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. A L E X B A N D . T O U R D I A R Y . |
Wow, that was insane. Both exciting and frightening. Fun and scary. Strange and familiar. Like any tour it had its ups and downs…but this one also had its side to sides. We were on top of the world one minute, then being held hostage the next, seriously. It was a love-hate relationship for me and my stomach. A pure hate relationship for me and my body. But a true and overwhelmingly strong love relationship for me and, well, my brain. Yes, I've played some shows over the last 4 years while being stuck in this "solo album" never-ending cycle, but I haven't TOURED…. And this was a TOUR. Albeit the most poorly put together mess of a tour I have ever done! But we didn't care, we were having the time of our lives, even when our lives were being threatened at every turn. Let me walk you through the insanity of the last 3 weeks. Enjoy the ride:)
June 18th.
Where else would a tour start? The airport of course!
June 19th.
Yah, so we finally took off from NY and began our 10-hour flight to Sao Paulo,
Brazil. I really didn't know what to expect when I got there.
June 20th.
It was hard to get up. That would pretty much be the gist of every morning, only
it would continue to get harder and harder. I had to go do some live morning TV.
Honestly I don't quite remember what it was now….but I did it
June 21st.
I woke up on the bus as it pulled in to the hotel in Santos. It was raining
still. The weather had mostly sucked since we'd been here. It was gray and
cloudy, but not just in the sky, it was cloudy in my brain.
June 22nd.
It was hard to get out of bed….very hard. I wasn't feeling so great.
June 23rd.
We woke up and left for radio and MTV. The radio station had us do multiple
interviews in different studios…
June 24th.
"Up and at em'." That's what my Mom used to say when I was a kid and it was time
to wake up. "Up and at em'!" Really a truly horrible saying…the last possible
thing I want to hear when I first open my eyes. But somehow I still hear it in
the back of my mind…and it gets me up.
June 25th.
It was an early call time to get to the airport for our flight to Rio. Even
though last night's show was earlier than the rest; ample sleep was not in the
cards.
June 26th.
Another morning flight, eek! We were all completely destroyed already by now and
only 2 shows in to our 6-show stretch! This morning it was off to Campinas, a
city I had never been to.
June 27.
We woke up and flew to Florianopolis. There was once again similar issues at the
airport. Where was our flight taking off from? How delayed is it? Did all our
bags and gear make it on the flight?
June 28th.
We were hearing great things about the city of Florianopolis…that they had over
40 beaches, beautiful women, and unreal weather. But today none of this existed.
Today we drove in the shit bus through the rain.
June 29th.
Back to the lovely airport for our flight back to Rio, although tonight's show
was in a city called Campo Grande, which was two hours away. Makes sense right?
I guess since we have a press day and 2 days in Rio starting tomorrow it made
some sense to just check in to the hotel there today even though our show was in
a different city.
June 30th.
Today was a press day, just Globo TV, the biggest network in Brazil. We were
supposed to go by there for an hour or so to play a couple songs on some
show…but of course it turned into a day long excursion. Globo TV is this massive
empire in the middle of nowhere….like a Brazilian "Universal Studios".
July 1st.
Although there was a plan to meet in the lobby at 11am to go rent scooters,
everyone was surfacing from the nice dark holes of their hotel rooms at
different times. Once we were finally all accounted for, we asked our Brazilian
counterparts to take us to the scooters! We were really excited about the
freedom of driving around the city or Rio, each on our own little scooter,
exploring and having fun. But no.
July 2nd.
Today was hang gliding day! We had to start driving to the next city for
tomorrow's show this afternoon, so we scheduled hang gliding for everyone at
11am this morning. We were all super super pumped to jump off a cliff with
nothing attached to us but canvas wings! But alas, once we got to the beach to
meet up with the hang gliding professionals, they told us "the wind is not good
yet". Sucky!
July 3rd.
I had set my alarm on my iPhone as I always do the night before. Two alarms
actually. I don't like to be late and I pride myself on being a pretty punctual
person. But this morning I was awoken not by my iPhone and its calming church
bells, but by my tour manager saying "Where the fuck are you? We have to be
on live TV in 5 minutes!"
July 4th.
Ah, the Fourth of July…Independence Day. But just another day in Brazil; no
fireworks, no BBQ, no fun. We woke up early to get on the stink bus for our
final ride. I was sad thinking the tour was over after tomorrow night's show,
but really happy I didn't have to ride on this bus anymore!
July 5th.
This is it, the final show, the final day. We had gone to bed the night before
at like 4AM, so I didn't wake up until 1PM and it was already time to go to
sound check. We drove out into the middle of nowhere, a huge empty field in the
middle of more empty fields.
July 6th.
The sun started to rise as we pulled up to our hotel. The band guys were on
American Airlines back to LA and it was a flight that was leaving soon. I prayed
they wouldn't have such a hard time getting home as they did getting here!
P.S. I'd like to dedicate this tour diary to my friend and manager of 10 years,
Stuart Sobol. Rest In Peace.