ARTICLES

State of Rock Tour Blog #1

22 June 2010

Author: Sam Browne - Black River Drive

State of Rock Tour - Christchurch, June 18

The Black River Drive guys and myself met up with the other bands at Auckland airport at the designated time, everybody amped for the first show of the tour. With this being our first tour, we weren’t sure what to expect, aside from the obvious (put on a good show!). Teresa Patterson, I Am Giant’s manager and the tour manager for State of Rock, got everyone sorted with a minimum of fuss and we were off! After collecting our rental vans and piling in, we headed straight to our accommodation to drop off bags and then wandered over the road to the venue, the Bedford. I confess I had never heard of this place before but was really impressed – massive capacity, nice big stage and a decent sound rig, as well as a whole upstairs level to be used as a green room. We arrived back at the hotel to relax for a while before taking the stage as the first band of the evening. About 8pm, a long line of people formed outside the venue, and from our upstairs green room, we could pop our heads out and get an idea of how many people were out there. Just before doors, over 100 people were standing out in the blistering Christchurch cold, ready to rock out. This was going to be good! About this time Teresa informed us more than 400 tickets had presold. This was going to be VERY good!

Five minutes til stage time. Everyone is ready to go, and our guitar tech Gavin hands us our guitars. We take the stage and from the first song, the crowd are amazing and know the words to the singles. In our final song, Bullet For Your Gun, I take a punt and ask them to sing the choruses, stepping back from the mic. It’s an incredible feeling to see the crowd screaming the words back at us! I Am Giant follow us, and kick off with Neon Sunrise. New guitarist Aja locks in seamlessly with Paul, Ed and Shelton and they totally kill it. Luger Boa are consistent as ever, with genius/madman Jimmy Christmas showing everyone musician in the place how it’s done, whipping the crowd into a frenzy in about five minutes flat. Throughout the evening, whichever band members are not on stage are making their way through a vast rider, which starts out sensibly (beers and bottled water) and then ups the ante as the night wears on, until eventually trays of shots, red bull/vodkas and other options are produced and consumed.

The venue seem thrilled with how the night has gone and the booze keeps flowing like a waterfall of intoxication. Everyone drinks with intent…..Things go a little hazy here, and after the show, every band member seemed to have their very own adventure. Mine consisted of heading to Rocky Cola, or the place that used to be Rocky Cola, or something, with Paul (IAG), Janine (tour management/publicity) and Aja (IAG). The DJ is playing Slipknot and Deftones tracks and the regulars are into it (and so are we) but the alcohol is starting to wear off and we reconvene at a little cocktail bar for shots. I seemed to lose everyone from the tour party at this point and begin drinking with Christchurch musician Thomas Coffey, who had just come from a gig. After a number of drinks and a chat (about what, I have no idea), Thomas helped me find my hotel and somehow, I managed to get the keycard into the slot and find the right floor, though the hotel had opted to label the keys with numbers that in no way related to the room number, so it took me a little while to find my actual room.

Later that night our bass player Rusty would tell me he couldn’t remember what floor we were on and had spent an hour and a half looking for the right room.

State Of Rock Tour

Friday June 25 - Whangarei - Red Eye

Thursday July 1 - Waiuku - Kentish Hotel

Friday July 2 - Hamilton - Altitude
Saturday July 3 - Wellington - Bar Bodega
Thursday July 9 - Auckland - Brownzy
Thursday July 15 - Auckland - Kings Arms

Thursday July 22 - Napier - Sideline Bar
Friday July 23 - Tauranga - Brewers Bar

www.myspace.com/blackriverdrive

www.myspace.com/lugerboa

www.myspace.com/iamgiantband