FIELD NOTES: GRUMPSTER DOES THE USA ALONGSIDE JOYCE MANOR AND JAWBREAKER

 

by MEGAN MAGDALENA

Photographer Megan Magdalena Shares her field notes from the September Grumpster Tour alongside Joyce Manor and Jawbreaker - check it

This tour started out as a travel nightmare for me. I boarded my first of two flights to Austin and fell asleep on the plane immediately - I woke up an hour later and we were still taxiing on the tarmac. My connecting flight was already giving me anxiety because i only had 45 minutes. Having been asleep for an hour and not taken off yet, I had pretty much guaranteed already missed my connecting flight. I frantically texted Grumpster and let them know that things were looking grim. My flight landed with literal seconds to spare to make it to my connecting gate. I don’t think I’ve ever run so fast in my life but somehow I made it! I texted the band with the good news and then the excitement kicked in: I was going on tour!

The first two days of tour were driving days. We had to go from Austin, Texas to Charlotte, North Carolina… and our AC was broken. Let’s just say we bonded really quick! 

We made it to NC and I was so happy to see the first venue AKA an air conditioned green room!

This tour was, admittedly by all bands, a weirdly routed tour so we had many a long drive including one through 5 states in a single day.

The venues were huge and exciting for me as someone who doesn’t normally get to tour on that scale. I had so much fun getting to run from one end of the stage to the other in the photo pit. Grumpster is such a fun band to watch live they really make my job easy! It was also really cool to get to watch Joyce Manor and Jawbreaker every night! It was a really special tour and every band was so iconic. 

I think my favourite show was in Boston because the venue was directly connected to Fenway Park. We got to take some pics in Fenway when it was empty and they even let us watch batting practice and gave us free killer seats for the game which we immediately ran to after the set. Like when am I ever gonna get to do that again? Probably never. Such a beyond cool experience! Im officially a baseball fan now. 

I’m also even a bigger fan of Grumpster now which I didn’t think was possible! I love their old songs so much but getting to hear their new material every night makes me so excited for their next album and what the future holds for them! I haven’t laughed as hard as I have on this tour and as I’m typing this I am laughing thinking about all of our inside jokes and how lovely those humans are! I miss them! And I’m so thankful for them for taking me with them on this tour - I know it’s only up from here for them!

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WORDS + PHOTOS MEGAN MAGDALENA

 
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