Web Exclusive: Meg & Dia Tour Diary (part four)

Posted by Steven Robertshaw on 04-Mar-08 @ 11:17 AM

Welcome to the Meg & Dia tour diary documenting their ongoing tour with Angels & Airwaves. Read part four below, revisit part one, part two and part three. Click here to see the remaining tour dates.

Thick layers of snow and Ice covered the streets of Columbus, Ohio. The sensation of feeling my toes or the tips of my fingers no longer belonged to me. I felt like I could finally be a proud member of the "smokers circle" the way big billows of what could easily pass as cigarette smoke escaped my blue lips. The only good thing about this depressing weather was the fact that I could now abuse my option of making fun of all the dudes in my band for each wearing a pair of Meg & Dia leggings underneath their skinny jeans.

Oh, what joy this season brings! But...not really.

Once inside the venue, which we folks like to refer to as The Newport Theater, I followed the neon orange arrows taped to the floor to a creaky spiraling staircase leading to our green room, all the while pausing for a few moments in the areas where the heaters created small patches of heaven.

Ace Enders and a Million Different People, The Color Fred, and ourselves were to share a tiny, well-tagged greenroom. Under the chaotic circumstances, although we would spend all our time bumping into each other, shouting tired "EXCUSE ME'S!", and searching for our purses, messenger bags, and coats in a large looming pile in the corner, I appreciated the much needed bonding time.

As I walked onto the stage, following the pathway our guitar tech Ping made with his miniature flashlight, I thought about what I think about before every show we play: "How in the hell did I get so lucky?" And then we played our show. And then we loaded out our equipment in the snow. And then we made ourselves peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. And then I got to the most interesting part of my night...

I watched the Angels set tonight. I know that most bands won't admit this so I will: We don't watch each other's sets EVERY NIGHT of the tour.

Hushed silence steals over you readers... I know, I know. But, if you could just get over your surprise I'll continue on with this blog. I rested my elbows on a drum case on the side of the stage behind Angel's tour manager, Chris. He offered (like he usually does because he's just a freakin' sweet guy) his ear phones to me, which allow him to hear Tom's mix. Tonight I just wanted to feel the show. But instead of being drawn to the frontman, or checking out the guitar players, for some reason my attention kept sweeping back to Atom, the drummer. He just looked so majestic when he played. He kept glancing at Chris with this huge grin over his flashing crash cymbols every time he completed a difficult fill. It was just pure happiness like I've never seen before. I watched his arms, with all that muscle, and all that sweat dripping from his forehead... (No I'm not checking him out! Pay attention!) He was a machine. He was happy. He was so good at what he does. I thought about how far he must have come to get to that point and how far I still have to go, but mostly I thought about how much I want to.

After a few songs, Atom (the drum god) did slip up in all his glory while attempting a sweeping fill from one side of the kit to the other. Incidentally the drum stick dinged Dave, their guitar player, in the back of the head. Dave turned to look back at us over on the side of the stage with a goofy grin and just gave us a "What in the blazes was that?" look. Atom smiled sheepishly and continued on with the show. And of course, I admired that, too, because that's what live shows are all about: playing and continuing no matter what. Even if all the drunk frat dudes are moshing in your slow songs just because you're an opener, even if horny scene guys are screaming at you to take off your shirt because you're a girl, even if older-jaded attendees call out an over-played cover song for you to attempt to massacre because you might be a bit too "poppy" for their taste. Even if... Learn something every day I guess.

And in conclusion I would like to add this bit of knowledge I found in our dressing room today in Missouri: "Life is a waste of time, and time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life."-Anonymous. See, like I said, ya learn something new everyday.

-Meg Frampton


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