Awake and Alive Tour - FIN!

Last night, in Grand Rapids, MI, we wrapped up this 50 city tour we've been a part of over the last 10 weeks. We made lots of great new friends and had a wonderful time LIVING LIFE LOUD!

A GREAT MULTITUDE of wonderful memories were made on this tour..... so many I can barely remember them all. Thankfully I don't have to, because of the miracle of youtube! I've been shocked to see how quickly videos from shows get up on youtube.... Heck, just now I found a 10 minute clip from last night's show summarizing all 3 bands. Crazy!

Anyways..... I'd like to share a couple of my favorite moments from these 50 shows, through the miracle of youtube.

Jason's Halloween Costume
Jay wears an orange tux from the movie Dumb and Dumber as a halloween costume!



Jas Gettin' In Their Faces...
Pretty much every night Jason jumps down into the crowd at least once... This is one example of such an occurrence (might wanna turn your speakers down for this one!).



Richard Marx Sing-Along
Richard Marx's son visits one of our shows. Jas decides to serenade him with one of his father's songs.

S-T-L-O-U-I-S

Jason made up a little diddy whilst we were in St. Louis, and decided to grace the crowd with it.

NFL Nike Rewind
This wasn't exactly part of the tour, but we found out about it during the tour.... Live Life Loud was used for the NFL's Nike Rewind!



Then, of course, came last night's show... the final show of the tour.... and that's when the funniest stuff generally goes down. The last night of a long tour is generally "prank night"... when bands and crew pull stunts on each other. It's kind of a way of letting loose and enjoying the final night of a tour. Skillet isn't much for pranks, and we decided not to pull any stunts on them this tour... but the crew decided that WE weren't to be spared.

Kenny, the monitor engineer for the tour, dressed up like Jason, and came up on stage for the beginning of our show AS Jason! We had a few friends from the tour hold back the real Jason, so Kenny would get a moment in the spotlight!



Also, our good friend Jonathan Chu, who plays violin for Skillet, surprised us and came out to play the string parts on "Meaning of Life"! Chu has been riding with us on our bus throughout the tour, and he's a great dude... and a RIDICULOUS violinist!

Then, on the final song, Live Life Loud, most of the crew came up on stage and danced their HEARTS OUT! It definitely made me wonder who was doing sound and lights at that point! Haha... If anybody has any video of any of this stuff.... throw it up on youtube and email me a link, would'ya?!

We've got about a month off now... and I'm very ready for some much needed rest and relaxation! Christmas is just a few weeks away........ so get ready for some VERY FESTIVE blog updates!!!!

Jonathan

Timmy Ho's!

I know I've mentioned Tim Horton's many times on this little blog of mine.... but it appears as if you're going to have to endure another rant about this wonderful place...... as there was a Tim Horton's 0.3 miles away from the venue yesterday!



We all walked down to the Timmy Ho's multiple times..... and over the course of the day I managed to devour the following: 2 mochas, 1 bagel with cream cheese, 1 donut, and a 20 pack of timbits. Delicious!!!!!!

This place really just GETS Canadians. It's cheap. It's tasty. It's ALWAYS readily available on Canadian street corners.... To demonstrate how much this place GETS Canadians... observe.



This is Dan's bagel and hashbrown.... Immediately after sitting down he asked, "I wonder if they have any Ketchup packets?" Then he discovered they had ALREADY put one in the little hashbrown pouch. THAT's how much they know Canadian's desires, and anticipate their requests! Boom! KETCHUP!!

We're in Cleveland today, and I've already used google maps to see if there is a Tim Horton's near us today. No dice...... However, we're in Grand Rapids, MI, tomorrow, and I'm willing to bet there will be one there!

Jonathan

Confessions of a Bandwagon Ducks Fan.

Hey All....

So I've never been a big football fan.... but it's hard to maintain that track record when you've got a friend like my buddy Adam.... who is the biggest Oregon Ducks fan EVER. He watches every Oregon Ducks game in the front lounge of our tour bus (Adam does merchandise with us, so tours with us wherever we go). As the Duck's season has progressed, I've gone from casually listening to the game whilst writing emails to watching every play in complete anxiety.

Tonight the Oregon Ducks played the Oregon State Beavers in a civil war game that would determine who goes to the Rose Bowl on Jan 1st. It was a hard-fought game, but Oregon emerged victorious!




Of course Adam lost his MIND at the end. I think he'll probably cry tears of joy when he goes to bed. Haha....

So on January 1st I will be watching intently as Oregon takes on Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Yeah!!!

Jonathan

Gimp Rock

Last night Brandon from Decypher Down was putting his suitcase in the bay of their bus, and he turned around just in time to have his foot run over by the production truck! Poor guy was taken to the hospital... and luckily none of the bones in his foot were broken (although I don't know how... it looked brutal).

Aaaaaaanyways..... when the time came to play the show tonight..... he did not wimp out.

Hot Pockets!

Jason sings a little diddy about Hot Pockets!

Marxism 101

One of the best things about Hawk Nelson shows is the sheer uncertainty. Every night I get on stage and think.... "I wonder what crazy, hilarious, ridiculous, embarrassing, or incredible thing is going to happen tonight." There are glorious moments of inspiration, and there are moments of unbearable awkwardness.

Last night at the House of Blues show in Chicago, IL, Richard Marx's son decided to stop by the show (we wrote One Little Miracle with Richard Marx himself)..... and Jas decided to do his own version of one of the famous pop singer's best-known songs....

So, can a moment be both inspirational or awkward? I certainly think so!



Jonathan

AMA Commercial!

The other night I was watching the Country Music Awards and I saw a commercial for the American Music Awards.... and they were using LIVE LIFE LOUD for the music on the commercial!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

In the last few days we've had an NFL spot, a song on Melrose Place, and now this AMA commercial.... All playing Live Life Loud.

So fun!

Jonathan

Buried by Your Wishes

So we've been on the road for several months now with Skillet, Decypher Down, and The Letter Black.... it's been a long haul, and right now it's been about a month since I've seen home. I have to admit that this gets harder as I get older. I can only imagine how difficult it might be when we have kids, sometime down the road. That's got to be tough.

The shows, for the most part have been amazing. Tulsa, Medford, Salem, Spokane, Boise, and Denver probably stand out as having been the best shows of the tour so far. It's hard to believe we still have a month before this tour is wrapped up..... and while it's a great tour with some awesome shows... I am definitely feeling the wear.

The term "careful what you wish for" comes to mind... Haha. Making music and touring the country playing shows are what I love to do, and I can't imagine spending my life on anything else right now.... So I can't really complain, because I'm getting to do what I love (a lot of it). However, that doesn't mean that I don't miss home, and it isn't difficult to do a 50 city / 10 week fall tour.

I will say though.... I've had a good amount of free time during each day on this tour... So I have listened to a LOT of new music.... and there is a TON of good new music out there. Why does it happen in spurts like this? I'll go for a year without finding a single new album that inspires me, and then I'll find 3 all at once.

Here are a few new albums that I'm in love with..... that you should really check out...

(in alphabetical order)

David Crowder*Band - Church Music

Fee - Hope Rising

Paramore - Brand New Eyes

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane

I'm actually buying and downloading Switchfoot's new album as I write. I include this in my list because every single switchfoot album since Learning to Breathe has changed my world. I'm THAT confident that this one will be no different...

Anyways.... I realized I hadn't written a blog post in a while, and despite feeling like my blogging muscles are atrophied and sore, I decided to erratically toss a few thoughts down here. I'd like to promise that I'll get back to writing here more often........ but you just never know. Haha.

Pic of the Day

Tonight at the show, a fan had a copy of our second record, Smile It's the End of the World.... and he was smart enough to know that Justin wasn't in the band at that time.... and he decided to do something about that!

Live Photos

A photographer named Phil Rucker came to the show today, and handed us a few discs of photos from previous shows. Here are a couple!