True Beauty lies Beneath the Skin (Phan)

To the Stage

I know that I should walk away
But I can't bring myself to quite this game
She's just a beautiful girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders
I'm just a kick in the teeth from a world that's painted gold

Life on tour and life in London were two very different things.

Despite the decision to give up on all the partying, it was still an absolutely hectic experience for Phil every tour. He wouldn't give it up for the world though. All of the early mornings trying to get up and ready so they could go set up at the venue and rehearse were totally worth it. Phil loved his music, he loved his fans, he loved his band; aside from the things in his life that were currently a disaster, he supposed he couldn't complain too much about his life as a whole.

The typical morning started with a wake up call from Iesha, a number of tired groans, then everyone trying to put something on other than their boxers before going into the lounge to get some coffee and breakfast - which, for Phil, was almost always cereal. Then they'd argue over who got to use the shower first - it was almost always Iesha though - get dressed and attempt to look presentable, though they'd save their stage outfits and makeup for later. 

If they needed to run to a store to get some more food, makeup, etc. they'd run and do that, then head to the venue. They'd order lunch from the nearest - and usually cheapest - fast food place that they could find. They'd get their equipment out of their trailer of the tour bus, scope out the venue and put everything in the correct place, eat lunch and then begin sound check and rehearsal for all of the bands. They always tried to save a little bit of left overs from lunch for them to eat for dinner later on in the evening as well.

Sometimes the band put on their stage clothes and any makeup they chose to wear - if any - before the meet 'n' greets - that is, if meet 'n' greets were an option on that particular tour (they usually were, but not always) - and sometimes they'd do it after. 

And soon, it was show time.

Concerts always seemed to go much too quickly for Phil. Every time he walked off stage, he almost always wanted to go back and continue. However, once his exhaustion hit him, he let himself relax a little bit. Now, the end of the night used to result in the band putting all of their equipment away, then going out to a restaurant to eat - despite it being one in the morning - or going out to a club to drink and party. It was usually the latter.

The majority of the members of Runaway Exorcist still did this. Phil, however, hadn't done that the past two tours. Instead he chose to go back to the tour bus and either chat with Iesha, watch some TV or a movie, play a video game - often trying to teach Iesha how to play some of his games - or read a book. Iesha had basically become Phil's life coach at this point, but he was grateful that she was willing to spend nights with him and help him through some of the things he was going through.

Once in a while, the band would reside in a hotel rather than a rest stop, so they'd get a break from their cramped bunks and get the chance to sleep in a real bed, shower in a real shower, and use a real toilet. This would usually result in Phil getting an astronomical amount of pancakes for breakfast each morning, which always seemed to bring out his inner little kid. However, there were times in the past where the post-concert-parties had been brought to the hotel room, resulting in the hotel rooms getting trashed by the next morning and Iesha yelling at the guys to clean everything up as best they could so the "poor cleaning ladies won't have to deal with it".

The past couple of occasions where the band had stayed in hotels, this hadn't happened because of Phil's changes in attitude - Iesha had never really been much of a partier either, but throw Phil into the mix and there was almost no point in having hotel parties anymore. Iesha always demanded that the guys be back by 3 in the morning, and they usually were.