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Danzig drama @ Fun Fun Fun Fest (pics, video & a statement from the booker included)

Samhain @ Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin
Danzig

Danzig, complete with Danzig, Samhain and Misfits sets, was supposed to play at 8:15pm at Fun Fun Fun Fest last night (11/4). He didn’t finally get on stage until 9:00 which was especially noticeable at the Austin festival which otherwise runs completely on time. You could tell it wasn’t the fest’s fault too. During the entire 45 minute delay, Danzig’s stagehands were constantly doing random stuff, most notably putting up blue tarps on either side of the stage – a clearly unplanned action that was apparently supposed to make the stage warmer. Around 8:45 a guy came out and started crossing songs off the setlist.

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People were booing loudly by the time Danzig finally took the stage.

All seemed to be forgiven though as the intro played and then Danzig belted out his first notes to the chilly and somewhat impatient crowd who were now cheering loudly. Glenn never said sorry for his tardiness though. He was also clearly struggling with his voice thoughout the set and did not seem comfortable on stage. He kept chewing things too (I figured for his throat). He ran off stage during the show twice – once to attack someone I think, and another time to “check the monitor”.

After about 30 minutes of Danzig songs, they left the stage and came back with a new lineup to do Samhain which to me was the highlight of what we got. Danzig started the Samhain set masked (see above). Like in NYC, there were different backdrops for each set, but they were having some trouble getting them up and down – which only added to the disaster that was unfolding.

Around 9:50 it was Misfits time. The place went especially nuts as the massive presence that is Doyle entered the stage and they broke into it.

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I was wondering what the curfew was, but optimistically thought maybe they were allowed to go later at this new venue (Auditorium Shores). Wrong. At 9:55 Danzig announces that they’re shutting him down in 5 minutes. They had only played 1 Misfits song. He said “don’t blame me” and asked the crowd if the organizers ever heard of “a thing called a riot” and urged the organizers to come on stage and tell the crowd themselves.

The crowd was obviously not happy, and Danzig was egging everyone on. By 10:00 we had only heard 2 Misfits songs and the set was over. All power was turned off on the stage. Did Danzig at this point apologize for coming on 45 minutes late? No, of course not. Instead he and the band stayed on stage for about 15 minutes longer riling the crowd up and acting like victims themselves.

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No chanting or threat of riot could get the power back on though and eventually Danzig and band left the stage for good. The crowd hung around though, for a little longer, chanting and throwing bottles on the stage until cops came in and urged eveyrone to go home. Despite screams of “pig” and a few bottles even hitting cops, the cops stayed calm and so did the crowd for the most part. Everyone eventually left.

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The fest has since faced criticism for “shutting down Danzig” by some fans, and so FFFFest booker Graham Williams took to Facebook to tell his version of the story (as one commenter wrote, “I thought Big Freedia was the only Queen Diva supposed to be playing this festival!”). Read Graham’s story along with some videos of it all, below…


Danzig’s Set Gets The Plug Pulled

Danzig Gets shut down fun fun fun fest 2011

Danzig Legacy Set Cutoff Aftermath – Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

DANZIG STORY FROM FUN FUN FUN FEST

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.

me too!