Yesterday morning was not a good day for punk rockers Luther. While on tour in Chicago with Tom May of the Menzingers, the band was involved in a pretty rough accident.
From what I gathered on their Facebook post, everyone was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
The van, properly named Vandross, was totaled forcing the band to cancel the last stretch of their tour. This includes their stop in Cleveland that was supposed to happen this Monday with Signals Midwest and Two Hand Fools at Now That’s Class.
As much as I am bummed I will not get to see Luther this Monday, I am relieved that no one from the band was seriously hurt. Hopefully they will be able to make it to Cleveland one day soon.
Harvey Pekar left this world too soon in July of 2010. Sadly he left nothing more than unfinished works and comics leaving for his widow Joyce Brabner to take control of many things for him including how the Cleveland underground comics icon would be remembered.
Recently she started a campaign for a Harvey Pekar tribute using Kickstarter. In an attempt to raise $30k, a unique tribute sculpture will be created of Pekar and installed at the public library in Cleveland Heights. The sculpture will actually be a desk that she and others want people to sit down and draw or write at. The following was taken from the Kickstarted page:
A way to celebrate comics as art and literature at a Cleveland Heights public library. A literary landmark, a desk that’s always filled with paper and pencils for people to sit and write or draw comics at the same place where Harvey Pekar liked to work.
Mounted on the desk, a sculpted bronze comic book “page.” Stepping out from a panel, Harvey– using his semi celebrity to focus on the creative possibilities of the art form he opened up to so many people. On the reverse, gridded into bronze ruled “panels,” a giant slate storyboard that looksvery much the way Harvey always started his own scripts. (He wrote and drew stick figures, just like Paul Giamatti in that movie.) Plenty of chalk and plenty of encouragement from a library that cherishes comics. At different times each year, a librarian can unlock the middle drawer of the desk and pull out copies of books that Harvey read as a kid that inspired him to write,AMERICAN SPLENDORscripts, memorabilia and anything else that could inspire library patrons to be creative with comics.
The desk and statue will be mounted next to the library’s “Harvey & Friends Used Bookstore”* and facing the library’s ever growing comics shelves. Every so often a Kickstarter campaign runs over. If that happens, once all the bills are paid, the Estate of Harvey Pekar will use the rest of the money to add to the library’s no-white-gloves, read and enjoy(!) collection.
Donate a lot, or a little. All of it is going for a great cause and idea. I myself am aiming to donate $75 so that I may possibly receive one of Pekar’s vinyls. Having admired the man for years, I think it would be so cool to have something that he might have listened to while writing his stories.
This is just the beginning. Once the tribute has been created, Brabner is collaborating with Cleveland’s Jax Prints to create a 5 year scholarship for comic book writers who have not yet been published.
His legacy will live on. Just wish I could have met the guy once in my life. I actually used to live down the street from him years ago but did not know it until after I moved. He’s one of the reasons that I do what I do. He inspired me to be myself and not care about anything or anyone. I will definitely be partaking in this fundraiser.
With 23 days left, so far just over $17k has been raised. Where that is a nice chunk of change, there is still a ways to go. If you consider yourself a Cleveland native or even a comic fan, do your part.
I knew the plug was going to get pulled the moment he announced to the crowd that they were told they could only play 5 more minutes. That’s why I grabbed my camera and took that terrible video. I wanted to capture the moment shit hit the fan, and I did. I just discovered the Spin.com has used the video in one of their posts.
Prior to that announcement, I was finally starting to get into the set, granted the band just played “Vampira”. I will not lie, they could have sounded way better. I am sure there was a multitude of factors that resulted in what I heard. It was windy as hell out and the equipment was heavily used all day , but there is no doubt in my mind that the band’s techs were not satisfied with their sound check. Not only did the asshats do an impromptu sound check while the Murder City Devils were still playing (dicks), but they also had that extra 45 minutes before Danzig went on stage.
One of the whole reasons I went to Fun Fun Fun Fest this year was to check out the Danzig Legacy. I was so hoping to hear “Hybrid Moments” and maybe even “Hollywood Babylon”, but we all know that was not the case. Instead I heard heard Danzig, including 2 mediocre songs, some not so good sounding Samhain, and you know what happened after…
Plug pulled + Temper tantrum on stage = Me leaving and getting awesome vegan pad thai in downtown Austin.
Danzig make $100k that night and never finished his set. The fans were all disappointed, and I was too. Face it, we were all standing in front of the Black Stage to hear Misfits songs and nothing else. With the time limit, one would think that Danzig could scrap one part of his set and focus on what people really wanted. I felt worse for Doyle who probably just caked all that make-up on his face before coming out on stage.
Don’t worry, I did not want to tear off my Misfits tattoos and stomp on it after what I saw. Hell, I am still a fan and always will be. I was just pissed that Danzig was acting like a diva but also knew that I had 2 more days of Fun Fun to look forward to. Perhaps the Misfits, the REAL Misfits, were never meant to be resurrected. I do not care what Danzig has done for the music world, all I know is what I saw was unprofessional and beyond rockstar. He was given fair warning of the time limit, did not want to even play, and then pulled his shit. You know what? I’m done talking about it. Maybe if the Danzig calamity happened Sunday night I would have a different “Attitude” about the weekend but it was only night one.
I was already in a great mood after seeing Murder City Devils and Russian Circles take the stage Friday night. Saturday I got to see Hot Snakes and The Damned (both were mind-blowing). Sunday I saw Eyehategod, Kid Dynamite, Cannibal Corpse, HUM ( amazing) and eff’n Slayer. I also throughout the weekend saw Major Lazer, Diplo, Childish Gambino, Big Freeda, Spoon and Del The Funky Homosapien.
There was one quick performance though that just made me happy to be a part of the entire weekend. While my friends and I were walking across Auditorium Shores to check out a veggie hot dog eating contest we noticed that there was a band covering Misfits songs on one of the main stages. We all stopped dead in our tracks and literally ran to see what the hell was going on. We caught the end of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’s set where Leo and friends were performing their Misfits cover band TV Casualty. It was awesome, it was funny, and it sounded awesome. The four songs that Leo and crew played made up for the bullshit Danzig stirred up Friday night.
I’ve been to a whole bunch of festivals in my time. This years Fun Fun Fun Fest was the best one I have ever been to and I was only at maybe 1-1/2 of it. I missed all of the early shows due to other things going on in Austin like eaten grub or getting a sweet tattoo (stay tuned for that). I was ok with missing a couple of the acts as the main ones were in the evening. I got to see MCD, Hot Snakes, and HUM all in a weekend. How cool is that?
This is not a review. This is me declaring how much fun I had last weekend. Great music with the greatest of friends, old and new. Throw in the sweet motor-boating I did on a healthy rack right before Slayer and, my friends, I may have had one of the best weekends ever, in fact, I know I did. Thanks Austin. Thanks Fun Fun Fun Fest. I wish it was last weekend all over again.
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.
So for the few of you who are jealous that I am attending the 2011 Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX this weekend, you now can too from the comfort of your home.
Unlike other music festivals with similar live streams, Fun Fun Fun Fest will present 4 separate streams with each tailored to different musical tastes. Like the Fun Fun Fun Fest stage setups, each stream will provide genre grouping of bands, from punk and metal to indie rock and electronica and even hip hop and comedy.
In other words, if you are jealous that I am seeing Murder City Devils and Danzig w/ Doyle tomorrow night, you now can stream it without spending a dime.
To check out Fun Fun Fun Fest’s live stream on Pitchfork, head on over to pitchfork.com. The stream should begin as soon as the festival starts around 12 p.m. central time.
I’m sure I will be posting a ton of nonsense should time allow it over the weekend. First things first thought..I need me a Lone Star…
As part of FFF Fest, FFF Nites will start tonight. This is a music event in itself as tons of bands will be taking over local venues and playing shows. I will be seeing Toxic Holocaust, Hull, The F’n Wrath, Hull and Pushmen. Should make for a nice and loud intro to a kick ass weekend.
Tomorrow night’s FFF Nite’s I am looking forward to even more…
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Yesterday morning was not a good day for punk rockers Luther. While on tour in Chicago with Tom May of the Menzingers, the band was involved in a pretty rough accident.
I am sure many of you caught 
One of the reasons I wanted to check out this years 
As part of FFF Fest, FFF Nites will start tonight. This is a music event in itself as tons of bands will be taking over local venues and playing shows. I will be seeing Toxic Holocaust, Hull, The F’n Wrath, Hull and Pushmen. Should make for a nice and loud intro to a kick ass weekend.
