Andrew Elstner, guitarist for the Florida metal band Torche, has had a rough week: A bat pissed straight into his eyeball.

"Whether or not you think I'm telling the truth is irrelevant at this point," he wrote on Facebook. "What I'm worried about now is rabies."

The story begins in St. Louis. Elstner was with a friend's touring band, staying with a former roommate at his old home-- a rustic house built in 1824 with 70 acres and a horse pasture. When Elstner turned on the lights in one room, he discovered a trapped and frightened bat, zooming around. "As it passed by my head a fourth time at light speed, it managed to piss on my right eye," Elstner wrote in an email to Pitchfork. He laughed, rinsed his face, and went to sleep.

But the next day, he told his parents, and they "proceeded to have a meltdown," he said, "and were convinced I had rabies." Although it's impossible to contract rabies from bat piss, Elstner said he was recommended to get vaccinated, due to "exposure," by "everyone from the local vet, to our family doc, to Animal Control, to my friend who's an eye surgeon, to the nerds at the CDC in Atlanta." With rabies, there is a small window for treatment, after which it is pretty much always fatal.

He added, on Facebook, "God help me."

Elstner entered the emergency room at St. Luke's Hospital on March 30 to begin the rabies vaccination process. More treatments are to come. "Feel like I'm getting treated for a unicorn bite," he wrote, and later added, "I didn't feel like rolling the dice any more than I already do."

Oh yeah, Torche have a new album, Harmonicraft, out April 24 on Volcom. And they're hitting the road this week... bat pee-related mishaps permitting. Check out the track "Kicking" after the dates.

Torche:

04-05 Tampa, FL - Crowbar

04-06 Gainesville, FL - The Atlantic

04-07 Miami, FL - Churchill's

05-10 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506

05-11 Atlanta, GA - 529

05-12 Orlando, FL - Will's Pub

06-01 Charlotte, NC - Amos' Southend #

06-02 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade #

06-03 Nashville, TN - Exit - In #

06-05 Oklahoma City, OK - The Conservatory #

06-07 Tempe, AZ - Club 910 #

06-08 Long Beach, CA - Ink N Iron Festival

06-09 San Francisco, CA - Slim's #

06-11 Seattle, WA - Studio Seven #

06-12 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre #

06-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Rickshaw Theatre #

06-15 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge #

06-16 Denver, CO - The Summit Music Hall #

06-18 St. Louis, MO - Firebird #

06-19 Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre #

06-20 Flint, MI - The Machine Shop #

06-21 Toronto, Ontario - The Opera House #

06-22 Montreal, Quebec - Les Foufounes Electriques #

06-23 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs #

06-24 Atlantic City, NJ - Orion Music and Arts Festival

07-06 Miami, FL - 305 Fest

with Black Cobra, Gaza, and Corrosion of Conformity