BAND PROFILE: August Burns Red

September 11, 2008 2:08 PM

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Zack Quaintance

Imagine playing 67 shows in 75 days in 17 different countries.

Now imagine those shows are longer than any you've ever played before. Now think about what it would be like to scream, thrash and drum as hard as you could for everyone of those nights.

That's what lies before Pennsylvania-based metalcore band August Burns Red.

Read a Q&A with opening act Sky Eats Airplane

That tour will run through McAllen Sunday, when the guys play at Las Palmas with A Skylit Drive and Sky Eats Airplane. Then they're off to finish the rest of the rigorous tour in support of their second full-length album, "Messengers."

But it's no thing. Touring has made these guys who they are.

"To be honest, I sucked at drums when we first started playing," Greiner said during a phone interview. "We've been a band for about five and a half years now and I've only been playing drums for seven years."

Watch them live and you might suspect Greiner is lying.

How did they go from being a group of friends fooling around in a basement to these seasoned pros?

Glance at their resume:

The guys have played on Van's Warped Tour. They've played the United Kingdom's Download Fest, and they've toured with genre heavyweights As I Lay Dying, Unearth and Every Time I Die. They've been across the country and they've been to Europe.

And the progress shows.

Now compare that to their humble origins at the Chameleon Club back home in Lancaster, Penn. - the progress shows. They played it long before they ever went on tour.

"At first, we looked and sounded like a local band," Greiner said. "Then we went on tour there and came back and played the same club and we played completely differently because we'd been on tour for two months or so. Everybody told us we don't even sound like the same band."

AUGUST BURNS RED