Alteras – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the hard rock band, Alteras, talk about some of their crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

The Scarred and Complicated Tour:
We were on tour with our good buddies in Home Seeker, and the last date of the run was in Passaic, NJ. We should have known it was going to be an interesting show because when we pulled in, there was a cardboard sign, and in pen, it said “Show Parking”. So as we walk towards this warehouse, in the middle of this industrial park, we are greeted by a man who invited us on a journey to the what we will later know as the best/worst show of the tour.

There were like 8 bands on the bill that night and the venue was sick. A lot of kids came out and we had a few friends there as well. Our set was a blast, everyone was really cool and that’s when our night took a turn. Next thing we know we see flashlights and hear dogs barking coming from every angle. The New Jersey task force completely surrounded the building and had the venue owner on the ground in cuffs. It was then that the officers began instructing the crowd to leave and the bands to give up all merch and gear to them as evidence for an investigation. Zack spoke up to the officer and explained we were hired to play, we haven’t the slightest idea of what is going on, and we cannot give them all our stuff for obvious reasons. After pleading with the officers while they insisted we gather our belongings and leave immediately. I have never seen us load the trailer that fast in my life. We were out of that parking lot in 5 minutes tops. We didn’t even get to take a final tour package picture, but the very next day, the venue owner sent friends requests to all of us on Facebook.

Hero With A Thousand Faces Tour:
In August of this year (2017) we were on tour with Alesana, Eyes Set To Kill, and Lakeshore. The tour was almost 3 weeks long so by the end of the tour we got to be super tight with the guys in Alesana. On this particular tour, Alesana was encoring their set with their song “The Murderer”. Their vocalist, Dennis, would come out solo onto the stage and preface the song while the rest of the band got ready backstage. One night of the tour (in Dallas, I think?) our drummer, Tony, was talking to their drummer, Jeremy, and they came up with this idea that on the last night of the tour that all the members Alteras and our tour manager, Henry, would come out on stage and prank Dennis. The idea evolved a few times throughout the tour as we got everyone involved, but we all wanted it to be hilarious.

Fast forward to the end of the tour, we were in Atlanta, GA and Alesana had just finished their set. The crowd is asking for another song and Dennis walks out on stage and is mingling with the crowd before the encore. We let him sweat it out a bit, a little bit too long even. The audience and Dennis then watched as we took the stage. Dennis was confused, to say the least. After a bit of convincing, we managed to get him to believe that we, the members of Alteras were going to perform “The Murderer” with him tonight instead of his band. He hesitantly accepted that this was a reality and made sure the audience still wanted to hear one more (of course they did). Jake then says into the mic, “we’re not Alesana and this song is called The Murderer.” Tony counts off the song.. 3, 2, 1. Dennis erupts into the first line… “Is it about ti~” and then immediately drops to his knees, defeated. realizing that we were not playing “The Murderer”, instead we were playing “When I Come Around” by Green Day. If you know anything about Dennis, he hates Green Day. Then the rest of Alesana comes out on stage and proceeds to laugh in his face and hug him because we all had gotten him pretty good. It was hilarious. I guess what goes around comes around though, immediately after the rest of the band got “iced” by the tour crew. Sorry, Dennis, we love you buddy!

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