Hollywood Undead

12-6-2009

Manchester Academy 1

Hollywood Undead

Escape The Fate

It’s twelve noon at the popular venue and kids are already beginning to form a line outside the front doors. Others stood in a small crowd at the doors of the tour buses. Duvets and boxes of food litter the front of the line. Why? Well those that congregated at the front of the line had managed to secure a place by arriving at 3AM in the morning.

You’d think such dedication would encourage the bands to come and greet them, thank them for such loyalty, wouldn’t you? Hollywood Undead were more than happy to take pictures with their fans and stop for pictures if they wanted to - I was lucky enough to catch Funnyman, Johnny3 Tears, Da Kurlzz, J-Dog, and Charlie Scene. Although if you’re in Escape The Fate this doesn’t seem to apply to you.

The group outside the ETF tourbus waited patiently for their heroes in the rain for hours whilst the ignorant bus driver decided it would be fun to beep the deafening horn at them repeatedly over a long period of time. When Max (Green, Bassist of Escape The Fate) finally made an appearance in the glass at the front of the bus the fans took to their feet, kindly asking through the window if he would come outside. He simply replied ‘no’ and once again disappeared behind the curtain that lead to the back of the bus.

Rude? That’s nothing yet. Another hour or so passed and Green reappeared for another talk with the driver of the bus. Once again, he was kindly asked if he would come outside. Reluctantly, he returned to the back to get a jacket before resurfacing - this time, with a camera man. He opened the door, addressing his public as ‘children’ and proceeded to take pictures while he was recorded. After a mere three pictures or so the camera man stopped filming and Max took off away from the Academy. Some people tried following to ask for a quick picture before he went but he was already gone. Seriously, he wasn’t even outside for longer than two minutes before he decided he’d finished his part. 

Not long after some people spotted him with the camera man at the other end of the academy and began to walk towards him but as soon as the two caught site of the few they took off again, this time securing themselves inside the venue. By this point several of the fans were in complete shock of how rude he was being. Heads up to the band guys: when fans are actually paying money - a fair amount at that - how about coming outside and meeting them when they’re standing in the rain?

Another good while later Max emerged again. This time he was willing to take pictures with more than a handful of people and take a few phone calls, however, he was on camera.

Robert (Ortiz, Drummer) was the next person to pass by after returning from Sainsbury’s down the road. Although in a hurry he still stopped to take photos with fans. This lightened my opinion of him considering last time I met him he seemed frustrated to see me and my friend as he sipped on his beer and reluctantly took a picture with us.

It was a long while before anybody else appeared, but Monte (“Money”, Guitarist) passed on his way from the bus inside the venue. People asked for pictures to which he replied “yeah I’ll be right out” and disappeared. However, as soon as the words leaked from his mouth everyone knew he wasn’t coming back so it was no surprise when not a single person got another glimpse of the guitarist.

Last but most definitely not least came Craig Mabbitt. When people spotted him on his way to eat before his soundcheck they asked for a picture with the small amount of hope they had left. Unlike certain members of the band he instantly stopped and made sure theer was a decent amount of pictures taken before the manager hurried him along. People let him on his way and he continued on down the street. However, a small group of no more than four fans who had been waiting since the morning to meet the band members took a detour to meet him on his trip - these fans didn’t even have tickets for the show.

They managed to catch up to the pair and asked quickly for some pictures. The manager told them they’d be back shortly (very similarly to Monte) and urged Mabbitt onwards. However the fans explained that they had no tickets for the show and were cold and simply wanted to go home. Despite the manager’s complaints Mabbitt stopped and beckoned the fans forward, quickly taking pictures and making sure all requests were filled.

This man single-handedly managed to changed my opinions drastically on the stereotypical front of the band members. His kindness towards these fans made me realise that not all members of the bands were totally inconsiderate. I realised all the Max Green followers had deluded themselves to believe he was a totally 1-demensional good character. How? I have no idea. I realised that band members, like normal people, have good and bad days and change when alcohol is involved and that some of the members plain and simply do not care about how dedicated their fans are to meeting them.

The fans then left and returned home after their encounter with the vocalist and many of the group surrounding the buses begun to take their places in the steadily growing line. Mabbitt later returned to meet those who he hadn’t yet spoken to, gave out hugs, took phone calls and then went inside for sound check. I don’t care about all the Radke ‘fans’ hating on Craig. That man is a gentleman and those who dislike him clearly haven’t met him in person. It doesn’t matter who the ‘better singer’ is. That’s all down to personal opinion, but do not try and accuse this man of stealing the former-singer’s place because that was down to the other members - not him.

The next guys to come along were Da Kurlz, Funny man and the current stand-in vocalist. A member of the crowd approached Funny man enquiring why Deuce had left the band. He simply replied with “I don’t want to talk about it” and returned to the vanue - however returned not too long afterwards. I asked the same person about the issue who told me he’d asked Charlie Scene the same question who responded with just as much information on the situation. I was told he replied with ”he’s being a faggot” and ended the conversation there. So, Deuce’s departure’s clearly a touchy subject with the band members. What do the band intend to do with the lack of clean vocals in the band? Will his current stand-in take his place?

Moving on, Escape The Fate played an amazing set. It took an hour after the doors had opened for them to surface but when they did the crowd was screaming along to the songs and Craig even came into the crowd on the final song. He was sat on a few fans a couple of rows back and one crowd-surfer even managed to be lucky enough to pass while Craig was there. The two grabbed each others hands and Craig even leaned the microphone forwards for the other boy to sing the final part of the song. After this, they (well, Mabbit) thanked the crowd and left.

Another short while after checking the sound for all of the instruments and messing around with the lighting the lights went out. The crowd cheered and Hollywood Undead took to the stage. They opened with Undead, nailing each note and encouraging the crowd to do the same. As you all probably know I’m a fan of stage prescence - something they certainly had.

After finishing a set list that consisted of Dead in Ditches, City, California, Bottle, Paradise Lost, Black Dahlia, Sell Your Soul, No 5 amongst witty canter with the crowd they left the stage. The crowd was cheering for more like wild animals. It was actually quite crazy. As planned, the unsually large group returned to the stage to play Young and finally finish with Everywhere I Go.

My question of the night would probably be: It’s December 6th, why aren’t you playing Christmas in Hollywood?! Besides this, they were amazing. Everyone was completely drained by the end of it and the merch booth was over run with sweating bodies.

All-in-all, a good night! I recommend them to anyone who wants to go and see Hollywood Undead, but if you’re looking to see Escape The Fate, stick to Robert and Craig. Max and Monte clearly have ‘better things’.