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October 11, 2010

Yakuza Tour Diary




Hot on the heels of this summer’s Profound Lore debut, Of Seismic Consequence, Chicago prog-monsters Yakuza scored perhaps the baddest-ass black metal tour of 2010, scorching the States with Triptykon and 1349. Frontman/White Sox fan-for-life Bruce Lamont will periodically fill us in on the gory details.





Day 1—drive day


Got Pat Clancy from Nachtmystium (sitting in on bass for the first two weeks of the tour), Jim [Staffel], Matt [McClelland], me and Cartel Brown (da man on sound) rollin’ in this ship, sailin’ under the Yakuza flag. We stop at the wonderful rest stops in Cleveland whether we need to or not. It breaks up the drive, and Matt has fun playing the games there.






Day 2—New York City


Nothing like starting a tour in Manhattan. Parking and finding gas is always an issue. Everyone’s also a VIP, which I love. Got to the venue around 3 p.m. and met everyone from Triptykon and 1349, as well as all the crew. Everyone’s real cool. We don’t get a sound check because there’s a local band playing first; we’ve already figured that will be the case throughout and are fine with it. I did get watch Triptykon check and got a close-up look at Tom’s Giger guitar, which is incredible.


The set went well, although we cut a song to make sure times were running smoothly. New York brought out a bunch of friends, including Kevin from Dysrhythmia/Gorguts, Seldon Hunt, Phil Freeman and photographer/director Jimmy Hubbard. We stayed at a friend’s in Midtown and brought the dudes to my fave pizza place in all of Manhattan (Artichoke). Matt and I had the pleasure of experiencing Midtown parking at 7 a.m. when moving our vehicle to avoid a ticket. It took us two hours to park and still was only good for two more. Yeah, NYC—I love you, but I never want to drive on your streets again.






Day 3—Boston


The club tonight, the Middle East, rules. Their house soundman Greg is an old friend of ours. It was really great to see him. Matt Pike, the agent for this tour, was here. We got to meet him and thank him for hooking us up on this run. The set went great—we had some real hardcore fans came to see us. That was nice. We did get a chance to check 1349’s set. Those guys are tight. Great dudes, too. Saw Drea from Howl, had a good to chat with her again. Ended up Priceline-ing this insane room at a remote inn about 50 miles west of Boston. Shit was so tight and over-the-top (wallpaper was nuts: see photo) for super cheap. The property had a gazebo. Whoa, fancy—we felt like real rock stars for the night.

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