photo courtesy of www.spsounds.com

First Day/show of the DFM tour. I pull up to Southpaw in Brookyln around 5:40 pm. I see a dude looking and waving at me and I don’t recognize him at first. It’s Todd Camren Westphal, my friend, and our tour manager. He clearly has gained weight since we toured last and living the good life out in LA after moving there a little over a year ago. Must be nice. So I’m early but I just got there when I was told. Everyone else was running late. The new tourvan pulls up with Cage, Chauncey, Timmy Wiggins, and F. Sean Michael Martin inside. Everyone is happy to see eachother but it made me feel a little better that I sense some unrest and anxiety as we were loading in because I was feeling the same. Soundcheck and first merch setup went smoothely. The new Yak Ballz logo T-shirt looks ill. Cool. We did a little meet and greet in a section downstairs a few hours before showtime. As time progressed, the air was getting thicker in the small backstage greenroom which seemed to be filling up with friends and friends of. Some honorable mentions include EL-P, Phil Caivano from Monster Magnet and just an awesome dude, Papa Pete, Benn Grim, Deefy, Katie B, Kristin, Cory the new tattoo artist at Brass City Tattoo and his girl who I recognized from college which was really random and more. That is already a lot of people for that small room so I decided to dip and met up with Despot in the hallway. I’ve known Despot since highschool before each of us put out any music and we used to hang in Queens and the city so it’s always cool to see an old friend and catch up. I decided to go to the backroom immediately behind the stage to catch the vibe and listen to some of Despot’s set. It was less crouded and I was nervous. A couple minutes to 11 and it’s almost time for me to go on. Butterflies. I stretch, hop around, and do the usual pre-show ritual. High 5′s and I hear my intro music. all of a sudden I hear the beat kick in and I never went out. I think Chauncey dropped it a little earlier than I expected so Benn went back out and let him know. Ok now it’s on. People are so amped I’m starting to feel their energy and give it back. And so goes the set. It was amazing and I think my preparation paid off. Time for Chris Palko. He absolutely smashes it. The sound was amazing and he was more focused than I’ve ever seen him. Take notes kids. I go out to watch and spot some creeps I used to know. Later. After, I hit the merch table, take some pictures and enjoy the air of accomplishment among everyone involved with putting on the show. It was a successful night. One more time tomorrow for the hometeam.

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