The Sweeplings – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the folk duo, The Sweeplings, shares one of their stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

Cami’s perspective: “It all started one late night, after a show in LA. We were on tour with our then good acquaintance Brooke Annibale. Our first show of the tour together was at Hotel Cafe and we had the late spot, closing the night. Everything went off perfectly, the crowd, the sound, all of it. Then began the long drive to find our hotel for the night before we hit the road again in the morning. Since we wouldn’t be sleeping long and we all knew each other fairly well…we (Whitney, Bethany, Cami & Brooke) decided to save a dime & all share a room that night. We pulled in to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning and all hit the hay. It wasn’t long before I dozed off into what I thought would be multiple hours of REM. This was indeed NOT the case. Right around 3am I am violently awoken by the sound of a shriek (one by what I assume is an animal & another by Brooke who is also frightened by the sound). I vaguely remember what it said, but it was loud and it was terrifying. I saw a mass fly across the room loudly thumping as it hit the floor and wall. I lay very still and breathe quietly as I peer carefully over the covers to see a large monkey-like figure crouched in the corner. The light of the clock blinks blue across its shadow. My thoughts at this moment were varied. Did I bring pepper spray? Is the animal blocking the door? Am I wearing a bra if I can even escape? How did it get inside our room? Why was it in the corner and what could I use to end it’s existence? Can 3 small girls actually take whatever it is out…yes, I’ve been working out. Quickly my thoughts were subdued by a loud guttural laugh coming from the queen bed beside mine. Whitney’s wife Bethany must know something I didn’t. Because there she was… laughing uncontrollably at the creature in the corner.

Brooke’s perspective: I couldn’t quite fall asleep. To add to my struggle, a clock radio in the room kept picking up radio static, with strange, really creepy noises. I had enough of this creepy noise keeping me from my sleep, so I snuck out of bed to unplug it. As I was turning back to bed, something lunged for the corner. Not knowing what was going on…I sort of leaped back into my bed and froze.

Whitney’s perspective: We got in around 1AM. Just before pulling into the parking lot, I say to the group… “just so everyone knows, sometimes I have these weird dreams if I’m super tired.” All said in jest…or so I hoped. 3AM rolls around & while everyone is falling asleep, Brooke gets up to move her phone away from an alarm clock that was making a small buzzing sound and BOOM!! I scream profanities and jump out of bed, falling over the air unit and land crouched down bear hugging a piece of luggage on the floor by the door. Aside from my panting and a wave of shock rolling across the room it was silent for a few long seconds. My wife Bethany starts laughing her head off at the top of her lungs. I say, “I’m so sorry, I could have sworn I saw a demon coming toward me. That said demon was Brooke, just getting her phone like a normal human sometimes does. After many sighs of relief, we all end up laughing and talking about how insane what just happened was and how good it was that I gave them some small warning. What a way to welcome everyone to tour on the first night. Thankfully no humans were hurt in the making of this story. All survived and are still friends.

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