ABR's axman Brent Rambler. Photo by David Shaw.

++Each week August Burns Red guitarists JB Brubaker and Brent Rambler will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from ABR’s headlining U.S. tour, in support of their new release, Constellations.++

Hey everyone! It’s Brent from ABR coming to you from a hotel room in upstate New York. We are just about to wrap up our headlining tour and make our way overseas to Europe.

We’ve had a blast this past week with some amazing shows in the Northeast and Canada. We were so pumped to make our way to Richmond because we had heard nothing but amazing things about The National. When we arrived we weren’t disappointed. As we walked up to the green rooms we were greeted by a HUGE hot tub and sauna. Needless to say we jumped right in and relaxed for a bit before going onto stage. After the show ended we headed to PA where we were able to sleep in our own beds for a few hours before making our way to Allentown. I was super excited to see my wife, my puppy, and my freaking house.

August Burns Red axman Brent Rambler

++Each week August Burns Red guitarists JB Brubaker and Brent Rambler will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from ABR’s headlining U.S. tour, in support of their new release, Constellations.++

Hey everyone, Brent from August Burns Red here, blogging to you from the road about my sweet life on tour. Leaving for this tour was bittersweet for me: I was super excited to get out there and headline another tour, but this is my first tour away from my new wife.

August Burns Red's JB Brubaker posts up in front of his Mesas.

++Each week August Burns Red guitarist JB Brubaker will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from ABR’s headlining U.S. tour, in support of their new release, Constellations.++

Hello loyal Guitar World readers! I’m writing this while in the van somewhere in Arizona en route to Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It’s Friday, September 25, and we’re about eight days into our tour. The past few days have been filled with marathon drives and not a lot of shows. We played in Seattle on Monday and had a day off to drive the 12+ hours south through the mountains to Orangevale, CA. We had an enjoyable day in Seattle as our label, Solid State Records, is based out of there. The label folks were kind enough to take us out to lunch and dinner. God bless ‘em. It’s always nice to see our label reps and hang out: there’s great people at Tooth & Nail/Solid State.

August Burns Red axman Brent (left) and JB (Photo: Stephen Green)

++Each week August Burns Red guitarist JB Brubaker will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from ABR’s headlining U.S. tour, in support of their new release, Constellations.++

Hello Guitar World! JB from August Burns Red here. I guess I will be doing some blogging for those of you who care to read about my daily activities as we tour the USA for the next couple weeks. This is the first of hopefully many blogs to come so let’s try to have some fun times.

We are three days into our fall headlining tour. Out with us is The Acacia Strain, Impending Doom, and My Children My Bride. This is easily the heaviest package ABR has ever taken out and at times I feel like we are the equivalent to a band like Explosions in the Sky next to these bands. Nevertheless, the first three shows have all been sold out and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves thus far. All the other bands have been nice and seem down to hang out. I’m looking forward to getting any early tour awkwardness out of way so we can all just have as much fun as possible.

Lacuna Coil axman Cristiano Migliore (Photo: Clay Patrick McBride)

++Each week Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore’s, guitarist for Lacuna Coil, will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from Lacuna Coil’s headlining U.S. tour for their new release, Shallow Life.++

July, Sunday, 26th - Chico, CA

Chico seems like a pretty nice town. When I wake up and have my morning (ok, afternoon...) espresso, I look outside the tour bus windows and we’re parked by a park. There are trees everywhere and today’s venue is a theatre. Everybody’s out for a walk or looking for a bite to eat and, after snacking something, I decide to wander inside.

The crew’s been hard at work already and the stage’s almost set. CriZ, our drummer has had some problems with his wrist and he’s looking for a physiotheraphist in town but, but because it’s Sunday he can’t find anyone so decides to go to a nearby hospital instead.

Unfortunately, the ER is full of people and he can’t stay because it’s getting late and he comes back to the venue right in time for soundcheck. Hopefully he’ll be able to play tonight. His wrist really hurts and we’re even considering canceling the show, which is something we never had to do before. It’s a tough decision because, for one, we don’t wanna disappoint our fans and, for two, because it would mean losing a lot of money that we need to make sure the expenses for the tour stay as low as possible!

After a long discussion, and a few painkillers, it’s decided that we’re gonna play. It’s a gamble but we’re ready to at least try. We only have two more shows before we head back to Europe for 10 days and the other bands are all talking about pranks that would happen onstage. It’s kind of a ritual that when a tour ends all the bands play jokes to the one another and since we’ve been friends with Seventh Void’s Johnny and Kenny we know we should expect the worst...

And sure enough while we’re on, here they come! They walk onstage while we play “Heaven’s a Lie,” in their underwear, with pillows and start hitting everybody. It’s hard to play when somebody beats the crap outta you and you laugh so hard you actually have tears coming outta your eyes! It’s a lot of fun though: they even bring an armchair onstage and Cristina and Marco sit on it while playing the final part of “Enjoy the Silence” while Johnny “helps” CriZ playing drums.

Lacuna Coil getting comfy

The show’s great but some people, seeing this crazy stuff going on, decide to walk onstage as well and our crew have to take ‘em off the stage right during the encore... Crazy night indeed!

Lacuna Coil axman Cristiano Migliore (photo: Tom Couture)

++Each week Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore’s, guitarist for Lacuna Coil, will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from Lacuna Coil’s headlining U.S. tour for their new release, Shallow Life.++

July, Sunday, 12th - Seattle, WA

Today we're in Seattle, we haven't been here in a couple of years (since when we played the Blackest of the Black with Danzig.) The venue's small but nice and we find out that there's an Italian restaurant just right around the corner. We decide to give it a try and, actually, we find out it's really good! The manager and one of the waitresses are Italian, from Naples and, as always when Italians meet around the world, we start talking super loud, waving our hands in the air... yes, it's true: we do that a lot.

After dinner (and a few glasses of Limoncello, a pretty strong liquor made with lemons) we head back to the bus and have a couple of hours to relax before the show.

When it's finally time to get ready I can barely move: I'm so full! While walking towards the stage I regret eating so much but it's not like I really had a choice; Good Italian food—NOT Olive Garden—isn't easy to find and missing out would've been a crime.

Once again the show goes great. It's interesting to see how well “Spellbound” (the first single off of our latest album Shallow Life) does every night. People freak out when we start playing it and it gets the same kind of reaction that our older classics like “Heaven's a Lie” or “Our Truth” get.

After the show some people decide to go to a nearby bar: this is the last night of Seventh Void's guitarist, Jo Porfido (who plays with Agnostic Front and is only filling in for SV's original guitarist for a few shows) and everybody's out to party with him. Good times!

Lacuna Coil axman Cristiano Migliore

++Each week Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore’s, guitarist for Lacuna Coil, will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from Lacuna Coil’s headlining U.S. tour for their new release, Shallow Life.++

 

July, Saturday, 11th - Milwaukee, WI
After travelling all night I wake up and, slowly, get up and walk to the front lounge. Most people are already up and there’s fresh coffee made! I put some clothes on and have a cup; it definitely helps in waking up. Outside the bus there are already some fans waiting and I sign a few autographs while I walk to the venue. It’s awesome to witness the dedication of our fans. It always amazes me.

The venue is the Rave, we played here many times before but we’re in for a nice surprise: they completely restored it and there are new dressing rooms right by the underground “haunted pool.” Apparently, many years ago, two girls drowned in this pool and it’s been closed ever since. Obviously every band that’s been there has somehow sneakily had the chance to walk into the basement and see it. I must admit that it used to be quite spooky. Now it’s all cleaned up and you can actually walk through the room to go to the stage. But no matter how clean and bright it is now, it still retains its mysterious aura.

We have a meet-and-greet tonight and it’s a pretty quick one. Pre-sales are looking good and when we walk onstage the room is pretty full. The show goes great once again although the sound onstage is a little weird. It doesn’t matter though, people are here to have fun and we do too.

Then I take a nice, hot shower and bring my stuff back to the bus. There are several people waiting there and we hang out with them for a while before it’s finally time to leave. I better go to bed, tomorrow’s a pretty important day: I gotta meet the parents!
 

Lacuna Coil axman Cristiano Migliore

++Each week Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore’s, guitarist for Lacuna Coil, will be checking in with Guitar World with updates from Lacuna Coil’s headlining U.S. tour for their new release, Shallow Life.++

July, Friday, 3rd - Italy Six AM, the alarm goes off and I slowly get up and get dressed. I gotta be at the airport by 8:30 and it'll take me about 1 hour and a half to get there (hopefully traffic won't be horrible). My wife and I leave the house at 7, after drinking a huge cup of coffee (man, I'm so slow in the morning) and we leave the little town where we live to go meet the rest of the band at Milan-Malpensa airport.

Luckily, we get there perfectly on time and after having a quick breakfast at the bar (cappuccino and croissants: the typical Italian breakfast) we proceed to the check-in area where we stood for ages before we get our boarding passes and, as usual, they charge us with over-weight (I don't know why but we always manage to pay extra every time we travel.).

After saying goodbye to our wives/girlfriends/family, we walk to the gate and get on the plane, which, upon leaving the hangar and getting onto the runaway, completely shuts off, leaving everybody on board with a slight sense of panic! This is when you really don't want to be on a freakin' plane! What if it turns off while we're flying over the ocean! Hell, I don't even wanna think about it...

Daniel Anderson: happy to be out of the van.

++Each week Daniel Anderson, guitarist for electronica/rock duo Idiot Pilot, will be checking in with Guitar World to offer his thoughts on a range of guitar-related topics. This week: The Filthy Van!++

To most people, the thought of going on a tour with a band is probably wrought with legions of screaming fans, backstage parties, and droves of beautiful women. While in some cases that may be true, most of the hours of any tour are spent in a very different way, which most people who haven’t gone out themselves may not even think of. This, of course, is driving. The reality of being a band on tour, specifically one without yet the success to afford a bus and therefore a driver, is that a vast majority of the time is going to be spent in a cramped van hurling down the road at all hours of the night trying to get to the next gig on time. It is in that spirit that I would like to extend the limited advice I have on how to successfully drive 24 hours straight in a van.

First of all, make sure you have multiple activities lined up that you are going to use to keep yourself busy. This is a perfect time to write or to read. I personally read very rarely when I am at home because I always just have so much to do, but when you’re locked up in a bunk in a van, a book is an amazing use of time. Just be sure to bring a reading light. Another thing to make sure that you have is a laptop and plenty of DVDs to watch. Remember that you are probably going to be spending countless hours out on the road total, so I would recommend TV on DVD which will last for much longer. iPods are also a must, but remember before you leave to install a CD player with an audio input that will work with your Pod. For musicians especially, a drive this long without a treasure trove of music could be mind shattering.

“But how am I going to keep all these things powered?” You might ask, “On this long and horrifying journey.”

Good question. There are basically two kinds of power inverters that you can buy for your van. The first plugs right into your cigarette lighter (or preferably, your “power port” which looks identical but can sustain a significantly higher amount of devices being plugged into it) and will usually get the job done for a while, but they inevitably become overloaded and you will blow a fuse, which is an easy replacement but somehow only fixes the problem so many times, until eventually you are just without power. The other kind of inverter plugs directly into the battery of your vehicle and then a wire is run into your cab where you will receive power. This way is more expensive but not by much, and can support significantly more people charging their stuff at one time without breaking something.

Chicago Deep Dish goodness

Everyone has their vices, whether it is cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate, you name it. Many people get addicted to certain substances or feelings. If I can define addiction as something you need to do everyday at least once a day, and if you don’t do this, you have trouble functioning (masturbation excluded), I’d venture to say I may have a pizza addiction, or at least I may be at risk to becoming addicted to pizza.

If I don’t have pizza one day, I don’t think I have problems getting through the day, but when I do have it, I’m in a much better mood (unless of course it’s a bastardized version of what pizza is). Pizza has been there for me at the best of times, and the worst of times but it’ll never discriminate, and I can depend on it being there for me whenever I need it.

Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of slices from many places around the world. I actually make a point of trying pizza wherever I go, asking the locals where to get the best pizza and I probably base a lot of my opinion of a place on how good the pizza is there (and the beer for that matter). Of all the pizza I’ve had, I’d like to highlight what I’m going to call Six Savoury Slices.