Onward, etc. – 1st ROAD BLOG from their “2014 U.S. Tour”

The folk band, Onward, etc., is currently on a tour across the United States throughout April and May. While they’re on this tour, they will be writing a blog for us. You can check out the first entry, after the break.

Where to be begin! 5 days into our tour and we’ve already experienced so much, and basically hit rock bottom. From entanglements with the local law enforcement, to cancelled gigs, to our rusted out trailer falling to pieces, we feel like we’ve experienced the worst of the worst, and that things can only get better from here.

Day 1: Our first gig was that night. We we’re 500 miles from our destination, and we were scrambling to fix our trailer. We have a 4×8 rust bucket that was falling to pieces before we even hit the road. The door wouldn’t stay on properly, so we drilled a couple holes and stuck a bolt through it to help it stay up and got on our way. TWENTY MINUTES into our journey and the local PD pulled us over for having faulty tail lights. The cop ticketed us and we got back on the road. No joke, ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES into our ride and ANOTHER cop pulls us over for the same thing, only this time, the cop also thought we were smuggling drugs! So we unlocked the trailer, he poked his head around, found nothing, and then as he was closing the trailer door, it fell off! We booked it to the nearest shop who helped us secure it safely, and canon-balled it to Chicago to play our gig.

Day 2: We departed from Chicago, with the destination of Columbus, Ohio ahead of us. We drive for probably 4 hours, only to find out that the venue apparently never got a confirmation, so they rented it out to a private party instead! So Rosco got on the phone with the person we were staying with that night, and she was actually able to hook a gig up for us! So despite having a cancelled show, we still played for a bar that welcomed us warmly.

The next couple days went somewhat smoothly so there isn’t that much to report. We had a day off, hit Pittsburg, but then, we entered Stroudsburg.

Day 5: We hit the road from Philadelphia and got almost all the way there! We pull out from a gas station and we can hear this squeaking/rubbing sound coming from the trailer, to which KC says, “Don’t worry about it. It makes that sound sometimes; it’ll go away!” Well, it did go away! But when we stopped in Stroudsburg, we could see smoke coming from the rear left tire of the trailer. We got out, took one look, and saw that the wheel bearing was completely shot; the wheel was actually rubbing against the metal of the trailer! We went from shop to shop, trying to find a place to work on it but EVERYONE turned us down. We decided, after loading our gear in, that we would just ditch the trailer off a cliff and be done with it (since it was such a curse already.) Well, we get halfway through the set that night, and Rosco tells the crowd about our unfortunate situation with the trailer, to which one of our fans in the crowd goes, “I have a trailer you can use!” And we we’re just stunned. We talked with him afterwards, and NOT ONLY is he going to let us use his SUPER nice trailer, but he was also willing to haul our trailer back to his place and fix it FOR FREE! Needless to say, we followed him back to his place after the show, picked up the trailer, and then with many handshakes and hugs, and a plethora of thank you’s, we departed.

After that we hit Atlantic City, where we played a beerfest with Less Than Jake; and also New York City where we played a bar called Slake that treated us like family. So FINALLY, after the rocky start to our tour, we’re finally gaining momentum and sailing smoothly. Check back regularly to read more about our adventures on the road!

Keep up with Onward, etc. on Facebook and Twitter. Check out all of the band’s upcoming tour dates here!