Challenger – 1st ROAD BLOG from “The Rageaholics Tour”

The synthcore/rock artist, Challenger, is currently on his second headline tour, called the “The Rageaholics Tour,” in support of his most recent release, Under Shallow Seas. While he’s on this tour, he will be doing an exclusive blog for us. You can check out his first entry, with photos, after the break.

I kicked off “The Rageaholics Tour” in my home state Wisconsin. The legendary venue The Warehouse is one of my favorite places to play. Over the past 22 years The Warehouse has played host to over 6000 bands and I’m just glad to be part of that. I currently changed the way I perform and take two killer live members with me Brandon Bartling (Drums) and John Halstead (Guitar). If you haven’t seen me perform with the live band I recommend you do :D While The Warehouse is one of my favorite places to perform it is my least favorite place to load in. There are 3 flights of stairs you must survive before you have made it to the glorious stage where the show takes place. Its very important to pace yourself with amps drums rack units, light show, scrims,merch. IT TAKES FOREVER TO LOAD IN. its like a nightmare where the same thing keeps happening over and over going up and down those stairs with all that stuff. Soon after that hell John and I drove around to find free parking… I’m pretty sure that took a half hour and I want to say the Blue Man Group was also in town with all the ads and flyers we saw on light posts. I love to see familiar faces I get so stoked when people come up and tell me they have seen me there before and that it was awesome as f*** because I know its going to be a hundred times better this time. I meticulously put together my set every time I tour nothing every stays the same it will always be exciting and you will always RAGE.

Anyways what’s great about starting tour 3 hours from home is getting crash there one more time before we had to head south towards chicago and so on.. In the car we typically blast some ones iPod its usually a good mix of metal and pop punk or whatever but when you pass me the aux cord its Lana Del Rey haha. Since its always night dark while we drive ghost stories, creepy pasta, and alien abduction tales slip in and eventually I’m trying to convince everyone we need to conjure a spirit or a demon lol.

The next day we slept in basically till we need to be hitting the road (but for real why get up early when you get to sleep in your own bed on tour that happens almost never duh). The next show is hosted at another one of my typical stomping grounds The Penny Road Pub in Barrington IL. I love this place! You always know its going to have a great crowd the promoter is amazing and a good friend of mine. Not to beat you to death with this minor issue but I hate the stairs there.. moving on.. This place has the “feels” I don’t know why but I’m always stoked to play at this place. I know that the stage is incredibly small so I let Brandon and John take control of the stage and I set up my gear on the floor in the crowd and thats where I’ll be during our set. Literally jumping around in the crowd climbing on all of you playing rave music. So if this is something you would like to experience just add me on FB and say “tour HERE!” and obviously say where you are from. after the show we crash at fans house she always has incredible bands staying there she picked up popeyes chicken for us which I never have had before and I’ll just say its delicious lol. a great way to end a great night.

Im a bit crazy about working out while on tour so when I say were stopping at Anytime Fitness we do, sometimes we will park there and sleep for the night so I can work out and my band can shower. With a day off in Muncie IN we stayed at our drummers parents house his mother is a sweet heart and fed us enormous amounts of yummy food. I can’t express how happy it makes me when people will invite us into their home and take care of us while on tour especially now in the dead of winter. That night we played Ball State University’s venue “Be Here Now” I wanted to get a picture of my band name on the marquis sign but unfortunately they were already promoting next weekends artist Mike Jones haha. I love to tour I love to travel I love music its my life but even a few days away from my lovely girlfriend and two puppies is too long. I FaceTime them as often as I can. The Rageaholics Tour is off too a great start! Thank you readers of Digital Tour Bus my name is Chris Burton and I am the electro rock artist C H A L L E N G E R

I <3 all of you

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