Moneen on the Road and in the Tour Van

I recently sat down with Kenny Bridges from Moneen in their messy tour van.  Kenny is very friendly and spunky.  I had the most fun ever in a van with him and a few of our closest friends.  Moneen is one of the hardest working touring
bands out there; road weary and tired, they were still up to answering some question, telling some stories, and showing us a good time.

XROXX: How have your recent tours gone for you?
Kenny: We toured the UK with Brand New and Straylight Run and that was freaking crazy.  We drove form Toronto to Baltimore and took a flight to the UK from there.  Then, we flew right back to Baltimore to start the Senses Fail tour.  By the time we got back and started this tour, we were like so messed up.  We didn't know what was going on.  But, the way over, the drive was like 12-14 hours.  We got there pretty late at night and got up the next morning to catch
our plane and we were waiting there all day.  Finally, by the time we were boarding the plane, they told us they were going to do a spot security check.  They were forming two lines, one of people to be checked and not to be checked.  We wanted to see if this is random or not.  If Hippie got put in the check line, then we would know it wasn't random.  You know they were just like "OMG, get that dude in this line right now."  But, if he got put in the not to be checked line, then we would know it was random.  

So, he gets into the not to be checked line and I am pretty far ahead of him.  So, I'm going through and it's taking a really long time and all of the sudden, I see Hippie as he leaves the line.  He leaves the waiting area and the terminal.  I see him go through the main security and then is just gone.  I'm like what is he doing or is he just stupid?  Regardless if you are being checked, it's still a security check.  I'm like, does he have to go to the bathroom that bad?  What's with him?  So, he comes back, has to go through the security again, like the whole process of showing your ticket, going through security.  And then, he comes back and when he is joining the line, someone from security is like "You're not supposed to be in that line, you are supposed to be in the line to be checked."  He was like "I was in this line," and they were like "no, you were in that line."  Then, the stewardess comes over and says, "No, you weren't in that line, you were in this line, why are you switching lines?"  It became this big fiasco of him switching jumping from line to line. By the time he gets on the plane, like all the warming lights in all the security guard's heads are going off.  They are thinking what's with this dude, leaving the line, coming back, going line to line?  

We are all boarded at this time and then the security guards came over and said "Sir, we need to take you off the plane and check you because you are a freaking weirdo."  They specifically asked him to bring all of his belongings, bring everything you have so we can check it all.  And, the stupid loser, not only does he leave the line in the first place, leaves his bag under the seat on purpose.  He leaves, and one of the security guys comes back and asks Eric, who is sittinf next to him, "Is this your bag under the seat?"  And Eric is like "No, it is the guy that was beside me."  So, he picked up the bag.  Now, they are puzzled why he is leaving his bag behind.  They are questioning him, doing the security check and don't find anything on him.  He comes back.  We're all sitting in our seats.  By now, it's two hours after the flight should have taken off.  We are like, what's going on, why is this taking so long?  We really didn't think much about Hippie getting taken off, we just knew he was a dumb loser for leaving the line.  It's just his luck, that kind
of stuff always happens.  We put him in the back of the van when we cross the border because if the border people see him, they're like "Pull over right now, you have some stoner Hippie dude with you."  

Long story short: the pilot comes on and says "I'm sorry, but for your own safety, there has a been a breach of security, we need to evacuate the plane."  We are like OMG, a breach of security, that's crazy.  What the hell does that mean?  We all get off the plane.  We are waiting another hour, we have to go through the whole security thing again. Then, I am sitting in the waiting room, I made a joke to Peter about Hippie getting anal raped.  I look back after saying that and see Hippie being escorted by two police officers.  The whole breach of security was because of him because he left the line leaving his bag behind all built up.  They start questioning him right in front of everyone.  All these people are talking about missing their connecting flights all because of Hippie.  Turns out to be just a big misunderstanding and they appologized.  Everyone on the plane hated him.

That was the way that we started our UK tour.  The next day, when we got the UK, our driver - we got a driver cause no one wanted me to drive stick shift on the wrong side of the road - he was from Germany.  To really start the tour, we parked in the wrong spot and got one of those clamps put on the wheel.  We were like, why is this the way tour is going to be?  But, in the end, it was the greatest tour.  I love it over there, I want to go back real soon.

XROXX: Do they dig you over there?
Kenny: We expected to go over there and be as silent as are you when I make bad jokes.  It was good over there.  God bless the internet.  People like knew the songs.  Not a lot, but there would like be handfulls of people at each show that knew the songs and were singing along.  It was really surprising.  The first show, we couldn't belive it, we were like, how do they know our songs?  Even better was to watch Brand New.  People fricking flipped out over there.
It was insane, it was so good.  It was a cool tour to be on for sure.

XROXX: How does the Smallman/Vagrant label relationship work because you are on both of them???
Kenny: We made sure we stayed a part of Smallman.  They've been with us like right from the start and Rob and Jason from Smallman are my best friends.  That would be the worst thing ever for me to dupe them and just be like thanks
for all the hard work, but see you later.  We talked to Vagrant and they were really cool about it.  They said we could release the disc in Canada on Smallman.  The next record isn't going to be with Smallman because our contract was only for two records.  I'm glad Smallman got to release this record because they work so hard.  Pretty much, when no one knew how to pronounce our band name properly, Smallman had our backs the whole time.  The funny thing is, at one point, they were our label, our management, booking, pretty much did everything.  That's the main reason we could not turn our backs on them.  They need to sign more bands though.

RANDOM STORY FROM KENNY ON THE FINER POINTS OF THE BAND INTERVIEW: AKA WHY HIPPIE IS A BAD INTERVIEWEE

Kenny: We were in Minneapolis, and I was doing this phone interview, but I was trying to park at the same tiyme I'm trying to do this interview while cars are like hitting me from all sides, I'm trying to get in this crazy parking spot.  I put the phone down and I was like, Hippie, can you do some of this interview for me?  I give the phone to him and I hear him say, "Oh, hi, sorry, I'm back now."  I told him just to act like he was me.  She must have asked something about playing in Canada vs the states.  "The people are really" -Kenny, I can't do this- "the people are really cool and um the states are bigger" - Kenny, no.  I was like, just talk you loser.  Just say something, you are just talking to another person, what's wrong with you?  Finally, I park and get the phone back and we didn't tell her we switched.  She must have been wondering what was wrong with me.  I didn't mention it.

XROXX: Do you have any cool summer plans?
Kenny: There are some things on the go, but I cannot divulge them now.  We are not doing Warped Tour.  This is my take on Warped Tour.  As much as I would like to be on a van, dying for months straight, in the heat, never really
getting any sleep, but playing good shows.  This is what I figure, we'll play Warped Tour when there are people who want us to play WT, which will probably be never.  I love playing club tours, so we're gonna stick to that for a while.  This tour has been amazing because there are no barriers, the people are right there, half the time getting crushed.  If I want to poke someone in the eyeball, I can.

*random shennanigans going on, and Kenny makes the interview continue*

Kenny: Keep the interview going because they are loading out.  I load every single night.  I have had to actually slap their peepees and say "Me and Hippie are the only ones loading, so it's gonna be a 20-30 minute endeavor of us doing it ourselves."  Loading a trailor should take five minutes, it's not like we are carrying elephants, it's cases that stack on top of each other.  I'm glad I don't have to load, but it's funny now.  I watch Harris (guitar tech) there, talking to girls, when he should be loading and Hippie is talking to Eric.

*peanut gallery- they should be careful, most of those girls are underage*

Kenny: Harris is talking to this girl one day, he's not a player - none of us really are - he comes up to me and says, "Do you know how old that girl was?"  I'm like, "Born in the 90's?"  He's like "Yeah, born in the 90's."  The thing about that: girls here will do wrong things and are born in the 90's.  It's not right.  There are too many.  Honestly, that's the one tihng about this tour, I don't know what it is and they are not attracted to us, and I am happy about that, but it's like the shalazians are coming out of the woodwork.  It wasn't really like that on any other tour.  Some of these girls need to get slapped in the face.

Shortly thereafter, Kenny was snagged from us to load.  I lost control of this interview, but they are so fun and likeable that I just didn't notice.  It was more like hanging out and I liked that.  Kenny gave me a hard time and messed with the equiptment and rambled on about video games and gave us a light show with the van lights.  He's a weird guy, but I think that that is what makes them a dynamic band.  They are real guys and real fun.  Thanks to Lisa, their
super awesome merch girl for all her help too!!

Jayne*Star
jayne.star@XROXX.com