Peridot – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

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

Back in April 2016, we were all living in Boston and we flew to Amarillo, TX for a college gig. The trip faced a lot of logistical hurdles, as there aren’t many flights in and out of Amarillo, to begin with, and they’re all pretty expensive. To make things more complicated, well after we’d booked our travel we were offered a really great opening slot for a sold out show with The Wild Feathers at a cool Boston venue called Brighton Music Hall. It was the same night we got back into town from Texas. We knew that it would be very tight, but couldn’t say no to the opportunity and decided to roll the dice. The travel to Amarillo was smooth, the college gig went well, and we started to think maybe we’d be able to thread the eye of the needle after all. After a late night of drinking whiskey at a local establishment, “The Spotted Pony,” we woke up to heavy thunderstorms the morning of our return flight. And that’s where things began to get interesting.

Anyone who’s ever flown in and out of Texas knows all too well that there’s a good chance of encountering some sort of rain or thunderstorms, but this morning was particularly bad. We sat in the airport through delay after delay. Fun little fact: every time lightning strikes near the airport, the planes can’t take off for an additional ten minutes. We got close to boarding the plane several times, and once we were finally all on board, we were already pretty sure we’d miss our connecting flight through Houston back to Boston. We were fastening our seat belts when an alarm in the plane bathroom started going off. We all looked at each other in complete confusion and the pilot came on the intercom and told us we needed to get off the plane while they fixed the problem. It was around this time when we frantically started looking for later flights connecting to Boston that would still get us back in time for our gig. We found nothing.

When we were finally on the plane again and cleared for takeoff, there was still plenty of stormy weather. Once again, the pilot came on the intercom as we were fastening our seat belts and all he said was “We’re just gonna to go for it. We’re gonna get you guys to Houston.” The three of us just looked at each other with some combination of horror and anxiety. Shortly after that, another pilot who happened to be seated behind us said reassuringly “There’s no way I’d take off in this crap.” Needless to say, combined with the stress of probably missing our gig that night, it wasn’t the most relaxing travel experience. To this day it’s still the most turbulent flight any of us has ever experienced.

By some miracle, we managed to land safely in Houston and after a mad dash with our instruments through the airport, including a shuttle between terminals, we barely made the flight back to Boston. We got on the plane with our instruments and sat frozen in our seats, still in disbelief until we finally took off.

We told the story on stage at the gig that night and it continues to be one of the most memorable touring experiences we’ve had as a band.

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