Greetings from the back of the tour bus somewhere on the road in North America — and welcome to 4ARM's tour diary.
We had been warned by members of Testament and Overkill (along with some reviewers) that opening for Slayer is a "special kind of torture for up-and-coming bands." Going into these shows, I was armed with the knowledge that I could easily be a vessel for any fan's anticipation of Slayer by being a perfect target for whatever they want to hurl at us.
I was fortunate to learn that all we needed to do as guitarists was move around the stage faster than the drummer to avoid being hit — a reasonably easy feat when you think about it. I watched our drummer enjoy a free beer shower in Las Vegas as a result.
From a guitar perspective, I was keen to try out the new Iron Label guitars from Ibanez that I had with me. Nice and simple setup with very little that can go wrong, big sound with EMG pickups and a sleek black finish with an ivory white outline. Very understated look about them, which I like. They've been great at the shows so far, and I look forward to using them for the rest of the tour.
Amp-wise, Danny [Tomb] and I are using Peavey 6505+ amps as a main backline with a Boss NS-2 to tame them during the few quiet bits of the set. Back home, I use and AxeFx Ultra or my Soldano X99, but it wasn't feasible to bring them on this tour. I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Dunlop DB-01 Dimebag Crybaby Wah a few years back too, and I've brought it with me. I've been enjoying its sound whenever I can invent a reason to break it out on stage. It's a very versatile unit.
On the road, we had some excitement heading toward Las Vegas for the first show when we had a few cars hailing us and telling us to pull over. Turns out we were leaving a nice plume of smoke behind us as our beloved chariot was leaking transmission fluid onto a very hot exhaust pipe. So about 70 miles out from our first destination, a gentle crawl ensued for the remainder of the way and we had a stop over to get it seen to — all with enough time to make the first show. Phew!
Hope you enjoyed this little introduction to world of 4ARM on tour. We have a little over a month to go and another 12,000 miles to drive. Hope to see you on tour!
For more about 4ARM, check out their official website and Facebook page.
