By Andrew Bansal
After a fruitful mid-West leg, Night Demon’s winter tour went through the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico during the past week for a variety of positive and negative experiences. In this installment of the tour blog, I attempt to capture all of our adventures and misadventures, but before that, check out parts 1 and 2 if you haven’t done so yet.
Day 16 (01/12): Early To Bed
After the Kansas City show, we slept overnight with a Night Demon superfan. Brent, Dustin and I slept in his house while Jarvis slept in the van. We parked in a spot that clearly said it was a tow-away zone from 7 AM onwards, and we decided we’d just wake up early and move it. You can probably see where this is going, as none of us woke up on time and Jarvis was still asleep when the van was tilted onto the tow truck. He shocked them when he jumped out of the van in his ski mask as they were completely unaware that he was in there. The van got towed and we had to go and get it out of the impound, which added a couple of hours to our day’s work. After we finally got going and reached Des Moines, Iowa, a strange vibe greeted us at Vaudeville Mews as we arrived there in time for load-in, with no human in sight. Early shows on Monday evenings are perfectly understandable, but the curfew for this particular gig was 9 PM, which was very bizarre. There were no local openers, the promoter was nowhere to be seen and Night Demon went on at 6:15, most probably the earliest they’ve ever played in their short career so far. The turnout was light, which was no surprise as there didn’t seem to be much pre-show promotion behind this gig, but with that said, the group of diehards that did turn up kept the atmosphere lively and gave all three bands an energetic response, mosh pits included. Skull Fist fulfilled Night Demon’s request and added ‘Angel Witch’ into their set, and aside from excluding the chorus singalong, they’ve been doing an excellent job at pumping crowds up with their rendition of the cult classic every night since. A group of fans invited us back to their house to spend the night there, and that’s what we ended up doing, the party comprising a watching session of Iron Maiden and KISS VHS tapes.
Day 17 (01/13): Breaking The … What?
The short drive from Des Moines to our next destination of Lincoln, Nebraska turned into an unnecessarily long ordeal, as just before crossing state lines we were pulled over by a cop from the Iowa State Patrol K-9 division. Jarvis was driving at the time and as soon as the cop firmly demanded for license and registration, Jarvis inquired what was going on, and the cop’s apparent reason for pulling us over for ‘following too close’ to the vehicle in front. In reality, we were going under the speed limit, and moved to the slow lane behind a vehicle that was going at 45, only to let that cop through as he was speeding at the rate of knots in the fast lane and looked like he needed to get somewhere. Jarvis explained this to the cop but he wasn’t having any of it. His reason was nothing but an excuse for him to try anything and everything in his power to bust us. We were clearly profiled for being a band from California, as this dude was totally confident he would find drugs in the van. He brought his dog out, and even though the dog didn’t show any signs of being triggered off of alarming fragrances, the cop promptly labeled the dog’s reaction as ‘probable cause’, called backup, made us exit the van and sit in three separate police cars, and asked to search the van. Jarvis denied him permission to do so, but they did it anyway, taking out all the merch boxes from the back of the van, putting them on snowed ground and rummaging through the merch in their search for drugs.
In all, we were detained for more than an hour, and ironically, while we were sitting in those cop cars there were all kinds of serious radio calls from police stations about gunshot victims. ‘Zero units responding’, it said repeatedly. These cops were wasting their time on us, looking for crime, instead of preventing and fighting actual crime elsewhere. This is a classic example of violation of basic rights, and the kind of incident that turns the general public against the police. And to top it off, when we were finally freed to get back on the road, Jarvis asked the cops how to get back on the freeway, and they told us to follow them. They made an illegal U-turn, on a red light, and were definitely doing it in a last-ditch attempt to bust us for doing the same thing. The only moment during the whole ordeal that brought a smile to our faces was the cop losing control of his dog and taking a face-down tumble into the snow. Based on the steady outbreak of police brutality in recent times, a lot of people are calling America a police state, and judging rom what we went through, it’s hard to disagree with that.
Anyhow, we made it in time to the next gig at Vega in Lincoln, Nebraska and even though the stage, sound, food and amenities at the venue came across as top-class and professional, it was another lightly attended gig. Most notably, Night Demon reciprocated Skull Fist’s inclusion of ‘Angel Witch’ by adding ‘Axe Crazy’ to the set, and those dudes were stoked. It’s commendable that both bands have played a part in making each other’s sets better, and touring with such bands becomes more enjoyable as a result.
Day 19 (01/15): Greener Pastures
After twelve shows in a row, we finally got a day off on the 14th, and spent it relaxing in Denver, although our number of encounters with state authorities continued to pile up as we were slapped with a parking ticket. But to celebrate the legality of recreational marijuana in the state of Colorado, the Night Demon guys blazed a fat one inside the van. The show the next day was at the Marquis Theater in downtown Denver. Temperatures were in the mid-40s and I never expected this city to give us the warmest day of the tour (minus California). The day began with a visit to an auto place to get some repairs done on the van. Thankfully the brake pads were fixed, because the van was being hard on the brakes the last few nights and just the night before, with no seat belts in the back seat, the van hit the brakes and I almost flew through the windshield. Van repairs and tuneups are among some of the mundane activities a touring band has to indulge in, and it’s not all rock ‘n roll all the time. As for the Denver show itself, the power on my lighting setup went out at the start of Night Demon’s set but I was able to troubleshoot and fix it quickly and things were back up and running mid-way through the first song. I came to realize and experience first-hand that fixing such issues is as important as actually doing the lights. But other than that, this was the best show of the tour in every aspect, and local openers Cellador contributed to it with their highly enjoyable brand of keytar-fueled power metal. Some attendees who had seen Night Demon at the Denver show of the previous tour with Raven were blown away by the new show. Plus, Jarvis’ vocals were in perfect health on this occasion.
Brent and I have been giving each other feedback after the set every night about his guitar playing and my lights. He said it took him a few shows to get used to playing all his parts right with six bright LEDs shooting at him directly in his face in both normal and strobe modes, and I would agree that he’s nailing his parts much better now than in the first week.
Day 20 (01/16): Ride The Wind
The drive from Denver to Salt Lake City was a long one, and wasn’t made any easier by adverse weather conditions as we were driving through wind gusts as strong as 60 MPH that were throwing the van from side to side. Besides, there was snowfall and rain as we got closer to SLC. It was definitely the hardest drive of the tour but was well worth it, thanks to the awesome Visigoth who pulled a sizable crowd to the show all on their own and we stayed overnight with the singer after the gig. Even though one of the other local openers made me want to kill myself and the fact that the show ran a little unnecessarily late, the gig met our expectations for a Friday night.
Day 21 (01/17): Unchartered Territory
Another long drive was needed to get to the next gig. We were on a mountaineous stretch for hundreds of miles on our way from SLC to Farmington, New Mexico, the weather was fine and it was easily the most scenic drive we’ve had so far. It still left us fatigued, and when we pulled into Studio 18, a place that was barely even possible to locate on the map, we hoped the gig would be worth the effort, but unfortunately it was far from it. Readers of this blog may or may not realize just how frustrating it is for a touring band to travel 400-plus miles to get to a gig and play in front of a crowd consisting solely of the family of the venue’s owner, the other touring bands and one of the local bands, and to get paid only half of the money that was already guaranteed in the contract. This entire evening left me overcome with a very depressing feeling, and most of us felt that way.
But on the positive side, this misadventure brought the three bands closer together as we counted on each other’s support with literally no one else to play for. One attendee we did have though was Donny Philips, who did the Curse Of The Damned album cover art and has worked with the likes of Mastodon. We spent the night at his house, located in the mountains in Durango, Colorado, with a breathtaking view from the balcony, and geeked out at the art display he had in the house.
Day 22 (01/18): Commit To Rock
From Farmington we drove to Albuquerque for a gig at Blu Phoenix, but before that, the guys smoked another fat one in the parking lot of the Durango Mall and buried half of the joint there, noting down the GPS co-ordinates and putting them on a lotto ticket, fully confident that they’d find it intact on the next visit to that place. We then went to our one and only tourist destination of this tour, the ‘Walter White’ residence, and in order to not upset the current residents of that house, we snapped photos and fled the scene very quickly, almost as if we had egged or TPed the place. It would be completely understandable for the residents to be unwelcoming to random tourists, as I would never want to live in a house like that.
From there we went to the venue and it was two in a row for us in terms of poorly attended gigs. Local all-female death metal band Suspended played a good set and impressed us. My lighting setup at this show was such that I was controlling lights from the side of the stage, at an angle where I was partially facing the lights. I now know how challenging it must be for Brent, Jarvis and Dustin to perform with these lights in their eyes. But a dynamically front-lit stage makes the band visually much more appealing to the crowd and adds a lot of impetus to the show, which is why the guys make all necessary adjustments in their playing to bring the same level of performance. It’s all about the commitment to rock, as Skull Fist rightly say it in their song ‘Commit To Rock’ and Raven say it through ‘Rock Until You Drop’. Talking of Skull Fist, I’ve been in discussions with Zach over the past few shows and he says he’s battling sickness but is doing everything he can to regain his singing voice. I also freaked him out with my math skills, in the same way I’ve been stunning the Night Demon guys with my powers of math and memory on the two tours I’ve been with them. In Denver, Jarvis asked me for Zach’s phone number which I told him instantly and correctly off the top of my head, garnering a priceless reaction on his face and an inquiry of whether I was booty-calling Zach every night. But on a serious note, we’re becoming bigger fans of both Skull Fist and Elm Street every night, and we are specially blown away by Elm Street lead guitarist Aaron Adie’s perfect tone and flawless playing.
At the time of writing this, we’re enjoying a day off in glorious weather in Arizona, recharging for the final week of this tour. I’ll be bringing you all the stories from the home stretch in the next and final part of the blog.
Read Part 4 here.
Remaining Tour Dates:
w/ Skull Fist & Elm Street
01/20 Phoenix, AZ @ The Nile Theater (upstairs)
01/22 Colton, CA @ Hub
01/23 Los Angeles, CA @ Airliner
01/24 Fullerton, CA @ Riff Haus
01/25 Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst Club
w/ Eyehategod
01/26 Fresno, CA @ Strummer’s