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Tour Diary, #5: Go Radio's Matt Poulos

[Go Radio and Every Avenue will be keeping a tour diary for AP while they're touring America with Yellowcard. Here’s installment number five, as penned by Go Radio’s Matt Poulos.]

Tomorrow is the last date of this tour. I can honestly say that this six-week run has been one of the best Go Radio has ever done. The bands, fans and shows have all been awesome.

I last left off at our show in Boston. The next day we went to the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. So much history lines the walls of that venue. It was rad to play the same stage Bruce Springsteen has played so many times before. The next night was New York City. New York is always one of my favorite cities to play. It’s such a big place with so many things to do, so when a bunch of people show up for a concert you know they’re excited to be there. NYC is a town that a lot of industry people live in, so you get to touch base with them when you’re there. We got to hang with our booking agent and Japanese label rep, which is always a good time. The show was great, the fans kicked a lot of ass and I got to drink some beers with one of my oldest friends from High School. Quothe the Earl Andrew of W.K.: “I LOVE NEW YORK CITY.”

Philadelphia was another great stop in another one of my five favorite American cities. Go Radio has some very close friends and family living there, so we are always interested in shows in the land of the Fresh Prince. After all becoming mayors of Cheesesteakville, we headed to Charlotte, North Carolina.  Risking redundancy, I have to say, yet again, “The show was fantastic.” This seems to be a theme for this tour. We play the Carolinas quite a lot, but this particular show was unparalleled. Charlotte gave us the best show we’ve ever played in North or South Carolina. That night was one for the books. We headed over to Nashville, Tennessee, next to play the loveable Rocketown. Great venue, great night.

Atlanta, Georgia: The Masquerade. Oh my, what a day the third of November was. First and foremost, my beautiful wife, whom I hadn’t seen in over two months, drove from Tallahassee and surprised me at the venue when we pulled up. I normally hate surprises, but man-oh-man was I glad to see her. She is my best friend, and I am away from her very often, but being away for this long was just unnatural. Seeing her was exactly the thing I needed most. It was shortly after she arrived that one of the most bizarre things that has ever happened to me occurred. This next part is quite unbelievable, but I assure you the words are true.

So, as we’re sitting there catching up on each other’s presence a R.V. comes flying up next to us. Before it can come to a complete stop, a 50-or-so-year-old man jumped out of the vehicle and runs up to our van. He yelled something and immediately grabbed our dude, Derek Buell, by the neck, tore him from his seat and put him in a Half-Nelson-type hold. Very stunned and quite unsure, I kind of just looked for a second trying to figure out what was going on. Buell looked at me and exclaimed, “Burns…WHAT THE F@#K!?!?” I then realized the seriousness of the situation, bypassed putting my boots on (which I was in the middle of when this started) and ran over to the assailant and popped him in the chin with the butt of my palm. He let loose of Buell and came to throw hands with me.

We scrapped and wrestled for a short second and I yelled, “Who the **** are you? What the ****?” Immediately, the man stopped and his face dropped. He then says to us, “I think I’ve got the wrong band.” Most assuredly, he did. Well, I had gotten very worked up at this point and started screaming “Who the **** do you think you are?” I realized in the skirmish he had ripped off my necklace, which was a wedding gift from my wife, and I really lost my mind. I was at full throttle at this point. One of his crew came over to calm me down. He assured me that this was all a misunderstanding. “You’re damn right” and “Who the **** is this guy?!” is all I could say. This is where it gets really interesting—the guy says to me, “That’s Jerry Only.” I fired back with “I don’t give a… wait? Jerry Only? Are you f@#king with me???” He then assured me he wasn’t and that I had just gotten in a tussle with the one and only Jerry Motherf’ing Only.

For those of you don’t know, Jerry Only is an original member of one of my all time favorite bands, the Misfits. Well, this changed everything. I approached him, much to the chagrin of his crew who, by the way, were all wearing Misfits shirts and I had just not noticed in the intensity of the situation. I informed him that there were no hard feelings and he was a hero of mine. He gave me a big hug, apologized and cooked us all hamburgers. What a dude. Man, do I love the Misfits.

Okay, okay. So the next day was New Orleans. Man alive, what a great town. World’s smallest House of Blues, but still a great show nonetheless—followed, of course, with crucial hang on Bourbon Street. That town knows how to keep band guys wanting to come back again and again. The next day was a hungover drive to Texas for Austin, Houston and Dallas.

This was the first time that Go Radio had ever played Austin. Austin is notoriously one of the most popular music towns along with Nashville, NYC and L.A., and now we know why. We will be returning soon after seeing it first-hand. Houston and Dallas then showed us the two best shows we’ve ever played in the state. Southern hospitality and Texas emphatics combined to make for some epic shows. Dallas came with an extra bonus that all us Go Radio boys are still amped about: Sean Mackin of Yellowcard came out and played violin on “Goodnight Moon.” That’s a song we’ve played hundreds of times, but when he came out, it felt brand new. Definitely a highlight of the tour for all of us.

After Texas we stopped off in Tempe, Arizona on the way to the Vegas. Las Vegas. I feel somewhat bad for people who live in Las Vegas, because it is almost impossible, no matter how great the show, to not be overshadowed by the partying that happens after the show. Casinos. Drinks. Gambling. Drinks. Drinks. Drinks. I even won a little money. Thank you Las Vegas.

So tomorrow is Los Angeles. The last day of the tour is in the same city that we started it off. The tour has literally come full circle. I just want to thank Yellowcard for taking us out; they’re a truly great band full of great dudes. This tour has been remarkable, and we’ll miss you dudes.

That’s it for me. I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings. Thanks to Altpress for posting them. Until we’re in your town once again, we are Go Radio—this is America.