Machine head Frontman Checks In From The Road
MACHINE HEAD frontman Rob Flynn has issued the following update from the band's current North American tour with LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and GOJIRA:
"Hey, hey, hey fuckers!
I write to you from the thriving metropolis that is Lubbock, Texas... day off, kickin' it right next to the freeway... woo - hoo.
We've now got the first three dates of the Lamb Of God tour under our belts and I gotta say man, shit is going really, really fuckin' good. The first 17 out of 18 shows are sold out, and we're getting the 'Machine Fuckin' Head' chants between every song... we're blown away over and over again by the response we're getting, seriously mind-blowing. All the LOG guys are really cool, had a blast with them last night in Austin. We all went to Billy Milano's bar Headhunter's, across the street from Stubb's where we played... managed to talk the local band REND into letting us jam on their equipment, and had a wildly fun and hideously horrible jam session. With an insanely drunk Willie Adler and a slightly drunk Chris Adler, a wasted Demmel (on bass) and an equally wasted Flynn (on guitar)... oooooh, it wasn't exactly what you'd call 'pretty'. We had Phil's tech 'Bucket Ass' aka 'Short Time' on lead vocals along with Dusty from the LOG camp. The six of us proceeded to butcher 'Walk', 'South Of Heaven', 'Seek And Destroy', 'Lay It Down' by RATT *cough* 'Iron Man' and numerous other bits and pieces, while consuming an ungodly amount of vodka and Jäger shots and laughing hysterically at our horrible-ness...
Good LORD!!! Too much fun... it really needs to happen again! Head Cases, give Lamb Of God the utmost respect for having the balls to take The Head out, they deserve it.
Trivium guys are doing well, going over REALLY friggin' good; got to meet the Gojira guys who are some of the nicest guys around, killer band too.
We started out doing a couple of warm-up shows to shake the rust off since we haven't played live since August, and we were only able to squeeze three practices in between doing videos, press, and having my second son Wyatt. We booked these two shows on short notice thinking / hoping there'd only be a 100 or so people, because we knew we were going to sound like a really bad Machine Head cover-band... then both damn near sell out?! We were like, 'dammit, now we have to play good... shit!' Funny. We ended up playing four new tunes, and WOW, they went over fucking incredible! Seriously unbelievable! I honestly can't remember new songs going over THIS good... well... ever! Maybe when we debuted 'Frontlines' at Dynamo, but even then... it was nothing like this.
Some people have heard the new songs already, as the album leaked a couple of weeks ago (thanks a lot, U.S. journalists!), but if there's a silver lining in that hooptie-assed cloud, it's the fact that people are seriously freaking out over the new shit, totally losing it. It's a bit overwhelming, I must say, but at the same time though, it's vindicating.
CD art is done, turned out really cool. RR actually coughed up for us to have a 16-page booklet, so we're pretty jacked about that! They're so fucking behind this record, man! Been doing press and cover stories galore, just shot an official video for 'Now I Lay Thee Down' (making of coming soon...) and are strongly considering doing an un-edited straight-to-YouTube video for 'Clenching The Fists Of Dissent'. Getting ready to go do Headbanger's Ball in March when we roll through NYC. We now have touring plans set up for the next year or so; we wrap up LOG in April, have more U.S. stuff in April / May, doing European festivals come June / July, still working out mid-summer plans for the U.S., and most likely headline our super-enormous mega-package through the UK and Europe in Oct-Dec. WHEW!!
Then probably headline the US in Jan-Mar 08' with an equally enormo-mega-package!! Yeah, no rest for the wicked, right?
Well, I'm off to nurse my hangover, watch a little Caddyshack, and then hit the sack. We can't wait to see all you crazy fuckers on the road, where we and each of our beer-breathed brethren shall drown out the whines of emo kids around the world with vodka and merryment!!!"
Shake and Bake!
- Flynn