Today we set out on the Flying Under the Influence tour and DAMN does it feel good! Three months ago we decided it was time for our band to take a shot at a making a real tour happen. Over the last two and a half years, Monkeys In Space has made two attempts at something like this – once with a sheisty booking agent that demanded we pay $1,000 to book a month long tour and, $500 in, hadn’t produced a single date, and the other through a few kids our age who sold us on their faith in our music, only to end up doing things like borrowing money for promo materials that never went out, and set us up with another band that really didn’t take too kindly to our way of doing things, which ultimately led to the whole thing unraveling before it even started. All water under the bridge at this point; learning experiences for the group and, as it turn out, was for the best.
But by the time November came, we were at a real low. We had moved out of our house by SDSU into a tiny, dirty-ass apartment in Pacific Beach with no garage and no place to rehearse. We weren’t playing music nearly as much as we needed (at the house, we were playing close to everyday), and when we did get to play, it was usually up in Poway – 30 min from our home. Practice started feeling like a chore, we weren’t focused and unfortunately, our music suffered. The holidays came and things only got worse – I personally hit the lowest I’d been since joining Monkeys In Space – we almost burned out. Almost.
I should mention that booking a tour is fucking work. Like, 9-5 type work. With no interest coming in from any legitimate booking agents, we were forced to do it ourselves. I don’t think Johnny’s slept more than 4 hours a night since we decided to do this – seriously. Huge props to him though. We have more than 40 dates booked over the next few months, and we’re adding more each day. On top of booking shows for our band, some of the venues have asked that we help find supporting acts. So now, we’re contacting local bands in the cities we’re playing to try and book supporting acts. It’s madness.
Our plan:
If you haven’t seen the route, our first show tomorrow in Tempe, AZ. We hang in Tempe for a few days and then go to Vegas on Saturday. From Vegas, we hit Salt Lake City, then Boise on the way to Seattle. From Seattle, we cross the border into Canada for a show at The Roxy in Vancouver, then head south to Portland, Reno, Sacramento and all the way down the west coast. We spend about five days in San Francisco, which is one of the highlights of the tour. We end the first leg with a show in San Diego at the Sandbar at the end of March. The following Monday, we’re back in Arizona.
The plan is to continue that loop, grow our fan base on the west coast and extend a bit further east each time we come around.
The overall goal is to get picked up by a serious agent that can put us on a bigger tour, or to make friends with some bands that want to stay out with us. We’re really not sure what’s going to happen but for once, we get a chance to focus on our band and our band alone. It’s an adventure, to say the least.
Well, that’s day one for ya. We’re pulling into Tempe as I’m writing this. It’s 1:00am, we’ve been on the road for 8 hours. Time for sleep. Stay tuned, it’s going to be fun.
Monkeys In Space
My Road 