1/28/16: New York City, NY- Rockwood Music Hall: The day had finally come for us to play New York City. We would drive our RV in through New Jersey and quickly figured out that we would have a longer trip than expected because of the height restrictions on the tunnels. We took our bus all the way up to the not of NYC to use the George Washington bridge to enter the city. After a little bit of trouble with our exhaust pipe dropping followed by a trip to an auto shop, we set off into the city. The height restrictions on the bus kept our drive down to Manhattan completely local, and after many many hours in the bus, we were taken completely by surprise to find a parking spot RIGHT next to the venue (pictures above!) Austin Thompson deserves some sort of medal for maneuvering that giant bus through the streets of New York. Our show at Rockwood, was like nothing we have played before. Rockwood music hall has bands in different rooms in four separate shops, and we were playing stage 1, which was about the size of a living room. The venue was completely packed to the brim, and we were thrilled that our manager, Staley, flew out to see the show. I received the biggest surprise of my life when I looked up from setting up my drums when I saw my mom right in front of me. She had flown out to New York along with my Aunt and Uncle to surprise me for my birthday, which was at midnight. We had so much fun playing this show, and were thrilled with the great attendance for our first New York play! After the show we found overnight parking for the bus and I went to get sushi with my family! We spent the night with a good friend of mine who had flown out to see the show and offered up an apartment for the whole band to stay at! I couldn’t think of a better place to be to turn 22!