May 25: Houston, TX
This was the first proper show on our Sugar Ray tour--playing all Six Flags amusement parks. Before the show, escorts walked us straight to the front of the line for the rides. It was cool, but weird to be treated like kings in a kids' park. We rode the "Serial Thriller." Jeff and Nabil were in the front row screaming the entire time. We were going to go on the "Free Fall," but the seats had to be cleaned because some kid had peed all over them.
May 27: Oklahoma City, OK
Frontier City was a strange place--a small, creepy, ghetto amusement park. There was no backstage room--just a Port-A-Potty. We were walking by as Sugar Ray's drummer, Stan, busted the door off the Port-A-Potty to take a photo of Mark McGrath taking a shit.
May 30: Joplin, MO
We had a night off and went to "Wet Wednesday" at the Red Lion bar. Jeff and Joe were chosen to be water boys in the wet T-shirt contest. We'd been to strip clubs before, but never to something this degrading--a cattle call of girls getting soaked onstage by a bunch of assholes (including us).
June 1: Joplin, MO
Catfish, the Red Lion's manager, asked us to play on our night off. He flooded the radio stations with spots announcing "Sugar Ray opening band Alien Crime Syndicate." In true Bands on the Run form we played the last-minute show. It was terrifying.
June 2: St. Louis, MO
We wanted to hit one more ride on our last night of the tour, and chose "The Boss," the longest, most rickety ride in the park. Just before it was our turn to go, they announced, "The Boss will be closed for 10 minutes while we clean up some vomit." They brought in the Puke Crew, three people in uniforms with white gloves and barf bags. It was terrifying.
ACS play Sun June 23, 4 pm, at the Fremont Fair (free all-ages show).
