Submitted by Kim Benzie (vocals) | deadlettercircus.com
Following our 3 week tour of Europe on route to Frankfurt, a slightly intoxicated Luke Williams enthusiastically put forth the idea to management that we could make the show in Atlanta Georgia the next day. This would involve basically getting off the plane after 10 hours and hopping straight into the van and driving 14 hours non stop to the venue. According to Luke it would be an amazing rock tale if we pulled it off. Due to the fact our last few decisions that included the words ‘epic rock tale’ had ended so well, somehow we agreed to this foolery in an email and then forgot about it whilst on the plane to New York.
Day 1
Upon landing and getting some free Wi-Fi, I notice on our Facebook that someone has posted on our page on our behalf that we are super excited to be joining the tour in Atlanta. This would have been cool, however no one slept on the plane, and Vinnie and myself had come down with a savage flu and were both dripping with snot, literally. But, it was on Facebook now and people were pumped so we had to commit. So began our epic rock tale of driving through the night with our amazing tour manager Adam Perry, Merch ninja Chantelle and tech Will who met us at the airport. In America we travel around in a massive Chevy van called the White Stallion which has seen us flawlessly around the states 3 times now and many bands before us. As the drive continued Vinnie and I delved deeper in our sickness and managed to pass it onto Stew also. I started to really stress that we would drive all that way only to find I couldn’t sing a note. DLC stuff is hard to sing when not sick. But, we were having an epic rock adventure so the show must go on. It went on all night while we all adjusted from the world of Bus tour sleeping horizontally in a bed, to sleeping sitting up again in the confines of a van, Stew and I seem to share the affliction of not being able to sleep sitting up, but I can say after staring at the peaceful open mouthed passed out poses of the others, we are alone in this. Brutal, but we had the team back together now, and the family vibe got us through to about an hour away from our destination when the Van suddenly lost power and we had to pull over. The plan had been to get a hotel and sleep for a few hours before the show but instead we sat and stared amazed as Adam whom is a mechanic pulled the seats out of the van and began open heart surgery on the Stallion in the car park of a service station, for hours and hours. Surely this could not be the end to Luke’s dream and we would miss the show. Eventually Adam won and we drove the final leg to the venue and loaded in. Tonight’s venue is called The Masquerade, which we have played twice before so we were pretty excited to see how the DLC vibe has grown. In America they like to put a lot of bands on with very small changeovers and tonight was no exception with 6 bands. I started warming up and to my horror literally couldn’t sing a note and walked in to the band room to cancel the show. It was then when I mouthed the words and looked into the tired broken eyes of the Tour manager who’d driven without sleep to get us here, I knew that I would have to do the show. I had a couple of teaspoons of concrete in the form of some Jagermeister and hopped up on stage and hoped for the best.
The band ripped it… I sounded more like Tom Waits than me, but we did it. The crowd was awesome and knew the songs so we even ripped a couple of sing alongs. We ended the longest day ever with a 5 hour drive toward the next town and finally slept in a motel somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but only for 5 hours before driving on.
Day 2
With Stew, myself and Vinnie dying with the flu, the whole band has decided to consume copious amounts of vitamin C in an attempt to counter the invader. Some of the side effects of such action may include intense wind and an uneasy bowel. This made for a very interesting drive that was a series of stops, and desperate launching for the window for fresh air. I think Luke was the uncrowned king of the drive with a series of level 9’s. Level 10 is actually sharting.
Tonight’s show is in sunny Florida; it is a great venue called the State Theatre. The other bands have massive banners made up for the tour and they look great. We’ll just have to pretend we are Born of Osiris, which is ok because they have the same artist Cameron Gray so it looks very similar. Tonight was gremlin night, with strange tech issues arising for both us and BOO. Everyone kept there cool and we pushed through. Our slot on this bill is an odd one as we come on after three brutal screamo bands and play before one of the heaviest bands I have heard… I find the first song we play very entertaining seeing the confusion playing across the punters faces as we launch into The Cure and don’t’ scream or palm mute riff our guitars. All in all, it was an ok show. Luke hated it and had one of those after show vibes that only a few drinks can fix, being super tired and being force fed music you wouldn’t normally choose to listen to all the time is a bad combo. Death to all BUTT METAL!!!!
Day 3
After the show last night we drove ten hours through the night to a little venue called the Music Box in Alabama. We’d played here on our first tour of the states with Animals As Leaders and had a cracker show. I didn’t realize what venue it was until I walked in and saw the speaker stacks I had dived off the last time we were here. Memories…ah. Again another massive line up of six bands and nowhere to actually store gear, so we literally waited on the street outside with our gear until the band before us finished. This was pretty fun as it exposed us to the street freaks that come and talk to you whether you like it or not. Heaps of dudes must have been born on this day as we dished out a few birthday dollars. 😉 Gig was crazy, it actually felt like a headlining show tonight with a massive walk on cheer and people losing it all throughout the show. The stage was fucking chaos with leads everywhere and a very uneven stage; I rolled my ankle during “The Mile” so bad a thought I might have broken it and as a result sung the next two songs balancing on one leg. The vibe made up for it though. Met heaps of really nice people at the merch stand, well truth be told, the thick southern accent makes people sound super polite by default. We still haven’t really got to hang with the other bands too much yet, but that will come. Vinnie whom had been as sick as I was was nearly better from his flu, but accidentally succumb to the free drinks that get thrown your way when you are hanging around merch. Pretty soon Party Vinnie 3000, or PV3K as we call him, was back and in full swing. The next morning Vinnie felt really really really good about life……NOT!!!
Day 5
After a sweet day off we travelled to Forth Worth, Texas for the highlight show of the tour so far. The venue, which is called Tom Cats, is a nice medium sized grunge pit that looks like it would have birthed the careers of some massive bands. We are in Pantera territory now so tonight should be black tooth crazy. We found some cooking cartoon where someone had turned Pantera songs into cooking terms, ‘Five minutes on low’, Cemetery Crepes’… this kept us entertained on repeat all day. Show was amazing, we’d played here before and the DLC love had obviously been spreading as again it felt like a headlining show when we played. Tonight as we have to set up in front of Periphery, we literally had about a meter each to stand in due to Luke’s monster drum kit, and no one could find the in house lighting guy to even change a few colours so it was just us standing under some white light. Usually this would get on my nerves as I love lights, but the crowd made me forget in about two minutes. Voice is clearing up thanks to the power of DayQuil and good food, kinda liking having some husk on some parts though. After the show we basically hung at the merch stand with a never-ending stream of people grabbing things to get signed and photos. The Kudos card, which is how you get paid in the industry these days via compliments or free drinks, was in full effect and I watched Vinnie say yes to nearly every beverage that came his way. PV3K was here to stay. Awesome show, awesome night.
Day 6
Today’s drive was small and we finally got to stop at Whole Foods, which is the greatest supermarket chain in the world. Everything is organic and amazing.
The show today was in San Antonio, Texas with a nice big stage and huge beer garden. Awesome band room tonight and as a result the inevitable band bonding, ball touching is in full swing. These bands like to drink which could be dangerous as DLC don’t mind wetting the whistle also. But we’ve grown out of that phase by now I am sure, and it certainly wont’ be pre-show again….. right?! ! Born of Osiris actually remind me of the DLC in the early years with party on the mind 24/7 – anywhere, anytime.
Show was ok, certainly not a headliner vibe tonight though and we had to win the metal hoard over. I forgot to smash some Dayquil before the show and struggled a bit with the husk. More tech problems too with Luke’s in ears malfunctioning so he had to sing backing vocals without being able to hear himself at all and with no drum wedge (monitor). When shit goes wrong on stage the challenge is to roll with it, stay positive and not let it ruin your vibe. Luke pulled through like a champ and nailed it anyway, the guy is a machine. After the show we met hundreds of blind drunk locals and inevitably PV3K came out and was soon tossing his mane around and strutting around owning the place. Fucking love this guy. Later that night as my roommate at the motel, PV3K would serenade me for hours with some epic snoring. I recorded some to show him. Was great to hang with the other bands tonight, the Bromance has begun.
Day 7
Only a three hour drive today to Houston, Texas to rock a show at Fitzgerald’s, which is a killer venue. The load in was brutal up the many stairs, but the show was worth it. Awesome crowd and a great response. Tonight wasn’t full of DLC fans as it was our first time through, but it felt like it was when we walked off. What I notice at these shows is somehow the same metal kids claim the very first few rows when the doors open and don’t move until the headliner has finished. Metal kids are committed. This basically means that every night there is a couple of kids right in front of me in metal shirts getting covered in my sweat and mic spray being force fed the DLC love. Tonight, due to a very limited amount of space on the stage, I added a bruised head to the experience for said metal punter when I accidentally swung my mic mid mosh and very loudly belted him across the head. I now have a minor dent in my mic casing so I will think about this guy for the rest of the tour nightly. I’ve been taking some time to watch the other bands every night and they really are fucking amazing. Spencer from Periphery is probably the best male live singer I have seen and doesn’t miss a note onstage with a range I don’t think anyone else has. BOO really have something special that set them apart from the other metal acts I have heard across the world. It’s hard to put into words but they just have ‘something’. After an epic load out we were off towards Phoenix, Arizona with two days off.
Day 8/9
So by days off in America we mean travel days. Pez the tour manager and driver is one of those rare people that can drive and never fall asleep, and you actually trust him. He’s like Terminator, the nice one. One time he drove us from Dallas, Texas straight through to LA on a 30 hour mission only really stopping for a quick break after we hit some black ice going over a bridge and got sideways for 30 meters at about 3 am. Today, the Terminator put it out there that we could smash out 16 hours straight and then get some time at the Grand Canyon. So we drove and drove and drove.
The Grand Canyon was amazing; I can see why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world, truly breathtaking. One of the other interesting sites is the camera gangs, all white and tripods a plenty. Serious tripod rage of these people hogging all the killer vantage points is very real as I found out when I stepped into some grey winged photo-marine’s frame. Good luck wheezing your way down to the bottom Spielberg.
Day 10
Today we drove to Phoenix, Arizona to play Joe’s Grotto. The venues are all starting to gear up for Halloween and we walked into mass of fake cobwebs and scary looking kid’s stuff. America takes Halloween very seriously though so it’s ok for adults here too. 😉 On this heavy metal tour of the world, sometimes a little gem comes along and shines in amongst the rough. Tonight this came in the form of the band before us with their hype up banter to start their set…. ‘We write fucking songs about killing people, raaarhhhhh’. They were perhaps the most brutal band I have seen and made Born Of Osiris sound soft. To say that people were a little confused when we followed this sound track to a prison rape with our ethereal DLC tunes was an understatement. Luke and I usually share a look in the intro to The Mile that communicates our feelings about the show thus far and to come. Today Luke’s eyes said something along the lines ‘Chicken Wire and Tequila’ . Of course being in the business of hands in the air, we did our job and skipped over to merch, which was surprisingly great. To cure His after stage weird vibe, PV3K’s first words walking off the stage were, ‘Only Vodka can fix this’ and he proceeded to ruckus for the whole band. I got to hang with the huge Ranga Viking from the band before us who’s off stage persona was the polar opposite to his stage one. As we drove on to the next town after the show I smiled to myself thinking that sometimes, even a weird night onstage can result in a entertaining and positive night afterwards.
Day 11
Los Angeles we meet again. Last time we played here we had some massive tech disasters onstage and completely bombed, so I was super keen to make this a special show. I caught a flight to LA to rest up and the band drove straight from the show to the gig at the iconic venue called The Roxy. It’s not actually a massive drive but LA traffic is next level and you can literally not move for hours as the guys got to experience when they arrived in morning peak hour. Today, we would be joined by our brothers Twelve Foot Ninja, whom had been stranded in Frankfurt with the same visa issues as us. So good to see some familiar faces and accents. Twelve Foot had an electric show before us and absolutely killed it. It was special to watch, and gave me a massive sense of pride in the Aussie music scene. Our show was great, however it wasn’t void of tech issues for poor Stew, who had an in ear malfunction and had to fly blind the whole set. He handled it with a smile and some extra matrix style bend backing and smashed it. LA is the only place we really have mates in America so it was a party night. I watched BOO fucking destroy the stage with my current fav song “Machine,” and then headed over to the Rainbow Room to party LA style. Somehow we ended up back at Danny Carey from Tool’s house listening to ’70s prog on vinyl super loud in his rehearsal space. The surreal happenings of the night definitely made my rather foggy and anxious state the following midday lobby call all the more worth it. Thank you Los Angeles.
Purchase Dead Letter Circus’ new album The Catalyst Fire here:
iTunes | physical
