{"id":2887,"date":"2016-12-20T13:14:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T21:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2016-12-22T20:21:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T04:21:15","slug":"another-year-round-the-states-6-unusual-experiences-i-had-on-tour-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/2016\/12\/20\/another-year-round-the-states-6-unusual-experiences-i-had-on-tour-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Year Round the States: 6 Unusual Experiences I Had On Tour in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"aaapass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My 2016 was as much\u00a0about touring the US as it was about anything else, and\u00a0I ended up spending 170 out of the 366 days of the year on the road with the various bands I worked for. As followers of this site would know, I wrote blogs on most of these tours, but there were certain experiences and stories that I may or may not have talked about. It’s only fitting that one of my year-end lists this year should be based on my life on tour, so here is my recollection of six\u00a0of the most unusual experiences I had on the road in 2016, in chronological order<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Great Egyptian Nightmare:\u00a0<\/strong>I was\u00a0working for Warbringer and Exmortus on their tour with Enforcer and Cauldron, and about three weeks into the two-month run through January-February, we arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a gig at the Triple Rock Social Club, except instead of it being a Warbringer-Enforcer co-headline show as it was supposed to be, it was combined with Nile’s show, who were crossing paths with us and ended up in Minneapolis on the same day. Of course, Nile was given the headliner spot. For starters, it was weird enough\u00a0to put an old-school speed\/thrash metal lineup and an out-and-out death metal band together, but the manner in which this event transpired was even worse. Nile took up the entire stage with their backline, took several hours to do their soundcheck, and left our bands having to play on the floor and scramble to soundcheck and set up. The poor unsuspecting local opener, who had actually driven from out of town and worked hard to promote this show, were removed from the event\u00a0due to lack of time, thanks to Nile. Besides, the show was oversold, the place was too small for the combined lineup, and the merch area was a total\u00a0nightmare from my perspective. But all’s well that ends well, as even though they were the ones playing on the floor, Warbringer, Enforcer, Exmortus and Cauldron completely blew Nile off the stage.<\/p>\n

\"nile_wb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Ruins:\u00a0<\/strong>Come mid-February, we were still on the same tour, and after the show in Dallas, Texas, we made the long drive to arrive in New Orleans, Louisiana the morning after, only to find out that Cauldron got in a horrendous accident at some point on the way overnight, wherein their van was flipped over and guitarist Ian Chains suffered serious injuries. We weren’t there to see it firsthand but from what we were told, it was because of debris on the road, there was tire damage involved, and the van was top-heavy, so it lost its balance easily. It looked terrifying\u00a0from the picture they posted on social media at the time (as below), but thankfully, all three members of Cauldron and their tour manager got out alive, as it could have been so much worse. Most if not all of us were depressed and scared, not only because of what\u00a0our tour mates went through, but also because we came to the realization that it could have happened to any of us. Life can turn around in an instant, and tour life teaches that to you as much as anything else would. But once again, all was well in the end. Two of the Cauldron guys came up to the Louisville KY show to see us\u00a0a few days later, in what was a happy reunion for the tour, and months later, Ian recovered from the injuries.<\/p>\n

\"cauldron_acciden\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Murphy’s Law:\u00a0<\/strong>Towards the very end of the\u00a0aforementioned tour, after saying goodbye to Enforcer, Warbringer and Exmortus had some shows together on the way back to Los Angeles. The Warbringer van, which was also pulling the trailer with both bands’ gear and merch, broke down somewhere in rural North Carolina, near the NC-Tennessee border. The Exmortus van was still functional, so guess what, we attached the trailer onto theirs and both bands piled in that van, while the Warbringer driver was left behind with the broken-down van to get it fixed. We made the show in Johnson City TN that night, but then had a 10-hour drive to the next show in Memphis, which took nearly\u00a012 hours due to the extra load on the engine. One block away from our destination (a bar called Murphy’s) the van was heading downhill, nearing a red light, the whole steering and brake system locked up, and we crashed bang into an SUV\u00a0stopped at the light. Imagine that\u00a0moment when we all knew we were going to crash and could do nothing about it. It was the absolute worst. How many were in that car? How badly were they hurt? What was the damage on our van? How much would it cost? Is there any weed in our van that we can get busted for? These were only a few of the questions on our minds, but as it turns out, the dude in that car had no license, registration, insurance or any kind of paperwork, and was probably driving a stolen vehicle. So, the cops didn’t give us any trouble and we got away with it, sustaining only minor damages on the front of our vehicle. And yes, we still made the show that night.<\/p>\n

Read more on Page 2<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Us<\/a>
Us …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"...<\/a>
… and them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Metal Night\/Emo Night:\u00a0<\/strong>On my Spring tour working for Night Demon and Visigoth, we did a show at the Masquerade in Atlanta GA. This venue has three rooms, namely Purgatory, Hell and Heaven, in order from smallest to biggest, and we were\u00a0in the Purgatory room. Our show ended early, so afterwards we went walkabout, and since I worked a show in\u00a0Hell on the Warbringer-Enforcer tour, I was curious to see what was going on there that night, and lo and behold, it was emo night, a.k.a. ‘Taking Back Tuesday’, which as I discovered later, is a series of emo night events that take place in many different cities around the country. The room was packed, more so than it was for the Warbringer show, and there were at least 500 people dancing to music played by DJs, and in complete contrast to my elaborate setup, the merch stand here merely displayed “Sad As Fuck” balloons t-shirts and balloons. There is clearly a consumer base for nightly entertainment that does not care about live music and prefers DJs, and this was a classic example of it.\u00a0Nothing against anyone who’s\u00a0into this type of music or event, but this was not something I ever imagined experiencing, and I would have never known what an emo night is like, if it weren’t for this weird coincidence. If you are not inclined to find out what ‘Taking Back Tuesday’ is all about, you’re probably better off, because curiosity almost killed this cat that night.<\/p>\n

\"emonite\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We Don’t Serve Your Kind:\u00a0<\/strong>On the same Night Demon tour, after a show in St. Louis, Missouri, we stopped at a McDonald’s in the city of Brentwood MO for some late night munchies. The three members of the band, two of our friends and I walked in to this restaurant which was clearly open, with people\u00a0dining inside. Just so you know, Brentwood is in the vicinity of Ferguson, a town\u00a0that made a lot of news in recent times and led to racial tensions not only in this area but nationwide. The aftermath of that is still very much in effect here, as the restaurant was occupied by African-American folks dining, while we of non-African-American descent were refused service, seemingly for no valid reason. Even though a lot of what we see\u00a0on the news and internet is an exaggeration, this kind of incident makes you think again, because reverse racism undoubtedly exists in this country, even in multi-billion, multi-national corporations such as this one. But we weren’t going to let ourselves be sad as fuck for not getting our munchies, so we simply drove around to the drive-thru window and made them serve us anyway. Yes, this incident was more ridiculous than I can possibly ever put in words.<\/p>\n

\"They're<\/a>
They’re not lovin’ it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scared Shitless:<\/strong> Have you ever needed to take a leak or dump really bad and then lost all the urge to do so as soon as you stepped into a bathroom? That’s exactly what happened to me while I was on tour with Gygax in June. Somewhere in the city of Napa in Northern California, we stopped at a mom-and-pop gas station\/travel stop, and lined up outside the single-person men’s bathroom they had. I was third or fourth in line, and I was witnessing expressions of complete shock on the faces of everyone who went into this bathroom before me. Upon asking, the common response was, “Don’t ask, you’ll find out soon enough!” And I don’t blame them, because\u00a0it was hard to explain. When I opened the door and stepped in, I was greeted by the sight of a female mannequin laying in a bath tub, holding a roll of toilet paper in one hand. I was thanking my lucky stars that this took place in broad daylight and not in the middle of the night, so it was not nearly as haunting as it could have been. The moral of the story is, if there is a serious lack of entertainment in your life, open up a random travel stop in the middle of nowhere and literally scare unsuspecting travelers shitless by bathroom props such as this one.<\/p>\n

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\"shit\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal My 2016 was as much\u00a0about touring the US as it was about anything else, and\u00a0I ended up spending 170 out of the 366 days of the year on the road with the various bands I worked for. As followers of this site would know, I wrote blogs on most of these tours, … <\/p>\n

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