Special Web version: Nodes, Spill Canvas team up for a local gig
Bands take a break from touring, share some more stories from the road
rmorast@argusleader.com
published: 07/13/06

There are some people who think that Saturday's co-headlining concert by The Spill Canvas and Nodes of Ranvier is weird.

To some, it's assumed that the Canvas' syrupy emo-pop sounds and Nodes' jarring metalcore music shouldn't mix. Truth is, the members of these Sioux Falls acts are good friends - don't forget, Spill frontman Nick Thomas is a Nodes alumni - and have been trying to set up a joint concert for a while.

Though, because each group spends much of the year touring the nation, coordinating a hometown date isn't easy. But being road warriors does lend itself to great stories.

So, to preview the concert each band sat down with Link and shared some of its memorable road stories. Here they are.

No Strings Attached

After a date with the Motion City Soundtrack in Orlando, Fla., earlier this spring The Spill Canvas are invited to a rich man's house to "hang."

"Later, we find out that it's Chris Kirkpatrick from 'N Sync. He's into this kind of music now. It's so weird," Thomas says.

"We walk in and he has his posse, his crew and there's this huge painting of 'N Sync. It's exactly like 'Cribs.'

"He's just like, 'You guys sounded so good tonight.' "

Girls, Girls, Girls

Since most of the Canvas' fans are teenage girls, you have to wonder if the four guys are, uh, being "hit on" a lot.

"I would be lying if I said (the girls) didn't do that," Thomas, a single man says. But, "it's not as rampant as a Kid Rock show.

"They don't throw themselves at you, but they really want to be groupies."

For the record, Thomas says he's not into groupies.

A mob hit?

One night in Newark, N.J., The Spill Canvas faced every touring band's nightmare when its van was broken in to. The thief didn't take any instruments, but he did steal a television and the band's cash box, which Thomas says had $14,000 in it.

"At the time, we didn't have an accountant yet. So we just took care of the money by ourselves," Thomas says. "It was definitely a bummer, but we just kept on going, man."

MySpace mania

It's kind of staggering, but The Spill Canvas has over 101,000 "friends" on MySpace.com.

So, what is it like to be that popular? Thomas says the band's MySpace page receives at least ten pages of friend requests every day.

"At least ten pages. And four pages of messages," Thomas says. "Anything from 'I love you guys,' and that's it to ... the fans, they take a song and they put their own meaning to it and they make a story out of it. It's happened at least five times.

"Like (the Spill song) 'Polygraph Right Now,' this girl wrote a whole story with characters and everything."

Unfortunately, Thomas says the story hasn't been posted on the band's Myspace page.

And, as you can imagine, with that many fans, the Spill guys encounter their share of freaks.

Thomas talks about one guy who sent the band an animated video of stick figures set to the music of the band's song "All Hail the Heartbreaker."

The video followed a man whose woman had left him for another man. At the end, the video's main character shot himself in the head.

Bad Charlotte?

During another tour stop, Thomas says the band shared a room with some of the Suicide Girls - a gaggle of tattooed punk rock heartbreakers with a pay-for-content Web site.

"Some of them are amazingly hot. Others are really nasty," Thomas says.

"One of the Good Charlotte guys was there and made a bee line straight for the Suicide Girls. They were totally all over him. It was just what you would have pictured."

MTV2 and beyond

Nodes has been played on MTV2, but that doesn't mean this band is "big time." To wit, the group says its still stays at fans' homes while on the road. Here are some of the horror stories.

After a date in Bakersfield, Calif., amateur wrestler Tony Angel invited Nodes to stay at his mobile home.

"The bathroom had spider webs ... and there was dirt all over the floors and walls," says Ryan Knutson, the Nodes drummer.

"We stayed at one place in Albuquerque, N.M., the bathroom didn't even have a floor. It was walls built on dirt."

"And there were cockroaches all over the floor," says guitarist Jon Parker.

At another fan's house in Lancaster, Calif., the band was greeted by more crawling critters, and some interesting photos.

"We look over at the wall and the dad hung his mug shots, his prison photos, on the wall," Knutson says.

Texas tussle

It's not that the Nodes guys are the types who seek out trouble, but metal bands have a tendency to attract ruffians - sometimes off the stage.

During a tour stop in Houston, Murphy says the band stopped at a gas station to fuel up and score a super-sized Big Red - a red, caffeine-heavy soda prominent in Texas convenience stores. While pulling out of the parking lot the van accidentally drove out in front of a blazer. The other driver wasn't too pleased.

"This guy honked and gave us the one finger salute," Murphy says.

After riding the van's bumper and honking without abandon, the blazer drove ahead and out of sight. A minute later, the Nodes guys noticed it returning from the opposite direction, while the driver was wielding a bat out of his window.

"(He) chucks it as he flies by and breaks some of the fiber glass on the side (of the van)," Murphy says. "We were going to let it slide, but he comes after us again. So we pull over. We were like, we're going to have to kick this dude's (butt).

"We bailed out of the van and he tried to nail us with his SUV. I still had the Big Red so I chucked it at his windshield."

Naturally, threats ensued.

"So we're like, 'get out of the car,' " Murphy says. "Then we look at the back seat and he has two little kids n the car seats. We went back in the van."

Fightin' words

Other times the action stays in the club.

Parker says during a show in Detroit, the band saw a guy in the crowd fighting a woman. Knutson recalls former bassist Terry Taylor being pulled off a stage in Orangevale, Calif., while trying to stop a fight.

And while they didn't shoot anybody in Reno, the Nodes guys did watch a bunch of Reno kids try to fight a club's bouncers.

Celebrity moron

At a Los Angeles gig, Nodes ran into Julia, the former metal madame at Fuse TV

"She was cracked out of her gourd. She was such an idiot," Parker says.

"She tries to act so tough and mean all the time," Knutson says. "She's so annoying."

-- From Argus Leader