The Imaginaries – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the americana music duo, The Imaginaries, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

Looking back on our years of touring, we have so many tour stories that come to mind. When it comes to crazy tour stories – one specific instance stands out the most. It was February of 2014 and I (Maggie) had just released my solo album “Time Moves On.” Shane and I were living in LA at the time and we were in the middle of playing some album release dates for “Time Moves On.” We had just had a great full band show at The Hotel Cafe in LA, I played a solo show in San Diego at Lestat’s, we had a date in Albuquerque and of course a big homecoming album release show in Oklahoma City. But before we made the trek through Albuquerque to Oklahoma, we had a trio date at Hotel Utah in San Francisco with the two of us and one of our guitar players, Aaron Squirrel.

We had about a 6-hour drive ahead of us from our home in Glendale to the venue in San Francisco. It was a Sunday so we expected traffic to not be too bad, but we still left plenty early just in case. We were more than halfway there when we ironically enough started telling each other our crazy tour and show stories over the years. So we passed it around the van – I shared some of my crazy show experiences, Aaron shared some of his, Shane shared some of his, we laughed and laughed. It was a great way to pass the time. All of a sudden, Shane said “oh my gosh… you guys…I forgot my guitar.” We all just looked at each other as we tried to figure out what to do next. There was no way at this point we could go back to Glendale to get the guitar and make it to the San Francisco gig in time. So that option was out. Shane and Aaron were sharing a lot of integral guitar parts for the show that night and we HAD to figure this out.

Our next idea was to go to a music store and ask to rent a guitar or even buy a cheap one to make due. Well, it was a Sunday. So…anything and everything we could find near us or somewhat along our path was closed…Guitar Center in San Francisco would be closed by the time we got there. Needless to say, we were all freaking out. How ironic that while we were telling each other our crazy tour and show stories that we would be in the middle of creating our craziest tour story of all (so far)! I tried to call anyone and everyone I could think of who could help. We weren’t getting anywhere…

Finally, it dawned on Shane that our talented friend from Nashville, Jessica Campbell who was meeting us there and opening the show played acoustic guitar. I awkwardly called her to tell her we brought everything BUT an acoustic guitar and asked if it would be OK if he used hers for our set… Hallelujah! She was so kind and gracious to let us borrow her acoustic guitar. Everything turned out great and the show was a success. We always joke now before leaving for a show and ask each other, “do we have the acoustic?” The story will undoubtedly be something we joke, laugh, and talk about for the rest of our lives!

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