2012: "Tour 1" Debrief / Year End
Thanks to everyone who helped us out and made our first tour legendary. Our appreciation is endless. I wrote an entire debrief at the bottom of this post.
Since we've been home, Nathan, Albert's younger brother and our previous drummer, has rejoined us on guitar. We're almost finished writing our new LP with him.
b/w photos by Daniel Rodriguez
photo: Ian's mom
Tour 1 Debrief: Before leaving, my friend Javier Van Huss (Eighteen Visions, The Mistake) told me "document everything". - Cam
October 31st, 2012 - I feel like a new chapter of Seizures began that afternoon on Halloween. Our first day of tour was the following day and we had an early last practice at Backline Studios in Garden Grove where we've been practicing again lately since losing our lockout. Our friend Juan from Colombian Necktie drove down from LA to let Albert borrow his 4x12" Engl cabinet so we could connect it to his Marshall 4x12 cabinet. Juan helped us dial in our sound with one guitar while still being able to keep the powerful sound we've had being a 5-piece. Juan has looked out for us since the beginning, he's essential to this band. Love you dude.
November 1st, 2012 - I think Che Cafe was the best local show we've played as a band so far. We played to a packed Che with all our friends who drove from all over and sold over half of our tour shirts at the first show. I was worried we wouldn't have enough for the entire tour but, somehow we did and came home 2 weeks later with 2 or 3 leftovers. I'm so glad Daniel took those photos. Thank you Daniel and Che and friends.
November 2nd, 2012 - Luckily the venue is down the street from my job since I worked up until the last minute, making sure everything was finished while I was gone on tour. I spent a few hours while working, talking to Tom from Colombian Necktie on the phone up until I pulled into the venue parking lot. The Unit B Show was okay but there were a few other shows happening that night so it wasn't well attended, however, It was our first skatepark show so that ruled. Also, Black Mask from Pennsylvania jumped on the show and they were nuts. "Wish I could find some pictures from this show" is something I've been saying a lot about this tour.
November 3rd, 2012 - What was a mellow Saturday of packing for tour became a stressful and very close call where we almost missed our show. We drove separate cars to nights 1 and 2 since they were so close to home. We were playing Lompoc for night 3 and it's a 4 hour drive, maybe longer on a Saturday afternoon. Our rental van wasn't available until after 12pm, but as of 1:30pm, still no van. Finally after calling some backup options like airport rentals and u-hauls, the Lopez family finally arrived to my house with the van around 3pm (the best van and people ever, so generous and kind, didn't even charge us). Albert and Cody got dropped off so we just had to rush to Ian's 20 min away. Ian's mom (an angel) bought us a pizza to eat on the way up there and took pics of us with the van before we left around 4pm. We made it into town around 9:30pm and loaded in fast with enough time for us to play. But like assholes, we missed most of the bands before us. There was only about 15 to 20 people here, but all of them went off during our set at a few points with our first circle pit ever. Shout out Swampy from Bad Days.
November 4th, 2012 - Cody drove us through the night from Lompoc to San Francisco. We woke up early the next morning in the van, just around the corner from Fisherman's Wharf and Embarcadero Plaza. We recharged / napped in the van at a local Starbucks and then onto a Denny's. After coffee and food, we walked around the area for a bit then decided to go the military bunkers across the Golden Gate Bridge. We hiked, took pictures, and eventually met up with our friend Kindred in Oakland. Albert found a milk crate near the van, had me sit on it while he gave me a gnarly massage. Kindred hopped in the van and we headed to Berkeley where we met up with our other friend Justin Venegas at his house. Our show that night was in San Jose so we had to head back south in gnarly 5pm traffic. The show ended up being great and a lot more people than I expected showed up. We were so high up on the stage, I almost fell and had to jump off twice. It felt like skating off a loading dock. "I wish I could find some pictures of that set" but apparently the San Jose Rock Shop did a live stream on their Facebook page. If you've seen us, please send us anything you have, thank you! After the set, Donovan from Buried at Birth let us stay the night with him not far from the venue. I did a 5-point turn (in 100 points) to 180 our van around on the side of his house as backing out would be impossible the next day, I'm really proud of turning that van around.
November 5th, 2012 - We left Donovan's house in San Jose, got Denny's breakfast, and headed out for night 5 in Reno, Nevada. I was really looking forward to this set as we had become friends with Drag Me Under when they played with us a year earlier, Donovan from San Jose also played that show with Buried at Birth. Our drive to Reno was quick and scenic. I watched the movie Heathers on my phone during that drive while passing through the state line. When we arrived at the Starbucks overlooking Reno, there was just a good vibe all around for the show we were about to play. We pulled up to Fort Ryland, a basement under a house where our friends live and unloaded. It was the perfect spot for a show. Before our set, the wheel on Albert's cabinet fell off and he got bit by a dog. I didn't really know what was going on until after the set since I was dealing with my own situation, I think I spared us from getting jumped due to drama involving someone we don't talk to anymore...anyways, we got burritos and menudo after our set with the Reno friends and Ian got a Taylor Swift shirt from Walmart. "I wish I could find some pictures of that set".
November 6th, 2012 - I remember waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning somewhere off the beaten path of the Oregon wild. It was black outside with the exception of the road, sticks, and pines in our headlights. I told Ian I could take over on driving, which I didn't know would be one of my favorite moments of the tour: driving the winding roads of Oregon's dense forests while the sun started to come up. I picked Nirvana's 'Nevermind' on my iPod before I pulled onto the road which summoned fog into the early morning mood. Daylight started strobing through the trees during "Stay" and I remember thinking, "I've never seen nature or life like this before". Autumn colors for miles along curved, wet-empty roads while I already knew what I was going to play next, Basement's new album 'Colormeinkindness'. The two albums work so well together on this drive. After playing 5 solid shows with my friends asleep in the backseat, I felt hopeful, happy, and not stressed for the first time in a while. I switched shifts driving after a few records and McDonald's breakfast only to wake up in dead-stop traffic, entering Portland for the first time in my life with a full bladder and no empty water bottles or cups to piss into in the van. We couldn't pull off yet either. After running around the city and hijacking a whole food's bathroom from a heroin addict. I finally met up with the guys again. We spent the day with our friend Ryan Harper, at restaurants and more coffee, he was also letting us crash at his place in the city. Albert and I met up with our longtime friend Erica Belland from high school at a strip club across the street from the venue before the show, it was so cool hanging with her. The show we played that night was awesome minus our friend Benny's car getting broken into. We got Sizzle Pie pizza right after with everyone and it ruled. To make the night perfect, I did my laundry at Ryan's cozy penthouse while it was raining outside. Thanks Ryan <3
November 7th, 2012 - We left Portland by 11am and got to Seattle around 2pm. We stopped only once at a Chevron for gas and snacks with Botch as our soundtrack. We met up with one of my best friend's Brittany Weaver who lives in a suburb of the city when we finally got into town. We met via Tumblr, and had a ton of mutual friends. She's like my other sister now. Brittany offered to drive us around the area before the show and let us park the van at her house. She knows my favorite shows are Twin Peaks and X-Files and said Tweede's Cafe, the diner where they shot scenes from Twin Peaks was only 40 min away. I nerded out, made us take pics in front of it. I had the cherry pie with some ice cream, and a black coffee of course. Our show that night was also at DIY spot called the Black Lodge of all places. The show was really fun. Albert even broke a string but changed it for a new one in like under 45 seconds. The longest 45 seconds of my life while a drunk crowd from next door walked in and yelled Free Bird at us to which I said "yes, that one's next". After the show, we went to a gyros restaurant called Sultan and kinda celebrated how well this tour was going. After dinner, we headed to our friend Andy Gomez's (Glory Kid Records, Burn Your Life Down, Time For Change, SoCal Legend) place and rolled out our sleeping bags in his living room. "I wish I could find some pictures of that set".
November 8th, 2012 - It's our day off. I wake up with a full bladder and Andy's partner is in the one bathroom for a while (could have been 5 minutes) showering and getting ready for work. I'm desperate and leave the apartment to "go check on the van". I end up pissing myself in the stairwell of the building while looking for somewhere to go. I've never been like this but the meds I've been on, plus all the water you drink on tour as a vocalist made me have to go all the time. I did check the van as well which was totally safe. When we all left Andy's, a cleaning crew was power washing the stairs..."maybe it was a dog" I said. I felt so awful. So embarrassing. Anyways...we got breakfast with Andy at this really good spot called Bang Bang Cafe, Cody, Andy, and I ordered Shawn's Vegan Mac, it ruled. We spent the day running errands in the city at target, guitar center, ect before meeting up with Andy again for Vivace coffee and dinner at Razzis Pizzeria. Before we left for dinner, I got a shipping notification email for the new Deftones record "Koi No Yokan" I ordered, I checked for a leak and was able to download it for my iPod literally heading out the door. We had a full night and day's drive ahead of us and I wanted to listen to that as much as I could. Anyways, Andy is the absolute best. Thank you for being such a great friend to us.
Novemeber 9th, 2012 - Albert's driving, I'm shotgun, while Cody and Ian are asleep in the back. It's 1 or 2 in the morning and we had just driven through Spokane, WA and crossed the Idaho state border, talking about everything from how crazy this experience has been and how we only had 2 more shows left. The weather started to change around here and get snowy with dark, wet roads. We were heading down the I-90 above Coeur d'Alene when a semi-truck sped past us splashing ice onto our windshield. That's when we hit some light black ice and couldn't catch tire traction. I just remember we were quietly panicking, not really saying anything, and sliding down this hill with a lake below us on the other side of the guardrail. It felt like 10 minutes but was probably 10 seconds and we caught tire traction again. After the string of good days we've had on this tour, I thought it was all about to end here and possibly our lives? I'm just grateful that wasn't the case and everything was fine. We stopped around 6am at very remote gas station in somewhere Montana, while getting coffee and gas, we got a "Ya'll in a band?" from the attendant. I ended up giving him an Antipathy CD. Idaho's terrain is unique, to travel from the top of the state down to the bottom, you can't just pass straight through. You have to go through Montana most of the way, so it was a strange experience when we hit the Idaho sign again. We took a picture of us in front of it and it might be my favorite Seizures picture yet. We finally made it into Idaho Falls and stopped at a McDonalds where the cashier spilled our coffee all over her arm but insisted we take it before she took care of her burn lol. Okay. The show at the Waxhouse was amazing. I wasn't sure how the turnout would be since the lineup was all touring bands but it ruled and a bunch of people came out. There were so many bigger guys pitting for us and it got super violent at times during our songs "Eternal" and "Lurid". We went to Denny's after the show with Cody's friend Rodney Bennett, who also invited us to stay the night at his house nearby. We had such a great time hanging with him and his friends talking about their local scene and mutual bands we all love. Rodney's house ruled, we stayed in his cozy basement. It was the best night's rest I had on the whole tour.
November 10th, 2012 - We wake up to Rodney sitting in a chair above us and he just nodded "what's up". Albert and I died and said "sup". Love you Rodney. We got up, loaded the van, and got food with Rodney then hit the road later on for a 3 hour drive to Salt Lake City for our last show of the tour. The weather got rough driving into town, down long winding road with snow on the sides, it started pouring down rain for the last 45 minutes of our drive. We made it in time to watch the last few songs of the first band. After loading in, it started snowing and we were told one more band hopped on the show and were going to play right before us. They were in town recording their demo and are called Of Feather and Bone. We hit it off immediately, great dudes. They sound similar to Nails and ruled. Stoked to say we played their first show ever. The SLC show was a perfect lasts how of the tour. So many new friends and everyone was so kind. Can't wait to play there again. We loaded up the van and decided to just drive straight home, regardless of the bad weather and everyone's warnings. We were fine.
November 11th, 2012 - We were supposed to play Vegas at East Side Joe's on 11/11 but the promoter forgot to promote? Something happened where the show just didn't get lined up properly. Getting home that morning was bittersweet, this was the most fun I've ever had, and I felt like we should just keep going. Can't wait to get back out there with our new album.