Ripe – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

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

Our first festival that we played, not counting street fairs in and around Boston, was the Sweetwater 4/20 festival in Atlanta. We were super gung-ho about it, it was the reason for us booking shows in the southeast for the first time, and we were extra excited to be playing two shows on the same day, a festival slot in the afternoon and an Afterparty that evening as an opener for Leftover Salmon.

The day set was a wonderful blur, from not being able to find a place to offload gear, to us playing a really high energy set as the only non-local band on the stage we were at, to not being able to get back in after our set to collect our merchandise and go to the second show, to the band enjoying the open bar a completely reasonable amount for anyone being offered an open bar at a music festival for the first time (a festival sponsored by a brewery no less), it had gone well by all accounts and after that Merch hiccup at the end we were looking to get across town to show number 2.

We’re stuck in traffic at the festival exit when someone starts banging on our van’s door. We open the door hoping that we’re not in trouble and are further surprised when a tanned girl in a sun dress positioned slightly higher than your average sundress gets in the van and moves Sampson (drummer) out of the way to make space for her on the bench. She closes the door behind her and without introducing herself slurs ‘take me to Paulies’. For at least ten seconds we didn’t even know how to respond, so she repeats herself, explaining that “it’s fine” (whatever that meant), but she really needs us to get moving to Paulies.

We’re understandably pretty baffled by this, but she was pretty insistent and intoxicated, and by this point the only thing worse than what we’d already done would’ve been kicking this drunk girl out alone of our white van filled with tipsy men in a random neighborhood that wasn’t where she was trying to go. So we hold off on making a final decision, and while trying to avoid laughing openly at our situation we tell that we’re not a taxi, but we’re gonna see if there’s any way we can help. She introduced herself (were going to keep her name private out of respect), moved quickly to sit on Jons (guitar) lap in the front of the van, proceeded to lick his beard, try and somewhat succeed at kissing his face, generally being pretty friendly.

By this point, we’re all in complete hysterics, but still trying to end this interaction, so we look up what Paulies is. Turns out it’s a crepe bar, a 15-minute drive in the wrong direction from where he have to go, and we’re already running late for our load-in. We basically have to explain to this woman that we can’t get her any closer to where she wants to go, and that she needs to either get out of the van now or be ok with us just taking her to the venue with us. By this point, she seemed to have forgotten Paulies and decided she wanted to join us to the venue. So we got to spread the confusion at this woman to the venue staff. Thankfully we were all in pretty high spirits, and we’re looking at this as more of a ridiculous moment than a problem.

By the time we made it to the venue things seemed a little clearer, and Nadav (bass) was able to arrange her a taxi home. And a hug goodbye. It was nice to have even an almost classy end to that much crazy. To where ever that girl is out in the world, thank you for this one hilarious and memorable experience. I think she actually followed us on Instagram afterward and became a fan, so that was cool.

Keep up with the band on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!