Considering that New Found Glory singer Jordan Pundik sports a Good Charlotte
tattoo and Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden has an NFG tattoo, it's no surprise that the two punk-pop bands are quite
excited to co-headline the 2003 Civic Tour, co-sponsored by Honda and MTV's TRL. The outing gets rolling on April 8th
in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is now confirmed through June 6th in Universal City, California.
"We're like best friends now," Pundik told
Rolling Stone at today's launch at Quixote Studios in West Hollywood. "It's just better to tour with your friends.
And, with Good Charlotte on MTV like every day, hopefully that will help [with ticket sales]."
Good Charlotte's Madden and his twin brother, singer Joel, host MTV's
All Things Rock show, guest host TRL often, and show up on many of the network's specials.
The tour -- which will stop at arenas and amphitheaters -- will also
feature the bands' friends Less Than Jake (April 8th to May 4th) and MxPx (May 6th to June 7th) as openers. In addition, a
fourth band will be on board for select dates. That schedule: the Disasters (all dates except Toronto), Hot Rod Circuit (April
24th to May 10th), Stretch Arm Strong (May 11th to 23th), and the Movielife (May 27th to June 7th).
Tickets for the first leg of the tour go on sale to the general public
on February 28th, but fans can log onto civictour.com starting today to buy tickets in advance. Tickets for the second leg
go on sale March 1st.
One key feature of NFG's act will be bleachers on the side of their
stage for contest winners. "It will make us play better because there will be kids onstage," explains Pundik, adding that
it'll be like having an intimate club show in a big arena. "This is our largest tour to date. Our last headlining tour we
did a couple of scaled-down arenas, and it was really cool to see how our fan base had grown."
As with Honda's previous tours with Blink-182, Incubus and Everclear,
fans can enter to win one of twelve customized Honda Civic Si cars -- one model designed by New Found Glory and the other
by Good Charlotte -- at civictour.com and through various radio and retail promotions nationwide. NFG's red and black car
is decked out with a GameCube system, while Good Charlotte's black and burnt orange car sports green neon-trimmed seat covers
and the word "Hopeless" on the side to tie in with their album, The Young and the Hopeless.
"Our car is faster," quipped Benji at the press conference. "That's
because our massive video game system weighs our car down," New Found Glory's drummer Cyrus Bolooki retorted, but Benji got
the last word in. "Our car is weighed down with crazy hos."
