’s first U.S. headline show at TV Eye.

I said yes—but only if I could spend the whole day with them. I get a little nervous before things like this; I tend to go all in with people right away, and sometimes that energy can be a lot. But they were totally on the same page. Everything flowed—karaoke, doodles, pizza. I wanted to cram everyone into the photo booth, but it was sadly out of order.

Earlier in the day, we’d joked about stage dives and how some people just don’t get stage etiquette.

Sure enough, once the band got on, two kids started aimlessly wandering the stage like they thought they were part of the show. Eventually one guy got the memo, I pointed to one of them and said, “See that dude? He’s your responsibility. Keep him off stage.” He just smiled and went, “Got it.”