Welcome to the first installment of an occasional Decibel blog feature called How We Roll. In this series, we’ll look behind the scenes to see what bands bring on the road to make extensive touring more comfortable (or more forgettable).
Our first guests need little introduction. For the second time in this year, the metal legends of Venom Inc. (Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan, Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Tony “Abaddon” Bray) toured the United States extensively (for the back story on how they reunited read our story in issue 139). Despite the fact that they are getting older (although no less fierce), their itinerary is short on rest days. The main concern for the gentleman in Venom Inc. is taking good enough care of themselves so they can perform at a peak level night after night.
Venom Inc. is working on new material and we could see a record from them in the next year. In the meantime, take a look at some of the creature comforts the band brings on the road with the Demolition Man.
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Item: Killjoy’s prop head
Tony Dolan: This thing does sort of look like me. What this evil person did was stick this on the back bunk. One of the merch guys hadn’t slept in a day. When he went to go to sleep someone left the curtain open a little bit and the head was there. He’d seen a picture of my head next to this prop head earlier and said: “Why the fuck is Tony in my bunk!” And then he stormed out.
Item: Regional cuisine (Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland)
Tony Dolan: The last time we went to Voodoo it was my birthday and they made a gigantic donut with Prime Evil on it. This time, they had a maple bacon donut that was the talk of the tour. A donut with bacon! My favorites are the pentagram ones, of course. Would you like one?
Item: Supplements (whey protein, Gatorade, Five Hour Energy)
Tony Dolan: We take a lot of whey protein and Gatorade. We expend so much energy from playing and get dehydrated so this is to keep your muscles going. It’s easy to get cramps.
Item: Healthy food (fruits, tuna fish, nuts)
Tony Dolan: We eat as clean as we can. We try to stay away from Denny’s and burgers and hot dogs. We will have a waffle for breakfast but if you look around here it’s nuts and low-fat chips. We also drink a lot of water and tea.
Item: Tequila (preferably high quality) and Jack Daniels
Tony Dolan: On our rider, we have one tequila bottle for me one Jack Daniels bottle for Abaddon and Coke for Jeff (Dunn, Mantas). We modulate a lot now. We don’t party so much because it’s harder to recover now and you get sick quicker. Hammering it is great when you are younger. But as you know the older you get — you wake up and something hurts that didn’t hurt yesterday. Because we hammer the shows and give everything we’ve got we try to get a good night’s sleep. I did drink three-quarters of a bottle of tequila yesterday but now you drink when you are relaxing. In the old days, you’d party, then play, then do more after.
