Matisyahu, Dirty Heads Share Their Tour Diaries

Dirty Heads:

Zombie Hunting in the Inner-City Sewer Systems

Today, I would like to talk about a rare event that doesn't happen often. It's a mystical sight, it's an odd sight but it happens and it's real. In our band, it's what we like to call the "magic hour." I'd like to compare it to a mix between scurvy and cabin fever. It's when you've been in the studio for too many days, been stuck in the bus for too many hours or been on the road for too long and to put it plainly -- you just loose your marbles.

Duddy Golfing Offstage in Richmond, Virgina | Turtle Sex

Yesterday, I saw Shawn (our new addition of The Dirty Heads touring band) have his first "magic hour". We were all sitting around the front of the bus, just relaxing, and I notice Shawn staring out the window quietly, chuckling to himself. One by one, the rest of the guys notice since the low chuckle is a full laugh, that full laugh turns into Shawn almost laughing himself into tears. Finally someone asks him, "Shawn, what are you laughing at?". Shawn replied, "I have no idea!". That's when the scene turned into something out of Fear and Loathing, Jon Jon tells Shawn "you're in your own head, man and you're not coming out!" and then claims we just witnessed Shawn's first "magic hour", which we all agreed.

Tattoos With Nate on the Bus

It's not the first magic hour I've witnessed. I've seen a 30 minute Native American Indian Chant Off between Dave and our merch guy Tyler. I've seen Duddy talk like a drunk russian (whom we've dubbed "pissed off Christoph") for over an hour, while dancing around in a huge camo winter hat on one of the hottest days of the summer.

But magic hour's aren't always funny and whacky, sometimes it's something else, something more somber, something totally different. It's home sickness, it's missing something as small as your favorite sandwich place to something as big as missing your dog, your friends or your family.

More Tattoos

It's the blessing and the curse of this job. Would I change it for the world? Never. I feel so insanely blessed and lucky to be able to do that we do and hopefully our fans know that and can see that every night that we are on stage or hanging out after the shows. We have a saying in the band, "the worst day on the road is still better than the best day in an office." Unless you like working in an office, then you're stoked! But for us, this is life. This is our dreams coming true.

Hope you enjoyed. Here are some pictures of us keeping our minds busy.