Reckless and Careless but That's What Made It Real

Hello everybody and welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official blog of 3D In Your Face and The Midnight Devils.  Well it seems our little rock n roll club is getting bigger and bigger.  That makes me very excited.  It's time to round up the troops for one more big rock n roll blast into 2016.  I have to say this year was great.  Sniper and I spent more time out on the road than we did at home.  That's always a good thing.  I never unpacked my suitcase once, maybe some rearranging but never fully unpacked.  We met some amazing people.  Most importantly we reconnected with one our best friends The Playboy.  I've seen a few thousand faces and better damn well believe we rocked them all.  Now it's time to kick back and party, celebrate, and get ready for the next round.  If you didn't already know tonight 3D In Your Face kicks off the first of a two night stand at The 21st Saloon, Omaha, NE.  Friday, Dec. 30th and Saturday, Dec. 31st will go down in infamy as the two greatest nights in our bands career.  Our crew has assembled what can only be described as the hottest video wall in the city.  This shows is going to blow you out of the water and I don't want to just rely on the show.  We are ready to bring the pain and show everyone else how the big boys do it.  Down and dirty sleazy rock n roll magic is in the air.  Only $5 at the door tonight.  There are still tickets left for tomorrow's show and today only you can still get them for $5.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/30242616480?aff=efbneb On Saturday they are bumped up to $8 so order these now and reserve yourself and your date a seat to the party of the year.

For all of those traveling to these shows and for all of you that might not want to drink and drive afterward we have partnered with The New Victorian Inn and Suites on 108th and L street, blocks away from The 21st Saloon.  Mention "3D In Your Face" at the front desk during check in or check out and receive your room for only $69.99 plus tax.  This will apply for Friday and Saturday.  Always thinkin' about ya.

I want to take you back a few years.  I always look forward to New Years Eve.  It's one of those crazy crazy crazy nights that you just never really know what's going to happen.  It's one of those nights you talk about with your friends for years.  Inevitably drunken buffoonery is in store no matter if you are drinking or not.  I can't really remember the exact date but I want to warn my mother if she is reading this, please just close out of your browser now.  I had to be about 19 or 20 years old and I was hanging out with a pretty wild bunch of dudes.  We had just formed our first band and we were regularly making trips back and forth to Omaha to catch punk rock shows at houses, studios, and the infamous Ranch Bowl.  That New Years Eve we caught wind of an art studio hosting a punk rock show that featured our two favorite Omaha bands at the time.  The Deformites were some dudes our age that played psychobilly music.  My band eventually did a tour to Texas and back with The Deformities but we will save that story for another blog.  The other band was a drunk punk band called Buster Hymen and The Penetrators.  Great dudes that kind of showed us the ropes.  We looked up to them big time.  I believe 4 of us made the trip to Omaha that night.  My buddy Duff was the DD and were were cruising a brand new Ford Mustang courtesy of my other buddy and legal age drinker Styx.  My friend Korey was riding in back with me and I think we were half in the can before we even crossed the county line.


Never Stop Drinking from Buster Hymen & The Penetrators on Myspace.


Jimmy Drug Bug from The Deformities on Myspace.

The art studio was unlike anything we had ever seen in Fremont.  It was downtown and this was some unique art.  Old cars welded together, metal shapes and jagged edges, and as luck would have it a free keg.  We payed the admission and partied our asses off that night.  Things get a little hazy for me right here.  I seem to remember my buddy Styx being so out of his mind that he proceeded to go after a woman that appeared to be three times his age.  This punk rock art studio became heaven for us for that evening.  Free food, free beer, women that wouldn't even look at us, and loud happening rock n roll music.  I'm sure my friends will remember way more details than I do but I can still picture the smell of cigarettes and stale beer just brought us to life.  This had become the only place in the entire world that really mattered.  For that moment in time we were kings.  The show ended and we scooped our drunk asses back in the Mustang and Duff safely drove us home.  We almost made the trip without incident until we got back to Fremont.  We drove through downtown Fremont and pretty much right on time as we were driving past the court house Styx's car door flung open and he started spewing onto the passing concrete and all down the side of his car.  Stick a fork in us that was the point we all needed to head home and sleep it off.  For whatever reason that show sticks out in my mind as one of the funnest times of my young adult life.  We were reckless and careless but because of the music it all made so much sense.  I would never want to go back to that time but I'm sure happy I did it when I had the chance.  That moment in time.  Those hazy memories.  The music.

Happy New Year
ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

Sam Spade

There's Leftovers in the Fridge

Hello everybody and welcome to the Christmas edition of HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official Blog of The Midnight Devils and 3D In Your Face.  I want to start this blog off by thanking everyone that sent us well wishes on our trip last weekend.  The Midnight Devils are definitely earning our wings the hard way.  After the great ice trek to St. Joe we pushed on to Odell, NE.  The roads weren't the best but we made it safe and sound and had an amazing show.  It's the small things.  We were sitting around deciding whether or not to cancel Saturday's gig.  Sniper and I simply said there is no way we are not going to make a show.  We are going to be known as the band that's at every show no matter what.  First ones in and the last ones to leave.  Since it's Christmas season and the end of this leg of our tour we are doing one final homecoming show tonight at The 21st Saloon in Omaha, NE.  One last chance to catch The Midnight Devils in 2016.  I have a huge surprise for everyone as well.  Rock n Roll Santa came early this year.  Please come out and celebrate the holiday's with us one last time.  We've been gone for about a month and we can't wait to see you.  Not to mention this is going to be one wild party.  No work, no school, it's Christmas baby let's boogie

Photos by David Willis Photography

Now for the good stuff.  I've been writing this blog now for roughly five years.  Week in and week out I usually try and do something special, something out of the ordinary, a glimpse into my life.  Christmas is one of those holiday's that I look forward to every year.  The bad thing is I can't remember writing last year's Christmas blog.  I love being home for the holiday's.  Sleeping in the old band rehearsal room.  Staying out late with my friends back home.  Hanging with my parents.  It always amazes me how quiet my hometown is.  I never remember it being that quiet.  All the towns we visit we are so loud all the time that the silence around 2 AM strikes me in Fremont, NE.  No cars, no music, and no drunk people.  It's fantastic.  My family is huge on tradition.  We do the same thing every year like clockwork since my grandparents were alive.  My Step-Mom Beth even buys the same spaghetti sauce my grandmother used to use off Amazon because they can't find it anywhere else.  Giant family gatherings like that are always great, they are stressful but great.  That's why we only do them a few times a year.  We then all go to the candlelight Midnight Mass and listen to my Step-Dad Greg rumble the church with the pipe organ.  It's beautiful.  I even put on a shirt with sleeves for the church service.  Then my buddies all get together and close out one of the local bars.  Clockwork I say.

Being in a rock n roll band, for us holiday's are just as important.  Most of the time we are playing on a holiday but there are a few really special nights we get off.  It's one of the rare times you aren't consumed with practice, social media, booking gigs, and handing out flyers.  You can be "off" for at least 24 hours.  The coolest thing is that you get a chance to celebrate with your best friends, not that you don't celebrate everything else together when you're crammed in a van with them for a month.  It's a little more special than that.  We get to cut loose and enjoy the end of a tour and the end of a great year.  I never in a million years would have thought we would be ending 2016 like this.  3D In Your Face has accomplished some huge goals we set out for ourselves.  We have pushed it farther them the year before.  The Midnight Devils are in that great place where we are slowly gaining momentum.  We took the leap and now it's starting to pay off.  Just wait until you see what we have coming down the road.  Christmas in a rock n roll band to me is about Elvis Presley singing "Blue Christmas".   It's getting home from a string of shows and throwing your dirty stage clothes in your parents washing machine.  The pullout bed is ready to roll and there are leftovers in the fridge.  From everyone in 3D In Your Face and The Midnight Devils we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas.  If you can't spend it with someone you love you better be on the phone letting them know you are thinking about them.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

Sam Spade

Traveling Musician PT. 1 - Icy Conditions Cancels Show

Hello everybody and welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official blog of The Midnight Devils and 3D In Your Face.  What an adventure we had last night.  I didn't get around to writing the blog before we left for the weekend and I'm glad I didn't.  Now I will give you a first hand look at what it was like for us on 120 mile sheet of ice in Northern Missouri.  Before we get into the details at this exact moment we are still scheduled to play tonight at The Kross-Eyed Kricket in Odell, NE.  All things considered this is going to be one wild night and I know you are looking forward to some craziness after all the stress.  Show will begin roughly at 9 PM.  Sunday we are doing a very special benefit show at The Lookout Lounge with Aorta Music Management.  Wreck The Halls is a two day benefit to raise money for Harper's Hope and Inner Beauty Salon at The Methodist Hospital in Omaha, NE.  A few years back I stumbled upon a hair salon for cancer survivors.  This is one of the coolest places in Omaha if you want my opinion.  They help survivors with wigs and beauty therapy.  We are always thrilled to help out Inner Beauty Salon and look forward to an amazing night of action at The Lookout Lounge.  My radio show also called Hair in the Air, on 101.9 The Keg will be bumped back to 12 AM tonight because of the Creighton game.  Tune in live and get your faced rocked off.

If you are just catching up with us than I will start from the beginning.  Last night The Midnight Devils were schedule to play in St. Joe, MO at The Rendezsous Bar with Coverboy.  I would also like to thank John Riha of Disciples of Apollo Promotions and our amazing fans that braved the weather for all their help.  What started as 120 Mile down 1-29 problem on any other night.  Let me preface this by saying we have never cancelled a show ever.  We picked up the van around 1 PM and I knew there was going to be some bad weather.  We  was figured on it would only stay in Omaha and that things would get better as we headed south.  We loaded up the van and hit the road by 2:15 PM.  Heading out of Omaha the roads were starting to get wet but we pushed on into the unknown.  Out on the interstate the rain never let up and 50 miles down the road we made our first stop in Rock Port, MO and we knew we were in for some rough times ahead.  All the concrete had turned into a sheet of ice.  Inside the truck stop travelers were talking about how traffic had come to a stand still on the interstate right outside of St. Joe due to an accident.  At this point what were we supposed to do?  The show was still on and we were already halfway there.  We saddled up and cruised low and slow.  About 10 miles from our exit we hit the stand still.  For an hour everyone just sat there on the interstate.  It was about that time that we got word that roads in St. Joe were so bad that they had no choice but to cancel the show.  We were devastated but there was nothing we could do.  We took the first exit off the interstate which lead us down a dark road that was littered with semi-trucks and cars in the ditch.  By the skin of our teeth we swung the van around and made it back onto the interstate.  Another few miles down the road we, along with hundreds of other drivers, crash landed at a gas station that was not equipped for this many people.  With one bathroom inside we filled up the tank, grabbed a few snacks, used natures bathroom and pointed the van back north towards Omaha.

Sniper took over driving duties for this leg of the trip.  What was only supposed to take an hour and half landed us another three hours in the van.  It was slow going and with nerves of steel he had the van moving closer to 50 mph the whole trip back to Omaha.  After 8 long hours in the van we finally landed safe and sound in Omaha, a bit defeated but everyone was in one piece.  We found out later that the crash that had backed up the interstate near St. Joe had killed two people and injured 9 others.  That was weighing pretty heavily on our minds as our trip concluded for the evening.  Now this story isn't anything special or different.  There are bands all over the country that are braving terrible road conditions every night to make the gig.  It's something that you do and don't even think about.  Every year we go through a few shows were you secretly wonder if it's worth the stress to even be out on the road.  It sucks but it's part of the job.  You knew what you were signing up for at the beginning of this.  Every band has those stories of white knuckling it on a dark interstate trying to get back from a show.  Most importantly we didn't want to let any of our fans down by cancelling a show.  The song actually goes "It's a long way to the top if you want to Rock N Roll".  After last night I'd like to change it to "It's an icy way to St. Joe if you want to Rock N Roll".  This is still the greatest job in the world and I wouldn't change it for a minute.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

Sam Spade

"Sam I Had No Idea......"

Hello everybody and welcome back to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official blog of 3D In Your Face and The Midnight Devils.  Am I every ready to get this party started.  I would like to start off this blog by thank you all again for reading this every week.  It's taking on a life of it's own and I couldn't do any of that without you.  Thanks for sticking in my corner through the thick and the thin.  We are taking a bit of a road trip this week to a city we haven't played in a few years.  The Midnight Devils are hitting the road as part of our "Unrest in the Midwest" tour with two shows in the wonderful city of Des Moines, IA.  I've had some wild adventures in Des Moines but more on that later to come.  I would like to thank DJ Bob at Code Zero Radio for the great interview today.  If you are just reading this Friday morning don't miss my live interview at 8:50 AM on Moose in the Morning Show on Lazer 103.3.  Tonight we will be playing a full tilt mega beast glam slam rock n roll party at Misfits Bar in East Des Moines.   Show starts roughly at 8 PM and expect a wild wild evening.  I can already feel the vibrations down below.  Saturday we will be sticking around Des Moines and meeting up with LyinHeart and The Astro Bastards for a tag team triple threat match at The Fremont Bar.  This show is being put on by the amazing Dominick Derringer of Krazy1 Productions.  We can't wait to see you wild people this weekend.  Last but not least my own radio show Hair In The Air will be airing now at 11 PM Saturday's on 101.9 The Keg.  Tune in and get rocked.

Des Moines how I miss you, let me count the ways.  The first real adventure I remember about heading to the capital city of Iowa was on the very first Officially Terminated Tour when we were 19 or 20.  Back then nobody was carrying a cell phone with GPS on it.  So I used my parents computer and printed out the entire 10 day tour route via Mapquest, which was inevitably always wrong.  I had a three ring binder with all the directions.  We loaded up our old church van for a solid week plus of touring.  The first night was schedule in Des Moines and I had hooked up with a punk rock promoter that was booking The Backyard Babies at a place called Hairy Mary's.  Some how I convinced him to let us open the show.  Now The Backyard Babies are one of those legendary Swedish bands that brought good rock n roll back in the early 2000's.  They are huge and we were opening for them first night of our tour.  We got to the club and they wouldn't let us even set up on the stage.  We had to play on the floor in front of the stage.  It didn't really even matter we were just happy to be there and happy to not be heading home anytime soon.  The show was outstanding but I can't remember a ton of people being there.  The promoter who also happened to be the bar tender felt bad for us and paid us with his tips at the end of the night.  We had no place to stay and no where to be so we asked The Backyard Babies who were riding in a tour bus if we could crash in their hotel rooms.  Silly silly silly.  Not a chance.  We followed them to the Holiday Inn and attempted to sneak into their after party which again did not happen.  We decided the next best thing was to stay in the parking lot for the evening.

Here is where things get a bit interesting.  Whenever I tell this story to my mom she just cringes and screams "Sam I had no idea that's what you guys were doing out there."  In the parking lot of the Holiday Inn where the headliners were staying we posted up camp.  We gathered the chairs and coolers and proceeded to get entirely wasted while listening to music.  Cigarettes, beer, liquor, the whole works.  We were on tour after all.  As everyone started to pass out we soon realized there wasn't enough room for us all to sleep in the van.  Maybe it was the liquor or maybe it was the adventure but we dragged out the sleeping bags and made our beds in the grass, on-top of the van, and even underneath the van.  As morning set it and the breakfast crowd started to file in, the hotel management soon realized they had a bunch of vagrants sleeping in their parking lot.  5 AM hangover still fresh they kicked us out.  We drove a few blocks down parked the van in front of somebody's house and crawled back into the grass to finish off getting a few more zzzz's.  It was dangerous and insane but honest and pure and that's what made it so good.  I can't remember where we went after that but I know every place we played, if we didn't find a place to crash we were sleeping like hillbillies outside of the van.  I don't expect that magnitude of intensity this weekend but it's sure going to be nice getting back to a city with so many great memories.  Time to start a new chapter in the book.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

Sam Spade

Twisted To The End

Hello everybody and welcome to HAIR IN THE AIR, The Official Blog of 3D In Your Face and The Midnight Devils.  What's happening this week?  Sorry I missed last weeks blog.  Things just got a bit out of control with Thanksgiving.  The Midnight Devils hit the road pretty hard over the holiday weekend and I didn't get a chance to sit down and write to you fine fine people.  Things are looking very promising for the few weeks leading up to the new year.  We have a lot of show bookings starting to come in.  Next week we head to Des Moines, IA on Saturday, Dec. 10th for a Krazy1 Promotions big Rock n Roll party at The Fremont Bar with LyinHeart, Herman and the Hulks, and The Astrobastards.  We are still looking for a show for Friday, Dec. 9th.  If anyone can help us out with a place to play or can point us in the right direction for a show that we would really appreciate it.  As for this weekend we are taking a quick break and then back on board the Rock n Roll roller coaster until 2017.  Most importantly right now is the brand new music video for the 3D In Your Face single "Baptized by the Radio" from our latest album Lost in the Volume.  Click HERE!.  We are so very proud of this new music video and we would like to thank Jeremy Partridge for all the amazing work he does on our music videos.  Our goal is to hit 10,000 views by 2017 and we can't do that without your help.  Please like, share, and spread this video around the Internet.  This video is for you the one and only reason we do everything we do.  We hope you enjoy.

 Photos by David Willis Photography

I have to say things are going very well.  I believe the shows are getting better and The Midnight Devils are become a natural cohesive unit.  We did our first lengthy road trip last weekend to Topeka, KS and it was all dick and fart jokes for three hours in the van.  That's a good sign that a band is happy.  We arrived in town early and met up with the head of security at The Boobie Trap Bar, John.  Now we were told by the owner that John had a hair metal museum in his basement that we just had to see.  Turns out John's basement looks a lot similar to our homes back in Nebraska.  Every wall was covered with show memorabilia, KISS merch, vinyl album covers.  We became instant friends.  I've said this from day one but there is an amazing glam rock/sleaze metal community spread out over the entire world and the moment you get two or more of the in a room it becomes family real fast.  John's basement is called The Twisted Diamond and for any band traveling through the Topeka area it's a destination not to be missed.  From that moment I knew we were going to have a fun night at Topeka surely did not disappoint.  We met some amazing people that will stick in my mind forever.

I'm a firm believer that people come in and out of your life for a reason.  There is no coincidence.  Through 3D In Your Face and The Midnight Devils we have gotten the chance to meet some absolutely wonderful people.  People I call friends and people I call family.  That's the best part about this job is that we get the opportunity to travel and see our friends from the other side of the country on a regular basis.  I have so many great memories and I know we are going to make so many more this year.  I am thankful for each and every person that has taken a chance on our band and I definitely don't take any of this lightly.  If our lives cross paths, for better or for worse, it was worth every second.  Rock n roll is just the tip of the iceberg.  It's the glue that holds us all together and inevitably gets us all high.  Rock n roll music saved my life.  Last week I celebrated 6 years of clean sober living.  I couldn't have done it without my bands, without my family, and without you people.  I won't get into the gory details but 6 years ago I was a wreck and headed one place really fast.  I was given a second chance at life and I made a pact with myself to live especially loud, if you get my drift.  Easier said than done.  It's been a lot of work and I still have to take it one day at a time but through rock n roll music I have had the chance to experience things I only could dream of when I was on the booze.  I'm definitely no saint but I am thankful that I've gotten the chance to make another run at it.  Most of all I'm extremely thankful for the people that have come into my life because of this crazy roller coaster ride.  In the end it makes it all worth it.

ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD

Sam Spade