Cartel are out on their co-headliner with Set Your Goals, Fireworks, Hit The Lights, Mixtapes, and Super Prime and it’s been going more than great. Will Pugh from the band will be keeping fans up to date with a new Road Blog on PropertyOfZack. Check out the first update below and come back for more each week!

From Will Pugh: 

Whew!!….well, the first two weeks of tour have been wild. We’ve had some of the longest drives on this run that we’ve ever had in a van. It’s been a lot of fun though given the pace of the shows and the energy of the fans. We haven’t been able to experience this for a long time and that’s something for which we’re very appreciative. The west coast let us down weather-wise with the rain and cold that we had. Otherwise, it was beautiful as always. We’ve managed to stave off the usual tour disasters but have had a nagging trailer tire with a penchant for running flat. I guess if that’s the worst thing to deal with then so be it.

All the bands on this tour have been awesome to play with. The lineup is pretty diverse for the genre so it’s cool to see us all come together with a little something for everyone. Super Prime has done a great job on this run. They’re opening most of the shows and that’s a tough position since you don’t always have the largest crowds and the pressure of starting things off isn’t a lot of fun. Mixtapes have one of the best on stage banters I’ve seen on tour. They’re hilarious. Musically, it’s kind of a throwback to 90’s punk but with a little modern twist which is real cool. They have a lot of fun on stage too which is always a pleasure to see. Fireworks have rocked every night. They remind me of my band a lot as they’re so nonchalant about the shows. Just throw your gear up there and rock. I dig it. The crowd has been very supportive of them too. Today is their last show so we will miss them.

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Cartel hit the road not too long ago for a short set of headline and support dates with All Time Low, and the band was kind enough to do a Road Blog for PropertyOfZack! We’ll have a few more updates from Cartel, so be sure to check back!

From Will Pugh:

Day 1 (Covington, KY)
We started out at about 5:30 in the morning from Cartel HQ and immediately needed to change a trailer tire. We wound up getting out of Atlanta around 6:15 or so. 7 hours later we find ourselves at the Mad Hatter - a venue we were very familiar with for some time now. An interesting caveat about the touring band experience is that some venues you play EVERY time you go out while some are reserved for the oddball 10 day affair like this trip. It’s on these occasions that you relive some memories from various phases of a band’s career. The first time we played the Mad Hatter was on the “Don’t Knock The Hustle” Tour with Hit The Lights. That was in May of 2006. We were just kids then and I’m reminded of this every time we play here. We had no idea what was about to happen that following year. So naïve and blissful! Ok, so enough reminiscing. We visited the local pub after soundcheck (a Cartel tradition) where we indulged in some local brews and had some food to soak it up. We went on to have a great time with the local fans and can’t wait to come back and rock. Frank was our Venue Rep/Promoter and he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll meet in that position. Good times all around were had but we had to temper our fun since the following day was going to be the first of 3 All Time Low shows we were scheduled for…..game faces? Check.

Day 2 (Indianapolis, IN)
So remember that tire we talked about in Day 1? Yeh, well we had to go buy a new one since all we had was a bald spare and the one that was on there was starting to get some wear. We stopped along our route between Covington and Indy to take care of our rubber. It was only about a 2 hour drive until we’d arrive at the Murat Theatre to reunite with some old friends and make a few new ones in the process.

Let me just say first that on this short tour we are only traveling with band members. No crew. So if we want something done, we have to do it ourselves. It’s a good thing we have the performance/gear maintenance thing down because tour managing/merchandising is a completely different story. The first night of tour was no biggie because it was a smaller show with less consequence for fucking up. When you show up to the production extravaganza of an All Time Low show, you’d better have your ass in gear. Luckily, ATL employs people that have been nothing but great friends to us and helped us out readily on our arrival. Matt Flyzik (ATL tour manager) and Mr. Vincent Petrocelli (Vinny Vegas - merchandise representative extraordinaire) made life super easy and I couldn’t be more thankful. Opportunity struck faithful again when I ran into Brock (The Cab’s merch dude) whom I had met a year or so ago in the back lounge of the bus. He’s a mutual bro so he slung our cotton (sold merch) for us. So far so good.

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