high fives, stage dives

last night we played a hometown show in richmond, va. i call it a hometown show, because half the band lives in richmond and the other half lives in DC. we kinda have a revolving door between the two cities. right now i am kinda living in both places. if i could afford it, i'd still be living down there all the time, but it doesn't make sense to pay rent when you're gone so much.

anyway, the show was with set your goals. they were super friendly dudes and played an excellent set. they told a story about how half of the touring package got arrested the night before in a mall in augusta GA. apparently, they were shouting something about raspberry smoothies in the food court and got arrested for causing a disturbance. amazing.

the show was pretty crowded, but the audience was spread through the room, instead of up front against the stage. this is important to note, because throughout the set your goals set was a constant flow of dudes stage diving. however, no one was catching any of them. dude after dude flew into the air and smacked firmly onto the ground. but this stopped no one from stage diving. again and again. it was pretty amazing.

more days off. i'm trying to get some temp work this week to get some extra $$$. i'll probably update you on how awesome that is later.

$4.36

so there was a national poll taken to determine the exact price of gas that would have to reached in order for there to be a significant decrease in gas consumption. so basically.. how much would gas have to cost before you cancelled your vacation plans, or tried to change your driving habits, etc. it was determined that gas prices would have to reach $4.36. that is expensive fucking gasoline.

it's a little scary being in a touring band when gas prices get this expensive. i'm kinda glad we're all home right now saving up a little money, but let's be honest, when we start touring again in mid-june it's not like the price of gas is going down any time soon.

i wonder what price gas needs to be before it starts deterring bands from touring. i imagine we're getting close.

you have to look at the terrifying financial situation of being in an up-and-coming band...

let's say gas prices get to $3.50.. just to keep things simple (and because it likely will soon).

if we keep the drives relatively short (under 5 hours), we can usually keep to only filling up the tank once a day. our tank holds 25 gallons.

$3.50 x 25 gallons = $87.50 a day

add to that the other daily expenses. we usually give ourselves $5 per diem to get food. anyone who has gone to a fast food restaurant or grocery store recently knows it's hard to stretch five bucks across an entire day. usually it covers lunch and maybe a bottled water for later.

on top of that, add $60 for the hotel room. now, you pray and you hope that you can get a place to stay every night, either with friends or someone nice at the show, but that definitely doesn't happen all the time.

if we have a tour manager with us, we usually have to pay them a little bit every day (certainly not a lot at this point).. also there's usually tolls and stuff, oil changes, and other random costs.. but let's not count those, since it fluctuates.

So our grand total of daily expenses so far:

$87.50 - gas
$20.00 - per diem
$60.00 - hotel
--------
$167.50 total

as an up-and-coming band, we most often get paid $100 a night. occasionally, we'll get paid $50. if we're really lucky, we'll sell some merch. but since we're new, there's not exactly a burning demand for olympia t-shirts yet. we average anywhere from $0 - $100 a night. to be honest, it's usually closer to $0 end of the spectrum.

so pretty much a night with olympia can end with $32.50 in your pocket on a really good night, or in the hole $117.50 on the worst night.

so what's the moral of this story?

if you enjoy hemmoraging money, living in a van with your friends, not knowing if you'll make it to the next show, and not paying your bills... start a band immediately. and go on tour!

so this is a blog.

alright, well.. here we are.

as the resident internet nerd of olympia, i have decided to take it to the next level and start up our very own blog. i was going to call it a "tour diary" but i have a feeling we're just gonna keep this thing up and running all the time, so we can keep you updated on all things olympia.

since "tour diary" didn't work, i was going to call it a "journal", but i started feeling a little too dashboard confessional-y about it.

so instead you get a BLOG. which is just another made-up word. but for now, i like it. especially when referred to as part of the "blogosphere" which is a giant place on the internet where opinions come from. whenever i read news websites they always talk about the "blogosphere" like it's a giant thing to be feared and respected. So FEAR THIS.

anyway, we're home for a few weeks. we just got off the road with as cities burn and cool hand luke, who were some of the most awesome and generous people we've met so far in our band career. we had a lot of adventures, new nicknames, and learned a lot about THE OFFICE, which was quoted non-stop on the tour. the funny thing is, i didn't realize that everyone was quoting it until i got home and started watching the show for the first time. i am about two seasons deep now, and realize that about 90% of the things that were said on tour were actually quotes from this show. so when casey from cool hand luke was saying shit like "WASSSSUPPPP!" and "that's what SHE said!", instead of being stuck in 1992, he was actually just quoting the show.

being home is always a weird feeling. you get so used to touring, you kinda lose your bearings when you get home. you're in a rush to see all your friends and make plans and hopefully make a little money, and next thing you know you're on the road again.

one really cool thing about being home is that we had some time to shoot our first ever MUSIC VIDEO. this is a totally exciting development for olympia. none of us, now or in our previous bands, ever shot a real-deal music video. so it was a pretty cool experience. our friend joseph directed the video. he's done some really cool stuff including the most recent darkest hour video. we were stoked to work with him and his crew. it should be a few weeks before we see anything, but as soon as we do, we'll tell you all about it.

that's it from me. it's tuesday, so if you head over to your local record store, please pick up the new record from our friends the dear hunter. they've written a pretty amazing record and they're awesome dudes. they deserve to be huge, so go give it a listen and pick it up.

comment and let us know what you think of our stupid blog for jerks.

love,

phil / olympia!

Peter in costume for the video shoot.