Revocation Exclusive Tour Blog #4: Hot Dog Tattoos, Canada + Rick James

During the last month or so, while you were busy toiling away at your work desk, Revocation was out wreaking havoc on a North American tour.

The trek took the death-thrashers across the continent with Children of Bodom, Eluveitie and Threat Signal. We knew the tour would be a riot so Noisecreep asked Revocation drum god Phil DuBois to document all of the band's adventures in an exclusive tour diary. Check out the fourth and final blog entry below and keep an eye out for the band back out on the road very soon!

From Revocation drummer Phil DuBois:

"Well folks we all knew this day would come, the day that we would be forced to stop living in a rolling fart box and go home. As all good things come to an end, so has our tour with Children of Bodom, Eluveitie and Threat Signal to celebrate CoB's 15th anniversary. It has been a blast, and we will surely miss everybody with whom we have spent the last five weeks.

After our string of shows in Texas, we had a ball breaking drive to Louisville, Ky. Our show was right in the middle of a bunch of factories, which apparently made bourbon and cookies. Somehow the combination of the two ended up smelling like somebody poured beer and piss all over a homeless guy, wrapped him in saran wrap from head to toe, and then left him in the sun for 48 hours. The show was sweet though.

Next was Cleveland, which we were super pumped about because we had finally made time to check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! I was pretty skeptical about its supposed awesomeness, and we had to night drive for the second night in three days to get there with enough time to see it, but it was totally worth it. The very first thing you see when you get to the main lobby is Alex Van Halen's drumset from 1980, with the two most ridiculous kick drums I have ever seen.

I was so tempted to jump behind there and start playing it, and it probably would have been totally worth getting kicked out over. A sweet added perk of being in a band is that you get in for free if you have a tour laminate. Shwing shwing! I must say my suspicions were laid to rest once we walked in, because the place kicked ass! Once you get in, they're very strict about people not taking pictures, but f--- that. Within two minutes I laid my eyes on something that nearly made me blow a load in my pants. Rick James' bass from the cover of the 'Street Songs' album!

So badass. You could probably contract Herpes just from staring at it for too long. We made our way through the building, and our minds were blown over and over again. Here's Dave in front of a particularly cool display. Think you can identify the owner of each axe in the picture?

I must say however, that there were a few things which aroused our suspicions. First off, they had a note saying that 'Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?' came out in 1992. Blasphemy! They also had one of Charlie Benante's custom drum heads which they claimed was from the early '80s, but none of us could recall the artwork on it from anything before 'Worship Music,' which came out in 2011. Now I may be wrong on this one, but either way, I'm calling shenanigans on you Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Unfortunately, we didn't have as much time there as we would have liked, because we needed to get to the venue for load-in, but we definitely got to see the majority of it. My personal favorite of all the exhibits was Frank Beard's drum kit.

There are no words. Immediately after Cleveland we crossed the border to play three shows in Canada. We love Canada, because metal is f---ing huge there, and we really love taking in the local foliage... get it? Foliage. It's green. Foliage.

Our first show was in Toronto, and it was hands down one of the biggest shows we've ever played.

The sound of a crowd when you can no longer hear individual people's screams, and they just blend into one, monstrous monotone sound is the coolest thing ever. Next was Montreal, and the show was just as, if not bigger, than Toronto. The next day we had off, so we slept in and chilled with the dudes from Barn Burner. One of the guys is a piercer at a tattoo shop in Montreal, so our merch guy Pete went in to get some new sweet ink.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna kill Pete sometime soon, skin his leg, and then sew that tattoo onto mine. After that was Quebec, then we came back into the U.S. and played a few more shows down the East Coast. It was a total cock tease being that close to home, but some familiar faces came out which made things easier. After over a month of grinding on the road, we finally came to our last show in Baltimore. Morale was high for everybody, but there was still a sad vibe in the air due to ending the trip that had brought the 30 of us so close together.

After the show, there was a ripping after party at a close by bar, and then it was time to say goodbye. We will definitely miss everybody that we had the pleasure of travelling with, but it's somewhat bittersweet, because we know we will cross paths again at some point in the future. Luckily Martin, Eluveitie's soundguy, decided to leave some final drunken words of comfort in silver Sharpie on Chris' (our soundguy) nice jacket.

Thanks buddy! We love and miss all of you."

Revocation's latest album, 'Chaos of Forms,' is out now via Relapse Records.