For some, playing Rock Band is as close as they’ll get to being a rock star. For one ASU student, the experience was a little more real — he got to live it.

Religious studies junior Brian “Banjo” Pouderoyen accompanied his friend’s band, Dear and the Headlights, for four days in July while they toured with Jimmy Eat World from Seattle to Los Angeles.

Pouderoyen met up with his friends in Portland before the band had to be at the Roseland Theater for their soundcheck.

It was hours before the concert, when Pouderoyen walked into the empty venue where Jimmy Eat World was already doing their soundcheck. He says it was the first time he had seen them in five years after being a big fan, and they were playing a song that had a particularly special meaning to him.

“I was just hearing them play it, like to nobody, and I was just standing there in awe,” Pouderoyen says.
Watching the bands go through their soundchecks before the shows became part of Pouderoyen’s regular hangout for a few days.

Afterwards he would rejoin his friends and they would go out to get a drink and walk around the city. When they came back, the theater would be completely filled and it was showtime.

After the concert and a late night of drinking, the band and Pouderoyen took to the road in a big van with a trailer of equipment behind them. On the way they listened to their album and sang along.

“It was like a real tour moment,” Pouderoyen says. “I don’t really know, but it felt like it,” he adds.

On the band’s day off in northern California, they spent a day enjoying nature in the red wood forest. Pouderoyen says it was significant for the band, not just to have a day off, but to have the day off in such a cool place.

They spent the whole day there and then they started over again at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco the next day.

Understandably, one of the perks was having backstage access. Pouderoyen says he was surprised by the amount of free gourmet food and top shelf alcohol they got backstage, as well as how well they were treated at the venue.

Pouderoyen says after being greeted and having the equipment unloaded, a backstage coordinator would make sure the band had everything they needed.

“They were just really taken care of,” Pouderoyen says.

Some of Pouderoyen’s most memorable moments were being around Jim Adkins, the lead singer of Jimmy Eat World.

“I didn’t expect to talk to that guy or hear him talk as often as I did,” Pouderoyen says. He also says that he didn’t expect to learn about things that you don’t hear about in the magazines, like their recording life, working with a label and CD sales.

“I didn’t expect to get that in-depth look into Jimmy Eat World,” Pouderoyen says.

Pouderoyen says it was one of the best vacations he’s had.

“I didn’t know what to expect, so everything was just amazing,” Pouderoyen says.

And who could blame him.

Reach the reporter at nicole.ethier@asu.edu.