My band Gall went on tour with Dremm for a couple of weeks. None of us had ever been to the Northeast so we were all a little anxious about how it was going to go, but we were ready for what the run had in store for us. We had our friend Aydan with us, photographing every show. Dremm and Gall are both bands from New Orleans with some shared members. Dremm is Ethan Pye (guitar/vocals) and Evan Baham (drums/vocals). Gall is Evan (drums), myself—Rodrigo Delgado Jr. (guitar/vocals), Isaiah Porea (bass), and Ethan (guitar). Gall started back in October of 2024 when I invited Ethan and Evan to jam with me and Isaiah. After that we locked in and had our first show a few weeks later—it was a secret set, but we had a fifth member, Irvin Washington. He was the only vocalist as of our first show but he had to resign because he was too busy. I took over a couple months later, and here we are. This tour spanned from the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest—it truly was like a movie.
July 5 (New Orleans)
We started our tour today, and I think we were all pretty excited. It’s going to be the longest any of us have been away from home. We did the kickoff at the Fred Hampton Free Store with DOGMA, a metal band from Lafayette; Shesmadefromsuede, a screamo band from Hattiesburg; and our friend, the solo act walmart2. We made sure to book the show at an all-ages venue so that we could see everyone before we left. I’ve been making all the shows I play at The Free Store happen on the floor, it feels more intimate that way. DOGMA and Shesmadefromsuede opened up the show and I was so ecstatic with the love they received. I was pretty nervous actually. We’ve played in front of larger crowds before, but so many of my friends who have never seen Gall before were there, and since this is our first show on tour, a standard needed to be set—what was to be expected from each of us for the next couple weeks. After Gall played it was Dremm, so Ethan just had to switch guitars to get ready for his and Evan’s next set. What I loved was hearing the room scream the lyrics to their song, “Empty Words.” I feel like as a smaller band, once people know the words to your songs and aren’t scared to sing them with you, you’re taking steps in the right direction.
We thought it would be better if we drove straight to Panama City Beach after the show. Once the Free Store cleared, we loaded up Ethan and Evan’s van and Aydan’s car and then we were off. I’ve actually never driven outside of Louisiana. I was a little nervous but I just had to get over it.
July 6 (PCB)
When we got up, we knew we had to go to the beach soon so we could kick it for a few hours before we had to go back to get ready for the show. We went to Publix and everyone got their own sub and we got a gallon of their lemonade and a gallon of their green tea. Everyone was so stoked, but once we stepped out of the store we got slammed with rain. We just sat outside of the store under this spot that protected us from the rain so we didn’t get soaked.
We were at the beach maybe less than an hour but we had fun. We headed back to the car but once we made it to the parking lot, Aydan’s car was nowhere to be found. There were big red signs in the parking lot that said we would get towed—we didn’t think we were going to be gone long enough for it to be a problem, but it was. We called the tow yard and they said we could come pick it up whenever, but since we didn’t have the car, a 30-minute walk was ahead of us. By the time we made it to the tow yard we were already late to load in for the show.
We were playing at Mosey’s Downtown, an amazing pizza restaurant run by some amazing people. We played with Milkbong, Our Hated Conviction, and FreerF, all local bands with so much raw intensity. We sadly missed OHC’s set but we showed up during Milkbong’s last song and I was pretty bummed to miss it because it was such a good one.
As soon as Milkbong finished, Gall had to get ready to get on stage. I was a bit nervous. It wasn’t our first time out of state, but it’s always scary playing to a bunch of people who not only have no idea who we are, but have no idea what our music sounds like. We started sound checking and the sound guy was complimenting our guitar tone. I feel like a nice sound guy might be the best sign you could get as a band.
We began to play and people started crowdsurfing during our first couple of songs. Once I saw that, all of my worries went away. I made a little comment on the mic about how sorry we were for being late because of our car getting towed and everyone booed—I guess getting towed in PCB is a common occurrence. We finished up the set and a bunch of people were dapping us up. I was just really glad people enjoyed our music despite it being the first time they heard us.
Ethan and Evan took a little break to recollect themselves before they played their next set and they were met with the same love we got. Playing two sets every night for the next couple of weeks has got to be some sort of endurance training. This was Dremm’s second time playing Mosey’s, so there were some folks who were there that remember seeing Dremm in July 2024.
FreerF’s set was epic. I couldn’t think of a better way for the show to have ended.
July 7 (Jacksonville)
This show was definitely one of the more mixed bills for the tour, which when done right can be epic. We played with bands Panacea and My Sword! My Sword!, local heavy hitters. Panacea is a grindgaze band and My Sword! is a mathcore band, and I was really looking forward to seeing both. I think this was one of the first few shows to happen at the flamingo. There was a big window next to where the bands were set up so we could see people walk by and look through the glass to see what was going on.
Panacea’s set was amazing, some really heavy but melodic shit. We went on after and the space for bands wasn’t too big so everyone had no choice other than to be packed in. I think this made the vibe in the room a bit more intense. My Sword! My Sword! closed the show and it was insane. They covered “Concubine” by Converge and the room was so live, the vocalist, Tyler, threw the mic into the crowd during the last line of the song and someone caught it and finished the song. There was a secret set at the end of the show, so secret even we didn’t know it was happening. This math rock band called Prinze Jr. played and it was awesome.
Gall at the flamingo in Jacksonville (Photo by Aydan Gill)
July 8 (Orlando)
We texted the group chat with all the bands for the show and asked where were some places we needed to see, and we got recommended Park Ave CDs and Arcade Monsters. We were at Arcade Monsters for a couple hours. You only have to pay an entry fee and you can be in there as long as you’d like. We played Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, and Halo: Fireteam Raven. We were in there longer than we needed to be.
We played with Coldest Blood and thishereisafineboat at Will’s Pub. It was Coldest Blood’s first show, but I completely saw the vision. I love how many screamo adjacent bands have come out of Florida—every band has their own take on it.
When the show was over, we met a couple folks at the merch table. We befriended some people who were deep into Orlando’s DIY scene. There were people who record and photograph sets, people who print CDs and cassettes, and someone who makes lathe cut vinyl. All of Florida’s DIY scene is pretty big on community, and I’m hoping to bring some of that commitment back home.
I also had the realization that we were running through merch. I want to say we started the tour with 50 to 60 shirts, by Orlando we were almost sold out. I was scrambling trying to find a screen printer to print a rush order of more shirts. I hit up so many different people, looking everywhere between Orlando and Providence, since that was our next biggest show. I ended up coming across this printer, Black Mold Press, who said they could have the order at our show in Salem—what a life saver.
July 10 (Philadelphia)
We thought it would make the most sense if when we woke up we drove straight to Philadelphia without getting a hotel in any states in between. We stayed at our friend Caleb’s house, he had just moved out there a month prior to the tour. We ended up making it to Caleb’s at like 10 in the morning.
Isaiah and I weren’t really tired and we needed to kill time until Caleb got off of work. We walked 45 minutes to this record store, Long in the Tooth. Every chance I get to hit a record store I’m in there a lot longer than I should be, but that’s OK. I picked up a couple hardcore and metalcore CDs and while at the checkout I found something that I knew I needed: Ashanti’s first studio album on CD.
July 11 (Salem)
Today was already off to a rough start. We woke up a little later than intended so we were in a bit of a rush to get to Salem. We had to drive through New York and the traffic was brutal.
We showed up as we were supposed to get ready to go on stage, which is not fun in the slightest. The dude running the venue gave us a run down of what was going to happen since we were late. He said that we were going to have to only do one band or the other, but that wasn’t cutting it for me. I told him we could do a song each between the two bands and he said that was fine, but he said that the venue doesn’t allow moshing, that if it happens, it happens, but I can’t “incite it.” So I didn’t, but I did notice that during the last band’s set, someone was two-stepping and the dude in charge went up to them, put his hand on their shoulder, and told them to stop dancing. I feel like booking hardcore bands but not allowing hardcore dancing is truly contradictory, but what do I know?
We didn’t know anyone in Salem so we had to get a hotel. We went to a Wendy’s parking lot to figure it out because the police flashed their lights at us while we were in front of the venue. When we made it to the Wendy’s, Isaiah said that for the short time he was driving the Dremm van, he smelled something from the engine. We opened the hood and realized that the radiator or something had a crack in it because coolant was sprayed all over the engine. But the van ran with no issues. While they were trying to figure out what to do with the van, I was trying to feed the parking lot rats. We ended up finding a hotel right outside of Boston.
July 12 (Providence)
We were playing at this venue called AS220. We had a laundry list of things we needed to do before the show. The first thing was getting barbecue at this restaurant called Durk’s. After that we drove to this record store called Armageddon Shop, it was one of the more highly-rated record stores that sold hardcore stuff in Providence. The owner was really nice to us and he even let us drop off some CDs from our other band Angel’s End. After that we had to go to this shoe store because Ethan left his shoes in Philly, and he said he refused to do the show in his slides.
Tonight the prophecy was fulfilled. Dremm had been talking with this band Catalyst for over a year about how Dremm should go to Providence to play with them. Catalyst wasn’t able to play but some of the band’s members have another band called XbongX who we played with. It was insane, one of the most hype shows on the run. A couple months ago I was up pretty late watching YouTube videos and I stumbled across a set from this band called Claudia’s Symptoms. I really liked their music so I messaged them and told them I would love to play a show with them sometime, but they didn’t respond because they were getting ready for their tour. The kickoff was the show in Providence. We played with Alkaline, humanalltoohuman, Claudia’s Symptoms, and XbongX. It was such a stacked night.
Dremm at AS220 in Providence (Photo by Aydan Gill)
July 13 (New York City)
We were playing this spot called the Living Gallery in the heart of Brooklyn. We were pretty starstruck seeing the skyline when we drove into the city from Providence. This show was kind of in limbo for a bit. The lineup kept changing because the supporting bands kept dropping, but it worked out anyways. One of the bands had to drop a few days out. They texted the group chat saying they sadly couldn’t play because their drummer got grounded. We made sure to play our hearts out in their honor. Our friend Rabije had just moved to New York from New Orleans so it was nice to see her since she moved. She booked the show and she was going to make sure that we had a solid show to play.
The Living Gallery is an art gallery on Broadway. The inside of the venue had empty white walls and wooden floors, almost like it was curated to let the space be used for any artistic endeavors. We got there significantly early—that was a first.
The local band pulled up in an Uber with all of their gear. We helped them load in and then we had to get ready. We played the show with Tuesday Pistol Motion, they were an amazing screamo band. It was their first show, and I think their last? One of the members was moving pretty far, so they wouldn’t be able to continue playing shows with their full lineup, but it was a great first set. I told them I hope we cross paths again someday.
On the same block as the gallery was a deli, and we needed to eat. We went into the spot with empty stomachs and open minds. We ordered five bacon egg and cheese sandwiches on a roll, grabbed a couple gallons of juice, some big bottles of water, and bought some plastic cups. While we were checking out, we got the real New York experience. We were in line getting ready to pay for our food and there was this local that was rolling a blunt in the deli and he was saying that we should’ve ordered the sausage egg and cheese sandwich instead. “And don’t get the patties, make sure you get the links.” He continued, “Next time y’all should go to a real mom and pop deli, ran by real Puerto Ricans.” And then right after that, a group of dudes came into the store and they were all talking at the same time. I couldn’t hear everything they were saying but all I kept hearing was “Can I get a lighter?”
July 14 (Scranton)
This was kind of like the first real day off we had, so we didn’t really do anything besides just rot. Since me and Isaiah were the first to wake up, we drove to this donut shop called Duck Donuts. Each donut was made to order, it was so good. Later, we all ended up going to this diner called D’s Diner. All of our meals were pretty affordable actually, we all got something different and still had a good bit of leftovers. While on our way out, something caught our eye. The diner had a slot room. We had $10 and a dream. We were doing $1 spins and we hit big—we got two bucks on one of our spins. Then we lost it right after. We chalked up our losses and headed back to the hotel afterwards. We spent the rest of the night posted in the parking lot. I saw fireflies for the first time ever.
July 15 (Buffalo)
We made it to the venue a little earlier than load-in but we just went in and checked the spot out. The address on the flyer brought us to Amy’s Place. The cafe had a huge room inside of it where they usually host the shows. The show aspect of Amy’s Place is called Area 54. We were playing with local bands War Bond and PissGuzzler.
We had no idea what the wing spot was in Buffalo. War Bond pulled up and I asked them where the better place for wings was and their bassist said Porter’s on Military Road. Apparently there is serious shit about getting ranch with your wings in Buffalo. I had to fact check this with multiple people. I went up to the barista and asked how serious this was. They said that if I order ranch instead of blue cheese as a dipping sauce for my wings, they might have to take me out back.
Once we got back to Amy’s Place people started to pour into the Area 54 room. It was going to be crazy. While we were setting up the merch table, we asked the person running the door if they knew anyone that would be able to host us for the night. And they responded, “Yeah, me.” Sometimes all you gotta do is ask.
War Bond opened the show and the vocalist shared some words in between songs and these messages painted a picture of how important community really is, especially in spaces like these. There was a solemn mood for tonight but you could tell that this was the place to be.
Every night since the first day of tour my guitar strap kept coming off, so I had to go out of my way to keep playing during the set. But this time, not only did the guitar strap come off, one of my strings broke halfway through the set, but we fought on nonetheless. Every tour Dremm has gone on they do at least one cover. The past couple of runs they did No Retreat’s “Sever The Ties” and Disembodied’s “7 Stitches.” This time around, they had been covering “Illusion of Love” by Dystopia—the message in this song hits harder because of the current political state of the country.
Flyer art by Victoria Vasilevskaya
July 17 (Detroit)
Yesterday we went to Niagara Falls for the first time and it was epic. We were there for about three or so hours, and we didn’t even get to see everything they had to offer.
We were playing this mini fest at this restaurant called Luisa’s. I personally love playing shows that aren’t at your regular dive bar because you get a completely different kind of crowd. This show was on the outside of the restaurant, there was a little area just for the show but the strip had so much to offer. There was a gym, a nail salon, a grocery store, a Vietnamese restaurant, a coffee shop, and all of these neighboring places could hear the music from the show.
Before the show we ordered piadinas from the restaurant and we met Luisa herself and she was so sweet to us. When the food was brought out we were talking about how the tour had been going and that this was definitely one of the best meals we had on the road. After we ate we just sat in the restaurant charging our phones and whatnot and Luisa brought out dessert that we didn’t order. It was a platter with strawberries and oranges covered in some kind of whipped cream. She said, “If y’all are in here any longer I’ll keep bringing food out.”
The bill for the show was stacked, seven different bands were playing tonight. DeadWhiteLily, Pigliacci, and Abuse Repression were the locals on the show, theyhungusfrompowerlines and Kiande Amedha were also on the show but they were on tour.
I screenprinted some posters of our tour flyer before we left on the 5th, and I wanted to give Luisa one. I waited until the end of the night but she seemed pretty happy about it! She told me that she’s gonna try to get it framed and hang it up in the restaurant.
July 18 (Akron)
We were playing at this house, another mini fest. We were sharing the stage again with theyhungusfrompowerlines and Kiande Amedha, and their sets were just as good as they were yesterday. We did a little investigating and Kiande Amedha had their own hot sauce at their merch table—nothing is cooler than a band having more than clothes for sale. We played with DepopulateMontana and Deers also, their sets were fantastic. I really enjoyed Deers, I was able to get the last CD they had for sale, and I was really proud about picking that up. We were staying at the house we played at actually, it was really clutch. Every house that we’ve slept at on the road had a cat and they were all really sweet.
July 21 (Atlanta)
We weren’t ready to be back in that Southern heat and humidity again, but it hit us pretty hard.
We went to this music store called Earthshaking Music. After that we went to Disorder Vinyl. I was hesitant to look through it because I already had spent so much money on the tour, I needed to make sure I only got something I genuinely wanted. I came across a pressing of Jhazmyne’s Lullaby by 7 Angels 7 Plagues on vinyl. After I found it I immediately stopped browsing. At every record store we went to on the road I was looking for that record, so what were the odds that the last night we had a chance to go to a record store, I found it? I was ecstatic.
Tonight we were playing in someone’s basement. I think the venue was a bit newer to hosting shows but it was a really nice atmosphere. It was just a pain bringing the gear to and from the basement because we had to carry heavy stuff down this hill where it was kind of muddy and there were no lights whatsoever. The show was cool though, we played with One Day I Stopped Breathing and Daimora. Our homie Tranh from back home just so happened to be in Georgia so he pulled up to the show. It was really nice seeing him too.
July 22 (Jackson)
We were all homesick but bummed out that these weeks flew by. Being able to travel and do what you love is such a great feeling, especially being able to do it with your friends. We said our goodbyes in Atlanta, got some donuts and coffee, and we were off.
Jackson wasn’t too far from Atlanta but this was essentially the final stretch. Aydan, Isaiah, and I usually show up to the venues a bit after Ethan and Evan because we have a bad habit of going on some sort of side quest to get food. We made it to the venue but Ethan and Evan weren’t there. We waited a bit for them to pull up, but by the time they got there, the van gave out while on the way. Ethan popped the hood and the coolant was everywhere. It sucked because that van had helped Ethan and Evan see so much of the country they wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise.
This was our second time playing the Sunflower Oven, it’s a pretty awesome spot. I was talking to some folks in the scene and they were telling me how the venue is one of the few DIY spaces in the city. The show was with Facerot and SPY. SPY hopped on the bill maybe a week prior to the show. They were also on tour, all the way from California.
Ethan’s parents drove all the way to Jackson from South Louisiana to help us bring our stuff home. We loaded all the gear and whatever else could fit in their car and Ethan and Evan rode with us. We stopped at Cook Out on the way to Louisiana. At some point I spilled sauce on my hand but we didn’t have any paper towels, so I just sat in silence and waited until we made it to Ethan’s house to go wash my hands. For two hours my right hand smelled like Cook Out sauce. We dropped Ethan off first and then Evan. Evan opened the door to his house and his dog came running out, she was so excited to see everyone. But we had to go home too, it was getting late. It was such a bittersweet moment. We were finally home, but it was going to be a while before we could do this again.
For more info on Dremm, check out dremmband.bandcamp.com and @dremmband (IG); for Gall, check out gall504.bandcamp.com and @nefariousrockers (IG); and for more of Aydan’s photos check out @_shatteredreflections_ (IG).
Top photo by Rodrigo Delgado Jr.:
Dremm and Gall (with friends) in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia
Top row (left to right): Ethan Pye, Rodrigo Delgado Jr., Evan Baham
Bottom row: Aydan Gill, Caleb Meyers, Isaiah Porea
Bottom photo by Rodrigo Delgado Jr.
