It's been a wild and intense 24 hours since my last tour log. Yesterday, 2 hours before load in, we found out that the venue never got a sound man for the show. They had a great system, with a beautiful digital soundboard, with no one to run it! This could have easily resulted in canceling the show. Luckily within the hour we got a hold of our friend Rob, who we met through Royal Bliss, and he happens to live in Logan! He was scheduled to leave for a gig in Paris, France that afternoon that had JUST gotten canceled! He came and saved the day!

It was our second time back in Logan, Utah. The first time we played there, about a year ago, we played to around 12 people. One of those 12 people happened to be a certain husband and wife, who we've kept in close touch with, and have become close friends to the band since then. They, along with the venue made it their mission to get the word out about last night's show. We had over 200 people there, rocking out with their fists in the air last night! It was such a fun show with booze flying through the air, people jumping up on stage, and we were having a lot of fun playing. We even slipped a few of the brand new songs into the set.

We had to drive what we planned on being 10 hours to Denver over night. Tyler took the first shift. HOLY HELL!! At one point along Tyler's shift, at around 1:30am, we were going through a mountain pass. The bus was at a complete stop, at an intense decline, with total white out, and a steep cliff to our left. Tyler was literally moving the bus inch by inch down the mountain, with no vision!! He is a bad ass driver (and drummer). I was in my bunk and woke up to the feeling of us inching along. I knew what was happening and didn't even want to look. When I say "inch," I am not exaggerating. If he let off the break for more than that, we would start to slide toward the cliff. That specific mountain pass took 3 hours to get through.

A similar white out happened this morning when Chip was driving, only we were on flat land. It's still scary going 5mph and not being able to see in front of us.

Tyler and I finally made it to the airport in perfect time. We had planned on a shower stop but the driving conditions ruled that out. Haha!

Over the next few days off we have a lot to do. From routing/booking, working on new songs, working on harmony, getting guitars fixed, designing and ordering new merch, and the list goes on. I'm really proud of how hard every member of this team works so hard all day to keep the train rolling. We all rely on each other kick ass and keep up in their specific department of our business. I feel so lucky to be a part of such a dedicated group of people. This trip out West was a complete success and I can't wait to come back, hopefully as soon as May.

As of now we plan on debuting at least one new song, that nobody had heard, on Thursday during the live acoustic webcast from Evergroove studios. The interesting thing about that is that we've never played a version of that specific song acoustic! Haha! Adventure and risk is what makes music fun, right?

– Phil Vilenski

Guitarist Phil Vilenski from Wayland is a touring contributor to WGRD.com. So, keep an eye out for more tour stories from the band!

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