8/2 - Yellow, Texas!

We spent the night on Thursday at Dirt's place. We woke up pretty early because we had to drive all the way to Amarillo from San Antonio. None of us had a GREAT night's sleep, but we managed. Dave and Seamus reported, and still maintain that they had the worst night of their lives sleeping in the van. Regardless, there was a 9 hour long drive to Amarillo during which they slept most of the way (what else is new?) The great thing about leaving early in the morning is that the traffic is really tame (especially the interstates in north Texas), and you can knock out a good block of the distance. 

Cool rest stop for lunch

Who's hungry for broken glass?

It was a really long drive. The foreign scenery was awesome. For most of us it was the first time we had gone through the plains of North Texas. There were gigantic wind farms that continued for miles in every direction, and a few dust devils (routine as hell for Texans but really cool for northerners). Aside from lunchtime at a rest stop, there was really nothing exciting that we found on the way to Amarillo. As our wonderful booking Agent, Evan (Rifflifter Touring), put it: We passed through the wastelands of Texas on the way from San Antonio to Amarillo. Flash forward half the day, and we've arrived in Amarillo! We were initially put off a little bit by the town because we had just been in 3 really nice cities in Texas, and scenery in the part of Amarillo that we went to isn't exactly 6th street in Austin. However, once we got to the venue, our impression changed! The venue that we played, Vientiane Nights, was pretty damn awesome (although the locals say that it's the worst venue in town, whaaaaa??). It's half venue, and half Vietnamese restaurant and half venue. The place was big too. It could easily hold 150 on the floor, and some more at the surrounding seating. 

Goddammit they got me. 

It became abundantly clear to all of us that the place wasn't really cut out for metal. Nate, the promoter, mentioned that the sound is not the best at that place. The venue is usually booked by traditional Asian music, so when metal bands come through pumping hundreds of watts of power through the system, you generally run into some problems. But it was alright, bands just played at a reasonable volume, and not ear splitting levels, like most other nights. 

Dickwagon dropped the beans

We shared the stage with some sweet bands. First up was a badass deathrash band called Age of Heresy. They had a good deal of local support and rocked it. Their tight musicianship will definitely get them places in the future. Next up was a three piece band called Begotten Scum. They had a very badass theme going on. The drummer's rack, and mic stand was covered in found bones from the Texas plains. Next up was Enfuraeon. They played a fast brand of death metal that got the crowd moving big time. Check all these bands out if you haven't already! We took the stage last, closing out the night. It was an early show (started at 8), so people were still around to jam out. We did our thing, and it looks like we made some new fans in Amarillo, TX! All in all, that concert was sick. 

After the gig, bought some DELICIOUS red curry from the restaurant out front, then we went back to the promoters house. Nate, from Smelly Deadite Productions was kind enough to open his home to us for the night. He had a soft carpet which made for a great place to sleep. Big thanks goes out to him! He did a great job putting on that show, and is a hilarious dude as well. To anyone in a band reading this, if you are playing a show in Amarillo, definitely book through him!

Sorry for the lack of pictures today. More sleeping went on than planned