VADER is in the States and brings fresh news from the frontier of their tour over the New Continent. For the upcoming weeks we’re gonna publish their tour blog from Back to the Black US tour 2013. Stay tuned! \m/
22.09.2013 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
It was a very nice looking place. Finally we had a decent backstage conditions, our own toilet AND shower! Really good catering, I could get stuffed with potatos at last;) Good show and Fans reception tonight. I took shower and did some laundry after the show. Bigger part of the Team went somewere with local crew. Me, James and Spider stayed in the bus and we were watching totaly fu**ed up cartoons in TV. It was like a cartoon for kids but in gore version and after taking some mushrooms. We dried out a bottle of Jack then another one “Luksusowa” . The rest of Team came back from afterparty at that time being so excited (Jack from Vital with a smile painted on his face). Local promoter had to be great guide tonight indeed 😉 Next day we travelled to Oklahoma City.
I remember this club from our previous tour. It’s a huge two level building with three stages. It looks like an old barn or a granary 😉 So hot that day again. Unfortunately I am sick since Florida show so I spent the day in my bed and got up just before our performance. Despite the club being quite big, the turnout was great. The show was good in spite of broken string in my guitar. There always must be a first time;) Our endorsers from Schecter equipped us with some back up guitars so it took just a split second to switch! After the tour the main part of team went to the bar with mysterious Captain Sparrow and I jumped back to bed to get better. Good night.
24.09.2013 Oklahoma City, OK @ Chameleon Room
After the last day off on this tour we came to Oklahoma finally. I felt better after the last two days spent in bed. I bought some medicine a day before in Wal Mart so I should be OK soon. Just after we arrived I decided to do some running in Will Rogers Park. I just had to do something, I was bursting with energy. Sadly, my performance didn’t look good and I did not even post it on FB. Most important thing was, however, that I spat all the shit from my lungs. I wrote about big venue in Atlanta before but what I saw in Oklahoma changed my mind about the meaning of a term “big”. That was kind of huge hangar type of place for about 5000 people or something. Even 300 men is gonna make this place looking empty. I was worried about the sound in this place too because it is hard to make it good in such venue. We had Ray though, who made it perfect again (though he had hotel booked to get some rest, he decided to come and help us with the sound) !!!! The crowd was pretty much with us too. I spent some time chatting with my wife after show and then I went straight to bed.
25.09.2013 San Antonio, TX @ Korova
We arrived at a venue according to the plan. Verrrrry hot outside! There was AC in the club so it was nice and cool inside. Before soundcheck me and James took shower. A while later we were doing soundcheck and just when we finished first of seven (!!!) bands started their show. There were about 20 people by the stage which scared me a bit…but with each next group the amount of Fans was increasing and it was quite nice audience during Vader show. Great response. People were really hungry for Metal there. We played “Hell Awaits” for the end and then moved to the “Rock Bar” for last shots. They closed the place just before we had a chance to get last sip… After that Dave and Duane took me to historical place Alamo, where some Texas warriors died fighting against Mexican Army back in the days. We took some photos too and then got back to bus. Me and some Friends from Vital and Sacrificial went to grab some food to local 24/7 bar. Everybody got their meal but Jack. After an hour of waiting and some harsh conversation he got his meal…smelling like urine. Shit happens… We left that shithole disgusted and came back to the bus. Tired – we all went straight to bed.
San Antonio – Alamo
26.09.2013 Dallas, TX @ The Boiler Room
That day in Dallas – so damn hot by the way – began with huge surprise prepared by Ray. He arranged a meeting with Saxon that happened to play in Dallas this evening too! At first I thought it was a joke. But Ray happened to know the band pretty well and their bass player Nibbs in particular. We called a taxi to take us to the House of Blues. It was still too early for Saxon’s soundcheck so we visited local Hooters. Guys ordered a couple of beers (only James bought an ice tee..of course) and I took a coffee. We spent next hour watching Saxon during their soundcheck (!!!). They played two songs from their last album “Sacrifice”. We also took a few pictures together. Then we had to get back for our own soundcheck. Because Saxon was playing at 9:30 PM and we were upposed to start at midnight – there was a chance to see their show. To see “Dallas 1 PM” in Dallas…priceless!!! Steve called a cab for 9:15 PM for me, Spider and Halik (James was still feeling bad and decided to stay). Besides free tickets I got a gift: a new CD signed by all band members. Massacre!!! Such a great day!!! We watched almost whole Saxon show (last one was “Wheels of Steel”) and then we had to travel back…to play our own 😉 We were back in our bus in just 10 minutes. Quick change, warm up, intro and GO !!! Few vodka shots after the show and a group picture with the whole team family. Tonight it was a last show with Execration. What a day !!!!
Saxon – soundcheck
Peter in Dallas
Vader with Saxon in Dallas
a group pic after the show in Dallas
27.09.2013 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
We arrived at a club around 4 PM. Nice weather – little cool but very pleasant. Yet before our soundcheck we got some mexican food. Very specific and spicy taste. We did soundcheck afterwards. James was feeling bad so we did it as quick as possible. I was feeling sick too. Yesterday it was a suffering for me, I barely survived our show. There were only 4 bands tonight so everything started a bit later than usually. Not too many people but very wild crowd (especially on Vital’s show). One beer at the bar after our set and… it was being closed. I still had 3 drink tickets in my pocket…I didn’t have time for that.
Together with Gator, Duane and George we tried to find another open bar in the area but in vain (in USA all bars are closed at 2 AM usually – even if there are some clients still). We came back to the bus. Then we took another trip (this time with Brian) to find some food. Back to the bus and to my bed finally…
New Mexico… we passed Roswell on our way. We were by the club at 3 PM. Weather changed totally. Clouds, not more then 68 F, cool wind. Launchpad… I know this place from the past shows. As our team were loading in I took a walk around. “Museum of Holocaust and Hate” just next door…hmm…what a name 😉 Then I noticed a pawn shop and a small Metal record store. The owner – a Mexican guy – was right by my side in split second. He showed me an album with photos of some visitors. Familiar faces: Shane from Napalm, Dudes from Immolation, Suffocation or Origin… We took a picture together (now there will be Vader among visitors too). A quick soundcheck because James was still feeling sick and needed to get some more sleep. BTW I need that hour in bed too. We started at 11 PM. A string broke in a first song… change…a couple of songs on Schecter (now I feel the difference in quality and comfort between this thing and my own Beauty)…change (THX Dave for great and fast action!)…and everything went smooth and fast till the end. Lots of troubles with the sound. I could not hear Spider for the whole show. There were problems with vocal too. Fans seemed to be vpleased, though, so we played “God is Dead” as we still had 5 minutes left. Then quick jump into our bus. I downloaded 10th episode of “Homeland” just in time and watched it in bed. We leave for Arizona at 8 AM…
Read also the tour blog from Santa Ana and Oakland HERE, Portland HERE, Seattle HERE, Denver HERE, Kansas City HERE, St.Louis, Chicago HERE and Detroit & Wilmington HERE, Brooklyn HERE, Raleigh, Charleston, Tampa HERE.
Done so far:
09/06/13 Yost Theatre – Santa Ana, CA
09/07/13 Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
09/08/13 Alhambra Theatre – Portland, OR
09/09/13 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
09/10/13 The Venue – Caldwell, ID (cancelled due to the venue-closure)
09/12/13 Marquis Theatre – Denver, CO
09/13/13 Aftershock – Kansas City, MO
09/14/13 Fubar – St. Louis, MO
09/15/13 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL
09/16/13 The Detroit Pub – Detroit, MI
09/17/13 The Paper Box – Brooklyn, NY
09/18/13 Mojo 13 – Wilmington, DE
09/19/13 Kings – Raleigh, NC
09/20/13 Oasis – Charleston, SC
09/21/13 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL
09/22/13 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
09/24/13 Chameleon Room – Oklahoma City, OK
09/25/13 Korova – San Antonio, TX
09/26/13 The Boiler Room – Dallas, TX
09/27/13 Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
Remaining “Back To The Black 2013” U.S. tour dates are:
09/28/13 The Rock – Tucson, AZ
09/29/13 Whisky A Go Go – Hollywood, CA
I woke up and got out of bed at around 10am. I came into the main lounge and was immediately greeted by an extremely drunk Vital Remains drummer. So instead of having my breakfast I had to waste my morning along with the rest of VR to try and convince Jack to go to bed. He was one of the previous night’s many moonshine casualties. We got to the venue, (and let’s just say some people had a very ‘difficult’ load in) set up and soundchecked and ate something; you all know the routine by now. All we had to do now was wait – we had about 5 hours until we started. There was no real backstage area so we just relaxed on the bus, some of us slept to make the time go a little faster, then after the usual coffee and a warm up it was time to play. It was pretty late and some of the audience seemed pretty tired and we also suffered from some technical difficulties but ultimately it was a great show! We left pretty quickly and went straight to a truck stop so our driver could sleep (he did another shift behind the sound desk today so he’d been working for around 15 hours) and we could take a shower if we needed to. Finally at around 4:30am it was time to sleep before we started the journey to Chicago.
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 