Tour Diary #1: Jagged Mouth Is On The Road

10/27 Albuquerque, NM

This night was the Jagged Mouth tape release / tour kickoff show. In the morning we leave with Ol' Dagger from Santa Fe, NM. The turnout was ok, but I got more messages from friends saying that they WEREN'T able to come than friends that actually showed up. I think we all felt the same way. Regardless, a good night was had by all. Local bands Iceolous, Ronoso and Desmadre from Espanola opened the precedings with verve and aplomb. If Iceolous can get a recording done, you will be hearing more about them.

Ol' Dagger got down in a big way, blending their d- beat style with hardcore, sludge and black metal. They actually are quite adept at blending all of those styles, sometimes within the same song. They played an equal amount of songs from both of their releases, "Bobcat Dynamite" and "Hell Forever". As an aside, I've missed them every time that they've played in Albuquerque and so tonight was my first time actually seeing them. Met them personally, never seen them play. They are KILLER. This I gonna be a rad tour.

For our set tonight, we had the ability to replicate a vocal part on our song "Lingers The Taolith", which requires a bit of reverb, for the first time in a live setting. Pretty exciting stuff. We also had a bit of technical difficulties with the guitar rig. I'm just gonna go ahead and say this; kids, it's not easy being this heavy. It's just not. There's a lot that goes into the Jagged Mouth sound. That said, there's a lot that can go wrong. We had a hiccup or two. We got through it. It enables me to inject a little open mic comedy into the doom aesthetic. For better or worse.

10/28 Colorado Springs, CO

This show was at The Flux, which is a DIY spot ran by our bud Brian from Blighter. The first band up were locals Worry, who completely destroyed and played at teeth-rattling volume. We were blown away by the fierceness of this band, and us and Ol' Dagger were kind of wondering just how the hell we were going to follow that.

But we figured it out. In my estimation it might've been our best show yet. Playing slow music in front of people is not for the faint of heart, and it demands something of the audience as well. The banging parts of our songs are easy for an audience to engage with. The slow drudgery is not quite so engaging as it is polarizing. So it's typical to see people trickle back out the door halfway through our set. Actually that's not true. I don't see it personally. When we play I am fully imursed in the music. It's just that sometimes I come up for air and notice that there are less people in the room than before.

Ol' Dagger played next, and the setup of this venue served them well as far as the band being mostly set up on the floor. The hardcore energy that festers down in the murk of their songs was more evident to me in this setting. Their set was awesome.

The rest of the night I took my turn at the merch table, which was separated from the stage area by double doors. So unfortunately I only heard North's set and didn't witness it visually. Their music connects with me and those doors thankfully couldn't completely put the kaibash on that. But it was time to sit at the merch table with Dave from Ol' Dagger and get involved with some whiskey.

Tonight saw the convergence of three tours; ours, North's, and Mortality Rate from Calgary, Canada. Mortality Rate were a little more standoffish than everyone else. I tried to get a conversation or two started in the merch area, and it just fell flat. There were two girls curled up on a chair at the venue all night, only talking to each other and giggling about selfies and other dumb shit. Then one of them popped up and took the mic for Mortality Rate. They were good and loud and had good energy, but I just thought it was kind of weak that they didn't hang out with anybody else except the small crew that rolled up with gold chains and One Life Crew shirts on. It's whatever.

Thanks to Brian for food and shelter for the night. Hope to play here again for sure.

10/29 Denver, CO

This show was at 3 Kings, which some of the guys had been to before but I hadn't. It's in a cool part of Denver on South Broadway, so we spent some time walking around. Found Trve Brewery and a New Mexican restaurant! Went to Trader Joe's for foodage and then to the Scalafrea stronghold, who were the headlining band and our hosts while in town, for some much needed naps...and then...

The turnout wasn't super for us or Ol' Dagger, but there were some dedicated metal heads up front checking it out, as there always is in Denver. There were a lot of competing shows in the area on this night including North playing down the block and our Albuquerque homies Laughing Dog playing down the street, so we had to take what we could get.

As the night progressed the Halloween partiers started showing up, and by the time Scalafrea ripped through their set the place was packed. A wild night in a rad place. We are stoked and grateful. Also have been listening to Undergang a lot in the van.

10/30 Off day

We have a very long drive to Seattle today. And when I say "today", I mean all day. I dare you to go ahead and look up the distances between Denver and SeaTac.

My dad took all of us out to lunch in Casper, WY which was amazing. Saw a nazi at a gas station there, reminding us that we were inching ever closer to Coeur d'Alene, ID.

In total we drove 1,310 miles in 26 hours, 800 of that through non-stop rain. None of us had been to Montana before, but we only got a brief glance before the sun went down.

10/31 Off day

Today was spent walking around the Capitol Hill area in Seattle. Checked out some record stores, the space needle and a few bars. A couple of the Dagger dudes got interviewed by Indian TV while we were enjoying the view of downtown at the scenic overlook. Later in the day for extra fun, we lost the van keys. I went off with a friend and everyone else got hotels rooms for the night after hours of searching for the keys and then waiting for new keys to be made. Total bum out. Oh yeah, it's Halloween. Everyone is walking around in costumes, and here's us just walking around in the same clothes for 2 days.

Pick up Jagged Mouth's latest album here.