More From 1997's Alida! July 7, 2008

Posted by Marta at July 7, 2008 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBack

Here's another guest tour blog from Alida of 1997!
-Marta

Well I just got home from Warped Tour this morning at about 9am. We encountered van trouble so had to drop our Dallas date unfortunately. Despite the van trouble, Warped Tour was incredible. We had such an awesome time, met so many great people, and were able to share our music with hundreds of kids every day. It was a lot of work. Though I have never been so busy in my entire life, I felt that our hard work was extremely beneficial for our band.

Luckily, Ta-Da Catering was present to help the hundreds of performers and workers get through the rigorous days. Each morning they offered dozens of vegetarian and vegan breakfast options, like fresh fruit, oatmeal, toast and tons of cereal with soymilk. We played mid-day for the most part, so we skipped lunch and had an amazing dinner every night. It was so easy to be vegetarian! I always had a delicious vegan option for dinner. My favorites were fake pepper steak, vegan pot pie (pictured below), fake shrimp scampi, and fake meatloaf made of beans. There were also tons of vegan dessert options including sorbet served inside of frozen hollowed-out fruit, and vegan chocolate cake. Just writing this paragraph makes me wonder when I'll ever eat that well again.


I definitely wasn't alone in looking forward to these great meals every day. There were about 600 people Ta-Da had to feed at each meal. The lines were always huge. Sometimes I waited for over an hour! It was well worth it though. We were definitely taken care of as vegetarians for this tour.




You might have read Paige's blog about our acoustic performances in the peta2 tent. We had an awesome time hanging out with everyone at the tent, playing for some great kids. My favorite performance was in San Francisco, where we played for about 100 kids, jammed in and around the tent. We were so happy to support peta2's Woof! Campaign, and sported the cute shirts all the time.


We're taking a couple weeks off to find a new vehicle. We're looking for a shuttle bus that we can eventually convert into bio-diesel. We hit the road again with The Morning Of at the end of July. I'll be back with more pictures and stories then!

xo,
Alida

Why Are Pigs Dancing at Warped Tour? June 26, 2008

Posted by Marta at June 26, 2008 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack

This week in the lives of road warriors we kicked off Warped Tour in California, spreading the word about pigs being abused in factory farms.

You may remember that Alida from 1997 is beginning to blog her experiences being vegetarian on the road for peta2. Well, we were lucky enough to have the band play an acoustic set in OUR TENT. Um...hell yea!

Even the pigs were rocking out.


We also had some AMAZING Street Teamers come out and help save some animals—like Leonard, voted Cutest Vegetarian Alive, and Tyler.


Make sure you come say hi to us at one of the other Vans Warped Tour dates. Did you win your tickets yet?

Stay Brutal,

Paige

1997 Checking In June 23, 2008

Posted by Marta at June 23, 2008 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 10 ) | TrackBack

I'm happy to let you in on the first of some exclusive blogs about being vegetarian out on the road from sweet band 1997. Check out what Alida has to say below, and keep an eye out for future blogs from the band! - Marta

Hey guys!

So I'm going to start my blog out by explaining a little about myself and why this blog is so significant to me. I'm Alida and I play the keyboards and sing in a band called 1997. We're made up of Caleb (guitars, vocals), Alan (bass), Kevin (vocals), Nick (drums), and Cody (guitar). We're signed with Victory Records and have been touring and sharing our music for about a year and a half so far. We have two albums out right now, one of which just came out on May 27th. It's called "On the Run" and I've never been so proud of something before.

I'm writing this blog because my band and I are vegetarians who are always on the road. I just wanted to let you know what my band's about and how I deal with being a vegetarian in a touring band. I've grown up eating right my whole life, have worked in health food stores, master cleansed, and care very much about what I eat, or don't eat. Here are a couple of pictures to get this started. They're just some funny candids of the boys and me over the last couple weeks.

We've left for Warped Tour and began on June 20th, in Pomona, CA, on the Skate Ramp and Kevin Says stages. We'll be hanging out at the peta2 tent from June 20-26th, and July 1-3. We'll also be at the Glamour Kills tent on June 28th and 29th. I'd love to meet you guys, so come say hey! If you want to check out my band, check out myspace.com/nineteenninetyseven. Message me anytime!

xoxo,

Alida