Adventure is just around the corner! Getting some smokes. It'll be back in a minute.

Summer’s so close! And that always means: TOUR!!!

Tour is the time that I recharge my batteries, blow off steam, and all those other mechanical analogies for getting the pent-up crazy out of your system. Sometimes, you just need to get the fuck out of town and do nothing but play rocknroll, party, and have a good time. Nothing clears my head more than staring out at the passing landscape of America (and occasionally Mexico) on a long tour drive.

Specifically, the time I like best in the world, the time when I’m happiest, is when I’m in the van on the way to a show. So much potential lies in that moment: it’s either going to be the best of times or the worst. Occasionally there is some middle ground, but most of the time it’s going to be one or the other. You’re either going to come away from the show saying “That was so much fucking fun!” or “Ungrateful bastards! Why did we even bother!” The anticipation of which one it’s going to be is sweeter than almost any other feeling I know. It’s my favorite moment of all the moments that could be in my life.

Usually for me, that moment happens about three times a month, or if we’re busy, four or five. On tour, that moment happens EVERY SINGLE DAY. This is why I love tour. The shows are fun, partying with my friends is fun, meeting new people and making new friends is fun, but that moment is what I live for. The promise of what could be in the pre-dawn moment of rock and roll.

The fame? Practically nonexistent outside of Sacramento. The money? I don’t have a font size big enough in which to convey the word “HA!” in large enough letters to reveal the reality of always being a broke musician. When you are a DIY band like The Secretions, tour is prohibitively expensive. We are lucky if we come out of the whole ridiculous thing with $100 in profit after it’s all over. Sometimes we don’t even break even. Why do we do it then?

What it’s all about for me, besides the sweet anticipatory moment, is Adventure. I capitalize it because it’s an important thing in my life. Life, in general, is BORING. Wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed. Have a bit of fun in between. As a kid, I always watched movies and said to myself, “Why isn’t MY life this exciting ALL THE TIME?” I didn’t have any good answer for this, so I made a promise to myself when I was young that I would increase the amount of Adventure in my life. This is one of the reasons I became a performer.

Adventure can be found in the simplest things, from getting over-caffeinated and riding bicycles like mad all over town or being stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the desert with no air conditioning. It doesn’t have to be all barroom brawls and car chases, although I can say from personal experience (in hindsight) that those can also be occasionally fun. Adventure is what you make it. Adventure is NOT sitting at home watching movies and playing videogames and not interacting with the world in general. Adventure can not be had on the internet. It is real world stuff, kids. Adventure only happens with interaction. Your life is only boring if you don’t take the steps yourself to make it interesting.

That being said, I can’t wait for the Adventure that is late June and early July. Tour dates for the Secretions / Bastards of Young tour are being finalized very soon and will be posted here and everywhere.

Until then, go out and make yourself some Adventure. You deserve it.