Manila Philippines...rough little stint...

Arrived in the Philippines from Japan which was a nice little 4 hour or so long flight. Slept most of the way, which was great! When we got off the plane, we collected all our bags and all our gear (about 50 pieces in total) and this little midget of a van pulled up. It was funny to see this van completely lowered to the ground from the weight of everything inside. The next day morning we came in early to the venue to check everything out. We played at the World Trade Center building in Manila which was just a huge square room, kind of like Walmart but with nothing in it!! Haha Had some serious power issues going on there. Their power is 240v and our gear runs at 120v. Problem being that the step down transformer that converts 240v to 120v was not functioning properly. We were getting extreme voltage through the ground leg of their power which would have blown up our gear at 70v through ground. Had to help them sort this out because after 4 hours of waiting for any type of power before I could plug anything it...enough was enough. Found the issue on the 240v distro box...i had them move the step down transformer connection to a different source and it dropped the volts on ground to 20v. Better, but not acceptable for our gear! They called in an electrician to re-wire their cables at the generator and this brought the volts on ground to under 1v which was good enough to do the show! Once I finally got power for everything, all my gear was working perfectly fine, except for the rental 4x12 Marshall cabinets. We had ordered 9 4x12 cabs and only 2 of them worked. I had to re-wire 2 cabinets just to have a rig that worked. Not sure how rental companies always get away with sending out crap that doesn't work, but it happens all the time! There was one more major problem as well before we could start sound check... Every single XLR (microphone) cable for every cabinet, D.I. Box and mic had some sort of issue with them. Some crackled, some popped, some just didn't even work at all!! We went through over 20 different XLR cables before we got everything working...just for Stef's guitar rig. After all of this, I was so frustrated and grumpy about all I had to fix just to do the show, but that is just part of my job sometimes!! The show ended up being great, so all the hard work definitely paid off in the end!

I think I'm turning Japanese...

Show day in Tokyo yesterday...

The show was great! The kids were absolutely crazy for a Japanese crowd. I think it had something to do with the 4 American guys in the middle of the audience who were screaming and yelling all freaking night. One of them screamed for Chino to spit in his mouth...only in America (via Japan!) haha. It was a super small venue and got hot inside very fast! 

It can be fun to do the smaller clubs in Japan because everything runs smoothly 99.9% of the time out here. The people who at the venue and our promoters were great! I found the tape on the wall from last time I was here...roughly 6 years ago with The Used. Who knew tape would stay on the wall that long without someone ripping it down! :-)

The shows out here usually start really early and everything has to be finished by 10pm. We were all packed up and started heading back to the hotel by 9:30pm. After the show, a few of us walked down to the Hard Rock to grab some dinner. All I can say is that I ate so much food that I nearly burst. I had the spring rolls, onion rings and was craving some ice cream, so I also got the hot fudge brownie sundae! Sounds like all junk food, and it is...price to pay for being a vegetarian in Japan late at night! haha. Your options are seriously limited under those circumstances. 

When I woke up this morning it was snowing outside in Tokyo. Not such a great thing to see when you don't really have any warm clothes! Every singe place we have been/going to (except for Japan) is hot and humid. I didn't pack many warm clothes! ;-)

Meeting up with my buddy to go out in the snow here in a little bit. We are going to take the subway somewhere in the 4 hours we have before we have to leave for the airport! This is definitely the shortest trip to Japan I've ever had. Flew in late at night, next day had a show and then flying out to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

There is always so much to see and do out here that it is impossible to really enjoy it unless you are here for a few days. Gotta run downstairs, more to come later...

Jakarta to Tokyo and everything in between!

Everything has been completely non-stop since leaving Australia!

This was the view from my hotel room in Jakarta. I've also included some pictures showing how they searched each vehicle that was coming into the hotel with dogs and mirrors. It was definitely an experience to say the least!

The Jakarta show was great! Couldn't believe how loud the crowd was singing along to the songs. Almost 2 hours of people going crazy!

After the show we packed everything up and headed back to the hotel! When we arrived at the hotel it was a little after midnight. We had to be up at 4:30am for lobby call...which meant only getting 4 hours of sleep! The ride to the airport was a completely different experience with the absence of traffic and only took about 30 minutes instead of 4 hours. haha.

This is what the traffic looks like in the day. There were literally thousands of motorcycles who owned the roads and the lines on the street were basically ignored by everyone all the time!

Leaving Jakarta, we flew to Hong Kong before arriving in Tokyo Japan! The first flight was completely full, but the second flight was empty. In rows 40-70 there were only 6 people total. It was an amazing flight because I had 3 seats to myself and the flight crew were like waitresses at a restaurant...they would check on you every so often to fill up your drinks and bring you more food! It was great!

After 14 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Japan! We are only here for one and a half days, so I have to make the most of it I guess! Arrived late last night, show today and then we are gone tomorrow. :-(

Pacific Rim Tour - Jakarta Indonesia

Yesterday we flew from Perth Australia to Singapore to Jakarta. Basically had to fly hours past Jakarta, just to come back on ourselves. haha.


Probably one of the smoothest check-ins I've experienced with an airline when traveling with lots of gear. Singapore Airlines had us in and out within an hour for check in and reduced the excessive bag/weight fees by $5,000 which was very nice of them! ;-)


I had to put fragile stickers on everything that we flew with and since my good friend Phil was close by, I had to tag him with a sticker as well! He's a good sport and a great guy to tour with! 

Once we arrived in Jakarta, it was supposed to be about an hour drive to the hotel. Well, it took almost 4 hours to travel 18 miles with traffic. I have never seen anything like the traffic they have out here. I thought India was bad with having no rules on the road, but out here, there are literally NO rules to how people drive. Next time I have to sit in rush hour, I will definitely remember Jakarta and how horrible traffic was here. Scooters and motorcycles would drive on the pedestrian walkways/bridges that go over the freeways as well. Not like one or two, but there were hundreds of them doing it...pretty amazing to watch.

Some of the areas here are pretty run down...but every place in the world has its nice and not so nice areas. Perspective really is a state of mind. Every time I travel, I am so thankful for where I live and the simple luxuries that we all take for granted without even thinking about it...like water, sewers and electricity.

Our show is later today. We came in last night to do some prep work and to see what the situation was going to hold. Everyone has been very nice and things are going as they should, which is always nice! 


Back to work...

Perth Australia - Last Big Day Out show...off to Jakarta!

Yesterday was the final show out here on the Big Day Out. It seems like I've been in Australia for months now, but its only been two and half weeks. I was surprised that I wasn't more excited to see any of the bands on this tour. Tool and Ramstein were the headliners...there wasn't one single band I just had to stay and watch this year. Quite the let down really.

One of the most entertaining bands on the bill was Airbourne. Although they are a complete AC/DC rip off band in every way possible, they are all completely out of their minds and crazy! haha. Here are some pictures of the singer when he climbed up the stage trussing to the very top and played some killer guitar solos. 

It is 3:43am right now and I am getting ready to head off to the airport to check in for my flight to Jakarta Indonesia. We will be playing around the Pacific Rim for the next two weeks. I'm sure I will have some interesting stories coming up in the next few days. Not sure what some of these countries are going to be like...

Big Day Out - Adelaide Australia

After the extremely hot weather in Melbourne, it was such a nice change to be in Adelaide. Still very warm, but no more extreme record breaking heat. I'm sure alot of this had to do with the Cyclone Yasi which was to the north of where we were.

Everything for the Big Day Out ran smoothly. A highlight of the day for me was that I got to pet a Koala  backstage by catering. I wish I had my camera with me at the time to take a picture. It was just a little baby about 18 months old but it's claws were like razors already!!! 

The crowd was great in Adelaide and they kept chanting "DEFTONES" while the band before was playing. Kind of funny, but I felt bad for them.

We flew to Perth the next morning...which is where I am now. Had a day off yesterday and today is the last day for the Big Day Out here in Perth. Lots of flying ahead, but I'll post as often as I can! 

-Drew-

5 Days in Melbourne (3 Shows/2 Days Off!!)

We had a headline show at the Palace here in Melbourne two days ago. It was completely sold out and there were 5 levels inside the building jam packed with people. I had no idea that the venue help that many people in the first place. It was a sauna inside with everyone jumping around and singing along. It was a really good show!

 

Yesterday, I did some sightseeing around China Town since it was right around the corner. Everything looked the same with Chinese architecture, restaurants and karaoke bars on every corner. The funniest thing was finding the Target Center, which had a 3 level Target inside right in the middle of China Town.

My time here in Melbourne is coming to an end as I am flying to Adelaide in the morning! I've walked around to almost every part of the city during my two days off! Today I had lunch at Taco Bill (Not Taco Bell) and it was pretty good considering this is Australia! haha