Home From Tour

We had our last show 2 days ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota @ The Rathole. We left Cedar Falls pretty late after some hard hanging out and eating a great Chinese buffet with our buddy Thomas. We rolled into Minneapolis around 7:30pm and hung out until the show finally got poppin around 10:30pm. In that time we had to make a stop at Tyler's favorite restaurant, White Castle for his 22nd birthday. He slammed down a # 1 plus 2 more sliders (one fish, one classic). After that we loaded into the Winnie and headed back to The Rathole.

While eating at White Castle we sadly missed Bring That Shit's set which really bummed me out. There were a ton of punks out at the show and that was really sweet. I guessed around 100 but I was told probably only 60 or so. With people going in and out and all wearing the same clothes it was hard to tell for real. Never the less there were a lot of people there. It was a 6 band show that got started at 10:30 and we were scheduled to play last. We planned on driving home that night so we knew it was going to be a late one.

Some really awesome bands played. Bring That Shit, Much Worse, Lord Green, Animals and Beasts and Dios Mio. During Much Worse I was standing at the top of the stairs when the door to the show room suddenly swings open and a man flies out at hits the stairs. Apparently (according to the dude who threw him out) the dude was a "new york asshole hate mosher." It was pretty nuts. The crowd was a wild mix of Minneapolis punks and I loved it. Saw a dude there who I straight up thought was the lead singer of The Casualties. Walked by another punk who was sobbing like a child saying "I love my dad, why doesn't he love me? I wish he would just kill me." People got problems n shit.

By the time Dios Mio took the room people were real wasted and looking for a fight. Saw two dudes completely fucked up go from hating each other and almost fighting to hugging to eventually pushing each other and yelling "FUCK YOU MAN! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Finally at around 1:45am it was our turn to play. It was an alright time. I jumped up and smashed my head into the ceiling, leaving a nice dent. When my head collided with the ceiling I heard a loud CRUNCH on the inside of my neck and it's hurt pretty bad ever since. These dudes kept grabbing Danny's cymbals so I kicked one of them square in the chest. He was so fucked up he didn't care though. At the end of the show Chino got revenge by throwing his bass right into the two dudes, it was great.

After that we loaded up the Winnie for one last time and finally got on the road back to Omaha at 4:00am. I passed out in the back in a lot of pain and finally after 5 and a half hours we pulled back home at 9:30am. I wasn't into going to bed so I headed to my parents house for a day filled with laundry, internet, television and a nice shower. I met up with my girls later in the day, ate Valentinos Grand Italian Buffet then hit the road to Lincoln. Not much sleep here at the Farm, I was woken up at 8:00am and I realized I really am back at home. I'm spending today with my favorite girl Dani watching Monsters Inc, going to the park, getting ice cream then hopefully taking a nap.

Tour fucking ruled. I can't wait to hit the road once again. Thanks so much to our pals in Battle for making tour such a great time, we'll see you dick bags in October. Thanks to everyone we met (even the bums...especially the bums) and everyone who helped us out with a show, a place to stay or anything. Thanks to Bailey for getting us into Canada and booking us some cool ass shows. Check out Voices from Calgary, Alberta. We'll be back to Canada as soon as we can.

Hercules isn't slowing down too much. We're playing a show in April and a show or 2 in may then a short tour in June up to Midwest Fest and home. Playing with Bastard Noise in July then I'm sure we'll be booking up the rest of the summer soon. Another big tour in October. Possible split being worked out soon. Whammy.

Upcoming shows:

April 25th Lincoln, NE @ Ghost House w. Former Thieves, Bone Dance, Agress & Discourse

May 23rd Omaha, NE @ The Commons w. Foundation, Rotting Out, Backtrack, Harms Way & Feral Hands

June 2nd Sioux City, IA @ Legion Hall w. Life Won't Wait, Crooked Ways & more

June 3rd Minneapolis, MN @ The Beat w. Life Won't Wait, Crooked Ways, Nothing To Nothing, Everything Went Black & Arms Aloft

June 3rd Minneapolis, MN @ TBA *LATE SHOW* w. TBA

June 4th Minneapolis, MN @ MIDWEST FEST

June 5th Minneapolis, MN @ MIDWEST FEST

June 6th - 8th TBA w. AGRESS

June 9th Omaha, NE @ The Hole w. In Defence, Agress & High Dive

July 10th Lincoln, NE @ The Bourbon w. Bastard Noise & more!

www.myspace.com/herculesne for all dat info n shit

Waterloo, IA

We had a day off yesterday so we went to Lawrence, Kansas and checked out a really sweet show @ The Replay Lounge w/ Former Thieves, Everything Went Black, Canyons & Battlefields. We met an awesome bum named PM who taught us a lot about picking up girls. He suggested licking them and telling them "girlllllllllll you taste like vanilla." He was probably the smoothest bum on a three wheel bike that I've ever met. The show was really awesome. Former Thieves is such a tight band. Not tight like slang, they legitly play their music great and they are TIGHT in that sense. Get it? Good. I don't know if I mentioned Matt left tour in Wichita. Give him shit about it 605-759-6235

After the show us, Former Thieves and Battlefields all crashed at our new buddies Will and Sam's house. Their in a band called Jabber Josh, check em out. Da Big Man and I crashed in the van due our cat allergies going fucking crazy after mere minutes of being in that house. I was having a real hard time breathing and went to sleep honestly wondering if I was going to wake up. We slept hard and woke up way too late so we had to get the boys goin and hit the road to Waterloo, Iowa. I don't have much to say about the drive because I slept the entire god damn time. Only things I remember is almost getting into a car wreck with a cop who slammed on his breaks to make a u turn and passing World's Of Fun.

The show in Waterloo tonight was so fucking sweet. Our good buddy Thomas from the incredible band Agress put it on for us at Amvets Post 19. We played with such a good band full of 16 year old kids called Build No System. They played heavy, fast hardcore and it made me bummed I was in White Collar Mercy when I was 16 and not in a good band. Our friends Lord Green played and they were fucking killer as always. Found out they're playing with us in Minneapolis tomorrow and I can't wait. We're actually all hanging out right now jamming Sabbath as some partake in the dope plant. A lot of good Iowa friends came out to the show tonight and it was so great seeing everyone. Midwest is the fest, fuck the world.

Tomorrow we play our last show of tour in Minneapolis. This tour has been so fucking awesome and it took us great places where we met the coolest people. We have a lot of shows coming up still. We're playing MIDWEST FEST this June and plan on playing some shows up to it and back home. Plus a ton of local shows and a big big tour in the fall that we'll know more about as the time get's closer. I'll do a nice tour wrap up when I get home on Sunday night. I'm excited to get back and see my girls. Not excited to go back to work but it's whatever. My 22nd birthday is on April 8th so throw me a party or something.

Speaking of birthday's...Tyler turned 22 about 2 hours ago. Everyone wish him happy birthday. 402-515-3847

Upcoming Hercules shows:

March 27th MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ The Rathole w. Lord Green, Dios Mio, Bring That Shit, and more!

April 25th LINCOLN, NE @ Ghost House w. Former Thieves, Agress, Bone Dance & Discourse

May 23rd OMAHA, NE @ The Commons w. Foundation, Rotting Out, Backtrack, Harms Way & Feral Hands

June 4th - 5th MILWAUKEE, WI *MIDWEST FEST*

June 9th OMAHA, NE @ The Hole w. In Defence, High Dive & more

July 10th LINCOLN, NE @ The Bourbon w. Bastard Noise

adding more shows up to Midwest Fest and back home to that In Defence show. Keep checking www.myspace.com/herculesne for all of that info. See you punks at home next week!

Wichita, KS

After Reno we headed to play a gig in Ogden, UT. We were a little nervous because we've never had a good show in Utah and before this show had only actually played 1 out of the 3 times we'd gone. We rolled up to the venue The Basement and the show ended up being really cool. We played with One Clean Life, A Better Hope Foundation and Battle! It was a really fun time. After the show the owner took us to the basement and told us some creepy suicide shit that went down there years ago. He freaked me the fuck out. He told the stories like it was his god damn job or like he was a scary old timer in a horror movie. Was not into it.

After the show we were told we'd be staying with a pregnant lady. We got here number and shit got wild. Tyler couldn't understand a word she was saying and said it sounded like she was talking with her face in a pillow. After 15 minutes I decided to take over the phone and see what the fuck was up. I was on the phone with this girl and she was giving me North / South / East / West directions like I knew where the fuck I was. She finally says hold on and yells at someone in the background "CAN YOU GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE AND TALK TO ME!?! TELL THESE GUYS HOW TO FUCKING GET HERE!" Cue the new guy. "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TAKE CARE OF MOM! Hello? Hey dude it's probably not a good idea if you guys stay here." I replied "Alright man." He then started giving me directions . . .

I pulled up to a street I had to be on. I asked him what way to turn and he told me "just follow it." Then he started yelling at his sister or girlfriend or wife or whatever the fuck again. "So just follow that until you hit a 5 way stop and there will be a wal mart so just hit that up..." There was then a 15 second pause . . . "Yeah just hit up that Walmart. Well you can go straight there or not. Actually those directions suck. Just like follow that street until you see a Mexican restaurant then turn left on 85 or 89 or some shit, I donno. Hey you guys can stay here, people are trying to fucking sleep (after SCREAMING just seconds before?) alright? So yeah, just like left on 85 or 89 or some shit then like there will be train tracks maybe? Then just call me."

All of those directions took him around 10 minutes to explain to me. There were good pauses between all of those sentences. It was one of the hardest conversations I've ever had to deal with. We told the girl thanks but no thanks and we'd stay somewhere else. She told us her place was calm now and she was just pregnant. It was weird ass time. We ended up getting a single bed hotel room and crashing out. We had to wake up the next morning at 8:00am so we could get on the road to make the 9 hour trek to Denver, Colorado.

We had heard reports of some snow in Denver but were told by the promoter that things were looking good there. About 3 hours into the drive Battle told us (who had left the night before) that I-70 was closed and they were stuck at a gas station somewhere. Luckily we were taking a southern route and thought we'd be alright. At 5:30 I took over the wheel and we had 100 miles left to Denver. I'll tell you why we didn't make it to Denver until 11:00pm. We hit the mountains and the snow started getting hectic. There were points where I couldn't even see the road. To top it off it was windy as hell and icy as hell. There were 2 points where I actually thought we were sliding off of the mountain. After a hellish hour up there the real shit started.

After going into a tunnel we saw a dead stop traffic jam ahead of us. We ended up sitting in essentially one spot for 45 minutes and that wasn't the bad part. At this point we had only 30 miles left to go. By this point it was already 8:00pm and the show had already been called off due to the blizzard and unexpected foot of snow that hit Denver a day after it was 60 and sunny there. It took us 3 more hours to get to Denver. 2 and a half of those hours were us going between 8 and 12 mph down US-6. It took 2 and a half hours to drive 15 miles and that's without stopping. We were just driving that slow. Finally the traffic broke and we drove the last 15 miles to Denver. We stopped at saved the night by eating the best vegan buffalo wings in the world at City O City, then met up with our buddy Dave and fell asleep in preparation for another 8 hour drive.

Today we had an easy time getting to Wichita, Kansas where we played an awesome fucking show. So pumped to be back in Wichita and back in the Midwest. Our bud Phil @ 5nakeFork Records gave us a ton of copies of our new live tape "Skin Tight" and they look fucking great. Pick one up! After the show was some good burritos and good hanging at a party. Matt bid us farewell today and headed back up to Sioux Falls. Today is also our last day with Battle and we couldn't be more fucking bummed out. So we will finish the last 3 days of tour alone.

3.25 Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge *tba*

w. Everything Went Black, Former Thieves & Canyons

3.26 Cedar Falls, IA @ Amvets Post 19

w. Lord Green & Build No System

3.27 Minneapolis, MN @ The Rathole

w. Dios Mio, Bring That Shit & Animals and Beasts

The final day of tour is Tyler's birthday so we will be partying hard. Already making our plans for summer and fall tours. Hopefully leaving the country again on both of them. I found out I am going to Colombia with my girlfriend and her family for a week in August for free. I'm real excited to be leaving the country possibly 4 times this year. Tour life rules. Change your life and start a band, get a van and hit the road. There's nothing better. Hopefully there will be more updates before I'm home to do the tour wrap up post.

We'll be playing shows every month for probably the rest of the year so come out to them. Check the myspace for updates www.myspace.com/herculesne and be looking out for news on our new full length BOOK OF SPELLS that we hope to have released by years end.

Thanks for reading.

Reno, NV

Why would we have a normal time? Other crazy shit has happened since my last update. We spent our day after our hell at the border in Seattle, Washington. Played a nice game of wiffle ball at Washington University right in the quad. It was a killer time. We had a show booked for a while at The Viaduct in Tacoma, Washington. With our great luck, all of the local bands dropped off the day before the show. We hung out for a while and ate some grub with some good buddies who came out from different cities in Washington to hang out and watch us play. There weren't a lot of people at the show but it was still a great time. I love that venue. I think going to Rain Fest there would be a really awesome time.

After the show the Hercules crew went to this really sweet gay bar right next to the Viaduct. We were hanging out having and a great time. We ended up meeting this lady named Jumapili (joo ma pee lee) and she invited us back to her house. Jumapili is a 43 year old women with long dreadlocks in her hair and she was really into Danny. We stop at 7 Eleven so she can buy some booze for the dudes to drink. We show up at her tiny house and at the same time her boyfriend shows up with his other girlfriend? It was a confusing situation. We all pile into a room that's probably 7x7 feet long to hang out. This other girl then starts to tell me her fucking life story and all of the crazy drugs she's addicted to. I have 10 minutes of video of this lady telling me about her ups and downs with coke, rehab and her therapist. It was the crazy shit ever and I cannot wait to tell you all.

Everyone got really drunk and high. Our buddy Jeff from HHTSHOTE drove 5 hours from some town in Washington just to hang out with us and it was awesome. Tyler got so drunk he spent most of the night puking in and sleep on the bathroom floor. As this is happening we're watching the new episode of South Park and Jumapili is telling us about her crazy life. Apparently she is the inventor of the image uploader that is used on myspace, facebook and countless other websites. She is a gulf war veteran and has been married 4 times. Now she lives with her boyfriend and I think his other girlfriend. It was a nutty time. We finally scooped Tyler off the bathroom floor and hit the road.

The next day we had a show in Portland, Oregon...or so we thought. We rolled early into Portland and hit up the incredible local spot Voodoo donuts. Me, Gabe and Matt got a Voodoo Dozen and it was truly fucking amazing. Probably the best donuts I've ever had. Crazy varieties, pretty much anything and everything you could imagine. Vegan donuts that Vic would have came for. We also hit up a Thai cart that had insanely good pad Thai. We cruised around downtown for a long time and finally stopped at one of the best record shops I've been to 2nd Ave Records. I had to get out of there because I could have easily spent over $1,000 on records right then. Here's where our day get's real interesting.

The promoter for the show wanted to meet up so we met her at 2nd Ave. After 5 minutes of a car ride with her it's already apparent that she's a little off. She keeps telling us she can't get a hold of the dude with a PA and can't get a hold of anyone with a key to the venue we're playing at. But she assures us that the show is still on. She also tells us after the show she is getting us food and a hotel room. We cruise around the city more and she just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Finally it's about 6:00pm and she tells us the show is definitely off and that she has to babysit her brother at 7:30...

We stop at the Satyricon to try and hop on a show but it wasn't looking good. She then tells us 20 minutes away in Vancouver, Washington there's a bands tour kickoff show that we can play. She also said it's perfect because it's close to her house so we can come over for food after. We load up and make the drive to this venue Pop Culture. It's like an old time soda shoppe and a venue as well. We're playing a show for Grab The Cameras cd release show. We're told we're going on last so we can just set up merch and hang out. We then sit through 3 hours of the worst metalcore I've heard since 2005. Every band has a weird light show and sounds pretty awful.

Finally the last band is done and it's time for us and Battle to set up. At this point the promoter girl is still not back at the show. We were wondering how she was planning on originally doing our show if she had to babysit her brother all night. To save time us and Battle decide to share equipment. We get all set up then the promoter for the metalcore show approaches us to tell us the show is over and we can't play. Apparently we were never supposed to play, we were just allowed to come there and sell merch...

We're all pissed as shit. I'm so mad I start smashing my head into signs until I get a nice cut up there. Riley is punching shit, we're honking horns, we're yelling, we're wondering where the fuck this girl is. Some friends of Matt's in Portland give him a call and ask him why we weren't at our original show. Apparently they showed up to the 1st venue and a lady was there saying there was supposed to be a show at 9 but the promoter didn't show up. I then get on our myspace and a band we got to play the Portland show messaged us pissed asking us why we didn't show up to the show tonight. So after 3 hours of metalcore and setting up our shit only to be told we couldn't play...our original show was on all along. We had a lot of Portland friends who were pumped to come to the show then were told at the door it was off.

We need some fucking answers so we decide to head to the promoters house (she still never showed up to the show...?). She told us to come on over because she made us fajitas. We show up there and tell her how we didn't get to play the metalcore show and that our original show was a go all along. She didn't understand ANY of that but at this point I was done with this girl. She also informed us that she was "really sorry" but she had eaten the fajitas she made for us. We had it so we took some food and hit the road. By the way...not hotel room.

On our way to Taco Bell we get pulled over for "suspicious activity" and our burnt out headlight. In seconds we are surrounded by 5 cop cars. After our experience at the border you could say we weren't too excited about the situation. One cop is taking all of the our info then another rolls up to the window. Matt is carrying what's left of our Voodoo donuts and the cop tells us they were all there because they smelled the donuts. We then start talking music and he's telling us how he's seen Rush 5 times and the first time was in Germany in 1986. The first cop is trying to be professional while this guy tells him "hold on I'm telling these guys a story." Basically this Rush cop saved us and we didn't get busted and were free to go.

During all of this that girl is texting Aaron, pissed that we didn't say goodbye. Apparently her parents saw that we were pulled over and she told us she was coming to find us. Terrified we hid out in a Fred Meyer's parking lot and saw her drive by in hot pursuit of us. It was scary shit and we all screamed as she drove by. Luckily an old friend who tried to go to our show got a hold of us to see what was up then said we could crash at his apartment. After 3 of the craziest days of our lives we finally got to hang out, eat pizza and just sleep.

Yesterday we played a decent show in Redding. We drove overnight to Reno where we're playing tomorrow. We had today off since the Set It Straight reunion canceled our show in Sacramento. We've spent today cruising Reno and are getting all dolled up to hit the streets and the Casinos hard in about an hour here. The trashiest place I've ever been in was a Mcdonalds we stopped at today. Crack head lady singing Incubus, a man with terrible burns and no eyes, bums as far as the eye could see and a 17 year old security guard reading the bible.

Time for me the shave up and get ready to party! I'll be home in a week. Until next time . . .

\

Born In The, USA

ATTN: This will be a long read, but hopefully worth it!

So much has went down since my last post. Where do I begin? I'll start in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We drove overnight from our show in Edmonton and got to Calgary real early in the morning. We stayed at a house with this band called Voices from Calgary who is AWESOME. Do yourself a favor and check them out right now. The next day we awoke and grubbed hard at Safeway. Matt and I spent a long time looking for Screamers. It's these incredible Canadian slurpees where you "drop the puck" and put a puck of vanilla ice cream in the slurpee. After that Matt and I hit the gym then headed back to Voices house, loaded up and went to the show.

>The drive into downtown Calgary was awesome. Such a rad city to be in. We played at this venue called The New Black Centre and it was probably one of the coolest venues I've been in. It was on these train tracks overlooking the city and it had huge perfect stairs to load up in. Calgary was easily the best show we've played so far and probably one of my favorite shows I've ever played on tour. A lot of kids came out and both us and Battle had really fun sets. After the show we ate at an amazing place called Tubby Dogs. They had vegan and regular hot dogs to eat plus any topping imaginable. Even peanut butter, jelly and cereal hot dogs. I got mine with a side of yam fires which were hands down the best fries I've ever had. Their onion rings looked like gigantic donuts. Out of this world late night food.

After Tubby Dogs we had to make a hellish 13 and a half hour drive from Calgary, Alberta to Langley, British Columbia. We left Calgary at 1:00am and drove through the Canadian rockies. All I can say is the drive was pretty awful. Hard to sleep and it seemed to never end. We finally rolled into Langley at 2:30pm and spaced off the entire day until it was time to play. The show was really weird and didn't even have a PA until 15 minutes before we played. The show ended up being a good time and we had fun screaming so loud after that a lady thought Matt and I were in a real fight.

>We left after the show and made the short drive into Vancouver to stay at the next venue we were playing at The Alf House. Everyone there was awesome and they led us to an amazing pizza place called Pizza Garden that used sesame seeds on their crust to make for amazing treat. After that we crashed out in anticipation to check out the great city of Vancouver. We awoke the next morning and got a great $2.95 breakfast at Bon's Off Broadway. Then it was time to explore the city. We split up to take a buddy to the airport and to legally purchase the dope plant. While some of us explored the city others enjoyed many of Vancouver's fine coffee shops. Matt and I walked down bum alley where Matt was approached and touched by a passing bum. Real scary shit.

On our away around the city in the Battle van we got to close to a Ford F1-50 and smashed their mirror with ours and completely ripped theirs off. Seconds later we saw a bum writhing in pain, grab his heart and fall on the ground. It was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. We checked out a lot of Olympic shit that was all around and it was really awesome. We finally met up with the boys at Crab Beach in the beautiful downtown. We cruised the city a little more together and yelled at some locals. Our buddies from The Alf House wanted to take us to another pizza joint called Fire Pizza. They also used sesame seeds on their crust and 2 slices and a soda was $1.25 cheaper than at Pizza Garden.

While eating pizza with friends a group of 15-20 cops formed across the street. It seemed strange but we didn't think anything of it. Suddenly we heard a huge group of people screaming at the top of their lungs. We look outside only to find a protest had formed right outside of the pizza shop we were at. It was a bunch of young punkers dressed in black. The sign they held read "COPS=PIGS=MURDERERS." As they chanted up the street Matt and Jim decided to join the protest and scream at the PIGS. We then listened as the protesters and local citizens clashed. We took the opportunity to take funny pictures in front of the protest and make a mockery of something these people actually cared about. I got great pictures and video I can show you all when I get home.

After that it was time for the show! We played at that sweet house we stayed at called The Alf House. The show was a really good time. Reminded me of going to shows at Ghost House pretty much. Got started real late and it was in a dusty old basement with some young punk rock hooligans. After the show we crashed out and awaited our last day in Canada. We woke up and hit up Bon's $2.95 breakfast again. Matt ran outside to grab something from the van and me, Gabe and Danny sat waiting for him to get back so we could pay for our bill. We finally just covered his portion when he didn't show up. We walked out to see what was going on only to see everyone else standing in front a 4 vehicle car wreck. Apparently an old lady thought the Battle van was leaving so she slammed on her breaks which caused 3 other people to slam on their breaks which caused everyone to crash. The last car was filled with 3 nuns who were screaming and crying while exiting the car. It was really intense. I think one of the nuns was injured pretty bad. Everyone kept telling the lady there's no way that the van was leaving and that she was nuts. A few people gave a statement to the cops then we were on our way.

Before we crossed the border we had to stop and exchange all of our money which took a lot longer than expected because we had to go to two different banks. After that it was USA bound. We got to the border around 3:00pm. I pulled up and handed the gentlemen our passports and our papers showing the shows we played in Canada. He threw the papers back at me and said he didn't need them. Then he told me to pull the van in a designated parking spot. Before I could even get the van into gear he told me "GO!" We pulled up to two more officers who seemed to think I didn't know how to follow a pointing finger or park a car. They kept yelling "THIS SPOT ON THIS SIDE! PULL UP TO THE WHITE LINE!" We exited the Winnie and they told us to leave our phones inside. I could tell at this point we were going to have an interesting experience trying to get back into our own country.

We went into the main building and stood in line for probably 30 - 45 minutes until it was finally our turn. I gave the cop a orange slip of paper that we received at the first stop. We were then told to take a seat and waited another long ass time before finally being called up. I filled out a single piece of paper for the band and the cop told me our merch wasn't a big deal and after he did some paper work we were free to go. After another long wait that cop told us he had other business to attend to and that we were getting assigned a new officer. After yet another long wait this new cop told us everything that guy told us and had us do was wrong so we had to re do it all. We all had to fill out new paper work and she told us we would be charged $11.00 to bring in our merch even though we originally got it in the states...it was a confusing ordeal. At this point Battle had already came in, gone through the line and left and they got there way after us. We knew at that point that something was wrong.

An officer with the K-9 unit told us he needed to have a word with us. He said he knew we were a band so knew that we were smoking in the van. He asked us if we had the day before and we said of course. He said that was fine and he understood we were in Canada. He then asked if his dog would find anything in the van and we honestly did not think he would so we said no. So he told us to wait while they searched the van. We could see them pulling everything out of the Winnie and toss all of our shit on the ground. It was raining outside and we figured that most of our shit was either wet or completely ruined. We figured we would be ok though because we cleaned out the van and thought any traces of the plant was long gone. After a while the K-9 officer came in holding a little bag and had a stern ass look on his face. He told us "didn't think he'd find it huh?" We looked in the bag that he was holding and it had probably 1 or 2 stems in there. We asked him what it was and where he found it. He took that as us being smart asses and got fucking furious. He told us we were "Americas finest" and that he couldn't wait to pat us down.

They finally started to take us into the back one by one. When you would go back there they'd take you into a holding cell and have you stand against the wall. Two officers then came in and one held your hands behind your back while the other officer handcuffed you. We were then deeply searched for probably 5 - 10 minutes. They even went through my hair for the better part of a minute. I felt like Saddam Hussein after the US caught him. They asked me why I had so much money on me and I told them it was the money we've made on tour and they didn't buy that. We all sat in there for a while then we were released on told to go back into the main hall and wait. Early word was that since I was driving they were going to give me a big fine. They took our ID's and then finally called us up to the front for our fate. The officer told us "We're not going to charge you with the stems, you guys are free to go." He then gave us comment cards, our passports and ID's and we were on our way outside. 3 fucking hours of being treated like shit then released just like that. The officer who gave me our passports told me "sorry about the wait."

We then walked outside only to find everything in our van all over the fucking ground. Aarons head was knobs down on the cement, my cab was sitting on it's side in a puddle of water, Danny's shit was all wet and our bags had all been gone through and fucked up beyond belief. The dudes outside didn't seem to interested in the fact that they had probably ruined all of our shit. We loaded up the Winnie then tried to leave the station. We got stopped again trying to leave because we didn't have this orange slip. Pissed off, we pulled over only to have someone finally wave us through and we were finally back in the USA. Welcome home, right? It was a pretty bummer ordeal and it put a damper on our spirits for the next few hours. Couldn't believe that we were waved into Canada and treated like complete shit trying to get back into the states. Played a cool show in Bellingham, Washington then drove an hour and a half to Seattle where I am right now typing this. Watching Saved By The Bell, waiting for Battle to pick up a friend then we're going to hit the city. Tonight we're playing @ The Viaduct in Tacoma. More updates soon.

*I guess in an earlier post I said WE dropped the N bomb and things got weird in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was the kids we were staying with who dropped it and we told them we don't say that and then things got weird. Sorry for the mix up*

Edmonton, AB

Saskatoon had a wild turn of events. Riley from Battle and I played an open mic night. It's kind of hard for me to describe what I did. Basically I pretended I was this overly shy dude and I would mess up songs and get really mad at myself, tell uncomfortable stories, do really strange moves and was just an all around weirdo. You'll have to ask other people to get a better story. It was a hilarious time and I bummed out the girl who did open mic night REALLY hard. I ruined the one thing she has in her life I think.

Yesterday we played in Lethbridge, Alberta at this huge hall called the German Canadian Club. As we walked in a funeral was JUST getting over. It was so weird. There was just this grieving family getting drunk as kids set up their stuff and started playing. A lot of kids came out which was awesome. Played with 3 metalcore type bands. The mosh was hard. Us and Battle had a killer time hanging out in this huge hall and had an even better time playing. After the show we stayed at this kids apartment. We dropped the N bomb and things got really weird. Some of us ate at Dennys. Build your own grand slam - unlimited pancakes all night.

Today we are in Edmonton, AB. This place is HUGE! I had no idea. It looks like Los Angeles or something. There was a massage parlor (obviously a rub n tug center) that said "licensed by therapist" on the window but it was separated by some wood so it just read "LICENSED BY THE RAPIST." It was hilarious. We got a nice snap shot. We're playing at this community center. Tonight is probably the smallest show we've played in Canada so far but there's still like 20-30 kids here which is awesome since we've never been here before and we're from a different country. I know I'm forgetting a ton of funny stories but I suppose you'll just have to wait until we get home to hear them all. I'm getting some really good pictures. We're meeting a lot of bums of course but non have yet to wonder into our show and tell me they once played with Eric Clapton or something. There's a really good screamo band playing right now. Eat your heart out Matt Vicars.

Last night Matt and I cut ourselves and people were not into it. I touched a light that was 12 feet in the air. Tomorrow we're going to the home of one of my heroes Brett The Hitman Heart, Calgary Alberta. So excited. I hear he hangs out at malls so I'm gonna try and find him. If I do I'll lose my mind. I met him once when I was little but I didn't talk to him because I was terrified. If I do meet him do I tell him I watched his brother die? Hard to tell. Until next time . . .

Saskatoon, SK

Absofuckinglutely nothing to do today in ol Saskatoon, SK. Played a sweet show last night at this venue called The Club in Regina, SK but every kid there was under 18, most likely lived with their parents and therefor could not give us a place to stay. We got drunk off pizza and cruised Regina looking for a place to stay. We finally found nothing so we made some calls and got a girl in another town to put us up for the night. We drove 4 hours overnight to Saskatoon, SK and showed up at this girls house at 6:00am only be to kicked out at 9:30am.

We left her house in search of the mall. Finally found it and cruised around there for the better part of 3 hours. After that we realized it was only 1 in the afternoon and we still had nothing to do. We went to Pita Pit where the girl we stayed with worked where she did not hook up free or cheap food sadly. Bummed, we decided to head to the Saskatoon Public Library where I have now been for the last 2 hours trying not to blow my brains out. Matt is reading a book and Satan and all of the pictures have been taken out of it. Gabe is reading a book about Scientology and Tyler has a 3 x 3ft book about outer space.

Canada is pretty awesome so far (besides today). Their slushies are way different than ours. They're a lot thicker and has a wild intense sugar taste to them. I can't stop drinking them down. Cherry Dr Pepper slushie = best thing ever. Metal Kin Kins, get up here on your blackened wings and pick one up, it will change you. I've also been eating Lays Ketchup flavored chips and they are the best thing in the world. They straight up taste like french fries dipped in ketchup.

We're having a blast (once again...besides today). Tomorrow we play in Lethbridge, AB and will be in Alberta for 3 days. Canada is just America with better treats, accents and Canadian flags everywhere. They of course have the craziest bums I've ever met. Here's a few quotes from one we met in Winnipeg...

1. I have to wipe my ass with this white shirt! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

2. I don't need a babe...baby...sit...sitt....AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

3. (referring to his 2 friends)....who are those gay boys over there?

4. Yeah I used to play in a band. What was it called? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

*quick update : right now in the library there is a bum passed out on a table and a security guard on the phone calling the real cops to come take care of him......more quotes...

5. You know Henry Armstrong? You know, he went to the fucking moon. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

6. CANNN YOUUUU DIGGGG ITTT MOTHA FUCKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. I'm a street survivor. You guys got home, you got wives, you can kiss your own ass whenever you want. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

8. If Cheech comes back, tell him I went that way (then he walked into the venue)

Those are some of the wild quotes. After talking to us for a LONG time he finally walked away. Minutes later he approached Matt and I asking for a cigarette. He had completely forgotten that he had just been talking to us. Matt and I both got great video of him and a classic picture.

*that bum who is passed out is now trying to get woken up by his friend. I think he might be dead. He finally got up and walked away like he hadn't stood up for 30 years.

No idea where we're staying tonight. A roommate at the house we stayed at last night was pissed we were there so I don't think we'll be invited back. Dump life. Dead life. Shit life. Tour life. Ketchup Chips Life.

Winnipeg, MB

Holy shit. Started our day off early around 9:00am. Gabe, Matt and I woke up to clean out the Winnefaygo. We knew if we didn't drug dogs were gonna swarm the van and we were going to jail in Canada. After 2 hours of hard cleaning we finally got the van looking the way we wanted it to. We loaded up, ate some Pita Pit then hit I-94 to get to Canada. The drive was wet, foggy and cold as hell.

We finally got to the border and had problems right off the gun. Due to Matt's past run ins with the law it was looking like he wasn't going to get into Canada. We were sitting there trying to figure out what we were going to do with Matt if he couldn't get in. He honestly shouldn't be here with us right now. The dude at the immigration building told Matt he was cutting him some slack and that he probably wouldn't be able to get into Canada next time.

We rolled into Winnipeg and met up with Battle. We still had 2 hours until we had to be at the show so we decided to hit the streets and check out Winnipeg. Stopped at a Subway to get this "sub sauce" that is only available in Canada. It. Was. AWESOME! Then we went to this underground shopping mall that spanned a couple of city blocks. It ended in a 4 story library that was one of the biggest buildings I've ever been in. Stayed there for a bit then hit the road back to the show.

We played at this sweet record store / venue below a coffee shop called War On Music. A ton of kids showed up which was really awesome. I don't think anyone enjoyed us or Battle but it's whatever. Played with a sweet straight edge band called Ill Faded. We of course talked to thee CRAZIEST bum ever in the history of bums. I took some video of him and will for sure show all of you when we get home. This guy could not talk at all and had been stabbed multiple times. Even in his mouth . . .

We're now at this house waiting to hit up Salisbury House which is basically just IHOP. I've been told by multiple Canadians that I have to try Lays Ketchup flavored chips and their slushies. I'm bummed that I won't get a quality burrito until I'm back in America. I was told Taco Bell here SUCKS and their Mountain Dew doesn't have caffeine! What a wild place. Tomorrow we have a long ass drive to Regina, Saskatchewan. Having a great fucking time.

Read this article about Hercules from Naked City Magazine out of Wichita, KS

http://www.nakedcitywichita.com/2010/03/05/hercules-omahardcore/

Moorhead, MN

What an interesting first day of tour. The drive started out great with a lot of laughs and I slept most of the time so it went by relatively quick. I was smart and brought my mini dvd player along with some great movies to get through these long van drives. Today I passed the time watching Grandmas Boy and it was a delectable treat. First drive of tour had some problems for each band. Battle blew a tire and had to patch it up at a Flying J and we were seconds away from running out of gas as we putted into Fargo.

The show tonight was at The House of Wang and it was a great time. We missed the first band due to us trying to find gas for the ol Winnefaygo. Battle was incredible and Life Won't Wait was fucking awesome, I picked up their new EP "Drifter" and it's really goood. Check it out.

After the show a huge snowball fight ensued between everyone at the show. Things got wild and Matt jumped off of the van into a snow drift so I decided to give him a big elbow drop from the top into that same drift. A lot of snow and ice balls were thrown and now my clothes and shoes are soaking wet. Matt and I hit up the grocery store for some food then went over to Fargo to fax some paperwork to get into Canada tomorrow. The store we stopped at was "White Drug Pharmacy"......blew my mind.

Tomorrow we get into Canada (hopefully). Gotta clean out the Winnefaygo in the early morning then head up to the border. If all goes smoothly we'll be playing in Winnipeg tomorrow night and be in Canada for the next week. AT & T is going to charge me $0.29 a minute to make a phone call and $0.50 a text message so I will be turning my phone off Monday the 8th - Tuesday the 16th. You can get a hold of me at www.myspace.com/treefort or herculesnebraska@hotmail.com. Send me cool pictures and keep me updated on life. I'll be lurking the Nebraska DIY board so make it good.

I'll keep the corner updated in Canada. Keep checking back for updates.

Omaha, NE

Tour kicked off last night and in an amazing way. The show absolutely ruled. A ton of young kids came out and that got me really excited about the future of punk rock in Nebraska. Borealis kicked off the night and they shredded hard. They played some new songs that sounded great so I will be real excited for a future release from them. After 45 minutes Worst Of Times finally took the stage and opened up with a creepy sample from The Exorcist 2. Spooky P claimed his throne as the scariest dude in hardcore. He looked like he wanted to kill absolutely everybody. They were heavy and I fell on my head after a botched stage dive. Worth it.

Next was the boys from Gator land, Battle. Their new guitarist Dave shreds hard as fuck! He's a cool dude and I'm glad he's not creepy or a possible axe murderer. They played new songs off of their 7" Closer/Further that were punishing, riffy and fast as hell. I am really excited to spend the next 3 weeks with these dudes. They told me of a concoction in Canada of fries, cheese and gravy that I have to try. I'm bummed on the lack of burritos available in Ye Ole Canada but I'll just have to find a new food love.

Finally it was our turn to play and it was a nutty time. The sound at The Hole is really awesome (on stage at least) and I could feel the vibration of the speakers rattling my insides and I loved every second of it. I saw multiple people get crushed by the swarm of push moshing, stage dives and all out mania. We played hard and had a great time. I was pleased.

Next to seasoned vets Cordial Spew took the stage. I was pissed that a ton of people left but in their defense the show started around 8:30 and it took 5 bands until nearly 1:00am to play. A real late night but those who stuck around for the Spew got a front row seat to a great performance. I'm 100% positive that the villain from The 5th Element was at the show in 2 studded belts dancing like a nut job. Scared the living hell out of me but I told people to bring the freaks and they did.

The night ended right at Alvarados. Now today we're sticking around Nebraska to catch JVA, Fireworks, Saves The Day and New Found Glory @ The Bourbon in Lincoln. Then tomorrow we load up in our trusty lady The Winnefaygo to head out for 3 weeks of bliss. We'll be in Canada Monday, I hope to bring you great stories.

For up to the minute updates follow me at www.twitter.com/bigcoolscorner then come back here to get the full story.

Ta ta,

Big Cool.