AP Guest Blog: Chiodos/Silverstein tour diary, part two (by Shane Told)

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to the second installment of the Silverstein/Chiodos tour blog. I'm writing this (on my Blackberry) as I sit on the curb of a Chipotle in San Diego. I'm currently debating whether or not I should get a smoothie at Jamba Juice... My life is full of such tough decisions.

In the past week, this tour has just flowed like butter. Great shows, great dudes and nothing but good times. Traveling down the west coast is always fun as hell, watching the palm trees start to spring up as the mercury inches its way up the thermometer. Being from Canada, I never really mind the heat, even when it's almost unbearable.

Last night in L.A., we had probably my favorite show of all time. We have so many friends and family out there and it was a great feeling to be able to play our best in front of them. The kids were so awesome, there was a no moshing or crowdsurfing rule which sucks, but surprisingly it didn't ruin the vibe or make it lame. The crowd found their own way of getting into it, and the energy was so great. Our friends in Blessthefall were in the house and at the end of our set Jarrod from Blessthefall came out and sang "Bleeds No More" with me. He killed it, and it was such a great way to end the show.

Our San Francisco show was awesome, too (except way too hot!), and our buds in Set Your Goals came out. We toured with them over in Australia and Japan earlier this year and really became close. I'm sure you already know them, but if not make sure you check them out. They are one of the most honest, straight-up and positive bands in the scene right now. Anyways, in their honour we played a cover song by Lifetime (another band you need to check out) and Jordan came out to sing it with me. I was so stoked that later on I played an acoustic Saves The Day cover of "Three Miles Down". That's one of the reasons we still tour so much. Its so awesome to hang out with some of your best friends that you only get to see once in awhile when you pass through.

Last weekend in Seattle we had the pleasure of visiting the Starbucks corporate headquarters where we made friends with the people in charge there (see photos below), and told them how much we enjoy their delicious beverages. It was, as always, good times.

In Portland, it decided to rain all day (fairly typical) so Paul and I decided to see a movie again. It was between Sex Drive, Max Payne and Religilous. We decided we would go with the much more thought-provoking movie and see Religilous. It was really good. It's definitely an intense movie, and probably a movie that will piss you off if you are on one far side or the other. But for someone like me closer to the middle of the debate, I really enjoyed it. I heard Sex Drive is funny, though, so maybe you should just see that.

Other interesting events over the last week:
-Chiodos inventing a new sport involving Twinkies and a Louisville Slugger... I'm not exactly sure of all of the rules
-I finally shaved after almost two weeks, see photo below
-Robert from Escape The Fate finally finding "The Hive" (which is where the Honey's be swarming)
-A vicious Skelanimals plush toy fight between Silverstein and Chiodos (no winner was declared)
-Almost getting "jooked" and robbed in Fresno (where our tour manager also got his computer stolen)
-Watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall another five or six times

Thanks for reading and tune in next week when we'll be blogging from Vegas, Phoenix and my personal favorite Texas!

Love you all,

Shane