1AM—Tour is a repetitive cycle of long drives, sound check, perform, a few hours of sleep, and repeat. Adam watching a few minutes of TV in his hotel room late at night.
5PM—Loading the van is an art, a game of tetris with drums, guitars, amps, and luggage. Load it wrong and it won't fit, worse, something will break on the drive. Here, the band gets help unloading from venue employees.
1AM—To save money Two Gallants share hotel rooms, often squeezing three to a room. Privacy is hard to come by.
5PM—The rockies illuminated by a distant break in the clouds. The first few days of tour, getting across the west, meant long drives across the planes and through the mountains. Tiring, but the most beautiful of the tour.
8PM—Tyson backstage before a show.
11:30PM— Adam loves playing shows. He says, "music should be for other people to hear. That’s it’s essential purpose. If you’re not playing in front of other people not only do you not know if what you're doing is worth anything it also just kind of dies as soon as you do it and seems purposeless."
1AM—Two Gallants played an afternoon show at a music festival and had a rare few hours to enjoy themselves. The band only had a few days off all tour.
9:45PM—Tyson and Adam are both extremely technical musicians. They're considered by some in the industry to be the most talented in music despite only seeing moderate success by traditional definition.
2:45PM— One of many gas stations visited on tour. The only dinosaur visited.
6:30PM— Seger Rules.
10:30PM—The first show of tour. With so little free time in the hotels, back stage rooms start to feel like second homes. Some sympathetic venues provide washing machines, showers, and other small comforts for touring bands.
12:30PM— One of many long, winding roads traveled en route to the next city, the next show.
2AM—Adam and Tyson sort out logistics for the following day. They've been touring for about 15 years and though they have a tour manager now they've done it on their own for so long they stay involved in the details.
8AM— Adam splashes water on his face before another long drive. They got to sleep until around 2:30AM and have soundcheck at 3PM six hours away.
6pm— Late for soundcheck. There were 5 people in the van including myself and long drives meant a constant game of musical chairs as people shuffled between driver, co-pilot, and sleeping in the back.
10:15PM—Adam and Tyson have a disagreement about their set. Even when you've been playing together since 3rd grade relationships can strain and Adam and Tyson are no different. They face the same hurdles of any relationship with the added pressure of creating music on a daily basis and, as a two piece, fewer voices to help resolve creative differences.
7pm— Tyson finds time to get some laundry done backstage before their show. He managed to pack for a month on the road in a bag that looked more like a small briefcase.
8PM—The opening band's cymbals are stashed in a backstage stairwell.
11 AM—Philadelphia. Tyson sits on a curb minutes after finding out the van had been robbed the night before. A lot of their gear is vintage and Tyson had put his drum set together over many years, carefully selecting each item. He would have to start over.
6PM— Soundcheck was completed early and Adam snuck in some time on a piano in the corner of the venue's bar before going to get some dinner.
7PM—Tyson walks from the venue to the hotel a few blocks away to grab a shower and a few minutes alone before returning to the venue for their show. A month on the road, sharing hotel rooms means almost no time to yourself. You steal a few minutes whenever you can to help keep your sanity.
12pm—Waiting for the police to come take a police report after the gear was stolen from the Two Gallant's van.
2am—Tyson's parents made it to LA for the last show of the tour. Here he is with his father after their show at The Roxy.
10AM— One of the few days off of tour so the band slept in and had time for proper showers.
7:45AM—Minutes before alarms go off. Van call is at 8am, Tyson and Moses, Two Gallants' sound technician, have 15 minutes to be ready.
10AM—Two Gallants last show of tour is in a few minutes. The show was packed and with a lot of friends in town backstage was a long awaited reunion.
9:30PM—Tyson outside the venue after an early show.
10pm—Two Gallants have a smaller following in many of the towns across the south than they do on the west coast and northeast but their fans are intense and often die hard music aficionados.
6:30AM—A lot of friends came out for Two Gallants' last show of their tour in Los Angeles. The stress of tour behind them, party continued after the show until early morning.
5AM—A lot of friends came out for Two Gallants' last show of their tour in Los Angeles. The stress of tour behind them, party continued after the show until early morning.
11pm—The end of tour. Tyson and Adam go their separate ways for a few days to decompress, sleep, and get ready to leave again for Europe in a month and a half.