Between the Buried and Me Avoid Driving in the Snow

Kicking off Jan. 8 in Nashville, Between the Buried and Me begin a month-long North American headlining tour honoring their October-released album, 'The Great Misdirect.' In light of the recent Weezer tour bus crash, which left frontman Rivers Cuomo hospitalized and that band's dates canceled through January, the North Carolina prog metal quintet doesn't take driving in winter weather for granted.

"Stuff like that scares the s--- out of us," vocalist/keyboard player Tommy Rogers tells Noisecreep. "Honestly, the last few years we haven't really toured much through bad weather for that reason. We're normally in vans, which we're not doing in January. It just seems worse in bad weather when we're in a van."

The trek hits the South, the West and East Coasts, Canada and upper parts of the Midwest. Meteorologists predicted the Midwest would get slammed with storms this winter. Not good news for touring bands. "We planned it out well," says Rogers. "Do the South first, do the bad weather stuff later. So hopefully we'll miss it. A lot of it is planning and being realistic and not forcing yourself to drive through something that could take your life. In the past, we've canceled shows. Obviously, you get fans mad at you, but I don't know. If there is bad weather, I'd rather cancel dates and not die."

Snowstorms aside, Rogers and company are thrilled with this upcoming tour, which is the band's first major headlining jaunt. "We're excited. It's definitely a dream come true tour with great bands playing with us," he says. "We put a lot of effort into deciding where we wanted to play; a lot of the rooms are really beautiful with a great sound. That's always number one for us -- play beautiful venues that are good for the fans."