US Tour Blog #1 – Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago

Ayria and Project Pitchfork on the Road:

June 15^th – 20^th Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago

Jenn in Minneapolis, June 15th 2010

That’s me with the Minneapolis sky line behind me.  I flew into Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 15^th and met up with my new keyboardist for this tour Kevin, a nice Irish boy from Atlanta who is aparently second cousins with Collin Farell.. but we’ve decide to call him Wolfgang Hans-Hemut as Peter from Project Pitchfork thought he needed a German name for this tour to fit in more (Oh how I love breaking in the new guy!).  We made our way to the hotel and waited for everyone to arrive from various parts of the world.  Mike drove up to the hotel a few hours later with our van and trailer, he’d made the trip all the way from Seattle. A few hours after that, the guys from Project Pitchfork (headliner band, members: Peter, Achim, Jurgen, Axxle) all arrived from Germany  (Hamburg and Berlin). Our kickoff show was in Minneapolis, MN the following night and that show did not disappoint!  The crowd brought all of their energy that night and danced until the last song had been played.  I got to meet a lot of new people as well as greet familiar faces who I’d seen at so many of our shows before.  Apparently, my gay fanbase tells me that “Lady Gaga is out, and Ayria is in!” which made me laugh pretty hard. They also thank me for adding Kevin the keyboardist as some eye candy to the show   It was a great show to start this month long tour and to get me back in the mindset of being on the road.  Besides a spontaneous 3 show stint with VNV Nation back in March (which was amazingly fun but brief), I haven’t actually toured since I got home in January after the month and a half long tour with the Cruxshadows.  Switching gears back into touring mode.

The next day, we had off due to a last minute cancellation in Champaign, IL which was disappointing, since last time we were there, I recall was quite fun!  We ended up in a city called Mauston, WI and had our first official tour family dinner in a typical American diner where everything came smothered in cheese.  The second show was Milwaukee.  We played at the Miramar Theatre and this show, has so far been my absolute favourite of the tour.  Some nights, a band is lucky enough to have everything click and that night, for me it did.  The sound was totally flawless, the energy of the crowd was insane, and I just felt the show went off so perfectly for me personally. Then the after party at club anything, where I fear I’m starting to get a bit of a party girl reputation there (haha)  but we had a lot of fun and want to thank everyone that came out and supported both bands in Milwaukee.

Chicago! What can I say about Chicago.  It’s always amazing to play there.  We played at a venue called the Abbey and I have a bit of a story about that place since it reminds me of the first time I’d ever been to Chicago.  Back on my very first tour ever with Razed In Black and Glis, we were booked to play a show there but they had already booked a local act to play that show, and therefore Ayria wasnt’ given a slot since we were ‘unknown’ then, so I just hung out that night and didn’t get to play.  I think of our crowd reaction there last night reminds me how far I’ve come since then! I really hope someone got footage of “The Gun Song”  and posts it.  A girl in the front row brought a pink toy gun and busted it out for that song and handed it to me!  I was actually going to bring my blinged up gun from the “Hearts For Bullets” cover on this tour, but didn’t want to risk travelling with it through homeland security as I’ve had problems even with bringing a “bullet belt” in the past.  Thank you Chicago, despite a few sound issues and the venue being a million degrees (my face was melting off through the set), we had such a fun night! We recommend the fish and chips dinner at the Abbey Pub!  I would have loved to have gone to the after party at Neo, but we were pretty tired that night,  so we chose to get some rest at the hotel.

I’ve written this post while in the van, driving to Pittsburgh.  We’ve been fortunate to stop for full breakfasts at amazing little dinners almost every day so far.. Project Pitchfork guys are amazingly cool, I can’t understand a word they are saying when they go into “German Mode”, this tour is being dominated by the latest scores of the World Cup games, but it’s all good and we are already all bonding and becoming the dysfunctional tour family that always happens on the road when you’re forced to share confined spaces, all meals, and long drives.

I’ll see some of you soon I hope!? Lots more shows to go!

Much love from the road (currently Sandusky, Ohio)

Jennifer

Thanks to: Plastik Wrap for the stage clothing & merch collaboration. We spent several weeks planning out the new line for this tour and I know they worked well into the nights the week before I left, I also want to thank Neko Hair Designs for my new dreads! (they actually blend perfectly with my own colours and hair length), and Cinched Tight Corsets for the cute pink skull corset.. more pics will be featured of all these awesome collaborators and supporters.  I’ve been given more gifts along the road from other awesome and talented designers that I’ll be wearing and promoting too and  I can’t thank you guys enough!

Here’s a video filmed in Chicago yesterday morning before we left: