March 2022 - The SLZ Tour Begins
Recapping 2022, the wildest year yet for Rare Americans, through the eyes of Jamesy Boy himself
It’s 2023 already? Wild. It’s fun to look back on a year and see everything you did. That’s what’s so great about iPhones, the notes and photos apps where you can re-live your year. I took a ride down the last 12 months for my own reflection and figured I would let you guys into it as well. Sometimes I give myself no credit for anything, I’m very much a “whats up next?” type of person, but that’s something I’m working on. Having gratitude for myself, being proud of what I’ve accomplished, and celebrating the little wins. So here’s a look back at 2022.
READ THE FULL SERIES
July/August 2022 (Childish Gambino, New Balance, and Jessie Reyez)
November/December 2022 (Finding Myself Deep in the Costa Rican Jungle)
MARCH - Tour Begins!
This is March 12th, the day the bus arrived to pick us up in front of our studio in Vancouver. It was super exciting for all of us. Our first tour as a band, first time seeing a tour bus, picking our bunks, and getting settled in. Alfie is my little sidekick and when I got her during the lockdown I decided I wanted her to be a dog I could take everywhere, including tour, so she comes with us.
The first tour was a little rough because she was so scared of the bus driving at night time and couldn’t get settled. She wouldn’t sleep in the bunk with me because she wanted to be near windows where she could see outside, so she ended up sleeping at the front of the bus by herself. Unfortunately people were constantly coming and going in the front so she couldn’t get good sleeps and was a little grumpy on this tour. For the 2nd US tour I built a bunk in the back and she slept with me there and it was MUCH better. Progress!
Portland - our first show. Man I’ll never forget this. Duran told this story a few times during the Fall Tour VIP meet n greet and I think it sums up the feeling well. When we were getting set up for soundcheck we looked out the window and saw a big line of kids. We asked the venue “is there another band playing nearby? There’s a big line” they said “Nope, they are lined up early to see you!”. We were just floored, it was pretty fucking cool. I had a lot of nerves for the first show, I guess who wouldn’t? It was pure adrenaline. I knew we were really well rehearsed and trusted we were tight as a band, so I just tried to give my absolute all to the performance. Couldn’t have gone any better. Really proud moment looking back on it.
Sure enough, every night on this tour was like this. Our fans are the best, you guys are what keeps me motivated. Here’s some BTS stuff of the tour, without getting too deep into details of every show and city.
Lineup outside San Francisco
My brother Colin came to the LA show and surprised me for the encore by jumping up on stage and grabbed the mic!! Totally caught me off guard, but it was a beauty move. LA was one of my favourite shows of the first tour. It’s a city with a lot of cache. Because so many people in the industry live in LA, anybody could be at your show, and thats often how opportunities start coming your way. It just adds an extra level of importance. I wanted to nail this show and I thought it was our best so far of the tour. Looking back on it, I’m really proud of myself for dealing with the pressure so well. I was really nervous for the show but I kept my mind right and focused on the task at hand. In my hockey career, I often got overwhelmed by the pressure and wasn’t very consistent. I’d have a great game followed by a shitter. It really left permanent damage on my mental game, something ive struggled with since. If you’re starting to second guess yourself, it’s hard to be confident. If you aren’t confident, you can’t perform well. Looking back on the year I can proudly say we were extremely consistent through the 60 shows. I can’t remember 1 total dud. Sure, different nights have different energy levels, but I think overall we brought a great show every night.
I hate when people flaunt money on their instas but you gotta celebrate the little wins. This was some merch money after a few shows. You guys gobble up merch, man! I always knew we had super cool designs and it’s part of the business I’ve loved since day 1. So once we were starting making some money, I had to take a little photo proof ;) But PS - don’t get it twisted. You may see a few hundreds here, but the cost of producing goods, shipping it to venues, hiring a seller, giving a cut to the venue, it all adds up. Keeping a good profit margin is challenging, especially with the multi-colour designs and quality garments like ours.
Crowd Selfie - Dallas
Crowd Selfie - Houston.
Crowd Selfie - Atlanta
I told this story on tour. We were in North Carolina on a day off and stopped to grab a quick sandwich for lunch. I left Alfie on the bus. We couldn’t have been 20 minutes, but when I came back I could tell something was up. She was a little “google’y eyed”. I looked on the floor and knew immediately. 3 full packages of weed gummy’s were empty.
We were given some edibles by the venue in Dallas and they were accidentally left out one day at lunch time. About 600mg’s of THC totally demolished by Alfie. She was really stoned and could barely walk. I google searched “dog ingesting cannabis” as I’d never dealt with weed and dogs before. Sure enough the first 10 results of google said “GO TO VET IMMEDIATELY!”. Fuck.
We made an emergency vet stop and she had to be hooked up to an IV all night. It was super scary, no fun for anyone, and luckily happened on a day off in Raleigh. She made a full recovery within 24h and we didn’t miss any shows - crazy dog!
Michele and I right after we admitted her.
Recovering the next day
We inviting Nick on stage during the DC show. You may know Nick as the character from the PHD music video, the song was inspired by him. It was really cool to meet him in person after all the back and forth online.
To learn about Nick’s story, watch the “PHD” video here:
Here’s a few pictures of our sold out show in Toronto - our first Canadian date. It was super cool cuz my parents came. People went up to my mom after the show and said “You’re Mama Bear! Can I have your autograph?!”. Pretty funny, I think she got a kick out of it. This show was one of my favourites of the tour, I remember I had a ton of energy and intensity.
PS, this is Leah from Crooked City Studios. She runs the show over there and also plays bass in her band Locomotive 8! It was super cool to have them open for us.
Alfie taking in the sights of Chicago!
Lincoln Hall, the biggest show of our careers! Originally we were scheduled to play a smaller venue called Schubas, roughly a 250 cap. It sold out so quickly that they upgraded us to the 650 cap room. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t sell many more tickets but within a couple of weeks it also sold out. Unfortunately I caught a sickness 2 days before this show so I had to really battle my way through it, coughing and blowing my nose in secret so the audience couldn’t tell. Nonetheless, it was a great moment for us, another one of those little “wins” you gotta celebrate. It was also our first time playing a much larger stage and that’s when I realized there’s levels to this art form. With each new tier of venue size, you have to learn how to rock a crowd on a bigger stage.
Join us on the next post as we go over what happened in April!
Lol. James’s dad looks like a fish out of water in that one pic!
Can’t wait for the Birmingham show in April! I remember hearing the alfie and the gummies story on the podcast, dogs will eat anything, mine ate a ball of plastic wrap and was completely fine😂