Sooooo… I was just tooling around our website and read Scott’s post about the crappy review we got on iTunes.  That’s good stuff bro!  What i couldn’t help but notice is that we don’t have any blog posts talking about the crazy ass shit that went down for us in the last couple of months of 2009.  I know it’s a little late to write a “megaphone 2009 re-cap” blog, but I think it’s pretty important to at least acknowledge a couple things that happened for us at the end of last year.

Let’s start with the fact that on November 19th, megaphone opened for AC/DC at the Amway Arena in Orlando.  A lot of bands will tell you that they “opened” for this or that band, and a lot of times what they mean is “well, actually, we played early in the day at a festival that Metallica headlined, and we were actually on a side stage, that was located in the parking lot, and everyone that went to the show walked right passed us, so yea, we opened for Metallica!”  Don’t get me wrong, that sounds like a pretty sweet gig, and we’ve played plenty of those too, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.  We were direct support for one of the biggest, most badass rock n’ roll bands left on the planet!  It was nothing short of a dream come true.  I saw my first (and many more after the first) concert ever in that arena, I’ve seen more Magic games than I can count in that arena, and I even ran lights for The Verve Pipe when they opened for KISS… in that arena!  To stand on that stage, look out at a crowd that numbered well into 5 digits, and play my guitar cranked up to 11 was something that I’ve dreamed about since i was 13 years old.

Of course there are naysayers.  Scott’s previous blog post says alot, and truth be told, we hadn’t even come off stage yet, and already had 2 emails waiting for us.  One from some dude that was upset about the fact that Matt used the “f” word while this guy’s kid was in the audience.  Hopefully he didn’t have a freakin’ heart attack when his young impressionable son watched the intro to the AC/DC set.  The other email was an anonymous tip that we should learn how to sing.  Sure thing dood… we’ll get right on that!

The bottom line is that we had the time of our lives.  The AC/DC crew treated us better than we ever could have hoped, the catering was incredible, we had a massage therapist in the room next to our dressing room, we rocked the fuck out, we have pictures and video to prove it, we got to watch AC/DC’s set from the BEST seats in the house, and most importantly, the crowd was amazingly kind to us.  For the last time… DREAM COME TRUE!!!

FastForward to December 2nd.  We opened for The Joe Perry Project at House of Blues in Orlando.  In case you don’t know (shame on you if you don’t) Joe Perry is the legendary lead guitarist in Aerosmith.  He is truely a living legend, and in the wake of the turmoil that Aerosmith is in the middle of right now, Joe decided to write, record, and tour with his own solo project.  I really can’t say enough about this show!  It was awesome.  After the show, I heard some fairly critical feedback about Joe’s set, and all I can say about that is that when you bought your ticket, I’m pretty sure it said “The Joe Perry Project”, not “Joe Perry plays in a band that sounds and looks just like Aerosmith”.  (Jim Abbott, I have nothing but love and respect for you, but you got this one wrong!)  Enough about him, WE WERE AWESOME.  Every megaphone show is good, but this one clicked!  Not only did this show pay some bills for us, it also made us a few new friends, and landed us some pretty sweet press, and an awesome new friend and contact over in Melbourne.  All in all, a pretty productive evening, and the icing on the cake was getting to take this pic with Joe after the show.  I actually pushed Matt out of the way so I could stand next to Mr. Perry.  Sorry about that brutha!

So that’s that.  Two incredible shows that just landed in our band’s lap at the end of 2009.  Make no mistake, 2010 is going to be sick.  New music, bigger shows, megaphone on Rock Band 2, a megaphone iPhone app…  the list goes on.  Maybe we’ll even find a record label to get behind us and send us out on the road… well now that’s just crazy talk!