11-19-13
Middleton, New York – Sounds Asylum
Toxic Holocaust, Ramming Speed, In Defence
Here’s a brief recap on last night’s show in Birmingham, Vermont: it was fucking awesome. Definitely the best show of tour thus far—all the bands were really happy with their performances, the sound was great, and the crowd was exceptional. Free food, a gritty little green room in the basement, and all the craft beer we could drink (well, almost); it was one of those nights where everything goes off without a hitch, and we left Nectar’s in high spirits.
It was the first night where all three of the touring bands stayed at the same house, with Boston’s Led to the Grave joining us as well. Toxic Holocaust, In Defence, andRamming Speed all got to our gracious hosts house at the same time, and we immediately started playing horrible Metallica videos and drinking cheap beer.
Kevin Alter assumed his Macho-Man alter ego after downing a dozen beers (if you know Kevin, you know what I’m talking about) and wasted no time in pro-wrestling the fuck out of some dude who was hitting him with a Slim Jim. Joel Grind, Phil Gnaast and I took turns playing songs from horrible bands—Texas Hippie Coalition, Attack Attack, and ‘Load’-era Metallica were all given a spin—and the night quickly turned to a drunken dude-fest… all while half the members from our respective bands attempted to sleep in an adjacent room. Sorry, guys.
I threw myself into the van around 4 AM after realizing there was no way in hell I’d be able to sleep with all the partying going on, and then proceeded to freeze, cough, and snivel my ass off through a few hours of semi-consciousness. We hit the road at 9 AM and I was first to drive, and to my surprise I actually felt much better once I got behind the wheel. I navigated us through the beautiful Vermont countryside, passing mountainous regions, lakeside villages, Amish buggies, and sprawling hills and forests
We arrived in Middleton around 3 PM, and went straight from the venue to ROCK FANTASY, the coolest record-store/pinball arcade/smoke shop I have ever seen. The touring bands were set to do a ‘meet and greet’, and they were understandably a bit apprehensive, but upon arrival we learned that said ‘meet and greet’ was really just an opportunity for us to drink PBR, eat pizza, and play pinball to our hearts content. Hanging out in that back room, shooting pinball and drinking beer, was definitely one of my personal highlights for this tour—bullshitting with the guys from Toxic Holocaust and Ramming Speed, hearing about their exploits and travels overseas, and witnessing fans approach them for autographs on magazines they’d appeared in: Decibel Magazine (Toxic Holocaust) and Terrorizer(Ramming Speed). We even got photographed by a photographer that has worked with Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Led Zeppelin, and Overkill, which was quite the honor.
The show at Sounds Asylum went over reasonably well, albeit with a smaller crowd than we’ve grown accustomed to. I did guest vocals for In Defence again (and this time I didn’t fuck my lines up), Ben Crew got people to stand on ego boxes in the middle of the floor and attempt to throw each other off, and some hardcore dancer smashed me in the throat with a spinning backfist during Toxic Holocaust’s set. After word we slammed a few beers outside, packed up our things, and hit the road back to Philadelphia (for the 3rd night in the last week!) to rest up for tomorrows gig in Newark, Delaware.
I have a veritable ton of live video, photos, and random bits of drunken debauchery to upload, so I’d better get to it before I pass out. Thank you for reading, and I promise that these updates will only continue to get better as this tour progresses—we’ve reached the point already where all the bands are getting along easily, and we get into some crazy shit when we’re all together. Until next time,
-Matthias Joyce
for more updates, photos, videos, etc visit www.facebook.com/matthiasjoyce
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