After a incredible end to the Blizzard Bizarre tour in Seattle that totally blew the roof off the Sunset, we loaded out the gear and Jamie drove me straight to the Seattle airport so I could catch one of four flights that would carry me halfway around the globe to Colonge, Germany to ultimately arrive on the Volcom Tour Europe with Mastodon & Totimoshi. It was a rough one, being up for days with big shows in Vancouver & Seattle with all night driving in between; I was exhausted and pretty crisp. After a good embrace and goodbye I was on the plane, and right when I was passing out we landed in NYC and switched planes, and had a hard time sleeping on the next flight, right when it seemed I passed out we landed in Berlin and had to switch planes again.

The Berlin airport smelled like fresh pastries and coffee and filling my stomach with it all brought me right back from the dead. It was just a quick flight from Berlin to Colonge and before I knew it I was on the ground and getting ready for action. Landing in Colonge I couldn't help but laugh, it was a frozen tundra, freezing temperatures and there were just piles of snow everywhere, "what, am I still on Blizzard Bizarre?" I grabbed my gear after a diversion to a little room where they searched and tested my equipment, (German airports always trip out on all my camera equipment) and I was in a cab on the way to the venue to meet up with the buses.

I was giddy along the way looking at all the German architecture throughout the city; it felt good to be far from the states on an adventure. We passed the Colonge cathedral, the landmark of the city, it had been a long time since I had seen it, and I began to notice crazy costumes, face paint, people on stilts, and I'm thinking "what the hell?" The cab driver said today was the winter carnival here in Colonge, and I thought of course there was a carnival in town when Volcom Tour rolls in!

I arrived at the venue called Essigfabrik and it was all hugs and hi fives, it was awesome to be with the Totimoshi and back with the Mastodon again, I hadn't seen the dudes since the madness of the Dethklok weekend in LA a while back. The vibes were flowing and spirits were high!! It seemed I couldn't escape the coldness of Blizzard Bizarre though, the venue was freezing, it was brutal taking a shower and Bubbs and I were in our planet Hoth jackets all day while working and could not get warm no matter what we did. Bubbs even busted out the Foreman sandwich smasher and hot sandwiches couldn't even warm our bodies. Soundchecks were done in full jackets, gloves & hats!

We hoped that when the venue filled up with fans the temp would go up but even after the place was stuffed it didn't help, I filmed in my big parka all night. The snow was coming down outside but the rock soon ensued inside as Totimoshi started their set. I was so excited to hear their new songs live, I was lucky enough to hear some recorded demos before I left on tour and couldn't wait to hear the set, and the wait was way worth it! They put it down on an entirely new level from the last time I was able to see them play in the states. The Mastodon fans really took to them as they played a full spectrum of their songs, including old, some songs from "Ladron" and "Miragrosa" and the brand new songs sounded unreal! I can't wait to hear the finished record that Toshi from Big Business is currently working on with them. Meg, Chris and Tony have a fluid vibe together and their collective brains and veins become one together onstage... and I was stoked to see Meg taking on some more singing duties onstage.

Mastodon came out next and fired the canons! Damn it was good to see a Masto set again, by far one of the best live bands of our generation. The crowd erupted as they walked out on stage and when the first chords of "Oblivion" were picked they screamed so loud all the hairs on my body stood on end. They shredded through the entire "Crack the Skye" record from beginning to end and the presence of the keyboards really made it come to life live in a big way, and made the transitions between songs seamless. Instead of a banner for a backdrop, they have a high definition video screen that plays a mind blowing movie that goes along with the live performance of the record, its unreal! Images of out of body experiences, fires burning, flying thru the stars of the open universe, swirling art and colors coupled around frames of a bearded man in agony, confusion, and insanity, its truly mesmerizing and beautiful.

After they blazed the final track and monster epic "The Last Baron" they left the stage making it seem the set was over, and the crowd began their chant: "Mastodon!! Mastodon!! Mastodon!!" to which the band responded by returning to their posts. The video screen changed to the whale leaping art and they exploded into classic songs from all their older albums including smoking tracks from "Leviathan and "Blood Mountain!" what a way to fly into a tour and get my face melted off by both bands. I was truly at home far from home and was feeling so stoked to be right where I was, the fatigue of all the touring and travel dissipated and fell from my body...let's rock.

We loaded out pushing the gear across the snow packed parking lot and up the icy frozen trailer ramps, slipping and sliding the entire time. After the load out I was in the upper lounge of the bus with everyone and my head was bobbing up and down as the sleep monster finally came to claim me, so I crawled into my bunk and went into a full on coma and my first real nights sleep in a long while. We had a long haul and some border crossings the next day so we had the day off.

At 7am we crossed the border out of Germany and into France where we drove the double-decker buses onto a huge ferry bound for England. Finally a chance to sit down and have a real breakfast! We parked underneath the ferry and made our way to the upper decks and sat down with everyone and pigged out big-time, afterwards I threw some pounds into some slot machines in the gaming room before pulling up a chair next to a porthole where I shot some video and ended up passing out next to Bubbs and the boys. It seemed we were at sea for a few hours and when we landed in England there was blue skies and no snow! We were all so stoked.

We jumped back on the bus and rolled off the ferry non-stop to our hotel called Park Hill in Wolverhampton. It was like a super old English estate in the hills, rolling grassy hills in the back with a gazebo and a big fountain out front and a quaint little bar in the lobby. So awesome. We all sunk into the couches and drank Strongbows and Stellas and ate pasta all day and night until the bar closed and we all crashed hard. The next morning the bus pulled around front and we crawled aboard and headed a quick 2 miles to the venue called Wulfhall. I totally remembered this place; I had been here before with Valient Thorr but couldn't remember what tour... maybe Motorhead? I knew right where to go for supplies and food if was all very familiar. We walked to Tricia’s infamous thrift store around the corner and hung out with Brent as he tried on suede suit jackets, he ended up buying a green one and a red one. There were pictures all over the walls of legends that all bought their clothes there, Lemmy and Phil from Motorhead and even Jimmy Hendrix bought stuff there. Amazing.

Not too long after that we were back at the venue for soundchecks; the PA was good and loud! Totimoshi did a check and the doors opened and the place was elbows and assholes within minutes, I could barely navigate the crowd to get to the merch area much less get a beer... The show was awesome, the crowd was way into Totimoshi and Mastodon and they went nuts all night! When I was at the soundboard filming, after every song all I could see were glasses of beer being raised in the air, it was classic. Nothing but hands up throughout the room, throwing devil horns and hoisting beers. After the show the fans pummeled the merch area. Totimoshi has been going out to the merch after every show, and there was a massive crowd waiting for them and they obliged by signing posters, vinyl and CDs and taking tons of pictures with the fans. It seemed to last for hours. I headed back inside the venue and we started tearing down gear and the video screen, taking each panel down one by one and packing each into it's own padded slot in ten big road cases. And that's just the video screen, we have 2 trailers packed front to back and to the ceiling with video equipment, amps, cabs, drums, guitars, etc and the shit goes up and down and in and out the doors in an hour! Gnarly.

We hit the bar that night down the street with none other than Napalm Death! It was a rager let me tell you. Party time. After a good while and right before bus call I snuck down the street with Lou and we bought doner kebabs and chicken wings and went back to the bus and pigged out before bed, I have no idea why I did that.... I woke up with sour guts... Damn chili sauce...

We woke up the next day in Bristol, and this place is so beautiful. Right when we loaded into the venue called 02 Academy I knew I had been there before, but it had been a long time. I finally figured it out; it was about 10 years ago with theLINE and Guttermouth! It sure brought back memories.... After load in we went for a killer long walk around the city and saw lots of castles, ruins, amazing architecture and fountains and breathtaking backdrops. It was incredible! We didn't make it back to the venue until doors were opening and the sold out crowd was fighting to get in and secure their spot as close to the stage as possible. This place was packed full of 14-16 year olds going nuts!! Rock future!!

There were stairs going up both sides of the room and a balcony that stretched across the entire ceiling and looked right down on the stage and it was standing room only, all the floor space, every stair, and every inch of the balcony was absolutely packed and it was the most rambunctious crowd of the tour yet, they went absolutely crazy!! What a blast and what a show. The bands totally fed off their energy and went off!! Totimoshi crushed it and Mastodon was on another level, Brent was a total riff machine and Brann was doing shit on the drums that didn't even register on my brain. Their vocals and harmony damn near had me tearing up. Insane.

We loaded out super fast that night and woofed down some after show pizza inside the bus, and Brann climbed aboard and started slamming beers with us, check out the photo of the Mastodon beers! A whole crate got delivered to a venue and they have been lasting and going strong and they are so delicious. After a bunch of those suckers Brann decided to ride with us and we all had a ball that night invading truck stops until we passed out. We crossed over into Scotland and arrived in another absolutely beautiful city called Glasgow, where I type this to you now. We landed at our hotel and hit the pub across the street, it happened to be run by a guy from Vancouver! I made myself comfy with some comfort foods of home, nachos and cheeseburgers, Stellas and Jäger shots with all the boys. I was so drunk at noon I was barely able to stumble a few blocks to find wifi. Ha. After catching up on emails I took a drunken nap to reset my clock and my batteries, I woke up later and had a couple beers to fix my hangover and watched the Olympics for a bit.

Today’s show in Glasgow is the biggest of the tour, I can't wait. Over 2000 presale for tonight!! It's going to be such a caprice!! I'm having trouble typing now as the load in was super gnarly, all the gear had to come up 6 or 7 flights of freaking stairs. Put a fork in me. I'm going to go curl up on some road cases and catch a few winks. See you in the pit my friends, Viva la noise! Viva la Totimoshi! Viva la Mastodon! Viva la Volcom Tour! Long live rock and roll and long live the road.

VOLCOM TOUR 2010 will present MASTODON’s recently announced February 2010 Europe and U.K. headlining tour with direct support being provided by recent Los Angeles, CA transplants, TOTIMOSHI. This will be MASTODON’s first headlining European tour in support of their groundbreaking new album, CRACK THE SKYE, which the U.K.’s Rocksound Magazine just named their 2009 Album Of The Year!

MASTODON’s fans can’t seem to get enough of their favorite band. As their coast-to-coast U.S. co-headline tour with Dethklok, High On fire and Converge recently comes to a close, a brand new, limited version of their current album CRACK THE SKYE will become available online only. The last limited edition item sold out well in advance of the on-sale date. To accommodate the demand from fans for more, the band wanted to create another exclusive item for those who may have been left out. Thus, the ROYAL EDITION of CRACK THE SKYE will contain the album in it entirety along with the complete version of the album score. This ultra special edition comes housed in gold foil embossed Digi-book package with all new gold and black logo artwork designed by Paul Romano. The package also contains an exclusively designed 6”x 6” artwork lithograph available in this package only, plus the bonus instantly downloadable versions of “Divinations,” and “Colony Of Birchen,” (both recorded live from XFM UK). Pre-orders of the ROYAL EDITION are available right now through mastodonrocks.com only and will begin shipping on December 15, 2009.

Supporting act TOTIMOSHI, the gritty and raw Los Angeles by-the-way-of Oakland, CA band, are continuing to support of their 2008 album, MILAGROSA, which received high marks all around from StonerRock.com to Pitchfork. Having pointed to their Latin heritage as playing a key role in the shaping of their sound, TOTIMOSHI turn the two disparate parts of their personality into music that is undeniably their own. Even the band’s name is a reflection of that cultural mash-up (a name singer/guitarist Tony Aguilar’s mother often used to describe his grandmother’s broken English). That merging of backgrounds-Tony, the son of migrant farm workers and bass player Meg Castellanos’ Cuban roots-give the couple’s sound a flavor that’s unique in the world of modern heavy music. Feb 04 - Milan, Italy @ Megazzini Generali Feb 05 - Fribourg, Switzerland @ Fri-son Feb 06 - Amsterdam, Holland @ Melkweg Feb 08 - Hamburg, Germany @ Gruenspan Feb 09 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Club Feb 10 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschcapp Feb 12 - Vienna, Austria @ Arena Feb 13 - Munich, Germany @ Backstage Feb 14 - Cologne, Germany @ Essigfabrik15 Feb 16 - Wolverhampton, England @ Wulfrun Feb 17 - Bristol, England @ Academy Feb 19 - Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland Feb 20 - Manchester, England @ Academy Feb 21 - Newcastle, England @ Academy Feb 23 - Nottingham, England @ Rock City Feb 24 - London, England @ Roundhouse