Outside at the State Theater, St. Petersburg, FL...
Hatesphere’s Pepe Hansen has been cool enough to provide us with a monthly column since the release of their thrash-tastic To the Nines last year, so when word broke the band would be embarking on their first-ever US tour, we had to hound the man for a tour diary. Luckily, Pepe relented and will be providing Blistering (and you) with a weekly update from their massive jaunt with The Black Dahlia Murder, Obscura, and Augury. Here’s the first installment. Enjoy. – David E. Gehlke
Getting up at half past four in the morning in Denmark - taking the train for three-and-a-half hours - taking the plane for 10-and-a-half hours - and then three hours later play our first show in the US. That first day I was awake for 30 hours before I got some sleep. Kinda surreal, but in the end the show and the impressions made up for it all. The flight went pretty smooth, and our pick-up went pretty smooth... even though the Atlanta airport - which is the most busy in the world - took its toll on us. And meeting the other bands and crew went smooth as well. So, the usual “first show stress” also appeared on our first US-tour.
As bringing amps and instruments are pretty expensive, we had our endorsers EVH (amps) and Schecter (guitar and basses) delivering equipment to the first show... and even though the gear is first class - you always have to get to know it... and that leads to stress as well. Anyway, before we knew it, the show was over, and we were heading for the first motel-stop of the tour... nice to get some sleep.
As this is the sixth show of the tour, we have had time to get used to everything. We have played six amazing shows - I will think about 400-500 people every night for us - and we have tried at least six different burger places, six different motels, and I have watched at least 16 episodes of “Dexter”... not bad, not bad.
The catering is not as in Europe but we really cant’ complain. We have had plenty of beer, and we have got food every day... which usually ends with us visiting the nearest burger joint. So when we have the chance, we want some good, healthy food, and we have got that at some occasions. After having played Florida - without spotting any alligators - we spent our first off-day in New Orleans. Instead of getting lots of sleep we went into town, got some good eating and visited the legendary Bourbon Street... where the bars are plenty etc., etc., etc., so in the end we got around two hours of sleep before moving on to Houston. Needless to say my mother won’t approve of this, that’s for sure! But sleep can’t make it up for good times - as our drummer freaking out at karaoke singing Bon Jovi all night...
Now sitting in Dallas, I can look back on a great first week... and promise you more exciting stuff!
