From Dominic Varacallo:

Hello everyone, and welcome to the last installment of the Pop Punk the Vote tour road blog! I am writing to you from my desk at the Lost Tape Collective office in Williamstown, NJ. The tour ended last Sunday in Philly, and I miss everyone so much already! 

Last time I wrote we were heading to Chicago, and gearing up for the last few shows of the tour. The show in Chicago was great, at one of my favorite venues “The Beat Kitchen”, this venue rules for many reasons, they have awesome food, a nice beer selection, and the people who work there are super nice! After Chicago, we headed to Lansing, MI where we played a sold out show at Mac’s Bar, and I got black out drunk with the members of Handguns! It was a rad night, and cost me a lot of money. I regret nothing.

After Lansing, we played a show in Rochester then we headed home right after to sleep in our own beds. The guys in seahaven stayed at my house and Eric Findlay and I stayed up way too late looking at old records, and AP magazines I have saved up since 2002. Finally it was time for our favorite venue, and favorite city Philly. The show was already sold out, and everyone was excited for the show! Although it was sad the tour was ending, it couldn’t have ended in a better way! Also, our friends in Candy Hearts came to open the show, so the whole tour came together for one night, and was by far the best show of the tour.

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From Dominic Varacallo:

Hey everyone, its Dom checking in for the third update of the Pop Punk the Vote Tour! Its been a real hectic, and awesome week. Right now, I am listening to Wayne and James Corbi shave their beards into mustaches in the other room of our hotel. Wayne looks like my dad, and Corbi looks like my Uncle Joe.

This week we got to spend 3 days in California. Needless to say, we all were very excited to be in one of our favorite states. Anaheim was by far the best show of the tour, and there really is no better time in Southern California then a sold out Chain Reaction show. It was cool to see some old friends, eat some In-n-out, and even try some other special edible treats!

After a great few days in Cali we had the great pleasure of driving from San Fran to Denver.  Although it was a long and grueling trip, we made our own fun, like stopping on the side of the road to hang out with cows in Utah.  Learning about the days of the week, and listening to Brian McKnight’s “Back at One”.

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From Dominic Varacallo:

Hello everyone, and welcome to the second update from The Pop Punk the Vote Tour! Today we are hanging out in Albuquerque, NM.  I’m writing to you from out hotel room, as I watch everyone rushing to try and shower and be ready before check out time. Apparently you can only extend checkout so many times.

This past week has been a lot of fun, and the shows have gotten even crazier. We had a day off, and decided to invite the whole tour package to come hang out with us in New Orleans. We had Man Overboard, Handguns, Seahaven, and Candy Hearts all wondering around Bourbon Street at once. It was a lot of fun, and I even remember some parts of it, unlike James Corbi.

After our crazy night in New Orleans, we headed to TX. I know I said Tampa was crazy, but Dallas stepped it up even more. It was the biggest crowd of the tour, and at one of my favorite venues. So, extra special thanks to everyone in Dallas! After that we played a really cool spot in Midland, TX and said goodbye to our new friends in Candy Hearts as it was their last day of the tour.

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Man Overboard are currently out on the Pop Punk The Vote Tour with Handguns, Seahaven, and Candy Hearts. The band’s merch guy and great friend to the site, Dominic Varacallo, will be doing a Road Blog for PropertyOfZack and Man Overboard to keep fans updated from the road. Check out the first update below and come back for more in the future!

From Dominic Varacallo:

Hey everyone, this is Dom checking in from the “POP PUNK THE VOTE TOUR”.  I’m currently writing to you from a quiet hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale listening to the new Menzingers album, while Wayne & our friend Joe are asleep.  The rest of the members of Man Overboard are gallivanting around south Florida.

We are about a week into the tour, and it has been amazing so far. This is a really exciting time for the band, as it is their first ever headlining US tour, and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it. The tour also features our old pals in HANDGUNS, as well as our new friends SEAHAVEN, and CANDY HEARTS. All the bands have been playing amazing sets, so be sure to come out early!

A typical day in the life of the traveling merch manager for Man Overboard consists of being harassed by Nik Bruzzesse while trying to sleep, bumming smokes to Zac Eisenstein, laughing hysterically at James Corbi while he yells random things out the window of the van to people like “BOZO PHOBIA!!” and going over business with “man of the year” Justin Collier. Also, I keep track of all of the rad t-shirts and sweat shirts you guys are buying up!

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From Alex Henery:

Ok, so America is really big. Last night we did a 10 hour drive and it sucked. I woke up and looked out the window to see nothing but the road and the occasional house here and there. I’m kinda confused why anyone would want to live so far away from civilisation but I guess some people like solitude. This is the first time I have ever experienced the true midwest and it’s exactly how I imagined it to be and more. There are big trucks everywhere, every gas station has country music playing on the speakers, people are really polite and well mannered, the accents are funny and there really is nothing to do in between the big cities. during one night drive we stopped in the middle of the nowhere in Illinois and I went to get some food from the rest stop shop. I asked the lady what people do for fun, she replied “go to the bar” I asked her “what if you don’t drink?” she laughed, “Then your screwed!”. As I was about to leave a man walked in, the lady shouted “Hey John, this boy here is from England, he wants to know what there is to do for fun around here!”. He looked at me straight faced and said “Cook meth or farm”.

So yeah we really are seeing some crazy places and are slowly getting closer to the west coast :)

Getting weird in the van

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From Alex Henery

So I’ve been on the tour for nearly two weeks now and it’s flown by. Right now we are in Chicago at a local radio station and the guys are doing a live interview for the show. The past few weeks have been hectic, there was a random snow storm during the Jersey show, we played in Times Square NYC and had one of the most stressful few hours finding somewhere to park the van and trailer. Halloween was amazing as all the bands dressed up and kids came out and had a good time, my favourite costume was Zak’s as he dressed up as Hulk Hogan, and I finally got to be a Juggalo which was fun….woop woop! I have eaten at a tonne of awesome places, one place in Pittsburgh put fries in my sandwich so that was cool. I skated downtown Cleveland and didn’t get arrested and got to go to the Rock and Roll hall of fame for free. 

I’ve been shooting loads of footage for the music video and tour update which should be online soon.

Hanging backstage in one of the house of blues dressing rooms with Corbi

New Found Glory kill it every night. Boston was particularly awesome.

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Man Overboard have been out on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour for nearly a month now, but Alex Henery from Basement just flew over to America from the UK to join the band out on the road. Alex will not only be filming video updates for Man O, but he will also be keeping tabs on the band for a PropertyOfZack Road Blog. You can also keep up with Alex here and here. Make sure to check back every week for more updates!

From Alex Henery:

Hey, so I am doing video for Man Overboard on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour and already this tour has been incredible. The venues are some of the biggest I have been to and every night every band is killing it. This tour has such a strong line up and it’s great to see it get the response it deserves from a mixed crowd of younger and older kids. New Found Glory are not only a great band but great people. Everyday they will be hanging out with all the bands and chill, unlike some larger bands who just hide away in the bus and only come out to play. It’s cool to see such an influential band recognise and support the modern community of bands from No Sleep/Rise/Run For Cover and take band like MOB on tour and expose them to such a huge group of kids every night. 

Riding in the Man Overboard van is super fun, when Zak gets a hold off the ipod we all have to listen to crazy hip hop and he usually starts free-styling which is always funny. You can guarantee Justin is emailing someone somewhere about something important helping the tour run smoothly. Nik is always teasing Corbi and wrestling in the van. Mike is usually driving and is a relief to have a driver who doesn’t scare me on the road. Wayne is a boss and is always hanging out. All in all this tour rules and everyone is having the time of their life. So excited to get to the west coast and eat In and Out Burger!

The catering is crazy, the show in Baltimore gave us root beer chicken wings!!!

Our home show in Philly was incredible, was so great to see all our friends and family and all our local fans who have supported us since day one.

Nik chilling in the van

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Man Overboard is currently out on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour with New Found Glory, Set Your Goals, The Wonder Years, and This Time Next Year. Wayne Wildrick from the band was kind enough to write up a Road Blog update for PropertyOfZack to keep fans updated on the tour. Check it out below!

From Wayne Wildrick:

So its been 1 full week of what feels like a month of the best tour we have ever been a part of. We started the tour by driving from New Jersey to Santa Cruz. We played 2 shows on the way out, one in Indianapolis and another in Lincoln. Our boy Denny and Niks brother Vinnie came out for the drive. Our friends back home are a huge part of our bands foudation so it was awesome to have them come out and ride with us across the country. We hit the Golden Gate bridge when we got to California and then stayed with our dude Jake in Berkely. The California shows were great, always a good time on the Left coast and got to see a ton of friends.

The next spot we hit was Arizona. Tempe had some crazy street festival going on and tons of kids were out. When we hit Texas thats when things started popping off. After the 24 hour journey to Dallas we played for the craziest crowd so far. No barricade and the stage dives were on point. Austin was just as good, and houston brought their A game as well. We had a day off in Mobile so we hit the movies with some of the New Found dudes then had a family dinner at some cajun joint with TTNY and NFG. We rolled into Atlanta and the masquerade was PACKED.

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Man Overboard just got home from their first ever Australian tour with I Am Villain and they had a blast. The band was kind enough to snap a bunch of photos as well as write-up a little tour journal to show fans what exactly went on on their first trip to the Down Under for PropertyOfZack. Read up on the journey, and make sure to check out all the pictures, especially the ones with kangaroos in them!

From Justin Collier:  

We began our tour at Philadelphia International Airport. Lots of this for the next two days… Sitting and waiting and flying for long periods of time. 

First show was in Adelaide. We got there and met up with our trusty TM, Jeff Philips and headed to the hotel for a quick nap before heading to the venue to meet I Am Villain. Our buds Balance & Composure were also in Australia and had the day off so they came out to the show to hang! Sadly there is no photographic evidence of this :(

Melbourne was the next two shows. They were AWESOME and we had a real blast. Andrew and Jeanna from Soundwave/3Wise came to hang out the one night we had off and things got a little out of hand with a jug of wine. Oh and Mike/Wayne went to Lord Of The Fries as per suggestion of everyone we met. 

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It was over almost as soon as it began. Unfortunately Man Overboard’s tour with H2O was only four shows long, so there were only two blogs that the band could do, but hopefully they’ll be taking part in the feature on their next US run as well! Check out the final below and pick up Real Talk if you have yet to!

From Justin Collier:

Saturday in West Chester, PA
Holy shit. West Chester, PA delievered. First of all Vision opened - legends. It is already an honor to get to play with H2O and Wisdom In Chains, so adding Vision into the mix for the day was great. Show sold out and kids went off for every band. Few cracked skulls and a few bent noses. Anthony, H2Os merch guy… you might have seen him selling merch for New Found Glory, Bayside, Justice, to name a few - sang the end of Guilty By Association - very cool until his less than angelic stage dive… FLOP! good guy right there though. Fun night. Big up to everyone from Jersey who came to see us. Appreciate!

Sunday in Poughkeepsie, PA
I havnt slept much since we got home from Japan but I drove all the way to Poughkeepsie (while everyone else slept, figures) and probably almost killed a few people. Anyways - we’ve got Greg from the Mongoloids out with us doing merch so we went and got some food downstairs from The Loft at The Nuddy Fisherman or Nuddy something or other. Set was fun. Wisdom In Chains is killing it right now. Not going to lie, I didnt know much about them before this tour but holy fuck - they truly are the kings of Pennsylvania. Hard - Melodic - Heartfelt - Tough - what else could you ask for? Check them out if you dont know. Theyve got a few more songs left and then H2O is going to get up there and murder it as they always do. Siked for that. Might have to sneak in a dive or two seeing as its the last night. 

We have an early afternoon right to England so we are going to book it home right after the show and pack our shit up and get ready to roll. Thanks for reading! See you in 2011! (unless youre in europe - see you this week!)

Man Overboard were kind enough to agree to do a four-day Road Blog on their short tour with hardcore legends, H2O. Man Overboard is an absolute favorite of PropertyOfZack, so we’re so thrilled to have them be a part of the feature! Enjoy the first two days and check back in a few more for the rest.

From Justin Collier:

DECEMBER 2nd - Baltimore, MD @ OttobarSo we rolled into the Ottobar mildly apprehensive seeing as we are the only pop punk band playing on a show of awesome hardcore bands. Met the H2O dudes, realize our friend Anthony who we met this summer with New Found Glory is doing merch for H2O and got all loaded in. We brought our long time merch guy James Corbi along for the ride. Hes been on tour w/ Balance & Composure for two months so we have missed him. Anyways - we played 3rd after sorting out some amp problems. We played a short set so H2O could play long and we could all get out of there early (doors were at 8pm). Good time - thanks to the kids who song along. H2O killed it. Dude from Down To Nothing sang Guilty By Association. Some old lady cooked some bangin mac and cheese. I got free soda at the bar. #bestofdecembersofar

DECEMBER 3rd - Providence, RI @ Club HellSo I was a little worried abut this show too, not only because we are the only pop punk band in a full lineup of hardcore bands but because we played Providence two weeks ago right before we went to Japan. That show with Therefore I am was awesome but I was hoping some kids would stil come to see us with H2O - and they did! Anxiety relieved. It was a reallllly fun set. My roommates came up to visit with our old roommate who lives in Providence so they were all at the show. Good times. We have Greg from Mongoloids at merch - he will be at the Note and The Loft too. Go say whats up. Anthony sang Guilty By Association then stage dove like a gUrL. Hit up some Nice Slice and headed home. Oh and then wokeup because we drove up on a multi-car accident that blocked/closed 95. Glad I wasnt driving. Doing mailorder all day then heading to The Note in West Chester. Wisdom In Chains didnt play the Providence show so itll be nice to have them back on the bill!