Danzig Fun. Fun. Fun?

One of the reasons I wanted to check out this years Fun Fun Fun Fest was because the Danzig Legacy was the closer for the first night.  Sadly the night did not end how I wanted it to, or anyone else who gathered in front of the Black Stage at Auditorium Shores tonight.

Danzig, you ruined my night.  I have lost all respect for you.

I am not going to go in great detail, but as many of you know, I am a huge Misfits fan.  I was really stoked to be a part of a live show with two of the original members of the Misfits playing Misfits songs.

During the Misfits portion of the Danzig Legacy performance things took a sad turn.  While playing  “Vampira” from Walk Among Us (thanks to the few comments I got about this), the plug was pulled on good ol’ Danzig and band.  I knew it was coming.

You see, Danzig was supposed to take the stage after Murder City Devils (which was AWESOME I should add) at about 8:30 but did not go on until after 9:00.  In fact, most of the crowd was booing when Danzig finally took to the stage.  I knew something funny was going on when I saw crew pull out two giant heaters to the stage after 8:30 and then throw up a tarp on one side of the stage.  I could tell the crew was busting their ass to make it happen.

After a playing some Danzig and Samhain songs, the band switched it up some, Doyle came out, and it was time for some Misfits songs.  Sadly the band ran out of time and were told they had 5 minutes left to play.  Danzig was pissed and let the crowd know this but promised they would play a lot more songs. As the band tried to appease the crowd, mostly who all showed up to see the Misfits set, the backdrop fell behind the drummer and soon after and Danzig yelled:

“Looks like Wile E Coyote put this fucking stage together and he got all the parts from Acme.”

Yes, Danzig said that. I might have captured that magical moment (see the 2:26 mark)…

My friends and I all busted up laughing after he said that.  He acted like a little bitch up on that stage.  It was depressing and it was also the end of their set.  Of course Danzig flipped his shit and tried his hardest to get his way.  The dude even suggested all of the fans start a riot.

Douche.

The fact of the matter is that it was no one’s fault but Danzig’s and my friends and I knew that.  People around me knew that.  Danzig, apparently did not and blamed FFF Fest.  I noticed a lot of people from out of town were blaming FFF for this mishap on FaceBook, it was not their fault at all.

I wish Danzig would have only played Misfits songs.  That was the only reason I stood there and missed out on one hell of a set my Public Enemy from what I was told.  As we walked away from the stage, Danzig continued his tantrum.

The following comes from Graham, the man behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, who posted a very interesting and detailed timeline of what the hell exactly went down on the FFF Fest FaceBook page:

Hi. I book the fest. Those that are hating could NOT be more wrong. Yes, someone has your money and ripped you off. His name is Glenn. Stop by his house in LA with some kitty litter in trade for your refund, but we still had to pay him and he didn’t deserve it after what he pulled. Here is how it went down…check the timeline:

-glenn flies in this morning and says he has a cold and doesn’t want feel like playing the show. he demands french onion soup and vitamins brought to his hotel suite. he wants to soup now and wants it hot. we get it.

-glenn says it’s freezing in austin and he can’t go on. says it’s going to be 28 degrees tonight and he won’t perform (keep in mind, it’s currently 71 and sunny with a night forecast of maybe 50+). he says we have to move the show/festival inside if we want him to play (obviously, that’s not possible).

-we rent stage heaters (no other bands, public enemy, mcd, passion pit, etc need or want heaters on stage…it’s warm up there and not cold out) for glenn per demand, as well as bring in an onsite doctor to make him happy and be there if his cold doesn’t go away.

-agents and managers assure us he’s going to play now.

-glenn’s band/crew arrive before him in the afternoon and load gear. they said it all works, they get up the danzig banner, check lights, are happy.

-glenn arrives at 7:45 (half hour before showtime, they go on at 8:15 exactly and have a 90 min set…park curfew by the city/police is 10pm sharp)…when he arrives, he says he’s not going to play. says he doesn’t like how the banners are hung on stage and doesn’t like the lighting or stage size (all this was advanced in email and phone well in advance and the band/crew loaded in mid day and were happy with it and said it would work…stage wasn’t small at all). he wouldn’t leave his trailer to go look at the stage, though, so the lighting company drew up specs for him to look at of the stage lighting 50 feet from his trailer and brought it to him to look over and prove him wrong.

-in the meantime, glenn’s bodyguard gets pushy (literally) with murder city devils manager and tells them they can’t have their friends watch MCD from stage and wants them to cut their set. kicks them off stage and gets physical with the band and stafff….oh, also danzig says he’s just as big as slayer and slayer is playing a bigger stage on sunday and that’s bullshit and wants to play the same stage slayer is playing…or won’t play. makes him look bad.

-it’s now 8:15 and time for them to go on. the band is ready, corpse make ups done, guitars tunes. glenn says he’s not playing and that it’s too cold outside. he said big stages should have windscreen so wind can’t blow on him from the side. the stage managers then goes and gets tarps and tarp the entire side of the stage so now wind will hit him.

-it’s now 8:40. we explain that it’s cutting into the set and he’s going to have cut the 90 min set if he doesn’t play soon, as park curfew is 10. he says he doesn’t feel like playing. says “i got a deathbug. if i go on stage and get sick, i’ll die. i’m not getting sicker for this show” (NOTE: he totally looks and seems fine…no coughing, no paleness, no vomiting, just some balding and a gut, from what i can tell). we get the Dr and he says he can do a b12 shot or anything he needs if he feels bad…danzig says he only treats illnesses naturally, so won’t do that. we finally get him to agree to play and have already informed his crew that it’s only 60 mins (9pm at this point) and they start cutting some songs from the set list, so they can still do misfits, but obviously didn’t cut enough.

-they went on almost and hour late due to the HANDS DOWN biggest rock star moment we’ve ever dealt with and then he tries to start a riot and blames the fest, the city, the cops and everyone, but himself. goes backstage and tries to fight a few ppl and get in the van and leaves.
the end….

we’re bummed to. we wanted to hear Skulls.

This brought a whole new perspective to the table.  I have nothing left to say about Glenn Danzig.  I will still be a fan of his music, just not him.  Give up dude.  Your diva rockstar bullshit is not punk at all.  What’s sad about this is that I stood up for Danzig earlier in the day only to be treated by this performance.

UPDATE: And for the record, I am a huge Misfits fan.  I was also a huge pissed off Misfits fan at 2am when I wrote this.  I am completely aware that Walk Among Us is an album and not a song.  I do know that “Horror Business” was played during the Samhain set and that technically is a Misfits song but was rerecorded as “Horror Biz” by Samhain.

Even I make mistakes.  Not nearly as big though as Mr. Danzig did.

35 thoughts on “Danzig Fun. Fun. Fun?”

  1. Great article, but I found it amusing that you say you’re a huge Misfits fan yet kept writing that the Misfits were playing “Walk Among Us” because that’s what you thought you heard him say in the video. There is no song called that. He said, “this is FROM Walk Among Us”, referring to the album.

  2. yeah that was a bummer. You missed the part where the stage gets pelted with crap. A stage hand tries to get a mike stand that has fallen and gets hit in the face. The last time I saw glenn doing misfit songs he got pissed and hit someone in the head with a mic. Not before taunting someone in the crowd to suck his ****. He pretended the mic was his ****. Very weird. then cut the set short. BTW the misfit song was Vampira off of Walk Among Us.

  3. The only part of this story that doesn’t make sense is the time change. FFFF’s website said Danzig would play earlier, but the pamphlet I got when I got inside said “Danzig Legacy, 9 pm”. They started promptly at 9.

  4. Honestly, Danzig deserved a bigger stage in 2009 and definitely did so this year with the Legacy set. Slayer got moved and so should have Danzig. Danzig is far superior to Slayer. They were the reason most people even gave a shit about FFF6. The promoter had no idea that they had one of the most important performances of the year, they should have handled this differently:

    Legacy show 1:
    Riot Fest – Congress Theater (indoor)

    Legacy show 2:
    Hammerstein Ballroom (indoor) band still was able to play even though a major snow storm was happening.

    Legacy show 3:
    Gibson Amphitheater (indoor) get what I am saying.

    This was a special performance, the closest thing to a real Misfits and Samhain performance in 1 show. Move it to a nice venue and have doors open at 9pm. FFF outdoors in a dust pit, in the cold, and give them a baby stage. No way to treat a legend like Glenn Danzig.

  5. When you book Danzig expect bullshit. Book Danzig Legacy expect even more. I agree that a larger stage should have happened. Maybe if Austin makes the festivals end so early they should move away and hurt the city. I mean 10pm? Come on!! Hey Austin(live music capital?)you better figure this out or all the money you make off these music festivals will go away.

  6. I was so incredibly stoked to see Danzig do misfits songs. I couldn’t care less about the rest of his “legacy” I was only there for misfits. 2 songs doesn’t cut it. What a douchebag.

  7. If Danzig wanted to play an indoor show, then he shouldn’t have booked an outdoor show. Pulling this kind of shit is what caused him to get KTFO’d by the singer from the NorthSide Kings.

    LMAO at the idea that Danzig is just as big as Slayer. Danzig hasn’t sold a record since he ran off John Christ, Chuck Biscuits, and Eerie Von in 1995.

    Now he’s a novelty act. People won’t come to his shows anymore unless they know Doyle is gonna come stomping out for a Misfits set.

    BTW, There is a Misfits song called Walk Among Us. Released in 1997. I just wouldn’t expect Danzig to play it since he wasn’t in the band at the time.

  8. Haha, quit pretending to be a Misfits fan you hipster douche.
    Oh, Danzig is a sh1thead? Yeah, I also noticed the sun is hot.

  9. 10 Pm curfew? What festival in their right minds books at a park that closes at 10? On a Friday? THERES your diva behavior. Fuck the promotors. Waterloo ruled, this 10 pm bullshit is for the birds.

  10. Great spin. Nice try from the promoter, “Graham.” First of all, Danzig and Public Enemy were the only two bands that I had ever even heard of playing at that boring festival last night. To relegate a guy that’s sold nearly ten million records, and definitely had the largest crowd of the night, to a tiny little stage in the very back of the “venue” was absurd. And, so? The guy was cold? He lives in freaking SoCal, and he wasn’t well. He raised concerns about his comfort and health during the performance. It doesn’t seem so unreasonable that the guy wanted to put up a tarp to cut the wind.

    Second, Danzig went on stage 35 minutes late, it’s true. But who is it that’s organizing this show so that the headliner has no room for error? I don’t know if Glenn was throwing all the tantrums this jerk-off who owes me $40 says he did. It wouldn’t surprise me. Glenn isn’t known for his affability, no question about it. But I do know that even without that, stuff can go wrong. It’s not unusual for bands to start late. If you haven’t figured some “something may go wrong” time into your schedule, you’re a freaking idiot.

    It’s not Glenn Danzig’s job to know what Austin’s local ordinances are. It’s the promoter’s job. And he better damn well make sure that the performers have enough the time and equipment to put on their show. Even if Glenn had come on stage as scheduled, they gave him an hour and thirty-five minutes for a two hour show. He STILL would have been bumping his head against the curfew. That’s poor planning on the promoter’s part, not Glenn’s.

    Finally, this “Graham” asshole refers us to Danzig for a refund (betraying, it should be noticed, the REAL reason he’s weaving his tales of righteous indignation). I have news for you Graham, I don’t have a contract with Danzig. I have a contract with YOU to present Danzig. You breached your contract. You owe me my money back. Never mind the travel expenses and assorted other inconveniences I’ll never recover.

  11. I don’t remember any festivals being indoors. He played it 2 years ago and should have known what to expect. Satan is apparently a p*ssy. Danzig sucks. Slayer are way better. Don’t compare Misfits to Slayer either. Two different bands.

  12. Fuck Danzig. He sounds like shit, is a fucking joke, and anyone who says otherwise should try to have a conversation with him even one time, and tell me i’m wrong. I’ll pay you.
    Biggest douche of all fucking time.

  13. Infuriating, but not surprising. I love the Misfits (who doesn’t?) and had the pleasure of a surprise encore at a Danzig show in 2007 or 8 during which Doyle joined him on stage and they played a couple Misfits tunes (we bite! I flipped.). It was amazing, and when I heard that Danzig was playing AGAIN (he headlined two years ago and was here just a few months ago) I was kind of meh about it. Then I realize what Danzig Legacy is all about, remember the Descendents show from last year (made my life, seriously. Thank you so much for that.) and think how awesome it is that we’ll get to have a Misfits experience in the same way.

    After watching Murder City get rushed off stage, another band I’ve been dying to see for years and endlessly keep missing, I was restless over the Public Enemy schedule conflict. We only wanted Misfits songs, so maybe we should go see Public Enemy and then scoot back over to the Black Stage when the Misfits set starts, but what if we wind up missing Misfits by going to see Public Enemy? Couldn’t risk it. So we waited. and waited some more. Then some more. By this time I’d already committed to this, so we weren’t heading to PE stage, though we could have seen that whole damn set and still made it back for the Misfits songs.

    When Glenn finally graced us with his presence, he played a freakin’ Danzig set. He knows full well that people were there for the Misfits, something he nodded to as the show was being shut down by mentioning that they were only doing this in four cities. He could have played a couple of his solo songs and then spent the rest of his time playing the old stuff we had all come out for, but no. Let’s be a fucking diva instead. At the end he acted so concerned about letting his fans down, but were that the case he would have pandered to the reason we were actually there, what we really wanted, this rare opportunity most people never expected to have. AND I missed Public Enemy, which really frosts my cookies. Chuck D would never pull this shit.

    I do think there could have been some compromise, maybe just letting him go over by five or ten minutes (hey, there’s six songs!) to give us SOMETHING. It was horribly disappointing. Seriously Glenn, fuck you. I love French onion soup too, but I’m sure there are a lots of opportunities for it. I’m from NYC, and I know what the weather is like there, and you weren’t fucking freezing. So not punk. So not cool. So, so shitty.

  14. The idea of Danzig being as big as Slayer is truly laughable. Only somewhat less so is the assertion that he/they were the main draw to FFF6. Was honestly astonished they headlined at all. What a tool.

  15. From Coady Willis, drummer, Murder City Devils (among others): “Danzig’s (and crew) treatment of FFF staff and other bands (us) was appalling. Worst pro rockstar BS I’ve ever seen. Good job, jerks.”

  16. Hey Bill Officer, Brian was a fan of the Misfits before you were a stain on your mama’s nutsack.

    OF COURSE you should believe the promoter’s side of the story. People like Glenn Danzig and Ben Weasel are always in the wrong in these situations. ALWAYS.

  17. Danzig has done this over and over. ITS NOTHING NEW! Back when Walk Among Us came out they pulled shit in San Francisco. When his first SOLO record came out he pulled shit on tour.He has continued to make fans bummed for a long long time. He should not have agreed to play an outside festival If he were concerned. He should have had lighting stage and sound in his contract Mostly HE should have acted like a pro and kicked ass for his fans that were there and sacrificed to see her.Nothing else matters except the gig.Is your boss going to listen to your complaints or criticism if you are not feeling well. FUCK NO. You have to continue with a smile on your face. He was your paid monkey and he should have danced sang and pounded a drum.
    What a little bitch.

  18. ok all you whiny bitches Danzig is a metal genious and if you don’t like his attitude then go see someone else. Everyone knows he expects perfection and when he gets perfection he throws one hell of a show. Fuck the man was sick give him s break. When you book Danzig you must accommodate him he’s bring people to your show making your ass money. Shit if he wanted a piggy back ride to and from his trailer give him that. If it makes him happy do it. Danzig is epic when he is happy. He’s been giving the fans good music since the late 70s show some fucking respect.

  19. I remember seeing 7 Seconds open for the SamHain a long long time ago in Kansas City. (1984 maybe?)

    7 Seconds drew the crowd, they rocked, the show was running on time, but non the less, Danzig decided on his own that he wants 7-seconds to stop playing so SamHain could go on. Danzig grabbed a mic and started yelling “Get off the stage pussies!” then found a power supply and unplugged the band.

    7-Seconds had pretty much finished their set at that point so it was’t that big of a deal.

    But it was kind of funny to watch the venue empty out except for maybe 20 people at most. And half of them only stuck around to boo Samhain and/or keep drinking.

    The audience went from 400+ people to 20 as soon as 7-Seconds “finished”.

    That was a huge slap to Napoleon’s face to find out that no one was there to see them in the first place. And afterwards he ran out into the parking lot and started challenging random people to fight…..I guess because those people were leaving or found drinking in the parking lot much more entertaining then him.

  20. Another time I saw Danzig at Liberty Hall in Lawrence KS a few years back.

    It sounded like absolute SHIT. The promoter provided a state of the art, professional PA system. That PA company has done the production in that venue hundreds of times and knew exactly what to expect from the room. They even had their EQs with an auto-recall/memory for that venue.

    I should point out that for THAT show, Danzig was a little trooper, and at least onstage did a decent job. He had a broken arm and his arm was in a sling…

    BUT Danzig’s soundman was either extremely deaf, on a lot of really shitty drugs, a complete novice idiot, or all 3.

    It was LOUD, very extremely LOUD. And that would have been fine with everyone…..had it sounded good, or even passable. The soundman had come in and zeroed out all the EQs, and started almost randomly dicking around with frequencies, and then refused to just let the local production crew help him out by recalling the original settings. It sounded like Danzig was on an AM Radio that was barely tuned in, white noise, then turned up as loud as it would go.

    There were maybe 500 people in the 1200 seat venue.

    3 weeks later, the SAME sound production company did sound for a band in that same venue that drew a sold-out show, 1200 people, was loud as fuck but sounded great.

    That band was Slayer.

  21. What a shame,another hero gets old and let’s us down. I was with SOIA when they opened for Danzig at Sundance in Bayshore NY and he had taken both backstage rooms in the club. When we showed up we had to set up the equipment on the side of the stage and that was where the band and crew had to hang out til showtime. He didn’t come out until showtime and disappeared just as quickly at the end. That was over 20 years ago and it seems he didn’t get any better since.

  22. Do we believe the promoter? Fuck yes we do! Austin is a small big city. I’ve known Graham for years like a thousand or so other people…minimum…

  23. @dave- First of all, Danzig and Public Enemy were the only two bands that I had ever even heard of playing at that boring festival last night. << so why were you there again?
    And, so? The guy was cold? He lives in freaking SoCal, and he wasn’t well. He raised concerns about his comfort and health during the performance. It doesn’t seem so unreasonable that the guy wanted to put up a tarp to cut the wind.<<he is also from new jersey and is an international artist so he has seen and suredly played in colder weather before
    Second, Danzig went on stage 35 minutes late, it’s true. But who is it that’s organizing this show so that the headliner has no room for error? <<error would be something on the promoters fault, danzig is the one who chose not to go on
    I don’t know if Glenn was throwing all the tantrums this jerk-off who owes me $40 says he did. <<if by jerkoff who owes ya $40, that would be the troll from lodi new jersey
    It’s not Glenn Danzig’s job to know what Austin’s local ordinances are. It’s the promoter’s job. And he better damn well make sure that the performers have enough the time and equipment to put on their show. <<he let glenn know the time, which is what glenn cried to his MOTHER from the stage about, graham and co made sure that glenn was more than accomidated
    Even if Glenn had come on stage as scheduled, they gave him an hour and thirty-five minutes for a two hour show. He STILL would have been bumping his head against the curfew. That’s poor planning on the promoter’s part, not Glenn’s.<<i understood this to be a 90 minute set (30 minutes per era), while thats cutting it close its still enough time
    Finally, this “Graham” asshole refers us to Danzig for a refund (betraying, it should be noticed, the REAL reason he’s weaving his tales of righteous indignation). I have news for you Graham, I don’t have a contract with Danzig. I have a contract with YOU to present Danzig. You breached your contract. You owe me my money back. Never mind the travel expenses and assorted other inconveniences I’ll never recover.<<the contract with fun fun fun is for the show to go on, its not a danzig show so as long as the fest itself goes on, theres no breach of contract, does it suck to have spent a wad of dough and then glenn bursts the nostalgia bubble? yes, but the promoter owes you nothing, they did everything they could to salvage the set and still got pissed on by glenn

  24. I’m too lazy to read all the comments, but Danzig is a well known asshole. This doesn’t surprise me any. I’d still throw on an old album but with his infamous attitude, I would never pay money to see him again and that been my attitude long before his behavior at FFF.

    Just youtube Northside Kings and Danzig if you wanna see how that piece of work should get handled at fests.

  25. First of all, Glenn is a woman. He has tits and menstrual cycles. Second, why would you desire to see a midget in clown makeup act scary? I saw far scarier fat impudent children on Halloween. Third, the reason why Glenn got a tattoo on his lower back is because he likes for his male filipino lovers to use it as target practice. Fourth, I’m sure glad I saw Public Enemy instead of that nonsense. Much love FFFFest!!!

  26. FYI – a city ordinance of a 10pm sound curfew is pretty standard. Most festivals have Sound restrictions.

    This stuff is ALWAYS discussed and should have been no surprise to Glenns camp. Hearing the time line from the day sounds like it was brought up numerous times as well…

  27. This Graham character should probably learn to spell before he writes another diatribe at 2AM. Perhaps he should’ve been paying more attention in English 101 instead of listening to stupid Misfits cassettes on his walkman.

    I bet Glenn Danzig knows how to spell. Maybe he did all this just to prove to everyone that you should get the most of your education?

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