Walk On....with....MOLLY'S CHAMBER - Mesa, AZ - 06/18/2014



In the first of a video series, designed to show the last minute preparations of bands before they hit the big stage for their sets, the camera fades in to show the festival's iconic logo over a background of crowd shots and a chanting crowd from the year before, singing and cheering the names of a mixture of bands who have played the iconic Warped Tour at some point in its mammoth history. This stays on screen for some time, allowing the viewer the chance to really soak up a piece of the rich history of Warped, before it fades to black, and the sound goes quiet, gradually replaced by a more raw sound, like something is being filmed outdoors. Birds can be heard cheeping and the sound of people just milling around is quite prominent within the few seconds of blackened screen.

When it fades back in, there's the sound of a vehicle door slamming closed, and the camera shows a shaky image, blurry at first and then coming into focus eventually, of Molly's Chamber frontman Josh Meyer walking across the parking lot of Warped Tour, dressed for the Arizona summer in a pair of shorts, a vest and a snapback cap. He smiles and waves at the camera before he takes a drink from a bottle of beer in his hand. "Dutch courage," he says in his unexpectedly posh Oregon accent, before he finishes the bottle and tosses it in the bin nearest him. The cameraman starts to follow him as he makes his way towards the stage, across the parking lot and away from the artists' area and the relative peace and comfort it offers the performers.



"Yeah, I'm nervous," Josh tells the following camera as he keeps walking, holding up a visibly tremoring hand as he says it, accompanied by a sort of sheepish laughter. "It's the first time I've ever done this. In the past I was either sat behind a drum kit [Blood of Wecz] or a piano [his solo work]. Today I'm just going up there with a mic for the first time ever. Fucking hell it's gonna be a nervy one," he says with an unconvincing chuckle. "I just hope that having the guys behind me will help me stay calm. Although if anyone fucks up, it's likely to be me. Those guys are like the slickest, sickest musicians I've ever met in my life." He looks at the camera as he's obviously asked a question off camera, nodding. "Yeah. First show, first on stag, first band to play the whole tour. No pressure hey?" he jokes as he bounces excitedly on the balls of his feet, throwing punches into the air. He then laughs a little again before walking over to a door. He stops and points at the sign on the door "Drop Dead - Stage Access Only" it says, causing Josh to open his mouth in mock shock, before he pulls the door open in walks inside, jogging up some stairs as the camera follows closely behind, the image bouncing as the operator tries to keep up with the vocalist.

When the camera comes back into focus again, Josh is at the top of the stairs, side stage, where the rest of Molly's Chamber are already waiting with their instruments strapped around their necks. "Punctual," Josh says into the camera. "Prepared and too nervous to not be here," drummer Matt Malia tells him in a distinctive Australian accent before the whole band laugh nervously. Josh sighs and grabs a fresh beer, taking a large swig from it, before he turns to the band, ushering them in with his hands. As the band huddle around him, Josh looks into the circle. "Alright, guys...this is it. This is our first show, and the moment we've spent these last weeks we've been practicing for. We all know what we need to do. There's gonna be a lot of people out there, and it's our job to give them the time of their lives. 95% of them won't know who we are, but let's get that playing into our hands. Let's show them who Molly's Chamber are. Let's show them what Molly's Chamber can do. Stick together, back each other and most importantly, let's all have fucking fun boys! Leave everything on that stage! Let's do this!" The band all whoop and cheer before everyone shakes hands and bumps fists, before the band move into their position at the side of the stage, waiting for their cue, when the song currently playing. Josh hangs back a bit from the rest of the band, and as the song fades out, an almighty cheer of anticipation comes from the currently unseen crowd out front. Guitarist Gareth Phillips jumps up and down in the background. "This is it! Let's do this!" he yells, before the first four members of Molly's Chamber make their way out on stage one by one, lapping up the cheers of the crowd as they disappear off screen and onto the stage.

Backstage, Josh bounces nervously, before he takes his vest off and replaces it with a fresh t-shirt. "Gotta feel clean to give it my all," he jokes into the camera. He stands for a moment, mic in hand, waiting for the sound of the guitars playing a slow yet atmospheric riff. "And we're up," he smirks, before he too makes his way around the side stage rigging and runs out into the middle of the stage. At this point, the camera cuts to the front of the stage, between the crowd and the band, just as Josh comes running out, now dressed in a camouflage shirt and a pair of shorts. He walks to the front and steps up on the monitor at the centre of the stage, staring out at the crowd. He smiles as he raises his hands and beckons for them to give him more, which they duly oblige with.

Josh smiles for a moment, lapping up the unexpected reaction from the Arizona crowd. Clearly his Blood of Wecz star shone much brighter than he had thought among metal and hardcore fans. He looks across the crowd before raising one arm in the air. "Mesa, Arizona! We are Molly's Chamber from Sydney motherfucking Australia. Let's get this fucking party started. I wanna see you all move!" At that, the drums behind him play four quick notes, before a heavy yet melodic guitar riff starts to play out, getting the crowd banging their heads in anticipation, and leaving Josh with a smile on his face. "This one is called Mortal Kombat, let me see that floor open the fuck up......ONE TWO THREE GO!" on the sound of "go" Josh and the rest of the band leap into the air as one, landing on stage just as the big note thumps through the air and sends the early day crowd into a circle pitting frenzy.



As the intro riff of the thunderous hardcore track rips through the Warped crowd, Josh makes his way back to the front of the stage, raising one foot onto the monitor as he leans forward, raising the mic to his mouth and starts to scream the first verse of the song. "We all look to the sky for our revelations/Tortured, bound and buried for our proclamations/The apple cast us all outside/Left to fight without a guide/No more garden stories/No more hopes and dreams of love and glory/" As the first verse draws to a close, the band clearly giving all they have and putting every ounce of energy into their show, the camera fades to black, bringing the first Walk On video of the tour to an end.

Police Code arrives at the venue hosting Warped Tour in San Francisco. San Francisco's breezy climates was a positive change for the band, being in hot climates for the week definitely took it's toll on the band. They all get out of the van and stretch. "Wow, I think today has a better turnout than Pomona." Rodger says. The band joins the audience for Molly's Chamber all of them right up to the rail and moshing. Afterwords, the band starts setting up and Erica is given the duty of hanging up a new banner for the band.



Rodger begins setting up his drumset and when he finishes he plays a fast drum fill breaking one of his sticks. "Oh shit, haha!" He walks to the edge of the stage and hands it to a random group of people. "Here, you're the first person I saw and I like your Suicidal Tendencies shirt, have my broken stick!"

Erica starts tuning her guitar and checking into her microphone. "Hey hey hey hey, check check! Okay, I think I'm good." She finishes tuning her guitar, turns on her amp and sets it down on a stand.
Jenny plugs in her bass and starts tuning and she starts playing Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang on bass to soundcheck. "You good, Erica?"
"Yeah, how about you Jared?"
"I'm good"
Erica grabs the microphone. "Good afternoon, San Fran! We're Police Code, we're from Seattle, Washington! Get your fucking feet moving!" The band goes into Yes, they start jumping around and Erica jumps onto Rodgers drumset and does a flip off of it. During an instrumental break Erica screams into the microphone. "Come on San Fran, this may be our first song but I want everyone going crazy like it's our last!" The crowd responds to this and start moshing harder. The song ends shortly after and the crowd erupts in cheers. "This next song is a cover. It's from one of my favorite bands, they're called Rage Against the Machine. Evil Empire was the first CD I ever owned. I'm stalling because we're still tuning. Kay, if you like Rage, mosh, if you really like Rage show me some god damn rage, if you fucking love Rage, let out all your anger, crowd surf, and stage dive!" Jenny goes into the bass intro.



"Let's go, one two three four!" The whole band goes into the song and the crowd goes wild and Erica climbs onto one of Jenny's amp cabinets and she hangs upside down from the rafters as they go into the bridge. "Sing it with me! I'll sing it first! Then you sing it! I wanna be Jackie Onassis! I wanna wear a pair of dark sunglasses! I wanna be Jackie O oh oh oh oh please don't die! One more time except you guys sing it!" The crowd erupts into the bridge and they go back into the song and Erica jumps off the rafters and runs into the mosh pit as she sings the last verses of the song. She crowd surfs back to the stage "Thank you guys! That was the first time we've ever done that song and you guys fucking ruled! This has been our craziest show, especially for us. We've never been this energetic in a show but I love it. Thanks, San Francisco, we have three more but I'm done singing."

She trades spots with Jared and they go into their next song Winter Formal. The band starts dancing, moshing into each other. Jared plays the guitar solo behind his head. The song ends shortly after the solo and the band takes a breath. "Thank you guys, I'm Jared Sandoval, that's Erica LaForge on guitar, Jenny Hellinger on bass, and Rodger Whittaker on drums. Give them a hand, they're the three fourths of the band that make it special. Our next song is about a really good friend of mine who dropped out of school Junior year and we lost contact after this. If you're in the audience or even watching this at home, this one is for you, dude. Our friendship was too short."

The band goes into F Minus and the whole band especially Jared start jumping around on stage and halfway through the song Jared's guitar strap falls of and his guitar falls hard on to the stage but he picks it up and continues playing despite how hard it is to play a guitar without a strap. "Shit, did you guys see that? It scratched the paint a little bit if you guys can see it. So, this is our last song, give us a good sendoff to Venture motherfucking California!" The crowd cheers loudly for them chanting their band name. "You guys have been so awesome! This has been our best show yet! We're gonna come back here soon! We love you guys!"
The band goes into their last song Just Say No and the band starts running around and dancing wildly and by the end the band dog piles each other in the center of the stage and Rodger dives off his bass drum and into them. Erica reaches for the microphone. "Thank you, San Francisco! You guys fucking rocked!" The band gets up from the dog pile and starts tearing down.