Editor’s Note: In Tour Diaries, local bands write to report back from wherever their tours take them, for better or for worse.
March 19th, 2015:
So, the beginning is a solid place to start. Two days before this band was to leave, the brakes on my van (his name is Dennis) decided to blow the fuck up. When we took it to the mechanic it was going to cost $900 to get fixed. As a very poor musician, that number doesn’t even exist to me. With all hope gone, I hung my head and proceeded to cancel a tour that I spent a month and a half of my life booking. All hope was gone and it looked like I was going to stay at home and work for three months to try and save up the money to get the van fixed. Then with the advice from a friend, I used crowd-funding to see if I could raise some money to help pay for it. I didn’t expect to make more than $200 (tops) — but within 12 hours we raised over $1000 and got the van fixed. It was a miracle to say the least. Now, normally one would expect smooth sailing from here on out, but that doesn’t exist when you’re in a band called Resinater. On the way to pay for the van, Sam’s [Geneser] car breaks down. Long story short, it took about three hours longer to get on the road, which isn’t that bad unless you have a seven hour drive ahead of you and a load-in at 9 p.m. It was now 4 in the afternoon.
So we get gas and haul ass towards the first stop of Springfield, Missouri. We roll up right when we were supposed to play and it’s all “throw n’ go” style. We get on stage and then we notice that this place is packed to the gills. We then proceed to play a good old fashioned fucking rock show involving stage diving, behind-the-head solos, cymbals being kicked across the stage, and of course, lasers. Given we have been drinkin’ a little already and the shots of whiskey helped out for sure. After that, we tear down and load out then head over to our friend Alex’s house where we ever-so-deservingly proceed to boogie on down ’til the break of dawn.
We went to sleep around 6 a.m. and woke up at 9 a.m. to hit the road again. Before we left we got a call from the club owner that the show was so good that he wanted to give us more money, which of course we accepted.
March 20th, 2015:
Today we only had a four-hour drive so, we decided to take it easy and hit some roadside attractions. The only one we saw worth going to was a gun museum. Basically, this guy collected guns from age seven to the day he died at the ripe old age of 86. This man, this collector, this insane bastard left this world owning 1300 firearms. Everything from a pistol belonging to Bonnie, of Bonnie and Clyde fame, to blunderbusses from pirate ships, and Nazi youth daggers to samurai katanas. After [spending] an hour there, we went to the venue for that night, the dinning room of a house in the middle of town. It was a very friendly show in regards that we were the only bands and the opening acts played solo sets. Now before we even touched an instrument we played a game involving AC/DC and 36 pack of Boxer beer. Four minutes later, when all the beer was gone, it was time to load in. After we got set up and the smoke machine warmed up and got cooking, 
we proceed to play, and then the smoke detector went off. No big problem — except for the fact that their smoke alarm is connected directly to the local fire department and in five minutes, two fire trucks showed up complete with fireman with axes in hand. Turns out this happens at this house more often than one would think but it was a new one for us. After playing and tearing down we hung out and made new friends as well as enjoyed the company of old ones. Around 1 a.m. we went to bed tell each other ghost stories and discuss why Sam’s roommate who is a cook never cooks at home.
March 21st, 2015:
Hot damn, nothing like a seven-hour drive through rush hour in Dallas, Texas. It was all worth it because we were on the way to SXSW in Austin. Lucky for us, the show was running two hours late because then we got to see Life In Vacuum. These guys are amazing and anyone sleeping on the band needs to wake the fuck up and listen to them.
That aside, we as a band had a long love affair with Lone Star beer. After about six gallons of this stuff that the locals refer to as “stripper tears,” we began to feel like a million bucks. A few bands before we played we made friends with someone from Toronto who also knew the Life In Vacuum guys. We start a-talkin’ and one thing leads to another and we are invited to go back and hang at their hotel after the show. So, we load in, blow up the fucking place, tear down and get out stuff in the van right as the cops show up for a noise complaint. There are worse things that could have happened but we are pretty sure we were the reason the swine showed up, which is always a good feeling. Now cue to the hotel room, which is filled with a bunch of Canadians, the bass players from Resinater, three cases of booze, too much tequila, and two limes. We threw anything we could off the balcony and tried too many wrestling moves. Highlight of the night aside from the show: beer spat on someone’s dick from our balcony while they were pissing off their balcony.
