Trip Carter – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the alternative R&B artist, Trip Carter, shares one of his stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

In 2016, at 21 years old, I got booked as an opener for my first tour ever; 32 US dates opening for CT rapper Felly. After my set, I would also play in Felly’s backing band. This was an independent rap tour, so there was no tour bus or fancy dressing room, but these shows were rowdy as hell. Fel’s fans are diehards and they came out every night in droves to cause mayhem. In addition to that, the majority of his demographic at the time was aged 16-22, so many of them were having their first concert or nightlife experience. This made for inevitable shenanigans.

The story in question took place on the 2nd night of the tour. We were in Connecticut (Fel’s hometown) to play a sold-out show at a legendary New Haven venue called Toad’s Place. Toad’s Place’s capacity is about 1.2K. Prior to this, the biggest show I had played was in front of about 70 people. So, needless to say, I was shitting bricks. To be honest, the whole band was shitting bricks. So, before the show, Fel pulled us aside in the green room to have a little pep talk.

Now, the green room in Toad’s had a very particular setup. I believe they’ve changed and remodeled it since 2016, but at the time, it was directly underneath the stage. There was a hallway that ran end to end underneath the venue, and the green room was behind this little unassuming locked door. The only way to get in was with a code. The funny part about this green room placement is that it shared a hallway with the venue bathroom. So, there were fans moving in and out of this hallway, not realizing that they’re peeing 2 doors down from their favorite artist.

Because of the green room’s placement, it was huge. The artist can’t really leave the room before the show, so the venue wants to make them as comfortable as possible. That means more space. There was a big main area to hang out, and then there were 2 or 3 little side rooms if you needed more privacy. On the night in question, Fel had the main area packed out with friends and family. So, when he pulled the band aside, we went into one of the smaller rooms near the entrance of the green room.

Fel huddled us up and gave a speech along the lines of “I know you guys are nervous, but we’re gonna kill this.” It was actually very inspiring and got us fired up. However, towards the end of his speech there came a strange noise from behind a storage box in the corner of the room. Fel stopped talking and we all looked over at the box, confused. Suddenly, a girl aged about 16 popped out from behind the box.

“I LOVE YOU FELLY!!!!” She screamed hysterically, before lunging for him. Luckily, a security guard just happened to be standing right outside and heard the whole ruckus. Before anyone had time to react, the guard burst in, threw the girl over his shoulder, and dragged her out. All the while she was expressing her love and adoration for Felly while also apologizing for sneaking into the green room. Apparently, she’d noticed Fel’s family going into the secret green room door and had sneakily followed them in. Then she waited in the side room for like an hour before we went in there for our band powwow. Shorty is super wild, but you’ve gotta respect her determination.

As soon as the fan was gone, the whole room burst into laughter. Any anxiety we had immediately faded away. If the stowaway girl’s energy was any indication of the kids waiting in the crowd upstairs, then we had nothing to worry about. We finished up our band powwow, drank some liquid courage, and went upstairs to play one of our wildest shows ever.

Keep up with him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.