We had mentioned that we are completely new in town but will do our best to bring people. They assured us whatever we do will be fine as long as they see we put effort in. And we did. We promoted the best we could, considering we are from NY, just moved to LA, we sold a few tickets online.
The day of the show we drove up, get there early and I saw the huge marquee above the club with my picture on it. Cool I had never had seen a picture of myself blown up like that! It felt pretty awesome.
The staff comes in, tells us to load in our gear and so we do, amongst all the other bands, with all our gear inside the club, waiting for the promoter to tell us who goes on what time. It turns out, the band with the most sold tickets gets the best spot. No big deal, right? That's fair. I get called into the office and he tells me "look, you guys didn't sell enough tickets, you can't play" Speechless for a second, I replied "You knew we won't be able to sell as much as your locals, and you knew we are from NY just moved to LA and agreed that it's ok because you liked our music and wanted to give us a shot" He replied "Sorry, you are not playing".
THE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT IN MY CAREER! While all the other bands were hanging out and/or setting up, we were dragging our gear back outside, into our van.
Yes, true story! Apparently, a bunch of our local friends and fans (yes, we made some friends while we were in Ventura) were pretty pissed off and thought it was bullshit. So for years, whenever my friends band would play there, the club would talk shit about us. (which at that point was ridiculous, why they would even hold a grudge, all these years later)
In the meantime we made a name for ourselves, played all the hot clubs in LA and toured the US. Being back in NY for a show, I got to meet one of my favorite and most talented people o earth, Peter Steele. He loved our show, we exchanged numbers, became friends, got to open up for them at the HOB shows in Anaheim. And about a year later he invited us to join them on their west coast tour with Celtic Frost, which is by far one of coolest Otto's Daughter moments EVER! (this is the condensed story, we had a Blast with those guys)
One of the venues was the Ventura Theatre. We knew they were pissed when they heard we were opening for Type O but they had no control over the line-up. (Our good Ventura friend told us) HAHAHA. So thank you Peter, for that opportunity! It felt damn good to rock a full house at that venue.
Today, four years ago, sadly Peter Steele passed away. He's brought so much joy into my life with his sense of humor, his sarcasm, his generosity, his big heart and incredible talent.
I feel honored to say that not only did I consider Peter a great friend, I got to share the stage and mic with Celtic Frost and Type O during "Black Number One". Definitely the highlight of my music career with Otto's Daughter! I am forever grateful for that! You might be gone, but the memories are alive as much as your spirit and music!
R.I.P. Peter!
No comments:
Post a Comment