The Warehouse Sessions

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Since we are getting closer to this summer's BIT shows we thought it would be good to fire up the 'ole blog again.

BIT members live all over the country so getting together to practice is not always easy. Its been basically a year and a half since any of us have played these songs so we have recently started trying to remember our parts and get ready for the shows. This first blog of 2011 is just a little peak inside the minds of BIT. Below is a recent email from Brando to the rest of the band. In 2008, right before our tour of Japan and Korea we rented a warehouse in Downtown Waterloo to practice, write, and get ready for the upcoming tour. This was probably BIT's most productive period. We could do a whole blog on the warehouse alone (it didn't have a working bathroom, or A/C, but it did have homeless people, frequent visits from the police, and a very close proximity to the river during the floods of 2008). The time we spent there was awesome and we all have very fond memories of it.

Here is the email:
******************
BIT-
KP, Garrett and I got together tonight for a little run through. Overall I think it went better than expected. Personally, I remembered all the old songs without any problem. From "5 Hits" forward it got a little more difficult but I think we figured out most of the parts. Afterwards I wondered if I had any old chord sheets laying around. Turns out I found a pad of paper from the Warehouse that was full of chords and stuff. From this pad of paper I found such classic hits as Warehouse Bacon, Warehouse Sickel, Warehouse Clone, Warehouse Cops, Down (Treading Water), Sublime, and Ecstasy.

Bacon turned into "Down"
Sickel turned into "March On" (this was also titled "The March" at one point")
Clone turned into ?????? (I wrote down "sounds similar to endless summer" so who knows)
Cops turned into "Drop Out"
Down (Treading Water) turned into a long lost BIT hit. (I remember the chorus going "down, down, down.....")
Sublime turned into "Jump and Shout"
and Ecstasy turned into "Ecstasy". (I didn't find it but I also remember calling this 5 Hits... because of the intro and thus the reason for the title of the album)

I scanned them all and have included them on this email. You might have to zoom in a little but I think they are pretty brilliant. I also wrote down "licorice & beer, titties & vag" on one of the pieces of paper for some reason. I don't remember why but I'm sure it was awesome. Oh, to be young and awesome again!

Enjoy!
BC
*******************

These pieces of paper are from when we were writing "5 Hits of Ecstasy" and hopefully it gives you a little picture of our minds and the writing process. These songs were in their early stages and we didn't have lyrics for them yet. We had to call them something so we ended up with the above titles. We called "Warehouse Bacon" that, because 1)we were in a warehouse and 2) we thought the song was "tasty"... like bacon. We called "Warehouse Cops" that, because the warehouse thing and we were writing this song and the cops came in. They were very nice, told us to turn down the noise, asked us to play a song so they could listen, and then left. We played them what turned into "Drop Out" and therefor called it "Warehouse Cops". Jump and Shout started out as "Sublime" because the intro to the song is very Sublime-ish. And on and on. Pictures are below...

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.