Wildling – 3rd ROAD BLOG from 2015 Fall U.S. Tour with Young The Giant

The indie rock band, Wildling, is currently on tour supporting Young The Giant’s fall U.S. tour. While they’re on this tour, they will be doing an exclusive blog for us. You can check out the third entry, with photos, after the break.

It’s a rainy grey morning in Norfolk, Virginia. We wake up to the smell of coffee and blueberry pancakes. Nothing beats that smell, especially coming off the exhaustion from little-to-no sleep and the high of an overwhelmingly great show the night before.

Our host is Nancy. She was Erik’s elementary school art teacher, is the mother of one of his best friends, and has quite literally nursed us back to life. This morning, she is the epitome of southern hospitality and we are eternally grateful. Sitting around the kitchen island, we reflect on the show the night before. The crowd at the NorVa Theater gave us a rush of energy and excitement we had yet to experience as a band. To establish such a strong connection with an audience that’s unfamiliar with your band and your music is one of the most incredible feelings.

One fact is not lost upon us: when you’re lucky, as we have been one week into this adventure, touring brings you into contact with one of the greatest aspects of the human spirit: generosity. As a young band traversing the country on a shoe-string budget, we would be unable to pull it off without the generosity of our hosts. Young The Giant and their crew is one great example. They have generously opened the door for us to their incredible fans. In return, those fans have graciously opened their minds and ears to new songs they are mostly unfamiliar with. We appreciate and won’t soon forget the energy they’ve given us. Lastly, people like Nancy in Norfolk, who are happy to take care of a group of musicians for a night or two, allow us to forge new friendships and lasting connections to the places we visit. To our great hosts and people we have met so far, we thank you!

We take off from Nancy’s caffeinated and full, and head south through the light rain. We load into The Music Farm in Columbia, South Carolina that afternoon and grab dinner at a New Mexican-Japanese fusion spot after sound check. We have another awesome show—we seriously are so fortunate, we haven’t had a bad one yet! We’re thrilled that Young the Giant’s fans have been responding so immediately to our music and our performance. After the show we get some drinks with YTG and their crew nearby, then head to a budget motel to crash.

We take advantage of a day off to take care of business. Oil change and inspection for the van, bank deposit, and an afternoon at a coffee shop to catch up on our PledgeMusic campaign, newsletters, and social media. We run into a couple fans from the night before throughout the day, and before taking off for Athens, we give passes out to a couple for the show the next night. If they’re down to make the drive to Georgia, they deserve to come to the show!

We drive through the night and crash at our friend, Paul’s, Atlanta. The next night is our first of two sold out shows at the beautiful and historic Georgia Theatre in Athens. Another great show, and we run into the fans we gave passes to the night before at a late-night diner afterwards. They’re awesome.

We drive back to Atlanta to pass out. The next night is Halloween. You’ll never guess what we dressed up as. Up next!

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