July 22, 2007

 

Wow. So that was a pretty fun week, eh?

In the run-up to Book 7, we found ourselves playing some of our most insane shows ever. Thank you everyone who came to see is in Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. It was a pleasure to spend this week with all of you. And then we got to Harvard Square on July 20th.

I cannot even begin to describe what it felt like to take the stage in front of 10-15,000 people here in our hometown of Boston. Joe and I are pretty far beyond the point of getting nervous for shows, but there was a point just before we went on stage, where he squeezed my arm, and we looked at each other and realized, "This is IT!" This was the moment that our band was born for. This is what five years of Harry and the Potters has led to. I don't remember too much of what happened on the stage. Trust me when I said that it was wonderful to look down and see so many familar faces in the crwod. To see people who had travelled from all over the country to be with us on this most special evening. To see our drummer Andrew's grandmother rocking like crazy in the front row. To have Ernie return to the throne dressed as the Giant Squid and play drums with us for 3 songs. To have Brad and Brian and the Hungarian Horntails join us on stage for the Weapon. Needless to say, it was an intense and emotional evening for us, and, if you'll pardon our modesty, we truly feel like we couldn't have thrown a better party to close out this wonderful series. It was an honor to play for you on Friday night. To everyone who was a part of this special evening, THANK YOU. We mean that from the bottom of our Harry Potter-lovin' hearts. This will forever stand as one of the most amazing moments of our lives.

But now you'll have to wipe the tears from you eyes, cause we got more touring to do! And because we have show dates so close to the release of this fine book, we're trying to exercise some precautions to ensure that your show-going experiences are tons of fun and spoiler-free. Until August 1st, we'd like to ask show-goers to abide by the following guidelines:

• No t-shirts with spoilers - anyone seeking entry to one of our shows with a spoiler on their shirt will either be denied entry or have their shirt spray-painted on the way in. We are buying spray-paint tomorrow.
• Please be courteous with other fans. Before racing into discussion with them, make sure they have finished the book.
• No shouting out stuff. That's a total jerk move and if you pull something like that we'll do our best to eject and humiliate you.
• We will not play be playing any Book 7 songs.

We hope that these guidelines will ensure happy and fun shows for fast and slow readers alike. Please check out our remaining summer tour dates, all of which have Draco and the Malfoys opening..

And finally, I know this almost goes without saying, but ENJOY THE FINAL BOOK!

-paul