From Jesse Vadala:

Hello All,

After reading it over, Update #1 was a pretty lame recap of some really great shows. With any luck, this installment will be a bit more interesting… but most likely not.

Scheduling and booking an independent 3 band tour like this one, can be pretty tricky with all the factors to account for. Unfortunately, I made a huge mistake and scheduled this tour right on top of Shark Week!Thankfully, the dudes in all 3 bands have been equally as entertaining and then some.

After Maryland we headed to a last minute show that was moved to a place called “Cozumel” in Virginia Beach. Despite its tropical paradise of a name, this show was a weird one. Our tour package was combined with a two band metal tour (super nice dudes in Fall to the Queen and Sons of Katie Elder). After a few dinner table booths were moved, a “stage” appeared and the party began. I crawled behind our merch table and caught up on sleep, to the soothing sounds of local band grindcore. (The drummer of said grindcore band would later pack up his 9 piece kit into a Plymouth minivan, break up with his “girlfriend” and speed away drunk.)

Nathan from Carridale mentioned he was having some pretty serious stomach pain and nearly blacked out during their set. While we took Thieves with us to Dustin’s parents place in South Carolina, Nathan would check in to a hospital in North Carolina. Turns out, his stomach lining was in really rough shape and actually causing him to lose quite a bit of blood. His mother and lovely girlfriend, Emily, drove up from Alabama to take care of him and bring him home to rest a few days. This unfortunate event would lead to the creation of what we now call “Carridale-aoke”. Since that band has been thru a lake of shit to even get a van fit to do the tour, members of WTP and Thieves filled in on vocals to keep the Carridale set in the lineup. The remaining members met up with us at Jimbo’s Rock Lounge in Charleston where we gave this multi singer set the test run. The venue was really fun, beers (and cokes) were cheap and the kids were great. After the show wrapped, we met up with the promoter and a few random kids from the show to adventure on the public beach nearby. Good times were had, way too much sand was carried back into the van, and we made our way south to gator country.

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With The Punches just hit the road on the Squid Life Tour alongside Carridale and Thieves and we’re stoked to be having the band do a Road Blog for PropertyOfZack. We’ll be getting in updates every week, so check back!

Jesse Vadala:

Greetings from Rock Hill, SC before Day 7 of The Squid Life Tour! Dustin’s parents were kind enough to let us all crash here on our off day yesterday to catch up on the three most rare items of any tour:  laundry, sleep and air conditioning. With that said, here is a brief recap of the first few days of this tour!

Poughkeepsie, NY- The Loft: I couldn’t have been happier to have the tour kickoff at our home venue, giving Carridale and Thieves the chance to play to the hometown kids we talk about everywhere we go. Billy (singer of Thieves) actually flew from Texas to Poughkeepsie a few years back to see the first WTP show at the same venue in 08. It made it that much more awesome to have him in town, playing with his band on day 1 of our tour together. So many rad friends came out to see the show, even with Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto playing the theater downstairs of the same venue that night. We all snuck into the balcony at points to catch pieces of some of their sets, I caught RBF closing with their “Take On Me” cover…so awesome. My cousin Rob (better known as simply: The Beast) had an open house with ice cold central air and plenty of space for all the bands to party/crash after. 

Audobon, NJ- The Auction House: We’ve been playing shows in the South Jersey area from the start and try to make sure we get back there every month or two if possible. Two summers ago we played a festival in the area called “Scream In The Field” with our friends in The Glory Days, Outlast and My Turn To Win. After our set a kid walks up to me at merch and pulls me aside. His name is Eric English and he told me how he and his older brother, Shawn, had listened to and become fans of our band…shortly before Shawn passed away in an accident. Eric took us to his house after the show to meet his parents and gave us memorial bracelets with Shawn’s name on them. We’ve never taken the bracelets off and its always a great feeling to see Eric at our shows, this one was no different. Our friends in I Call Fives had just gotten home from tour and live around the area so it was great to hang with those dudes as well.

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