[Lankles]

On Tuesday the 24th of June, Defamer flew south.

It was a stressful trip, not because I had stage fright or anything, but because the rest of the band spent the entire flight convincing me that my beloved Loomis Sig wouldn't arrive with us, and if it did; it would have its neck snapped in half.

Bastards.

So we get there, grab the (intact) guitars and spend 100 dollars on a taxi to take us out to where we shipped our Engl heads and merch to for about 70 dollars. Then we go to the Enmore theatre to load in.
HOLY SHIT
This place is epic, truly epic. None of us have ever played in such an arena, the place has capacity of about 2600. Sure, it's not Wacken, but so far our biggest gig has been in front of just over 400.
This is when the rest of the band started panicking. Me, I just warm up because I am supremely confident.
I warm up for about 4 hours, and drink about 80 red bulls before we hit the stage.








It was the best night ever. There ended up being 1500 people through the doors at 730 when we started. Reviews of our short set have ranged from highly positive to "BTW First band failed lol". We sold crap all merch but look forward to our next Sydney show which is now properly organised, and are receiving a good amount of online expressions of interest based on our Bodom set.

What did we learn?

Don't expect to sell your 40 dollar hoodies when Bodom T-shirts are only 10 bucks more.
Don't expect to win over the entire crowd at a huge party-swedethrash gig by playing A-tuned death metal. (Unless you're the lead guitarist and people start bowing to you when you're soloing )
Play huge shows. They are awesome. REALLY FRICKIN' AWESOME.
Put your wallet in your back pocket when going on stage. Otherwise people will take photos of what looks like something large and misshapen living in your pants.

[Zepp88]

Those pictures are epic! Your singers stage get up is rather cool...

I haven't yet played a show that big, even at the Candlemass show there weren't a ton of people

As far as stuff in your pockets...put it in your guitar case, I hate having stuff in my pockets on stage.

[ShawnFjellstad]

cool deal dude. and +1 on keeping things out of your pockets on stage.

[Paul Malmsteen]

Hey I was there! It's horrible, the first thing I thought when you came out was "I wonder if that guy with the Loomis posts here"

You did fucking well for a crowd that big, especially since most weren't, as you said, the "A-Tuned Death Metal" crowd. The sound was great, a little muddy and leads were a bit quiet if I were to nit-pick (I think a house problem, what opening band doesn't have a less than ideal sound?)

The other guy was playing an SG, how is that going between you both?

BTW You fucking rip

[Naren]

Sweet pics and very cool story.

[dpm]

Very cool. I was meant to go to brutalfest the other week but had to crash instead How'd that go?

I think I've worked on Sam's guitar... he looks suspiciously familiar

[Rachmaninoff]

Originally Posted by Lankles

and drink about 80 red bulls before we hit the stage.

Wow dude, you look a lot calm for someone who got so much Red Bull
Great story BTW, congrats!

[Mattmc74]

Congrats! I have never played a show that big before! I bet it was a total rush. Great pics!

[Lankles]

Thanks for the pockets advice guys. I found my guitar case keys as well just before this show so I really should've done what you said and locked them in there.

Re: Sam, SG's

We're a good team. Our writing styles are quite different but neither of us have too much of an ego so the results tend to be contrasting, rather than conflicting.

We're tuned ADGCFa and ADGCFad so the pairing of 6er and 7er causes no issues. He's also ordered a set of 74 gauge strings because he's an absolute maniac. Which leads me to believe; yes dpm you probably have had to work on his guitar because your average SG should really NOT have strings that large on it.

I've long been convinced that I have some highly evolved Red Bull resistance gene.

[dpm]

I was pretty sure that was him! He mentioned that you played a 7. The tension of the 74 on the SG isn't a big deal because it's tuned low, they just need to be setup for it. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've worked on the guitar or he's just been getting his strings from us Too many guitars... they turn into one big blur.

Let me know when your next show is and I'll try to make it

[K7_Munky]

Great pics man that must have been insane.

[Lankles]

Cheers dude, our myspace is kept pretty up to date, and our next show is Brannigans Tavern on the Gold Coast.

Brutalfest went pretty well from our perspective but apparently it lost the promoter a lot of money. Only about 150 payers it turned out, looked like more because there were so many bands there.

[DaRKoN_]

I was there! \m/ Missed you guys though.. seems like I fail..

[Metal Ken]

badass \m/

[Apophis]

cool

[SuperSnake2012]

Awesome pics man. I would love to play for a crowd like that. Last show my band played,it seemed like there were about 100 people in the audience which is pretty big for a death metal band, I was stoked to play for that many. I bet you got a huge rush playing for thousands

[HighGain510]

That looks like a killer time, congrats on the cool gig man!

[D-EJ915]

nice dude

[7slinger]

awesome dude, congrats

[UGH]

Word. Did you get to meet Laiho?

[budda]

thats pretty awesome man, congrats!

i want to play a stadium show something fierce.

[noodles]

Fuck yeah, dude, playing to large crowds owns.

[Rick]

That's pretty badass.

[Espaul]

Amazing stuff dude! I probably would have liked your band more than bodom (I don't fancy them much :P)

anyways... to the question everyone want to ask: How much money did you guys get in when you opened for a huge band like bodom?


edit: The reason I'm asking is because I want to know what is to be expected from such a thing

[Lankles]

Erm... I think we might've got paid about 200 dollars. We still had to pay for our flights, accommodation, backline cabs and amp head freight. We sold some merch but overall it cost us hundreds of dollars from the band account. Worth every cent.