From Nate Derby

Day 5 - 05/24/11 - St. Catharines - L3 Nightclub
At 12:30pm, I woke up sweating like a pig. I was sleeping through a beautiful day. I shook off my hangover, gathered myself and my things and headed towards the house to make some food. Franz was pacing around his yard in an attempt to wrangle his dog Audrey, who was running around the neighborhood at top speed. As I walked up to the house, Landon, Jaden (LWL’s merch guy for the last few shows) and Chris from the Flatliners, came outside and we started chatting by LWL’s van and trailer. 

Two minutes into our conversation, we heard the most horrible thing possible - screeching car tires, a thud, and yelping. We all instantly knew what had happened, and rushed over to the source of all the commotion. Audrey had been hit by a car. We kept our distance to let Franz take care of the situation - he quickly scooped Audrey up and carried her back to the house. She was a little scraped up and obviously in shock, but otherwise appeared okay.

Allana quickly jumped in a car and drove Franz to the vet to have Audrey checked out. In shock ourselves, we took a moment and then filed inside. In the house, I made some lunch, and a few of us played the new Mortal Kombat game for PS3. Some of the band was running errands, and as they returned to the house we informed them of what happened to Audrey.

After half an hour or so, Franz came back to the house and informed us of the situation - Audrey was going to stay overnight for observation. Franz hung out with us for a bit and we tried to act as if everything was okay, until Franz got a call from the vet; Audrey wasn’t stabilizing, and he needed to return to the ER right away.

Considering the situation, we decided it was best to leave the house and head to the show. In the van, we discovered that the 1/8” cable to the stereo was malfunctioning, so we ran around Burlington for a while trying to find the right cable. For some reason, we thought we needed a cable longer than 6ft, so we bought a 6ft cable and extender from Best Buy for $25. Considering the cables’ real value, Best Buy robbed us. With the cables hooked up we immediately realized 12ft of cable was way too much, but at least it worked. Fuck it.

The mood was tense, so I put on “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys on the drive to St. Catharines in an effort to liven up our spirits. It was a great accompaniment to a drive on the Lake Ontario coast on a day with such perfect weather.

We arrived at the L3 Nightclub in downtown St. Catharines at 4pm and immediately loaded in. It was another really nice venue. We scoped the joint out and hoped that we’d be playing the larger venue upstairs, but we were informed that the smaller stage by the front doors would be our spot for the night. 

With gear and merch loaded in, the four of us left the venue and walked about a block to get some food. Our choices were between a local pita joint, and a nice mexican restaurant. We went into the mexican restaurant to see a menu - it was over our budgets but we knew the food would be great so we decided to split our meals.

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It’s been highly delayed, but we are still extremely stoked to be able to welcome back Such Gold for a brand new Road Blog edition to catalogue their recent Canadian tour with Living With Lions. The tour happened nearly a month ago, but Nate Derby’s updates are still incredible to read, so enjoy! 

From Nate Derby:

DAY 1 - 05/20/11
Although our first official day of tour was not scheduled to start until the 21st, we decided it would be a wise choice to leave a day early, to avoid issues at the border. I’ve done plenty of US/Canadian border crossings in the past, and my experiences have proven that anything can happen. Hitting border traffic at the wrong time during the weekend can be an absolute nightmare. We figured our best bet would be to get through the border and to Montreal as early as possible, and sleep in the bus until the afternoon.
 
I was unable to make it to practice on the 20th, so at 10 PM we rendezvoused halfway between our practice space and my apartment in downtown Rochester, NY. After hauling my gear into the van, and saying my goodbyes to my fiance, I realized that I had left my van and trailer keys at the apartment - a frustrating and stupid mistake. We now had two guys without van keys (Devan has been missing his for a while now), so we made a stop at the nearest Walmart our next priority.
 
At Walmart, Devan and I had two new copies of the van key made, and bought provisions we’d need for the trip. By 11 PM, we were finally on I-90, heading east to our next stop: Syracuse, NY. Devon had his parents print out the necessary documents we’d need to enter Canada, which we picked up at their home in East Syracuse. We stopped for fuel, and continued our journey, now going north up I-81 towards Canada.
 
We hit the border at the Lansdowne Crossing around 2:30 AM; the border guard at the gate directed us towards the immigration building for an official check-in, which we had prepared for. The guards showed us inside and told us to take a seat while another group of three guys were being questioned. As we waited we overheard individuals from the group being questioned about jail time, prior arrests and offenses - it seemed like the guards were going to give them the ok to cross the border until they found some 7mm ammunition in their vehicle, prompting further questioning from the guards.
 
It wasn’t until around 3:10AM until someone started helping us; our passports and immigration documents were processed and the bus was searched. The officials didn’t find anything worth confiscating or taxing, and our documents checked out so they let us go at 3:30 AM. I wish I could have that hour of my life back, but I guess it was time necessary to spend in exchange for the fun we were about to have in Canada. We shuffled back into the van, Devon took the wheel once again, and we were off into the Great White North. The next thing I knew, my phone was glaring “9:30 AM” at me, and the scene outside the window was of a dismal parking lot somewhere in Southern Ontario.

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From Nate Derby:

Before we start this tour update, we would like to send out our deepest condolences to everyone in Japan, especially those who have been effected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Our time in Japan was incredible, and we hope the country a speedy recovery from the terrible events that have taken place there.
 
If you haven’t heard, there is currently a digital compilation called “Vs. The Earthquake” available for sale, featuring rare and unreleased music from a ton of amazing bands. We’ve included our cover of The Movielife tracks “I Hope You Die Soon” and “10 Seconds Too Late”. All the money raised goes directly to Japan to help with the relief efforts there. Here is a link with more information: http://vstheearthquake.limitedpressing.com/

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From Nate Derby:

The road to Melbourne was pretty brutal. We are not strangers to long drives, but having endured them countless times before does not make them any easier. Having slept only 3 hours made it even worse - it’s nearly impossible to sleep sitting up in a moving vehicle for any more than 30-60 minutes at a time. As we left Wollongong we observed the landscape change from lush, green mountains with craggy, reddish-brown outcroppings to dry, rolling hills, much like the Bay Area in summertime. We hit some more rain along the way and discovered a few small leaks in both the roof and the floor of the bus. The carpet turned into a soggy, mildewy mess - the stench was unbelievable.
 
We arrived in Melboune at 6PM - we were playing the Arthouse, a legendary Australian venue that was about to close, due to their 20-yr lease being up in the Spring. After loading in a group of us walked down to the Victoria Market train station to hop a streetcar further into the city - our destination was “Lord Of The Fries”, a local food staple specializing in french fries covered in a number of interesting sauces, and vegan options like chicken nuggets and burgers. For example, Brock got “Italian”, which consisted of fries topped with marinara and mozzarella cheese, someone else got “American”, which was a sweet BBQ sauce, while I got vegan nuggets and plain fries with a side of “Aussie” (ketchup) and “Parisian”, which was garlic aioli mayo. It ruled.
 
After stuffing our faces full of saucy, fried goodness we hopped back onto a streetcar and headed back to the Arthouse. Most started the drinking early - the bar fed us free “pots” of beer - ½ pint glasses of whatever was on tap. Naturally, I chose Coopers Pale Ale, as did the rest of our beer-swilling crew. When the show began it started down-pouring outside. Apparently Melbourne was due to get hit with the tail end of the cyclone that had devastated most of Northern Queensland just a few days prior. I was in the back gear room relaxing when it started - I was hearing all this water hitting concrete and couldn’t figure out what was going on…I thought someone was showering somewhere. Then when it started dripping from the ceiling onto our Mesa’s road case and some cymbals I knew something was up. I walked out of the room and into the hallway only to see a flood of water rushing down the hall towards some of the group’s bags. I managed to save a few items before the flood hit and then called for help to finish the job. Thankfully only a towel/sleeping bag were soaked in the flood.

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From Nate Derby:

Before we get into week 3, there are a few things about Australia you need to know. 
- cars/pedestrian traffic are on “the wrong side”
- tons of great ice cream: Magnum, Weis, Paddle Pops, Golden Gaytime, Heaven, Calypso, the list goes on.
- everything sweet is made with real sugar. NOT Corn Syrup. (In fact, now that we’ve seen Japan and now the UK we’re seeing the same is true elsewhere outside the US). Everything tastes way better, which is not a surprise.
- toilets - water spins opposite way…the myth is true! Also, there are two buttons to flush the toilets…I think one is for #1…the other for #2. (Also seems to be true for the rest of the world). Toilets are also super deep for some reason…excessively splashy as a result.
- Australians love tiny meat pies, and Vegemite.
- Best affordable beer: Coopers Pale Ale
- they love to abbreviate everything - McDonalds is “maccas”, breakfast is “brekkie”, chicken is “chook”, barbeque is “barbie”, etc. (Sidenote: why are the only ones I remember food related?)
- Peppers of any kind are “capsicum”, which you see most often see as green peppers.
- some more common words/phrases: “reckon”, “keen”, “heaps”, “heaps keen”, “no worries”, “mate”, “hey?” = “come again?” or “what?”, “cheers”, “take away” = “to go”, etc.
- Absolutely nobody drinks Fosters. Didn’t see one bar that served it, or a single person drinking it the whole time we were in Australia. “Australian For Beer” my ass.
- Devan adds: “Their pool balls be smaller I reckon, eh?” and “Everything is too fucking god damn expensive.”
 
Week 3 of our tour started off on 01/28 in Newcastle, NSW, just a couple hours North of Sydney. We kicked the day off right with an early morning drive back down the Pacific coast, from Brisbane. It was another hellish drive in sub-tropical Queensland summer heat, taking a good 10+ hours to get to Newcastle. A couple of hours into the drive we started a solid game of Cee-lo that eventually had some pretty big wagers, thanks to O-rock and Tom for going all out. I played four rounds but was forced to quit after the fourth loss in a row. When we finally arrived, everyone seemed to have gone a bit crazy from the heat and the long drive; we continued a fun game we had started earlier, yelling “excuse me sir/miss/ma’am” to the locals as we drove by, and laughing hysterically when they looked towards the van. Typical obnoxious BS from typical Americans. We love it.
 
When we arrived in Newcastle, NSW Jon from No Trigger made a joke about the Australian equivalent of Scranton, PA, which we all agreed was pretty accurate from what we saw. The venue we played was the Cambridge - our gear was loaded into a back hallway behind the stage, which led out to the street. The room was a pretty good size - enough to hold at least 300. In the room adjacent to the venue was a small bar and kitchen that made pretty awesome pizza for a decent price. A few of us ordered roasted pumpkin/spinach/feta/red sauce which ruled; the best was Tully’s pizza with goat cheese/rosemary/olive oil and lemon juice. Excitebike was the first band to start the night off. We started to get a little worried about the show when we saw only around 15 people watching Excitebike, and even more worried when maybe 30 showed up to watch the next band Mary Jane Kelly.
 
MJK is an awesome band from Wollongong, about an hour south of Sydney; their sound is a solid mix of ETID, Shai Hulud, with stoner metal riffs and tuning thrown in for good measure. They put on a great show, but unfortunately the kids that watched seemed pretty bored. It was discouraging to see the small crowd for the locals, but thankfully kids started to file into the room as we set our gear up. We played our tightest, best sounding set of the tour to a crowd of around 60 or 70 kids, with a few of them singing along as well. No Trigger had a crowd of equal size with an even better reaction, as expected. Since we were playing 4 shows total with Mary Jane Kelly I made a point of starting a conversation with Brendan, their bass player, who I immediately recognized to be a genuinely nice guy. After loading out of the venue we took a short drive back to Sydney; the majority of us stayed at Tully’s house once again.
 
The next day in Sydney was Blood, Sweat and Beers Fest - which was the catalyst for booking the Australian tour. However, we were only scheduled to play an acoustic set, which seemed a bit crazy since we were booked on the fest for months prior to actually arriving in Australia - it’s not like we were added last minute. Not a big deal at all. Either way, No Trigger offered to split their set with us, which gave us enough time to do a short, 3-song set. We chose our strongest songs - “Sycamore”, “Gut Rot” and “Four Superbowls, No Rings”.
 
Upon arriving at the site of the fest, the Annandale Hotel, we were given our artist passes and a multitude of drink passes. We showed up first to the venue and had lots of time to kill after loading in - we brought guitars to the upstairs part of the venue which contained a small lounge for band members, complete with a flat-screen TV with Cable, couches, and a bar area stocked with a case of Coopers Pale Ale. Myself, Mike P. and Jon from No Trigger got to work re-stringing and cleaning our guitars, a meticulous process which ended up taking me around three hours to complete. By the time I was done I had managed to miss Totally Unicorn, one of the biggest highlights of the fest, who apparently completely tore the place apart. Totally Unicorn is a four piece “magical animal hardcore” band with a sound comparable to Heavy Heavy Low Low. Most of the members are large and bearded, especially their singer, Drew, who is known to have an insane stage presence. Apparently during their BSB set he walked across the bar adjacent to the stage, and carried around a stage monitor during one of their songs. Everyone described their set as nothing short of incredible, and frankly I’m pretty bummed I missed it.
 
At 5PM Ben and Tim did a short acoustic set, which was followed up by No Trigger’s 25 minute set. When they were finished Tom introduced us as a special guest, and we went on to play our short, 3-song set for a crowd of around 350+ people. After our set myself, Tom, Ben, Brad and Devon ate some awesome Thai food at a restaurant connected to the venue - our meals were half price, which really helped make the meal more affordable for everyone. Food was accompanied with drink, thanks to the drink tickets we had gotten earlier in the night. Most of us ended up pretty drunk by the end of the night, with a couple of the group ending up getting thrown out; in Australia, according to law, bars have the right to throw you out if they decide you are too drunk. The Police can come in and slap a huge fine on the bar if they see someone that is overly intoxicated. At the end of the night most of us settled down at Tully and Brock’s, while O-Rock headed to the secluded territory of Jervis Bay for a mini-vacation with our bus driver, Wayne.
 
The following day was our early Sunday matinee show, which was also at the Annandale Hotel. We left our gear there the night of BSB to save some labor/time the next day. We arrived at the venue pretty beat and hung over from the night before. Most of the afternoon was spent upstairs in the lounge watching a marathon of How I Met Your Mother, the official sitcom of Such Gold. We played with Mary Jane Kelly again - once again their was a small turnout for them and the other locals, but the room started to fill as we set our equipment up. Both us and No Trigger played another solid set, with a much better reaction than the night before at Blood, Sweat and Beers. After our set I went back over to the Thai restaurant for another meal - this time I was joined by Brendan from MJK, his girlfriend Emma, AJ, a friend, and Kelly, the editor for Blunt - an Australian punk/alternative magazine. Since it was such a short show, we ended up back at Tully’s before 5. A small group immediately headed to Bondi Beach, while the rest of us stayed and relaxed. We found ourselves at Bondi Beach about 6:30PM, just as the sun was starting to set. Bondi was easily one of the nicest beaches we have been to - perfect waves, crystal clear water, clean sand, and cliffs lined with expensive condos. Tully and I jumped in for a quick swim - I ended up staying in the water for over an hour; I was having too much fun to get out. While we swam some of the guys from No Trigger, Devan, and a friend Alex, who drove, went and got some burritos. We were back at Tully’s by 9PM, and returned exhausted and water-logged, ready for a good night’s rest.
 
On Monday morning we got nearly the whole tour together for a trip to a local Koala Park - we managed to get a group rate of $14 each. The first order of business at the park was to get pictures with some of the Koalas. The handler brought out a female, Mudgee, for her feeding. Each of us was able to go up to the Koala for some petting and pictures; we also got some great shots of a few other female Koalas lounging around in awkward positions in the trees in their habitat. Next on the list was feeding some Grey Kangaroos. We walked back to the entrance to buy some food for them for $1.70 - it ended up being a decent sized paper bag filled with some kind of grass. The Kangaroos in the enclosure were very docile, most just lounged around in the shade due to the heat. Two of the female ‘Roos had Joey’s in their pouches; we noticed that they were pretty slimy for some reason. One of the females I was feeding decided to grab the whole bag of food out of my hands…but was only eating the bag. I hesitated to grab the bag from her, but managed to get it back without having my eyes clawed out.
 
Some of the other wildlife at the small zoo included Red Kangaroos, Wallabies and Wallaroos, and a few crazy local birds. When we had had enough we got together for a group picture in front of the Koala Park sign, and made a 7/11 pit-stop; Slurpee upon Slurpee was consumed. The group split up after 7/11 - Tully, Ben, Tim and myself went into downtown Sydney to see the sights. We walked from Tully’s house to Newtown train station and took a train into Circular Quay. After exiting the train we walked down the wharf towards the Sydney Opera House. We got some great pictures of everyone in front of the opera house, and some with the Harbor Bridge in the background. Seeing the Syndey Opera House confirmed that we had actually made it - it is one of the many landmarks that you know you may not ever get to see up close. From the opera house we walked into the city via the Royal Botanical Gardens, and explored much of the downtown area for a couple of hours. When we had our fill of the city we hopped on a train in Central Station, one of Sydney’s major transit hubs. Back in Newtown we decided it was time for some grub - Tully took us to his favorite burrito spot, Guzman y Gomez. Since I’ve been on a fish taco kick I went for the Barramundi (a local fish) in my Burrito. It ruled, which was not a surprise. By the time we had gotten back to Tully’s it was pretty late in the afternoon - eventually one of the groups came back to Tully’s, worn out from spending their afternoon at Bondi Beach.
 
On our 2nd day off in Sydney, Tully, Tim, Ben and myself awoke at 8AM for an early morning beach trip. Instead of going to Bondi first we cruised the coast and picked which beach looked best, which ended up being Congee Beach. There was a small crowd at the beach, but we had most of the sand and surf to ourselves. By 9AM it was already close to 90ºF, so the first order of business was getting in the water and catching some waves. It didn’t take long to realize that we were in for a bit more than we bargained for. The waves started out pretty manageable, but ended up getting larger and larger, until they started rising a few feet above our heads, crashing down on us and slamming us into the shallow water. After 30min of pulverization, we headed to Bondi Beach for some calmer waves.
 
Around noon we decided it was about time to end our beach trip - by then we were pretty worn out by the sand and surf. Back at Tully’s I realized I had gotten some serious sun, but wouldn’t experience the full extent of the sunburn on my shoulders until later that afternoon. While our group was at the beach the rest of the guys were out in Sydney, seeing the same sights we had seen the day before; they arrived at Tully’s only a few minutes after us. Around 1PM nearly everyone headed over to Tully and Brock’s friend Emilia’s house, to get a tour tattoo. I stayed back at Tully’s for some peace and relaxation during the first few hours of inking. Ben came back after his tattoo was finished, and we walked over to Emilia’s together, so that I could get my tattoo done as well. 8 of us got the tour tattoo - a small koala with a red bandanna on a tree, inspired by Wayne, our bus driver. Devan and I mixed things up a bit with ours - he got ‘Heaps Keen’ under his Koala, and I had Emilia color green into the bandanna and put ‘No Worries’ above mine. We each got the tattoo in just about the same spot - the left side of our right ankles. I think we all would agree that permanently inking this tour on our bodies was worth the brief pain.
 
We left Sydney by 11AM the next morning for an easy drive to Canberra, for our show at Bar 32. An hour into the trip we stopped in Goulburn; the rest stop showcased a giant ram statue, one of the many large-sized attractions we saw during our time in Australia. We got to Canberra in the afternoon with plenty of time to kill. We spent most of that time in a well air-conditioned shopping center a couple block from the venue. It started to downpour outside while we were in the mall; the rain was a godsend since it put the sun behind clouds for the rest of the afternoon, and cooled the city down by at least 15 degrees. Near the mall’s entrance there were 10 or so computers with internet that you could use for a small amount of cash. I paid the $2 for 20min - everyone walked off on their own 10 minutes into my computer time and that was the last I saw of the group for the next couple of hours. When I left the mall I headed back the same way we had came, and found Tom sitting outside a coffee shop in the courtyard, drinking some espresso. We chatted for an hour and headed back to the venue just as doors were opening.

I was immediately overwhelmed by the strong odor of piss and shit emanating from the bathrooms as we entered through the back - something we’ve become accustomed to in Australian venues. In the bar area there were some vegan treats - cupcakes, cookies, etc. - being sold for cheap. The show carried on, and Mary Jane Kelly tore it up once again. During the show it started raining again, and the rain continued all throughout the night, causing the back parking lot to transform into a small pond. I dreaded playing as our set approached - I was in the throes of an extremely painful sunburn on my shoulders, and the heat of the last few days left me exhausted. We still played a fun set to a packed house, and there were a few kids singing along. When the show was over we packed into the van and headed towards our sleep spot in Wollongong. As we left everyone mentioned how they felt a bit crazy - O-rock suggested it was the heat boiling our brains. We all agreed that he was probably right. In Wollongong we stayed with Tully’s friend Drew, who sings for Totally Unicorn. We had most of the house to ourselves - a few of us were in the living room and the rest of us slept in a lounge area that lead to the backyard. It was extremely hot and humid both outside and inside the house, and the windows would not close, forcing exposure to countless mosquitoes and flies buzzing around us all night. Despite the heat we were forced to bundle up with blankets to avoid mosquitoes from eating us alive. My face was spared, but some of us weren’t so lucky.
 
The next morning, we jumped into the bus for a short drive into downtown Wollongong for breakfast at a local cafe. Most of the group ordered a traditional Australian breakfast, a giant plate of toast, bacon, sausage, egg and beans. A Denny’s grand slam would be dwarfed by the massive plates of food that came out of the cafe. While we ate breakfast my phone decided to break, and the last thing any of us need is a messed up phone only 3 weeks into an international tour. After breakfast everyone headed to the beach, while I walked back to Drew’s to relax and nurse my awful sunburn. I was able to take advantage of some Wifi for the first time in days, and got my phone back to a usable state. The beach-goers were back in the afternoon, and arrived with a ton of food for a BBQ - veggie sausage, lamb chops, chicken strips, etc. After our feast we packed up and headed to the venue, Stay Frosty, which was 10 minutes outside of the city. We loaded in, and Tim got to work fixing up the Telecaster, which has had some problems with the bridge pickup. Mary Jane Kelly played with us another night, and they played another great set yet again. Kids were singing along for both us and No Trigger, which really made all the long drives worth it. Everyone was definitely worn out from the beach trip, but both bands still played great sets. I think the drink tickets we were given kept everyone going throughout the night.
 
After the show we loaded out and said our goodbyes to Alex, and the guys in MJK, who we wouldn’t see for a while since we were heading out West to Melbourne. We went back to Drew’s again that night - we were asleep by 2AM, but had to be up at 5:30AM to leave for Melbourne. The journey ahead would prove to be long and hard, but worth it.

We are extremely excited to be posting Such Gold’s second Road Blog update for PropertyOfZack today! This week’s update tracks the band finishing up their US tour, LAX adventure, and first Australian shows. Enjoy it!

From Nate Derby:

After a solid week of shows across the Northeast, in the Midwest and Texas, we found ourselves in Albuquerque, NM, on 01/20. We were supposed to play Albuquerque two times before, on the last two tours that brought us down through the Southwest, but both shows were cancelled last minute. We thought, “Finally! We’ll get to play an Albuquerque show!”…however it was brought to our attention that Albuquerque shows typically do not have such good turnouts. Spirits were high either way - we always enjoy playing cities for the first time. We drove overnight from Plano, and got a real cheap hotel room that we were able to use all day so we could shower, take naps, do some work. Definitely much needed. Devan stayed with his girlfriend Chloe from Denver, and her friend Taylor, who drove down for the show and got a hotel room across the street from ours.

When we got to the show we discovered the tour package was put in the middle of the night - we were added to the show late so there were locals headlining over us. No big deal. Taylor did some photos of us at the show - candid, promo, and live. The show did about as expected - around 25 kids + bands. I think we were given $40 from the door. Better than nothing, for sure. Also at the show were the bands Stickup Kid and Heart To Heart - they didn’t play, but had an off day in Albuquerque and decided to come hang out at the show. Seemed like really nice guys.

After the show the 4 bands headed over to the local Waffle House - we packed the place entirely. Naturally the service was shit and the food was sub par, but it’s cheap and fills you up. After we eating we decided to take a Such Gold/Rust Belt Lights tour photo in front of our two vehicles. That night we drove a solid 16 hours to Los Angeles. In the morning, we woke up to a perfect Arizona sunrise; by the time I was able to get a couple of pictures most of the color had faded. The last two times we crossed the Southwest we came from El Paso across I-10 and I-8, but coming from Albuquerque brought us down I-40 for a few hundred miles, so we got to see a completely different part of both Arizona and California.

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We’ve had this planned for weeks and we couldn’t be more excited to finally be revealing it. Such Gold will be doing an exclusive Road Blog for PropertyOfZack on their first world tour through places like Australia, Japan, UK, and mainland Europe after they finish up their current set of US dates. Nate Derby, guitarist of the band, was kind enough to write up a monstrous and detailed account of their first week on the road for their US run. Check out the first entry below and make sure to be on the lookout for the rest of the updates!

From Nate Derby:

Our world tour kicked off with a bang on Jan 11th - Crime In Stereo invited us to play their final show on Long Island - an invitation we gladly accepted. CIS was an important and influential pop-punk/hardcore band that has been setting a high standard for the genres for years, and it was a great privilege to help send them off with a proper final show. Unfortunately, our journey to the show did not go nearly as planned. After saying our final goodbyes to our loved ones we loaded gear into the trailer and ourselves into the bus for an early morning drive to NYC. The drive went without a hitch from Rochester down through PA, but things took a turn for the worse as we trekked deeper into NJ.
We had to make a stop in Brooklyn to pick up our manager R.J. and financial manager Charlie, forcing us to take the long way through the Lincoln Tunnel, and deep into the heart of Manhattan. We managed to miss the first exit for the tunnel, a mistake which set us back a good 20 minutes; after navigating back to the tunnel we were met with an off ramp bloated with rush-hour traffic - essentially the equivalent of hitting a brick wall. The trip through metropolitan New York seemed to take absolutely forever, causing us to be late to the show by over two hours. Hostage Calm and Capital were forced to play ahead of us, and we arrived just as Capital were finishing their last two songs. We quickly unloaded and set-up our gear, and managed to play our best Long Island show to date. Lateness and frustration aside, we played a great set and were met with a very impressive and surprising response from our fans.

Even after the 11 hour trip from Rochester to Long Island, we forced ourselves back into the bus for an overnight drive to Pittsburgh, PA, to drop off Kyle Tedesco of Broken Rim Records, a friend who accompanied us to the Crime In Stereo show. We were originally scheduled to play a show in Buffalo on January 11th that Kyle booked for us, but we cancelled on him after receiving a confirmation for the Crime In Stereo show. As repayment for dropping the show we took Kyle along with us, so he could see his favorite band one last time.
We dropped Kyle off at the Pittsburgh Greyhound station and made our way to Columbus, OH to play our second show of tour, and first show with tour-mates Rust Belt Lights. We arrived early in Columbus and made a stop just outside of downtown at the home of new friends Josh and Scotty - who invited us over for a home-cooked vegan dinner. We filled our stomachs with delicious vegan goodness and then made our way to the venue - Skylab.
This was our first Columbus show, and therefore first show at Skylab, so we were unsure of what to expect. Skylab is a loft on the fifth floor of an old industrial building in downtown Columbus - thankfully the elevator was working, saving us from carting our gear up five steep flights of stairs. The show went unbelievably well, and the vibes stayed positive all night. Josh and Scotty showed up with more delicious food for sale - two varieties of seitan hot wings, a vegan “sloppy joe”-type dish, and vegan deserts like sugar cookies and rice crispy treats. BYOB was in effect and everyone seemed to be having a real good time. High School, Lifeguard and Rust Belt Lights set things off properly. We started the set with ‘Sycamore’ and the room exploded! Pat Bevins (one of our companions on this tour) was forced to build a human barricade in front of the drums to keep the horde of kids singing along from knocking anything over. His efforts were foiled as microphone and cymbal stands were knocked down by the ravenous mob clamoring for the mic that Ben clutched.

After the Columbus show we made an early-morning drive towards Cincinnati, to stay with our friend Stevie. We crammed into Stevie’s apartment and got a few hours of much needed sleep. That afternoon we drove to Loveland, OH to visit our friend Mike, who we see often in Cincinnati and in Chicago, where he attends school. Mike was still home from school at the time, so we were invited over to his parent’s house with the promise of pizza, pool and a place to relax. Tim and I brought guitars in to change our strings, but as I was about to throw on the fresh pack I realized that the graphite saddle that cradles my bottom string was busted. 3 days into this tour and my guitar is broken - great. Luckily I have my backup, which I’ve been forced to play at the rest of the shows this week.
After our stop at Mike’s we made our way to Fogarty’s; we’ve played the Cincinnati/Covington area several times now but this was our first experience at Fogarty’s. The venue was a two-story pub, and naturally the show was on the 2nd floor. The room quickly filled with kids as the doors opened, and it appeared that another great show was in store for us. We had the privilege of playing with the band Foose - fronted by hardcore veteran Don Foose, who treated us with a barrage of traditional, old-school hardcore. Rust Belt Lights once again played a solid set, and we were met with a response on par with our Columbus show. This tour started perfectly - 3 solid shows in the Northeast and great hangouts with some of the friends we’ve made on tour this year.

We went back to Mike’s for the night; there was more pool and a full spread of chips, salsa, drinks and snacks waiting for us, courtesy of his parents. We left early the next morning with a full bus - two guys from Rust Belt Lights had to drive their borrowed van back to Buffalo to pick up their 80’s Chevy RV - the “Lindy”, so we had 11 dudes packed into Such Bus. The fart contest initiated by Rust Belt Lights started as soon as all got comfortable; they crushed us. It was no contest. Our destination for the day was The Rock Room @ The Penny Road Pub, in Barrington, IL, a suburb of Chicago. We have only played the Chicago area once, and it was a Monday night, so we didn’t expect much from the show. Both bands indulged on some well priced food and drink specials - a ½ lb angus burger and a beer was under $5, and their amazing ground beef tacos were $.75 a piece with all the fixings.
We were able to draw around 30 or 40 kids on the snowy, bitter cold Monday night; a few of them revealed they had seen us before, which is always a positive sign that we did a good job last time we came through. A couple of young, local punk bands opened; it’s always fun to see kids in their teens playing punk music - it definitely brought us back to when we were all first starting out opening local shows in our first bands. We made a new friend at the show - Rocin, who was generous enough put all 11 of us up for the night in his family’s apartment, and even let 3 of us cram into his bed.

The next morning we stepped outside to see Lindy waiting for it’s passengers, and they even took our merch guy O-Rock with them, leaving us plenty of room to spread out on the drive to Columbia, MO. We played the same spot in Columbia in November with Into It Over It and Koji - the show was a banging house party complete with a full keg of beer, we packed the basement and kids really went off. It was the same this time around, too. The Royalist played again - they are an awesome up-and-coming indie rock/punk band from the Columbia area that has a lot of potential. Landlocked played second - they have a solid grasp on the fast, pissed and dissonant modern hardcore sound. Rust Belt Lights played another solid and tight set, which is something you can always count on with them.
Tons of thanks go out to housemates Jen, Caleb, Jordan and Aaron for putting on another great house show, and special thanks to Jen for her “special” brownies!

After the Columbia house show we started an overnight drive through Missouri, Oklahoma and Northern Texas, on our way down to the Dallas / Fort Worth area. The show was at Eisenberg’s Skatepark in Plano, TX, a venue, which we had played back in April while on tour with The Wonder Years. We drew another solid crowd of 50 or so kids, and had a solid reaction by about 10-15 kids in the front. It’s great to be getting solid headlining numbers across the country, to see how we can do on our own, without the support of a bigger band.
We brought a couple skateboards inside and Ben and Devon thrashed up the park for a bit, and we had some fun jumping in the foam pit. However the fun ended as soon as we got off stage - the show was cleared out almost immediately and it seemed like we were being kicked out of the place. By the time I cleaned off guitars, changed clothes and packed gear up, they were shutting the lights off and locking doors on us. Pretty annoying, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. That brings us up to speed for the first set of shows - tonight we play our first Albuquerque show, we’re hoping it will be a good once since our first two were both cancelled. From Albuquerque we’ll be driving overnight to LA, for our final US show until March. Can’t wait to report in on our journey and first couple shows in Australia!