Daily Camera

By Aidan Payson,
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Making it work

One Boulder act making it big this summer is not scaling back at all.

Boulder's own 3OH!3 will be growling its ironic crunk rock lyrics in nearly 50 cities between June and August as part of the 14-year-old Warped Tour.

Nathaniel Motte, who with Sean Foreman makes up the entirety of 3OH!3, said he believes that because the duo can share a bus with others on tour, they are able to budget it. Motte said the two also rely on catering provided by the tour for meals when there are not too many people waiting in line.

"I'm a bit of a pack-rat, I horde stuff, and Sean and I go to WalMart and get granola bars and stuff," he said.

Though recent successes have brought the Boulder natives management help and even a modest travel budget provided by their record label Photofinish Records, T-shirts and merchandise sold during stops on the tour are a serious financial boost for the band.

"It's really all about 'merch'," he said. "It's crazy, we sold $8,000 in Boston and something like $19,000 in Denver."

Boulder-based Rage Unlimited produced thousands of T-shirts with the band's hand-signed, three-zero-three insignia, and while many stops around the country have been good for sales, none was as profitable as the Warped Tour's Denver stop.

"That pretty much brought us home," said 3OH!3's manager Mike Kaminsky. "Most bands don't do that. They're really connecting out there."

With its new CD "Want" rising to the top 10 albums on iTunes, a brief appearance at No. 89 on the Billboard Charts, and a recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, 3OH!3 is one of the tour's success stories.

For others, the price of gas has forced them to stop touring.

"Warped Tour actually pulled a bunch of bands aside and gave gas cards away," Motte said. "It's pretty much the most precious commodity on tour."