On tour with the Starlight Mints

We're heading out for a three-week tour with Starlight Mints. Magnolia can't wait to do sound check and play Daddy's drums. She also loves Ryan, our sound guy, and has informed us she will be playing hide-and-seek with him every night. The best part is: the Mints have a daughter, Penny, who is two. We love that they will have playdates on tour. Sound check used to mark the most annoying hour of time each day. Now, it's Magnolia's time to perform. Mags likes the drums the best, but only if she can sing into a microphone at the same time. She loves sound check. She also loves Penny.

Highlights from the Starlight Mints tour (Boston-Montreal-Ann Arbor-Minneapolis-Philly-Lancaster-New York and a bunch more places in between)

1. Magnolia making best friends with Penny, Marion and Andy's daughter. Gotta love the tour kids.

2. Penny and Magnolia chasing each other for hours, sound-checking with the parents and hiding in the gear cases.

3. Watching Marion dance while the Mints played every night. I have no idea where she gets her energy.

4. Deciding that Lancaster, PA, is eerie. People have a glaze in their eyes there. Not too far from Three Mile Island. Of course, the people at the show were all completely sane and an amazing crowd. But our suspicions about creepy Lancaster were confirmed the next day when that horrible shooting at the Amish school happened. We felt the sadness in the air before anything even happened.

5. Sold out Irving Plaza in NYC for the first time. After playing the Big Apple twenty times in our lifetime as a band, we were stoked.

6. Dancing on stage for that "Woo-hoo" song by the Mints.

7. Okay, this sounds absurd for a highlight but . . . Magnolia threw up for the first time on this tour. Motion sickness in the mountains while driving. Even though it was heartbreaking, it was a lifetime first — a milestone, if you will. We moved her car seat up a row in the car and told her not to watch the trees out the window anymore. Right after she ralphed she said, "I really didn't like that." Smart girl.

8. Jam session in the old rectory-turned-band-housing at the Parish in Pittsburgh. We used the piano and some old, out-of-tune hand drums and world instruments. It ruled.

9. Playing Mafia with everyone on tour. Mafia is our favorite parlor game. You try your best to lie to your friends. You learn a lot about your friends' dark sides.

10. Playing a modified version of Mafia with just Jason and Suzi. We lied to each other and tried to see if we could detect any subtle face movements. You know those people who can detect liars 99% of the time? We're working on that skill. We just took turns lying to each other over and over as Magnolia slept ten feet away.

11. Ryan from the Mints coming on stage during "Running Out" and pretending to play bass. He "plugged-in" to a suitcase.

See this post in its original format here.