The Grand Finale. This is going to be a long entry.
Well, we made it to Kansas City. We actually didn't even take the van in to be looked at. The leak seemed to have slowed down overnight, so we just went for it. We still had to keep pouring in tons of fluid to get the steering wheel to move, but we made it.
We met back up with Jerad and the KC gang right when we arrived. Also, a bunch of our friends from Omaha ended up coming down to see the show!! That was awesome. The show was at Doozens Coffee Shop. They do outdoor concerts there, so of course there were huge ominous clouds on the horizon.
Our friendband from San Antonio, A Kid Named Thompson, was scheduled to play with us in Omaha the next day while they were on their own tour, and their show for our KC date happened to fall through, so we said "come to KC and play." They did! They played first, just as the dark clouds were gathering. They got through about 4 or 5 songs before some sprinkles started to fall. We decided it would be a good idea to move the show inside.
After moving the P.A. system into the tiny building, Jerad and Mat played an acoustic set. It was wonderful. A highlight was a song called "Life Is Good," which had a cameo appearance by me and Ryan. The concept of the song is easy. You make up your own verse on the spot, and then the chorus goes "OOOooooohh. Life is goooood."
The Sharks played next, and the volume inside this place was hilarious. They don't do electric shows inside, so it was a task to get everything sounding right. They rocked it, as usual. The atmosphere inside the coffee shop went from sort of awkward, like "uhhh why are these people playing loud instruments in here?" to a full out rock show.
We played next, and our set marked the return of Austin to the band. We were really pumped to have him back, even though Cam did an amazing job in his place. Before we played, I made a mental note that the place we were playing looked like a music video or something. It was just a cool little scene behind us and there was no stage. So I thought it would be cool to just have it be a group effort and play IN the crowd. It's sort of hard to explain, but I just put my mic stand in the middle of the people and encouraged them to spread out around us. It turned out to be sweet. We were all rockin out together. It was definitely the best show of the tour up to that point.
After the show we stayed at our friend Amy's house, which was very very nice. Everybody was able to go there to crash, including our friends from Omaha who came down. We all had a great time.
In the morning, it was time for the dreaded Drive Home. I had been trying my hardest to not think about going home. The thought of going back to the real world is just too awful. But we had a big Comeback Show to get to in Omaha, so there was some silver lining I guess.
Austin was soooooo sick he threw up like 5 times during the van ride. Welcome back to the band dude!
We got to Sokol Underground and met up with A Kid Named Thompson, The Pay Off, and Artillery Funk. What happened next was legendary. All 3 of the openers were AWESOME. We had a great crowd too, around 100 people showed up I think. For some reason, everyone was sooo pumped. That never happens for us! But people were going wild.
Before we played, I felt the need to get everyone on the same page with a pep talk. The band and crowd all gathered at the edge of the stage and put our hands in the huddle and made a pledge to rock the fuck out and dance and remember that there is no better time to go crazy with all your friends or something like that. It was an impromptu speech, but I was just feeling the vibes. I think it helped because no crowd has ever rocked that hard for us. When that happens, it's just sooo awesome. Being in a band, you REALLY feed off of the crowd's energy. I really love losing my mind onstage and I definitely did that last night. It was our best show ever.
For some strange reason, we also decided to give away our merch for free. We have so many CDs that we don't know what to do with them. I think we ended up giving away a TON last night though. We also gave away every single shirt that we had left haha. At this point, we've had the same merch for so long that I just want to get rid of it and, more importantly, get our music out there any way we can. Anyway, back to the show.
The Sharks played last and it was unbelievable. The now-legendary Mr. Ghost made his first appearance with the Sharks. Mr. Ghost is a magical being who goes ABSOLUTELY INSANE onstage while the Sharks play. I have never laughed so hard at anything in my life. I'll try to get a picture up here sometime soon so if for some reason you weren't at the show, you can see what he looked like. The crowd energy was amazing, the Sharks played great, and we were all totally exhausted.
The Comeback Show was an incredible success. I am seriously going so far as to say that was my favorite show that we've ever played. It was a GREAT way to end the Sharks From Far Tour. I'm so so so sad it's over though.
That's all for now, I'll probably post another final Wrap Up soon.
-Joe
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