How Grizzly Bear Learned To Love Their Hecklers
Props to Papa Dodge for launching his new Holiday Interview Series with Grizzly guy Ed Droste today. Alas nothing so sexy as a bombshell revelation about the next record or a new alchemical disposable-pop cover or a new solution to post-nasal drip, but Ed does sort of follow up on a story we mentioned after Grizz's noisy tour last year opening for TV On The Radio. MOKB asks about Ed's favorite and least favorite things about the past two years.
The worst thing is playing to a talkative rude crowd, especially if we get a heckler. I can't imagine anything more uncomfortable than the few times we were heckled (always when we were opening for a larger act). It's excruciating but a rite of passage. I mean if we were a punk band, it's a little easier to just plow through the set and yell and scream and make loud music, but when you are finger picking something really quiet and then suddenly someone yells "you SUCK!", well...it sucks. Haha...it's also sort of funny when I look back at it. Goes to show how easy a tone or mood of a show can change on a pin drop. Funny story, the worst heckler we've had (I'd say we've only had three or four that were really notable) was in Toronto with TVOTR and this guy wouldn't stop yelling shit at us, for a good 20 minutes. It was relentless! Anyhow, suddenly after the show there were all these people that came up to us and were like "hey man so sorry that sucked just so you know, the heckler is that dude at the bar" and all these people policed him. Anyhow, someone got into a confrontation with him (to our defense) and he claimed innocence and I never thought about it again. Flash forward a full year, we are playing our own show in Toronto and this kid sheepishly comes up to me and says "uhhh I'm really sorry but I have to come clean, that heckler at the TVOTR show was me last year, not that other dude and well, now I'm a huge fan and errr, yeah, sorry about that...." I was pretty shocked but it was funny, I guess you can win hecklers over!Way to make amends, Toronto guy! Detroit dude, you're next. Read the rest of the interview at MOKB. Astute readers will notice that Dodge launched the feature despite it still being November. "I know this is a day early, but we don't always post on the weekends," he says. Good thing; we're not sure we could deal with being stunned by yet another blogger's special weekend post.
Posted at 5:09 PM
Tags: Grizzly Bear
i was actually at that Grizzly Bear show. To be honest, I'd known of Grizzly Bear by that time but had never heard them before that show. At that show they were absolutely awful, boring, and maybe that heckler had something to do with it, dampening their spirits as they played. It wasnt until I heard their album much later that I appreciated them, but really, they were bad enough that night that I would maybe avoid seeing them again, and that heckler, well, I never thought anything of how rude he was being since I pretty much agreed with him at the time.
Score = 0
Goon, I think it must have been a bad show (at a bad venue?)
Give them another chance live, I've only had great experiences
Score = 0
whoa!
we netty pot too!!!
Score = 0
just caught this...thanks 'Gummers!
Score = 0