No Jesus, No Beast

Rochester was exactly how we remembered it- grey, dreary, and encased in ice and stale snow. Fortunately the bad weather blew past us quickly and the roads were clear. We were very pleased to have the hotel and I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours after we arrived. It turns out the Hartford show was canceled because the promoter drowned while visiting the Virgin Islands. Apparently his body was only recently discovered and he was missing since Xmas. Grim. The strange part for me was that in charting the maps between venues I routed us straight from Springfield to Rochester and completely skipped Hartford. I was planning on correcting it but something told me not to bother. I did the same thing with Nashville, so if this show is also canceled then I will take it as one of my random echoes of divination at work. As for the Rochester show, the turnout was about as good as it could be for this town; nobody has any money and the weather is not an additional incentive. Still, I should not complain as the crowds have been responsive and attentive regardless of their size, We experienced several technical problems attached to the drum kit and triggers that forced us to start, abort, and reattempt our opening song, “Descension”. That is never a good thing, but luckily the audience was accommodating about it. Overall the stage sound was awful for all the bands, but we managed to pull off a good showing. Immolation was great as usual, and I'm trying to log more time watching Belphegor and Rotting Christ. It is difficult since we invariably miss any band that immediately follows us as we are usually packing our gear and cleaning up. Still, it would be a pity to not actually see the bands with whom we share the stage. Merchandise sales have not been terribly good for any of the bands so far from what I can tell. Hopefully we will see an upswing in the bigger market. I hope that the shadow of the recession is not a factor in this, as it is merch sales that keep us and our tour mates afloat.

On to Poughkeepsie. We got a bit of a late start but the thruway is a straight show across the state and the roads are clear, so we should arrive on time without incident. We play a large and venerable theater called the Chance, so I hope the show will prove memorable.