The MACHINE HEAD crew have been having a rough couple of weeks due to unforeseen show cancellations and postponements. After being forced to cancel and postpone various
concerts due to that bitch Sandy. The band was recently struck in the
face by the corporate Mickey's over at Walt Disney (More info HERE!).So what does MACHINE HEAD do when they get some "forced" vacations? Well, recently the great folks over at Roadrunner Records spoke with Robb Flynn on the phone and asked him how they spent their unexpected vacation, and whether anything like this has ever happened to them before. Here is what he had to say about this!
You guys had almost a week there where shows got re-scheduled because of the hurricane. So what did you do on your days off?
"Uh, I went out drinking a couple of nights… I mean, we started in Florida, and the Orlando show was cancelled, the Norfolk [Virginia] show was cancelled, the Philly show was cancelled, then New York… we’ve literally been driving up the East Coast following the hurricane, and getting shows cancelled along the way, because that was the routing. So you know, we had some days off there, and we worked out in some killer gyms, went out drinking a few nights in Richmond, went to a couple of cool bars out there, but it can be pretty boring. We got a couple of rehearsal places and practiced and rehearsed a few times, which was awesome. Just shit like that – you can’t really do much.
Is this the first time you guys have had to cancel because of natural disasters?
"Well, when 9/11 happened, we had a tour set up that started five days after 9/11. The first show was on the 16th. And there was a lot of talk about cancelling it. We wanted to cancel it, but everyone talked us into it, so the tour went on, and in some ways it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was just like, what the fuck? The world seemed like it was turning on its head – you didn’t know anything, it was all fucked up, but kids were coming to the shows and just staring at us like, why am I here? We were looking at a whole front row of people staring at us like, "Why am I here? Tell me it’s gonna be OK." And in a lot of ways, it was so therapeutic, to just get out there and scream your head off and rage and headbang and sweat and even just for two hours forget about it. Not even forget about it, but just be with other people who were going through the same thing. In the end, it was one of the most incredible tours we had done, leading up to the release of 'Supercharger' and all the fallout that we had from that – you know, we had the “Crashing Around You” video, which had us standing on a bunch of buildings that were on fire and crashing and falling – [laughs] it was like, wow, the worst video you could have made for that time period. It was a crazy time, and in another way it was an amazing time, to have that communal release through Metal. But yeah, we had to cancel the New York show on that tour, and the DC date also, but most of the dates happened."
Don't forget to catch MACHINE HEAD on the road with DETHKLOK, ALL THAT REMAINS and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. All up to date MACHINE HEAD tour dates can be seen here: http://www.machinehead1.com/tourdates
Today, MACHINE HEAD released 'Machine Fucking Head Live' via Roadrunner Records (Pick it up HERE!). It's Machine Head's second live effort; 'Hellalive' was released in 2003. Nine years have passed and Machine Head still slay and administer a "Bay Area Beatdown" in the live realm. Full details HERE!
Related links:
MACHINE HEAD's Official Site
