Get in the van
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The tour diary is one of my favorite forms of writing. It combines two things I love, music and travel. The best tour diary ever is Henry Rollins’ Get in the Van, about his Black Flag days. But I love reading most other tour diaries, even by bands I dislike. Their music may not interest me, but their lives do. Any band who tours has an interesting life. It’s not necessarily a good life. In fact, the most interesting lives are often the worst ones. But regardless of how a touring band rolls, in a bus or in a van, it sees and does things most people never do.
Tombs – Beneath the Toxic JungleOrder of Ennead – Introspection and the Loss of Denial
Two tour diaries have commanded my time lately. The first is by Mike Hill of Tombs. Either he has a military background, and/or he has a heavy Rollins influence, with terminology like, “Racked out at 1100 Hr.” His hard-bitten tone is similar, too. He’s not afraid to rip on other bands, like Dredg, who inexplicably took Tombs and Pelican out on tour. Here are some gems from his diary. It won’t ever be published in hard copy – not without serious spell checking, anyway – but it has heart, soul, and an eye for details.
Dredg went on after us and did their kind of predictable thing with the vocals and guitar effects. Their whole thing is kind of funny; they?re rolling with this 8 person travel group yet they can only really draw about 100 people each night. I noticed that on the nights they headline over Pelican, a substantial amount of people wander out of the venue.
The venue itself was kind of a strange setup. One side was a pool hall with an outdoor patio. The other side is a venue. An area was cordoned off with caution tape to delineate the overage and underage sections. I thought aout how much I hate alcohol and dealing with drunk people and the caution tape became this kind of epxressionist thing for me where it ?cautioned? you about going into the bar and getting wasted. You may tunr into an asshole; you may become one of those bloated douchebags that wears a backwards baseball cap and an untucked dress shirt.
Pelican and us have been travelling in convoy formation all day in case of an emergency. For the whole day we had no more than 30 feet visibility. At times, there was a complete whiteout. The wind swept across the highway. The snow was so fine that it billowed like white smoke or steam obscuring the countryside. White desolation surrounded us. It was the middle of nowhere, there was virutually no one else on the road Occasionally we?d see trucks and cars that had skidded off the road and lay wrecked on the median.
Tonight is the last night of the tour; I?m sitting here trying to not think about the shit storm that I have to deal with when I get back to New York. I don?t know how to be in a relationship with anyone. I have no idea how to do any of this. Playing in a band is the only thing that I?m any good at, and that?s debatable as well. It?s the only thing that I?ve done consistantly for my whole life. I?ve never really held onto a job for very long and my thing with women comes and goes. I fade in and out.
We confirmed tha Isis tour today. Pelican will be out on that as well. It starts in a little over a month so as bad as it gets at home, at least I know that I?m leaving in a few weeks. That always makes me feel comfortable knowing that I?m leaving. I?ll take touring over being at home any time especially since it appears that everything is melting down. This is the only path for me, it?s the only thing that I don?t let down. The road dictates my actions and I have to follow.
The second is by Kevin Quirion of Order of Ennead. Recently his band toured Europe alongside Vital Remains and Tribulation. His tour diary isn’t half as heavy as Hill’s. I gather that Europe is easier to tour than America. No soul-destroying long drives, nicer venues with showers, and so on. Quirion’s diary is a testament to the important little things on the road: food, showers, laundry, and sometimes women.
Show went well and even met some people that saw us in January in Bochum. They started a chant for us “Book Again”. That was cool. There was an after party following the show until 6am. Man was that a mistake. All I will say is some people were drunk, some were bloody and the entire tour almost got thrown out of the club. Having 4 bands with near endless beer on tour is probably not a good idea.
No shows booked for two days so we hung around southern France for two days. The bus parked about 3 miles from the center of town. There was food close by, but it was expensive. Had pizza everyday that was actually very good. Bought the guys in Tribulation crepes. A must in my opinion for anyone visiting France. Everyone got drunk for two days and some enjoyed very fresh oysters.
At first we couldn’t find the club. There is no sign on the building and its an industrial park. Its one of these venues you pull up to and say “What the hell is this place?” Then later you play the show and its killer. Walked around a bit and not a thing to see here. We are miles away from the city. Great show though and all were drunk and taking pictures with all of the beautiful French ladies.
Later the show went fantastic and then most of the bands watched Samael. Some had never seen them and Scott and myself have been talking them up all tour. They were awesome as usual and it was really nice to see them again. It was just a great day all together and I forgot to mention this place has a washer and dryer. That should say it all.
Show went well, but I wasn’t into much tonight. Monotony of the road setting in, but everyone liked the show. Did an interview afterwards with someone I did one for on-line months ago. Some women hanging around backstage. What does that mean?
Tombs tour diaries
Order of Ennead tour diaries
