“Our van is in the shop and we might have to cancel our show today. We’re just sitting around waiting for it. It’s fucked up. The brakes fucked up and now the sparkplug is all fucked up. The U.S. tour started two days ago and we had problems on the first day, so it’s been pretty rough.”

On the phone from Portland, Maine, Patrick Flynn can barely get the words out through his shredded vocal cords. As the frontman for Boston-based straight-edge hardcore crew Have Heart, he’s been going for broke since 2005. In a blog posted on the band’s Myspace, he puts it succinctly: “Have Heart started at a time in hardcore where I felt honesty and hard work weren't all too prevalent, so we wanted to honestly work hard. And that, my friends, is that.”

That blog post, titled “Why we are a band,” was posted one year ago. Since then, the band has decided to call it quits. As Flynn says, the reasons are purely musical. “If anything, this is our way of putting our friendship first,” he explains. “We just don’t really want to do it anymore. We’ve run our course, we’re happy with what we’ve done and that’s about it. We’re breaking up. We’re not doing any reunions or anything like that. This will be our last show.”

The “last show” Flynn is describing will take place in Boston on October 17 as a part of Edge Day, the annual straight-edge celebration. Before then, however, the band decided to tour a good chunk of the globe in what they call the End of the World Tour.

Joined by like-minded hardcore warriors Shipwreck A.D., the band kicked off the jaunt in April with some shows in China. Since then, they’ve brought their hardcore all over Asia, South America, Australia and every corner of Europe. “There really weren’t a whole lot of downs,” Flynn recalls. “Everything was pretty positive. We met up with the nicest, most supportive people throughout the world. There’s not much to complain about. The shows have been great. In China especially, hardcore is pretty foreign. That was pretty cool to see it in its early stages.”

Most recently, the band wrapped up a five-date tour through Africa, where they played in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as Botswana and Zimbabwe. In Johannesburg, the band performed in an under-funded high school cafeteria over the lunch break, an experience entirely unique for the band.

Now, at the beginning of its North American tour, which includes a full week of Canadian dates, the band is facing its first real issues on the tour. “We may just have to suck it up and rent a fucking van,” Flynn says. The other potential problem could be the Canadian border. “The only places we’ve ever had trouble were going into the Ukraine and going into Canada,” he says. “The Canada border crossing is terrible. I understand we’re a neighbouring country so we’ve got to have our shit straight, but they’re real hard-asses about it all. But we’ll get through.”

When they’re all done, Flynn plans to move into life as a teacher. Training in English and theology at Boston’s Emmanuel College, Flynn is ready to get out of the van and into the classroom. “In terms of hardcore, I’ll always stay involved,” he explains. “Teaching is the next phase of my life. I plan on starting out in middle school and then eventually high school.”