JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: KEN SUSI AND THE CASE OF THE BROKEN POLISH MONITOR
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 5:00pm by Eyal Levi
Shady times in Poland. We were a little bummed to begin with. Warsaw was coming up and we found out that Behemoth was playing in the same town as us. In their homeland. Ouch. When you get news like that your first feelings are, “Why bother with our show? Why not go hang out at their show?” That’s never a good idea. I remember when we were on the Dark Funeral/Naglfar tour in 2007 and we hit Phoenix, Arizona the same day as Behemoth and Job For a Cowboy. It seemed like a serious bummer, but somehow there were still around 200 kids at our show, which was on par for that tour. Same thing happened on this tour. There were like 400-500 kids at our show. I heard there were 2,500 people at the Behemoth show, but still, 400-500 kids made for good times.
The crowd was enthusiastic and other than the intense heat onstage, I thought it was great times. The promoter was super cool. The food spread he gave us was fit for an army. So many different kinds of everything. Meats, cheeses, breads, drinks, cereals, candies, fruits, yogurts, spreads, etc., etc., etc. His dinner was amazingly catered as well. So many different choices of pastas, meats, salads. The backstage area was huge. We were treated great.
Until the end of the night, that is.
Here’s my theory on what was behind what went down. The club had a broken monitor and took the first excuse they could to shake down a foreign band through physical intimidation. Sounds juicy? Well, it was kinda scary. I remember hanging out on the bus practicing guitar, and then I went inside the venue for load-out, and I noticed that there was an argument going down between Ken Susi of Unearth and some club employees. There were representatives of every band there, and the club’s entire security staff was there, so it seemed pretty serious. I left and kept on loading but would poke my head inside here and there to see what was going on.
What happened was that a monitor either fell off-stage or was kicked off-stage. The club said that because of the fall it was broken, but Ken proved to them that this was not the case. The reason the monitor was broken was because one of the coils connected to the speaker had melted. That doesn’t happen from intense trauma. That happens from driving it too hard with audio signal. So there’s no way, whether Ken kicked the monitor off-stage or if it just fell off-stage, that hitting the ground was the cause of it not working anymore.
Ken went through a lot to prove this to them. He took the speaker apart, he explained it all to them… nothing was sinking in, and things were getting more and more heated. As the argument continued, more and more dudes kept on showing up that looked ready to fight us. I, once again, resumed loading. It was a pretty small loading party that night because most people were watching the argument. At one point the tour manager took all Unearth and Chimaira employees inside. So us in DAATH were stuck outside with all the gear, unsure of what to do with it. That’s when a car sped up and blocked off our bus, and people in front of the bus started spitting on it. We decided that we would just load the trailer for everyone, and if they had an issue with how we packed it that they could cry about it on the ride out of town.
Well as this was happening, the situation inside kept on escalating as the club employee had gone from talking to Ken about the speaker to insulting Ken. At that point it was clear that they had to get out of the club. This was a fight that we as a tour wouldn’t have won. There were too many reinforcements coming in.
So check out how it was solved. After all the back and forth for over an hour, after all the insults, after all the physical reinforcements, Unearth and Chimaira split 100 Euros, the promoter paid 100 Euros, Unearth gave up three T-shirts, and somebody gave them a bottle of Jager. These guys were looking to either fight some foreigners, or get some money towards a new monitor system because their shot ass system was out of gas. Well, they got some out of us. Better to bribe them than get beaten by gangs of Polish skinheads.
Again, the promoter was great, and the audience was fantastic. We look forward to playing Poland again under more professional circumstances. Otherwise it’ll end up here for everyone to read about. Cheers!
-EL
Watch some video of Ken Susi gettin’ down in it here. Then go visit Daath on MySpace.
Ken Susi seems like a guy who would not let down on a fight. Cool blog.
Ken Susi will break somebody’s eyesockets
Once again awesome blog. What a fucking nightmare! Had a similar situation and I can relate, only we weren’t so diplomatic. I had to do thirty days in county for simple assault. I gotta say, though it ruined our chances at playing a select few local venues it was totally worth it. Stay positive.
I think you guys would of won the fight if you ask your loyal fans for back up.
Well, it was during load out. Chances are, most people had left.
I dunno man, polish people are scary
Damn right we are
Eh, I think I’m nice. Anyway I think Eyal hit it right on the money. You have to keep in mind though that a lot of the people there still have communism fresh in their minds, when no had shit, so you had to go out of your way to get by. Ive been told east of Poland, its even worse.
Also the part about skinheads is dead on too. Theyre really prevalent all througout Europe as far as I can tell. This one time my buddy and I were buying hot dogs in a park and a skinhead came up and asked nicely to “borrow” a couple of zloty (before they had Euros). He just handed it over like he owed to him. I was visting so I was like “what the fuck?”, but my buddy reassured me that we didn’t want to fuck with him, because we’d surely get our ass beat by him and his friends.
For the most part though I think us Poles are awesome ( I mean come on, part of the deal was booze! How is that not awesome?). There’s shady people everywhere. Glad he still has an optimistic outlook on going back.
Small correction – Poland to this day does not use the Euro.
But on topic – I’m Polish and live in Poland. Sad I couldn’t come out for the show, since I’m a fan of Daath and Chimaira, but I live across the country from Warsaw, and this was a trip I just couldn’t make. But yeah, stuff like that is sadly is pretty normal for us. Plus, you being metalheads in metal bands, you were pissing some people just by being there. But that is a shame, and I’m sorry for my countrymen that it had to go down like this.
Also, in relation to what you said Polska – in Poland, you don’t want to go out at night alone, because very probable that you will get beat up and robbed between the blocks.
They certainly accept euros
How many pollocks does it take….
@Eyal – We do accepts them, since we’re in the EU. But it was supposed to be our national coin by I think 09 at first, and now it’s not sure that it will be even by 2012
Sorry about the zloty/euro thing. Havent been back in a while so I assumed they already converted since theyve been talking about it forever.
Also, true about the blocks. I used to live in those. I was just making a point about skinheads.
First time I enjoyed reading this blog
haha Susi knows his shit.
Got a question for you Eyal. It appears that you were vastly outnumbered in this confrontation. Were all of these people part of the venue crew or did they call in their buddies to have a show of force before confronting you guys? It seems that this would be the type of thing resolved with the club manager, not a gang of mean looking polish guys.
Anyway, good blog.
They called in reinforcements
Shitty and quite unprofessional. hopefully you can warn other bands about this joint before they get extorted too.
sounds like quite the adventure
i wouldnt fuck with the poles, i know a polish dude who’s dad tried to stab someone who had tried to mug him by trying to piece his skull with a fucking screwdriver
and no offense man but i wouldve gone to the Behemoth show
i worship those guys on a level that is probably unhealthy
and i caught your show when you came through belgium (and will be catching behemoth when they come over on november 1st)
I wouldve gone to Behemoth too lol
But I had a job to do
Dear Eyal, I’m Polish and I’m really sorry and embarrassed by what happened. As far as I know, it was just a single incident, and usually people here don’t try to extort money from foregin bands. Still, it’s fucking ridiculous.
Maybe next time try having a Polish dude (one of fans, perhaps) to translate for you. Skinheads and other douches usually don’t know English, except for ‘fuck’ and ‘money’. Probably the words most often used by their moms.
Anyway, good to know noone got hurt. Hope you’ll visit us again, despite this shameful accident.
We’ll definitely come back
Hopefully the same thing wont happen again
See? You guys should come down to Spain, here we settle these arguments by Bullfighting lol then we all go share a paella…
” Unearth and Chimaira split 100 Euros, the promoter paid 100 Euros, Unearth gave up three T-shirts, and somebody gave them a bottle of Jager.”
so…what did Daath give up? the Jager?
sounds like they broke their backs loading up everyone’s gear.
We weren’t accused of breaking the monitor
Plus due to the business arangement on the tour it would have been asinine for us to pay anything
We just helped the tour out by doing other people’s job’s for them and were more than ready to have the backs of our tour bros
Mr Fuck Your Gay Emo Haircut – I would like to know how you would handle such a situation. I’m not calling you out or being aggro or anything like that. Just curious.
to orbital: that makes sense
In response to your question Eyal, I probably would have acted the way you did. Stay out of the conflict until either it’s solved or fists start flying.
Personally, I would have been on the side of the Poles in calling Susi a fucking fairy.
You should try that next time you see him at an Unearth show. See what happens.
……….yeaaah see what happens.
pfft
male posturing is gay enough on its own , do it on the internet and its tenfold
Who’s posturing?
You should have given them a fight. Massive brawls with sketchy people make for excellent tour stories.
Given them a fight and then what?
Deal with 100 more of their friends?
What if they had mob ties?
You fancy being thrown in a Polish prison as an American?
I was only kidding. I had images flashing through my head of broken vodka bottles and people getting sliced and stabbed and blood and teeth flying everywhere, which is pretty fucking metal, but since real-life is not an episode of Metalocalypse you guys clearly did the right thing.
100 euros? How the fuck do bands make any money? so unearth has 5 dudes and Chimaira have 6. 11 people divided by 100 plus some road crew. sounds like I could find more money in my couch. That fucking sucks. Fuck you Poland.
LOL@ metal bands making money
im suprised you posted publicly other bands payment arrangements. Thats pretty dam unproffesional and doesnt paint Chimaira and Unearth in the best light.
Zuh? T-shirts and Jager for a shit monitor? Poland has some weird ideas about haggling.
Also, anybody who needs an army of people to settle a monetary dispute is a coward.
No kidding eh? Everyone’s a big man when their in a mob. Cowards…
Moral of the story = get on the same bill as behemoth.
Damn Eyal, guess that’s just some of the horrors of touring eh? You guys are lucky they didn’t take the cash and STILL start shit. What assholes. Their police would have definately not sided with you guys either. That’s life though man, and rule #1 about being in a foreign country is you don’t ever want to end up in foreign prison lol.
unearth still blow
That sounds crazy when you have two amazing shows on the same night, especially when you’re playing one.
Anyways Eyal, I was at the Gojira show last week, and I was chilling with Brent from Zoroaster. I guess they’re from ATL as well and he said you hooked him up with shows a long time ago. Is that true?
Truth. Love Zoroaster.
Touring musicians, take note: the musicians’ Better Business Bureau for the Internet age. Well done, Eyal. And I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same, had I been in your situation.
Now what do I have to do to shake you down for 200 Euros, 3 T-shirts (Unearth or otherwise), and….shit, I don’t drink Jager… ??
Damn, dude. That’s nuts! I love that he took the monitor apart to show them what was wrong with it though. Too bad he couldn’t Macguyver it with a nickel and a piece of chewing gum or something to make it work again.
How cool would that have been!!!
Well, nobody here can get your money/shit back, but we could certainly fill their inbox:
klub@progresja.com
Just a thought.
You beat me to it. *high-five*
Sorry for my countrymen, stuff like that is one of the reasons why I moved to UK.
This is weird, Progresja’s the place with good reputation (it’s known as a prog place – it isn’t wretched hive of scum and nazi rockers or anything like that), hard to believe they pulled that crap off, _especially_ the bit with gathering support for potential fight (skinheads? wat?). Violence is kinda uncommon in local metal world as far as I know.
This makes the personnel look like a bunch of redneck mongs, which I really have problem to believe in. But yeah, world can be funny.
Which part is funny?
Any.
Don’t treat that as accusation of lying, I’m not that often there to know everything about the venue (maybe they’re really idiots sometimes), but I’ve just found it dissapointing considering their reputation. I’m glad you liked the audience tho, that bit is most important I think.
I wasn’t accusing you of lying
I wouldn’t make up a blog like this and include the names of my friends and provide video to call out some people who tried to fuck us if it wasnt true.
First, let me say that I was at this show and all the bands were fucking amazing. Thanks for a killer time. And I hope Chris from Chimaira found the pussy he seemed to be so desperately seeking out. He gave two girls I was standing next to backstage passes and asked them if they liked to party. They said yes, but when they didn’t come right over, he came back a minute later and wanted to know if they were coming. They told him they were waiting for someone. They weren’t. They were standing next to me most of the night and they never met up with anyone else. I don’t think they realized he was in the band. He should’ve pulled out a photo and shown them who he was. I saw them hanging out after the show with the Throwdown guys.
I’m an American and I’ve been living in Poland for over 2 years now and from what I’ve experienced the people are either really nice or extremely rude. Not much middle ground. (Don’t get me started on the old ladies that always cut in line at the post office). And when they get mad, things get heated REAL fast. Sorry to hear about the argument, just glad it finally got resolved without getting too out of hand.
I’ve been to a bunch of metal shows in Warsaw and I definitely like seeing them here more than back in the States. I’ve probably never been to a show in the States that didn’t have someone getting into at least a shoving match, if not a full out fist fight. I’ve never seen anything like that here. The crowds are always quite a bit tamer and pretty respectful of eachother. The dudes in the pit don’t try to take eachothers heads off, they just have fun. They dance kinda crazy, though. Did you notice the 5 or 6 dudes that were doing the punch, punch, kick thing over and over? Where the hell did they learn that one?
Like ninja moshing? They would have learned that from coming to America and hanging out with teenagers at various malls.
Trust me, there was nothing ninja about it. It kinda looked like they were doing a swim stoke and then a high kick. I’ve shown some of my friends and they all think it’s hilarious, just not very “metal”.
Sucks that bands don’t have more power in this. Maybe have web site with a list clubs to avoid booking tours at? A reputation system of some kind. If bands refused to play at a particular club because of a bad rep, that club would have to straighten out, or probably wouldn’t be around very long. Seems to be a long history of bands getting ripped off by clubs…
oh man, why cant people just get along with each other….are they really stupid enough to act as if they knew more about the monitor-stuff than Ken?…..i hate it when people try to get money out of foreigners, that happens much too often….hope you guys will still come back next year :) im soooo looking forward
Shit, you could’ve taken them. Everyone knows the Polish are comically inept at fighting–that’s why the Nazis were able to conquer them so easily!
hahaha good one !
I’m surprised no one made this joke sooner. I defenitely thought about it.
I’m sure you wouldve handled this well yourself then!
Oh yeah, this one time I got jumped by like 50 Polish skinheads and all they did was stand around me in a circle and attack me one at a time so I was able to beat them all but I was really tired afterwards so I didn’t go for ice cream like I usually do after I kick somebody’s ass.
good post again Eyal. Though, I had almost forgot about how sad I was that this tour wasn’t in the States until now.
love the blogs Eyal and Ken is the man
Good times good times huh :), you can just tour California well protect you lol :) no beat down from us fans only smoke sessions
Eyal, that sure beats the alternative of getting into a brawl, and then STILL having to pay for the unbroken monitor, not to mention then having to bribe Polish jail guards. Sometimes it’s better to pay a little and stew in your anger than exacerbate an already bad situation. All the tough guys who would roll their sleeves up and ball their fists would be the real losers, but they could brag who badass they are and then get into their 24-inch lifted Ford pickups, while adjusting their tiny junk.
Hahah “Po Po Poland people are scccarrryyy!” “Shiiieeyyytt” Come to Oakland Cali, or Richmond Cali…
Eyal you did the right thing man.
One question though…
What type of skinheads were these? ALL of you know there ARE 2 types of skinheads rights??
For those who don’t look up S.H.A.R.P. Skins and Boneheads(Nazis)
Complete fuckin opposite from eachother. Research
Eh. I’ve been to shows in Oakland. Not so bad. Although I wouldn’t want to be certain places there at night.
But honestly, the eastern euro nazi types scare me more. :P
I think he was more referring to the cities of Richmond and Oakland as being (in his opinion) rougher than cities in Poland. I personally don’t know enough about Poland to verify this, but I do know that there are plenty of cities and countries in Europe, South America, and plenty of other parts of the world that make the murder rate/crime rate in general in said Bay Area cities pale by comparison, so making such an assumption seems kind of ignorant to me.
Pretty much what I was implying too. I’ve seen shows in Oakland. I’ve ridden buses through Oakland at 2-3AM (ever take the All Nighter from SF to Fremont?). I never felt in any sort of danger. I’m sure anything is possible, but I’ve never been shaken down by skinheads or anyone else in Oakland either.
Nazi
I refuse to give Nazis the respect of proper capitalization. Oh crap what did I just do? :p
I would hope somebody had the time to squeeze out a Polish sausage-like turd and stuff it somewhere in the club to be discovered later – MUCH later – before rolling out of there.
Sorry you guys had to take up the slack. I hope the folks read this and payed attention and realize what kind of people you are… not many would do that and you guys weren’t asked to do so. I applaud DAATH. I already knew you guys are friggin’ cool… this only further cements it.
Oh yeah, I just watched a TiVo’ed HBB and saw the vid for “Day of Endless Light”. CRUSHING video for an amazing song. I hope it does you guys well!
PAID attention. My English is tired tonight.
Sucks that you had to deal with that shit, dude.
When you end up in poland again…
One word: Krupnik.
Learn it
Drink it
Love It