There’s a lot more to putting on a show than just learning the songs and playing them. If you added up all of the time spent onstage in front of an audience on any given tour, it’d barely fill a fraction of the time spent on the road. The vast majority of the moments are the in-between - a long-form improvisation, an extended meditation, and I believe you’ve got to love the people you’re around in those moments, or you’ll be missing the main gift you’re really supposed to be giving a room full of people when the lights go down and the PA fires up. This summer’s Wilderness band and crew, the entire Dashboard team, and our three rotating opening bands, they’re the cream of the crop. These folks put on a gorgeous show from the minute the truck drops in the morning to the second the gear’s locked back in later that night after the last note rings out and the last t-shirt and record are sold- and some evenings, whether in a parking lot behind the venue, a dive bar down the road, or the mosh pit in the front lounge of the bus, the show keeps going til the sun comes up again in some other city. You might not see us all onstage every night, but the love we have for each other and the massive respect we have for each other’s wide array of powers, it’s the fuel that keeps this whole engine running. One more show with Dashboard Confessional & The Juliana Theory tonight & then it’s off to Anaheim to celebrate Andrew’s birthday. Big big love to you all. xo // zc