The dark side of supporting bigger bands: finding out that former "idols" are idiots

[Leuchty]

I met the guys from Ektomorf in Germany. They were REALLY nice guys. They were nice enough to share a little greenery with me.

Also, Alexi from Bodom was awesome too. He still spoke to us straight after the show, drunk as fuck, with two hot groupies hangin off him

 

[Leuchty]

What I find amazing is local bands who have never done anything walking around with overinflated egos.

True that.

I could mention a few in Brisbane.

 

[metalvince333]

I met all gojira and it was one of the most awkward moments of my life cause theyre my favorite band and Jo (singer/guitar player) is pretty much my idol so I was talkin to them in english cause I was with anglophone friends and... theyre french , im francophone and we were in montreal so I was going through french/english in a super awkward way.They pretty much gave us the new they were opening for metallica before anyone knew so it was super cool.

I met mutiny within too, it was their first time in montreal and pretty much nobody knew any of the songs..exept for me so when Chris was like: THE NEXT SONG IS CALLED...OBLIVION!!!...it was a big silence and then me yelling like a motherfucker. After the show i met them at the merch table and theyre super awesome guys, they gave us stickers, stopped everything to take pictures with us and talked to us for a little bit.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

True that.

I could mention a few in Brisbane.

Same here in Melbourne. I won't be name dropping. There's plenty, but I'm blessed to have plenty of local bands I can call good friends.

 

[Cheesebuiscut]

True that.

I could mention a few in Brisbane.

Same everywhere

I tried to be supportive of a few local acts at the periphery show (tbh I only really liked the music of 1 and the vocals for that same one killed the majority of the songs for me) and a few of them were nice and appreciative and then others were douchebags.

 

[Heavy Ed]

Back in the day (89-97 yep I'm old! lol) There was a local club that had most of the underground metal acts of the day play their stage. The owner was cool and would give 1 -3 local bands the chance to open for the signed acts.
I was fortunate enough to play a few shows and meet most of the bands that came thru.

The only real douche I remember was Glenn Benton from Deicide. He just walked around the club being a dick to anyone that talked to him. A girl I knew asked if she could get a pic with him and just turned and ripped a huge fart, then walked away!?!

The coolest dude I met without a doubt was Pete Sandoval from Morbid Angel. He was just sittin at a table chillin listen to the bands. Nobody even knew it was him! people just walked by him. I came up and was like "Pete?" He said grab a seat and we hung out till he had to get ready to go on. After their set he was tossin sticks he came up grabbbed me and handed me a set of sticks. super cool dude!!

 

[Jogeta]

can vouch for the coolness of all of the folks in bands i like that i've met (supporting or not)


Randy from Lamb of God; saw him walking around at Download Festival. i ask him "omfg dude are you Randy from Lamb of God?!!" he pauses for a brief second and says "sometimes". i nearly died! i've never been so star-struck! got a picture with him

Phil from All That Remains; met him at a Sounds Of The Underground in Manchester. let him know how awesome i thought his show was and got talking. i said that their bass player looks like a girl. turns out she is! conversation somehow turned to his nipple rings. he was like "nah they don't hurt at all. pull them". i was visibly wierded out and while we're all laughing he grabs them and pulls them right out. Madonna-bra style. silence for a second. everyone pissing themselves laughing. got a pic with him

Ken from Unearth; SOTU again. called him Buzz (the only picture i saw of the band was mislabeled) and we laughed. got talking and got a pic with him

Dallas, John and Byron from God Forbid; Hell On Earth tour in Manchester again. saw Byron and said hi. he had two girls with him, one under each arm, and took the time to shake my hand. that alone makes him legendary!
Was asking Dallas about his SC607 - bare in mind this was Constitution era tour - as he was setting up (pesky kid flex or what?). he really friendly and told us he was tuned G C G C F A D and we were in shock. we actually watched him tuning up! then we they started playing. mindblown!
after their set, John personally handed me his pick and shook my hand. must have made an impression by being so into their set and singing back all the words

Bobby and Ravi from Job For A Cowbody; straight up cool guys who let us take pics with them and got to talking about amps and stuff

Trevor, Bart, John, Ryan, Brian and Shannon from The Black Dahlia Murder; every time i've seen these guys they've been awesome to me! i'm pretty much a stalker because i love them so much. best time was walking into Download Festival in 2008. their van happened to be driving in and they shouted to me "hey! you're that dude! hell fucking yeaaaaah". responeded with a "fuck yeah! Brian? i love yoooooooou". my mate i was with was like.. "who the hell are they?" :')

Gunface, Greg, Brad and Guy from The Red Chord; they've been awesome dudes every time i've seen them. Gunface let me use his cabs and we all had a laugh at our old drummer because he was pretty star-struck as they are his favorite band \m/

Goonzie from Bleed From Within; just an awesome dude who took the time to talk to me.

Josh and Jamie from Sylosis (but not Alex); awesome dudes! Jamie was a right laugh! i brought some pickups from Josh a few weeks after the show \m/ however... Alex wouldn't let me play his MII. can't say i blame him but..

Johnny from Trigger The Bloodshed; really nice and humble guy! talked about all sorts! apparently one or two of the other guys were a bit conceited according our now ex-guitarist.

Lynn and Steve (why do i wanna call him Sal?) from Annotations of An Autopsy; i had expected these guys to be dickheads based on what went down with them and my mates in Veils but.... surprisingly cool guys! everytime i've seen Lynn he looked baked as a cake!

last but not least

one of the dudes from Ingested; talked about Peavey 5150/6505 love for ages and ages! great dude and great band!

 

[Nialzzz]

I remember support slot for eternal lord (big in UK) / textures / misery signals.

Eternal lord were proper douchebags. This was after they took butler back ( ex vocalist from I killed the prom queen).

I ended up in the back corridor with stef from textures for over an hour with him showing me all his drum technique (I don't even play). I showed him their two albums (silhouettes wasn't out) on my ipod and chatted about how they influenced my band. He was so humbled and proper stoked at that. It was nice to meet him. I asked them to play one of the tracks they play less often live and they shoved it in second on their setlist. Phenomenal band, musicians making music for the love of the craft. What else could you want.

Didn't really get time before the gig to approach the signals guys. But like many bands who refuse to meet their idols, I was kinda intimidated to say the least. Their debut "...of malice" is one of my favourite albums of all time. Anyways, after the show we bumped into kyle and brandon, we got to talking and got invited on the tourbus they were sharing with all that remains (really really really nice guys also). Just hung out and got their emails and stuff.

That's probably one of the most amazing gigs I've ever been a part of. I love it when it's not about the money and it's totally about the love of music.

It's like the start out and circuit bands are in it for the fun. Money doesn't tend to change hands in vast quantities and it's all about getting out there, meeting people, supporting local music, getting involved. Very few of these bands suffer the ego and pretentiousness of the guys higher up the ladder.
It's like the mid success band are at the level where they are recognised, but aren't up enough to charge what they percieve as their bands value. That's when you get the arseholes.
It's like the worldwide success bands who have made their millions and reached a saturation point with money and continue their career for the enjoyment and love. They do it for the love/fans/music and that's admirable.
It's like the pioneer legends who have made their millions, set their benchmarks, played to millions of people all at once and stuff. They become sooooo pretentios and loathesome that they are once again "arseholes".

It's merely free expression. If you make money from it or not. Love it for the music.

 

[xiphoscesar]

hey guys
the nicest guys i met are the guys from Atheist, Obscura and Dying Fetus
I talked to Hannes Grossmann and Christian Muenzer for about 30 min. and they were very open and funny, even if they were fucking tired. Atheists singer is also a great guy and the guys from Dying Fetus are nice too

yea the guys from obscura were pretty cool and chill man, i asked for advice with guitar and songwriting and christian explained to me what he does


i also saw brian(guitar) from balck dahlia murder and asked if i could take a pic, and he kinda had a real bad attitude
he was like

"sure, whatever"
and we took the pic and didn't say anything.
It was only one week from the tour so far and they havent even played. He was baked for sure


so i skipped black dahlia's set to talk with the guys from osbcura

EDIT: i also got to meet Ron Jarzombek, i said hi to him and asked if he played a solo on osbcura's cosmogensis and he was kinda a douche, he didn't start talking until i mentioned that i wanted to take lesson from him

he probably thought "i can make cash out of this kid"

 

[Malacoda]

I've never met anyone who was openly negative or mean after a show. The worst I've seen is guys who just refused to hang around. All the people I've actually talked to were nice, and plenty of them were major musicians (Behemoth, Necrophagist, Chimaira, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Origin, etc.) Actually, after seeing a band called Nekrogoblikon, I became friends with the guys and ended up hanging out with them a lot while they made their new album.

Sorry to heard that about Jarzombek, he's one of my idols.

 

[Rational Gaze]

I'm about to embark on gigging with my band for the first time in my life. Reading this thread has me a bit relieved, though I'm sure there's nothing that can prepare me for what's ahead. If anything, this shit is an amazing read. Love hearing people's stories

 

[MFB]

EDIT: i also got to meet Ron Jarzombek, i said hi to him and asked if he played a solo on osbcura's cosmogensis and he was kinda a douche, he didn't start talking until i mentioned that i wanted to take lesson from him

he probably thought "i can make cash out of this kid"

You HAD to have caught him on an off-day or something cause Ron's a very nice guy and well, I'll just leave this here :

Ron Jarzombek = The Man

 

[DaddleCecapitation]

Last month I went all the way to Sydney to watch AC/DC play, and they didn't even sign ONE autograph. What a bunch of fucking douchebags. I'm never listening to their songs again!!





...just kidding.

 

[Evil7]

when someone told me about Killswitch Engage I decided one day to look them up on youtube.. It didnt help that this was one of the first videos i found.

the guy was loud and crazy but he was obviously a fan..
Howard really wanted to push the issue .. The fan loved them.. I think Howard pussy'd out because the guy was large and looked like he was going to throwdown if howard threw a punch.. "leaning in with is fist clenched" these guys are douchbags and i dont care what their music sounds like.....

 

[swayman]

I'm pretty sure Howard would have eaten that dude like a sandwich. The dude was wasted by the look of things.

Howard obviously didn't think the he would have actually gotten up on stage, the dude did own Howard by doing this I must say.

Howard should have either hit him or just ignored him in the first place...

 

[AliceAxe]

Aside from some of the typical ego issues , the main problems i've had have been with sexist attitudes, due to my being a female playing metal. It used to be realy bad, in the early '90s nowadays not so much but it still happens. Mainly cases of other people assuming I am a groupie or girlfriend of one of the band members instead of IN the band. I've been yelled at for touching my own guitars, and even once locked out of the club right before we were due to go on because the doorman didnt believe that I was in one of the bands. Aside from that jelousy fueled harrassment from groupies and other musicians girlfriends for talking to the male musicians, and male musicians with some sort of attitude about me where they would talk to all the other musicians and be friendy with them but not me.

My drummer witnessed a lot of it, when we first got together we would call up adverts and as soon as they found out I was a sheila they would get nasty and hang up. In one incident I couldnt take it any more , the person was so nasty and hung up on him over it, so I called this number back said nothing just played as my drummer held the phone up to my amp. They traced the call , called us back asking excitedly who the guitarist was, so I screamed into the phone "I'm the girl!"

but I've met a lot of cool supportive people too. Mainly in recent years. It seem strange to me that often folks are still surprise by seeing a female guitarist. I mean , if a person has hands they can play an instrument. Sometimes even when they don't. And I never understood why some people have felt women don't belong in metal. After all, we are bloody and angsty atleast once a month, what can be more metal than that?

 

[Evil7]

Alice..... I could totaly picture everything you are talking about. That sounds like a fucking shitload of drama just because you are a female.
Sorry you have to deal with all that shit just to chase your dreams.

 

[Digideus]

Nicest guy Ive ever met in Metal - Gene Hoglan. I interviewed him for a radio show I did and he was the most down to earth dude you could ever meet!

oh, and a special mention for Josh who used to play for Coheed & Cambria who hung out at a meet and greet with me at the VIP bar and helped drink it dry!

Biggest Asshole i've ever met - Probably Phil "Im too fucking good to talk to you" Anselmo, back in the Pantera days. Dimebag shook my hand. Phil just looked at the lot of us like we were pieces of shit, so we all called him a fag!

 

[xiphoscesar]

Randy from Lamb of God; saw him walking around at Download Festival. i ask him "omfg dude are you Randy from Lamb of God?!!" he pauses for a brief second and says "sometimes".

 

[Sephiroth952]

Trivium-pretty cool

Lamb Of God-Hallarious,my perants had won the meet and greet but i had to settle for the signing at a record store.They were all really cool,though randy wasn't there(apperently he had some food poisoning) they all knew my name thanks to my parents,and got wille to sign my rg's electronics cover.Oh and best line ever from the bassist,i had my dragonforce shirt on and the first thing the said was "where did you get that t-shirt from your sister" i died laughing.Chris was the nicest guy EVER he had the biggest smile and just looked glad to be there.

And to be fair during my non-metal years i met bowling for soup,a roadie was hangin out by the bus's we asked him if maybe he could get the band to come out and sign these promo cd's we got and they actually came out to do it!Really cool guys,and by the time they came out and siged me and my freinds stuff we hadn't even noticed but there was like a 50 foot line behind us.Yay for imprompto signing sessions.lol