Danzig with Kataklysm , Trivium and Eyes of Fire at the Guvernment (132 Queens Quay East), tonight (Thursday, February 24). All ages. Doors 7 pm. $30. 416-870-8000. Rating: NNNNN
Folks who dig tunes about dying brides and waning moons probably know all about Glenn Danzig’s little scuffle with Danny Marianino of the North Side Kings backstage at a gig last summer.
It seems there was some pissed-offedness on Marianino’s part because the North Side Kings drove six hours only to get bumped from the multi-band bill – a few other outfits also got cut – and that it was all Danzig’s fault, or his people’s fault, or something.
So there was a confrontation and Danzig pushed Marianino, who responded by punching the burly metalman and knocking him down (not out, as plenty of Internet posts would have you believe) in one shot.
“It was just someone trying to set me up to punch him so he could sue me for a lot of money,” Danzig says of the incident. “My life, or anyone’s life that is like this – you don’t know the kind of stuff we have to go through.”
Oh, you mean that’s common?
“It’s happened to a lot of people I know. But I knew what was going on. I saw the camera, I saw everything, so I just walked away.”
This explanation sounds a little fishy after viewing the video of the incident that – thank God for modern-day technology – is available all over the Internet. On tape Danzig is obviously the first person to get physical, but after the punch looks like too busy lying on the floor to walk anywhere.
Everyone in this video, incidentally, looks and sounds like a total idiot, and the surprising thing is that these fights don’t happen more often. Obviously, Danzig doesn’t slug it out too often, since he knows immediately what I am talking about when I ask him about it .
There is, however, no point in pushing the issue with the former Misfits frontman who has his story and is sticking to it.
The North Side Kings may not be getting a lot of money out of the deal, but they’re certainly better known now as the band with the guy who knocked down Danzig than they ever were for anything else.
Some are saying the incident has been a blow to the career of the 5-foot-4 tough guy who’s built a reputation on being the muscliest muscleman in all of metaldom. If so, he’s not letting it get him down.
“Last night’s show was sold out,” he says. It was in Detroit, which he calls “a pit, which makes it a great city for the kind of music I play. People have a lot of pent-up aggression.”
Danzig perks up when asked about his projects. Last year saw the release of Circle Of Snakes. And recordings for Black Aria II have recently been completed. The original 1993 Black Aria was a plodding, dark, classically influenced work, mostly instrumental with some operatic vocals.
“It’s not a sequel. The first was about paradise lost, among other things. This one is about Lilith. It’s not going to be a pasted-over version but an amalgam of all the different myths of her – you know, murderer, child killer – and not just the image of female independence that is a very big part of her.”
This tour, he says, will be Danzig’s last for a while.
“I don’t really like touring any more. I like being onstage, but it’s the other 22 hours a day that I hate. I’m tired of not being able to do the things I wanna do because I’m touring or doing a record.”
One of those things is a live-action film based on his comic book Gerouge, about turn of the century New Orleans voodoo. It’s Danzig’s debut as a feature film director and is supposed to be quite grotesque.
“Life is grotesque,” he laughs. “Yeah, it’s gonna be brutal and gruesome. A lot of it is based on real accounts of history during that time period. But it’s going to be very entertaining.”
Danzig has nothing to add. He hates talking about himself. He hates talking to the press. I’m lucky he’s even talking to me at all.
“I like making music,” he says. “I do press occasionally, but I tell lots of people to fuck off because I don’t give two fucks.”
