Better Things Tour is HEAVY3 Tour Van's Maiden Voyage; UVM Donation Sustains Program
Words by James Lockridge and Brian LaClair. Photo courtesy Better Things.
Big Heavy World's cooperative tour van program is on the road again with the third incarnation, HEAVY3. The 1999 Ford comes to us as a donation by the music fans of the University of Vermont Recycling and Solid Waste program. Big Heavy sends special thanks to Corey Berman and Julie MacDonald for their support and the work to accomplish the gift; we couldn't be more psyched to be on the road again. Funny how criss-crossing the country wears tour vans out. :) We're looking forward to getting HEAVY3 some more benches and welcome the interest of any local music fan/mechanics who'd like to pitch in their expertise to help us keep it on the road in top shape!
The Maiden Voyage of Big Heavy 3
"At 21 years old, giving vehicles tender-loving care has never been our forte... so when Jim pulled the new Big Heavy van into the yard, we were amazed to say the least. This van is nearly as old as we are, and seems to run much better than we do.
We knew it was time to schedule a short tour, so we decided to challenge ourselves to schedule it a month out (a huge mistake - don't do that) but that didn't turn out to be the hard part. The hard part was trying to find a bench seat... we searched high and low in every junkyard and called every friend who has touched a van in the last year to find one and it looked like we were out of luck. At the last minute, we received a call from a guy named Rich who heard we were looking for a bench seat, and he had one that fit.
We kicked it off right here in Jim's Basement, and then set off to the Boston area to play several acoustic sets. We next headed to Connecticut for a full band show, and lastly up to Plattsburgh. Overall we had a successful tour... we played some incredible shows, the van didn't break down, we met wonderful people, and we have a beautiful baby bench seat <3" — Brian LaClair, Better Things
Better Things performs in Burlington on Saturday, December 5, info at https://www.facebook.com/events/166435437041109/