Monday, August 01, 2005
Pittsburgh, PA

I think today is a Civil holiday for Canada. That means its a holiday just for the heck of it. To keep everyone civil. I could be wrong. Its so funny how the days can all blend together on this tour. You play on the same stage everyday, and you play the same 30 minute set. Its hard to write about something fun and different when the days are so similar. I think that’s why we lie so much in our tour journal. I won’t lie in this one. All stories will consist of truths. I ate Jerk Chicken. I had an interview with a kid that went to the same high school as me. His older brother was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire twice. I did not buy a switchblade and mug two old ladies for their prescription meds in an attempt to subside the aching drug addiction that I do not have. I dreamed of hang-gliding over the Rocky Mountains. I dreamed of Canadian geese mistaking me for their leader and following me to the end of their days. I dreamed of a dream I had when I was seven. A train de-railed and followed me for miles in an attempt to strike me down. I told no one of my dreams. Save you. matty t.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Atlanta, GA

A bunch of peeps from Gotee Records came out to visit us today. What a nice surprise. We played kinda early again. Right after The Starting Line. I sang ‘hello’ to Kenny in one of our songs. He was sweaty. Come to think of it, I was too. We hung out at the Major League Baseball tent today, and I threw a 83mph fastball. With my left arm. BUZZZZ!!!!!!! Hoopes just buzzed me for lying. He follows me around with a buzzer. He’s kinda like my personal Pinnochio’s nose. Our show was fun. Thanks to everyone that watched us with their own two eyes. After the show I sat down with my computer and started typing today’s tour journal. So, now I’m caught up to the very second of my life. If I keep writing It’ll start sounding like this. I just typed the letter “L”. I put quotations around it. I enjoyed that very much. Pretty much there is no physical way of me adding anything to this entry unless I put my computer down, go do something awesome, and then come back and write about it. Tell you what. I’m going to put this down and go do something AWESOME, but, you will NEVER know what it was, cause I’m not coming back. In your face, you. love matty t.

Thursday, August 04, 2005
Jacksonville, FL

“Welcome to Florida,” I thought as I stepped off the bus into a damp furnace, the soles of my shoes melting and big drops of Gatorade-colored sweat drip-dripping from my furrowed brow. I wish Hot Hot Heat would have played today. It would have been so fitting. Our show was hot as heckfire and darnation. I feel bad for the people in the front row that got our sweat all over them. Grody. After the show a few of us met Limp Bizkit’s drummer’s mother (follow that?). She was so nice and told us funny stories. But the highlight of the day for me was watching a band on the Ernie Ball stage called Mr. Brown. They’re a German band so really they should be called Herr Brown, but no big deal. I’m not a language Nazi… John W.

Friday, August 05, 2005
Tampa, FL

We woke up to find out that we weren’t going on stage until 720pm. It wasn’t a terrible slot, cause My Chemical Romance and The Offspring were before and after us respectively. That would assure that a few people would still be at warped by the time we went on. The show was fun and the stage was full of 5 sweaty sweaty boys. I felt entirely disgusting after we played. Other than that, I didn’t do anything super exciting today. A few interviews etc…thats it. My really good buddy, Seth Roberts, (who used to be the front guy for Watashi Wa) only has a few more days playing guitar for Mxpx. He has a new band called Eager Seas, and he did an acoustic show at the Myspace tent. It was SO GOOD. I love his voice. I going to be bummed to see him leave the tour. Another guy named Mike (who is also from Watashi Wa) is taking over his Mxpx duties. Scott, our soundguy/tour manager, bought a bike the other day at Walmart. He totally wiped out today and cut his hands and elbows up pretty bad. I told him to suck it up, and then I kicked him in the shin. He thanked me tenderly for my actions. Matty T.

Saturday, August 06, 2005
Pompano Beach, FL

17 hours after we played in Tampa, we took the stage in Southern Florida. We were quite refreshed by the showers that we got the night before, but that refreshment was short lived. As soon as we start playing, our sweat pores open up and sweat pours out all over our body (yeah, I’m proud of the pun). I went and saw Seth Roberts play at the Myspace tent again (see Tampa). Today he let me sing along with one of his songs. I probably looked stupid standing on stage just singing, but I feel like Seth and I bonded to a new level during the experience. Again, he’s SO GOOD. The skies opened up around 730pm, and all heck broke lose (all heck being a reference to rain and lightning). I saw the craziest lightning I’ve ever witnessed. It flashed horizontally across the base of the black clouds like an electric snake, and then, in all its truimph, the lightning took a ninety degree plunge towards the earth. I wish I would’ve been struck by it. It was a lightening bolt that commanded respect, and I would’ve been honored to be smote down by its raw energy and power. Matty Thiessen

Sunday, August 07, 2005
Orlando, FL

Ha. It finally happened. We had narrowly escaped the rains of FL (and NY) during our shows so far on this tour. But, today we got a hefty dose of precipitation during our musical appearance at the Orlando Warped. Didn’t do too much today. My old room-mate from home, MC Defenseless, came out to the show (cause he lives in Orlando now). He and I laughed it up and had a grand ol’ time. Jon Schneck’s dad also showed up. He was wearing his clothes from work, and they were soaked to the bone. Wait. Not really. No bones were involved. He was just covered in rain. And the rain stuck to his clothes and made them very heavy. Therefore, Mr. Schneck slipped and fell down in the mud. We all danced around him and called him ‘fraidy cat. I don’t really know why. matty

Monday, August 08, 2005
Charlotte, NC

Wake up! We were the very first band to play this particular Warped tour. Fortunately, the tour started at noon today instead of the typical 1115am. Lots of wonderful souls hung out with us and watched our set. Then, later in the day, they got drenched. Yup, it stormed again. All in all, it was a pretty eventless day. Its tough to hang out with folks when its raining all day. You know, I don’t want to get sick and throw up all over myself, now do I? Well…..unless I ate a poisoned roast beef sandwich….Thats the only exception I can think of. You’d want to throw up a poisoned roast beef sandwich for the practical purpose of avoiding your death. However, your shirt would then be worthless. Can’t win ‘em all. matty

Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Virginia Beach, VA

Nothing crazy to report today. The heavens opened up and showered down Mother Nature’s liquid refreshment. Dave stood under our tent for about an hour pushing the gathering water off of the roof. We played a show. We ate food. We talked about the future. We laughed at our past. We realized that the friendships we have are some of the most valuable assets that we’ve obtained in this life. Matthew

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Washington, DC

Played kinda early again today. I got to take a shower today. That was crazy awesome. No hot water. But I walked away 5 pounds lighter (soaking wet) cause of the dirt loosened and washed away by the pressure of water. I went back to the bus and worked on a new song that we’ll be recording for an EP we’re releasing before Christmas. I can’t wait to get back in the studio after Warped. I need a change of pace. The main ingredient of popcorn is not corn. Its popcorn. Matty.

Thursday, August 11, 2005
Scranton, PA

Today kinda sucked because all the stages were spread out like well distributed jelly on a 5 mile piece of toast. It was really difficult for the Warped goers to get to experience both main stages. And since Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance were on the other main stage, ours got weaker numbers. I was honored to get to see my buddies Last Tuesday play today. Its funny, I helped produce their record, but I had not seen them live until today. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I turned old at midnight. Wait, I was already old. I turned older. Boo. Matty

Friday, August 12, 2005
Camden, NJ

Today was fun. We hung out at the MLB thing again. Met some cool folks. We played a fun show. Thats a good thing to do. I left Warped tour early and took a train ride to NYC. It was my bday, and I was lucky enough to get to hang out with some loved ones in the city. I probably had the best birthday of my life. How about that? Matthew

Saturday, August 13, 2005
Randals Island, NY

We played first today. It was fun. When we started there was like 100 kids. By the time we were done our 3rd song there was A LOT more. I felt terrible for all the attendees, merch workers, and staff on the tour today. The venue was basically a big dust bowl, therefore all of the moshing and ruckus making that usually goes on created an unusual storm of dirt clouds. Everyone was coughing and looking dirty all day. After a FUSE interview, Hoopes, Schneck, and I took a cab back into NYC. I hung out in central park and drank Diet Coke. I got another shower, and then any discontentment or ill-hearted feelings that I was harboring within myself melted away into a puddle that dripped into the sewers of New York and ruined a Ninja Turtle pizza party. Sorry Splinter. Wow. I’m kinda dumb. Matty T.

Sunday, August 14, 2005
Englishtown, NJ

Tell you what. I’m so sick of being HOT and SWEATY ALL DAY. Today was one of my favorite shows of the tour. Don’t know why. My monitors sounded good. The kids were super pro-active during our show. We were surrounded by friends on the stage. Anyway….I’m just happy that we’ve been on this tour so long and I’m still in such a good mood and not burnt out. Enough happy sunshine talk. My leg fell asleep and I thought about amputating it. So I did. N’t. Matty

Monday, August 15, 2005
Northhampton, MA

Okay….So take the extreme physical characteristics from the venue in NY (a lot of dust) and just add water! Puddle Of Mudd should of headlined today. Actually…I’m really glad they didn’t, but it felt like they did. I think I’m sounding very disjointed, so I’ll just explain that it was really mucky EVERYWHERE today. Mest’s fans are such party people that they decided to start flinging mud and (maybe) poop on the stage while they were playing. This did a lot of damage to the gear on the stage. We had to go on right after them, and we were scared to death of being dragged into the mud wars. BUT, our audience was very respectful and good to us. Today was the last show of the tour. We had the pleasure of working with some really rad people on this traveling circus. One of which was Mike (the guy that ran the aptly named “Mike” stage). I whipped up an on the spot song about him….attempting to pay tribute. More so than that, I made a fool out of myself. Getting good at that. It was really funny how much today resembled the last day of camp. Everyone’s like…”Dude! It was so good hanging out! Let me get your number. Alright…now I’ll call you so you’ll have it on your phone. Awesome…see you later bro”. At the very end of the night, we had a campfire and sang Puddle Of Mudd songs around it. Ha. Didn’t think I could squeeze them into this entry twice, did ya? Matty