Thursday we woke up, ate some breakfast and then headed over to the base. We were met by Hussain who showed us around a little bit, took us to the MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) office where we met Mr. Joe Hernandez, the “head honcho”, and then grabbed a bite to eat for lunch.Mr. Hernandez presented us each with some very cool “medallions” for coming and performing at the base. The setup at this base was great. They have a huge courtyard with very large stage in one corner.
When we arrived to the stage, they had pretty much everything set up for us so we just had to plug in and tweak everything a little bit.We sound-checked and then walked around and handed out free CDs to as many people as we could. Some of us headed back to the hotel before the show to put on a long sleeve shirt. The weather is beautiful here. It’s probably around 70-75 degrees during the day and 65 or so at night.
The show started at 7pm and went great! It was incredibly windy out but other than that there were no real obstacles. After the show we signed some autographs, talked with lots of great people and then ended up hanging out on the base with a group of Marines for a few hours. These guys were great and we had a blast hanging out with them. We learned a lot and saw our first ever Marine “slap fight”.
We left the base around 11pm and went back to the hotel. We then decided to walk around “American Alley” which is a street full of restaurants and coffee shops right by the hotel. While walking around we ran into a few members of the Navy, They invited us over to their house where we tried on some armor and had a great time in general just hanging out.
Meeting and talking to all these guys is one of the most rewarding parts of the trip. It really is a different world that they live in and it is very interesting for us to be able to ask questions and learn about it.
Today has been a full 36-hour day consisting of airport security, overpriced airport food, trying to figure out exchange rates, airplane rides, layovers and sleep deprivation. The trip actually started Monday afternoon when we met up for sushi followed by a quick rehearsal, organized all of our equipment, and around midnight cleared all of our gear out of the warehouse.
We’ve had plenty of experience/practice loading in and out of venues and practice spaces in cold weather but last night’s load out was definitely in the top three coldest ever. The actual temperature was somewhere around “bitterly cold”; add a “blistering wind” and a sidewalk covered with ice to that and you’ve got a band that can’t wait to get out of Iowa (luckily for us we are heading to the desert). All in all, we were pretty happy to get everything loaded into the trailer with minimal frostbite and minor bumps and bruises from falling on the ice.
After a few hours of sleep we got to the Des Moines International Airport early Tuesday morning. It is always funny to see the people at the ticket counters freak out as they see seven of us all carrying our bags, guitars, drums, etc… You can actually see them think, “I hope they aren’t flying United”. Initially, most of them seem completely overwhelmed by the ensuing chaos but, as they did in Des Moines, they generally handle it very well.
If you are new to “The Blog”, on our last overseas tour we were bumped up from our normal seats to seats in Business Class for a fourteen-hour flight to Tokyo due to the airline screwing up our tickets. At the time this was probably the greatest thing that had ever happened to us. We were given all the free gourmet food and drinks we could ever consume. We could lay pretty much completely flat while we were wearing our “swanky” free slippers, cleansing our faces with hot towels, stretching out our un-cramped legs, or doing just about anything else we could have dreamed of. In retrospect, this was just an extremely mean practical joke; being spoiled like that for a fourteen-hour plane ride has left us extremely jealous and miserable for all of our other flights. We’ve got a total of fourteen flights this tour so I’m sure we’ll get used to sitting with “the commoners” again but it won’t be easy.
We arrived to Frankfurt, Germany around 5 a.m. and wandered around a completely empty airport before setting up camp where we tried to get a little sleep, played some poker, and waited for our 11 a.m. flight. We found our gate, noticed another “reggae looking” band and started talking to them. Turns out, The “Easy Star All Stars” were on our plane to Bahrain. They are a great reggae band and some very nice guys that we saw play this past March in Austin at SXSW. They are playing a private party in Bahrain so we got to hang out, chat, and eventually share a van to the hotel with these guys. (Check them out when you get a chance)
We were met at the airport by Hussein (our Bahrain guide), cleared customs, and then loaded up the vans for a very “exciting” trip to the hotel. BAHRAIN IS CRAZY!!!Today is their “National Day” which is the equivalent to 4th of July so the entire place is one big party. Just imagine a giant tailgate party; subtract the booze, add more flags, more car horns, more people driving while hanging out of their cars and basically you’ve got what we’ve encountered so far in Bahrain (Check out the videos below to get a very small taste). We got to the hotel, checked in, got cleaned up and then walked over to the base to check things out. Our first impression was great. The base is beautiful, the weather is amazing, and everyone was extremely nice. We walked around on base for a while before heading off base to grab some food, relax, and get thoroughly confused with the currency exchange rate (we think we have it figured out now… maybe?).
So all in all, our first travel day has gone fairly smooth. After one misplaced boarding pass, a few “freak out” moments of “Did we remember to pack _________________ (insert just about anything here)”, some leg cramps/sore backs from sitting in a cramped plane for hours and hours at a time, a little “off-roading” in Bahrain, and we have finally made it back to the hotel where we are going to crash HARD. Our first show is tomorrow night and we’ve got another full day of excitement ahead.
In the warehouse putting stickers on the promotional cds for the troops and rehearsal. (and yes we have a salad bar in the warehouse)
One of the worst load-outs ever.
Getting the equipment tagged and ready in Des Moines.
Mike "acting" like a reader.
In-between flights we were on lots of shuttles and buses to get to different terminals.
Trying to sleep.
We are real mature.
aww.... perfect little angels.
Finally, in Bahrain eating pizza and relaxing.
VIDEOS:
Frey laying out the itinerary in Des Moines.
We wish you could all experience this first hand but here is a small clip of the drive from the airport to the hotel. This doesn't even reflect the magnitude of the insane driving in Bahrain. As crazy as the ride was we never felt scared..... this was just how they do it here.
Side note: this video was taken after BIT and The Easy Star All Stars helped get this van "un-stuck". Seriously, there is no way to explain the drive, sorry.
Here is a small taste of the "National Day" celebrations... again this does not accurately portray the magnitude of their celebrations but hopefully it gives you a good taste. Multiply the video times about 30 and you'll be closer to the real thing. None of us have ever seen anything like it so we apologize for being unable to describe it.
Ok. Where to begin? First, it has been too long since we updated the blog. We are sorry. (all of us sincerely apologize.) We still have blogs and pictures to post from the end of our summer tour but we are going to skip ahead and try to catch back up with those at a later date. So for now lets fast forward to "present" day.
It is Sat. Dec. 12th.
We are preparing for our second AFE (Armed Forces Entertainment) tour and we depart Tuesday, Dec. 15th around 11am. (holy sh*t, thats like 3 days away!) We are trading in the foot of snow currently on the ground in Iowa for three weeks in the Middle Eastern desert. We will be entertaining US Troops stationed in Bahrain, Djibouti, Qatar, and Kuwait.
We toured all summer and were incredibly busy so we decided to take some time off this fall to re-group and get organized. Last week we moved into a new practice space (warehouse #2) in Des Moines' East Village. We started rehearsing and getting back in the swing of things. We have decided to learn a few new songs and are in the midst of perfecting every Christmas Carol ever written (not true). But we are getting everything ready to go before we ship out Tuesday morning around 1100 hours. (I think? It's time to get a refresher on military time)
Anyways, we will be taking pictures, writing down stories, and posting as often as we can. We are also going to try to update our other accounts as often as possible. If you aren't our "friend" on Facebook or a "follower" on Twitter the links to those sites are below.
Hopefully this blog will allow you to come along on the trip of a lifetime for us and experience it as we do. We will of course edit out all the boring/un-interesting parts like the 14 hour flights, 7 hour layovers, etc... We are honored, excited, and just a little bit nervous for the tour to begin but are very much looking forward to spending the Holiday Season with the Troops defending our Country.
We've got about three days to get everything organized, packed, and ready to go so its time to get off the computer and start getting ready. We'll try to update at least one more time before we head out.
After having a blast in Boulder we headed to Denver. Kate scored us a bunch of free tickets to a Colorado Rockies game so we spent a beautiful summer day at the ballpark enjoying $8 hot dogs, and $9 beers....
After the game we gave hugs and said goodbye to Kate. She took great care of us and we all had a blast. We can't thank you enough......We then met up with another old UNI friend, Heather Peterson. Heather showed us around downtown Denver, and let us crash at her apartment for the night.
We spent the next day in Denver hanging out and getting band stuff done. Then we played at a very cool old venue called Quixote's. If you ever go there make sure you check out the live music archive in the basement. Its epic. Most of the band left the venue broke after spending all the nights money on live cds.
We were pretty excited to get to Arizona so we left immediately after the show in Denver and drove through the night. We went to sleep in the mountains and woke up in the desert. After around 17-18 hours in the RV we made it to Phoenix late Saturday night. We met up with Miss Jenna who had prepared a huge poolside bbq for us. We spent the night hanging out and having a blast with old friends and new ones.
Sunday we loaded into Crush Studios in Scottsdale and started working on all the new material. We need to thank Steve, Alex, and Kevin for putting us up and putting up with us for 10 days. We had a blast and can't wait to do it all again.
Trying to finish up some parts to the new songs.
listening to the finished product....
We recorded three songs; "Take It Easy", "Amazing", and "Take Me"..... we are extremely happy with them, can't wait for everyone to hear them, and will let everyone know when you can hear them. We have begun playing them live so the one way to hear them for sure is coming out and seeing us in person.
While we were in the studio we also took a little time off to play a show and have fun with all the AZ fans.
Garrett busted out a new look for Freebird!
After 10 days of recording, 3 kick ass new songs, a great show, and lots of good times with old friends we left Arizona for the long drive back to Iowa.
on the long road home.......
and we finally made it back to Iowa after 36 hours in the RV.
