Summer Welch: We are heading out in for a month long US tour in mid-November. We will be doing stints with Earthless, US Christmas, Iron Age, Dark Castle, Torche, and Pig Destroyer. After that we head to Australia and New Zealand in February for a couple weeks.
What are your van/tour bus essentials?
On the last tour we were on I feel that Gameboy Tetris and Warren G were very crucial elements for the long drives we had to endure.
What was the first concert you attended as a fan?
I grew up in a small town in Virginia. There were no shows there, so we had to travel to Roanoke or Richmond to see bands. I can’t really remember the first show that I saw. It was some punk/oi band in Roanoke VA at this (crappy) little venue called the Melting Pot. The first real show with more then a hundred people that I can remember was Fugazi and the Reverend Horton Heat.
Any tour horror stories?
We have had our fair share of unfavorable experiences. The best thing I have witnessed on tour was seeing a crazed bum let some crusty squatter kid carve a pentagram into his back with a knife. The bum then proceeded to run into the crowd at this show where everyone was thrashing around. Momentarily people started emerging from the mass of bodies with horrified looks on their faces and blood prints of pentagrams on the ones wearing light colored shirts. It was pretty wild.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you on the road?
I was once traveling back to Savannah from Virginia with our old guitar player Tim. We came upon three cars; two flipped upside down on the side of the road and the third was all ablaze with two people trapped inside. We stopped and managed to help two people out of one of the cars. They were stuck in their seatbelts and we had to cut them out. They were bleeding and shook up but no real harm had come to them. I found out later that the couple in the burning vehicle did not survive.
What band did you have the best time touring with?
We have had a lot of great touring experiences. I can’t pick a favorite. My memories from our first few tours are the most vivid though. Bands like Cursed, Holy Mountain, Dove and Municipal Waste have a special place in my past memories.
How did you get started in music?
I have to say I did not really get into music until about the age of 15. All of my friends played in bands and were into music, but up until then I was really obsessed with mountain bike racing and school sports, soccer and wrestling. That occupied all of my time. Pete was really the one who exposed me to punk. I remember the first time that I was like "holy (crap)!" this is what I want to do. We lived about a mile and a half apart growing up. To get to his house I would walk deer trails through the woods and then cut across a huge field and down an old logging road that emptied out into his back yard.
I used to go over in the afternoons and we would sit around in his room and listen to records on a crappy old turntable. He received an English Dogs record from some mail order ‘zine. Forward Into Battle. I remember him saying check this out. The cover has this naked chick riding a winged demon horse thing. I was stoked. I think it was mid fall, because I remember walking home feeling like I had just been smacked in the face with a loving hand, if that makes any sense. The leaves were all golden and I wanted to jump out of my skin. Listening to that record the first time is one of my favorite memories. I think I decided shortly there after that I wanted to learn to play bass.
What was your first band?
My first band was called Rough Justice. I played bass, a friend from high school played drums, and Allen the drummer for Baroness played guitar, quite begrudgingly, but guitar he played nonetheless. It was short lived but I have many fond memories of that time.
Who are some fellow bassists you admire?
Dave Edwardson and Steve Harris.
What is your all time favorite album?
Dreamboat Annie by Heart
