So - This blog is a challenge to share with you an experience. One that means more to me than I might be able to put into words. Therein lies the challenge of it all.
On the U.S. tour Lights Below did - we crossed paths with one of our favorite Canadian bands: Moneen. We had played with Moneen once before. Our 2nd or 3rd show after Taylor joined the band. Our 5th show (maybe) as a band. Our first time playing out of town (the show as in Kelowna). This was monumental for us. It was our first 'big' show. Our first time playing along side a band that had recognition. Our first time playing with a band that we all had come to like, not ever thinking that we would get an opportunity to play along side them.
Fast forward 4 years. We are in Long Beach, California. We are staying with a girl named Sarah, who also houses a band named Damiera on our second night with her. Damiera not only is signed to one of our favorite record labels, but just so happens to be touring the U.S. with Moneen.
Rad dudes. Good times. We depart. That was that.
Now, weeks later in Austin, Texas it just so happens that Moneen and Damiera are playing in Austin as well, on the same night, around the corner from the venue we are playing. We cross paths a second time, and hit it off. We spend the night haning out, they all come watch our show, we have drinks. Relationships being to form... In our talking, we find that our tours will cross paths once again. A week later, after the wonderful boys in Moneen pull some strings for us, we are opening for them in Augusta, Georgia.
This is where I get serious. That night was amazing for me. A bit of a speech was made by Kenny, Moneen's singer, about our band. About our ambition. About our willingness to say fuck it all. Fuck managers, fuck labels...or the lack thereof I suppose. We were out there, on our own, touring North America. We built ourselves an empire, as small as it was. But it was ours, and nobody else's. We then joined them in singing one of their songs.
This may not sound all that exciting. But for me, being that far from home, that far from comfort and familiarity, for that night, I felt at home somehow. I felt like I was EXACTLY where I was meant to be in life. For those moments, nothing else existed to me. It was perfect. Everything was perfect.
If you have ever had a moment where you have no doubt in your mind that you are in the right place; When somehow, everything in your existence comes into balance; When everything just feels as it should be. You cannot help be feel overwhelmed. That is how I felt, for only the 2nd time in my life. I realized that night that doing what makes you truly happy is the only way to go through life. Follow your dreams. Take chances. They will pay off as long as you see your endeavors through. I hope that everyone in this would gets the chance to feel this way someday. It truly is one of the greatest emotions I have had the pleasure of feeling.
As fate would have it, we would join Moneen and Damiera yet again, weeks later in Dewey, Illinois, for the last show of their tour. A tradition carried on tour after tour by Moneen is to take pictures of each person in all of the bands 'jumping' following the tours final show. It can be as simple or complicated as you wish, you just have to jump. Enjoy the creations that the night brought forth. We jumped our asses off. Peace out.
