Day 4 - Austin, TX

What happened to Thursday?!?

Day 4 was a blur of awesome. After having to say goodbye to the amazing hospitality of Aunt Kelly and The Family, we hit up a Subway for some more incredible $5 sandwiches, and then motored our way over to Austin.

Austin rules. It's easily one of my favorite cities. Great club scene, good people, nice weather. I've been through these parts more times than I have hair on my head and every time I can't wait to get back. This time was no different.

Red 7 was a great venue, probably the best one thus far. I'm getting used to these smaller venues - Nelson and Skid Row definitely were more on the arena tip than this club scene, but AMP rocked it. Dylan from Josephine Collective hopped up on stage and jumped in with his vocals. Christian lept off the stage into the crowd without missing a note. Danny sang his heart out while banging away on the drums. Spencer and TJ held it down like they always do. It was only the third show of the tour and these guys are really getting on point.

Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time in Austin as we had to get up early and head out to Ft. Worth to hit up the Ridglea Theatre. This is the kind of place I'm more accustomed to rocking: a big outdoor stage.

Check out the footage from the past day and night and drop us a line. Let us know if you liked the show and what else you want to see, especially if you were there.

Aunt Kelly's and the Rock Bottom, Austin TX

Spencer's Fam in San Antone

Today was rough. We drove straight through the night, traversing all 983 miles from Phoenix AZ to San Antonio TX to make the show tonight at Rock Bottom. Our reward for not stopping and having to sleep in the uncomfortable van was hanging out with Spencer's Aunt and her family poolside. A welcomed change to the unbelievable oven-like heat of Arizona.

AMP put on a rockin show in front of a totally punk rock audience tonight in a tiny spot in the industrial part of San Antonio. They rocked the house, too. Kids with yellow mohawks moshed and jumped through the smoke-filled room toward the low ceiling. I gotta say, these boys know how to get a crowd riled up. It wasn't exactly their scene off the bat, but they got the crowd moving. Reminds me a lot of another band I know...

Everyone is pretty beat from the past 24 hours, most of which were spent in the van. I do not recommend sleeping in a van. Hopefully they have a good chiropractor in Austin when we get there tomorrow.

Day 2 - Traveling through the Southwest

Day 2 - Life on the Road

We spent all day driving. We're not even to San Antonio yet. Actually, I don't even think that we're even in New Mexico yet, much less Texas. We have another several hours to go and it's now 12:20am Mountain Standard Time. We lost an hour a couple hours ago going through Arizona.

The AMP dudes got a lot done on the road today even though they didn't play a show. Hit up some friends on Stickam.com that were at the Phoenix show last night, ate several tuna sandwiches courtesy of Subway $5 footlongs, and talked to some locals in Tuscon, AZ.

We discovered that the trailer's lights aren't fully functional. I tried to gerry-rig some of my quick electricianship but couldn't make it work. We have one left brake light and one left blinker. This is just the kind of stuff that happens on the road. Didn't phase me much. I'm well versed in hand signals. They're a must out here on tour. I'm giving Jason lessons but he's reluctant to learn. Thinks that civilization is well beyond hand signals. He'll learn the hard way.

We're about to go into the dead zone for service so I'll be you all adieu. We'll see you in San Antone.

Robot Roadkill Day 1

HITTING THE ROAD

This is it. I had to give the guys some pointers on how to load the trailer. Always put the cabinets in first. Always. This is elementary, fellas.

Other than that, these guys aren't too bad. For being an unsigned band on their first cross-country tour, not too shabb at all. I don't know about their showmanship but if nothing else, they definitely have the talent to be professional roadies. I'll teach them all they know. It's good to have a trade to fall back on in case the band thing doesn't work out. Plan B, as my Paps called it. I never bothered with one. For me it was always one goal: tour with Nelson. Those days are gone now and they were vintage times. Everything else after has just been icing on the top.

We're off to Phoenix, AZ to vanquish the One Place. See you on the road.