Well, my friends, My Merch trip went well all-in-all. Considering it was my first time on the job and that the venue staff probably couldn't find their own rear ends on a map. The help I got from Katy who works for Flyleaf made the success we had possible.
It was up at 3 AM, and on the road by quarter to four. From there, it was a wait in the ferry line, an hour and a half voyage onto the mainland, then about a four hour drive.
But, the views were AMAZING! Scenery changed from lush green forests to the canyon cut Gorge. Luckily I was able to get my friend Shay to come along and help out with driving and with sales. He did more than his fair share.
But, with a four hour drive, the car got a little confining, so we got out to take a few pics of the scenic view from the top of the river canyon and stretch our legs a little bit.
After about another hour in the car, we finally got to The Gorge. The view behind the ampitheatre is breathtaking. When you walk out of the dressing rooms or the production office, you step onto a porch, and there's nothing between you and the view except a wooden rail running along the porch edge.
It was my first time to the Gorge, and wow, it still amazes me, thinking back to the views. The view in itself was almost worth the long trip.
There was a decent sized crowd. Nothing like the White River Ampitheatre with Disturbed and Slipknot a few weeks ago, but there's a reason for that.
THE CREATION was the name of the week long music festival of Christian bands or Bands who may not affiliate with a Christian label but the musicians themselves are Christian, as the case is with Flyleaf. It's not as mainstream as metal music, and the faith there was evident. A t-shirt booth across from us sold shirts saying 'Virginity is Awesome!' and 'Jesus died to save the Terrorists. Abortion is a form of Terrorism.'
Not to get too political here, but with a lot of Christian faiths, these are some of the conservative views shared by many. But, sometimes things got too conservative. One t-shirt read 'It doesn't matter if Jesus was a Independent or Republican, but he definitely wasn't a liberal Democrat.'
So, after arriving at 12:30, two hours ahead of schedule, it took us nearly three hours for the production to find our Merch, or Merchandise. Then, we found out the venue had no display for us. This is not how Merch should usually go.
So, after asking for rope and finding there was none to be had, I had an idea: I saw earlier up near security they had a LOT of CAUTION tape, so I asked to have some. I braided it together in a bit of a rush, threw the shirts on the tape, strung it to the poles holding up the tent, and called it good. It was nice to be in the tent out of the high 80, low 90 degree temperatures. Catering made some great ice tea that I'd occasionally run down and grab, more for the cool feel of the ice than the sweetness of the drink.
Caution tape didn't negatively effect sales, but, a nice presentation would have been more appealing to the eye. We were at the stand for about 5 hours and sold about 114 shirts, and 51 accessories from wristbands to hats and bags.
The band did a signing in the tables next to us, and although I couldn't leave my post, I had one of the venue volunteers helping me with sales snap a shot for me of the band.
We packed up the merch at about 7:30 and got out of the gig at 8 after loading the car FULL of clothes and boxes and after I totaled up the sales and gave the money to Katy. I also go to go to 'settlement', a meeting that managers have with the venue where payment is determined.
Katy was set on me seeing what settlement was all about, asking if Merch could be settled first.
In the contract, the venue got a certain percent of 'soft' merch, aka clothes, hats, bags, etc., and then got another percent on music, which is the sale of cd's and dvds.
It was about a five minute meeting for me, after which I got paid and headed out.
Shay and I headed out on the road at about 8PM and drove to Anacortes where we catch the ferry to get back to the island, getting there about 1:15 AM. Shay was exhausted from driving so much, so we switched seats and he slept while we waited three hours for the ferry to get ready to go.
I on the other hand wasn't so lucky. I had bright lights in my face the passenger seat was shielded from and loud, heavy trucks were speeding by. I still had so much to do and my mind was racing. I couldn't get any sleep.
The ferry left at 4:30 and got us into Friday Harbor at about quarter to six. I drove home, unloaded the merchandise into my room which quickly turned into a mini fedex, then headed off to class at 8:30.
I got back home around 1:30, re-counted sizes of merch, got everything packed and ready to go to fedex tomorrow, and now I'm trying to stay up late enough to keep a decently regular sleep schedule. I'm in 'recovery' as I like to put it.
So, now I'm getting ready to head back out with DISTURBED. Can you say STOKED?!?! It'll be great going to the East Coast, since I've never been there except for a D.C. trip. But, I have a feeling sleep is going to be a luxury I might not get a lot of....
Better catch up while I can!
-Maddie
But, of course, we didn't know any of that. We were locked in a pitch black room with no electricity for a good five minutes. We got down the door to the back room, where we were afraid the drum tech, Nate, could usually be found sitting. We opened the door, and all the bags and cabinets that were above the couches were spilled all over the back room. If anyone had been sitting back there, they would have been dead. Dad usually gets up at about 7:30, 8:00 and he would have been sitting in the back room, watching TV if he hadn't have slept in...
