Unreal times, my friends. Unreal I say! Warped Tour 2010 has been amazing, chaotic, and surreal all at once. 15 year old Pete is back and it rules. Not only am I able to walk around every day and watch some amazing bands (Alkaline Trio, Face to Face, Andrew WK, etc), I also am priveledged to play the show itself!

Today, I pressed life’s pause button and reflected on said events at a lovely pond I found behind the SLC fairgrounds. Today was day 3 of Warped and much has transpired. It all began with our unholy drive from Kansas City to Edmonton (WHICH IS IN CANADA). We knew the drives were going to be rough, but this was out of control. From Kansas, we drove up to the barren but fiscally sound state of South Dakota. You would think that the Dakotas would be a hot mess of free love, roller coasters, and the occasional gas station but to tell you the truth, it’s not. Yes, unfortunately my friends the Dakotas have little to offer beyond fences and lonely pastures. Time seemed to pass excruciatingly slow and days bled together.

We eventually made it to Montana where the landscape changed but the drive did not. Brent put on Aziz Ansari…that helped. Our destination that would end this mind numbing drive was the city of Great Falls, the hub of all things dated and irrelevant in Montana. We ate at a Wendy’s. It was bad for us. We got a hotel. It was expensive. But the journey was not over yet. We still had to be in Edmonton the next day. By this point in time we had been driving for 26 hours. Cry about it, right? You drive 26 hours, man.

However, things were a little more complicated than we had planned. Our merch dude Sean could not get his renewed passport on time so we were forced to leave him at a hotel on the US/Canadian border in a town called Cut Bank (I like to say it with a southern twang even though it’s no where near the south). There he made friends with the locals and was subsequently chased from a Pizza Hut by a mob of angry drunks. Unfortunatly, we had to leave him behind.

The dude working the Canadian border was awesome. Kind of a dick inittially but soon realized we were harmless and let us go without incident. We drove again for another 10 hours and finally made it to Edmonton. We stopped at a Taco Bell on the way up and were blown away; amazing. All told, the entire drive took us a little over 35 hours.

The show itself in Canada was worth every mile we drove. Kids up there were so cool to us and it was awesome seeing people singing along so far north from where we call home! Our bassist Todd made some new workout buddies in the Casualties and at one point talked about Obituary for some time with Andrew WK. I decided to take a shower after our set but was dismayed to find out that they were a mile away. Walked it anyway and took a shower in the basement of an arena where the local hockey team cleaned up. At the end of the day, I had a great time. Best part was the fact that we had to drive straight back to Montana to rescue Sean!

The drive back was just as bad as the drive up. Once we reached the border (at 5am) we saw a sign that said It didn’t open until 8. We sat until 8. Crossed the border because the border guard wanted a signed poster and not our passport/criminal info, which was very disconcerting. We finally made the rest of the drive to show 3 of Warped in Salt Lake City and that brings me back to now: post gig on out way to Denver from SLC! Stat tuned for more updates!

43 -Pete