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.