Message to Venus – 2nd ROAD BLOG from the “Pushing ‘The Envelope’ Tour”

The rock band, Message to Venus, is currently on the “Pushing ‘The Envelope’ Tour”. While they’re on this tour, they will be blogging for us. You can check out their second entry (with pictures) written by the band’s lead singer, Jandre Nadal, after the break.

“It’s all sinking in now. We have accepted Jodie (our van) as the mothership. We rest in her womb patiently traveling to our new destinations. We head north west to Tallahassee, FL. A last second gig a good friend of ours got, the man Jerry Byrd, along with uncle Bob also played the part of sound man. This place Krewe de Gras was a very clean neat bar with the friendliest owners/bartenders giving us some cash for food and gas. We looked up and found a ceiling with hanging panties and bras, like a hundred. So many tits have been flashed here. We played right after our friends DFH acoustic set, so we set up and get ready to play loud! Gig went smoother then we expected, nothing to crazy. We decided to camp out at the parking of a local 24 hour Walmart. Discretely parked in the far corner near the only bush, we set up the mothership into dormitory zone. Make some cold cut sandwiches and of to bed. Fucking 8 am sun woke us up, thank God for Diesel engine. We managed to get 6 hours of rest before we head to the wild zone of Mississippi.

Views of lush green, a thousand churches on every corner. We finally arrive to our next stop, Thunders Tavern. Very big place, very nice waitress greeted us. As usual no one knows a band is playing in town. LOL. We were 5 hours early so we discover this place had a pool. JuanMa and I took the risk of jumping in. It was relaxing and had a few beers. Met some girls who have never trawled out of town so guess our style and accents made us look like aliens. Turns out this place never really gets pack. Right before we play Edgar’s bass breaks a tuning peg. 5 minuets before our set starts another moment of random tech service, John finds a way to make it work. We played for the bartenders and the other band. So hard not to feel awkward to play original music for a hand-full of strangers. The bartenders were kind enough to buy our shirts and CDs! New fans, 2 new fans!! I had to ask who is Thunder? Either he’s a little dude that looks like Danny DeVito or he’s a big guy who shakes floors. He’s an old linebacker known for breaking bones on tackles. Should have guessed.

Finally New Orleans!! My dad has been harassing me for this moment. We were all excited about this. Jazz town, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter. All the rumors we heard from people was “don’t accept any drinks from strangers”. What? Date rape shit? “They will steel your shit man!” Jesus! Paranoid as we already are we drive through Bourbon Street. Cheep sex shops, a tranny on every corner. Dirty dive bars. Some circus people doing that still pose dressed in silver or gold. Mimes on drugs. We get to the venue Hangar 13. Can’t lie, this was a shady hood. It was literally a small looking aluminum plane hangar. Until we walked in. What a place! It’s another world inside, we were greeted by some of the employees by them saying “hope y’all hungry, gonna grill some burgers”. FUCKING A MAN. This place had a huge stage concert equipped sound and knowledge stage man with a great attitude. Probably did to much crack in a time of his life but who are we to judge. The hospitality of the owners was great. Fed us, payed us and complimented our set. We played our asses off, leaving steam on the stage! We are getting the hang of this. After the show we made a few friends, saw this hot black chick at the bar. I took a closer look, yep that’s a dude! Approached by the other bands front man “beating me to it” all over her. God does he know? Is he being polite? Meanwhile outside, our sprinters were being photographed by some shady dudes. Like planing a conspiracy to fuck us up, steel our shit and leaving us naked in a dirty ditch. So we decided to leave sin city and head north at 4 am. In search of a camp site we ended up in a parking lot of a local Holiday Inn.

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Thankfully we parked behind a tree letting it give us shade throughout the morning. After our morning routine of portable showers in public we get ready to head to the big state of Texas. This is where we parted from the other band and continue our venture alone. Depending on nothing but us. Greeted by a giant star and warning signs of poisonous snakes and spiders we park at the first rest stop. My back was killing me. I had to sleep outside on the cement bench. Covering my face with my shirt. I finally was getting into the sleep zone, hearing random people walking around me. Cars and trucks stoping and going. This is how the bums do it. Damn, this sucks. Awaken by the automatic sprinklers spraying my fucking face. What a way to wake up! I crawled back to the van seeing the boys sleep like little princes. Can’t help but get them up and hit the road to Houston.

We get to a rock bar called BFE Rock Club. It’s an 80’s night. The other bands are older gentlemen dressed in leather, bandannas, Jackson Flying V’s and hi pitched vocals! Accompanied by their kids. We had a great gig. And sold more merch than ever. Outside loading up the vocalist of one of the bands gives me a flask loaded with tequila. Fuck it I’m not going to ask. I got a bit hammered, Jesus if I only had a joint. We head south to the beach. Corpus Christi.

We arrive to Theo’s Billiards, what a great place! Security staff was nice to us. And the bar staff was hot chicks in small cut jeans constantly giving good service. Bartender was a flair tender juggling bottles and balancing shot glasses on his forehead. We were approached by one of the owners named Doug. Very nice to us and hospitable making sure his staff is aware we are guests. Takes his time to explain his house sound which was an incredible amount of equipment and how he will have it used to the full potential with us and the other bands. He treated all the other bands with the same respect regardless of their age or style. We played a show with a trio of 15 year old kids who ROCKED OUT! I wish I was that confident and good at that age, followed by a band called Cupid’s Victim. With a good looking female singer, very talented and backed by a bad ass trio with great sounding gear. They had the public by the balls! Then it was us. We played LOUD and aggressive, few mistakes were made and it was smooth. Sold some merch and started to load up. Tamara and Vincent were kind enough to offer there home to us. We walked into a house full of great gear. So many instruments and amps and a grand Piano! This is like a playground for us. They sheltered and feed us for 3 days. A friendship was instantly bonded. A shout out for a Marlin Manson styled cat named Steve for his hospitality and friendship, he was very intimidating at first with the white eye contacts and goth look, he’s the nicest person I’ve met.

The owner of Theo’s offered us and our new friends of Cupid’s Victim to play an acoustic show in a new place he has called Boneshakers, a rockabilly themed place with pulp fiction styled sexy bartenders. We did not have the equipment for an acoustic show and the crew of Cupid’s Victim hooked us up and we played our first full acoustic set. It was a total success and we sold more merch. We had some great laughs and I finally was able to get buzzed…again. Got the chance to met Rich the other owner, very humble and kind he briefly told us his story of being a mixed martial arts champion for multiple companies and holds 3 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! records for suspension and some other wild stuff not to mention he’s 3rd generation on motorcycle club. We end the night with a nice local couple who was in the porn industry and explains the duties of his job. He was the editor for a porn company and his last job was to edit a gay film of men making molds of their dicks and shoving them in their own asses, fucking themselves. His face expression was priceless of shame and disbelief as he explained how difficult it was for him to edit this. Ending the night talking about gay porn and flesh lights. We left back to our headquarters to the studio home of Cupid’s Victim. They even made us sandwiches and gave us goodies for the road. This is what touring is all about, sharing and getting to met people whom we will never forget. Austin here we come!” -Jandre Nadal

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Did you enjoy this blog? Do you plan on going out to any of their tour dates? Let us know in the comments below!