August Burns Red Tour Blog: Week 2

Brent [Rambler], our other guitar player, got good and sick the day after the Portland show. He was very vomity and the general overall feeling of garbage took over his body. This carried over to the Seattle show at El Corazon. He was in no condition to play but the show must go on, so Brent stood in the back of stage right and played fabulously regardless of his lack of “rocking.” I’m just glad we got to play. ABR has yet to cancel a tour date in our history as a band and we have no intentions of breaking that epic streak. After the show, we spotted a piece of graffiti art drawn outside the venue on a show flyer. One of the more disturbing pieces I’ve seen in my travels.

After Seattle we had a day off to drive to Orangevale. It was a rather boring, uneventful day, but I guess that’s a good thing when you have a lot of ground to cover. No breakdowns or accidents. I finished the second season of Dexter and began season three. I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows on this tour—latest seasons of Weeds, and Entourage, as well as season three of Big Love—so there’s plenty of content to keep me occupied. Our van and trailer got filthy on the drive from Seattle to Orangevale. The picture below really doesn’t do the dirt justice.

The Orangevale show on Wednesday was a lot of fun. The place was packed and the crowd was enthusiastic and responsive. I’ve always enjoyed playing the Sacramento area. I feel like the shows are always a good time there. We played a place called Club Retro. It was easily the hottest show of the tour and that’s saying a lot because there have been some steamy ones thus far. It was so hot and sweaty that my hands were pruned when I got off stage. Gross.

In other news, earlier that night the Phillies Brad Lidge blew his league-leading 11th save against the Marlins. It was sickening. I am at my wits end with him and have some major concerns with the Phillies bullpen as they enter the post season. How many of you are completely bored with my last statement? My apologies. I know metal and baseball aren’t generally paired together, but I love baseball and will probably make mention of it again in the future.

After Orangevale we had another day off to drive. This time we had an 1,100-mile drive to Rio Rancho, NM. For those of you without a good concept of distance, 1,000 is ridiculously far. We left at 9 AM and drove until 1 AM the next night. That left us with about five hours to go the following day. We are currently finishing up the last leg of the final five hours. This drive is certainly one of the longest we’ve had to do in our existence as a band. Glad to have it behind us! At our last gas stop in Arizona, I spotted some choice Indian-esque attire for sale. The beautiful garment pictured below could’ve been mine for only $12.99! A steal! (But really, who buys that??)

So that’s where we’re at. Looking forward to a weekend of great shows and great times. I shall be in touch soon Guitar World!

–JB