Summer Tour Warm Up

Are you getting excited yet? DMB Summer tour kicks off this week in Texas! I am here to talk about my upcoming summer and what I will be doing. I am WICKED excited about the traveling and adventures I will be having this summer! If you thought I went crazy last year, wait until you hear my plans for this summer! I want to be able to blog and even get some video footage of my entire summer tour traveling so I can share my experience with everyone!

Although DMB kicks off their tour this week, my adventure will begin in Saratoga Springs, NY on Memorial Day weekend. My friend Kevin and I will make the drive to Saratoga on Friday May 24th and kick off the summer in style. We got a camp site at Pop's Lake Campground in Galway, NY and we will be staying their with many members of the DMB Family! That weekend will consist of grilling, drinking games, campfires, singing, dancing and two DMB shows at the famous SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center.)

In my original plans, we were to stay until Monday and head home then. Now plans have changed drastically, but I am not complaining! I was offered a chance to head on an epic road trip from Saratoga and I couldn't refuse. That Monday I will be traveling to Toronto and will heading to the DMB concert on Tuesday. But wait, it gets better! Recently I was made an Admin on the awesome DMB fan website DMBConnect.com. I have been thinking of ways to help out the site for the summer. So I reached out to Boyd Tinsley of DMB and he is allowing me to interview him for the site in Toronto! I am beyond excited and honored! I am going to be asking for help from fellow fans to submit questions to me that they would want to ask Boyd. I will be going through and selecting a few questions that I like! To do this, I will be asking you join DMBConnect.com if you haven't yet and post your questions in this link http://www.dmbconnect.com/forums/topic/76/submit-your-questions-for-boyd-t/view/post_id/279.

From Toronto I will be continuing my road trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania. After Toronto, my buddy and I are just winging it. No lodging plans, just a ticket to each concert and the wind at our back! The DMB show in Scranton is the following day after Toronto so we will be hustling to make it there. After the Scranton show we have some time to chill before the next part of our trip brings us to Burgettstown,  PA. We plan on camping for two nights and going to the DMB show on Friday night. After that, we take our travels to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio for the DMB show at Blossom Music Center. All along the way we have multiple members of DMB Family we will be seeing and meeting for the first time. Besides SPAC, these other four venues I have never been attended. After Blossom, our road trip is just about over. He will drive me to Buffalo on Sunday and I will get on a plane and head back to Boston. But that isn't the end to my summer!

After my epic road trip including six DMB shows in nine days, I get a nice three day break before I am back on the road. My friend Kevin and I will pack our things and head out to the DMB show in Holmdel, NJ on Thursday June 6th. The next morning we will make a mad dash back to Hartford, CT and hit the two DMB shows there on Friday and Saturday. This is another show where we have a lot of friends and DMB family that will be there! From there it is back home for a week then off to the two DMB shows in my home venue at Mansfield. This will be a special show for me because I was chosen to hold the LoVE sign in the pit by the LoVE foundation! Also, I will be having friends from all over coming to these shows!

After Mansfield I have a little over a two week break and then it is on to Darien, NY for the DMB show there on Wednesday July 3rd. I will be road tripping with my friend Bob from Mass to Darien that Wednesday. After driving back home on the fourth, I will go home and pack for my flight to Milwaukee on the fifth of July. This trip will be to the epic venue, Alpine Valley. My friend Steve lives in Minnesota and will come pick me up in Milwaukee and we will head to the venue. The two DMB shows are on the fifth and sixth of July. Instead of heading home after the shows, I will be heading to Minnesota with Steve to check out his home state of Minnesota. I have never traveled there so it will be nice to visit the Twin Cities.

Following my Wisconsin/Minnesota road trip, I have about 9 days to relax. On the nineteenth of July I will be boarding a flight with Kevin and heading to West Palm Beach. If you remember, West Palm Beach is where all the magic happened last year. We will be reuniting with old friends, and meeting some new friends at these two DMB shows.

Once West Palm is over, I have the longest break in my travels. I will have the month off until my next adventure, Colorado. I will be flying to Colorado for the first time on August 22nd. I have some nice DMB family that will be picking me up and letting me crash with them. I will be attending the two DMB shows there on Friday and Saturday. Then I will be staying until Wednesday, exploring the state of Colorado for the first time!

From Colorado, I will immediately boarding a flight on Wednesday and setting out for Seattle. This will be my last but most favorite adventure of the summer. The always epic trip to heaven's amphitheater, the Gorge! My friend will pick me up at the airport and we will head on the three hour drive to one of the greatest concert venues in the country. We will be camping for four nights and seeing DMB three times during this awesome weekend. If I can give you any advice, it would be to please make it to the Gorge in your lifetime.

I am going to try and be more active with my blogging, I have been slacking. I am going to be blogging through every step of my adventure and being more detailed. I want the true DMB fans out there that can't experience it for themselves get a good taste of what it is like. I only hope that my experiences convince others to take risks and make their dreams a reality like I try to do. You will never regret doing something you love! I will also be trying to do some blogs that involve helping people with traveling to different venues and how to camp at certain venues. If you have any requests that you would like me to blog about, please let me know! I hope you enjoy reading through my adventures!

Be kind always, no matter

Hello friends, enemies, and stalkers. Just kidding...kind of. I try to be funny sometimes. It's mostly just nonsense that pops into my head and it translates into visual nonsense. Anyways, some people have requested that I get back to rambling on my blog. Until recently I haven't had much to say, but I've had some new found motivation. There are some things that are very important to me that I'd like to share.

I've come to realize that no matter what state of mind you are in personally, being kind to others will make you a better person. I went through a rough little stretch of feeling pretty down. Whenever anyone gets in that mind set, it feels as if you will never be get yourself out of that rut. It feels like no matter what you do, this dark cloud will follow you around always. This is where the power of kindness comes into play. I had a lot of great friends that went well out of there way to put a smile back on my face. Although many of them didn't know what was going on in my head, they reminded me to be positive no matter what the issue. And like Dave says, "Don't let the troubles in your head steal too much time you'll soon be dead." I can't stress the importance of that quote enough.  There are going to be bad times and things you can't change. It's up to you pick yourself up and hopefully even have some good friends to help you on your way up. A good friend of mine said to me, "Pain is inevitable. But, don't let it dictate your life. You will get through this and what ever other heartbreaks you encounter. Don't hide your love away." That was one of the wisest things I've ever had said to me. Don't let pain get in the way of the love you have to give. Learn from your past experiences and grow from them. Don't regret anything in your past, instead remember the good experiences that came along with it. Don't waste your time with negative feelings towards anyone. Use that energy to be positive and help others, as well as yourself. 

Recently, even when I was down, I made a conscious effort to help others. I really started to appreciate the nice people in my life. I wanted more than anything to give back the love that a lot of people gave me. Knowing how it is to have that hopeless feeling, I didn't want to see anyone else go through the same thing. It is amazing what a simple kind gesture can do for someone. Taking a second to put a smile on someones face can turn their day around. Going out of your way to help other's won't only make their day, it will make your day too. You will see that bringing a smile to others face's will bring a smile to yours too. Treat others how you'd like to be treated and you will hopefully receive the same. Some of the friends I've met the past year are the most loving people I've ever known. Seek out other loving people and you will find yourself being a better person. As Dave says, "once you give, you begin to live." Take the time to help others, be positive, and be kind always...no matter :)

*Disclaimer: I'm half asleep...spelling and grammar is probably atrocious...read at your own risk!

Fate Part 2: The Tattoo

After the Mansfield DMB shows I had one day off in between and then it was straight to SPAC. I spent that day packing up my stuff and then the next day we drove to Saratoga. This time it just so happened that my new friend Kevin, from Mansfield, was staying at the same campground as us. No one ever believes me, but in person I am shy. Up to this point, I had always just gone to concerts with my friends. So stepping out of my comfort zone and meeting fellow fans was refreshing. The Saratoga shows were fun, but came and went with nothing out of the ordinary happening. I have been to SPAC multiple times, so besides the awesome shows and the camping, nothing notable happened.

After Saratoga, my next stop was Chicago and Alpine Valley. This is where the "everything happens for a reason" phrase comes back into play. I met a girl in the spring that is from Chicago but goes to school in Boston. I told her my favorite band was DMB and she told me she goes to see them at Alpine Valley every year. After we hung out a few more times she told me i should come out in the Summer and visit her and go to Alpine Valley with her. Now if I had still been with my ex-girlfriend, this would've never happened. Alpine Valley had always been one of the places I dreamed of going, but she held me back from doing certain things. So I talked to my friend Dan and he said as long as we get to check out Chicago a few days then he would join me. So both of us took our first trip to Chicago and we did a lot of sight seeing in the few days we were their. We went to Wrigley Field, Navy Pier, The Bean, Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, John Hancock Observatory Building and Willis (Sears) Tower. After an awesome time in the City, my friend and her sister picked us up and we headed to Alpine Valley. At this time, this was the farthest west I had ever been so the car ride for me was pretty cool. We pulled over and took a picture at the "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign, which sounds corny, but it was so cool. Besides my drive to the Gorge, which will described later, this was the coolest drive I've ever had. There wasn't any rolling mountains or huge bodies of water, but it was just the anticipation of arriving at one of my dream venues. Finally arriving at Alpine Valley was an awesome feeling. Seeing that sign and knowing that you are literally in the middle of no where but surrounded by thousands of fans was surreal. The tailgating scene over there was nothing like I had seen before. On the east coast, I am used to tailgating on pavement and with cops everywhere. This was in the middle of a field with thousands of people going nuts, it was awesome. After the tailgating fun was over, it was time for the show. Now this walk isn't HALF as cool as the Gorge walk, but it was pretty exciting. At this point, ever have I ever been to a venue where you have to walk up a hill to get to your seats. Getting to the top of the hill and seeing the stage was pretty damn cool. Alpine Valley is such a beautiful place to see a show. The band came on and didn't disappoint. They played an awesome set and one of their longest ever. Definitely an experience I will never forget.

After I got back from Alpine Valley, my new friend Kevin contacted me and asked me how it was. During our conversation he reminded me that he was going to the DMB West Palm Beach shows. He told me that he already has a room with two beds and a rental car and i should join him last minute. So I hopped on my computer and found a cheap flight and two weeks later I was at the airport and he was picking me up. During this time, Boyd Tinsley's movie "Faces in the Mirror," was starting to get a lot of attention. They were in the process of getting the word out about the movie via twitter and by having some pop up events. While waiting at the airport and killing some time, I saw that Boyd was having a contest for West Palm Beach. The contest was to post the best picture of your face in the mirror. So basically, Boyd finally made it cool to take a picture of yourself in the mirror. As I was sitting there at the airport I thought there was no one I could take a cool picture of myself in an airport mirror. I thought about it for awhile and then I remembered I had something cool saved on my phone. A couple weeks back, my friends and I had gone to the beach. We stopped at the grocery store to get ice for our beer and this young girl stopped us and asked if we would take a picture for her website. She worked for a company called "Pirate Booty Potato Chips" so she gave us these eye patches and had us take a picture. After the beach, my friend and I were a little sauced up and decided to put the pirate patches on and give people "the hook" as they drove by. As we were hysterically laughing, I took a picture of both of us in the car mirror with the patches on. That picture I happened to have saved on my phone, so I tweeted that picture for the contest. After that I kind of just forgot about it and carried on with my day. Kevin and I got some beers and hung out in the hotel for awhile before we headed down to tailgate. We got down to the parking lot and met up with my new friend Jordan, who had my tickets, and we continued to party. About three beers and two shots later, my phone started to vibrate. It was a tweet from the Faces Film account saying I had won the contest and got to go backstage after the show to meet Boyd. I literally could not talk for fifteen minutes. I just showed Kevin and Jordan my phone and stood there for fifteen minutes without words. It was the coolest and scariest feeling at the same time. I was obviously pumped to meet Boyd but at the same time I was wicked nervous. We went into the show but I don't even remember it because I was still in shock I was about to meet Boyd. After the show, we went down and met up with Boyd's main man, Steve. He took the ten of us contest winners into a small room backstage. There was just enough chairs for all of us, plus Boyd, and a TV. All of us in the room had never met each other and were all in the same position. We were all nervous and just kind of sat there and laughed in awe. Finally Boyd came walking in and shook all of our hands and sat down and begun telling us about the movie. He described the thought behind the movie and then showed us the trailer and one scene from the movie. After, he signed stuff for us and we all took some pictures. Probably the coolest part was when Boyd talked to my new friend Jen's mom on the phone. It was her mom's birthday, Jen left her party just to go see Boyd. While he was on the phone with her, we all started singing happy birthday to her, it was awesome. After he hung up, he said that was so cool. Then Ryan Orr chimed in, "Now that's a Narnia birthday right there." That was a wicked cool moment, and I do have it on video if anyone would like to see. After this happened it was time for them to leave. Right before Boyd left I blurted out, "Will you do me one more favor, will you sign my calf so I can get it tattooed?" Boyd looked at me and said, "Are you serious...that's fuckin cool!" Then Ryan starts slapping my hand over and over again. That moment is something I will always remember for sure. I left the venue with the biggest smile of my face. I woke up the next day and I told Kevin to drive me to the closest tattoo parlor right then. He tried to tell me to think about it for awhile, but I had already had my mind made up. We went to the closest parlor and I walked right in and got my first tattoo. I immediately tweeted to Boyd and Ryan about the tattoo after, obviously. As you can see from the pics below, Boyd loved it and said it was the first tattoo of his signature. I went to the second show that night on a natural high. I also got to meet my good friend, Ian Miller, that day. He was the first one that got to see the tattoo. So without even having to say it, that was one of the coolest experiences of my life and something I will never forget. Without reaching out to Kevin and having him come hang out with me in Mansfield, I would've never went to West Palm Beach. I would've never met my now good friends Ian, Ryan, Steve and Boyd. Like I said, things might happen in weird ways, but everything happens for a reason!

Nice Guys Finish Last

How is it that the nice guys always seem to finish last? This is a question I always have to ask myself because it happens to me all the time. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I consider myself a pretty nice guy when it comes to how I treat women. As I was out at a bar last night, I started talking to my friend's girlfriend. I wasn't talking to many girls so she said jokingly, "Look at you, the ladies are all over you." I laughed and said, "Funny...but I just don't like to bother people, it's just not how I am." She replied, "You're a nice guy, stay nice...girls like nice guys." The reason for this little story is because of the irony. Here is this girl, telling me girls nice like nice guys, but yet her boyfriend is an asshole. I've known him for awhile, he is a friend of mine, but with women he is just an asshole. So how can this girl tell me to stay nice? How can she tell me girls like nice girls? Her boyfriend is a dick...period. Why is it that women are so attracted to assholes? Back in the day I even tried being an asshole just to see if it works. But I am just not wired that way...I can't bring myself to do it. It would be like telling Dave Matthews to sing death metal music...it just doesn't happen. Is this a phase girls in their 20's go through because they are immature and like the excitement of wanting what they can't have? Or will I be stuck always trying to find a nice girl who appreciates the cute things I like to do. It seems like a never ending battle. Fate has been pretty good to me with everything else in my life. I hope it leads me to an awesome girl in the future.
-Andy

What Is Love?

Love is family and friends.
Love is lovers, past and present.
Love is your favorite band.
Love is your favorite sports team.
Love is laughing.
Love is crying.
Love is smiling.
Love is your favorite food.
Love is helping someone you've never even met.
Love is a group of people with the same cause.
Love is missing someone you've never even met.
Love is a connection that you can't describe.
Love is seeing a long lost friend but it is like they never left.
Love is cheering someone up when they're upset.
Love is leaving a cute note for someone you care about.
Love is surprises.
Love is always being there for someone.
Love is paying it forward.
Love is going cross country with people you've never even met.
Love is bacon...anytime, anywhere.
Love is making people happy even when you're sad.
Love is puppies...who the fuck doesn't love a puppy.
Love is little kids...in a non Michael Jackson kind of way.
Love is walking 3 miles down the Texas chainsaw massacre road with 2 guys you just met that day at 3 in the morning on 28 hours of no sleep...just to see Boyd Tinsley and Ryan Orr.
Love is having someone you've never met get a poster for you, and you returning the favor.
Love is having meeting new people.
Love is finding the strength to overcome evil.
Love is pulling yourself up after you get knocked down.
Love is helping someone up after they get knocked down.
Love is letting someone get on your shoulders so they can catch a drumstick.
Love is making some one's dream come true.
Love is driving somewhere two hours every weekend just to see their face.
Love is doing something cute, just because.
Love is those funny faces your crush makes.
Love is being yourself.
Love is meeting someone for the first time, but it feels like you've known them forever.
Love is making someone laugh until they can't breathe.
Love is getting hurt but becoming stronger from it.
Love is something that never leaves you.
Love is that feeling someone gives you and makes the butterflies have a rage party in your stomach.
Love is having a crush.
Love is a knowing there is someone out there for you.
Love is not giving up.
Love is hiding here...in the shadows in the darkness. 
Love is making the best of what's around.
Love is monkeys, pigs, and jimi things.
Love is not where, but who that really matters. 
Love is serenading your favorite girl with your favorite DMB song.
Love is calling someone family that isn't blood.

Love is something we all need to spread.
-Andy

Fate Part 1: The Twitter Beginnings

Fate, or destiny, is defined as a predetermined course of events. Before this year, I thought fate was a bunch of hog wash. The term "everything happens for a reason" was just something I thought people said to make themselves feel better. Over the course of the next few blog posts, I will be telling some stories that now have me convinced that everyone has their own destiny.

Last year, sometime around January or February, I got an email saying one of my friends was following me on twitter. Now that doesn't seem out of the ordinary, but I had forgot I even had a twitter account. I had made an account when twitter first came out to check it out, but it was boring to me and I never even used it. I realized my twitter picture was of my ex-girlfriend and I so I logged in to twitter to switch that, because that is just awkward. While I was on there, I decided to send a tweet for fun to the friend that had just followed me. She ended up tweeting back to me and saying, "twitter is fun you would like it, i have like 100 followers!" So every couple days I would just log on and send her a tweet and I tried to get myself to like it. I ended up searching around twitter and started following sports and music figures that I enjoy. One night a local Boston sports radio station said whoever had the best tweet during the game would win Celtics tickets. For anyone that knows the Celtics, Rajon Rondo is the point guard and is always piles up assists. I ended up tweeting to the radio station saying, "Rondo's got 99 problems but the dish ain't one." That night I got a direct message saying I had won the Celtics tickets! Right then I was immediately hooked on twitter.

Shortly after that is when I realized Stefan Lessard from my favorite band, Dave Matthews Band, was on twitter. I thought it was so cool that a member of my favorite band followed me and would interact with my fellow fans and I. Sometime in early May, I noticed on the antsmarching.org forums that my friend Berman had tweeted to Stefan. He told him that the band had played at Hartford the fifth most out of anywhere, but they had never played Halloween. I was shocked when I found out Stefan actually answered him and said he planned on letting the band know. I decided to tweet to Stefan, asking him to play minarets at Mansfield. Minarets is a favorite song of mine that I had never seen and hadn't been played at Mansfield in over 10 years. At this time I only had probably fifty followers, most of them being fake porn websites, and none of them being fellow DMB fans. I went onto the Mansfield thread on antsmarching.org and started asking my fellow fans to follow me on twitter and help with the minarets campaign. Slowly but surely I started getting my first DMB family followers on twitter. The minarets for Mansfield campaign gained a little steam as more people tweeted to Stefan. The DMB shows at Hartford happened and they then the second night actually played Halloween. Although this just could've been a coincidence, it gave me hope that minarets could actually happen.

The time came for Mansfield night one and I had pit tickets. I made a sign that said "#Minarets4Mansfield" and below that I wrote "What You See Is Human" with an arrow pointing down at me. I had told people I would be wearing my blue DMB fire dancer hat and my Garnett Celtics jersey, my go to DMB concert attire. It was the first time I was at a show and have fellow fans recognize me and say hi, it was awesome. One guy came up to me and he had come down from New Hampshire all by himself. His name was Kevin and we had known each other from the antsmarching.org forums. I told him to come hang out with my friend and I and we all enjoyed the show. I was stage left right in front of Stefan, and he definitely saw the sign. The night ended without them playing Minarets but it was an awesome show and I wasn't disappointed. The next day I got to the parking lot with my friends for the second Mansfield show. They had a merchandise tent outside the venue so I went to go get a poster so I didn't have to carry it all night. Sure enough the person in front of me in line for a poster was Kevin, my friend from the night before. I said hi and asked him if he came by himself again. He told me he drove down alone so I invited him to come over and tailgate with my friends and I. Although this seems like useless information, meeting Kevin becomes a huge part of my story. Even though I had good seats, I decided to hangout with all my friends in the lawn that night just to have some fun. All of a sudden the third song of the night comes on, and BAM, it is Minarets! Kevin and I ran down to the stage like 13 year old girls trying to meet Justin Beiber. Whether they played it by coincidence or not, that was a special moment for me. After that I was like WOW, anything can happen on twitter. Also, I had met some cool fellow DMB fans on twitter and I wanted to meet more! That was the beginning of the twitter madness for me and little did I know there was much more to come!

I think it is really cool some of you take the time to read my blog and enjoy what I have to say. It means a lot to me and I appreciate all the nice things you have all been saying. I will try and update it as much as possible! And feel free to edit my grammar and punctuation because I know it is horrible! Fate Part 2 will be up soon :)
-Andy

How DMB Found Me

The Summer of 2005 was when my friends and I went concert crazy. We just graduated high school and basically went to every live concert besides Britney Spears. During our run, DMB obviously headed to Massachusetts and that was on our list of shows to see. So on July 9th, 2005 I attended my first DMB concert. At this time, I was only a fair-weather fan and didn't know many songs. Come to find out I witnessed the first time #34 had been play in its entirety in 12 years. It is such a shame that I got to hear such a great song with Roi and not even realize what I was witnessing. But none the less, after that concert I started getting that itch. I tried getting tickets to the show the next night, but at this time knew nothing about warehouse or ants, so I failed. I ended up going out with a friend that night and told him how much fun I had at the concert. He grabbed his cd case and pulled out a cd and put it in. He said to me, "well if you liked the show last night then I know you will love this song." The song he put on for me was Dancing Nancies and it was the first time I had heard it. Before this I had only listened to the "radio friendly" DMB songs. So when I heard this for the first time it was a whole new sound and experience for me. It was like getting slapped in the face with greatness. After this, I started downloading all the live music and I was hooked. The rest is history, fourty seven shows later here I am still going strong!
-Andy