Post by postlukecore22 on Jun 2, 2021 16:19:53 GMT -5
Hey friends,
I was listening to Flickerstick's Zoom interview on youtube that they did in anticipation of WHtA being re-released on vinyl, and it got my nostalgia kicking up so I figured I'd post this.
My name is Luke, and I was the merch guy for the Flickerstick/Shazam "Causing a Catastrophe" tour starting in November of 2002. I am now 40 years old, so at that time I was 21 and a total idiot.
I have lots of fun and/or funny stories from that tour. If anyone is interested I can share.
A few interesting things of note:
1. I got on this tour through a friend of a friend. I had been playing in a mildly successful punk band in Minneapolis that broke up and was feeling aimless, so a friend of mine who owned and operated an Eagle Tour Bus and drove for Warped Tour/OzzFest/etc. recommended I connect with his buddy who also owned/operated and Eagle. So I drove down to Chicago from Minneapolis on October 31st of 2002 and hooked up with that driver, not having a clue what I was doing. That driver had driven for Drowning Pool during the tour where their singer passed away, so he had a connection to Paul Bassman who was Flickerstick's manager
2. The tour consisted of the Shazam, Flickerstick, me and the driver, and Flickerstick's front-of-house/tour manager Matt (no idea what ever happened to him) along with a guitar tech named Mick (I think he went by Mick Flair?) who had previously worked with Deep Blue Something. Along the way numerous local acts would open for the tour. In California, one such band called Dropline were plopped on the tour for three shows, I believe in LA, San francisco, and Sacramento. Their singer was a bit of a premadonna and seemed to be annoyed that they were the first band on the bill, and made some snarky or snide comments to Rex a couple times, which Rex then labeled as "Getting Droplined". So everytime the singer would be an ass we'd be like "Oh shit, we just got Droplined."
3. I was asked to drive the bus from time to time, but had no experience with any vehicle bigger than a Protege'." My friend had sold me as a bus driver/merch guy to the main driver of the bus. So when the driver got sick somewhere between Portland and Minneapolis, I took over driving. I had done so from El Paso to San Diego and up from Sacramento to Portland. So I made it all the way through the mountains and managed to only make people in the back a little vertiginous. But about 50 miles outside of Fargo, I ran into a section of the freeway that was completely slicked over with black ice. I really had no idea what to do with air brakes on a skating rink like that. So by the time I realized what was happening I was already starting to fishtail and do 180s. I wound up crashing down into the median but thank God never rolled and didn't hit another vehicle. The trailer got destroyed but their gear held up. A U-Haul that was driving behind us actually lost control and rolled several times, spewing all their belongings across the freeway. I got knocked out by what I think was a toaster, but no serious injuries. They were all very shaken up but were super nice to me. I felt horrible about the whole thing because I knew I shouldn't have been driving and the driver knew that too but said I fell asleep at the wheel. It cost him financially in a horrible way. It may have actually put him out of business, I'm not sure. Needless to say I never drove again on the tour after that.
4. In Columbus Ohio Cory wound up meeting a girl that he thought I would be interested in and bringing her back to the bus. We hit it off pretty good and saw each other one more time in Cleveland but lost touch after the tour was done. I wound up getting married and pursuing a career, but had a divorce happen 6 years in. Four years ago I reconnected with that girl from Columbus and we wound up getting married and now have a 2 year old. I'm writing this post in El Paso visiting her family right now.
5. The driver was super upset at the end of the tour because he claimed they were shorting him money. He wound up making me take some cash out of their merch money and got into with their tour manager over it. I can't remember how much it was. It put a bad taste in my mouth about working with him again, even though he wanted me to for some reason. Later on the tour manager called me and I never called back because I had gotten a job and was feeling like I needed to clean my life up a little after the tour experience. So that was the last I ever heard from the band except for a few emails back and forth.
Anyway, those are some interesting points. Feel free to ask anything if you want to know more details about the tour or the general experience. I always felt really bad both about the accident and the way the driver ended the tour but not much to be done about it now I guess.
That's all I've got! Hopefully hear from some of you.
Luke
I was listening to Flickerstick's Zoom interview on youtube that they did in anticipation of WHtA being re-released on vinyl, and it got my nostalgia kicking up so I figured I'd post this.
My name is Luke, and I was the merch guy for the Flickerstick/Shazam "Causing a Catastrophe" tour starting in November of 2002. I am now 40 years old, so at that time I was 21 and a total idiot.
I have lots of fun and/or funny stories from that tour. If anyone is interested I can share.
A few interesting things of note:
1. I got on this tour through a friend of a friend. I had been playing in a mildly successful punk band in Minneapolis that broke up and was feeling aimless, so a friend of mine who owned and operated an Eagle Tour Bus and drove for Warped Tour/OzzFest/etc. recommended I connect with his buddy who also owned/operated and Eagle. So I drove down to Chicago from Minneapolis on October 31st of 2002 and hooked up with that driver, not having a clue what I was doing. That driver had driven for Drowning Pool during the tour where their singer passed away, so he had a connection to Paul Bassman who was Flickerstick's manager
2. The tour consisted of the Shazam, Flickerstick, me and the driver, and Flickerstick's front-of-house/tour manager Matt (no idea what ever happened to him) along with a guitar tech named Mick (I think he went by Mick Flair?) who had previously worked with Deep Blue Something. Along the way numerous local acts would open for the tour. In California, one such band called Dropline were plopped on the tour for three shows, I believe in LA, San francisco, and Sacramento. Their singer was a bit of a premadonna and seemed to be annoyed that they were the first band on the bill, and made some snarky or snide comments to Rex a couple times, which Rex then labeled as "Getting Droplined". So everytime the singer would be an ass we'd be like "Oh shit, we just got Droplined."
3. I was asked to drive the bus from time to time, but had no experience with any vehicle bigger than a Protege'." My friend had sold me as a bus driver/merch guy to the main driver of the bus. So when the driver got sick somewhere between Portland and Minneapolis, I took over driving. I had done so from El Paso to San Diego and up from Sacramento to Portland. So I made it all the way through the mountains and managed to only make people in the back a little vertiginous. But about 50 miles outside of Fargo, I ran into a section of the freeway that was completely slicked over with black ice. I really had no idea what to do with air brakes on a skating rink like that. So by the time I realized what was happening I was already starting to fishtail and do 180s. I wound up crashing down into the median but thank God never rolled and didn't hit another vehicle. The trailer got destroyed but their gear held up. A U-Haul that was driving behind us actually lost control and rolled several times, spewing all their belongings across the freeway. I got knocked out by what I think was a toaster, but no serious injuries. They were all very shaken up but were super nice to me. I felt horrible about the whole thing because I knew I shouldn't have been driving and the driver knew that too but said I fell asleep at the wheel. It cost him financially in a horrible way. It may have actually put him out of business, I'm not sure. Needless to say I never drove again on the tour after that.
4. In Columbus Ohio Cory wound up meeting a girl that he thought I would be interested in and bringing her back to the bus. We hit it off pretty good and saw each other one more time in Cleveland but lost touch after the tour was done. I wound up getting married and pursuing a career, but had a divorce happen 6 years in. Four years ago I reconnected with that girl from Columbus and we wound up getting married and now have a 2 year old. I'm writing this post in El Paso visiting her family right now.
5. The driver was super upset at the end of the tour because he claimed they were shorting him money. He wound up making me take some cash out of their merch money and got into with their tour manager over it. I can't remember how much it was. It put a bad taste in my mouth about working with him again, even though he wanted me to for some reason. Later on the tour manager called me and I never called back because I had gotten a job and was feeling like I needed to clean my life up a little after the tour experience. So that was the last I ever heard from the band except for a few emails back and forth.
Anyway, those are some interesting points. Feel free to ask anything if you want to know more details about the tour or the general experience. I always felt really bad both about the accident and the way the driver ended the tour but not much to be done about it now I guess.
That's all I've got! Hopefully hear from some of you.
Luke