First national tour

The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe , who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX , Pennywise and the Offspring . In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for “spreading the name of the band far and wide”. In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video Good Times with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds . Good Times was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele , who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon . The Good Times tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia ; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise’s members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge , guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman , founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour , sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become “gigantic”. That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia was particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation, but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.