After a crazy few months of non-stop editing, last minute shoots and preparations for the tour and release of <em>Follow Me</em>, the crew is starting to settle back down and take in what all went down. It was the craziest 3 months of my life… The rest of the crew was more prepared than I was because they’d been through it before.
I can’t describe the feeling of dedicating every waking moment of your life to something for two years and having it all come down to one moment. For me, that moment went down at approximately 9:07pm on Friday April 16<sup>th</sup> in the Golden State Theatre in downtown Monterey. The lights had just gone down, the house was packed and people were screaming their heads off. The months, weeks, days, hours, minutes leading up to that moment had been an ever increasing ramp of pressure and stress for the entire crew. A millions things had to get done all at the same time and when you’ve got a million things going on it’s inevitable that a lot of them will go wrong. In that moment I realized we’d actually done it. The first few notes of the opening credits filled the room and I felt a huge wave of relief rush through my whole body. Everything tingled. It felt good. What followed is a bit of a blur – flashes of high-fives, shots, strange late-night pancakes and Darcy hanging from a light post. The next thing I remember clearly is being on the highway heading to San Jose to catch a flight back to Vancouver. We had another show to do in Whistler on Sunday night.
The Whistler show was so different from Monterey. Our tour director, JB had handled all the details with the rest of the crew down in the states. Everything was done, dialed and ready to go. The pressure was off and we were all ready for a good time. Once again the show was sold out. 1,500 people were packed into a giant room with six screens and speakers everywhere. Matt the Alien was spinning at the after-party Red Bull had organized for us. It was awesome to be able to just relax and watch the show with our friends and family and really take in the whole experience. Even though it was an amazing night, everything went so easy - it was almost anticlimactic. Was I missing the stress already?
As soon as Whistler was over we were on to the Vancouver show. We’d booked our Vancouver premiere at a sick theatre right downtown for a Friday night. We wanted to do a Friday night show so we could have an excuse to party with all our friends who were nine to fivers. Being a Friday, we booked way in advance. We had no way of knowing at the time, but the fates conspired against us and it turned out that game 5 of the Canucks/Kings NHL playoff series was scheduled that same night at the exact same time. Still high from the Olympics, Vancouver was (and still is) totally gripped in Canuck fever. Needless to say ticket sales for our tiny bike film were not looking so hot. Fighting an uphill battle against the Canucks we made a very last minute decision to play the game before the movie on the big screen in the theatre. It was a major gamble. We thought it would help get people out but what if the Canucks lost? We didn’t want to play the movie with everyone bummed. Or worse… what if it went into overtime? We had to start the film by 10pm at the latest so that meant we might have to start the movie with the game still hanging in the balance. The stress was back and it was real. I love hockey and the Canucks but I’ve never cheered like that before in my life. In the end fate was on our side and the Canucks destroyed the Kings 7-2. The movie played on time. The crowd, already pumped from the game, was fired up and we had another sold out show. Afterwards we a flooded across the street for another party courtesy of Red Bull. Good times!
This is just a glimpse of what is going to go down with the Follow Me premiere tour. Already premiere showings are taking place all over the world and we expect to do over 100 shows over the next few months. Hopefully you can get out an experience one for yourself. There is no better way to watch a film about riding with your friends than with a few hundred (or a few thousand) of your friends. Check out the TOUR section on our website to find out the latest.
Thanks to everyone who helped make the Monterey, Whistler and Vancouver shows a success – the crew, the riders, our sponsors, family, friends and especially everyone who came out to support the show.
Ian