Part 2: Chicago, Decateur, Kansas City, Denver, SLC
We had a great time hanging out in Chicago! Thanks to DJ pathogen for not once, but twice, taking us to an amazing sushi restaurant and the night at Neo was a lot of fun, if not very low key for me. I was trying to not get too tired before the Chicago show and it turned out, I really did need my energy. We played to an amazingly energetic crowd at Reggies Rock Club and for dinner, I had possibly the best salad I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. It’s a weird thing to experience a “best of” for a salad, but it absolutely was (maybe my body was just craving the greens). Anyways,thanks to the Chicago promoters! The crowd in Chicago lived up to my expectations of being hyper wild maniacs dancing to everything and giving us a really warm reception. I <3 Chicago was my MSN name for 3 days ;)

We headed to Decateur, IL next, a much smaller scene but a lot of great fans really into the show! We were cursed with technical difficulties that evening but overall, a fun night and we met some genuinely nice people.

We stayed with Justin, the keytarist from I:Scintilla, in Bloomington, IL for our day off and got to hit up a Target store where I spent too much money on Halloween T-shirts, underwear, and Hello Kitty tack (yes, I know, but we don’t have Target in Canada so my senses were overwhelmed by all the crap they have and my desire for consumption ran rampant!).

Next was on to Kansas City! We played a venue called Davey’s Uptown where we had played a year ago actually, to find our fan base has grown significantly there too, which is really, really cool. I got to talk to people who I had met a year and a half ago and who were really excited for the latest CD release! The promoters Nathan and Cal were the sweetest people ever and they even prepared a stir fry (a la Mongolian grill style) where we got to customize it our selves, all from a selection of organic vegetables. This is the new BEST dinner provided on the tour!

Have I mentioned how much nicer it’s been to pull into all of these midwest cities and venues when it’s nice and warm outside! Last time, we loaded in through ice and cold.

The next day, we stopped for official Kansas City BBQ at the recommendation of a lot of people. Unfortunately, since I mainly eat (I do loves me some occasional beef but my preference is to eat vegetarian), this was not such a good idea for me (although tasty at the time). This really did me in somehow and affected me negatively for the next day.

Then we played Denver and I was really not feeling great at all. I was feeling really run down, tired and I woke up on the show day with a headache and slightly achey. My stomache had still not recovered from the BBQ. Despite all these symptoms, I was able to pull off the show and I hope it didn’t show to anyone! I still tried to pull off the best possible show and hopefully the audience didn’t notice that I was not my 100% chipper self to chat with afterwards. Anyways, a great crowd in Denver. I appreciated their enthusiasm and I ended up having a lot of fun.

Then we got in the van and started driving towards Salt Lake City. I had high hopes for this show. I fondly remember the crowd last time we played there trying to force an encore. While this didn’t happen this year, the energy was still really awesome and to my surprise, the front row had several girls singing along to EVERY single song. The new ones too which was an amazing feeling. This venue was cool with other events happening such as dancers, fashion & hair shows, etc. The stage was really weirdly laid out but actually really worked for all us bands and we were blessed with an awesome ound guy too.

Now we are hanging out in SLC where we were taken up a mountain by our gracious hosts and it was beautiful. I got 9 hours of sleep last night since we had no shows to get to but I fear that everyone’s starting to get sick. I’m worried, but there’s nothing that can be done living in such tight quarters with the touring party of 16 people!

Next drive: To Boise, ID and then Seattle, WA. The unofficial birthplace of Ayria (where the “Debris” release was recorded and produced) and then off to Portland (Whoo Portland Crew!!!!)

Love,
Jennifer

Marquee in Minneapolis:


Me and my drummer Mike:


Me singing on stage in Nashville:


I:Scintilla and Ayria hanging out in Chicago


Me on a mountain top in Utah: