Day 1  This day just involved driving in a very cramped van with three bands in it. A couple hours in we got a flat tire on the trailer and had to put gear on the backseat to make it even more spacious(sarcasm). Glen and Steve did the driving and we appreciate all Deicide has done for us.

Day 2 Got to the venue early so the gang head to Applebee's. John Li, Josh the sound man, and myself head for Chinese. Show went well even though it sounded horrible on stage and the lights were right in my face the entire set. Some guys from Earache came to the show and only one of them introduced themselves to me. Whats up that that? I'm also selling merch for Deicide so I didn't get to see any of the bands play tonight. Oh well, blogs are made for bitching.

Day 3 Drove to Providence, RI. Found some cheap, but good calzones before they show. The show was killer. Great crowd and our best merch day for any of our shows so far. We'd love to go back and the owner of the club even mentioned having us again. After our set I might have said something negative about the NY Yankees, but I can't remember. Don't get mad NY, its only baseball. Oh yeah, GB got on stage with Vital to do Dechristinize tonight, it was killer.

Day 4 After the show we drove all the way to Virginia because the Hartford show got canceled. It wasn't our fault, the promoter was shady and screwed up the night. Upon arrival in VI, everyone got separate hotel rooms and I'd see random people walking around during the evening. Its only been a couple days, but we all needed a break from each other, in my opinion. Scott and I downloaded Heroes and watched it. KILLER. John Li and I also got some Magic The Gathering games in. He kicked my ass every time. I'll have my revenge. If I can't beat him, I'll unplug his guitar on stage one night.

Day 5 Got up and went to the venue early. Still had to wait around for the promoter to get there. Crowd was cold for the first couple of bands. I had to get them going before Vital and Deicide got up there tonight. By the end of our set we had won over most of them. Couple guys renting a car tonight and that will make the van a lot more spacious. Things are going well.

Day 6 Drove to Chicago all day. Stayed in Milan, Ohio. Just three weeks ago we were in Milan, Italy. I'll tell you Italy was a lot nicer then Ohio. Went down to the restaurant and ran into the Adrift guys. Had pasta.

Day 7 Played The Pearl Room. Great club and the best catering we've had the entire tour. It was my 34th birthday today. Talk of finding the new Lost episode on-line. Crowd was into us. Heard about someone getting beat up in the dressing room. Stayed at hotel across the street. Almost the entire tour went to Denny's. Horrible service. We were there about two hours. GB bought my food, damn should have went for the steak.

Day 8 Heading to Detroit. People have a lot to say about Detroit,  but everyone says not to walk outside the venue. There have been a lot of shootings and stabbings and things at this place. We got to the venue late, about five, and the doors were already open. Had about 40 kids waiting for Deicide merch while I was setting up the booth. Tony, from Vital, and I later commented on how crazy it was the first hour. While loading in I fell down the stairs and got a nice bruise. It will match the other one I got the night before from banging my hand on my guitar at the end of our set each night. Set went well and we sold some cds. We were in a rush to get out of this place. Catering was awful and all I got was two pieces of pizza. Sound guy  lost power to my pedal so I didn't have guitar for half a song and then he kept screwing up my monitor, but the show went well besides that. Scott was doing some heavy duty World Of Warcraft tonight in the dressing room, that I never even saw.

Day 9 Drove all day through IN, IL, IA and finally stopped in Nebraska for the night. Finally got to watch this weeks Lost episode and going to watch Battlestar Galactica right after typing this. Its 1am and we are leaving at 8am, but I still need to shave, shower and change strings. I change them about every fifth show. Talk about booking more tours and shooting a video when we get home. Its 22 degrees outside. Heard Florida was 70 today. That would be nice.
 

Day 10 Aurora, CO today. Show was ok. Bar served me a chicken sandwich that wasn't cooked in the middle. Glad I split it in two before eating. Saw from old friends from Tampa. Drunks hanging around as soon as door opened. Promoter left early. Two tires on the van got slashed today. Great. Glen was pissed and bitching about going home. Calmed down after awhile. Had to sit around the venue for hours waiting to get the tires fixed. Steve took care of it all in stride. Isn't touring wondering?

Day 11 Salt Lake City today. Good club. GB pissed at the sound guy again. Owner of the club is really cool. Last time Deicide played around here someone got stabbed and they could only play three songs. This time everything went well.  We'd like to come back to this place.

Day 12 Farmington, NM today. The club is on or close to a reservation. People loved the metal here. Club owner and promoter want a nice cut of merch, but only did a buy out for food. Rather tense night (again). John Li and myself walk to McDonalds while Deicide is playing. GB had me pull their merch early so I actually had some time to do nothing. It was great.

Day 13 Another one of those all day driving days. The routing on this tour is awful. Couldn't ask for much worse. Jack and Ralph are taking some people in their rental car so that frees up a bit of space in the van. While driving through CA Glen feels the need to roll the windows down while passing a cow farm with about a thousand cows and their manure. It wakes you up. When we pass into Cali everyone gets up. Something cool about California. Some nice drives while there.

Day 14 San Jose, CA. Packed house. Met one of the guys from Deeds Of Flesh at the show. Just a solid show and a cool venue. Cali crowds are really bringing it. Small stage though. John and I start joking about invading each others personal space on stage and have a hand sign to signify it. We start doing this the rest of the tour.

Day 15 Yucaipa, CA. This place is about an hour and a half from LA, but people from LA don't come here and people from here don't go to LA. This is more of the redneck section of California. The place we play is a Roadhouse grill. I ordered my food and it took about an hour. People who ordered after mine got their food first. It was only a roast beef sandwich and not worth the wait. Owner of the place is really cool though. Crowd stayed away from us a bit. I don't know if they just don't know the songs or hate my vocals, but I don't really care either.

Day 16 The Key Club, Hollywood. Get the venue early for a change. John Li, myself and Kaish from Vital Remians ran into Dave Attell on the street and took some pics. He is hilarious. Talk of Steve-O from Jackass being at the show and he ended up introducing Deicide. Great show, but very frustrating night. With the singer of Adrift sick there was no one to watch merch while OOE was playing. A lot of tension going on between and within bands today. This is Deicide's last date of the tour and GB and Ralph are flying out the next day. Cool, more room in the van. With Vital and Deicide having about 10 designs each, its tough selling our merch. Night ended with five of us being locked out of the van with it running and getting cold. Oscars were in town tonight and talk of Oscar partys. I just wanted someone to come and watch the merch so I could play the set without a bunch of bitching.

Day 17 Tempe, AZ. Our first date with just Vital Remains. We've started bonding with the guys and having a good time with them. We were suppose to play right before Vital, but there is some local band that is suppose to bring a crowd. Well they didn't and ended up sucking pretty bad also. Met up with a couple of the guys from Job For A Cowboy tonight. I originally met these guys when I was playing with Deicide in Mexico City. They just happened to be playing the night after us. We did our thing and it was fun. Found out Adrift is going home and taking Josh, the sound guy. Five of them in a small car. Ended up taking them about three days to get home. WOW! Great, more room in the van. Now its just the four of us and James, Steve's drum tech and acting tour manager.

Day 18 El Paso, TX. Well we started hearing we might be on the bill the night before and ended up not playing. Promoter, booking agent blah blah blah. Had the night off, but still stayed around the venue just in case we could play. Walked with John and Scott to get some Italian.

Day 19 Albuquerque, NM. The Launch Pad is the venue tonight. Went down to the Black Bird to eat with the band. Good show. Not too far of a drive tomorrow. Got a room at Motel 6. We use the GPS to find a Denny's. The Denny's is closed so we drive to McDondalds. We use the GPS to find our way back to the hotel. We walk up to our room and put in the key, well it doesn't work. We find out its the wrong Motel 6. I start laughing my ass off. We use the GPS and it brings us to another Motel 6 that isn't ours. Drive around and we end up back at the other Motel 6 and then again at the other wrong Motel 6. James, the drum tech, is pissed, Eric from Vital is getting annoyed and John Li is just sitting in the back. I am laughing the entire time. We finally get back to the right hotel after jumping on two interstates. We still don't know what happened.

Day 19 Amarillo, TX. Cool place. Use to be a swingers club and there are rooms were you could "get together in the venue". Unusual amount of pregnant women at the show tonight. I make the comment that we are not responsible because this is our first time in Texas, but next time you never know. Good merch day and the crowd seemed to really enjoy the show. Long drive tonight to McAllen, here its about 15 hrs.

Day 20 McAllen,TX. That drive sucked and we find out the venue has changed and we are headling the show also. There is no stage and it has a very old school hardcore feel to it because of this. Not a problem for me. We still killed it and the fans were right in front of us. Everytime John Li backed up they would come closer. Right after the show we head to Denny's, then sleep and by 11 am we are on the way home. Its about a 24 hr drive.

Day 21 I got first shift driving. Went fine until we hit around Houston. Trailer tire started to wobble because it had a bubble in it. About an hour later the spare blew out so we had to put the tire with the bubble back on to find a place to get a tire. Its 4pm on Saturday so we are skeptic that anything will be open. We found a Goodyear that was open and were back on the road soon. Scott drove and it was scary. Too much NY in him to drive. Then Steve drove and finally James. I think we hit a dog or opposum sometime iin the morning. I slept the entire way home.

All in all it was a fun tour, but a lot of frustration. This is definately paying our dues. With how smooth the Euro tour was, this was the complete opossite.Trying to book more US and Euro tours, but nothing booked yet. Thanks to everyone who came to see us and all of the bands and promoters. We will return soon.