Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) Tour Diary: Part Three

Hot on the heels of this summer’s Profound Lore debut, Of Seismic Consequence, Chicago prog-monsters Yakuza scored perhaps the baddest-ass black metal tour of 2010, scorching the States with Triptykon and 1349. Frontman/White Sox fan-for-life Bruce Lamont will periodically fill us in on the gory details.
Day 12—Detroit
Detroit Majestic Theater. This is a gig place that happens to have its own bowling alley in, so, of course, we got a game in early. We played our set and took off back for hometown Chicago. This was the last show with Pat from Nachtmystium filling in on bass. He’s our brother for life, and we can’t thank him enough.

Day 13—Chicago
I think in all the years we have toured, we never had a show fall midway through a tour in our hometown. It’s a little more stressful than relaxing. All day was spent running around doing laundry, seeing family real quick, picking up gear, more merch, etc., and then there’s that thing in the back of your mind where you know that the next day you’re heading back out on the road, and being here is just temporary. Anyway, the show went great; the Chicago metal folks were there in full force. We had Ivan rejoining the fold on bass. Everything felt right then.

Day 14—Minneapolis
This show was interesting. Halfway through the first song, Matt’s guitar went out, so Jim, Ivan and I went into a spontaneous 15-20 minute improv jam. Raven from 1349 told me he loved it. Apparently some people in the audience were unaware of our woes; maybe we should do that more often. We got to hang with Heath from Wolvhammer and Rob from Battlefields. Heath brought us to this great little taquería for lunch the next day, which is why we love having friends in cities across the U.S.; they take us to all the cool places to eat.

Day 16—Denver
Denver equals one thing: Cephalic Carnage. Both past and present members run this town. Stopped by Lenzig’s to pick up some Seismic on vinyl that just had been released. Brian had put us up the night before, Steve worked the venue we played, Zak Joe works down the block and met us later. Nick came to the show. My point is that these dudes rule and always take good care of us. The show itself was cool; 1349 got cut short which sucked for them. A stop at Three Kings is always in order when in town.

Day 18—Seattle
Nothing like a 20-hour drive to set the mood. Got to our friend Terry and Angel’s house around noon and treated us to some homemade moonshine. Yummy. Matt and I had pumpkin curry downtown, which ruled. El Corazon is always great. The staff is always accommodating and takes great care of the bands there. John Pettibone from Himsa is one of the nicest dudes for sure.

Day 19—Portland
A slew of friends came out to hang: Matt and Orion from Relapse, Stevie from Dark Castle, Laurie, Scott and Kara from Seventh Rule, plus a few others. It was a very nice welcoming. After the show we went karaokeing, which featured the vocal styling of Idar from 1349. We’ve become really close with everyone on this tour and it’s sad to know it’s starting to wind down. We had a really long drive the next morning, but that didn’t stop TM Pete from buying a bunch of shots and getting everyone totally shitfaced. Hey, no complaints here.