JOURNAL: CONCERTS: Danzig “playing classic songs by The Misfits” show — disappointment of a lifetime. WHERE’S MY MISFITS SONGS?!?! Ram’s Head Live of Baltimore are fucking liars!

I’ve been meaning to blog this for a LONG LONG time, but…. I could just never find a way to properly voice my frustration.

Ram’s Head specifically billed the concert as “Glenn Danzig playing classic songs by the Misfits and Danzig”. NOT ONE FUCKING MISFITS SONG WAS PLAYED. I’m pissed. The people at the show were pissed. There are some good reviews online, but they are ignoring the energy of the actual hardcore fans who made this show possible in the first place. Oh and by the way, I photographed the setlist, and only 3 songs from Danzig’s 1st 2 albums were even played. So it wasn’t even classic Danzig songs either! Ram’s Head Lies!

For a good 15 minutes after the show ended, myself and many other stood at the stage, in UTTER FUCKING DISBELIEF. I’ve never seen so much post-show stage-lingering. I’ve never felt such a negative audience vibe — at any concert, EVER. I’ve only been to about 45, but I think this was the first time I’d ever felt such negative energy in my life.

First off: Look at this shitty setlist! I knew most of the songs when I heard them, and I like most of the songs too. And I enjoyed seeing them live. But they were by no means my favorite Danzig songs. They only played 2 songs (the last 2 of the night) off Danzig 1, his best album. So I was left wanting until the end of the show. “No Misfits, not even any early Danzig?!?!” And only 1 song from Danzig 2, his 2nd best album. That leaves 15 other songs (5 times as much) from all his other albums. And it takes about all his other albums put together to equal the goodness of Danzig 1 and Danzig 2. So the music was not even early Danzig; this was mostly late Danzig. This was about as far as “classic songs by the Misfits” as you could get without the assistance of Dr. Who or a time machine. So anyway, the shitty setlist:

Here were my thoughts on the setlist after the show:

Pissed!

So anyway — All the nice people may want to compliment Danzig on putting on a great show, but the fucker fell of the stage and broke his arm shoulder in the middle. Is this an excuse? They apologists say he would have played Misfits songs, but he got injured. So why weren’t there any songs on the playlist? Am I to believe that all the Misfits songs would have magically came had he not broken his arm? Right at the end of the show there? Or did Ram’s Head simply FUCKING LIE in their promotions to increase sales? Is Danzig so unaware of how he is billed that we are supposed to believe that Danzig didn’t know it was being billed as classic Misfits songs?

Or is he quite willing to market one band he is in to sell another? Considering there are doll versions of Glenn Danzig from each of his 3 bands (Misfits, Samhain, Danzig), evidence would point to yes:

Danzig-approved animation of Danzig

Danzig’s appearance in Aqua Teen Hunger Force — the animators got annoyed because he kept sending the animation back, saying “I’m more ripped than that!”, and wanting to be taller and more muscular. (He’s like 5 foot 2-4.) This is as claimed by the Aqua Teen creators, in dvd extras from the various Aqua Teen Hunger Force dvds.

However, according to this interview, Danzig says that it is Jerry Only who is the one telling venues that they will be playing Misfits songs. If that is true, then Fuck You Jerry Only. This is YOUR fault.

So anyway, I know plenty of people who went ONLY to see The Misfits songs. They got SCREWED. The tickets specifically said “performing classic songs by The Misfits”. The fliers did too. I thought it was going to exclusively be Misfits songs… And none were even on the pre-determined setlist!

Immediately when he walked off of the stage after the first encore (you know, the one that finally included songs off his first album), there was anger like I had never felt in any of the 40+ concerts I’ve ever gone to. You can’t see too much, but listen to these 30 seconds of anger. You will hear “He’s not coming back to Baltimore again”, “you lied to us”, “this is your fault”, among other angry sentiments. Check out the hate — from the fans:

Here are some people who were definitely dressed up as The Misfits fans, and not Danzig fans. They weren’t happy either:

Pissed off Misfits fans.

It wasn’t long before most of the entire crowd just started chanting “bullshit, bullshit, bullshit”. I’d never seen a crowd so angry. Let alone a crowd of paying fans who just paid to see a concert performed by somebody they are a fan of. It takes a lot to make people as pissed of as Danzig did tonight. Is this what Andy Kaufman fans were made to feel like? Observe the bullshit chanting (also 30 second):

I think one of the band members came out and tried to pass off the excuse that Danzig broke his shoulder, but that’s no excuse for a pre-printed setlist that contains 0 songs after having a printed flyer advertising “classic songs by the Misfits”.

More pissed off fans of The Misfits asking other Danzig band member, “WTF?!?!?!”

These 2 fans I “interviewed” after the show agree completely (again, 30 seconds):

Didn’t Danzig learn from the Samhain/Danzig tour? EVERYONE LOVED Samhain (Danzig’s old band which was on reunion tour), and went nuts when they played. But as soon as Danzig came out with his current band and played, everyone just stood still, motionless. DID HE LEARN NOTHING? (Actually, he learned to focus more on songs everyone knows than just playing the new album. Smart move, Glenn.)

In the videos, you can clearly see everyone is still standing at the stage, pissed off, waiting for their fucking Misfits songs.
I seriously feel like a fucking class action lawsuit or at least a consumer affairs complaint should be filed against Ram’s Head (and maybe Danzig) for false advertising. Anyone know what county Ram’s Head is in? I’d like to obtain a complaint form. I’ll fill it out. I’ll make copies for anyone else who wants to as well.

Anyway… I’m pissed. I’m still pissed. And I’ll continue to be pissed. And I’m still pissed off at my parents for not letting me see The Undead (Bobby Steele’s band after being kicked out of The Misfits) in 1989, the cause of my first-ever alcoholic drink. The reason being that I wanted to see Misfits songs performed live by an original member of the band. SCREWED IN 1989, SCREWED IN 2007. This just verifies that my first drunk was completely justified. Ahh, a 40 oz. can of several-year-old australia beer, opened up with the corner of a bunkbed ladder. I can now taste it like it was yesterday. (Still being drunk at school the next day was not that coo though, especially since it was the one time I slept through the bus and had to be driven in.)

And no, I don’t want to see the new fucking Misfits; they fucking suck. They were worth seeing before they developed their own shitty discography, but now that they have their own shitty discography: Fuck Misfits (new).

So here’s the order: “The Misfits” (old) > Danzig (best albums) > The Undead > Samhain > Danzig (removing the best albums) > Britney Spears > “Misfits” (new).

At least there are other bands looking to fill this demand:

My complete pictureset from this night is HERE.

SOME OTHER REVIEWS AND SUCH

Rock N’ Roll Experience review.

Elizabeth Bouras’s review of the show — she’s the best Misfits fan ever. I ran into her in Potomac Mills in 1990 or so, talked, exchanged info, and she sent me LOADS of xeroxed Misfits memorabilia and info. This was before the internet, and BBSes did not feature a lot of obscure music, as they were local and only consisted of a few people. This was like receiving a gigabyte of data when you only owned a 100-meg harddrive. It was sooooooo great to meet her. And then open up magazines and randomly see her name quoted. I found her again on livejournal, after the show, going on the fact that her name was ‘evb’ and those were her initials. But her ferver in fandom was so strong that I recognized the energy, not the name. Talked to her, and, yes — it was her.

Baltimore City Paper review of the show.

Washington Post article.

Dave N’s review. He went to us with the show, as did Chris W (non-blogger, ex-BBSer).

Dave N’s pictures.

Glen was about 10 feet in front of us for a good 45 minutes before we noticed. I also ran into my friend Lauren S, and Erik & Mark S (brothers). We stood by them for most of the concert.

Us, excited both by seeing Danzig but especially by the prospect of “classic songs by The Misfits”.

snippet from Glen:

From the 9:30 Club message board:
” That lady your calling a “stripper transexual” is Doyle’s wife. She used to be a profwrestler. She went by the name “Gorgeous Goerge.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Bellars

” Had tickets to the B’more show. but decided to go see the Pumpkins that night in Philly, then Danzig the next. He said he broke his shoulder, and had it in a sling. lol. must have been a really off night for him. His set was short, but he did bring Doyle out and play some Misfits tracks for an encore. Skulls was the only “major” Misfits track they played, and they everybody in stage kept playing the wrong song, while danzig sang a completely different one. Not much of a “Misfits Reunion””

^^ Danzig, getting knocked out

If he had played Misfits songs, perhaps the crowd would have been as happy after the show as they were towards the end of the setlist:

This is what it should have looked like all night.

UPDATE 2/4/2008: Some schmucks on some Balzac forum are trying to claim Ram’s Head never advertised it as such. Thus, I added the link in the first paragraph linking to Ram’s Head’s false advertisement. I have also included a screenshot, for when they eventually take the page down:

Liars!

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THE REMAINING PICTURES, ADDED 6/2008: