Seven Fly – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the pop punk band, Seven Fly, reveals what they do before taking the stage. You can check out the rituals, after the break.

If anyone knew the amount of caffeine that went into the preparation and execution of a Seven Fly show, we’d probably hear EMS sirens in the distance slowly approaching. To save one of every five readers of this article a Google search, the lethal dose of caffeine is around 5,000mg – 10,000mg depending on body weight. We like to flirt with the lines of that range mostly by accident. Between all four members working full-time jobs, Dan with a wife & two kids with another on the way (bless his heart), Levi and Sam both working for Fire Rescue on 24hr shifts desperate to keep their eyes open after running calls through the night, we seem to consume a lot of coffee (extra bougie for Levi), energy drinks, and anything else that has properties that push the sympathetic nervous system.

With a cold 300mg caffeine drink in hand, warmups for each member go a bit differently. Dan usually just likes hanging with friends or getting to know fans while at the venue. Levi tries his best to save his voice and not talk until showtime but always ends up failing and talking with the group of people Dan is surrounded by. Despite the rest of us being convinced Levi’s loud mouth is enough of a warmup, around a half-hour before the set, Levi does his warm-up routine for the higher, non-speaking level registers of his voice. Levi says, “I try to keep away from vocal fatigue, so I try to find a balance between saving my voice, being involved in conversations, and stretching my vocal cords for the high pitches.” Notwithstanding the exercise addiction of half the band, show days are usually turned into active rest days. Not to say that Dan hasn’t snuck in a quick 6:30AM lift, which will be compensated for with a couple extra energy drinks in the day.

To keep the Hangry Monster away from everyone during the set and before the show, the whole band usually eats together a couple hours beforehand. We don’t have dietary restrictions to watch out for on show days, but Dan and Levi require an inhuman amount of food (preferably high-protein with lots of carbs) to recover from the week’s workouts. We’re not diehard fans or anything but we seem to find ourselves at Taco Bell when running short on time. I guess it happens so often that we could possibly call Taco Bell its own Pre-Show Ritual. In all honesty, it’s usually whatever food puts us in a good mood/mindest. Sam says, “For me, it’s about getting into the right mindset hours before the gig, and getting fueled up so we can bring the energy. For me, that usually means grabbing a bite to eat with the guys before the show and washing it down with an energy drink. A nice frosty white Monster usually does the trick.”

At the end of the night, all of our pre-show rituals add up to four stimmed-up goofballs squared away and ready to get the crowd moving. Our favorite part of our shows is the energy we share with the crowd and that’s what we value in our activities before the show as well. When we leave, we like hearing from people that it felt more like a party than a concert. To our ears, all we hear is a job well done.

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