Saint Diablo – 3rd ROAD BLOG from the “South for the Win-Tour” with Seasons After

The latin metal band, Saint Diablo, is currently on the “South for the Win-Tour” with Seasons After and Everybody Panic. While they’re on the tour, they will be doing an exclusive blog for us. You can check out the first entry, with photos, after the break.

We roll into Dallas a little early. Also realizing that the venue is only a short 20-minute walk from Dealey Plaza. Brian our drummer being somewhat the conspiracy theorist wanted to check it out. So Brian, Tyler, and myself walk through downtown checking out the sites as we make our journey (leaving Tito in the van to sleep). As we walk down Main St. and make a slight right at the end it all hits you. Seeing the school book depository, grassy knoll and the X in the street. It’s all pretty surreal (and a lot smaller of an area in person then seen on tv). Playfully arguing about our own ideas of what really went down the day of the assassination.

On the way back to the venue it is decided that it would be a great idea to speed bar hop and do one shot per bar! What better way to see the town then to hit up a random set of bars along the way all while doing it quickly before load in!

Load in… This was the worst load in of the whole tour. Had to park the van in the street next to a mud puddle, roll and carry gear a half a block, down a very narrow corridor with broken up concrete that was about 60 feet to the door of the venue, to stack gear next to the bathroom where everyone was coming in and out of… Ugh. But our set and the show was great!

After the show, Provo (guitarist of Everybody Panic!) delivers to us a bottle of his family’s homemade wine shine (fruit from moonshine make into wine)! With two days off ahead of us, we were stoked to be able to crack that thing open!

Day off, we head towards Tampa on the way we stop in to see some old friends of the band in Louisiana. They let us crash, take showers, do laundry and they hooked it up with some jambalaya! We also got into some “Provo Shine Wine” (it was gone in one round) and a few other bottles of rum and tequila! As the night went on we were feeling pretty good. Carrying on, playing a few rounds of darts in the basement… We notice that our friends had a few blow dart guns laying around, so we started shooting them at a few beer cans that were laying around. After about 10 minutes we were shooting them at each other! Haha! Wtf?! It was painful and hilarious at the same time!

The next day we get back on the road. Somewhere outside of Biloxi we hit a major traffic jam. It’s so bad that the police were directing all traffic off the interstate. So all this overflow traffic had totally shut down this small town. It was like the damn apocalypse! Creeping along at a snails pace for hours just trying to go a few miles! It was ridiculous. I felt like breaking out the GoPro and shooting the sequel to the movie “Falling Down”, you know the one where Michael Douglas’ character loses his shit after sitting in traffic and goes on a rampage, yeah, I was ready! Haha! So that was most of our second day off before we hit Tampa the next morning.

The Brass Mug in Tampa, FL. We meet up with the other bands for another amazing night in music! Seasons After and Everybody Panic! are all great guys and you can see the passion they all have for their craft as they hit the stage, so awesome to watch them every night!

The next morning we awake and go head towards the beach to soak in some sun for a few hours. It’s nice to be able to take pictures and relax for a few hours. Everyone kind of goes exploring in different directions, but before you know it we are all at the bar on the water sharing a bucket of beers and some fried alligator bites! As soon as we leave the parking lot of the bar we get pulled over because Tito and Tyler were not wearing seat belts… Oh boy. The officer let us off with a warning… Thank you!

The good thing about Florida is that most of the shows on this run are all fairly close in range so the driving is minimal. Sanford, FL. Is the next stop. West end trading company. The locals on this show were awesome! Great bands, got to hang with a bunch of them during and after the show. The singer of The Cunningham Wake kept handing me his bottle of 130 proof whiskey, which was very nice of him! Another band called Red Calling from Tampa also rocked it!

Jacksonville, FL. Brings us to the last show of this tour. The Crazy Horse, a big venue with a big stage, the perfect setting for one last show. The story is that the last show of most any tour is the one where the pranks and shenanigans ensue between the touring bands. So as the day went on we start to see and hear some of the scheming going on. We don’t really put much into it, but we will retaliate if shots are fired!! So I put my guys on alert, “keep your eyes peeled and keep on ducking” (some advice an old man on a bench outside of a venue we play a few years ago had once said to me, seemed fitting). It was awesome to see the place packed! The locals were intense. Bringing lots of energy to the stage. We get up on stage and rip it! It’s such a great feeling to be up there with my guys tearing it up every night!

Surprisingly no one had messed with us or our van while we were on stage. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Still on alert! Haha! As the night came to a close Everybody Panic! and Saint Diablo bum rush the stage during the last song of Seasons Afters set starting a mini mosh pit right on the stage! All in good fun surprisingly no one was injured, except for Dawson (Seasons After guitarist) who had rolled his ankle all on his own during their third song of the set by stepping on a cable badly on the stage. So he finished the set sitting on the monitor. He wasn’t able to partake in the calamity. At first, when it happen we looked up and he was laying on his back still playing, so no one knew he had hurt himself till after the song was done. We all thought he had got inspired to perform some sweet Spinal Tap action for us and the fans!! Haha!

As we all get packed up at the end of the night. Out by the vans and RV. We all say our goodbyes and take a bunch of pictures while laughing and joking around. It was a great tour with great guys and bands South for the Win-Tour comes to and end. Thanks to all the fans, friends, bands, promoters, and venues!! “Until next fellas”

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