The Black Dahlia Murder Mayhem Tour Report: Vitamin E, Mystery Cups and Dirty Bars

Ryan Knight from the Black Dahlia Murder is currently on the road with the Rockstar Mayhem Fest. He's chimed in from the early days on the road, and now here's even more 'metal minutia' for you.

Kansas City, Kan.
Continuing our adventure in the Midwest, today we arrived in Kansas City. Drizzly rain, herb tokeage and beer consumption consumed most of the day. Every time I come to KC it's either cold as balls, or as humid as a Vietnam jungle. Much gold bonding and vitamin E are needed these days to prevent crotch rot, and ass-chaffing. Oh, there was a sick party tonight. Jägermeister supplied us with this ice slide sort of thing which was most awesome. One person can get at the top and pour, while the other takes the lethal dose at the bottom. In my case I was able to drink half, and the rest went in my face ... burning my eyes a little. Good times, good times

St. Louis
I dunno if I'm in Illinois right now or Missouri ... oh well. St. Louis is a cool town. I mean s---, Nelly is from this region (it's a great day in St. Louiiiiiieeee!!!). Show was crunk, people were crunk, got a little drunk, smoked a little funk. St. Louis is definitely the Midwest, but I swear there is a southern vibe in these parts. Pretty standard day, as far as the Mayhem tour goes. Now I'm gonna go sit in a lawn chair outside the trailer, and maybe sip on a Budweiser. Holler!

Atlanta
Felt good to be back in my home state. Today was pretty cool; I had some friends coming out to the show. Atlanta shows are usually bad ass I like to think. At least the turnouts are, anyway. The friends came, we drank beers and had an all around good ole time. I spend some of the evening throwing the frisbee around, which is fun until your arm gives out. In other news, I saw some guy in the VIP bar area who had a tattoo of one of my other bands logos ... pretty crazy s---. I love the amount of Waffle Houses, Chic Filas, Krystals and just other restaurants of badassery that can be found in the south. Wonderful!

Indianapolis
Yeeeeep. Good old Indianapolis, Indianer. I swear this place reminds me of the south as well. I have definitely heard some southern accents around the signing table. The show was good today; although Bart and I spent half the set trying to figure out if someone threw a cup of s--- on the stage. This mysterious 's---' pile was directly in front of me on stage right. It looked like s---, but could have possibly been mud as well. When Brian Dale (our stage manager) stirred it around, I swear it had the pungent smell of some diabolical dump ... weird. The day started off shitty with rain, but actually turned into a pretty nice although humid day. I'm leaving the show early to go hang in Chicago for a little while. woooord.

Chicago
Chitown, the windy city, former home of the meat packing industry and Al Capone. What a town!!! I think today had one of the best or the best turnouts on tour. When we played there was a pretty epic sea of people which reminded me of some crazy Euro fest. People went ape s--- as well, and that always helps improve the overall crunkness of things. There was a pretty good party after the show, which amassed in between the buses. I ate some sort of magical fungus, and I went to a netherworld for a little while. I wish we could spend more time here, but I'll be back for a few days at the end of tour. Rock on!

Off show, Covington, Ky.
I swear I've played this venue a million times (the Mad Hatter). It's like they never clean this venue. Nearly every time I've played this venue there's still remnants of puke, turds, piss or beer spilled everywhere from the apparent rager the night before. The chicken restaurant next door is pretty killer, and we even discovered some pretty kick ass Chinese down the way. Nevertheless, the show tonight was a rager. People knew what was up, and knew they had to throw down in order to satisfy the primal rage that is the Black Dahlia Murder. Some dude claiming to be the biggest drug dealer in the area talked to us after the show, and provided some laughs. Thanks Covington, for another good time. Woohoo!