Good day girls and boys boys boys boys, as Hocus Pocus and candy corn fills our already addled brains, I write to you as if you are myself: are YOU ready for this next leg?
What wonders await us, what with the break in between segments, what with the devilish looseness they seem to be playing with?
I personally have been aiming to prepare for a proper Gizz tour myself for a couple years and, amazingly, everything fell into place last October with the presale lining up with a decision to dog sit in Colorado and then the ability to travel back east (West Virginia) at a leisurely-ish amble, hitting a number of national parks for the first time as well as thirteen (13) shows on this leg. I mention the number because of the immersion of tour life is coming at an absolutely critical moment in my journey, imminent loss of a parent.
I’m a bit older than the average Gizz fan at 36, I’ve been so impressed with the vibe of my fellow fans and really basking in the community. I enjoy going solo to shows and I feel like I’m able to soak in this magical, terrible world as presented by our favorite band with all of you in a way that soothes the soul. We are not crazy. We are not wrong about the bloody consumption and narcissism that’s seized much of our world. We are not wrong to want to express both the love and despair. We are not extinct - yet.
It’s JUST a little hocus pocus. Let’s boogie!!!
Extremely ready for this next leg!! Hit 21 of the US shows so far this year and trying to go the whole hog this next leg. Been the most fulfilling and rewarding experience of my life so far, surreal this is the life I get to live. I’ll see you out there!
Minneapolis, Philly, Newport, and St Louis are my personal favorite shows. Energy was insane at each and the incredible setlists didn’t hurt.
The Armory in MN is the only one of those where the venue really wowed me though, big warehouse vibes and the sound was great. Forest Hills also REALLY impressed me, PA was superb and if I didn’t know it was 13k capacity venue I’d probably guess it was like 6k. Feels so intimate for such a big venue.
The marathons, Detroit, and Red Rocks shows were all amazing each in their own way too, but I find myself holding the above a little closer to my heart because those all felt like such “event” shows to me. Not a bad thing at all, just was expecting such amazing things going in while expectations for the more standard shows is usually a touch lower.
Out of the event shows though it’s gotta be Red Rocks day show. It’s also my backyard venue so getting to sleep in my own bed after those shows is enough bias to make those favorites haha.
Sweet, thanks for the rundown! Man, what a tour it’s been. I have been devouring so many of the shows from this summer, cool to hear that the energy matched at those ones in particular.
Red Rocks were my first non-festival shows. That day set was everything. Who can serve up actual delicacies like that sandwiched betwixt the rarest cuts of meat (or tofu).
I had a nice parking spot for my van nearby with family, was able to walk my cat on his leash in the 'burbs after the show and try and put myself back together. Rad area to call home, man!
Hitting the first 5 shows of this leg and yeah, I’m ready for it! Marathon, acoustic show, experimental rave set, also taking my son to his first Gizz show at Frost!
Could be a last blowout (for a while at least) type deal as I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do in '25, got some big changes coming at work which may or may not (but probably will) affect my ability to use PTO whenever I want.
my wife and i attended nyc–>portland this summer. honestly, going on tour is hard .
i don’t understand how you people can go on these lengthy (entire!?) tours! we streamed almost every show of the rest of the tour from home. that was my speed. amazing stage footage, fridge, bathroom, couch, cat.
we will be at the san diego acoustic show. sprung for vip pit tix, whatever that means. hoping for tetrachromacy and the debut of time = fate (let cookie sing!)! i also want to say out loud, i think gaia would thrash acoustic. c# guitars, stoner metal jam.
i’m hoping that they deliver a much tighter set than detroit. i think they could take acoustic shows to another level and i’m excited to see how they evolve in that setting. i do enjoy the stage banter and occasional mistakes, but i felt like they got a bit too drunk in detroit.
i’ve been listening to the dc show 8.15.24 recently (is there a way to insert kglw.net links in the forum?), and have been really impressed at the quality of their performance after ten weeks off. what a show!! so i have higher hopes for san diego, second stop on the tour.
also really looking forward to spending four days in san diego, biking around and eating tacos.
does anyone have good recs?
also, also really looking forward to watching the rest of the tour from my couch!
-wayne
How was the rave show? How did your son enjoy his first show?!
I feel that regarding '25, I’m moving in with the girlfriend when I get back from this 3 month sojourn. Doing Field of Vision fest and the Merriweather orchestra shows, maybe some Phish spring tour if I can swing it… hopefully no work changes to stifle any of that fingers crossed.
Wayne, sounds like you got some good times in San Diego in. For me SD was one of a handful of stops where I rolled in for the show and rolled out afterwards, I’d have liked to have explored more.
I also love cycling, how was your four days of cruising?
san diego was really fun, thanks for asking! we stayed downtown and opted for public transit and bike rentals for transport instead of renting a car. turns out, you can walk downtown from the airport if you needed to. wild!
after the first day we were kind of disappointed in the city. it felt like it had no style. but then we found some excellent food (tacos, lebanese, ice cream, etc) and cool neighborhoods. we got a tiny taste of the chicano culture there. It was the dia de los muertos holiday at that time and all the decorations were out in barrio logan.
we biked around mission bay and found a wooden roller coaster (the giant dipper!)!
The biking was pretty chill. Most roads have bike lanes and there’s a nice boardwalk bike path thing that goes along the water for a long way.
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