May 8th, Dallas, TX. We’re a little over halfway through the tour. This is our first outdoor show of the tour and we’re a bit concerned about the weather cooperating. Luckily, the sky remains clear and it’s a gorgeous night, even if it’s on the humid side. We have a great show, though the weather has nothing to do with it. There’s one particular fan here that’s making the show more than worthwhile. He’s singing every word and knows every single song. His name is Nate and he traveled about 300 miles from Arkansas on a Wednesday to come to this show. He and I had been friends for quite a while on Facebook but I didn’t realize just how long he’d been a fan. After playing our set, he hands me a copy of our very first two song demo CD from all the way back in 2012. These were CDs that we burned ourselves with black and white inserts of our logo that we printed and manually cut with my parents’ cutting board. They were the epitome of D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself, for the unitiated) back when we first started playing and literally no one outside of family and close friends knew who we were. He somehow found us online and we shipped him a copy. He’s been a huge fan of ours ever since. 

This month, I’d like to take a look at the highlights from our tour. In The Presence of Wolves (ITPOW) has been around for 7 years now as of this month and though we’ve managed to form a fanbase over the last several years of hard work, it’s still a modest one compared to many other acts. This tour was a huge opportunity for us to grow as a band and as a brand. We were gonna get our name out there and have a blast doing so!

Truly, the best part of going on tour is the people. In my case, I had the most fun getting to know the bands we toured with. As I mentioned in my previous column, we were pretty close with the guys in Thank You Scientist but The Reign of Kindo was still new to us. Would we gel with them as well as TYS? I wanted to make sure we put in the effort to get to know them and try our best to forge a relationship with them.

Luckily, we did get along pretty well early on. Everyone in my band tended to bond first with their musical counterparts in Kindo. As such, I bonded with their guitarist, Davey, first. He was a gentleman from New Zealand whose old thrash band had opened for Metallica. We talked gear extensively and early on discovered a mutual love for Pink Floyd. He also let me use his Bogner Shiva during the whole tour which made my life so much easier. My AC30 was clearly having problems so it was great having one less thing to worry about.

Still, we wanted to have a day where we could spend some time with Kindo outside of venues and loud music. We got our chance later in the tour during our off day between shows in Orlando and Durham, NC. They rented an Airbnb in Jacksonville so we opted to spend the day there and see what kinds of tomfoolery we could all indulge in. They invited us over to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones and then we went down to the beach. I taught their bass player, Jeff, how to boogie-board and got to relax for the first time in a while. That day went a long way in creating a great relationship between us and even helped with morale. (Shameless plug: They’re playing at the Masquerade on August 25 and you should go. I’ll be there!)

We were also fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with the Thank You Scientist boys. We spent Easter with them in their hotel parking lot where we had a giant pasta party. We stopped by the local dollar store and made them a couple Easter baskets which were a huge hit. One of the items was a super cheap recorder that they took turns trying to play. Their saxophone player eventually busted out of their RV with it, shredding some smooth jazz which caught us all off-guard and had us cracking up. Eventually he went into a sweet rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” as a couple other members of the band shared a romantic waltz. They returned the favor in Portland, OR where I celebrated my birthday. To truly ring in my 29th year, they bought me a rather inappropriately shaped chocolate, cream-filled donut from Voodoo Donuts (if you’re familiar with Voodoo donuts, you probably know the exact one I’m talking about). 

We also gained a new member of the family in our new “tour dad” Matt. Matt is Thank You Scientist’s tour manager and he was the grizzled veteran of the tour. He reminded me a lot of John Cable with his “curmudgeon that you love” charm, proving to be a source of endless laughs and insight. We bonded very quickly over professional wrestling and we eventually figured out that he, myself, and TYS’s drummer Joe were like three stages in an evolution chart. He was also the highlight of our “Formal Night” in Boston. For whatever reason, that show was designated as formal night and I knew we weren’t going to take it seriously. We are very active performers on stage and we’d probably rip all of our suits if we ever chose to perform in them. Since TYS’s new album was called “Terraformer,” I had the idea to wear TYS t-shirts and ties, claiming to have misunderstood it to be “Terra-formal Night,” which got some chuckles out of the bands and fans. But Matt took things to the next level, wearing a wrestling singlet, lucha libre mask, and full blown Macho Man Randy Savage cape. He was truly a sight to behold. Ultimately, we really lucked out having him and TYS take care of us for our first tour. They looked out for us and cared about us in a way that I don’t know any other band would have. 

(My evolution photo with TYS drummer Joe Fadem, myself, and "Tour Dad" Matt Reynolds)

Another perk of going on the road in the digital age is that we’ve amassed some awesome fans over the last few years. Some of those fans are more enthusiastic than others and some have even become friends of ours, though we’ve never met them outside of the internet. Going on a national tour afforded us the opportunity to finally meet some of these people. I began the column with Nate’s story but he wasn’t the only one.  One such gentleman was a guy from Washington who had discovered us through Twitter. When it came time for us to crowdfund our latest record (Of Two Minds, Stages 1-2: The Ape and The Cage, available now!), this fan came in clutch and contributed a significant amount to our campaign. After we had some gear stolen in Chicago on a previous tour (we’ll save that story for another time or we can talk about it in the store), this same fan helped us out considerably. So needless to say, we wanted to meet him and spend some time with him to reciprocate at least some of the goodwill he had shown us. We grabbed dinner with him and all the stars aligned as that was one of the best shows of the tour. His joy after finally getting to see us play was priceless. Another fan who we were really excited to meet was from the North Carolina area. He hopped on board early on and bought one our shirts where we co-opted the Bojangles logo but featured our name instead. We meant to go and grab some Bojangles chicken with him but unfortunately our schedules didn’t allow it. Still, we were able to spend an extensive period of time with him before, during, and after the show which proved to be very pleasant. There’s always a degree of concern when we meet some of these people. What if they’re really weird or creepy? It can seem a little risky at times. Luckily, every experience we’ve had with these fans has been great. 

Tour also gave us the chance to explore our country and see parts of it we’ve only seen in movies or on television. There’s not as much downtime as some would believe but we were able to make time to catch some sights. Some states didn’t have much to offer in that regard, *cough* *cough* Kansas *cough*, but we were surprised at how beautiful some parts of the country were. My bassist/singer, Vini, was charmed by the mountains of Utah and I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved to Salt Lake City. Mason, my drummer, loves San Francisco and we stopped there while in California so he could be in his happy place. Jim, our rhythm guitarist, found his happy place at South of the Border in South Carolina and mine was Buc-ee’s in Texas.

One thing I tried to do as much as I could was stop at local cookie or ice cream places. If I was extra lucky, I found a place that offered both! The Detroit Cookie Company supplied me with the biggest ice cream sandwich of the tour (3 giant scoops of ice cream!) and the cookies were amazing too. One of the cookies that I had was based on those delightfully sugary frosted animal crackers! Salt & Straw in Portland may have been my favorite ice cream stop of the tour as their Snickerdoodle ice cream was to die for. But ultimately, my favorite ice cream sandwich may have been my old Philly standard “Cookiewich” from Insomnia Cookies. I’m so thrilled that they’ve expanded so much and have made their way to Atlanta! 


(My insane ice cream sandwich from Detroit Cookie Company)

Most shows of the tour were at least good but there were definitely some that stood out more than others. Toronto was the second show of the tour but it was one of the biggest, with possibly the best fan response of the entire run. Vini even leapt off of the balcony overlooking the stage at the very end of our set. He landed square on his hip but miraculously wasn’t in much pain after. Seattle was possibly the most emotional show of the tour, apparently my bandmates were on the verge of tears due to the crowd response. Los Angeles was a sold out show with a great crowd as well. The drummer of my first band was at that show and it meant a lot to me for him to see how we’ve grown as a band and as people. The aforementioned “Formal Night” was another highlight for us as every show we’ve had in the Boston area has been really good. We knew our hometown would show up for our Philly show but we had no clue just how great the reception would be. The room was packed and everywhere I looked there was a familiar face that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. I’d performed with nothing but beer in my stomach and both the band and the crowd got extra rowdy! 

I was most looking forward to the Atlanta show, and it did not disappoint at all. It’s one thing to get to have one hometown show but I got to have two on this run! We drove overnight from Nashville and I couldn’t wait to see my fiancée and cats, not to mention sleep in my own bed! I brought my bandmates to the store (except Vini who was passed out from exhaustion at my apartment) and was thrilled to introduce them to my co-workers and show them around the place. We grabbed a nice dinner at Corner Tavern and then it was off to Aisle 5. Even without my personal connection to Atlanta, this would have been one of the top 5 shows of the tour. The crowd was super receptive and I went as hard as I possibly could. This night was made even more special because my fiancée was there (she hadn’t seen us perform since she moved here 3 years ago), my roommate and her boyfriend were there, and Lindsay, Jake, and Brandon from Maple Street all came out, too. I was really hoping that ATL would represent so I could show my co-workers that my sabbatical was justified so I was overjoyed that we had one of the best shows of the entire tour here. I talked to Lindsay towards the end of the show and he remarked, “We’re all proud of you,” which I found touching. 

Overall, this tour was truly one of the highlights of my life. I always look forward to playing the music I wrote live with my best friends and it only makes things better when people actually show up! We made tons of new fans and new friends while seeing so much of our country. We made memories that will last a lifetime and we did something that most people can only dream of doing. I’ll forever be indebted to the Petsch family for allowing to take the time off to do this and still come home to this job! It’s incredibly satisfying to make a tour like this happen for yourself and I hope that I get the opportunity to do it again. This was one of the most important learning experiences we’ve ever had and I’ve never been more proud of us.


(All members of Thank You Scientist, The Reign of Kindo, and In The Presence Of Wolves after the last show of the tour)

You can find my band In The Presence Of Wolves online on Bandcamp, CD Baby, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as at our website. 
Check out Thank You Scientist and The Reign of Kindo, as well!! All of us have music streaming on Spotify, YoutTube, Google Play, etc. and each band also has CD and Vinyl albums too! Contact me (Chris) if you have any other questions or would like to further support any of these talented acts!