East Coast tour

As Friends Rust toured the east coast of the United States during three weeks, spanning from June 12 to July 4, 1999, accompanied by Gainesville-based acoustic musician Keith Welsh. The tour included stops to play the Wilkes-Barre Summer Music Festival in Kingston, Pennsylvania and Syracuse Hell Fest in Syracuse, New York. The band quickly followed up with a five-week European and British tour in July and August 1999, playing at such festivals as Good Life Midsummer Hardcore Festival in Kuurne, Belgium, Festival Hardcore in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, and Ieper Hardcore Festival in Ypres, Belgium. The European and British tour was originally intended to be shared with Hot Water Music, but due to a disagreement over top-billing , the two bands ended up booking separate tours. The incident caused a riff between the two bands that took decades to fully heal and lead As Friends Rust to include the text “Thanks to all of the Gainesville bands that were actually willing to play shows with us. There is division.” in the liner notes of their upcoming eponymous extended play; a protesting reference to Hot Water Music’s album No Division which was released around the same time. In retaliation, the Hot Water Music side-project band Unitas included a diss track , “Molotodd Cocktail,” on its debut album, Porch Life . The disagreement also caused the cancellation of the split 7-inch vinyl of Circle Jerks covers which the two bands had planned to release through Good Life Recordings in promotion of the tour. Hot Water Music ended up booking a separate headlining tour with Discount as a supporting act, while As Friends Rust headlined its own tour, playing a handful of cross-over shows with New Jersey melodic hardcore band Ensign and California melodic hardcore band Ignite .