TALES FROM THE ROAD VOL I
"CORNERSTONE OR BUST"

In early July of 1997 we left on our first cross country trip to Cornerstone festival in Bushnell, Ill. Why we would want to travel for two to three days to play on a pig farm in the middle of no where may seem quite odd, but there was a good reason - it was Cornerstone. Cornerstone began in the 1970's and has evolved into one of the major Christian music festivals in the country. About 30,000 people attend each year. There are about 10 stages and about 300 bands that perform at this 5 day festival each year. Getting ready for this trip was an experience in itself. First, We bought a 10 passanger school bus and welded a rack on top for our equipment and luggage. When we finally took off we realized that we didn't have enough room for everyone, so our vocalist (Peter) brought his truck too. When we left, one of the girls started panicing because the bus was rocking back and forth due to the load we had on top. We had booked a show on the way in Tempe Az also. Now, normally it would take us about 6 hours to get there, but it ended up taking almost 10! Our thermostat broke and our air conditioner went out on the way. It was so hot that my wife had to pour water over my head while I was driving in order to keep awake. However, we finally made it to the show, and it was a big success. The crowd was energetic and it was a good night in all. We then took off for Illinois. By morning we had broken down near Hollbrook Arizonia. We were in the middle of nowhere and had no idea if we would make it to cornerstone in time. We were there for what seemed like hours, until we found out that a shop in town fixed diesel engines. The highway patrol came by and gave us rides to the local Subway to eat. We had the bus towed to the shop were they informed us that it would take about a week to fix. We were now faced with the dilima of how to get to Cornerstone in two days. We came up with all kinds of ideas from renting a uhaul truck and putting everyone in the back to not going at all. We finally decided to rent a van and a car to get us there. We had to drive about an hour back on the freeway to the rental place were we rented an Aerostar and a car. We then took off for the craziest drive ever. With all of the equipment from the top of the Bus packed into the back of the Aerostar ( there were no seats) there was just enough room for two people to sit behind the seat and two in the front. Everytime we stopped however the boxes (which were packed to the top of the ceiling) would fall down on top of the two people behind the seat. In the car there were 5 more people packed in and 3 more in the truck. We drove this way for two days straight and only stopped briefly to eat or get gas. We finally made it to Cornerstone and I think the only thing on our minds was a shower. Cornerstone was great. We had a great spot and played to about 3,000 people. Before we started I was asked if we wanted people to stand on the stage behind us, I said sure. Well the minute we started playing all those people (about 75) started dancing and it shook the stage so bad that my wife had to hold here keyboard down so it wouldn't fall off it's stand. The best part of our performance was when I gave the altar call. Now why would I give an altar call at a Christian festival? Well I gave two, One for those who wanted to except Christ, and the other for those who had backsliden. About 75 people raised their hands for the first and at least 150 for the second. After Cornerstone we headed back to Hollbrook to pick up our bus. When we arived we found out that the bus hadn't been touched at all. Many of us were obviously upset. Well we returned the vehicles, sent a few people home on the train and decided what to do next. We decided to rent a u-haul trailer to put the remainder of our equipment and merch in and to haul it home with Peters truck. Jackie, Peter and I rode in the front while the other 5 guys rode laying down in the back all the way home to Los Angeles. We made it home a day later and the bus, well that took almost a year to fix. This was one of my first lessons in ministry. I learned that ministry is sacrifice and that it never goes the way we think it's going to go. The best thing about this trip is that we were able to cover the $3,000 rental car payment with what we got paid and merch sales and that we were able to reach so many people with the Gospel.

TALES FROM THE ROAD
Vol IV - I. PORTICO FEST 2002

We left Los Angeles on Tuesday night the 27th of August. The festival didn't start till the next day so we had plenty of time to get to Washington and get checked into our cabins etc. Unfortunately we didn't even make it out of L.A. because our van kept overheating, so we drove back home and took it to the shop. After a two day delay, we finally took off. While comming over Mt. Shasta, we lost all power - both mechanical and electrical. It was about 1 a.m. and we called a tow truck who towed us to the nearest town. We slept in the van and waited for the shop to open. They had our van fixed in about a half hour. It was a bad wire. Well that lasted about 50 miles till the same thing happened again. This time our Trumpet player (Daron) took some of our stickers and fixed the wire with them. This got us all the way to our first show in Hillsboro Oregon.

We arrived at Word of Faith church in the afternoon. After unloading the equipment I realized my guitar was not there. Yes, it was stolen - maybe by one of the mechanics, but diffinitly gone. I had to borrow guitars the whole weekend. However it was a material item and I know God can get it back or replace it. We played to a very enthusiastic and supportive audience that night. I spoke that night on trusting in the Lord and was really blessed when the whole church prayed for us afterwards. We slept in the church that night and continued on to Portico Fest (formerly Tom Fest) the next day. This years festival was probably the best I've ever gone to. There were
no Rockstar bands and I got a chance to minister and pray with people for once. Our set went really well. I spoke that day on how the Christian music industry needs to repent and recieved alot of support from the bands and people. On the way back we broke down again in Salem Oregon on Sunday. We had to cancel a really good show in San Francisco that night and we slept in our van. None of the shops were open until tuesday so we sent people home in a rent a car and daron and I got a hotel room and stayed until Tuesday afternoon when the shop told us our van would cost almost $600 to repair. We did'nt have that kind of money so we rented a car and came home.We're going back up to pick up our van soon. The whole time these trials were happening we were wondering why we were going through this. The answer is that God was showing us patience and to always rely on him for everything. As a result someone has donated $400 towards our van repair. We would like to thank Word of Faith church, Mikee and the Portico staffand everyone else that supported us on this trip. Thanks.

TALES FROM THE ROAD
VOL II-U.S. TOUR 1998

We were real excited about going on our first u.s tour. We started preparing months in advance. Our van we bought was very interesting. It was a used 1978 Dodge tradesman that was painted Black and Silver. I gutted out the inside (which was pretty bad) and put in new carpet and chairs which didn't match. The inside ceiling was padded like a padded cell in a mental institution which we pounded on constantly for any reason. The most interesting characteristic of this van was that it had absolutely no air-conditioning. We spent an entire month traveling to states like New York and Louisiana in intense heat. We found out some other interesting things about our van. For one thing the horn would go off by itself until you hit it so hard that it would stop. Also there was alot of leaks in the van and especially in the back window where water would flow through the cracks like a water fall.These we patched up with electric tape and actually by the end of tour our whole van was about 80% electric tape.


We took off in Late June from Los Angeles with our van, a new trailer and our vocalists mini truck. Our first interesting incident happened just outside New Mexico, we got a flat. It was late afternoon and our back right tire blew out so we pulled over and started changing it. We got to a point were the lug nuts wouldn't come off. Each one of us took turns trying till we had two left. While someone was trying to take them off one broke. The last one was the best. Our bass player Gabe sat himself on the ground with his legs around the tire trying his hardest. Now Gabs a big boy and I guess he tried so hard that the van started shaking and it fell right off the jack which was attached in the back. I've never seen someone that big move so fast and he got out just in time before the van came crashing down. He went and sat down in the passenger seat and started hyperventilating. I went to see if he was alright and he looked at me and recited one of my favorite lines, "Welcome to Ministry". We lost our vocalist for a day and met up with him in Las Cruces. That night we slept in the van at a truck stop and in the morning we got it fixed and moved on.

Our next little incident happened just outside St Louis. This time our front right tire totally came off and we had no spare. We waited hours for the tow truck to come but the worst part about it was that we were standing on a pretty large Island between the main freeway and the off ramp and 7 thunderstorms came in one after another. This actually was one of the most spiritually uplifting times of the tour because myself, my wife Jackie and our bass player Gabe all found ourselves standing on the side of our trailer in the pouring rain with our hoods on singing worship songs together. All the
thunder and lighting really made me realize how powerful God really is. We caught up with our Vocalist (who went ahead) two days later at Cornerstone were we had a blast. This was probably one of the best shows we've ever played. Back then Ska (or what people called ska) was at it's peek and we had one of the top spots at the festival playing at midnight to about 6,000 people packed inside of our tent. We played for almost two hours and ended with an intense worship set. It was so hot on stage that steam was coming from our Vocalist jacket that he always wore no matter what.

On our way down to Florida our trombonist Felipe was sitting in one of the back seats by the window. He was sitting up with his eyes closed when all of a sudden the window came off it's hinges and swung around barely holding on to the frame. It woke him up and we realized we had an interesting van.

Florida was great , we toured with a Christian Reggae band from Jamaica called, "Cross Culture". After Florida we played shows up the east coast. When we were in South Carolina our trombonist came up to me and told me he was quitting the band that night after the show and was flying home. I told him we only had one horn player left if he left but his mind was made up. He had been sick since the start of tour and couldn't take anymore.

So he left and we continued on. At our next show while we were playing this kid walked up and started playing sax for us out of nowhere and very well I might add. After the show I asked him what he was doing the rest of the summer and he said nothing much. I asked him if he wanted to finish the tour with us and he quit his job and was traveling with us the next day.

Besides being stuck in Illinois for a few days the rest of the tour went great until brand new transmition went out in Oklahoma. We were stranded for 3 days in a hotel and our only transportation was our vocalist truck. So everywhere we went it t ook two trips to pick us all up. One of those nights we went to one of the craziest churches I've ever attended, it was called, "Guts". The church sign was made of metalic like heavy metal letters with bolts in them. The church members were all country rock people and there worship leader had a head set on like Garth Brooks. We got a lot out of it though.

After 3 days we made it home. Despite all the problems and trials it was worth it because we knew God was with us the whole way.

TALES FROM THE ROAD VOL III
(THE NEVERENDING TOUR)

In the begining of June 1999 we left for a 10 week tour of the U.S. In March of that year we bought a brand new Dodge Ram Van and had a hard shell extended roof with an 8 foot bed put on. We new the payments would be steep but considering all our break downs and that we had been bringing in quite a bit of money that year we thought it would all work out. We left with most of the band members but had to use two fill-ins because some of our members were graduating High School and we were to meet them in two weeks in Arizona. So we took off with our first show being in Tempe az. We got to the show and found out that the promoters did'nt even promote really. There was only about 10 people out side of the band members and it was a real let down not because we wanted to be cool in front of everyone etc, but there could have been more people to minister to.

After this show we drove to Tx to play Tom Fest. It was a cool location but unfortunately not alot of people came and alot of the bands did'nt show up. From there we did a crazy 24 hr drive to Las Vegas and from Las Vegas back to Tempe az were we met up with the rest of the band. From there we toured across the country down through the midwest and up to New York playing shows. The highlight of the tour was opening for the Toasters for their 20th anniversary show in New york. We continued on after New York playing in Wisconson than down through the mid west. We then went to Washington to play Tom Fest and then back down to Florida to finish the tour. By the time we finished our last show in St. Petersburg everyone was asking us to stay over their houses. We very quickly replied "no thanks were going home". We loaded our equipment in the pouring rain and piled into the van wet and tired. When we took of we all yelled , "Were going home". It took us 54 hours to drive home to California. When we got to L.A. we hit traffic as usual and everyone wanted to get home. I told everyone that there was only 9 months left till the next tour to which I recieved many hits in the arms and back. It was an extremely long tour and was very hard on everyone both mentally spirtually and financially. Alot of the shows we played did'nt pay us enough and we actually ended up eating Taco Bell for most of the tour. At one point I devolped a bad attitude towards our situation until one night going through Tx. We stopped to play a show and one of the opening bands were eating by their van. They weren't eating as good as we were, they were eating cold food out of a can and their van was in bad shape as well. This broke my heart and I thanked God for providing for us everyday of this tour. When we were at Tom Fest in Washington I did'nt have enough money to pay anyone. Well out of the blue someone paid me quit a large sum of money I had totally forgotten about from a year ago. Though it was a hard tour we learned alot of lessons and we got a chance to minister to alot of people. However, I will never book that long of a tour again. The months that followed were very hard. All of the members from that tour quit the band one by one. On top of this we went about $70,000 into dept. There were alot of reasons for these problems. One main reason was that from 1996 till that time the whole "Third Wave" Ska thing was huge and was also very big in the Christian market as well. Though we did not play Third Wave we did play Ska and were mixed right in there. Churches were offering us $500 a pop to play their events. We were doing shows sometimes for anywhere between $1,500 to $2,500, it was crazy. When the whole thing crashed and "Ska "wasn't the in-thing anymore no one was really booking us and we had to really work hard to get shows. I guess we got caught up in it all and when it crashed that summer we crashed as well, hard. We had run up Credit card bills, Gas card bills and owed people money everywhere. All of this effected me personally as well, It's all I thought about. It affected my marrige even more. From 96-99 I was self employed running the label and band, but now to make ends meet I had to not only do these but get a night job as well because everything was under my name. From 99 till this very day all the money from the band, most of my profits from the label and some of my paycheck has gone to pay these debts off. We paid alot of them off but in 2002 I finally had to declare bankruptcy. Now I know alot of people use bankruptcy the wrong way but I used it for good reasons. We put all the credit cards (they had already recieved what we borrowed plus interest) and we turned our van in for voluntary repossesion. Though I legally don't have to pay anyone back there are at least 3 people that we are still paying back to this day. I didn't say all this so that you could feel sorry for me or the band but hopefully this will be a red flag for anyone in a Christian band or who has credit cards. You may be popular now but wait till the next style comes around and your left out, be wise. I've learned a lot of valuble lessons about ministry from this. For one thing we no longer use Credit cards or gas cards. If we do ever get a credit card again it will be for emerencies only and we will already have the money beore we use it. We pay for all of our gas in cash. Before we go out on tour or anywhere now we make sure everything is covered and that the band members can get paid something. As a result God has blessed us greatly. We've had people give us money without us asking and the bills are always met now.