Warrant drummer checks in from the road

WARRANT drummer Steven Sweet has issued the following report on the band's October 17th show in Tyler, Texas:

"I am beginning to run out of fresh and exciting ways to make the travel experience seem interesting, enticing, and extraordinary to those of you who may not travel so much (and to those of you who do), but I will do my best... here goes.

Joey and I embarked upon our journey to Tyler, Texas, located near the North Eastern border of the state as you approach Louisiana heading Eastward, a few days early to soak in a bit of the local culture, shake a few hands, and eat some Mexican, Italian and Cajun (food, not the people). Here are a few 'fun facts' about Tyler: Tyler is a city and in the county seat of Smith County, Texas in the United States. The city is named for President John Tyler in recognition of his support for Texas's admission to the United States. The 2000 census recorded the city's population to be 83,650, while in 2008 it was estimated to have reached 108,772 (at least half were in attendance the night of the show). Tyler has been nicknamed the 'Rose Capital of America' because of its large role in the rose-growing industry; about 20% of commercial rose bushes (he said 'bushes' heh, heh!) produced in the U.S. are grown in Tyler and Smith County and more than half of the bushes are packaged and shipped from the area. It boasts the nation's largest municipal rose garden and hosts the Texas Rose Festival each October, which draws more than 100,000 spectators.

Important note: remember, Every Rose Has Its Thorn... thanks Bret!

In addition to the Rose growing industry I was led to believe there is also a large contingency of Meth production as well, though I don't think the statistics are readily available at this moment. One other fun fact is that Tyler is the home of Tyler Pipe, a subsidiary of McWane, Inc. that produces soil and utility pipe products (okay, so maybe not quite as fun as I though but I got to type the word Pipe... which was mildly entertaining).

Rather than head straight to our destination in Tyler, Joey and I flew into Dallas first because we wanted to sit on a plane for three hours and ride in a car another three just to get a feel for the road, since we are currently only doing a few dates until business picks up next year. You don't get that kind of commitment from other perhaps higher paid, higher profile artists like say, Prince or Celine Dion. I suppose money makes you soft to some degree and we here in Warrant land avow to never get too big that we can't get it up, so to speak (Hell if I know what THAT means, I just kind of let my fingers do the walking when it comes to some of this stuff). Now as soon as we hit Tyler the rain was coming down like Texas sized cats and dogs so we ducked into a Mexican cantina for a little mid-day lunch and perhaps an ice cold beer (come to find, Tyler is located in a dry county, which means, it can rain like hell all it wants but you generally can't have a drink of your favorite libation - yeah go figure). As horrifying as that sounds, you CAN have a drink in a restaurant as long as you finish all that is in your glass before ordering another one - which Joey and I seemed to master fairly easily, after all we didn't come all this way for nothing, or should I say anything non-alcoholic.

Among the many hi-lights of the trip was meeting the reigning Guitar Hero king, who was awarded tickets to the show and an autographed guitar that actually has real strings and not just colored buttons - I think by the time the winner got home and plugged his prize into his XBOX he would soon figure out that it was actually a real guitar when the console overloaded and exploded. I think a cool game concept would be something called Marching Trombone Hero, not only would you have to play the corresponding notes on the slide Trombone controller, but you'd also have to march in-synch on a color coded floor mat, much like Dance Revolution - what fun at parties that would be?! (I remember this one time, at band camp... sorry).

The rest of the band and crew arrived Thursday night (night before the show) and seeing as it was Ryan Brown's, our all around go to production/stage guy's birthday Joey declared he was going to make Ryan puke (which he did, but more on that later... I know, you can't wait). Our master of ceremonies, Jim picked us up for a road trip to Shreveport, LA where our destination was a new club called The Capri - our friends Halo Down were doing a set and Ryan was keeping on schedule with the pending birthday puke. Shots of Patron and more shots of Patron, an hour and a half drive, and a late night stop at Whattaburger later and Wuallah! Happy Birthday.

RUUUUUAAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHIIIAAAAAAAYYYYYYYAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!! Splash down! Joey was like a proud poppa that night.

Show day, all went smoothly - oh yeah, QUEENSRYCHE showed up to do a whole bunch of what they do so well, sounded great, closed the show up nicely... but only after we tore it up once more with Robert settling in perfectly at the mic.

*My wife just stopped by to tie a very colorful silk scarf around my head for some reason, too bad my camera is out of batteries or I'd send a photo to you all - secnd though, maybe not, I am still in my underwear as I type this and the scarf clashes horribly.

Until next time - don't look a horsed mouth in the gift or you might not like what you smell!"

Cheers,
Steven



Read More News

Tags:  Warrant, Steven Sweet   

jason    November 04, 2008