Short break in NYC / NEW TOUR TBA!

¡Hola! Today was very nice. We drove from Oswego, NY to New York, NY. We watched "Fight Club" in the van; man! That movie was awesome/crazy/confusing! It was difficult to really process exactly what was happening at all times but I was all good by the end, haha. Jared Leto (singer of 30 Seconds To Mars) looks so weird in that movie. We wrapped up the drive at our hotel in New Jersey right outside of Manhattan and we chilled here for a little bit. We then took the subway over to the city and popped Terry's New York cherry. He was really excited to be here for the first time. We walked around the city, got some food, and Bruno and I bought CD's. He got the new Silversun Pickups record and I got "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" by My Chemical Romance. I actually just finished listening to it and it's awesome! I've been listening to Black Parade nonstop this tour and I needed to finally get the sophmore record. I'm backtracking... next is the first album. Today was a great day overall and I saw the naked cowboy (as disturbing as it was) for the first time, haha.

Amazing way to end the tour.

Tonight's show in Oswego, New York was awesome! We played with Madina Lake, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Secondhand Serenade, and N.E.R.D. The latter was a weird addition to the show, but it was fun to watch. They actually invited some of the crowd onstage and it was a good time. Madina Lake was incredible, as always. If you haven't checked them out yet, make sure you do so! Myspace.com/MadinaLake. They're on a plane right now flying over to London to headline a small UK tour and they're on the cover of Kerrang! Magazine. Best of luck to those guys and we need to play with them again! We shared a dressing room with them today so we all got to talk and have fun. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus... We love you guys so much! Awesome band, and awesome dudes! After the show, they invited us to party on the bus and I DJd haha, it was awesome and my playlist included: Achey Breaky Heart, One Week, Panama, ABC, Do ya think I'm sexy, and all the other greats. Secondhand Serenade are rad dudes and we had a great time playing with 'em, even though we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we did with RJA. They're bassist, Harvey, is the man! It was a great tour, and we'll see you guys on the road very soon!

Chaotic Times

Geeze! These past few days have been rather chaotic. First off, the day we left chicago, I lost one of my blue era vans. Haha, I looked all over the room for that missing shoe and it set us back 45 minutes on the road which caused us to be late to the gig that night but it wasn't that big of a deal. The aforementioned show in Akron, Ohio was pretty cool, but lame at the same time. It took place at this big college auditorium and the guy working the monitors was a really grumpy/life-loathing version of Santa Claus and the house lights were on the entire set! If you've ever been to a concert, you probably know that usually the room is dark with lights shining on the stage... well, somewhere along the line, some moron screwed up and we played to a completely lit up room, which is incredibly awkward when you're onstage... Haha, I actually had my back turned to the audience at all times in between songs and for "Can't Sleep It Off". The next day we had off, that was awesome! We got to sleep in 'till noon and then spend the rest of the day hanging out in Cleveland. It's a really cool city! We got to visit the Alternative Press Magazine headquarters and we saw a bunch of really cool stuff. I also received a cool AP shirt and an early version of the magazine coming out on May 5 with Taking Back Sunday on the cover. Score! Yesterday was a complete mess! We drove the five hours to (Insert City Name), Pennsylvania and as soon as we got to the venue, the sound guy told a lady holding a clipboard "See, I knew they'd show up even though they're not on the list". This confused me. Soon after, we found out that there was a huge mixup and we wouldn't be playing the show due to insurance reasons... They didn't have any sort of reassurance that we wouldn't sue incase somebody got hurt, which we wouldn't do, but the college would rather be safe than sorry... which really sucks for us! It was painful watching Madina Lake go on because there were so many people there and the crowd just went off! It was awesome at the same time though, because Madina Lake are incredible to watch live. Today was another day off which we spent driving and the duration of the day in Oswego, New York. The day was fine, we went swimming in the hotel pool and bowling at an alley nearby. I got a big gash in my acoustic guitar today in a freak "Falling-bed" accident... I won't go into details, but it's repairable and my guitar will be in great shape in no time.. Luckily it's still completely playable and sounds perfect.. just some exterior issues haha.

Peace,
Chris/

I'm back again!

I didn't go anywhere this time, I just kept forgetting to write something. Anyways, the last week of tour since we last spoke was awesome. The day I got back we played at The Blue Note in Columbia, MO with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Madina Lake. It was our first night playing with Madina Lake and so far it's been the only night. Those guys are awesome! I wasn't sure what to expect, but their live show was awesome, plus they have some catchy songs. Red Jumpsuit were finally back (we hadn't seen 'em in a week) and it was great to see those guys again. The next show we played was in Wayne, Nebraska at some college gymnasium. That show was pretty rad, there were a BUNCH of people there, but we had a lot of technical difficulties haha. The show we played at The House of Blues the next night was really awesome. I love that venue so much, and the one in Chicago has probably been one of my favorite so far (alongside Dallas), I had an amazing time and the house was packed with a bunch of awesome people (minus maybe one or two haha). Our show last night was something else haha. Anyways, it's extremely sad that we only have two shows left on this tour, but there will be many more tours to come soon so it's all good. Today we're going to the AP offices in Cleveland.. To do what, I'm not exactly sure, but hey, it's AP, right? Haha.

I'm back!

I just landed here in Saint Louis after seven relatively short hours of travel. My first flight left from Los Angeles at 12:00 A.M. That plane right took me Dallas. When I arrived in Dallas three hours later (I slept the whole way) I got on another plane to Saint Louis which left at 6:00 A.M. (Central Time) and here I am now. The rest of the band is at the hotel in Saint Louis and I'm going to take a shuttle over there shortly. But for a little bit I'm just going to sit here, using my laptop and waiting for my ear to pop. Man, I hate that feeling haha. It was a great two days off back home and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my family and friends again but I'm back on the road now and Drive A is playing in Columbia, Missouri. Here is video update number one:

Day Back Home 1 / Mexican Flavor

Today started at 4:00 AM Eastern time. Man, that was miserable. Woke up, drove to the airport and then got on a plane to dallas from Philadelphia. We then missed our flight from Dallas to Los Angeles and got on a plane an hour later to Burbank, which ended up working out perfectly. On the way home, it was apparent that I should make the best out of my two days back home before I fly out the continue the tour in Missouri, so I called up my best buds, Skyler and Gavin. I picked them up from The Commons on the way home and we reviewed everything that had happened since we last saw eachother (2 weeks ago). After some standard chill time, we made this amazing video, hahaha. If there's one thing I love to do and am amazing at doing, it's making myself look like a jackass in public, my friends are really good at it too. Without further ado, here is the video, "Mexican Flavor"

Detour through the D.C.

Today was an awesome day. We started the day off in Richmond, Virginia and drove all the way to Philadelphia, PA. It was a fairly long drive with harsh weather conditions for the duration... I was lucky enough to sleep in the van for an hour and a half so it's all good, haha. We figured, since it's on the way, why not make a little visit to our nation's capitol, Washington D.C.? We drove around for about twenty minutes and admired the city. I got a picture of the Washington Memorial, as seen above, plus some other pictures. I also got this really awesome vegetarian burrito along the way from this place called "California Tortilla". Anyways, the most important part, the show. Tonight's show was probably my favorite of the bunch. The crowd was great and we had tons of energy on stage. I got to display some new jumps I'd been working on during down time, haha. Everything went according to plan and the show was awesome. It was Safetysuit and The Undeserving's last show on the tour, and I'm gonna miss watching those guys. On the plus side, however, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is coming back for the rest of the tour! I'm excited about that. My family flew into Philadelphia today to watch the show and we wandered around the city together for a while. Since we have two days off now, I'm going to be flying back home tomorrow early in the morning for the next two days in order to spend some time at home and work on things with Blackout 101. I'm flying back out to St. Louis on the 17th so it won't be too long that I'm gone. I'm actually at my parents' hotel room by the airport right now and it's an extremely early wake up call, so I should really be getting some rest right now. Until next time.

Peace,
Chris

Pork Chop Sandwiches

Hey everybody. If you've been to a Drive A show in the past few months and you bought one of the white sampler EP's then you may have noticed some errors once you imported the disc into your computer. We started getting complaints from fans that the disc showed up under the band name "Pork Chop Sandwiches" and the track listing was completely screwed up. We apologize for this! The company we printed the CDs with made a mistake in manufacturing it and there's nothing we can do about it. What I can do is write all the track names on here. I don't have a copy of the CD with me right now and I can't remember the track listing completely. Check back tomorrow for a detailed listing. Also, if you haven't already, check out the Drive A myspace for tour dates and see when we're coming to your town! We have a tour update video hitting YouTube tomorrow so stay tuned for that!

Myspace.com/DriveA
YouTube.com/DriveARocks

Peace,
Chris

A Relaxing Day Off.....

So today, we finally got a day off from playing shows. It was really nice to sleep in and just chill for one day. We woke up around 12:30 Eastern Time and we all just hung out in the hotel and watched tv/used our computers for a while. Then we played with fireworks for a while; that was a lot of fun haha, unfortunately however, the hotel got mad at us and we had to stop much earlier than we were originally planning to. After that we had Easter/Terry's birthday lunch at TGI Friday's. Haha, Terry ordered a Coor's light with a proud grin on his face. The rest isn't really that important, but what is important is that you (if you aren't already) should follow me on twitter. Twitter.com/chrisblackout check it out. It's time for bed, peace.

Ten In A Row!

Hey everyone. Drive A just finished up ten gigs in a row these past ten days on our tour with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus/Secondhand Serenade, plus our "fly-in-fly-out" stint at Bamboozle Left in Irvine, CA. It's been a hectic ten days, but now we get to sit back and relax and sleep... a LOT. April 12th is Terry's 21st birthday (Happy birthday Terry) plus it's Easter Sunday, it's the perfect time to get a day off. After tomorrow, we head back out on the road to continue on with the tour. We played tonight in Greenvile, South Carolina at what was probably our smallest show, but that didn't stop us from having fun and making sure the audience did as well. Yesterday we played at The House of Blues and that show was sick, as well. It's so nice to finally be on tour and get away from home, but at the same time, you begin to miss home every once in a while. I'm excited to be doing what I'm doing and I'm really looking forward to the rest of this tour and then what comes next after that, and after that. Here's a video that I stumbled upon on YouTube of the song "Everyone's Alone" from our set at House of Blues Cleveland yesterday.

Little did I know how exhausting touring was.

Man, it's been so fun this past week and half on the road... but MAN, it's tiring! Today was our ninth show in a row since April 2. That's pretty crazy. Tomorrow it's going to be ten days in a row, then we have a day off for Easter (and Terry's Birthday falls on the same day as well.) We're the only band on this tour that's doing ten in a row since Red Jumpsuit is taking the week off and while we could have been enjoying some well-earned rest... We flew to LA for Bamboozle Left and then flew directly back. Haha, whenever I'm in doubt, I watch this video.

One week into the April Tour

Drive A is one week into our April Tour with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Secondhand Serenade and so far it's been a total blast. We see ourselves getting better and better as a band each night and we're having so much fun playing for you guys and hanging out with the other bands. If you were at one of the shows, I hope you had lots of fun... Actually, I'm pretty sure you did haha. I could have posted one of the nightly crowd pics I take at each show, but there's already one up here from Texas so instead I decided to show you guys one of the scrims/banners we have set up on stage. It's a black and white american flag with the anarchy symbol in place of the fifty stars. Tell me that's not badass! Also, I seem to find myself drifting closer and closer to vegetarianism each day. After hearing so much about it from friends and etc. I decided to check out Peta2.com and see what the hype was all about. Each day I find out new fascinating things from the treatment of animals in slaughter houses to the horrible annual canadian seal slaughter. Once I read about the latter, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'm not making any commitments yet, but once again, I'm becoming more and more open to the idea of becoming a vegetarian as most of the foods I find myself eating nowadays are mostly vegetarian in the first place. I'm not going to shove anything down anyone's throat, because I HATE it when people do that to me, I just figured maybe you'd like to read about this.
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/p2_seal_slaughter_09