Once It Hits Your Freakin’ Lips
Posted by Jennnn on Saturday Feb 13, 2010
On the same epic day I asked some kid to TWIRP (hello to you if you’re reading this), the Once It Hits Your Lips Tour was hitting the streets Milwaukee. It was made up of men from The Friday Night Boys, Anarbor, The Bigger Lights, and The Ready Set. Surprisingly, the tour was a relatively small event, being held on the smallest stage of the Rave. There were less than 50 people there, and that could possibly be due to the fact that it was on a Tuesday night, haha. Favorite highlight of the show would have to be Matt (merch man of the night) who gave us love advice and received a lecture from me on the dangers of smoking. Another moment of epic was hiding in a Kim Possible blanket with Slade and Josh (members of the tour), after running from gangsters and being ignored by McDonalds workers. As the teethbrushing Ke$ha would say, we went till “they kicked us out” and were forced to go outside. And as the snow continued to fall, we realized it probably wasn’t the smartest idea to leave coats in the car. But overall the setlists were good, the fan girls were kept at a minimum, and the musicians were polite and smelled alright.
On the 9th of February, Hopeless Records and Sub City are going to release the ninth volume of their Take Action Compilations. They went up on presale in January, and all profits made from the sales of the album will go towards charities. This year, Take Action is spotlighted by the “Driving for Donors” charity, who have traveled around America in their “Donormobile” with the hope of signing people up to the National Marrow Registry to help find bone marrow matches for people in need of a transplant. Since then, they have added over 22,000 donors to the registry. This album will include tracks from bands such as We The Kings, Mayday Parade, and Cobra Starship. Also, on the discs will be all of the bands we saw on the Once It Hits Your Lip tour that is still going on currently. These songs will include exclusive tracks not yet heard, and also remixes of certain singles. The Take Action Tour and foundation, is a love child of Sub City and Hopeless formed in 1999. It brings various bands together on a nation-wide tour for weeks. At all tour dates, they sell compilations, to help raise and promote awareness on important issues such as suicide 
Andrew McMahon is quite possibly one of the friendliest musicians I’ve ever met. I recently went to the Tinley Park date of the Fray tour featuring Jack’s Mannequin. We got to the show, received “Support Guest” stickers, and I secretly died inside upon seeing both the Fray and Jack’s Mannequin perform on stage. A few hours later, we embarked backstage with guitar tech Adrian where we saw the Fray getting ready for an encore, and as my brother would say, “they’re so close you can kick them!”, haha. We were then granted access into the Jack’s Mannequin tour bus. And after going to over eleven shows within the past year and a half, and envying the fans allowed inside of those traveling homes, I was finally one of them, and inside of their’s? Holy moley! The first time I saw Andrew in person was when he stepped out of the bus restroom then exited towards the bunks and closed the door. I didn’t think he was coming back, but he did eventually, and words cannot describe how I now feel about this man. An affable gentleman, I’d describe it. I almost forgot I even had a music website until my brother stepped in and mentioned it. Andrew, if you ever end up reading this, I do hope you know how close I was to a near collapse. Trying to act professional while finally getting to speak with the man who has covered the pages of AP and dominated the vh1 Video Countdown? Well, that’s a bigger challenge than the MCAT’s.
The Milwaukee date of the AP Tour was insane. We entered the Rave, my shoes were a-glowing (literally) and first to perform was Massachusetts native Nick Santino of A Rocket To The Moon. Playing only songs from Greetings From… it was a killer set. We left the pit after ARTTM, and went to merch. Chatted with Nick for a while, then off to see Hit The Lights. Unfortunately, they didn’t play the hidden track “Acoustic”, then after that was The Maine, who, remind me incredibly of All Time Low. The hilarious stage banter between John O and Garrett was not unlike the dirty, inappropriate commentary provided by Jack Barakat and Alex Gaskarth, haha. Family Force 5 was pretty entertaining, you can never go wrong with matching outfits, right? By far, the most insane set was during 3OH!3. The crowd was rowdy, dancing, and the good thing about concerts is that everyone around you look like complete idiots, but no one cares because you’re all doing the same thing.
Of Integrity, Morality, & Principles in Exchange For Money Tour was awesome, and I met a lot of great people and musicians, but I got a little upset at the end. Here’s a run down on my night in Milwaukee. We showed up, watched from the balcony, and it was an incredible view. It’s amazing how far people will go in order to get to the front of the pit. As we shuffled out, I met The Morning Light (and oh my, this makes up for them not playing Warped). I also met Josh from Every Avenue near the merch. We went outside, (holy crap it was freaking cold) and there we find a giant (unbelievably huge) mob of teenage girls crowding around Jack Barakat and John O’Callaghan. I have never had to wait in line to meet musicians. The reason I’m posting this is because the entire time I was getting pushed by random kids in line to meet them, I was wondering where these girls were missing when the AP Tour came around. When a friend and I were at the AP Tour with All Time Low, Bryce Avary, The Matches, and Sonny, there were only around six other fans waiting outside with us. At the Money Tour, a girl behind me 
in their merch tent. I love them !
