American Grim – CRAZY TOUR STORIES [Exclusive Premiere of “Concrete Jungle”]

This is a special crazy tour stories segment. Why? Because not only do you get to read about one of American Grim’s crazy stories form touring, but it’s also the premiere of their new track, Concrete Jungle! You can check out the story and the song premiere, after the break.

We spent two months searching for a touring vehicle to in order to embark on our first national run as American Grim. We came across this 2002 11 passenger Mercedes-Benz sprinter for an absolute steal. The thing was in amazing condition and very low mileage, it was one of those deals you just couldn’t pass up, so we grabbed it up. So we are based out of New Jersey, but our rehearsals and the first show to launch the Freakshow Tour were in Nashville, Tennessee. From there we hit Illinois, Colorado, Missouri, Utah then made our way back up to Jersey. The day before we were supposed to leave for Nashville, we realized the hitch on the sprinter just wasn’t safe. It turned into a mad scramble to get a hitch put on asap. That was the FIRST thing to put us behind schedule. Our management had to cancel our first rehearsal slot, but we still had some time so that was OK. So we finally got the hitch put on, wired up, and hitched up the trailer in time to take off later that night. Well, we didn’t even make it out of the city before we realized now the trailer lights weren’t working. So we had to flip around and go back and find someone to fix the wiring, which was the SECOND time we were put behind schedule.

We finally got all the wiring set, the trailer back on, and all was good, so we split early the next morning. We made it almost all the way down south, with just a few pit stops for gas and bathroom breaks. It’s surprising the kind of looks three kids from New Jersey get at these little pit stops in the southern parts of the country, but that’s a whole other story. A few hours outside of Nashville the van started bogging down so bad that we couldn’t go over 50 mph. We kept it going for awhile, hoping it would miraculously correct itself, but it just kept getting slower and slower. We decided to pull off and get a room for the night in hope that it would cool off and be better by the morning. This was the THIRD thing to put us behind schedule, so we called our manager (who was already in Nashville waiting on us) and told him that we might want to push rehearsal back a few hours…

Early the next morning we hopped in and tried to make it the last few hours to Nashville, and of course, within a few miles the dummy lights turned on. We pull over immediately to figure out what it meant because none of us are familiar with this German Mercedes technology. When we looked up the symbol, it meant there was water in the recently replaced fuel filter. So we had to call management again to let them know what the deal was, and got the van to the closest mechanic we could find. Luckily enough our direct support for the tour, the Heartbreak Heroes, had a bus big enough to fit us all. They drove a couple hours out of the way to pick us and the trailer up and head straight back to Nashville. We pulled into the rehearsal space about 10 minutes before our scheduled slot, saving us from having to reschedule a FOURTH time. So when it comes to touring, expect anything and everything to go wrong. Even when you own a Mercedes.

Here’s what the band had to say about the new track: “The adolescent youth that are born and bred in the inner city seem to run off a different set of rules,” says the band. “The streets are filled with every type of person you could imagine, and the city blocks give off a certain energy you just can’t find anywhere else. Concrete Jungle is about those city blocks, and vibing with all those different people throughout the night life.”

Make sure to pick-up the band’s new LP, Freakshow, when it drops on February 24th via Entertainment One (eOne Music)/Rocktagon Worldwide Music! Click here to preorder and check out the track listing below.
01. Concrete Jungle
02. Freakshow
03. Only One
04. Burn Hollywood
05. Drugs Like Candy
06. The Guns
07. I Want Out
08. Fight Night
09. Doctor Doc
10. Idols
11. Get Loud
12. Bodies all Around