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.