Mix Live Blog: Fear of (Not) Flying

EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog post, sharing a first-person account of touring during the U.S. government shutdown, was written just prior to the shutdown’s conclusion.

A few days ago, I opened one of the airline apps on my phone and found a message informing me that the U.S. government has plans to restrict air traffic due to the federal shutdown. The Federal Aviation Administration started cutting flight operations by 4 percent at 40 major airports across the country last Friday and will increase the cuts to 10 percent over the coming week. Fabulous.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that the U.S. government shutdown is underway. As a result, air traffic control and TSA workers haven’t been paid in a month.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was quoted as saying, “This is about safety,” but safety concerns are a symptom and not the disease. The truth is that both sides of the aisle are waiting for the other to blink in a standoff that doesn’t seem to hurt them but hurts just about everyone else in the country. Even the airlines are getting screwed—they’ll have to issue full refunds for flights that are being canceled due to restrictions from the FAA. I’m not one to sympathize with airlines, but as we say in Brooklyn… “That ain’t right.”

Yesterday, we almost missed a show in Oshkosh, WI., on a bill with the band Kansas. We were scheduled to fly from JFK to Minneapolis (MSP), then MSP to Appleton, Wisc. (ATW). Airport call was 4:45 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. flight, so most of us were out of bed around 3:30. After we checked the bags and got ready to board, the flight was delayed until 7:45 a.m., which would leave us only 30 minutes to make the connection in MSP—not a great situation. I called Saint Roy (our steadfast travel agent) to see if there was a backup. There was—landing at ATW at 3:37 p.m.—but it was sold out.

While St. Roy was working on alternatives, the flight to MSP was delayed another 45 minutes, now making it impossible for us to make the connection to ATW. Delta rebooked us to Milwaukee (MKE), arriving at 2:15 p.m. Add a 90-minute drive from MKE to Oshkosh, plus time waiting for bags and rental car pickup, and we’re at the gig around 4:15. Late but still do-able.

Meantime, the flight to MSP was delayed another 15 minutes, but we still had enough time to make the connection. Our flight boarded around 8:05 a.m., then I fell asleep. At 10:15 a.m., I woke up to find we were still on the runway; at 10:46, the pilot announced that our flight plan was canceled because the air space was being closed, so we’d have to move out of the queue for takeoff. By the time we received a new flight plan and re-entered the line, it was too late to make the flight to MKE. We’d be landing in MSP at the same time that the connection to MKE was taking off.

Mix Live Blog: Audio Dreamin’

My Delta app showed that we’d been rebooked on a flight landing ATW at 8:00 p.m. That certainly wasn’t going to work, and neither were we at this point. Because we were on an active runway, I couldn’t make a call, so I was feverishly texting St. Roy (and the band’s manager) while looking at options into other nearby airports… Madison, Green Bay, even Chicago (ouch), but none of them would get us to Oshkosh in time to do the show.

St. Roy saw a flight in his system that didn’t appear in my Delta app: a flight that would depart MSP at 3:35 p.m. and arrive in Madison (MSN) at 4:51 p.m. (though it would ultimately be 20 minutes late). We could then drive 90 miles to Madison—which might possibly get us to the venue around 7:00 p.m. Did I mention that we play at 7:00?

While we were at MSP waiting for the connection, me, BÖC’s manager, Kansas’ tour manager, and a rep for the promoter had a conference call and agreed to hold the show one hour—until 8:00—but anything beyond that and we’d have to cut our 60-minute set to be done by 9:00.

We arrived at the loading dock of the Oshkosh Arena at 7:12 p.m., and it was like a scene from Chicago Med: The production manager had a team ready to swarm, unloading our gear and getting it to the stage with surgical efficiency. The venue manager escorted me backstage, and the director of security offered her office to me to use for production. The kindness of strangers can be amazing.

While I was dealing with all the airline shenanigans, one of my crew, Drew (who soon may be known as Saint Drew), had been at the gig all day because he flew in without incident from a different locale. He and the backline provider (kudos to Mike at Backline Services) had us dialed in as much as possible, given the fact that our fly gear was traveling with the New York contingent. By 8:10 p.m., we started our show, sans sound check, just throw and go. No joke, the band sounded great.

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Unfortunately, the trip home isn’t going any better. This morning, we made it from ATW to Detroit (DTW), but our flight from DTW to JFK was canceled and the group was divided, with me scheduled to fly home late tonight and some of the group scheduled to fly home tomorrow morning. We opted to take things into our own hands: retrieve our checked gear and bags from the airline, rent a van and drive the rest of the way home.

As I write this, we’re on the road driving to New York from Detroit. Yikes. It’s a nine-hour drive, but the alternative is waiting around until late tonight, possibly only to learn that our scheduled flight is delayed or canceled.

Have I mentioned that it’s snowing? You can’t make this up.