Does This Ever Get Old

Hello everybody.  Welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official Blog of 3D In Your Face.  Well we are right in the thick of it.  Can you say summer tour.  The smell of baby powder wafts through the air.  The empty sunscreen cans are pilling up in the bus.  We are right at the cliff of one of our busiest months ever and I couldn't be more happy.  Before we get into the good stuff this week.  I want to let you know what is going on this week in our world.  First of all the weekend is almost upon us.  This weekend I am staying with our Omaha Hotel sponsor The Carlisle Hotel.  If you are in Omaha and need a discount place to stay, just mention "3D In Your Face" when you place your reservation at The Carlisle front desk.  Thursday I will be going on a tour of The Youth Emergency Services facility with my good buddy Chris Marsh and the Milwaukee band The Black Saints.  I always love going to the outreach center and chatting with the kids.  The cool thing is most of the kids are going through the same problems I went through as a young man.  Friday, June 27th I will be live in the studio on The Big O 101.9 FM at 8 AM talking about the upcoming show.  Friday night 3D In Your Face will be performing in Auburn, NE for their street dance.  This will be our first time in Auburn and we are very excited to keep the Rock N Roll wheels turning.  Saturday I have the amazing pleasure to be the special guest MC at the Rock For The Youth Show to benefit the Youth Emergency Services.  This show is going to be held at Chrome Lounge in Omaha.  To be honest with you I am a little nervous this will be my first MC gig ever.  Do you prepare jokes?  Do you write note cards?  Do you swear?  Ahhhhhhhh, this is going to be fun.  Get your cameras out. 

"Does this ever get old?"  This is the question that people keep asking me. Some guy asked me this right as I stepped off of stage on Saturday.   "Do you ever get tired of playing in a band?"  The answer is the same every time.  I love this job this is the best job in the entire world.  Tired?  Not a chance.  When it comes to interviews, load-ins, long drives, early mornings, or sleepless nights, I welcome each and everyone of the challenges.  Now I am definitely not Super Man.  Each one of the these things presents a new and difficult obstacle to over come.  Driven, I think would be a great word for the name of this tour.  Every time the shit starts to hit the fan I look at the guys busting their asses paving streets or dry walling houses and I realize that it could always be worse. I love what we do.  We are very fortunate to have an a amazing fan base, The 3D In Your Face Army and I know that if I ever need anything they would be more than willing to deliver.  The same goes for us.  If there is something we can do for you people out there by all means let us know.  On one hand I tell people this is the best job ever but on the other hand I feel dirty calling what I do a job.  Sure we put an immense amount of work and dedication into this, but it doesn't really feel like work to me.  I feel passionately about the music.  I am emotional about their delivery.  I am also professional about our practices and stage presence. I wan to be the best and nothing and nobody is going to stop me.

Two weeks before every show we begin to look for publicity that we can do to help promote the band and the performance in the town we are traveling too.  So things start for me two weeks before the actual date of the show.  Emails and phone calls to radio programs, newspaper editors, bloggers, reviewers, clubs, publicists.  Last week for some reason we kept getting resounding "No"'s.  For some reason no one was biting.  I was a little depressed and pretty angry with theses media gate keepers.  Who where they to tell me that my music wasn't worth putting into print or over the air waves.  They don't know me, they have no idea what we have gone through.  They don't listen to the singles, they don't even open the albums.  I was pretty mad and it takes me a lot to get mad.  In the end I realized that it wasn't even worth my time to worry about these people.  In the end the editors and the critics aren't the people the make bands.  Sniper always tells me that KISS and Van Halen were always hated by the critics.  His favorite bands never won Grammy's.  Sniper always has the best advice.  Thanks buddy.  It's one of those things that I know will eventually happen.  Eventually those same editors and program directors will come knocking on our doors asking for interviews and you know what I will say.  "Absolutely".  In the end it's the passion, drive, and emotion that always wins.  It's the performance that touches the people.  It's the lyrics and the music that sets your mind free.  God Bless those editors and program directors that never return my emails. In the end we always find somebody that is worth and who's heart is in the right place.  There are still people that believe in Rock N Roll out there and I am proud to call those people my friend.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

KEEP THE FAITH
SPADE

I'm Bringing The Sunscreen and The Poncho.

All hail you Rock N Roll wrecking crew.  HELLO and welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official Blog of 3D In Your Face.  First thing I want to do before we get this thing going is send our collective prayers as a band and a fan base to the residents of Pilger, NE and the people with families in Pilger, NE.  Yesterday a deadly tornado ripped through their town and destroy the small community.  Last year we had the amazing opportunity to play in Pilger as part of Pilger Days.  It's hard to comprehend the devastation and loss these Nebraskan's have experienced.  May God be with you and your loved ones.  Here are a few pictures that we got from our show in this great city last summer. If you want to send some help T

This week we keep on trucking.  Our 2014 Summer Tour keeps on rolling and this week are gearing up for two huge shows in Sioux City, IA.  We are heading back to The Awesome Biker Nights Festival in downtown, Sioux City, IA.  If you haven't been or haven't yet heard of this legendary two-day party then saddle up partner.  Imagine if you will, 6 blocks of downtown Sioux City blocked off and only motorcycles and pedestrians are allowed to enter the party arena.  3 stages and dozens of bars liter the festival grounds.  That electricity is in the air and everyone is there for one reason, FUN.  Tons of great food and drinks, lots of bands from country to heavy metal, and more ass-less chaps than an old-fashioned cattle drive.  We have the great opportunity to be playing at a bar that we have had great history with over the last few years.  4th Street Bar and Grille will be the HOME OF HAIR for the weekend.  We will laugh, we will cry, and we will make memories that will last a life time.  Sioux City, I hear you calling off in the distance.  I can almost feel the awkward fishnet sun burns and taste the street cart gyros, the smell of cigarettes and gasoline filling the air.  Also this week, on Wednesday, June 18th Focus On Metal Podcast will be premiering Forbidden City.  Please show this Podcast some Army love and share this with your friends.  

Oh Sioux City it has been a while since I have graced your sultry shores.  We have  a history together.  When my first band OFFICIALLY TERMINATED started out we had trouble finding shows in our hometown and in Omaha so we looked north for the answer to our Rock N Roll urges.  I think we played in Sioux City once a month for a year straight.  Every show was wilder than the last.  We picked up hitchhikers, we drank illegally, we fogged out old VFW halls, we played crappy bowling alleys, we fought with the locals, and tried to steal their girls.  Sioux City I have more stories with you than almost any other city in my life.  One time we decided to do a small tour and stay up in Sioux City for a few days.  Luckily we were offered a place to crash by some kids at the show.  Their parents were gone and they had booze and the house to themselves.  This was a bad combination or good depending on what angle you are looking at this from.  We drank into the morning hours.  My memory is a little foggy but I remember our drummer running through our hosts yards and breaking each and every baby sapling off at the ground.  Our bass player took it upon himself to destroy each and every plastic lawn chair.  You are just sitting there one minute talking and the Mike Jones would launch himself onto you leaning way back and snapping the legs of the chairs.  You would land in a heap of plastic, booze, and cigarette.  For some reason I don't remember doing anything stupid but that surely doesn't mean that nothing happened.  The next day we arrived at the venue.  We parked right in front where everyone was standing and smoking.  The sliding mini-van doors roll open and each and every guy in the van piles out and starts puking all over the fresh Sioux City grass.  We were a punk rock band.  It seemed very fitting at the time.  I love you Sioux City and I can't wait to feel your warm, smelly embrace.  I'm bringing the sun screen and the poncho.  

ALWAYS LOUD

FOREVER PROUD

KEEP THE FAITH

SPADE

Keep Me Coming

Hello my Hell raising Big Foot's of Rock N Roll.  Welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official Blog of 3D In Your Face.  Summer tour is off to a wonderful start.  We have been hitting the road for the last three weeks, stopping in small towns and big towns across the mid-west spread the good word of IN YOUR FACE Rock N Roll.  3D In Your Face is running on all cylinders and I am so very proud to step out on that stage every night and represent you good people in front of the non-believers.  We shall convert them one by one.  Our new album Midnight Devils has been receiving rave reviews and radio air play world wide.  Pick up your signed copy of our new album right here.  Things have been going great.  Right now I can't complain but I am driven now even more than before.  There is no time to rest.  This week we are making a special trip back home.  Friday, June 13th we will be throwing a tour homecoming show at The 21st Saloon.  This is your party and everyone is invited.  To be honest with I can't wait to see the Omaha family.  Saturday, June 14th we will be taking our party on the road to the state's capital city and my hometown of Lincoln, NE for a one night only performance at Cappy's Hot Spot.  Two summer homecoming shows.  I truly can't wait.

So what's on my mind this week.  Well for the last two years about this time I have written a blog about the OEA Awards.  This is an Omaha Award show that gathers the cities best artists, musicians, poets, and brightest stars together for one night of fun.  We have been honored to be nominated two years in a row.  The nominations are fan based.  The winners of each award are determined by a council of Omaha's elite.  Unfortunately 3D In Your Face has never taken the big award home but that isn't really what these award shows are about to me.  I get bummed when we loose like anybody else but this award show is more about representing Omaha and showing the world that Omaha is a big and vibrant artistic family.  This year we are celebrating 15 years as a touring Rock N Roll band from the this great city.  I told the boys, after last years award ceremony that I would attend this Award show every year if the fans nominated us to go.  Win or loose I don't care.  None of that matters at the end of the day.  We are backed by the some of the most amazing fans and sponsors in the world and for that reason I will represent them to the world.  I wrote a blog the first year we were nominated with the title "Rock N Roll Representatives"  In that blog I talked about standing up and being proud of who we are.  I talked about representing the the metal heads, punk rockers, outcasts, and weirdos.  My philosophy is still there but I am thinking even bigger this year.  I want to represent the entire 3D In Your Face Army.  I want to represent the city of Omaha and all our friends and family to the world.

This year on top of celebrating our 15 year birthday my goal is to be nominated for three awards "Best Heavy Metal Band", "Best Cover Band", and "Album of the Year".  I'm not sure what Hot Rod was envisioning for the band when he stepped on stage for the first time back in 1999.  I hope that after this many years he is proud of how far his idea has come.  From the first time I saw 3D In Your Face I was hooked by the passion and dedication to the pure Rock N Roll ideals.  After 9 years I look back on how far we have come and it still amazes me.  You better believe me though, I have even bigger goals set for us in the days to come.  We have made things happen and everything we do is a struggle but that's what makes this so rewarding.  This is our band.  This is your band.  This isn't just about us four guys anymore, this is about each and everyone of you people that have supported us along the way.  It's not about winning awards or schmoozing with the top dogs, it's about gut level-raw uncensored Rock N Roll.  It's about the relationships we have made over the years.  It's about the people we have touched and the people that have touched us.  So go and nominate us here but know that in our minds we have already won the best award of all.

To Alan 'Hot Rod' King:  It has truly been a pleasure being in a band with you for all these years.  We have been through some bad times but mostly there have been lots of really good times.  I hope if you ever decided to write a book about your life that you look back on these times as some of the best in your life.  After 15 years this is still just the beginning.  KEEP THE FAITH my friend.  We still have a lot of work to do.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

ROCK N ROLL FOREVER

SPADE

Turn The Page

HELLO!! and welcome back to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official blog of 3D In Your Face.  Sorry I missed you last week.  I decided I needed a little break, but I heard from The Playboy that everyone was a little disappointed that there was no blog written.   What can I say I don't want to disappoint you.  So from this point on I promise that I will never miss another blog.  I love HAIR IN THE AIR and you people have been with me since I started writing this blog over two years ago.  So no more slacking on my end, this I can promise you.  So fill me in.  What is happening people?  What did I miss in your world?  Around here things are beginning to move and shake to the sound of the summer tour.  This week is our third week out for the summer and the adventures have been bigger and better than any year prior.  We have gotten more radio play, more interviews, more newspaper coverage, and more publicity in every town we have gone to.  Not to mention that we have made some pretty amazing friends along the way.  Rest easy Omaha family we will be doing a one night only homecoming show coming up on Friday, June 13th at The 21st Saloon.

Our new video for our second single "In Your Face" has been averaging 1,000 hits per week since it's release.  And that is all because of you.  Keep sharing and spreading the word.  We priming our self for the next step.  Also if you promise to keep this on the down low I feel I need to let you know that we have begun writing for our next album.  There is even a working title.  None of which I can share with you at this point but I wanted to let you know that the wheels are in motion.

This Friday, June 6th we will be making our first festival appearance at Midwest Bikefest in Norfolk, NE at The Off Road Ranch.  We will be headlining Friday night from 11 PM to 1 AM but don't worry we will be hanging around all day so come up and say hello.  Saturday we are making a road trip to Kearney, NE our second home for a private party.  That being said while we are there we want to see our family.  If you are in the Kearney area on Saturday get a hold of us and stop by the bus and say hello.

For this weeks blog I was doing a lot of thinking when I sat down to write this.  I wanted to write a blog from the heart that kind of told our side of the story while we are out there on the road.  Bob Seger's song "Turn The Page" kept rattling around in my mind.  "Out there in the distance your a million miles away.  Every ounce of energy you try to give away."  I was sitting on the tour bus real late the other  night, the growl of the engine and the bumps in the road kind of put you in a good mood for thinking.  We had just played a great show and busted our asses humping gear back aboard the SS In Your Face.  My mind started wandering around thinking about all the people we met and the people we left at home.  As any guy in a traveling band can tell you these late night drives can be psychologically brutal.  You feel a wealth of emotions that come and go with every bump in the road.  Lonely, happy, sad, nervous, stressed, anxious, and excited to name just a few.  I just realized that I had made been making these same late night post-gig road trips for ten years now and everyone feels the same.  At this point The Playboy had long since crashed.  He is usually the first one to fall asleep.  Second on the list is the Sniper, and for good reason.  He pushes it very hard.  He is a veteran so I can bust his balls to much.  Next up will either be Mike or Diane.  Lately Troy has been staying up with me and we both have been staying up to keep Alan awake.  When the conversation starts to die you begin to think.  "Smoke the day's last cigarette remembering what you said".  I think about the people in Omaha and Lincoln, my friends that I rarely ever get to hang out with. I think of my family back in Fremont that have been so supportive but could never understand why we put ourselves through this.  I think of my grandparents that are looking down on us from heaven.  I think of our fans and I stress about what is going to come next.  Where are we headed?

As I see the rise I remiss to myself that today I say the sun set and the sun rise especially during the summer tours.  I am thankful for these drives.  I am thankful for my friends and especially my band mates.  I am thankful for my fans all around the world.  Back in the day I would have numbed all these feelings with drugs and alcohol but today I am thankful that I get to experience them even though they are sometimes hard to deal with.  I know that sooner than later the ride will be over and the machine will reset and we will start all over again.  I know that even though the sun is coming up the day fully hasn't ended until my head hits the pillow.  Tomorrow is a new day and we have hundreds of miles to cover and lots of laughs to be had.  "Oh on that long and lonesome highway East of Omaha.  You can listen to the engine moanin' out it's one lone song".  The beautiful thing about music is that everyone interprets it differently.  Now this song may not actually mean anything like this to Mr. Seger but to it strikes a chord and send shivers down my spine.  Just know that we love you people and you are the reason we get up every morning.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

KEEP THE FAITH

SPADE