Taking Back Sunday Tour Diary, Part One

Hello AP readers!

I'm sitting here in wonderful El Paso, Texas, and it's Day 4 of my first official Taking Back Sunday tour. I suppose I should kick off this blog with a brief introduction about who I am. For those who may not know me, my name is Matt Fazzi and I'm the new guitarist around TBS town--well, kinda new anyway.

I..am...Batmatt.

We've had a blast just in these first few days trying to develop a working rhythm with our crew and also just with the five of us playing together. That's the beautiful thing about touring as opposed to doing one-off shows: You get the time to really tighten up as a musical unit and work out the kinks.

Adam Lazzara and I in Mission, Texas

 Our crew is a great group of hardworking people from top to bottom and they are all Taking Back Sunday tour veterans, so I get to learn a lot from them about what it means to be on the road with this band. Those guys are who keep the machine moving along in tip-top shape and we owe them tons and tons of credit for working so hard for us night after night.

Our crew member Ray and I.

This is a tour of many firsts for me. It's my first time doing a legit tour with TBS; my first time in some cities where I've never played; and first time being on a tour bus for a long stretch. I got a little taste of it when we visited the UK back in August, but it was a very brief trip and the experience flew by pretty fast. I truly appreciate the little things about what it means to tour in a bus instead of a van. It really helps as a musician to be relieved of the stress and agony of making a 16-hour overnight drive, or even having the simple luxury of being able to stand and stretch out a bit or not have to sleep in a seated position for several hours on end. Heck, even just having a bathroom on the bus so you don't have to stop for ten people to go No. 1 makes a huge difference. Every little bit of rest or comfort is never taken for granted.

One of my favorite things to do on tour is play Frisbee and I've managed to spread the love for Frisbees among the rest of the band and some of the crew members. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball and forgot to bring mine--the best Frisbee in the world that I got in Sandusky, Ohio. (Thank you, Sandusky.) So Matt Rubano had the brilliant idea of asking our fans to bring us one and the response has been awesome. I learn how truly sweet our fans are more and more every day. We posted the idea a little too late to get any Frisbees at the first show in Corpus Christi, Texas, but Mission, Texas, came through. Even the Envy On The Coast guys are getting in on the frizz. Speaking of Envy On The Coast, they are a fantastic group of gents and a sick band and I couldn't be more stoked to have them out with us. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them as musicians and we all get along really well because we're close in age. I'm looking forward to hanging with those dudes even more on this tour.

Matt Rubano and Mark O'Connell in Corpus Christi

The shows so far have been phenomenal. Corpus Christi and Mission were in these sort of half-outdoor type venues which, depending on the weather, can do funny things with your instruments. My guitars had some trouble last night because the cold was agitating the tuning. Rubano had a similar experience with his bass, but the great thing about the vibe in this band is that we can laugh off the troublesome stuff that will always happen no matter what you do. That's the recurring theme around these parts: Have fun first and foremost. We sacrifice a lot in the name of doing what we love to do (leaving family and friends behind) so you absolutely have to make the best of it and keep morale high or else you'll just end up miserable and spinning your wheels for nothing.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'll check back with everyone in a week!

Much Love,
Fazzi + Taking Back Sunday