June 14, 2015 | Posted in:Vellum News

The Punishment Tour officially ended last night in Seattle and I’m currently on a plane to NYC with an exhausted 3/4 of Justin Symbol’s band. The other 1/4  (drummer Will evil) decided to stay behind an extra day and pay homage to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Exhausted myself I decided to jot down a few thoughts about this incredible journey before drifting off into that happy place known as sleep which has been my only sanctuary for the past 6 weeks. For anyone who has toured with a band or perhaps served a tour of duty sleep is the only alone time one can expect in these situations. The reason is simple… You operate as a unit with one mission only.. Get to the next gig and play. The only other things to think about is driving, eating, shitting, and sleeping. In my case sleep was the only time I could be alone and disconnect from what was known as The punishment tour headlining William Control, with main support from Requiem and Justin Symbol. As part of Justin Symbol’s touring team I was in charge of setting up the merch table and keeping track of all the inventory sold. I got to play with 6 or 7 elements each night and change it up a bit depending on the merch area. Some nights were really elaborate and others saw us and Requiem sharing a table. Some of my favorite setups were using the Symbol logo which I made out of fuckhead and Justin stickers and various combinations of necklaces and posters. I tried to make it different each night and commemorate the experience. I don’t know if anyone noticed but it made me happy to do something creative.

The tour began 6 weeks ago in NYC. Since all of us (Justin vocals, Soda Guitar, Fox bass, and Will drums) were all based out of the big apple our first taste of touring life was driving non-stop to Utah. The tour started in Salt Lake City and we had 4 days to get there. The traveling consisted of endless truck stops through Ohio and Indiana, toll booths passing from state to state and sleeping in the van of fuckhead. It took a minute to get used to sleeping in Fuckhead. There was a bed in back (which gave me vertigo every time I tried to sleep in it), 3 recliner seats and a floor. Most nights Justin would sleep in the bed, Fox would crash on the floor, I would sleep in the front passenger seat and Soda would sleep in the recliner behind me.  Will usually set up his tent nearby. Three of us had planet fitness memberships which enabled us all to shower and clean up after sleeping in the parking lot. It was definitely the furthest thing from the glamourous rock star life which the guys portrayed each night onstage. Although not glamourous it was fun and perhaps freeing. Once when I called a friend on the road he said I sounded like a wild animal, which to some extent was true. on the road you pretty much act solely on instinct in so many strange and new environments, very similar to a wild animal existence. The 6 week 40 day 25 show tour could be split up into three parts. The first leg took us from NYC to SLC this leg in my opinion the most successful as far as performances, merch sold and attendance at venues.  Some of the memorable spots on that first leg included Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Indiana, Chicago and Cleveland. We went to First Ave in Minnesota and The Rock and Roll hall of fame in Cleveland. It culminated with a one of a kind sold out show in the band’s hometown NYC at Webster Hall Studio. Even though it was mid-May the temps were soaring. The merch table was a hot mess and we sold tons of stuff. It was a trio of birthdays (Justin, Verena, Anton) and a big cake was nearby and the night ensued general madness. I was happy to see my friends and family plus the added bonus of sleeping in my own bed. The guys killed it onstage.

In fact most nights the guys owned the stage with their flare for the dramatic, grotesque and grandiose. The minute the intro to voidhead kicked in Soda would drag Justin onstage with a leash and begin the transformation into a wonderful display of debauchery. They were able to create magic with the music acting as a soundtrack to a very bizarre narrative which explored sexual deviancy, dominance and submission. It also recounted one off experiences and metaphorically mirrored life in many ways. The reaction from the crowd was always positive. Since most shows were all ages the youngsters gravitated to this “cool band”. Without fail when the guys left the stage they would be besieged by girls and guys who wanted pictures, autographs and just to be around them.

How would I describe each member? Justin the leader and namesake of the band was a true rock and roll showman. He truly seemed the beautiful peacock of negativity with his makeup, elaborate outfits and leather cowboy hat and chaps. Offstage he was a quiet and introspective individual who loved to eat and shop at vintage stores. Soda my friend and reason why I was on the tour to begin with is one of the best guitarists and showmen around. His texas chainsaw massacre horror persona fitted him perfectly onstage since he’s a true horror fanatic. The masks he wore painted with words Void and Fuck were incredibly sexxxy. As was his onesie in grey, black and fire engine red. In reality Soda is a geek who loves all things collectible especially 80’s music, tv and movie memorabilia. He’s very pure of heart and thoughtful. Fox or Foxy as I like to call him is my little brother but onstage the girls love him and he became the bassist sex god of negativity. Offstage he was the best driver and loved listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn and BB King. He would always sleep on the floor whenever we did manage to get a hotel room. He also nicknamed me ‘elbows’ for whatever reason, except for that’s what lil brothers do. Drummer Will evil played in a dramatic somewhat flamboyant style. Offstage he was the tour manager and jock who ate bananas and granola bars each morning. He had a thing for candy and other mind altering substances.

“Fuckhead” was the name of the unofficial 5th member and our red savior and it would’ve been great if it didn’t blow up en route to our gig in Atlanta. But more on that later. The one thing I’ll remember from this tour besides the insane performances is the endless endless driving. We drove 2400 miles to Salt Lake City and back to NYC on the first leg then went back out to Seattle. We hit most of the major sections of the country which meant the Midwest, northeast, south, southwest, west and northwest. Overall in many ways it was a grueling 6 weeks plagued with transportation problems.  By the end everyone was emotionally drained from the road problems we experienced. Still, out of all the gigs and our plague we only missed four shows;  Atlanta (due to our van blowing up), San Diego (cxld), L.A. (only used local openers) and Portland (cxld), not bad for our first national tour. After we lost fuckhead the tour almost ended for us several times. We didn’t know if we could continue once the van blew up which was halfway through. We decided it would and continued in a less comfortable ram pickup truck which could pull the trailer with all the gear. at first it was said that this would only be a temporary situation which turned out to be the vehicle we finished the second half of the tour with. One morning sleeping in the vehicle we were awoken by a state trooper who said camping was not conducive to the area and ran fox’ id through her scanner. After that we couldn’t sleep as easily in the truck. This meant we had to sleep in more cheap motels. We did spend a cool night in New Orleans and stayed at a very cool bed and breakfast. We ate at a traditional cajun restaurant which served cornbread, lima beans, fried okra and collard greens. That was after we played a couple of strange shows in Jacksonville and St Petersburg. Smoking is legal in Florida bars so there were a ton of people doing it.  Florida also meant very hot weather and cheap motels. We did eat at pita pit which was a food highlight of the tour.

Texas was a bit of a bonus as the venues in Dallas and San Antonio rocked. We spent a nice day in San Antonio at a second hand store which also had the legendary Alamo record shop. Besides the brutally hot Texas weather it was a fun place to visit. The next two days were spent en route to Phoenix. Once in AZ. we stayed at a lovely resort in Mesa. I left the nest and had a nice mexican dinner a few miles away. We ended up staying there again after the Phoenix gig before heading to California. Since we had a few days off our plan was to camp out at Joshua Tree for a nt before heading to San Diego.  We arrived Joshua Tree in late afternoon and it is truly like no other place on the planet. It used to be sacred native American ground and is part of the Mojave desert. This means nights are very cold and the day is blistering hot. But it’s a rock climber’s paradise and the trees are holy. At night coyotes are close by and hawks live in the cliffs. There are the hardcore climbers who have ropes and clamps and regular people who climb on the smaller rocks without anything. It was also a turning point in the tour. As mentioned earlier our van blewup in south carolina and we left it with a mechanic there to replace the engine. All this was supposed to take a week. We intended to drive back and continue the tour with it but then decided it might be better to get a courier to drive it for us and meet us first in texas, then phoenix, and now in Joshua Tree. Coming to the realization that we were not going to get the van back we had to make a decision to finish the tour or not. Even though it was a tough decision we decided to end the tour.  After another day camping our plans changed and Justin decided he would lay out the money so we packed up and left for San Diego. There we stayed at Soda’s friend’s house. The gig was cancelled so we hung out and checked out restaurants and vintage stores. Next stop was Anaheim. We stayed at a cheap motel and went to see the new Poltergeist movie. The movie ended up sucking and went to in out burger afterwards. If anyone cares they do not have a veggie burger but give you a bun, cheese, grilled onions, lettuce and tomato. They do have Kona coffee which is super delish. The Anaheim gig was super tight with a lot of people showing up and digging the music. We sold a decent amount of merch and Sandra who would turn into the band’s fairy godmother entered our lives. Her and partner Adam decided to donate a hotel room and a bunch of food to us. The next morning another blow up occurred. There would be a few of these between members. Anyway this one had to do with the fact that to finish the tour and drive back in time for everyone involved would be a grueling experience. It was decided that Justin would fly me back to NY from Seattle. Fox decided he was going to fly back as well. This left driving the truck east on the shoulders of Justin, Soda and Will. We spent the next Day/night in L.A. Our plan was to hang out then go to Bar Sinister. We ended up hanging out on Melrose Ave where we met an incredible designer who was like a kindred spirit. She gave us a great discount and showed us her studio area.

Fresno was good and Oakland was strange. The venue was DIY to the max and next door in a larger room was a Deicide show. Afterwards I checked them out and the Singer looked like an old truck driver. The music was still brutal though. Originally Entombed were supposed to be on the bill but left which was unfortunate since I would’ve liked to have seen them. We headed to Portland the next day and there is no other beauty than that of the northwest. I always loved that part of the country and was super excited to be driving this route. Along the way we saw Mount Shasta and stopped by an old mountain rest stop which hadn’t been renovated and looked how it probably did more than 100 years ago. The scenic drive was very similar to the opening credits of Twin Peaks. Some of the observations i made is the extreme weather changes one experiences. It can be 106 on the tip of California then drop to 65 just 100 miles down the road. Again we stayed with an old friend of Soda’s and headed to the next show in Portland. About an hour before load in we got word that the gig was cancelled. This sent everyone reeling and decided we would just do our own thing and not play a free show. Soda asked if I would like to join him and Fox to visit his friend in Belfair, Washington which would mean taking a train to Tacoma. We did and experienced a nice relaxing ride to our next destination. The next day Soda’s friend and her husband drove us into Seattle for the final gig. Somewhat anti-climactic, even though the  guys put on a great show it wasn’t as heavily attended as everyone expected. We had our last meal with Requiem and spent a few hours sleeping on the floor of Sandra and Adam’s hotel room at the Hyatt. The couple kindly offered to drive the truck and trailer back to South Carolina and then to New York for us so the guys could fly back the next day and get some well deserved rest before returning to their regular lives. We said our goodbyes and boarded the plane in Seattle which had a stop over in Philly which of course was delayed. We finally hit the tarmac at LaGuardia airport at 11:21p Friday night. That was the official end of the tour. As I look back now I do see it as a life changing experience that will no doubt have an effect on me for the rest of my days. You rarely share that amount of experiences in that span of time with others in the name of rock n roll. So with that said long live rockstars may they shine on forever bright.

 

All Photos below by Stephanie Young 2015