March 18, 2005 - Oceanside, CA

When I woke up on the floor of Thom’s living room, Maryn was sitting by my head watching a movie. The first thing she asked was if I wanted to play, and since I’m a sucker for kids, I obliged. We didn’t do anything too active since I refused to actually get up off the floor, but we did what we could. Thom asked if I’d watch her while he ran to get her some juice, and I said of course. Ten minutes later, he was back with the juice, poured the three of us a glass and sat down. He asked about everyone that we hung out with in high school, if I ever saw anyone or what had happened with in their lives. I had to tell him the truth Most of them were either going through rehab or still in the thick of whatever their addiction was. It was hard to tell him about the kids that I used to be so close to, but now barely knew.

When everyone else was finally up we decided to get some quick lunch before it was time to pile back in the van. I ended up driving (surprise, surprise) and we were following Thom. About halfway there, while stopped at a stoplight, a car rolled up next to us and the old man driving informed us that the trailer was open. The first thing that ran through my head was, “Holy shit, is my stuff close to the front of the trailer?” Since I was usually the one to pack up, I had a pretty good idea where everything was, and felt a little calmer knowing my stuff was all towards the back. All the while, no one had done anything except for try and blame each other for leaving it open.

“So,” I said, “somebody want to jump out and shut the fucking thing or sit here and argue a little bit more.”

Dan jumped out, shut the trailer and got back in the van. The argument continued the rest of the way to the restaurant until we pulled in and everyone piled out to see if anything was missing. Only one thing was gone: Clint’s luggage.

He and I borrowed Thom’s car and retraced our steps back to his house, twice, but to no avail. It was gone forever. He wasn’t too broken up about it. He said the only thing he’d really miss was his Misfits shirt, and thanks to Hot Topic, those are now readily available. We got back grabbed a quick bite and were on our way to Oceanside.

I stayed in Oceanside a few times when I was little. Well, littler I guess. I’m not exactly huge now. Anyway, whenever my family would go to Disneyland, we’d rent a house in Oceanside or Balboa. I remember it being pretty nice, but when I was 6 everything was nice.

The show was at the Oceanside Recreation Center, right on the beach, and it was a benefit show. This was the show that Mike Hartsfield, he of New Age Records fame, helped set up. Two of his labels new bands, Angels Die and Hellfire Trigger, were on the show, so add Aftermath and Cherem is the odd man out. That’s not counting the opening band, Pink Robots, but I think we’d all just assume forget about them all together.

Now, being a Rec center, the stage was in the gym and it was huge. It was the equivalent of playing a high school dance only with less people; a lot less people. It was raining outside, and if there’s one thing that scares the hell out of everyone in California, it’s rain. For some reason, no one dares to leave their house if it’s raining in Southern California so there were very few people at the show. To kill time while we waited for some people to arrive, we played basketball. I tend to get a little competitive when it comes to sports, so I tried to take it easy, but it didn’t work too well. But my team won, and I guess that’s all that matters. See? That’s the competitive side.

When it was finally time to get our shit set up, Jake wasn’t happy. He didn’t want to play on the stage and was saying they weren’t going to play unless they could set up on the floor. I didn’t really care either way, and Brook wanted to play on the stage so he could run back and forth. He ended up being in the minority and we played on the stage and pretended to be a much bigger band than we actually were. Cherem played next and included River Runs Red for the three people in the crowd that knew it.

After we played, we met a kid that drove all the way up from Tijuana, Mexico just to watch us. He bought a bunch of stuff from us and Aftermath and that alone made the show worth it. To know that there were those two kids driving from another country just to watch us do our thing was the one of the best parts of the whole tour.

When we were all packed up, we piled in the van for the long drive to Arizona. We all have friends down there, so it was one of the places we were looking forward to the most, but after about half an hour of driving, Austin asked if we could swing in and visit his mom who lived in San Diego. None of us minded, and we ended up staying the night. His mom offered to take us to breakfast the next day, and we were kind of excited about that, but when the morning rolled around, we had all overslept and needed to get on the road if we were going to make it to Phoenix in time to get BBQ tofu that I’d been hearing about for a week and a half. Like I said, this tour was more about good food than good shows

News. Slightly.

More updates soon. I am lazy and for that I apologize.

March 17, 2005 - Redlands, CA

We pulled into Redlands about 2am, tired as fuck and ready for sleep. We were staying with Thom Green who played drums for Cherem in SLC a long time ago. As soon as we got inside pretty much everyone fell asleep, but a couple of us sat around and caught up with Thom for a little bit. Clint and the Rookie refused to wake up, so we left him in the van while everyone else got situated on the floor. After about half an hour of chit chat and Thom deciding it was time to turn in, I felt bad so I went outside to wake him up. I didn’t have the keys with me so I was reduced to knocking on the window. It took a good three minutes of knocking before they woke up, but as soon as they did, we headed back inside and fell asleep.

His daughter came over early the next morning, but she played in Thom’s room while everyone gradually woke up. The rest of the dudes rose and got ready, and while they did, Thom’s daughter, Maryn, asked me to play Polly Pockets with her. Since I am a sucker for little kids, she and I rocked Polly Pockets for a while until it was time for her to go to school. After Thom left to take her, we set out for Chico’s. Brook had been raving about it since we left SLC, so we were anxious to get there. It was about half an hour away, but came with a promise that it would be well worth the trip.

As we pulled into the parking lot, the house next door to the restaurant was having a garage sale. There was a guy standing by the back door keeping an eye on things, and when Austin got out of the car, the guy noticed Austin’s tattoos and said, “You get any of those in prison?”
“Uh, no.” Austin replied.
“Damn. Those are the best kind of tattoos.”
Austin wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, but it didn’t matter, because his attention had turned to Brook in the drivers seat, wearing just a jersey.
“Damn! You’re homeboy’s all blasted, huh?” He said.
“Yep,” Said Austin, “pretty blasted.”
At that point, Brook had parked the van and gotten out right next to his yard, within shouting distance, and the guy yelled out, “Hey, what’s that say on your throat Homes?”
“Dedication,” said Brook.
The old man nodded his head, took a drag of his cigarette and replied, “Hell yeah it does.”
We tried to contain our laughter until we got inside, and barely made it. Even if the food wasn’t as good as promised, that scene was well worth the trip.

The food was all that it was promised and we left feeling very satisfied, but then we noticed a problem. The parking lot behind Chico’s was too small for us to turn around in and too long for us to back out of. After about 20 minutes of trying every trick possible, the waiter from Chico’s came out with a box of Tofutti Cuties for us. At first we thought it was a sympathy gift because we were having such a hard time, but then realized it was probably more because we had left a very generous tip. While we snacked on those a few other drivers took a shot at getting us out of the parking lot. After over half an hour of trying, we finally unhooked the trailer with everything in it and put it back on after the van was facing the exit. Everyone was pretty irritated, so it was a quiet drive back to Thom’s house.


Back at the house, while everyone was taking naps and watching Anchorman for the seventh or eighth time, Maryn came home and she and I and Clint picked up right where we left off in our PP game. That got old pretty quick, and she came up with a new game that consisted of little more than her killing Clint and I and bringing us back to life. This was about the time that she re-named me Clayton for some reason. Not sure why, but that’s what she called me for most of the rest of the day. After and hour or so of that, her babysitter came so Thom could get to his church early to set everything up. Maryn and I and her sitter decided to let the dudes nap for a bit longer while we walked to the store for popsicles. When we got back it was time to go. We climbed back in our home on wheels and drove to the show.

Thom is the Pastor of an Alternative Christian Church, and has a place that doubles as a venue for bands when they need a show. It’s a nice place, and probably the only church I’ve ever seen that has Star Wars murals on the wall. It was still early, and no one was really there yet, so we all walked across the street to Barnes and Noble to kill some time. By the time we all got back, the show was ready to start and there were quite a few kids ready to have a good time. Thom’s band played and it was fun to watch him play drums again. He’d been singing in xDEATHSTARx for a while, but quit when they started touring. He’s a drummer at heart, so it was good to see him back behind a set. Aftermath played and kids were going off making it probably the best response of the tour. Cherem was up after them again and it was definitely the best show we played on tour, despite my string breaking halfway through our best song. We made up for it with an otherwise good show. After we were done, xDEATHSTARx came up and finished off the night. A good time was had by all, and after the show as we were all hanging around, this girl walked over to the merch table and sent several of the dudes into a lovesick haze.

As we got back to Thom’s, a bunch of the DS kids were hanging out and Thom put on a DVD of one of the funniest stand up comedians I’ve ever seen. I’m not much for stand up, but this guy was hilarious. It was a hell of a way to end the night.

March 16th, 2005 - South Gate, CA

We woke up around 7am and Dan and I decided we should drive to find a coffee shop somewhere. I think hanging out at random coffee shops is a staple on any tour we take, especially in LA because we like to sit around and watch how important people pretend to be. As Bill jumped into the driver’s seat, we started wondering how we were going to get out of the parking lot. It wasn’t big enough to just turn around in, so Bill had to pull off quite an amazing three point turn by backing the trailer into a covered parking spot. He did it much to our amazement and we were on our way. We drove to a Starbucks down by the beach and set up camp for a little while. Austin and Brook opted out of the coffee shop for more sleep in the van, but the rest of us had wonderful conversation that resulted in the formation of the greatest band in the history of the world. All I can really say about it is the name, The Guitarmy. Don’t be surprised when we take over the world someday soon.

The Rookie had never seen the ocean, so after a few hours of Starbucks we headed down to the beach to give the kid a look. Dan, Jake and Clint all got in their swimming suits to take a dip while Bill took a long walk on the beach talking to his girlfriend on the phone. We pretended that they were taking a virtual walk on the beach together while we watched the other three take a cannonball run into the water. It was March, so the water was pretty cold, but that didn’t seem to matter to any of them. While we were at Starbucks, our friend Kodee had come down to meet up with us, and offered up his apartment for a shower. We piled back in the van and drove to Long Beach to get cleaned up. When we were all ready, he took us to Native Food before we left for the show.

As we left Native Food, we stopped by another shop to see a friend of ours at work, but he wasn’t there, so we decided to head on to the show. As we were on the freeway I saw the exit for Compton, and after years of listening to NWA, I decided it would be a good idea to get off and drive around for a minute. That idea was immediately shot down the second I brought it up, but it didn’t really matter, because the exit that we needed to take for the show was the first exit past Compton. As we exited the freeway, we saw a homeless guy on the side of the road staring at us, a few seconds later we heard a loud “BOOM” and were convinced that the homeless guy was jealous of our sweet van and had thrown something at us. We didn’t think much of it and continued on our way.

The show was in South Gate, California, which is like a small Spanish city within LA, and about two blocks from the venue, I noticed that we were driving on a flat tire. We pulled through a parking lot on to a side street to get it changed. Thanks to our brilliant planning, we didn’t have all the tools we needed to get the tire off, so I set out looking for a hardware store that might have something we could use. A few of the other dudes went down to the venue to let the promoter know we were only a block away and to borrow some tools for changing the tire. Brook and I sat on the curb eating rice and soy sauce watching Clint and Austin struggle with the tire for about an hour before it was finally changed and we could continue to the show.

The venue was actually an old movie theater that had been slightly renovated to accommodate shows. It was definitely the creepiest venue we have ever played. The stage was huge and it was the only part of the room with any light to it. It looked like the set of an old horror movie. Aftermath was up second, so we set up our stuff and started to play. After the first song, the sound guy told us we only had time for two more. We were confused, but just made the best of it and rocked the two best songs in the set. As we finished, we tried to get Cherem set up as quick as possible to use as much time as possible. As we were setting up, Jake walked up to ask the sound guy why they got cut short and the promoter walked up to the stage with Rob from Bring It Down. Apparently, BID was to share a set with Winds of Plague, but the sound guy got it mixed up and thought Aftermath and Cherem were supposed to share. They started apologizing to me and I told them they were going to have to talk to Jake, because he was furious. Cherem played a full set and everything went alright, but after we were finished, I walked out to our merch table and Brook said, “Jake just took Aric (Bring it Down singer) outside.”

I got a little nervous at that thought because Jake has a pretty short temper as it is, and he had been trying to keep his cool for three days. He finally lost it. A few minutes later, Rob comes walking up to their merch spot, which was right next to ours and told their merch guy to pack everything up because they were leaving. They started getting ready to go and Jake walked back in with smoke coming out of his ears. None of the kids would look at us and we just sat in awe as they put their shit away and drove off. After the show was over and we were packing up, we decided to take bets on whether or not they’d come to the Phoenix show. They weren’t getting very good odds. We jumped back in the van and back on the highway towards Redlands.

March 14th, 2005 - Redding, CA

When we wake up the next morning, everyone was pretty rested. Driving all night then playing a show took a lot out of us, so we were in need of a good rest. We heard about a burrito place that had good vegan stuff, so we gave it a shot. After we were full, we debated about what to do until the show started. We had a few hours to kill and our options were kind of limited. There was talk of seeing a movie, but since we had seen one the day before, no one was really into it. The Redding kids told us there was a skate park not far from where we were staying, so everyone thought that sounded like a good idea and we went back to the apartment to get boards and head over.

Now, I’m not much of a skater, so I opted out and went back in the apartment with a couple of the other dudes. I was looking around the apartment for something to entertain me while the rest of them played video games and hit up the Myspace. As I was looking at the movies, I noticed a book that I had been looking at the day before at Tower Records: “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star” by Jenna Jameson. I had read an excerpt from the book In Rolling Stone a few months before and it seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Two hours later I had read about 70 pages of it. I stopped for a minute to hear a story of how Dan ate shit two seconds after getting to the skate park and acquired a huge bruise that covered his entire knee. I read for most of the day while Austin schooled the rest of the dudes at NBA Live2005 and the other dudes chatted on the internet to random girls.


At about 6pm, we decided to go eat again because this tour was more about food than anything else, and there was a Thai restaurant near the venue. After we were through, we got to the venue just in time to meet up with Bring It Down. Brook went over to square everything away, and it went much easier than we thought it would. We played the show, and like Sacramento, since we weren’t old school two-step, we didn’t go over too well. We started packing up, and Matt was nowhere to be found. He was on his cell phone the entire time we were loading the trailer, and that’s about the time we decided his new nickname would be Rookie, and that’s what we called him for the rest of the trip. When we were done loading, we headed back to Harry’s apartment for another night of video games. I was relieved that we weren’t going to see Bring it Down again until Phoenix because tempers were still rising.

The next morning, we found out that our Long Beach show had been cancelled, so we had a day off to spend playing video games. While Jake was browsing through the bulletins on Myspace, he found a flyer for our show in LA the next night, but with another band added to the bill: Bring it Down. This is about the time that tempers rose through the roof and a few kids became irate. Around 3pm we left Redding to drive down and stay with a friend in Long Beach, but we hit some bad traffic right around Sacramento and it took us a lot longer than we expected. Finally around 1am, we rolled into Hollywood with nowhere to go so Austin got off the freeway to drive around the city until we found a place to go. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone, so we started looking for hotels around Huntigton Beach. The cheapest hotel we could find was about $75, and we decided that since it was already two in the morning, and we would have to check out by 11 it wouldn’t be worth it. So we drove behind the hotel and fell asleep with the homeless guy that was camped out by the dumpster.

March 13, 2005 - Sacramento, CA

The drive from Portland to Sacramento was by far the worst of tour. Everyone was tired and trying to sleep in various spots of the van. I was the last one to get in after buying gas, so I got the shittiest spot in the van. It’s right behind the passenger seat and there is no way to get comfortable. I tried for about an hour. Finally, I just bit the bullet and tried to squeeze down to the floor between the first and second bench. It was hard, but at least I could stretch out and fall asleep. After about an hour of driving through canyons and mountains, it started to get really cold on the floor. I looked around and found Clint’s blanket, so I wrapped myself up and fell back asleep. About 45 minutes after that, Clint is reaching over from the seat in front looking for his blanket. I decided to be hospitable and give it up, but as he was pulling it off he realized that I was using it and felt bad because I was on the floor, so he let me keep it. Apparently, while Brook was driving he encountered fog that was so thick he couldn’t see more than five feet in front of his face. Didn’t really matter to me, because all I wanted to do was sleep. When the sun came up and we rolled into a gas station, Bill decided that he wanted to drive. He was really excited about it and jumped into the pilot seat and we headed the rest of the way into Sacto.



We got to Sacramento about 11am with nothing to do, so we repeated our form and went to Tower Records & Books. It’s a good place to kill an hour or so. After that, we hit up the Thai restaurant that we skipped over the last time we were in town. This one was much better, and we regretted our decision from last time. Still having several hours to kill, we found a mall with a movie theater and watched HITCH. It was alright, but not $10 alright.

After the movie ended, we piled back in the van and headed over to West Coast Worldwide. A few of the bands had already shown up, including Bring It Down. Now here’s the thing about BID: I like them as people. I’ve never had any problems with any of the kids in the band, and they’ve always been nice to me. But on this tour, they started getting on my nerves a little, and everyone else’s nerves a lot. Apparently, when they found out we were going on tour with Aftermath, they started setting up a tour of their own. The only problem was they were going on the same tour we were. Wherever we had a show booked, they’d get a hold of the promoter and get on the show. We were both working with Mike Hood, so when they got on the Sacto and Redding show, we didn’t mind, but they got on our Phoenix show and our Cedar City show. I still can’t place why this bothered the hell out of any of us, but it did.

The show was good for a Sacto show. There were about 50 people there. That’s pretty good considering we aren’t an old school two-step band. After the show, Mikey Hood hooked us up with the kids in the band Set it Straight who were down to let us stay at their house up in Redding. We played there the next night, so we were fine with driving up there, and they seemed like cool kids. After we got paid, we piled in the van and headed on our way. About 15 minutes after we’d left, Brook got a call from Mikey Hood. Apparently they door guy had given us too much money, and Bring It Down was acting like we stole from them or something of that nature. That added a little more fuel to the fire, but we told them we’d work it out with them the next night.

About 20 minutes outside of Redding, we were driving behind Set it Straight when all of a sudden we see sparks fly out from the bottom of their van. They start losing control and swerving back and forth across the highway. We keep our distance just make sure everything is okay, and they pull over to the side of the road. A few of us jump out and take a look. None of us are car experts, so we just kind of guess at the problem for a minute, but the bottom line is that it’s not going to start and they need a ride. We decide to roll it up the highway about half a mile to the next exit. They didn’t want to leave it on the side of the highway all night, and I don’t blame them. So, Harry gets behind the wheel and me, Clint, Dan, Matt and the other two from their band start pushing. We get the van going pretty fast, and we try to ask Harry how fast it’s going. One second, the guitar player is next to me pushing, then the next I look over and he’s gone. I glance back over my shoulder and all I see is him rolling head over heels down the hill on the side of the road. We all notice it at about the same time and start hysterically laughing. We laugh so hard that the van starts losing its momentum and we struggle to get it up the off ramp. As we finally roll it into a restaurant parking lot, we look back and see our van just pulling off and their guitarist walking down the side of the road. We load all their equipment into the van and we get everyone to Redding no problems. I’m still not sure what happened to their van.

March 12, 2005 - Vancouver, WA

After the house show in Boise, we found a kid that was willing to let us all crash at his house for the night. It was actually his parents’ house and they were out of town for the week. We stopped by the grocery store to get pasta and made a hell of a feast for everyone, and talked about old fight stories for a few hours. We always seem to do that: spend hours at a time talking about shit that happened five years ago with kids we’ve never met. The stories are funny to us, but to the kids hearing them, we must sound completely insane. Oh well. I guess that’s how Salt Lake gets the reputation it has.

The next morning, we were on the road to Vancouver, Washington. It was about a seven hour drive, so we weren’t sweating it too much. We hopped in the van and were on our way. The drive was uneventful, and I mostly retreated into the back and rocked out to my sweet tunes.

Vancouver is only about 15 miles away from Portland, so we decided to stop there to see our friends in the Dead Unknown and find something to eat. Brook is probably the coolest best looking guy I know. We got to Justin’s house and watched a terrible movie on the Sci-Fi channel for a few minutes before we set off to eat. He told us about a place called the Vita Café that was a bit like home style cooking. He said they had biscuits and gravy and we were sold. The biscuits and gravy was true and we all spend way too much money, but we were full as we set off for the venue.

Vancouver is just over a bridge and the place we played at was the basement of a church. We seem to get these places a lot. For some reason, Cherem and church are like peas in a pod. Not sure how it got that way, but it probably won’t change. Well, it might, but only if we start playing huge stadiums and I don’t see that happening. So we’ll take church shows. Brutal Fight rolled up just after we did in a sweet/deadly looking school bus and started unloading their Hot Topic worthy merch display inside. They had a credit card machine, which is a good idea, but easy to make fun of. We decided that we now accepted checks, but they had to wait until we got home and the check cleared before we could give them anything. No one really went for that idea when we pitched it to them.

Aftermath and Cherem were up first and second so we hit the stage to set up. Aftermath didn’t get a great response, but there were a few kids singing along, and it was fun. That’s all that matters I guess. Cherem got a little better response, I think mostly due to the Dead Unknown kids hyping us and we had met a few of the kids when we played Olympia the last time we were on tour. We decided to give the Life of Agony song a shot up in Vancouver, and to our expectations, maybe three people knew what it was. I think that made 6 kids in three cities that knew what we were playing.

After we were done, I hung out by the merch table for the rest of the show. The highlight of the night came when two girls started fighting in front of me. I was pretty excited, but I guess that kind of thing doesn’t happen up there too often, so it stressed everyone out. I enjoyed it though. After the fight, one of the girls came up to talk to me about touring and said she’d be down to help out if we ever needed it. Austin dubbed her my Vancouver girlfriend for the rest of tour.

We had a long drive down to Sacramento, so we piled in the van grabbed some cold soda and hit the road.

March 11, 2005 - Boise, ID

The house we stayed at in Idaho Falls only had one bathroom, and it was located in one of the bedrooms. I woke up at about 4am really needing to use it but not wanting to walk through some dudes room. It drove me nuts and I lied in my sleeping bag trying to forget about it for at least an hour. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and went in. There was another dude asleep on the bedroom floor that I almost stepped on as I was walking back to my spot on the living room floor. It was dark so I had to fell my way along the wall. I went slow and hoped that I wouldn't stub my toe and scream and wake the whole house up. I almost did, though. It hurt really fucking bad. I finally made it back to the sleeping bag and fell asleep for another two hours. I woke up again and decided to take a shower before everyone else woke up. Afterwards, I was still tired so I went back to sleep. Then I woke up with everyone else and we got ready to go.

The drive from Idaho Falls to Boise required a bit of back-tracking, but nothing too serious. Four hours later and we were rolling in to town. We drove past the "venue" we were supposed to play at, and it was a house. We've played house shows before, so we were ready, but we couldn't load anything in for another few hours, so it was off to a Boise staple: The Pita Pit.

The girl at the Pita Pit looked pretty pissed when all 8 of us walked in at the same time. She looked even more pissed when the A-man asked her to use different gloves for our falafel. After we all had our food, we walked across the street and sat on the grass to eat. Some black metal kid wearing high boots, and having another pair of boots attached to his back-pack walked by and asked us for money so he could buy weed. We all kind of laughed and told him no. At least he was honest. As we ate our food, Brook decided he had a crush on the Pita Pit girl and wanted to go back over but had no reason. Then I remembered I left my sweatshirt inside, and Brook jumped at the chance. He went back over but right before he walked in, another dude did too. Turns out Pita Pit girl had a boyfriend and Brook came back over broken hearted. But he did have my sweatshirt.

Still having three hours to kill, we headed for the mall. A girl that used to work with me had transferred up to Express in Boise, so I wanted to see if she was there, and she was. She was pretty surprised when I walked in. I told her I had moved to Boise and needed a job, and she got really excited. Then I told her that wasn't true and it sort of killed her spirit. She wanted to come to the show, but I figured a hardcore house show wasn't the best environment for a 30-year-old Express manager, so I never called her to tell her where it was.

When we finally got to the house, there were already a few people hanging around outside. Brook and Jake saw some cute girls and tried to get them in the van, but they weren't having it, so they blamed their misfortune on Matt. The kid in charge showed up and Jake, Clint and Matt went to look around. They came back out and told us we had to get in there and see it, so we headed inside.

I didn't see the upstairs, but the basement walls were covered with tin foil and there were lots of black lights everywhere. It looked alot like the set of a cheap porno movie, and it probably was. That's what I decided after we started loading equipment into a green room with a "SEX" sign and an arrow on the wall.



The place could hold maybe twenty people, and even that was pushing it. We didn't care and as soon as we started, shit got crazy. We played our hearts out and the few kids that actually watched us looked like they were having fun so we were stoked.

After the show, some kid let us stay at his parents house and we made a bunch of spaghetti. Then Brook and I spent the next hour organizing the Aftermath merch, took showers and went to sleep. Portland was 7 hours away.

March 10, 2005 - Idaho Falls, ID

Since none of us are as popular as you'd like to believe, we had nothing to do for spring break. No vacation time in Mexico or Daytona Beach for us- just some awesome touring. We also figured, "hey Aftermath of a Trainwreck isn't that cool either. Let's take them with us." With that, the spring tour 2005 was formed. There were just a few minor problems: Richard couldn't miss work and Blake had some legal issues that prevented him from leaving Utah. That left Aftermath with no bassist and no drummer. Clint and I volunteered our services so they could go and we could have some fun. We had planned on meeting at my house at 1pm and leaving from there. The only problem was trying to get everyone there by that time. It didn't happen and we didn't get on the road until about 4 in the afternoon. Aftermath opted out of buying a van for just the three of them, rented a trailer and we all just piled in the Cherem van. It was cheaper on gas and more entertaining. Not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn't have to drive as much. As soon as we all get in the van, Brook and Jake Aftermath hop into the very back and declare the entire back of the van their territory. Brook even threatened to put up a sheet to seperate the area from the rest of the van. They thought they were pretty clever.

This was probably the best put together tour we'd ever been on. We had garauntees and 11 shows in 11 days. We were starting to feel like a real band. Clint takes the first shift driving and I assume my usual post of shotgun as we roll up to Idaho Falls. Somewhere between SLC and IF there was a billboard for the Idaho Space Center and Brook told a story of the moon crashing into Idaho sometime in the past, and that was the reason they had the space center. There were other jokes made, and I'm pretty sure Jake and Brook were the only ones laughing at them. Paul from Idaho meets up with us at a gas station and leads us to the show. It's at a preforming arts center and the show is already underway when we pull up. The first band is just finishing up and we all race to the bathroom since we hadn't stopped the whole way.

The next band started up, and I'm pretty sure they were more concerned with calling the crowd pussies and telling them to move around than the actual quality of their songs. The people that owned the place told everyone that if the language wasn't cleaned up they were shutting the show down. That shut them up for a minute, but then they played another breakdown and instead of talking shit into the mic, the kid just yelled it. I guess he thought he was being sneaky.

I had a discussion with Brook about how I may not fit in with Aftermath style, what with the long hair, so I packed my camo shorts and jerseys to make myself a little more HC. As the rest of the dudes started setting up, I changed into my sweet threads and grabbed the bass. The Aftermath set went alright, despite some bastard hitting me with a beverage. I was a little pissed about that, but let it slide when someone came up and apologized for it after the set. I thought about putting on a real shirt for the Cherem set, but felt that would just look ridiculous and left the jersey on.

The Cherem set went over pretty well. Kids danced and there were a couple sing-a-longs. I was worried that they might shut the show down when Bill yelled "Where is your fucking hatred", but then I remembered it was our last song anyway. So fuck them.

After the show, we took the van to the house we were staying at and piled in a few different cars and went looking for food. One car went to Taco Bell and the other car went to get real food, because, you know, fuck Taco Bell. That's about when Brook decided we were going to go the entire trip without fast food. Most of us were up for the idea, but Jake, the A-man and Matt weren't too into it. After we got back to the house, we made some delicious Garden Burger meals and popped in a DVD. We watched a movie that would set the tone for the next 10 days and inspire countless quotes and numerous references- Anchorman.

August 21, 2004 - Boise, ID

So, about 3am Austin takes the wheel and I take to riding shotgun because everyone else is asleep and not getting up. We drive through the night and talk about important stuff for most of the way. Actually that's not true. I think we made mindless chit chat for about six hours because that's what happens at 5am in the middle of nowhere.

Either way, we rolled into Boise not knowing exactly what will happen with the show. We heard that Folsom was supposed to play, and that's what had us wondering. A few weeks before, a few of our friends had gone to Vegas to see a show, Folsom was there and ended up beating up one of our friends pretty bad. Seeing as how we were in Boise and three other bands from SLC were on their way, we figured things might get ugly real quick. Then Folsom cancelled. Surprise, surprise.

So we hang around the venue for a bit and decide to hit a Boise staple called the Pita Pit. There were "vegan" hot dogs for us, but we remembered about Chris Purkey's escapades the last time and opted out. After we got back, we were told the show would be starting soon. The Eulogy Tour that we had been following the entire weekend was in town, and luckily on the same show as us. It was some kind of benefit/fest and there were about 12 bands playing. At first we were told we were up like second or third, which kind of bummed us out because that meant playing at about 2pm. Then things changed and we were following Aftermath and Skeiff, neither of whom had shown up yet, so we were looking at a good spot around 5 or 6.

About 3:30, a bunch of cars roll up and it looks like half of Salt Lake has come up to the show. It had a good turnout already so this was just icing on the cake. Bring it Down was one of the first bands to show up that morning, and they play in Idaho more than they play in Utah and they had to play second or third I think. I felt kind of bad. But as the day wore on, Salt Lake played, then Black My Heart, Shattered Realm, The Judas Cradle and the Warriors tore everything apart. It was the best show of the tour, and I was able to pay myself back for all the gas I bought on the way.

We bid our farewell and climb in the van for our ride back to SLC. It was about 11pm, so we figured we'd get home about 4 or so, sleep in our own beds and head to our supposed "Big Show" in Salt Lake the next afternoon. Bill volunteered to drive, which was surprising because it was the first time he'd driven the entire trip. I tried to grab some sleep, but the floor of the van isn't the most ideal place to do that so I put on a little Nine Inch Nails and gave it a shot. Half an hour later I wake up to Bill saying he can't drive anymore. Clint volunteers and I climb up into the passenger seat again. About an hour later, Clint is spent and needs me to take over. I try but only last about an hour, too. I pull off to a gas station and decide I'm going to sleep for a little while. Clint liked the idea, grabbed a blanket and headed out to sleep on a small patch of grass in front of the gas station. At the time it sounded like a fine idea, mainly because I didn't care and just wanted to sleep. 45 minutes later I wake up to Clint looking for his wallet and two police officers standing outside our van. They talk to Clint for a few minutes while I half sleep/half listen to something about us being a death metal band and an abandoned hotel across the street. Clint gets back in, and I ask what happened.

"Well, I was asleep out on the grass and then I woke up to someone poking me and yelling 'Vamanos! Vamanos!' I looked up and it was a cop. He kept yelling at me in Spanish, but I had no idea what he was saying, so I just sat up and said 'I don't speak Spanish,' and he stopped yelling at me."

"He said he was driving by, saw me on the grass and turned around. I guess there's alot of Mexican bums that wander the streets and pass out at random places. He thought I was a Mexican Bum. I showed him my blanket and pointed to the van and told him that I was in a band. Then he asked for my ID and told me I couldn't sleep on the grass."

Now at 4 am after 36 hours of no sleep, this story was hilarious. Dan and I laughed for a good 15 minutes as we drove away. When we dropped Dan off at his apartment in SLC, Austin finally woke up. I was excited because that meant I got to tell him how Clint was mistaken for a Mexican bum. I could sleep easy after telling that story again.

August 20, 2004 - Olympia, WA

So after Clint and I are up, we take advantage of the Chevron next to the hotel and buy some breakfast; and by breakfast I mean coffee and junk food. We look at our atlas and I see that we've only gone about 100 miles. These bastards knew nothing of night driving. So I take the reigns and we're back on our way. We had tried to get a Portland show, but that proved to be futile because I guess Portland only has one venue and the Eulogy Tour was there that night.

Bill and Misty had friends in Seattle they wanted to see, so we thought about going up there and then driving back down to Olympia the next day. It sounded like a good idea.

Cut to a few hours later and we're out of gas. We pull in to a gas station somewhere and I get out. We didn't make a lot of money in Sacto, so we're short on money. I ask if anyone has any money they want to pitch in for gas because we don't have any band money left.

Complete silence.

So in order to get gas, I front the money to fill the tank then announce that we are definately not going to Seattle because I'm not paying to get there and then back down to Olympia.

Just outside of Portland we stop at a Denny's. Bill had heard rumors of their gardenburger being vegan, so we figured we'd give it a shot. The waitress really had no idea what we were talking about and just thought we were giving her a hard time by asking her to bring us the ingredient list, but she brought it out anyway. The rumors were just that, rumors. Not vegan, so we all just get french fries and fruit and try to figure out what we're going to do. I decide that I'd pitch for a hotel room in Olympia just so I could take a shower and get a good sleep because this was the only night we weren't going to have to drive through the night. Everyone else goes for it, that way we can just hang out and not worry about driving and spending alot of money.

When we got to Olympia, we found a hotel (after three tries) and checked in. I paid for the room, so I got first dibs on the shower, and that was all I really cared about. After that was over I watched Austin Myspace it up for a bit and looked out on the pool to see Dan and Clint causing a ruckus. Bill and Misty "took a shower" that lasted a good 45 minutes and required me to turn the TV volume up to an almost unreasonable level.

After that was all over, we hit the town. Well, we actually just went to a Wild Oats style store so we could get something to eat. It was a pretty nice place, and I bought some dinner that wasn't from a gas station so I was excited. I was the first one finished so I walked outside to wait for everyone. There was a big guy outside on his cell phone looking through the window, and as soon as he saw me come out, he just looked at me and turned away. In the back of my mind I had a slight feeling that we were about to get into some kind of fight. Not sure why, but these days no one needs a real reason. I went back in to the store and we rounded everyone up and left. As we got out into the parking lot, the big guy approaches us again, looks at Austin, pulls out a police badge and says,
"Excuse me. What did you do with the Chapstick?"
"What Chapstick?" says Austin.
"The Chapstick you had in your hand a few minutes ago."
Austin reaches into his pocket, pulls out some Soft Lips and goes, "Oh you mean this Chapstick?"
The cop looks at him, then at us, and back to him, "Let's go."
And they disappear back in the store.

We pile in the van and take off, not knowing if we're going to have to bail Autin out of jail or what, so we decide to have a look at the City. We park the van and take a walk. This is about the time we notice that Olympia is mostly hippies and drug addicts at night. It looks very different at night that it does during the day, get sick of being asked for money and go back to the hotel.

About an hour later, Austin shows up at the hotel. He took care of everything and walked back. He asked us to not say anything about it and we said okay. We lied.

The next day, we hit the store again for breakfast, but Austin stays in the van as he's not allowed back in there. Then we do what everyone does when they need to kill time, we go to the mall.

There was a sweet go-kart track outside, so everyone drops a few bucks and rides it and then we head inside to watch Without a Paddle. After the movie, we hit up the Hot Topic where we're told that My Chemical Romance is the best band around, that Straight Edge doesn't make sense unless you're Christian, and that Cherem sounds like "A discotheque with a coffin in the middle."

Too much fun, so we head to the venue to meet up with the Dead Unknown. When we show up, they tell us that their merch guy just got busted stealing from the same place Austin did and we all share a good laugh.

The show that night is kind of a bust because of the damn Eulogy tour in the town 15 miles away. Some of our merch gets stolen while we're setting up (Who the fuck steals from a hardcore band? That's just spineless. We're not rich. Our shit isn't worth anything. So fuck you to whoever stole it.) and my head blows out on the last song. So add that to the fact that we have no band money and I just get really depressed. After the show as everyone is shooting the shit, I just kind of wander off and wait to leave. I love the Dead Unknown kids, but I just wasn't in the mood to hang out. I just wanted to go. We finally do, and I get the first shift driving and the second shift riding shotgun. It was a long night.

August 18, 2004 - Sacramento, CA

Since the summer tour was a bit of a bust... okay, giant bust due to the complete and utter disorganization of the Total Liberation Tour, we decided to hit the road again on our own. We couldn't do much on short notice, so we just hit up the people that we knew. We were asked to play a local show called "Sabbathon" in SLC, and the day before that something called "Rememberance Fest" in Boise, so we just worked backwards from there. We could only get a few shows, so it wasn't more than four days we were gone. Our first stop was Mikey Hoods place, West Coast Worldwide.

So, a bit of backstorey on Hoods and Mikey...
About three years ago, I played for this band called Opened Up. Hoods came to town and Opened Up, along with Cherem, played with them (Cherem covered Firestorm). As Opened Up was setting up, the Hoods bass player got up on stage and exchanged words with our bass player. He doesn't have a real good temper, so things escalated quick. Hoods bassist told us they were playing next and we needed to "get the fuck off the stage." We obliged and proceeded to heckle Hoods for their first two songs. They were heckled pretty badly and one kid in the crowd had a little toy gun that shot rubber pellets, and was shooting them at the band. Finally, Hoods had enough, packed their shit up and left. Everyone in SLC wanted to fight them that night, and I'm pretty sure Hoods were pretty into fighting whoever, too but I think half of them had the flu and figured it would be an unfair fight anyway, so they just split. Then the internet shit talking began. Both SLC kids and SACTO kids did their part, but it got a bit out of hand. Quick finish... Three years later, Mikey Hood asks us to come out and play Sacramento and we say yes.

In true Cherem fashion, we don't end up leaving Bill's house until around midnight. He and his girlfriend Misty were still packing. We make the rounds to the store for soda and what not, find a gas station and are finally on our way to Sacramento at 1 am. We decide to drive through the desert at night because our sweet van has no A/C and it's the middle of August.

Now, the ride to Sacramento was probably one of the best tour drives I've ever had. Dan the man was riding shotgun and Bill was rocking the seat directly behind us, so the two of them kept me company while I drove my usual night shift. Basically we waxed intelectual about a few of the finer bands from the early 90's. I happened to have a Grunge Mix cd, so we popped that in and talked about all the greats for hours; Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden...etc. We vowed that when we got home we'd start a band like that, but it's still never seen the light of day. Every once in a while at practice or before a show Dan and I will rock some Smashing Pumpkins, though. I think that's as close as we'll ever get.

Around 8am we rolled into Reno and tried to get something to eat and maybe win a little money. Well, since only Bill and Misty took off and Dan and Austin aren't old enough to gamble, I lost money for everyone. Putting ten bucks on black twice and losing just pissed me off, so I wouldn't do it anymore. Even with Austin's money, I said no. Because I didn't want to win and have to give that smug bastard his winnings. That's why I refuse to play the slot machines for my dad whenever we pass through Vegas. If I won with his quarter I'd pretend it was mine, keep the winnings, then just feel like shit for doing so. I think I won once for Austin and told him that was enough. We piled back in the van, and I tried to sleep a little while Bill and Misty watched one of the worst movies ever, Monster, on Austin's laptop. Sleep didn't really work because by then it was hot, and I could keep hearing Charlize Theron playing a white trash whore. Heat and whores. That's the stuff nightmares are made of.

We finally got to Sacto around 1pm, and didn't really know what to do. We looked for the venue, but couldn't find it. We called Mike Hood and he told us load in time was about 5, but told us where the venue was. We looked, and true to Mikey's description of "looks like an abandoned building" we found it. We spotted a Tower Records and hit that up for about an hour, then as I headed for the comic shop down the road, everyone else hit up the coffee shop across the street. I met up with them there, and we killed a few hours and I tried to nap, but it still wasn't working. Finally it was time to hit the venue.

As we rolled up, we were greeted by Mike. In the back of all our minds, all we could think was: "This guy just lured us to Sacramento so he could beat the shit out of us in his own town. We're so fucked." Not so. We joked about the whole thing a little bit, but put it behind us and he introduced us to the bands we were playing with. Bloody Sunday was on the show, and we were pretty stoked. Good guys. We'd played with them in the Vegas junkyard.

This is about the time we learned that we were basically following the Eulogy Records tour. The Warriors, Shattered Realm and The Judas Cradle were playing in San Fransisco the same night, which meant there was about 40 kids there. It was still fun, though.

After the show, we went to get some pizza in the ghetto. We didn't know it was the ghetto until someone told us, "Don't park on that street right there. If you can't see the van it'll get broken in to." So we moved the van to avoid theft, and oh the irony, Dan's brother calls right then to tell him their apartment had been broken into.

After some decent pizza, we decide to drive through the night to Washington. We head out with Clint behind the wheel and I got the first bench all to myself. We watched a little of Full Metal Jacket and I was spent. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 am. I'd been awake for about 36 hours and I needed some rest. It was short lived, though. I woke up around 6:45 and we were parked in a hotel parking lot and the entire van was asleep.

July 17 & 18, 2004 - Los Angeles, CA

"So I get home last night, and Purified In Blood was in my basement lifting weights in their underwear. I guess I have a weight set at my house."

That was how my day started off, having Bill tell me this story. It was a bright spot in an already shitty day. It was only 2pm, too.

I still hadn't packed, and didn't have a suitcase to pack anything in, so after a little looking, I finally talk Boise Surprise Babe into loaning me her sweet hiking backpack in exchange for a couple of cd's. Punk Rock is So Totally Sweet Volume 1 (title copyright me) among them.

The more the day wears on, the more depressed I became until I finally was ready to just get the fuck out of town. We stop at the store before we leave to get some snacks for the 11 hour drive, and this is when everyone in my band finds out that...
A) I don't like pennies, but if I must carry change, it needs to be silver.
B) I will not share utensils for making sandwiches.
That said, I had to buy a whole bunch of plastic knives for when my craving for a PB&J arose. Dan also bought some drinks, one of which was a Fred Meyer brand fruit punch that I immediately re-named "Stomach Ache in a Can."

As we drove away, we saw a paper mill out by the highway on fire. It was pretty huge, and we all talked about how the authorities would probably blame all the vegan kids in town for the fest for it. Sure enough, the next day the police stopped by Bill's house looking for him. According to federal reports, our singer is the leader of a "terrorist cult" because he's vegan. In case you were wondering.

As we drove through the night, Austin told me another story to brighten the day. It goes like this...
We re-named SLC Grudge City, and Aftermath kind of adopted it as their hook. Their shirts say "Grudge City Straight Edge" and things like that. As Austin was driving with one of the Italians from Purification, Aftermath was in his stereo and he asked what it was.
"Aftermath of a Trainwreck."
"Oh yes. Grudge City, right?"
"Yeah."
"Is near here?"
"What?"
"Grudge City. Is close to Salt Lake?"
Austin then had to explain that it was merely a nickname for SLC and not a real place. He still didn't get it, then hilarity ensued as Austin attempted to explain what "grudge" meant to a car full of Italians.

Around 4am, we roll into a rest stop and as we get close, it looks as if someone is doing pushups on a bench and another is doing sit-ups. We were confused until we realized we had caught up with Purified in Blood, and it all made perfect sense. We shoot the shit for a while and head on our way.

We roll into LA around 7am and head for a coffee shop. We find one just off Hollywood Blvd. and take a seat. Coffee shops in the morning are one of my favorite things to do on tour, especially in California. I love watching all the people in LA pretend how important they are as they order their complicated drinks. We hung out there for a while then decided to look for something to eat. Nothing with vegan food opens until around 11, so we mill around outside a Guitar Center waiting for it to open. Guitar Center gets boring pretty quick, so we head to Real Food Daily. We have to wait for it to open for a little while, too. This is where I learned that Austin despises, not just dislikes, but harbors full on feelings of hatred towards Bluegrass Music. During the entire meal, he could not stop talking about how much he hated the background music. It was barely audible and not bothering anyone else, but he was about ready to march in the kitchen, find the controls and change the station himself. I think it made him hate his food, too. Too bad because it was delicious.

So after a few hours of tomfoolery, we head for the venue with our fingers crossed. The venue was on the fourth floor of a building, above a Thai Massage Parlor and a flea market in the heart of South Central LA, just around the corner from MacArthur Park. How stoked were we?

In addition to all this, it's completely unorganized. We were supposed to play on Sunday, but then we were moved to Saturday, then back to Sunday, then maybe we should do both days. After a half an hour we were finally told Sunday. They made a list of who played when for that day and it got underway. Four hours later, we had made it through 5 of 11 acts. No one had given time limits to the speakers, and they were just rambling about whatever for an hour each. Austin and Clint kept telling me to just decide to be in charge and get this thing moving, but I declined. Finally Tim Generations took over and everything began to run smoothly. And Make Move played. That was the highlight of the tour.

Funny side not about Tears of Gaia real quick; they broke down on their way from Chicago to SLC in Grand Island, Nebraska. We were so stoked. At the show Hector asked me if we went swimming in the awesome lake they had while we were stranded. I looked at him for a second and replied, "It was fucking January and 13 degrees. I was afraid to leave the hotel."

The LA show was a bust as far as people went. We were basically playing for the other bands and about 15 fans. Then we heard that the Oakland show was having problems and the Seattle show had fallen through. We were heading home after our show the next day.

The next day, we drive an hour to the venue only to learn that something broke and we had to relocate back 5 minutes away from where we had stayed the night before. We were no longer in South Central but instead in a Mexican Civic Center. Again we played for the other bands and a few randoms, and we started to pack up the van for the ride home.

I wasn't going to go home, though. I'd had enough of SLC for a while. It was stupid shit, but I wanted a vacation. I made some arrangements and as everyone left for SLC after the show, I went back to Sascha's house with Foek. The next day McCall picked me up and drove me down to San Diego. I was meeting some friends from SLC down there and we were going to nerd it up for a week at the San Diego Comic Con.

But first, I had to find a used clothing store. All I had was shorts, and there was no way I was spending the weekend at a comic convention showing off my Batman tattoo. I'm not that much of a nerd. Okay so I am. Fuck off.

July 15th, 2004 - SLC, UT

Total Liberation Tour, or as I call it, worst idea ever.

So Ian Liberation, the guy that booked the awesome fest in Erie, PA tells us he's going to take that show on the road. He tells Purification (Italy) and Purified in Blood (Norway) to fly over, do the tour and he'll reimburse them for their tickets and have a van ready for them. He gets in touch and asks us to be a part of it. Everyone else in the band was stoked, but not me. I wasn't feeling it at all. All I could think of was: So, a dude that can barely book a show in his own home town is going to book two days in 15 different cities and everything is going to go smoothly? Not a chance in hell. I try my hardest to talk everyone out of doing this, but they don't listen to me. They think it's a good idea. It sounded like one, but every time I tried to e-mail this Ian guy and ask a question, it would take him two weeks to get back to me, and even then he'd just avoid my questions and ask if I'd set up the show in SLC. I told him no, as I had no time to do it, nowhere to do it and no way of getting the $2000 he was asking for in each city. I hand it off to a couple friends of mine and they go to work.

Three days before we leave to drive straight to Syracuse, NY (Where the tour starts) we have a band meeting and decide to skip the first half of tour and pick it up in SLC. No one doing the tour has told us anything about it, where the $2K from each show was going and generally just avoiding all questions about it. I was confident in my decision, but everyone else was a little bummed about it. Two days later, the day the first show was set to happen, I log on to the TL website and this is what it says...
Total Liberation Day 1 - Cancelled
Total Liberation Day 2 - New Venue TBD
Hate to say I told you so, but I called everyone in Cherem and told them. It started to look like we made the right choice.

Ten days later, the SLC show happens. Colby, the dude in charge because I refused to take part in organization of a large fest, greets me as I show up to the Library Ampitheater. He tells me he needs help, I say sure and ask why. He says, "Ian quit the tour and went home."

I couldn't fucking believe it. Colby then proceeds to tell me that every show has been a disaster. No one had advertised or done any type of promotion for any of the shows and not one band, or the tour in general, had seen a dime. Add to that, when the European bands arrived in NYC, they had no van. Ian totally fucked them out of everything he promised them, been called out by Undying who told him to apologize or go the fuck home, and went home.

So here I am, now in charge of getting a PA system set up, scheduling bands, finding bands to fill in for the ones that decided to quit when everything went to shit, and essentially run the fucking show. The one thing I didn't want to do. No slight to Colby or Jake N, because they did an amazing job of getting everything set up, they just had a little trouble executing everything.

We get everything together by 2pm and the show, that was supposed to start at noon, is up and running. Gather opens and tests the water followed by Tears of Gaia. After that we dive into a three headed dragon of SLC hardcore: Skieff D'Bargg, Aftermath of a Trainwreck and Cherem. A few other bands play and some speakers give a little lecture and the Europeans tear the place down.

We took donations all day and Colby had been getting them for weeks, and at the end of the day he was able to give roughly $1200 to anyone on the tour not from SLC. That was fine by us, we made enough to get to LA for the next show.

We had talked about dropping off the tour altogether, but decided we'd just do one show at a time. Meaning we were going to drive to LA, and if that show was a bust, leave, but if it wasn't, keep going until we couldn't afford it. After the show, everyone was stoked and the turnout had been way more than we hoped for so we were off to pack and get ready for LA.

June 2, 2004 - SLC, UT

The only reason I'm writing about this show, is because it was a disaster as far as we were concerened.

Terror used to be one of my favorite bands, and some of the nicest dudes I know, so I'd been trying to get on a Terror show for months. They'd come through a few times, but for some reason we never got on the show. Finally, we got on the MADE tour as the opening band. Figured it was going to be a good show all around. We show up at about 6:45 and there's nowhere out front to park, so we used the handicapped spot. We were just going to unload the van then find a parking spot. We got about 1/4 of the way unloaded and parking enforcement shows up. The asshole tells us that we had to move and he meant business. I try and talk him into letting us just unload everything and then we'll move. He says if the van isn't gone in ten seconds, he's giving us a $75 ticket. We shut the van, I drive around the block and park in front of a driveway. We recruit some kids in line and get everything out before he gets back. I park the van and run back to the venue. It's about 7pm at that time. Chris is at work and Bill is at school. They said they'd be ther by 7:30 or 7:45. I figured that was no problem since show usually start around 8.

Not tonight, though. The club has just come under new management and set a curfew for 11pm. They also hired a stage manager. We'd played in this club at least 5 times before and never had to deal with anyone except Blake, but that night, Blake wasn't able to do much because the new managers had some grand idea of getting everyone out for no reason other than they wanted to get home in time for MASH. So as Clint is setting up, the stage manager walks up on stage.

"Alright, we're on curfew tonight, so you guys get twenty minutes. Start at 7:15 and be done by 7:35."
I looked at Nick, then turned back.
"Are you joking me? Start at 7:15? There's 25 kids outside."
"I'm serious. Get this shit set up, man. We've got a schedule to keep."
"Well," I said, "I think we have a problem because out bass player and singer aren't going to be here until at least 7:30."
"Why?"
"We were told the show wasn't going to start until 8."
"Nope. Doors are at 7, show starts at 7:15."
"Well. Fuck."
"What do you wanna do?"
"Looks like we're not playing."
"Are you sure?"
"Can't play without a bass or vocals."
"Shit man. Sorry to hear that. Let's get this stuff out of the way then."

Then he helped us move all of our stuff off the stage. At 7:45 Chris and Bill roll in, and I break the news to them. Chris thought I was joking and Bill didn't really seem to care aside from the fact that he left school early for nothing.

It was a hell of a last show for Chris and Nick.

June 1, 2004 - Provo, UT

Chris, Nick and I met Clint at the Albertson's way out in the middle of fucking nowhere. (aka right by Clint's house, in Draper. I'm a downtown kid. Anything past 6300 S. is far away.) We hop in the van and drive out to the show. There is some wicked traffic, so it takes us longer than usual.

Now Provo shows can really go either way. If there is some kind of tech-metal band (which we aren't) on the bill, kids will come. Otherwise you're pretty much shit out of luck. With, of course, the exception of about 5 people. Those five people know who they are, and we love them. The rest of the Provo scene pretty much consists of dipshits. Dipshits that smoke because it makes them look hip. I guess it's their way of rebelling against all the mormon stuff that goes on there. Not really sure, and all I know is that I haven't been back there since this show.

Anyway, Rob from Bring it Down sets the show up with BID, Cherem, Gone Without Trace, Bound In Blood and the Hi Fi Massacre. HiFi is a Provo tech metal band, and like I said before, the type of band that draws kids. So, everything goes alright to start the show off with. We do our thing and there's about twenty five kids watching us and another thirty standing outside on the sidewalk smoking. It doesn't really bother me, because that's how some shows go, but as soon as HiFi starts setting up all the kids start piling in. The other bands borrowed my cabinet, so as I was getting it off the stage, I get sort of pushed out of the way so someone else can get up on it. It's the singer for HiFi, which until that night, I'd been told he was a real nice guy. I think whoever told me that was lying. I shrug it off, move my stuff out and go sit behind the counter with the merch. Halfway through HiFi's set, two girls come up to the table and ask to buy HiFi shirts. They start asking all kinds of questions about what colors and sizes I have. I politely tell them that I'm in Cherem, and don't have answers for them but if they wait until after the set someone in the band could probably help them out. They give me a couple dirty looks and walk away.

After the set is over, the singer walks over and takes his place next to me selling HiFi stuff. I tell him good set, and he ignores me. This kid was starting to piss me off acting like that. I brush it off and tell him about the girls that asked questions. I tried to turn it into a slightly humerous story to get a positive reaction out of him. He looks at me, looks away and mumbles, "Yeah, whatever." Now, at that point I'd had just about enough of this fucking guy. I pack our merch up and get the fuck out of there.
I'm not really sure what all happened, because we'd played Provo with those dudes before and everything, to my knowledge, was cool. I guess not anymore.

Oh well. Fuck Provo anyway.

May 31, 2004 - Boise, ID

So we get a call from a kid up in Boise asking us to come play a show. He says it will be a good turn out, so we decide to do it. He gives us a date and we agree. We talk with Bring it Down and they're playing the show, too. A couple of the bands from that show are going to be in Provo the day after, and they ask us if we want to play and we say yes. We have a show two days before this in SLC with Love is Red and we get them on the Idaho show, so basically we make a mini-tour out of three shows.

We were asked to play the MADE tour that comes through with Terror the day after Provo. It sounds a little ridiculous, I know but we made a mini-tour out of four shows in 5 days. 2 in SLC and one 45 minutes away. Whatever, we'll do as we please.

Back on track... Chris and Nick had decided these were going to be their last shows. Nick was starting a new job and couldn't commit to touring and Chris had a family to support, so he couldn't tour either. So that's the main reason we made kind of a big deal about it, as a little send off for them. The Love is Red show went well and we were excited about playing up in Boise, so we planned on meeting at Bill's house Monday morning at about 10.

Monday morning rolls around and we all start to arrive. We took Foek with us, because it's fun and he's good company on long rides and Dan (our new future bass player) decided to come along because he really didn't have much else to do. Plus we had a little extra room in the van, because Chris decided he was taking his own car. So Chris rolls up to the house and comes inside.

He looks at me and says, "I've got a surprise for you in the car." I head over to the window and take a look, but all I can see is Candace.
"Um," I say, "all I can see is your wife. That's not a very good surprise."
"No," says Chris, "in the back seat."
I head outside and take a look as to what kind of surprise he's talking about, and sure enough, he brought along my friend Andrea. It was a pretty good surprise, I'll give him that.

We all pile in our respective rides and start on our way. Clint put his cd player in the van this time, so we had something else to listen to while we drove. Instead of me singing and gangster rap. I brought the rap, just in case though. When we all got to Boise, Chris told us a story of how there was an accident on the freeway and he had to pull some Bad Boys II shit. He said that a car flipped over and was flying at them, so he had to swerve and drive under it at like 70mph. I didn't believe him then, and I still don't to this very day.

While we're waiting on a few of the other bands, Andrea got a headache, so she and I take off to find a store. I didn't feel like driving the van, so Chris offered to let me take his car. I jusmped at the chance, because it sort of looks like a race car and would probably be fun to drive. Fun wasn't exactly the word I would use now, though. It's difficult and loud. That's what it was. I felt so stupid rolling up the Albertson's with a car that made more noise than a poorly functioning lawnmower. Either way, we get some Tylenol and head back to the venue.

When we get back, the promoter comes up to us and tells us that they made food for all the bands. We usually don't pay much attention to this because when it happens, they usually forget that we're a vegan band and we don't really want pepperoni pizza. This was different though, because he tells us that he went out and got vegan hot dogs for us and they're all ready to go in the snack bar area. We all head over and grab a hot dog or two and go back to hanging out. As we're all sitting around bullshitting, I notice that Candace, Chris' wife, hasn't eaten any of her food. There's a small chunk sitting on the side of the plate and that's it. Chris asks her why she isn't eating and she says she doesn't think hers is vegan. Chris tells her that it is, because they cooked all the regular dogs on one side and the vegan ones on the other, and he got hers from the vegan side. She still didn't believe that it was vegan. Chris was very adamant that it was, and to prove it, he'd take a bite. So he grabs it from her plate and takes a big bite. He chews it for a second, then looks at us in horror and spits it out. "Fuck, that's a real hot dog!"
"I told you." said Candace quietly.

That kind of bummed the rest of us out and we didn't go back for seconds.

The show was pretty good after that. We couldn't hear a damn thing on stage, so we were convinced that everything sounded like complete shit and got really bummed. But after we got back to our merch table, everyone told us that we sounded really good, and the sounds sucks while you're on stage but everything sounds good from the floor. That made us feel a little better.

After the show was over we packed everything back into the van and started on our way home. I got first shift driving on the way home, but could only make it about two and a half hours before I got too tired. I tried to entertain myself and stay awake by texting with Andrea who had already left, but that proved to be a bad idea because I think I almost crashed several times. Fianlly Little Nick took over, then Dan and when they were both done I took over for the rest of the way into SLC. I dropped everyone off and went home to catch a nap before heading down to Provo.

April 1, 2004 - SLC, Utah

I don't write about local shows ever, mainly because they all blend together as one long show, but this is a story I felt needed to be told.

Some dude named Danny emailed us and asked if we'd play an animal rights benefit show. Seeing as how we're a vegan band, we felt it would be the right thing to do. He tells us that it will be on April 1st, which is April Fools Day. Now, I love April Fools Day, and am all about jokes. I took this as an opportunity to play a joke on everyone. I talk the dudes into posting on our website that Bill has had a run in with the law and is under investigation as a terrorist threat. Sounds ridiculous, but in SLC it sounds about right. Anyway, we post that his lawyer advised him against any contact with straight edge kids or vegan kids. Since we didn't want to bail on the show, we wrote, Brook Aftermath would be filling in on vocals. Everyone bought it. We had e-mails from all over asking how Bill was and if we needed any help. We were good to go.

The show was an akward line-up. There were two indie bands, a gutter punk band and us. We sneak Bill in through the back door, and start to get everything set up. We tell the sound guy that we need two microphones, and he gives us two mics. Now, the way it was supposed to go down was like this: Bill gets a mic stands to the side of the stage and sings, while Brook jumps around and lip syncs, thus confusing anyone paying attention. Then at the end of the first song, we say "April Fools" and Bill sings the rest of the set. There was only one problem: The dumbass sound guy didn't turn on the second mic. So we start playing with no vocals, and Brook stands around looking like an idiot waiting for Bill to start singing.

Needless to say our joke fell flat. I was disappointed.

March 17, 2004 - Las Vegas, NV

We'd never played Vegas before, but Aftermath of a Trainwreck knew some dudes down there and said it would be good times. We figured what the hell, and drove down there.

There was one problem.

As we left SLC we realized that someone had taken all the tapes out of the van. I hadn't brought any with me, because they were still supposed to be in there. We had one tape to last us the 13 or so hours it would take to get down there and back. We took the two back seats out and loaded 7 people into the van. Clint, me, Nick, Bill, Chris G, Misty and Megan. It wasn't really that comfortable, but I rode shotgun so I was fine. Misty brought a Cosmo with her, I hijacked it and read the whole thing cover to cover and it kept me entertained. We pulled into Vegas and head for Vegi House and immediately  after that it's over to Ronald's Doughnuts.

For those of you that don't know, this is a place that specializes in vegan doughnuts. I'm pretty sure it's only because they ingridients are cheaper, but who cares? They're vegan. We load up on those and head out to the venue. Brook gives me directions, and we follow them.

"Turn left at the women's prison and head to the end of the road," is the one line that still sticks out to me all these years later.

At the end of the road is a junkyard, and I assume we've taken a wrong turn. Not so. Aftermath rolls up shortly after and we're let in the yard.

The junkyard guy tells us not to go near the fence that borders the prison, as the guards get angry and start yelling.

We hang out for a while and wait for the other bands to get there, find a nice little piece of wood, make it into a table and set up our merch. Once again, Chris Purkey couldn't come because he had to work. He was being a pussy, basically. "I can't go. I have to work to provide for my wife and two month old son." I would have told him to grow up, but I think that's just what he did. So Brook pretended to play bass for us again. Most of SLC showed up and we played a good set. It was fun, Aftermath was fun, Bloody Sunday and Shattered Realm were good and we didn't watch Folsom.

When the show was over, we started on our way home. I'm not sure why, but this was around the time that I started to be given the task of night driving. So we head on our way. About two hours into the drive, I get really sick of my gangster rap tape. I eject it and begin singing Misfits songs to myself to stay awake. I was the only one up and I was singing quietly. Or so I thought. When we got home, Nick told me that he wasn't all the way asleep and heard me singing for about an hour. I was a little embarassed. Either way, we dropped everyone off and I went home to take a nap. My other band had a show that night.

January 11, 2004 - Erie, PA Day 2

So after a day of music at one venue, we're told all the speakers will be held in another venue on the other side of town. Luckily they told us that the night before and we didn't drive all over town again the next day.

The speakers were very hit or miss. Some of them were good, and you could tell they do this for a living. Others sounded like they made up a speech in the car on the way over. There was no time limit, which was a good thing for the pros, but a bad thing for dipshits that rambled on and on for an hour about how eating roadkill was still technically vegan. At this point in the trip, I needed a little time off. It had been a hell of a week and I couldn't stand being in the back corner of a large room, not being able to see a damn thing. So I took off. I walked about a block and a half to the first Starbucks I could find, sat down and just relaxed for an hour or so. I made sure I was back in time for Rod Coronado. He was basically the only reason we didn't take off that morning and start our trek of a 35+ hour drive home. He was the last speaker and well worth the wait. He spoke for about an hour and made the second day worth seeing.

As soon as he was done, we piled in the van and started our long, long drive home. The highlight of which, was that we drove 45 minutes out of our way to hang out with Wayne at Fazolli's in Grand Island, Nebraska. He hooked us up with some sweet breadsticks.

We rolled in to SLC at about 5am Tuesday morning after leaving at 11 Sunday night. I climbed into bed for a quick nap, but had to be up soon. I had class at 10 am.

January 10, 2004 - Erie, PA

Possibly the most unorganized fest in history, and it's what we put up with all this shit to play at.

We wake up pretty early and head on our way. We've gotten directions to the venue, but don't really know how to find it. Doesn't matter though, as Tim of Gaia calls to tell us the show has been moved. 11am and the day is off to a good start. We get the new address and head for the van. It's maybe 15 degrees outside, but at least it wasn't snowing. We start on our way, and eventually find where we need to be. What else do we find? Cops. About four of them. They tell us the show has been moved and to leave. We ask where it's been moved to, and they tell us they don't know and walk away. We call Tim and ask what the deal is now, and he says that there is an old ballroom that the show has been moved to and gives us directions.

Apparently the police have been giving the promoter a hard time all week and this is his last resort for a venue, and it's about the 5th one. We pull up to what I think is an abandoned building, but no, it's the ballroom where the show is. Eight inches of snow cover the sidewalk all around, and a few of the windows are broken. We park the van in the parking lot across the street and head inside for a look. Imagine an abandoned warehouse that is only used for shitty raves every three or four months and you've got the idea of what it looks like. There are a few bands there and no one knows what's going on.

The promoter walks around like he's just about given up and just says "I don't know" whenever he's asked a question. Oh, there's no heat in the building either. Then the fire marshall shows up and declares the building unsafe for a show. So everyone starts working on how to get the place in working shape. Shoveling snow, fixing exit signs, etc... All the while, the promoter stands around looking like he's ready to go home and sleep.

After a good two hours of standing around and fixing things, the show finally starts. No one is really moving around because it's hard to get into a band when everyone is wearing giant coats, gloves and hats. As the day wears on people start getting into it, more people start showing up and it gets warm enough that a long sleeve shirt kept you warm. Until the sun went down, that is. Then it got cold as hell all over again. By the end of the day, we deemed the show a success and made a bunch of new European friends (Purification and Purified in Blood) and set off to find a hotel.

January 9, 2004 - Pittsburgh

It turns out that the only part of the hitch we need is the cheapest part. Our day is off to a good start, and we only have about two hours to go before we get to Pittsburgh. It's a short, uneventful ride. Good for listening to a little music and just haniging out. We roll in to Pittsburgh, with nothing to really do. We have about two hours before load in, so we just head into the first empty parking lot we can find. It's a joint lot between the Steelers and Pirates stadiums, so we just hang out and find out where the venue is.

Pittsburgh is an awesome city, but not built for a large van with a trailer. It was a pain in the ass to get around there, so we didn't get to do much hanging out. The venue was about 20 miles outside the city, so we went up that way hoping to find somewhere to eat. The promoter told us the name of the venue was "The House of Hardcore" and we'd see a sign as we drove up the road. We got all excited to be playing at an actual venue, at a real show and in front of more than 25 people. He told us to look for the sign, and if we hit the strip club we've gone too far. We saw the strip club, turned around and called him. He said to head back, and we were sure to see the sign. Sure enough, we got back down the road, and there was a kid putting a large piece of plywood out in front of a house that read, "The House of Hardcore." So, at this point in Cherem's tour career, we've played more house shows than actual venues. Fuck it. If kids are there, I'll play anywhere.

The show actually turns out really well. Lots of kids show up, they get into it and everything goes well. After the show, the promoter gives all the money to Undying, who turns around and gives us a cut of it. Everyone in that band is awesome and I think they felt bad after they heard our story of trying to make it to this god damn fest. Plus, Bill is kind of friends with them. He almost sang for them, but didn't want to move to North Carolina.

After the show, we decide to head up to Erie. It's only about three hours away, and we don't know what time the Fest starts or where it is or when we play, so we want to be ready early. So as we get going, it starts to get colder than it's been the entire trip. Brook drove and the defrost was barely working.

I stayed awake most of the drive, and as we rolled into Erie, Brook turned on the radio. The high for the next day was 11 degrees. It was 1 in the morning and I'd never been so cold in my life. A few of our friends had driven out from SLC for the Fest and had a hotel, so we were going to stay with them. We got in the room and it was one of the smallest rooms I'd ever seen. There were 11 of us, and we barely had room to lay down. Chris slept under the sink and I had to sleep in the bathroom.

But before that, Brook and I were so hungry that we had to eat. All I'd eaten that day was Subway, and it just didn't cut it. All of our food was in the trailer, and neither of us dared to venture out into the sub-zero temperature for a sandwich. So Brook paid Nick $5 to go get it for us. And it was totally worth it, once we thawed the frozen bread with the complimentary hair dryer.