Air Traffic Controller – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, Dave Munro of the indie band, Air Traffic Controller, talks about some of their crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

We were playing the Rumba Cafe in Columbus OH, our first show meeting our new tour mates, Fast Romantics from Toronto. The weather was oppressively hot and the green room upstairs had no air conditioning except for one small room above the stage. I had just finished running through a song up there with a guest violin player when my wife called my phone. I clipped my capo to the headstock of my acoustic guitar and leaned it against a coffee table, and paced around the room talking. After a few minutes, Fast Romantics hit the stage and began their rocking set. The music was right below me, too loud to continue the phone call, so I told her I’d call right back. I ran downstairs, slipped through the audience, and stepped outside where it was quiet enough.

Meanwhile upstairs in the green room our guitarist Adrian walked in and saw my guitar mangled on the floor, the neck completely broken off, the strings scattered all over it like spaghetti. He shouted to our drummer Adam in the other room, “oh my god, did you see this?” They stood over my destroyed Taylor guitar wondering what could’ve happened. Adrian ran downstairs where our bandmate Casey was watching the show. He shouted to her over the music – “Dave’s neck is broken!” Her jaw dropped. “What???” He repeated the same horrifying sentence, “Dave’s neck is broken… … his guitar!”

I finished my phone call and stepped back into the venue, as Casey and Adrian rushed over with the bad news, “Dave, your guitar, it’s broken in two.” We ran upstairs where it had been moved onto the couch. I just thought – how? There’s was no way it was deliberately or even accidentally smashed by someone. I remembered where I had carelessly placed the guitar and how the room was shaking when I left. The vibrations must have caused the guitar to slide and fall, and the force of the capo on the headstock as it slammed onto the floor was great enough to snap the neck off. Adrian put his hand on my shoulder and assured me, “Dude, I can fix this, I repaired worse breaks when I worked at Guitar Center. You can borrow my acoustic tonight. We’ll go to Home Depot tomorrow, we’ll get some clamps, wood glue… it’s going to be ok.”

I spent the rest of the evening getting so much care and sympathy from our new Canadian friends. I joked on stage saying Fast Romantics rocked the stage so hard, they broke my guitar upstairs.

We went to Home Depot the following day and Adrian turned our hotel room into his workshop. With the help of a couple clamps, wood glue, an ironing board, and a Holy Bible, Adrian’s guitar surgery was a success. According to him, my guitar is stronger than ever before.

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