I grew up in a small town called Ludington, Mich. It's kind of near Grand Rapids, so my whole family came out to our show last week. We gave away a ton of free shirts to them. I mean, how can you tell your grandma she can't have a free shirt? You can't.

We spent our day off in my hometown. We've been so busy that I haven't been home since October, so it was pretty amazing to see my family. Occasionally, I'll still get homesick even though my real home these days seems to be a bus. I saw my parents, my brother, my nephew, my dog -- pretty much everyone. I even saw a bunch of people that I knew from high school just by walking around. That's how it is in a small town. You kinda know everyone.

Our show in Chicago was pretty out of control. It was the type of show where everyone was dancing so much that the floor was moving up and down. It felt like an earthquake onstage. I always love the feeling of people singing to songs that I've written, and I think I had just about one of the best moments when we played "Seventeen Forever" at that show. Afterwards, we went to the merch table to meet people and it was chaos. You know, the good kind of chaos. I enjoyed Chicago a lot.

-- Blake