Tour Guides From Hell: Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Tommaso Riccardi on His Top Ten U.S. Touring Destinations

Welcome to MetalSucks’ new series, “Tour Guides from Hell,” in which musicians from across the metalsphere tell us about some of their favorite places to hit up while they’re out on tour! This edition has been penned by Fleshgod Apocalypse vocalist Rommaso Riccardi; catch Fleshgod on a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Wintersun, Arsis and Starkill starting in August. Get dates at the bottom of this post!

Hi everyone, here’s a list of some places we really enjoy stopping at while on tour in North America.

1. New York City

I spent a lot of time trying to visualize which place in New York we like the most… and then I realized this city is so awesome I couldn’t chose one. So I will say it doesn’t matter which one of the thousands of cool restaurants and bars you are stopping by to eat something, which venue you are playing at, or which park you’re walking through… just enjoy New York City!

2. Illegal Pete’s (Denver CO)

Maybe not every band touring the US knows about Illegal Pete’s, but I’m sure a lot of them do. This place is a typical American bar & grill where, of course, you can eat the best burritos in Denver, but I’m sure I’m not telling bullshits if I say one of the best in the whole Midwest. But the cool thing that maybe not everybody knows is that the guy who runs this place has a Rock/Metal program on a local radio station, and he usually offers free burritos to all the touring bands stopping for a show in Denver! ;)

3. Chef Bill (Tampa, FL)

Well, we can’t say this is a place where you can go… because if you’re gonna play a metal show in the area of Tampa this guy is probably coming to the show to cook some kick ass food for you. Of course he has his own restaurant, an awesome place to go to, but Chef Bill is a HUGE metal fan, and every time he can he’s gonna take a day off from the restaurant to come see the show with the whole family and feed all the motherfuckers on the tour bus! Needless to say  good food is always appreciated, especially while on tour where most of the time you’re gonna go fast-food; and also, since we’re Italians (all about good cuisine), it’s even more appreciated!

4. Venice Beach, CA

I personally love the seaside, and all the guys in the band enjoy it too… so every time we’re playing a show in LA, if we have some time off (and believe me, it happens rarely…), we really love to visit this part of the town, have a swim, a walk by the ocean, and maybe eat some food by the beach! This is really a legendary place.

5. Big Sur, CA

Just to keep talking about the ocean, I think there’s a place in California everyone should see: Big Sur. This area is situated in between San Francisco and Los Angeles, right on Highway 1 where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise from the Pacific Ocean, and in my opinion here you can get some of the most stunning views of the whole West Coast. Obviously most of the time you’re not gonna drive through this area while on tour since the road is really curvy, and for this reason it’s a very slow route to reach LA coming from San Francisco, but of course, if you’re not in a rush, it’s really worth going the longest way.

6. The U.S. / Canadian Border

One of the most typical and popular events during a North American tour is the stop at the border between the US and Canada, usually characterized by the fact that it comes at around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning (when you’re probably sleeping soundly) and by long and boring waits on the most uncomfortable chairs ever while the cops are searching the whole bus, or, even worse, by the access denial due to a number of factors! XD

7. Niagara Falls (NY)

At least near the border — between the state of New York and the province of Ontario to be more precise — there’s one of the most incredible wanders of nature, Niagara Falls, also famous for the scene in the very first Superman movie!

8. White Sands National Monument

This park is in southern New Mexico, close to the city of Alamogordo. We’re talking about a part of the desert where you can find the whitest dunes of sand in the US, and you can walk through the desert and literally jump from the dunes and enjoy the unique landscape. This place is crazy and also one of the external sets used in Star Wars… we love it!

9) Pilot

I will conclude by listing two very common places that every touring band usually hits many times during a tour. The first one is PILOT, one of the biggest chains of gas stations. These are usually great for drivers getting some rest in the huge parking lots for trucks or when you need to buy some munchies during the night…

10. Walmart

The Walmart stop is always scheduled when doing long routes on tour and you need to collect some food, coffee or whatever needed in the tour bus or the van. What would we do without it?! Ahahahah…

Cheers everybody, keep supporting music. Especially good music!

Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis, Starkill

8/06 Baltimore, MD — The Baltimore Soundstage
8/07 Philadelphia, PA – Theater of Living Arts
8/08 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
8/09 Boston, MA – The Sinclair
8/10 Montreal, QC – HEAVY MTL*
8/11 Toronto, ON – The Opera House
8/13 Cincinnati, OH – The Shrunken Head
8/14 Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
8/15 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
8/16 Detroit, MI – The Shelter
8/17 Eau Claire, WI – The Oxford
8/18 Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre
8/19 Regina, SK – Riddel Center @ UoR
8/20 Edmonton, AB – The Starlite Room
8/21 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater
8/23 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
8/24 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
8/25 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
8/26 West Hollywood, CA – House of Blues
8/27 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
8/28 San Diego, CA – House of Blues
8/29 Tempe, AZ – Joe’s Grotto
8/31 Dallas, TX – Tomcats West
9/01 Houston, TX – House of Blues
9/03 Miami, FL – Churchill’s Pub
9/04 Tampa, FL – The Orpheum
9/05 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
9/06 Spartanburg, SC – Ground Zero