+++ Hello, it’s Robin from The Ocean. This diary starts in the middle of our world tour in support of our latest album, Precambrian (Metal Blade). We have already been on tour in Europe for over a month now, but I only recently started bothering to write down some of our adventures as The Ocean tours the States for the very first time. Here’s the second installment… +++
5/30 Charlotte, NC, Tremont Music Hall
After another long drive we arrived at the huge Tremont Music Hall in the late afternoon. We set up our lights and hung out outside, while Mike was getting some free ink by the guys from Liberty Tattoo, who had offered their services prior to the show via MySpace… awesome people! There was a good crowd and the show was fun. We slept in the RV in the backyard of the venue until about 8 AM, when it got too hot.
Mike getting ink in front of our RV in Charlotte:
5/31 Atlanta, GA, Masquerade
Christian emo fans getting corrupted by members of The Ocean:
When we got to the place, there was a bunch of young girls waiting outside in front of the venue. Our faces lit up… had we finally made it? Had we progressed from a filthy rock band that draws filthy buffalo-hip chicks and long-haired metal dudes into…something else…that draws hot teens? Someone eventually told us that there was another show happening upstairs, some bands we had never heard of before were playing in a large room, and that someone described the style of music as “Christian emo.” So we embarked on a mission to try to convert as many of these lost teens to the cult of the Ocean, and won a good handful over, by offering them free guest list spots. These poor Christian emo girls didn’t really seem to understand what was happening to them when Withered unleashed their black metal thunderstorm.
Chris from Withered playing bike guitar:
Tonight was gonna be the last show with these guys who had become brothers in a matter of a few days, and we were all rocking out to their awesome set. Luckily, we were allowed upstairs, so we could eat all that Christian emo food and drink their Christian emo whiskey. The first band sounded like a terribly corrupted version of Mars Volta. But hey, these guys drew some 500 kids; there’s gotta be something to them.
Atlanta street party:
We drank a lot of J.D. and had a cool show. Afterwards we went out with Kylesa, Withered and Lair of the Minotaur to eat and party one last time. It was impossible to sleep in the RV tonight, the moist heat was unbearable. I took my sleeping bag and laid down outside in the parking lot, but even with the sleeping bag it was just too fucking hot. I took off my shirt and used my sleeping bag as a mattress, and still sweat was pouring from my forehead. It didn’t get any better. In the end I found peace sleeping in underwear in the parking lot, worried only that rats would come after my genitals.
Our drummer Luc, who doubles as the Venus de Milo:
6/1 Orlando, FL, Back Booth
We woke up completely beat and left really early to be at the venue at 5PM, as we were told, and when we got there no one was there. On the way we had passed Jacksonville, the city where I had my first real-life encounter with America in 1996. As a 16-year-old, I spent about one year of my life in this city as an exchange student, going to high school and living with an American host family, made up of a dude and his daughter. The dude was a nice but boring character, whose life can be summed up in a few words: work, Burger King, Seinfeld, weed and football on the weekends. His daughter was a much more interesting type: a diehard Christian who had devoted herself to an enlightened life serving God, and trying to baptize all eclipsed existences around her with a passion: her Dad appeared to be the only lost soul she had given up on.
She was engaged in aggressive agitation endeavors, including visitations at random people’s homes several days a week, missionary trips to the Philippines, etc. Me, getting big-time into Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy at that time, and her, completely denying the theory of evolution and conceiving of evidence of the dinosaurs as a coup of mad scientists possessed by the devil, were certainly not the best match. But somehow I felt sympathy for her, and I had the feeling I needed to save her just as much, or maybe even more, than she needed to save me. I sent her a copy of our recent album Precambrian the other day, as a reminder that the earth is (more…)
