One tour winds down, and another is about to begin…Ill Nino and Spineshank just toured the US together, and now teaming up with Chimaira, all three bands will be hitting Europe this week. Spineshank drummer Tommy Decker recounts the end of this most recent US tour run: “Well, our U.S. tour with Ill Nino, 40 Below Summer and Skrape is over. It seemed way too short. We had such a great time that we REALLY want to continue the tour and hit the west coast and Florida and all the other places that we didn’t get to play. So that is a possibility after Europe (cross your fingers). Some of the shows that stood out since the last time I wrote are as follows: San Antonio. It was over sold and hot as fuck, with some of THE craziest people I have ever seen. From the second we went on, there were people crowd surfing (4 or 5 at a time) and a constant barrage of stage divers. I was smiling the whole fucking show. Cant wait to go back there. The Norva in Virginia is the best venue in America, so it’s always awesome there. The backstage area has a hot tub, a sauna, 4 showers, one of the coolest staffs ever, and a fucking basketball court!!! The crowd was great as usual and there’s even a mall across the street. Playing the Norva is like a day off. We want to be the house band there. I always look forward to playing Pittsburgh and this time was even better than I remember. we were the last band of the night and I was afraid that the crowd would be tired, but was I fucking wrong, there was a huge ass pit for the whole set. I’m glad you guys didn’t forget about us in Pittsburgh. The last day of the tour we had 2 shows – one in Boston at 3 p.m. and one in Hartford at 11 p.m. The 1st show was a radio show for WAAF (who we love). It was in a God damn hockey arena and the temperature was about 50 degrees! The show was cool (get it? I’m a regular Carrot Top), but we had to rush out as soon as we were done in order to make the next show in Hartford. The place in Hartford was packed and I was really happy to see so many people come out and support the tour. My only complaint about this show was that the security guards were standing in the pit making sure there was no pit, stage diving or crowd surfing. That was a bunch of bullshit. People kept getting thrown out for just moving the wrong way, hopefully they lighten up on the kids and let everyone have a good time next time. Before the last song, Ill Nino came out and we all did a shot of Jager together. It was a romantic moment to say the least. This was an awesome ending to an awesome tour, and I want to thank each and every person who came out and supported all the bands – you made it all possible. We love you guys. Next, it’s on to Europe with Ill Nino and our good friends in Chimaira. This should be a crazy tour, I told all of you that we would be back to reschedule the canceled dates!!!!! We start in Portsmouth on Oct 3rd and I think it’s already sold out. That’s the right way to start off a tour. see you all soon” Tommy