Sonic Pulse: Exclusive Tour Journal #4 with guitarist Dave R Maze

July 27, 2012 – Reggie’s – Chicago, IL w/Diamond Plate, Smashed Potater, Lich King: This is the show that we all were waiting for, that our entire tour was booked around. We were slated to play the reunion show with the legendary Morbid Saint, and with the unstoppable force that Diamond Plate has grown into since they were even younger than they are now. I was especially fired up about it because I learned that one of my brothers-in-arms, Luke James from FATAL, had just moved to Chicago, and we had made arrangements to meet up.

Lich King had a genius idea to break out their grill in the back parking lot of Reggies club and have a “Meat and Greet.” People slowly trickled in around 1 and the post – show tailgating was in full swing by 3. I was stokes to see that by the time I was done loading, Morbid Saint themselves magically appeared complete with some links to grill and pass around. It was pretty unreal. Dudes there were all awesome. People kept passing beers to the band and I and the atmosphere was classic 80’s thrash party. If the show had never happened, I would have been satisfied going there anyway based on how awesome the pre-party was.

A little while after, a group of thrashers approached Dan and I and propositioned us with some beer, so we followed them to their car, and the dude pops his trunk to expose an ice box filled with cold ones. He handed some beers off to us, grabbed their own, and just nonchalantly cracked them on the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in Chicago, and started shooting the shit. I asked: “Is this safe?” and the dude, in true dudely fashion goes: “The cops have better things to worry about around here,” as he gestured at the less than perfect urban cityscape that lay behind him, with a minor implication that the area was a bit harder than I may have initially expected. So I shrugged and cracked my beer and chatted with these dudes for a bit. Thats about when my phone rang, and I looked up and saw Luke dashing at me with an ear-to-ear grin on his face. After our totally gay: “DUDE ITS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN” session, the show was kicking off with Smash Potater and we went inside to get ignorant.

Smash Potater got things going excellently. Their first song started and a circle pit formed immediately. I knew it was going to be a crazy fucking night. The bassist from Lich King later said: “Smash Potater is a hidden jem,” and he was absolutely right. These kids brought pain, misery and so many pits to this show, I was wondering how we would follow them, especially since I was trading rounds with Luke at the bar and starting to get wasted at 7.

As soon as it began, their set ended with applause peppered with requests for “ONE MORE SONG.” They dismounted the stage, and then we started scrambling to get our shit together and play. We got up and were well received. The crowd was large (largest one of our tour, and possibly our short career) and rather still. It was worrisome at first until I realized that they were intensely gazing at our handiwork, and intently watching me and mick belt out our riffs, or simply watching Lauren. Once we started playing bong zombies, the crowd began to animate (mind the pun) and started getting violent. They even started to sing along with the chorus. Shit reached its peak when, before we played the last song, Dan asked the crowd if they liked children’s cartoons, and subsequently announced that we will be playing the theme to adventure time. Shit got serious and Mick and I shredded through that 1.5 minute long song, and we all soaked up the glorious Chicago – love that we were basking in before we got off stage to continue raging.

“It looked like you up there playing just for me,” Luke said as I re-emerged into the crowd from backstage to pack up. We slammed another beer and went out back where Mick and Joe were getting ready to smoke some greenery. I joined them for a bowl and a beer andikjwedklawsdg gffbj zdf…

I blacked out around 8 pm. I remember bits and pieces, so I’ll share key points. No guarantees on chronological order.

Dan actually got beat at Mortal Kombat by a dude appropriately named Don Quixote, who apparently only punched the whole time. That was the first time Dan was beat on the tour. I played Combat Mosh with Lich King and it was awesome. Diamond plate filled the place up more than any other time I’ve ever seen them. Joe, Luke and I were watching clips from CKY 4 on the bus, and reciting the parts almost word for word. I stumbled around the side streets of Chicago looking for a place to get more beer with Luke, and totally found one because I paid a homeless woman to show us where to go. I absolutely remember nothing after buying a 6er of Sierra Nevada torpedo IPA’s.

Somehow we ended up again at Konrad’s (Diamond Pate) place, and I woke up on a tile floor in their basement. It was the most comfortable tile floor I’ve ever had the pleasure of sleeping on. I walked outside to be greeted by a very awesome breakfast spread on their back patio. We shot the shit with LK, DP and SP for the morning and reminisced about the night past. We spent the morning eating, drinking coffee, and nursing our hangovers until the sun was directly overhead. It was a good, good morning. Reluctantly, we gathered out things that were strewn about the basement, and shuffled back to our respective vehicles to ship back off to Indiana to play a metal house in Layfayette. Diamond Plate’s hospitality is legendary around these parts, now. We can’t wait to go back and see those dudes and Chicago again. It was definitely what justified this whole tour, and it was one of the funniest nights of my life (the parts that I can and can’t remember).

Tour Dates:

07/21 – Lindo Lounge – Jersey City, NJ w/ Lich King
07/22 – St. Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/Faith or Fear, Hellcannon, Cain, Crypter, Lich King
07/23 – O’Reilly’s Pub – Philadelphia, PA w/ Lich King
07/24 – TBA
07/25 – Hammerheads – Fort Wayne, IN w/ Argonaut, Testimony, Lich King
07/27 – Reggie’s – Chicago, IL w/Diamond Plate, Smashed Potater, Lich King
07/28 – The Hilltop Fortress – West Lafayette, IN w/ Lich King, Partiac Arrest
07/29 – Toledo (RamaLama) – Cleveland, OH w/ Lich King
07/30 – TBA – Buffalo, NY w/ Lich King

Check out the song: “Eye of the Beerholder”