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.

The week leading up to this tour was a pretty awful time for me. I was sick as a dog for a little over a week and was convinced that I had swine flu. Turns out I was swine free but I had mono, which in my opinion is even worse. I’d rather have suffered through a few days of swine flu and gotten over it so I wouldn’t be able to get it down the road. Mono seriously screwed up our practice schedule as well as some pretty awesome plans I had for my last week at home before we hit the road, but these things happen. I’m happy to say that I’m feeling oodles better than I had been and while I don’t feel 100% perfect yet, I feel ok to play (which I had been nervous about).

Tonight we’re in Boise, ID. While walking down the street before the show I randomly bumped into our good buddy Tommy from Between the Buried and Me. Turns out they were playing down the street with In Flames. It’s funny how you can run into good friends in the most random of places. We in ABR are all big BTBAM fans and were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to see them play due to our set times conflicting. Bummer! It seems like every time we play in Boise there’s some other big metal tour down the street.

Last time we were in town we were playing up against an All That Remains tour. Fortunately tonight is sold out and hopefully the In Flames/ BTBAM show is huge as well. It is, after all, Saturday night so I’m sure people are out and about!

Tomorrow we are headed to Portland, OR. It’s been a long time since we’ve had the pleasure of playing the Pacific Northwest. It’s one of my favorite parts of the country and I always have fun playing in Portland and Seattle. I must admit that I am looking forward to some shorter drives once we get out to Portland.

This tour started off with some major hauls. After the first show we drove overnight from Denver to Salt Lake City. Might as well start out with a bang, right? It seems like all the cities in this part of the country are unbelievably far apart, but the scenery is gorgeous so it’s worth it.

I’ll try to take some pictures for future blogs. I know it’s hard for people to get excited over text alone in this day and age. I’ll check back in in a few days. Enjoy yourselves!

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