Brooklyn “sludge/gaze” band Spotlights just wrapped up a several-week run supporting Deftones. It’s a dream come true for the two principle members, married couple Mario and Sarah Quintero. The band wrote a tour diary for us chronicling their two weeks on the road. In this final installment, the band play their last shows on the tour and head home, all to do it again starting next week with If These Trees Could Talk. You can read the other installments here, here, here, here and here.
August 20th 2016
On the drive from Denver to Salt Lake City.. We decided to give ourselves a nice day off yesterday and got a hotel in Denver with a pool/hot tub. Ordered all kinds of delicious food and just rested up. This was necessary after the 10 hour night drive from Tulsa the night before.
Tulsa… Man, that was a great show. I never knew Tulsa was such a cool little town! The Brady Theater is so rad too. Haunted like a mufuka!! If you ever go there, and you’re into ghost stuff, make sure to go up into the attic. The energy is dark as &%#$. Also, I think the ghosts disconnected my laptop during one of our songs (Purist punks!). But the show went on and we had one of, if not the most receptive crowd yet. Met so many great people and made a bunch of new fans. Signing autographs will never not be weird for me. Going back to the Twin Cities show.. Being our first show as direct support, it brought back a bit of the butterflies, but we had a great set and a HUGE crowd.
Then there was Clive, IA which was also a really great night. Our dressing room was basically a VIP section to watch Deftones play which was incredible as always. Also did a little parking lot BBQing with everyone.
The crowd was great and we met fans from all over the country!
There was a looseness to that show that made it super fun.
It’s a bit of a bummer to think that just when we are really getting into the groove of playing these types of venues, we’re headed towards our last show. However, we are super excited to head back out with If These Trees Could Talk and Driftoff in September! We hit The Beat Kitchen in Chicago on 9/1 to kick that off.
This tour has been one of those, once in a lifetime experiences, and we will never forget it, and the people who were involved. Since I’m pretending that SLC is not really our last show with Deftones, I won’t say goodbye just yet, but hopefully you’ve enjoyed keeping up with us on the journey.
Well, after a 32 hour drive back home from SLC it’s time to rest up and get our ducks in a row before leaving again next week to kick off our tour with If These Trees Could Talk and Driftoff.
It’s always tough to come home to normal life after touring but man, after this tour it’s a whole other layer of withdrawal. Though it has been great to see our pet family and Dana (Sarah’s sis), I can’t wait to get back out there.
Just a recap of the Salt Lake show since it turned out to be one of the very best (Ever!). Being the last show there was a familial love and sadness going on with everyone from the crew to the bands but more of a “happy we got to do this together” vibe filled the air. The crowd was incredible! It felt like they were there for us from the moment we walked out on stage.
Despite a couple of technical difficulties we played one of the funnest sets of the tour. And, to top it off Chino (Moreno) joined us onstage for some screams at the end of “To The End” we felt (and probably looked) like little kids on Christmas when it happened. Hearing that man do his high pitch, squeal, screams is always amazing, but playing with him while he does it is just crazy! My face still hurts from how hard I was smiling.
We ended off the night with a giant bottle of cheap whiskey and many hugs. Then went our own separate ways. We already miss everyone so much and can’t wait to cross paths again.
You know when you love a band, and then you meet them, and their personalities change the way you feel about them as a band? Well that happened and now we are completely IN LOVE with Deftones and Refused. We will never forget these last few weeks. Thank you for reading and keeping up with us! Make sure to follow our next tour on the ole’ social media web.
XOXO Mario, Sarah, Josh and Chris <3
