Between the Buried and Me Guitarist Follows the Bouncing Ball

In January, North Carolina extreme prog band Between the Buried and Me will begin a major world tour that wraps up in Australia in March. While most of the band members are stoked about going overseas, guitarist Paul Waggoner is pretty ambivalent.

"All I can think about is that I'm missing the entire college basketball season," he tells Noisecreep. "How the hell am I gonna keep track of these games when we're in Australia? I'm pretty freaked out, actually."

Waggoner says most people don't take him for a major sports fan because he looks "like a long-haired hippie." Yet the guitarist is just about as die-hard as they come. His favorite team is the University of North Carolina Tarheels, who he follows religiously, even when Between the Buried and Me are playing shows.

"I'll sit in the corner of a venue and watch the game on a computer, streaming in the s---tiest quality you can imagine," he says. "Two years ago, we were on tour in Canada when UNC were in the final four, and we got completely annihilated by Kansas. I was watching that game, and we were getting destroyed and I was literally depressed the whole night. While I was playing, all I could think about was how bad we got beat. It was just terrible."

In addition to following the Tarheels, Waggoner is a big fan of the Charlotte Bobcats, who are currently in last place in the Southeast Division of the Western NBA Conference. "I can't even bet on sports, because I'm too attached emotionally to my teams," he says. "I'm too biased. I'd lose all my money."