BIT on WHOTV

Thank You to everyone who came out to the meet and greet yesterday. We had a blast and hope you all did too. We will try to get the tour video that we showed up on the blog asap. For now, here is a news segment that aired last night on WHO 13.


 

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 17/18: Kuwait Day Off – Travel Home

Today is technically our first and only “day off” on this tour. It’s the only day we aren’t playing a show or traveling. Our flight home leaves at 1am so it’s only “technically” a day off. We spent most of the day relaxing, buying “trinkets”, and catching up on sleep.

We left for the airport around 8:30 pm because we were warned and warned about the increased security. Fortunately and unfortunately the security was no problem at all. We were thankful that we didn’t spend hours standing in line and getting searched but at the same time its not surprising somebody could sneak a bomb on the plane when security was so relaxed. At our first checkpoint, the two “screeners” weren’t even paying attention; instead they were on the phone the whole time. As we all “beeped” without having to go back through the metal detector we were thrilled; only later did it dawn on us that if it was that easy for us to get on the plane it would probably be that easy for a terrorist to get on too. Not real comforting.

Our first flight was the brutal one. It was a 14-hour flight from Kuwait to Washington D.C. Unfortunately; our seats were in economy, definitely not as comfortable as our previous two first class flights. We arrived to D.C. around 6am on Saturday morning, had to go through customs and another couple of rounds of security and then boarded a 7:30am flight for Chicago. Our flight was late leaving the gate in D.C. so we got to Chicago late and had approx. 20 minutes to meet our connecting flight… Everybody got off the plane and sprinted to our next gate two terminals over… as we approached we saw the “delayed” sign and we all breathed a big sigh of relief. We ended up getting on the final flight about 11am.

So… after 9 countries (including airports), 12 shows, 14 flights, tons of new friends, and a million memories we are home safe. This was definitely a trip of a lifetime that none of us will ever forget. We want to thank AFE, all the “contacts” that escorted us around these foreign places, “you” for coming along with us on the trip, and especially all the Armed Forces stationed all over the world.

We are happy to be home for a bit but at the same time none of us were ready for the tour to end… we just had way too much fun.

Our first little dose of “reality” came as we were getting off the plane in Des Moines. Our stewardess got on the microphone and said; “If you have a jacket you might consider putting it on… it is currently -15 degrees outside”….  We'd like to think that this is just Iowa’s way of saying “Welcome Home”. 

One last picture with our Security, Brad and Dave.

Rip-It!!!!!

Chris getting arrested.

We have lots more pictures and videos that we will be posting in the next few days so check back soon!!!

***********Announcement**********

We will be hosting a very informal "meet & greet" this coming Saturday, Jan. 9th at 5pm at AllPlay in Des Moines. It doesn't matter if you know us, don't know us, or even want to know us... we will be there to talk about our experiences on the tour, show off all the "cool stuff" we got, answer any questions you may have, and show more videos and photos than you could ever ask for. We welcome you to come out, say hello, and grab some food and drinks with us this Saturday night.

AllPlay is a family friendly restaurant/bar complete with huge arcade, climbing wall, great food, and a fun atmosphere. It is located one block south of Wells Fargo Arena at 615 3rd Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309. For more info visit www.allplaydm.com

HERE is a link to the address on googlemaps.com 

and HERE

Hope to see you there.

One more time....

Who: You and anyone you want to bring.

What: Blue Island Tribe Meet & Greet 

Why: To answer your questions and show off our "cool stuff".

Where:

Allplay

615 3rd St. 

Des Moines, IA 50309

When: Saturday, Jan. 9th 5pm

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 16: Kuwait – Camp Buehring

Today is New Years Eve and we are playing a show at Camp Buehring, a base about 15 miles from the Iraqi boarder. This base is a base where everyone going into Iraq comes first. Most of the people here have been or will only be here for a few days at the most before they head north into Iraq.

Once we arrived to the base we had another Commander’s Call. Then we got a quick tour of the base before heading to sound check. We played on a huge outdoor stage in the middle of the base. During the afternoon it was beautiful out but at night in the desert it gets cold. We could definitely see our breath on stage but we are not complaining one bit because we know what the weather is like back home.

The show was one of the best of the whole tour. We worked up a cool “punk” version of Auld Lang Syne about 10 minutes before the show… That is one of the coolest things about being in the Blue Island Tribe; we can decide to play a song, spend 10-15 minutes figuring out everyone’s parts, and then play it during a show later that same night. It’s just those little things that make you feel real good and really enjoy doing what we are doing.

We did a countdown during the show and toasted our “near beer” (non-alcoholic beer). Since Kuwait is DRY we were given cases and cases of near beer. It is not good. This is unfortunately our last show of the tour... just when we were getting warmed up the tour ends... anyways all the shows were fun, some were just plain amazing, and we will never forget them.

After the show we took lots of pictures and signed lots of CDs. Each branch of the military has their own “call”, for example the Marines is “hoo-rah”. Blue Island Tribe’s has become “Rip-It”. Rip-it is an energy drink similar to RedBull or Monster but it has been given free to us most of the tour. We have all developed a "healthy" addiction to it and are definitely going to go through withdrawl when we return home.

For every picture we take, we take a nice one, and then a “Rip-It” one… early on in the tour the "Rip-It" photos were pretty tame but by this point in the tour we are full out jumping on and tackling each other...

When we got back to Camp Arifjan (where we stayed the whole time we were in Kuwait) it was about 11pm so our security, Dave and Brad, took us out on the base to celebrate the new year. We went to a "dance" that felt like a Jr. High dance but instead of the girls and guys being on different sides of the room, each girl had about 20 guys surrounding her. This was a very neat experience and we can't thank Brad and Dave enough for showing us a great time, the whole time we were in Kuwait!

Another Car Ride

More Camels

Another Commander's Call

Getting a tour of Camp Buehring

Near Beer!!! (non-alcoholic) Backstage

Sound Check

Getting "briefed" by Security Dave (he was probably telling a joke or giving us false information about something...) Also... notice Mike and Frey's hands.... "Rip-It"!!!

Check out the new Blue Island Tribe fatigues... we got patches that say "Blue Island Tribe", our last name, and we got a patch with our "flying leap" logo. They are pretty amazing.

The Show!

After show meet and greet

Rip-iiiiiiit!!!

Group Hug!

These guys really were awesome. We can't thank them enough for all the fun we had in Kuwait!

This is Coaxial. They were our sound crew for the week.

This is what happens when you go to a non-alcohol party on New Years Eve.

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 15: Kuwait – Camp Virginia

We got to sleep in again today before we were picked up at 1pm for a 1 and a half drive to Camp Virginia. These drives are still awesome. We aren’t quite as on “edge” as we were for the first few so now they are just fun.

We got to the venue at Camp Virginia around 3:30pm and did a quick sound check. Following that we met with the Commanders, took a nice tour of the base, ate with the Troops, and then hung out before the show.

One amazing thing about this trip is that we’ve been given little “mementos” at pretty much every place we’ve been to. We’re not talking about the plaques and coins but rather people’s personal property like boots, patches, shirts, etc…. but here we might have gotten the coolest gift any of us could have ever received on this tour; we were all given “Army Blouses”. They are super cool and we’ll get pictures of them up in the next blog.

The show went great. That has been kind of a theme for the whole tour; all of the shows have just been amazing. Each show gets more fun.

Little know fact: Kelly played basketball in College.

Commander Call. 

This is William our MWR/AFE Contact at Camp Virginia.

These are our two security guards, Dave and Brad... more about them soon.

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 14: Kuwait – “The Rock”

We tried to sleep in today but our sleep schedule is so messed up most of us were up real early. We had a “commander call” at 1pm where we learned a bunch of very interesting stuff.

Did you know that US taxpayer money is not used for the bases in Kuwait? The Kuwaiti government invited and asked the US Govt. to establish a presence there following the 1991 invasion so they pay all expenses for the Troops.  Other interesting facts about Kuwait; gas costs around .38 cents per gallon. Oil is pretty much their only “product”. The entire country is "DRY".... that means no alcohol... none... no where...

Following that meeting we loaded up in the SUVs and drove approx. 1 hour to “The Rock”.  When we arrived the sound company “Coaxial” was already there with pretty much everything already set up for us. We just had to plug our instruments in and do a sound check.  This venue is a very nice little “theatre”.

Following sound check we went and ate dinner with the Troops before heading back to the venue for the show.

After the show, we hung out for a while before loading back up in the SUV’s and heading back to Camp Arifjan to sleep.

US with our plaques following the Commander Call.

160 Km/h is 100 mph.... this is about how fast we were going on average.

Meet and greet after the show

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 13: Qatar to Kuwait

Here we go… another day living in luxury. We got dropped off at the airport around 10am for our 1:30pm flight to Kuwait. We have finally discovered the best way to avoid all the hassle of traveling; just fly first class. We checked all our equipment and baggage without a problem (this was definitely the first place that didn’t even seem concerned/overwhelmed that we were there); from there they escorted us to the “first class terminal”. We had our own terminal to hang out in until the plane boarded.

This terminal was unbelievable. Whatever you wanted they had it and it was free. You want to take a nap? No problem, there’s plenty of beds in the “relaxation room”. Hungry? Ok, there’s a full gourmet buffet with beef medallions, sushi, shrimp, etc… Need a massage? That’s no problem either; the spa is over there complete with a hot tub. This whole place was crazy and it was also pretty evident that all of our incomes combined don’t equal the next lowest person’s in there.

We had a blast just soaking it all in and talking with all the people helping us out and waiting on us. They probably don’t see too many bands from America so we signed some CDs and took some pictures with them too.

We didn’t want to leave but since we were flying first class the plane wasn’t even that much worse. They drove us in a private bus from the terminal to the plane where we again got the royal treatment. Unfortunately, again it was a quick 1-hour flight before we landed in Kuwait.

We were met at the airport by Sam and Travis, our MWR Contacts, and a slew of other people including armed security. We got through customs easily and were off to the base. This was our first experience of driving in Kuwait and it sure was an exciting one. We had a convoy of 4 or 5 GMC SUVs all driving real fast and all being just a few feet away from each other. Anytime we turned or merged into traffic a security vehicle would block traffic and then speed up to catch us again. It was quite surreal.

We have seen lots of bad drivers on this trip. Starting in Bahrain where everyone drove hanging outside of their vehicle, to Djibouti where they just drive wherever the hell they want to, Qatar, where they just drive stupid, and finally in Kuwait, put all those other bad habits together and then increase the speed by about 75 mph. This place the drivers are insane. There are cars all over the side of the road and you can’t go 20 feet without seeing a guardrail that’s been destroyed.

At one point on the trip a Cadillac Escalade going 100+ mph tried to merge into our motorcade as we were getting onto an off ramp. The drivers didn’t budge and came within inches of a collision at atleast 100 mph. They made it through the turn before security took off after the other car going at least 120/130mph. We don’t think anything happened to them but we’re pretty sure our security scared the hell out of them.

This is our first experience with armed security, motorcades, and Kuwaiti traffic but so far it is awesome!

We got to the base around 5pm, took a quick tour, checked into our new “hotel” and had the rest of the day off to relax. Some of us went to a movie, some passed out, some called home, etc… it was nice to have a few hours to do whatever we wanted to. That has been extremely rare on this trip.

Loading up the gear again.....

First Class!!!!

This is the first class lounge with free everything...

The restaurant.... 

Amazing food

A fruit tray.... we know there was melon, dragon fruit, and strawberries. Other than that your guess is as good as ours.

What kind of airport has a spa/hot tub in it?

This is one of the many guys that got us anything we asked for. They were very nice and fun to talk to. It seemed like they didn't get too many people in there that looked or acted like us. They thought we were hilarious.

Onboard the private bus taking us from the terminal to the plane.

We'll get more (better) pictures and videos of the "motorcade" up soon but this is a taste. There is no zoom on this picture and we are going very fast. It really is cool.