Hey friends! As you can tell, we are horrible at fulfilling our promises of podcasting and blogging while touring. We're the worst! Luckily, the shows have just been TOO GOOD so that made us too busy to attempt to continue these side projects. I can't even believe anyone really listened to that podcast outside of our parents, so it has been neat to hear that you guys miss it! Whenever someone tells me that at a show, I'm shocked and suspicious.
It's that time of year again! Holidays mixed with the frantic realization that I only have a few short, sweet weeks left at home before I reside in a bus for a few months. I get lots and lots of questions about how I pack small for these shenanigans. I'm not going to lie - it's hard. However, I've created somewhat of a formula to this whole mess so it's gotten a tad easier.
Since my brain has been all "tour tour tour" lately, I thought I'd take you guys backstage to see how we live on the road. I'll keep this up through the upcoming tour. I actually really dig checking out the green rooms at different venues. Sometimes they are TERRIBLE (nasty bathroom, smell like puke, no food, etc)... sometimes they are filled with magic. Magic meaning, good stuff to make sandwiches out of, a well stocked refrigerator, and a couch that doesn't look like it's 2000 years old.
Oh hey oh hey. We've been back at home for a week and I'm finally sorting through this mess of photos. The tour was amazing - the new songs slayed and really seemed to resonate with everyone. SUCCESS! However, touring itself is weird. We go so many places, but rarely get to see or do anything out of the ordinary. On some days I only see the bus and the venue, depending on how busy it is.
Heyoooo! Here we are almost on tour again. As you may know, Ron and the guys have hunkered down at a lake house in our home state of Georgia and are working on the new album (yayyy x a million!). It's seriously so ridiculous, I can't even tell you. I mean, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill ya! While I DO have pics of the happenings inside the house, I'm not allowed to share them yet. I still thought it would be fun to take you around the area and show you what we're dealing with out here. The wild flower situation is out of control and I borderline can't handle it.
I'm on the last leg of my flight back to New York, so I thought I'd get the Australia post party started. I think I may have beat jet lag... but that could just be the delirium talking. Or the pink elephants next to me. 24 hours of flying time -- hooray! My main goal at the moment (other than writing this post) is to get to New York and not forget to collect my bags. My second goal is to not forget to order pizza the second I get in the cab so it arrives at my apt 7-13 minutes after I get home.That's where I'm at right now (I feel I should preface anything I write right now with some sort of disclaimer).
've gotten used to birthdays in random spots. Last year was in Paris... this year we were in... Bristol, England I think? Wherever we were, I gave Mr. Pope explicit instructions to NOT tell anyone it was my birthday and that I didn't want anyone to feel like we had to do anything for it. And before you think I'm one of those ladies that says that and then expects the opposite - you couldn't be more wrong.
So, everyone always asks about the bus. I mean EVERYONE. Like it's some grand thing. The reason I have never written about our giant mode of transportation is there's just not really anything to say about it. We sleep in coffin sized bunks (no telling HOW Kyle gets by in them), we sometimes eat on it, we make it a mess the instant we set foot on it, and I change in a teeny tiny room in the back and pray to God that no one comes barging in. However, this is not to say that I don't love the bus. I actually really enjoy being able to go to sleep and wake up and be in the next city. Pretty neat. And much more leg room than our stinky old van.
on our last day in Stockholm we decided to check out their open air museum, Skansen. This was the first of its kind in Sweden and after I read about it, I had to go! I relish every second we have off the bus and it's even better when there is something to see/do outside! While I visit museums in every city where I have time to, admittedly, they all start to look the same. This place is SO DIFFERENT
Well, it's been a little over a month since we got home from tour and it's time to catch y'all up! If you've paid attention so far at all, you know that we LOVE Sweden, so that's where we shall start. To kick off the tour, we spent a couple of extra days in Stockholm to adjust and hopefully outsmart the dreaded jet lag. It might have worked... but we didn't account for the fact that the sun stays up until 11:30pm. That was a bit of an ass kicker, but pretty cool to see. Plus, can I mention again - WE LOVE IT THERE! I love the people, the city, the culture - alllll of it. So much so that we even took a few Swedish lessons before tour (Hej hej! vi ses! tack så mycket!). If it didn't get so damn freezing in the winter, I might consider living there for a while, but this southern lady needs a few months of mind melting heat.
We're about to leave AGAIN! Just when I got a little settled. I almost had a routine! Almost. Today we're off to Sweden, Germany, and The Netherlands. We get to spend the most time in Stockholm & Stuttgart, so as always, recommendations are appreciated. If you're not already, follow me on instagram (dancepanda) for behind the scenes shots of the bus and backstage. Hope to see you at one of these here shows!
I do, though. It's so charming! Its teeny, curving streets, old buildings, and crazy bike riding culture - I could eat it up! We had a rare day off in Antwerp, so we had a chance to relax and take in the city. Scratch that - I spent the morning in a Belgian laundromat trying to figure out how to read instructions written exclusively in Dutch.
