Last Hope on Warped 2013

“Hey guys, it’s Eve O’Malley from the band Last Hope. Here with me is my drummer Ire Thomason, say hi Ire!”

“‘ello.” He yelped from the couch a few feet away.

“I've come to announce, last minute, we've been added on to all of Warped Tour 2013. Meaning dates June 15th to December 8th. Except the Canadian date, which is July 5th. November 9th will be our first trip to overseas, and we’ll go to Germany, Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, and Australia. In North America we’ll be playing on Tilly’s stage and Europe will be Main Stage. We are so excited to be hanging out with our friends and seeing you guys all around this year, playing new songs and writing the new album, hopefully everything can be done by early 2014. Anything you want to add, Ire?”

“Definitely come give us a listen to, we’ll have our merch tent for most of the dates. And aren't we playing before Man Overboard?”

“Yup, right after Hawthorne Heights. This is just a quick update but I’ll be on Twitter and I think Zeek is running our Facebook page later tonight. The links are in the description of this video, you guys have a great day slash night!” I stopped the video and let it upload to YouTube. Ire stretched up off the couch and sauntered over.

“We are going to be fuckin’ swamped. Warped Tour is going to kick our pale asses.” We both laughed, getting ready for practise.

“Yeah, but it’ll be the time of our lives.” He nodded and grabbed the keys, silently driving to Hockey’s house to practise. That’s how it always is, we needed there to be no sound before everything got loud and hectic. It was only a ten minute drive, so we were soon unloading a couple new amps and a box of Genie’s custom picks.

“Hey, Ire and Eve are here!” Hockey (our manager) opened the door and helped us carry in the stuff. He said Genie, Zeek, and Bre were already down there, only waiting on Jen. Penny, our photographer, won’t see us until mid-Warped. Me and Ire went to the basement and was greeted by all our best friends, hugging and sharing stories. The last time we were together as a band was our small headlining tour three months ago. Zeek had a couple new techniques he wanted me to check out, Bre was excited her boyfriend moved in with her, Genie quit his job at Auto-zone and moved back to his parents’ condo in Nashville, TN. Around ten minutes later, Hockey came down with Jen trailing behind, both with sealed boxes in hand. We settled on the large, oval-shaped felt couch and spread the new Last Hope tees on the coffee table. One was a black-and-white tank top with a sinking ship, our band name scrawled nicely at the top. Another tank but with a picture of all of us (excluding Hockey and Jen and Penny) on the front and our names on the back with “are my last hope” at the bottom. A couple drawstring bags with the ship and/or our name. Of course some rubber bracelets, most with just the name in different colours and styles, but one had the quote “but my dear, you’re magnificent” from our biggest single “What’s It To You”. Jen even had some spare time to make buttons with some popular lyrics and our faces in pastels. I was an icy blue, Ire was a minty green, Zeek was a soft red, Bre was a bright orange, and Genie was a lavender kind of purple, which we all teased him for. We all agreed that it looked great and picked out some older merch to add on, mostly tees, and decided to do the math stuff tomorrow. Me and Zeek drank the hell out of lukewarm water bottles to get our voices ready, Genie was tuning under the watch of Bre, Ire was doing some tricks with his new drumsticks.

“Okay, so setlist;
Off We Go
Might Be Me And You
What’s It To You, and
Famously Disgraced. Those are all older songs. New songs are;
Pocket Bomb
Staring Down Hell’s Path, and
Looking Above Heaven’s Clouds, which is an acoustic, but me and Bre will work separately on that tomorrow or whenever’s good. We literally only have a week (It’s June 8th) until Warped, but we leave June.. Thirteenth, right?” I questioned to Hockey, who nodded surely.

“Okay, so let’s get started!” We all cheered and broke into the intro of Off We Go, most of us headbanging and jumping around. Zeek was definitely showing off his new unclean vocal techniques, Genie was spicing up riffs, Ire was relentless on the drums, and my own vocals sounded fuller. The song ended and we went right into the next song. I was seriously out of breath and my heart was thundering, so I told them to pause and sat myself on the floor, Zeek following the action, laying back with his bass.

“That was amazing guys! I really love the improvements. Now we’re not going back at it as soon as you guys catch your breath, that’s seriously unhealthy, just wait a couple minutes and sip the water, please.” Hockey commented, eyeing our tired bodies. We nodded and continued to breathe like pregnant women giving birth for a few minutes. I was nearly asleep when Bre pulled me up and forced my mic on me. I yawned, rubbed my eyes, and started some warm ups. I signaled I was ready and started What’s It To You.

(unclean)

“Tonight, baby you made me a legend
(but what’s it to you?!)
Was everything before not enough?
(wasn't I good enough for you?!)
Those clubs last night
(I saw the prettiest girl)
Doesn't mean I’m over you, bitch
(but my dear, you’re so magnificent, I said to her)"
We wrapped up practice after doing two new songs, deciding to go out for some Chinese, running into Jordan Witzigreuter from The Ready Set. He joined our table and we all got to talk to him.

“Heard you guys were going all out on Warped this year,” Jordan said, sipping his Pepsi.

“Hell yeah, man!” Genie spoke up from across the table, leaning over to high five Jordan.

“That’s amazing, it’s the best festival ever. You guys will have a good time if you keep hydrated,” We all laughed, digging into our orders. I got the orange chicken, nothing special but really the only Chinese food I like. Another hour passed and we parted ways with Jordan and went back to Hockey’s house to crash in his large living room. Ire slept on the longest couch, considering he’s the tallest, me and Bre shared the sectional, Genie passed out in the leather recliner and Zeek called the big, puffy cotton cloth recliner. Jen decided to head home, and Hock tossed us some blankets and before going upstairs to his own room. I had my iPhone out, editing and adding to some lyrics. Ire was snoring loudly, keeping me up a little longer. It was about one in the morning before it stopped, meaning he was in a deep sleep. I locked my phone and put it on the side table, staring at the ceiling. I don’t remember when I fell asleep, but it seemed like minutes before I woke up again, to the sound of bacon (most likely from a turkey) cooking and the toaster springing. Ire, Genie, and Bre were sitting at the table, drinking coffee while Hockey was cooking. Zeek was still laying in the chair, eyes shut. I stretched and decided I couldn't go back to sleep, stumbled up and walked to the bathroom. After brushing out my messy hair and putting it in a bun, I splashed some cool water on face to try and wake up. Looking in the mirror, I saw those damn bags returning underneath my eyes, making them looking forever sunken in. I frowned and rubbed them, almost stabbing my eye out when someone knocked on the door.

“Damn, ow, yeah?” I shouted.

“Hurry the hell up, woman.” Zeek grumbled, he wasn't really a morning person.

“I’m out, I’m out, jeez Blair.” I said, opening the door and stepping out.

“Yeah, whatever, O’Malley.” He replied, going past me and shutting the door. I rolled my eyes and walked to the kitchen, stealing a strip of turkey bacon from Hockey and half a piece of toast from Bre.

“Morning, sunshine.” Ire said, looking at me lazily, I half-smiled and waved before rubbing my eyes again.

“I think I only got like four hours asleep. This is what I don’t like about tour and practise, you can barely sleep,” I said, holding my head, hoping this headache would go away.

“You and me both,” Zeek did look like hell now that I wasn’t annoyed with him. His hair seemed dead, eyes sunken in (like mine but worse) and skin pale.

“Jesus, you okay, man?” Genie spoke up, nothing but worry in his caramel eyes.

“Fuckin’ dandy, Gene.” Zeek glared before going back to the living room.

“He’s never called me Gene... Eve I think you should go try and talk to him.” Genie pleaded.

“Okay, alright, I’ll go see what’s up.” I coughed and went to the adjacent room, noticing Zeek underneath a pile of blankets.

“Hey, Z. What’s not feeling good?” I coughed again, kneeling on the floor beside him.

“Everything, E. My stomach feels like hit and it hurts to breathe. My head is pounding, and I’m sure I have a fever.” He replied roughly, starting to cough too.

“I’m feeling the same t- shit, fuck,” I scrambled up and ran to the bathroom, puking and retching. I laid my head on the tile floor, trying to regain my balance.

“I think you two should go to the hospital, this is really bad.” Genie said softly, Hock got his keys and Ire helped me and Zeek to the van, making sure I had a trash can just in case. Fifteen minutes later we were being checked, in the middle of mine I had to throw up again and I felt so embarrassed. Like any human being, I didn’t really like the hospital, it wasn’t very private and it smelt rancid. The doctor talked to Hockey outside, I strained to hear.

“I think they’re.... Stress.... Bad food.. Water... Recalled... Dangerous.. Blood test.” Is what I could make out. I felt my face pale, I hated drawing blood. Dr. Reed and the nurse came back, explaining they had to, in fact, take my blood. Like a baby, I passed out.