From Adam Vass:

The sad simple truth is that this tour is ending. As I write this, we have 5 days left before we say our goodbyes, but I’m not ready for that, and I’ve run out of op-eds to fill this column with, so my entry this week is about food.

I am not a foodie, I kind of hate the idea of foodies, but I (like most people) love food. It is one thing that on tour, I allow myself to spend foolish amounts of money on. There are definitely those days where all I get is a cliff bar and a coffee, but I make up for it on other days where I can splurge at my favorite restaurants that I’ll only visit once or twice a year.

This tour has been exceptionally good in terms of the food I’ve eaten. I have been vegan for about a year and a half now, and the longer that goes on, the better I get at knowing the best places to go and what to order. So, here is my list of awesome places I went on this tour and what I ate. This isn’t comprehensive, just what I remember and what I managed to take pictures of before inhaling it.

The first noteworthy meal I had was in Dallas TX. We were playing one block away from this bar called Anvil. Somehow, without researching, we were lucky enough to show up during a happy hour where the food was half off. To celebrate, I got two meals at once. I got a huge plate of nachos, complete with chili, fake cheese, and guacamole, and i got a chicken quesadilla, also fake but so delicious. I ate until it hurt, and I ate a little bit more, and stumbled back to the venue, where the kind folks starting Big A Little A bakery graced us with their specialty, vegan bacon chocolate chip cookies. It was a perfect blend of salty and sweet, and even though I got some chocolate stains on my white shirt, I was ecstatic. And full.

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From Adam Vass:

Last night, we played in Chicago at the Metro. I grew up just east of the border in Indiana and had been to the Metro a bunch of times in high school, so it was a bit surreal to be on the stage there in front of so many kids. There were some people there from my high school who I hadn’t seen in years, and some of my friends from home, but most notably, my mom and dad came to see us. They generally see us whenever we play in Chicago, since it is the closest big city to them, but yesterday seemed to be one of the best days they could’ve seen me. We are playing on this great tour with awesome bands and a ton of kids are coming to the shows, and it was the same day that my mom picked up the new issue of AP magazine that we had a feature in. These things combined made my mom think I’m some sort of rockstar, and I couldn’t tell her that I’m not or that I don’t want to be, I just play along and appreciate that my parents are proud of me. It is a great feeling, especially a few years after I dropped out of college and they inevitably thought I was a screw up chasing a pipe dream. However, to anyone besides my parents, I would like to make clear that I am not anyone. 

Playing in front of a few hundred kids every day is a really awesome feeling. I still get a bit nervous sometimes. When people sing along or stage dive, I still get stoked, thinking to myself that all the time I’ve spent working and writing and playing is validated. However, at this point in our band-hood, something weird has started happening. After we play, people wait by our merch and want to meet us, or have us sign their t-shirt, or whatever. And while it is flattering, I can’t say I see the appeal. 

I am just another kid, one of thousands in this country and even more in the world who play an instrument and want to perform for other people. Between shows, I’m reading comic books, eating noodles, sleeping, calling my parents, watching the OC on dvd, and other normal 20-something activities. I pay rent in an apartment I share with some other guys that I like, we drink coffee and yell at people from our window, which I’d like to think are also normal 20-something activities. The notion that I’m different or special because I’m on a stage for 40 minutes each night is a fallacy. 

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From Adam Vass:

This is my second entry for my PropertyOfZack tour journal, and since there are other people on the same tour doing this journal, I thought I’d steer away from the “this is what happened this week.” Instead, I’ll use this pedestal to say whatever I want and hope people will still read it, under the false pretense of a tour journal.

I’m writing this from Toronto, Ontario and it is October 20 (I’m late for my weekly update again). Since this tour included a trip into Canada, we were forced to leave our wonderful merch-pro Lazur in America, and our drummer Brad and I are attempting to do his job. I used to be the merch guy when we were touring in houses and coffee shops, and I figured I still had it down, but seemingly a lot has changed.

The last two days behind the table have given me another perspective on these shows, and in a way, it is disheartening. I’ve watched people leave their garbage on Lipski’s table (Thrice’s magnificent merch guy, pictured with me below) when there are garbage cans just feet away. People ask us weird questions that we would have no way of knowing the answer to and get mad when we can’t answer. Some show-goers even berate us and treat us like lesser beings, and then come back to apologize after our set when they discover we play in the band. Why should playing in our band make a difference in how you treat us? I don’t know how these guys put up with it and manage to stay positive.

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La Dispute are out on the road with Thrice, Moving Mountains, and O’Brother, and Adam Vass from the band has been kind enough to start a Road Blog for PropertyOfZack. This may be the band’s biggest tour yet, so make sure to check back on all the weekly updates!

From Adam Vass:

I was asked to do this weekly update for PropertyOfZack before the tour started, and I was admittedly pretty excited about it. Tour is an interesting lifestyle and I like telling people about it, whether they already have an idea of what goes on (my close friends) or not (my parents). Plus, I took journalism in high school and wrote for the school paper (my expose on school lunch should have won me awards), so I thought I’d do a decent job presenting my thoughts. However, I just  found out this weekend that Thrice’s drummer and handsome gentleman Riley is also doing a weekly update, and as a writer himself, he has established a standard that I’ll surely be held to and try my best to meet. Here goes nothing:

For those who don’t know who I am, I’m Vass, which is my last name but Adam is far too boring and common a first name and my mom is the only one who uses it anymore. I play bass in La Dispute. I’m also our in-house designer, which is fiscally nice for the band but keeps me very busy. I show all my designs and paintings at my personal website, adamxvass.com. 

It seems strange to me to be writing this as my first weekly entry, since I left my apartment over three weeks ago. This is the first tour our band has done since I’ve relocated myself to the east coast, and that means an extra week of rehearsals and sleeping on Brad’s floor before the 7 weeks of playing bass and sleeping on other floors. In a strange way, the floor feels more like home than the bed in my new apartment. With our tour schedule, I’ve grown used to someone stepping on me in my sleep and someone else snoring from the couch, so the silent comfort of my bedroom is almost disconcerting. Thankfully, this tour has had little silence.

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