You won’t believe this! One of the Craziest Nights of my life happened this Halloween at the Crofoot – Creepy Cheapy Halloween Treat

PONTIAC, MI – This Halloween, I performed alongside Beats and Angles as part of a very special performance at the Crofoot, a venue in Pontiac, MI. Every year, the Crofoot throws its annual “Creepy Cheapy Halloween Treat”, a super-fun party that takes over the entire venue for the night. Bands and fans of bands alike absolutely LOVE this event, and it just keeps getting bigger and crazier every year.

I’ve performed at the Creepy Cheapy several times before with another band, The Marvins. The first year we performed as Cake; the second year, we performed as Stone Temple Pilots. This year

Jason Demmon and Beats and Angles The Crofoot’s Annual Creepy Cheapy SHow 2013

I spent the last few months obsessing over every detail, finding new ways to enhance our performance. The 4^th draft of our video sync DVD had just finished burning, and it was looking incredible. Automated vocal effects were fine-tuned, and a custom click track in place, tying in our performance and putting the finishing touches on things. We had costumes ready, and watched videos so that we could look just like the band.

Two weeks before the gig, it is time for our next-to-last rehearsal. Our Drummer Dan is a HUGE Tool fan, and he has made the hour-long drive to be here early. Dan is musician’s musician-and we have a lot in common.  He cares about the MUSIC as an ART form, and I love that about Dan. He is also an incredible drummer, and he is playing these parts like only Danny Carey himself could. Our Bass Player, Jon Herrmann, is also in the same boat. Jon plays in so many bands (I think 9 bands now?) yet he still keeps up with our rigorous routine. Jon never ceases to amaze me with his depth as a musician, producer, engineer, family man, and all-around superman. He also owns the best studio in Lansing, Epiphany Sound. Check it out!  Jon and Dan are my musical brothers, and I am honored and humbled to share the stage with them every time we perform!

Our (now former) guitarist, who shall remain nameless, shows up to the rehearsal bent out of shape. Here’s where the drama begins. He is looking for every excuse to cancel this gig. First, it’s that we’re not getting paid. I explain that we ARE getting paid, and it may not be much, but we all knew that going into it. We play through 2 songs, “Stinkfist “and “Sober”. The guitarist speaks up again, complaining that we aren’t on the main stage, and I assure him that things will work out fine, we will make do with what we have. See, we played the The Vernor’s Room once before, and there wasn’t  a sound guy to help with our sound in the room that night. He is afraid it will be the same story.

Jason Demmon performs as TOOL

We listen to the next song, which begins with some guitar feedback. “I can’t do that” he chimes in. “Can’t do what?” I ask. “That feedback.  I can’t do that.” I then ask him “Don’t you have a Marshall Half Stack and a Gibson SG?” to which he replies “Yeah, but I’m not bringing that to this gig, I don’t want anything to happen to it.”  Then, in one final insulting gesture of unpleasantness, he claims that he has things to do, he can’t “work for free anymore” and that he was hoping to “get out of there” at a decent hour. “What time?” I ask, glancing at my watch. It is 7:45. “Around 8…” he says. At this point, I realized that he is just trying to sabotage this gig because he hasn’t put in the time and doesn’t know his parts.

I pointed out to him that we have all worked very hard on this performance, that we’ve had months to prepare, and that the rest of us were here, giving up our Friday nights, to rehearse and finish these songs out with the respect that the songs command and deserve. I offer that if he isn’t willing to do that, then maybe he should just leave.  He packed up his tiny amp and Fender Stratocaster and left. We continued to rehearse, running all of the songs, as I switched to guitar.

A few days went by, and I fired our former guitarist. As of this day, I still haven’t heard so much as one word from him.  After a few days, we hired another guitarist with less than 2 weeks to go for the gig, knowing that one last rehearsal was all we were going to have before the performance! Luckily, Dan knew a great guitarist that would be perfect. But could he handle it? The following week, it is time for our dress rehearsal.  I am fully prepared to take over guitar duties as well as sing, in case this doesn’t work out.

Our fill-in guitarist arrives and plugs in. As we begin our first song, it becomes clear that this guitarist already knows his stuff better than the last guy. I smile nervously and look at Dan and Jon. Looks like we can pull it off after all!

It’s now 1:30 On Friday, October 25^th and I’ve made the commitment. My WAHL brand clippers have taken a few inches of hair off of my scalp. I quickly realize that either my wife Lindsay, or a trained professional is going to have to help me finish this. The last time I shaved my head was in the 5^th grade. It felt weird and uncomfortable back then, but it feels so perfect today. I am about to have one of the most challenging and rewarding nights of my career.

I load the van by myself, making sure to bring everything we need to have a great performance. Drums? Check. Backup Guitar? Check. Bass cabinet? Check. Guitar amp? Check. I grab our packet with extra copies of our set list, tech sheet for the sound guy, and 2 extra copies of the DVD which will play during our show. I swing by and pick up Adam Carter, our videographer for the performance, and JG, our super competent tech.  Traffic is a beast! We arrive at the Crofoot 45 minutes behind schedule, but in one piece.

As we unload, I realize that I forgot our drum rug. Our drummer Dan tells me that it’s a crucial piece of gear and that we can’t make the show happen without it. I mentally prepare to make the trip back to Lansing, and call a few people whom I know are coming from Lansing. Luckily, our bass player Jon hasn’t left yet and is willing to get the rug! SCORE! Jon picks up the rug and is on his way.

Phreddy W as Miley Cyrus

At the venue, I meet with Phreddy, the promoter of the show. Phreddy is dressed in the best Miley Cyrus costume I have ever seen.  2 teddy bear heads adorn the top part of the suit, and a foam finger  finds it’s way under and around Phreddy’s muscular legs. His mannish form is accentuated by the exposed hairy back and bulge in his skimpy one piece bathing suit. He is ROCKING it tonight! I smile from ear to ear and continue to load in.

Load in goes well, and I turn my attention to our multimedia performance. JG and I look for a staff member to hook up to the DVD player and projector.  The staff at the Crofoot is on top of it, and after 45 minutes of work and the help of 4 staff members, we are in a good spot with the video. Success!

I meet with our sound man for the evening after the first band is finished with their sound check. I ask if he has our tech sheet, and he says he does not. No sweat, I’m prepared for this. I bring another copy. He doesn’t have cables to hook up my vocal rig. I’ve spent countless hours making automated vocal effects, all synchronized to our performance with a click track, which coincides with our video. Delays, chorus effects, EQs for different parts of the song, have all been carefully fine-tuned to happen in real time, and all in sync with the video.

The sound guy tells me that he doesn’t have any way to hook up my computer to the sound board – he just doesn’t have cables long enough. I tell him that I have some extra cables, and I go get them. However, they only reach to the extreme corner of the stage. This means that my rig will have to be on the opposite side of the stage from me, and on the other side of the drums. I am just grateful that they will reach and that all of the work I put in will not be in vain! He tells me that the cables will have to stay there throughout the show because they run through a public area to the soundboard.  He is not interested in letting me check my rig through the P.A. because he tells me that he is 100% sure that his inputs work. Against my better judgment and experience, I say O.K. and start to get ready. (Bad move on my part)

“Strangers”

The first band (Strangers) is performing as “Jane’s Addiction” and they are KILLING IT. They sound so authentic- it is awesome. They finish, and it is time for us to go on.

We load our gear through the crowd, which is a challenge. Our drum set has a profile that is 8’6” and it barely fits on the stage. My gear sits in the corner, the cables barely reaching.  Looks like everything is going to work! I signal JG to start the video and wait for the countdown. 8…7..6…Wait… why am I hearing the click track through the speakers? 5…4…3…2… OH no! Something isn’t right! Our click track and monitor cues are playing through the house speakers somehow! What happened? I must have plugged the cables into the wrong place. It was dark and cramped in that corner, and the main outputs are right next to the cue outputs.  This would have to be a garage band style performance. This also means that all of the vocal effects, extra sound samples, and video synchronization that we had all worked so hard for so long to create wouldn’t be a part of our show. I made a quick decision and pulled the plug on our sync performance, putting an end to the synchronized portion of our show just as quickly as it had begun.

A feeling of intense anger and immeasurable frustration washed over me. Refusing to drown in it, my instincts as a performer kicked in. I ran over to the other side of the drums, the only place where I had any room to stand outside of our drummer’s massive footprint.  On the way, I stepped on our guitarist’s guitar pedal, unplugging his guitar. I quickly realize what has happened and fumble for the end of the guitar cable.  A well-meaning fan rushed on to the stage to help, but all he was doing was getting in the way. I finally wrestle the cable from him and plug in. As I turn back towards the audience, I start to sing and realize that there is no monitor for me, and I can’t hear myself sing. I jam my finger into my ear and listen to the vibrations of my inner ear in an attempt to sing in tune. Another larger  wave of intense anger rushes in, and for a moment I am almost crippled by it. At this point, my experience in tough situations like these kicks in, and I spend the next 28 minutes listening to vibrations in my inner ear,  left finger plugged firmly against my tragus, channeling the most intense anger and frustration I have ever experienced into a performance that I hardly remember. Luckily, we were performing as TOOL instead of some happy Barenaked Ladies type band. I can’t wait to watch the video.

The audience was absolutely ON FIRE! The band played well, and the energy and spirit of TOOL was alive and well in our set! Playing the songs without the extras forced us to play the songs organically, in a more garage band type setup, and the music was living and breathing along with us and the audience. Every bit of energy we put out was returned to us ten-fold by way of a pulsating, throbbing, moshing, crowd-surfing audience. They get the award for the most rowdy audience of the night! I even found out later that one person broke a toe during our set (you know who you are!!!) I was overwhelmed by the energy from a room crammed full of spectators. Every note I sang was reflected and sang back to me through living breathing people. This is the stuff we all live for!

After the show, we work quickly to load off stage so that the next band can load on. It still takes a really long time. All I want to do is sit down and try to process what just happened, try to figure out what I could have done differently, and relax for the first time in 5 hours. I make plans to head down to the green room area. This energy needs to go somewhere!

In the green room, I meet a young woman who is the fiancé of our fill-in guitarist. We have a nice conversation about the show. After a few more minutes of sitting down, our drummer Dan comes over and tells me that for personal reasons that I won’t mention, he is “strongly suggesting” that we load out immediately so that he and his guest can leave to avoid further personal drama. I arrange to have”Betty  the Blue Bomber”  van parked on the street, and I’m really not looking forward to loading out after only just sitting down.

I run up the street to get our van and park on the street to load out.  The rest of our crew works to load out. Usually, I can oversee this process, but this time we have 2 new crew members and a fill-in guitarist, so everything is a bit hectic and wacky. Gear is brought out in no particular order, and I spend time organizing the van so everything fits. My wife Lindsay is driving the van home because I need to stick around and get paid at 2 AM.  Our camera guy brings the camera equipment, and I am distracted for a moment as our van pulls away. I head back inside to find my friends, whom I haven’t seen all night. On my way back through, a security guard, Marcus, gets my attention and says “you need to come with me right now”. Alarmed, I follow Marcus to the entrance.

Marcus is a big guy and great at his job. I love it when security recognizes that their job is to protect people and enforce safety, and the security at The Crofoot really gets it. They have a tough job and they do it with honor and respect. Marcus stopped me after my show to tell me how much he liked our performance. He had some really nice things to say to me about my vocals. I’ve seen Marcus before at Crofoot shows, and he is genuinely a great guy. Marcus pointed to a girl on the floor, saying “She’s too drunk to be in here”. I look down and realize that the girl is the girlfriend of our fill-in guitarist. Another security woman, Precious, is there with the girl making sure she is safe. She tells me that they found her passed out in the bathroom. I gather that her boyfriend may have just left her in the bathroom without a care. Thank god that she was able to say something about Tool, and that Marcus is such a badass that he came to find me. I will always remember that as long as I live. I am so grateful to the way that security handled that situation. If I could give them each a huge hug and a bottle of fine scotch I would!

After talking with  for a minute, she tells me that she is sick and that she passed out in the bathroom. She also doesn’t know where her boyfriend is. I pull out my phone and immediately text him, telling him to come to the front immediately. No response. 10 minutes go by, Then 20. It is now 2AM and people are leaving. Mary and I need to go outside, and she tells me she is cold. I quickly give her my jacket, forgetting that the SD card with go pro footage of our performance is in the pocket.  Finally, another one of the boyfriend’s other  friends shows up and I ask him to call the boyfriend, since he hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts. Boyfriend immediately answers. 10 minutes later, he shows up. I am so angry, and I tell him that he shouldn’t have left her alone.  He says “She never came out”. Confident that she is out of harm’s way, I head down to the office to get a paycheck.

On the way out, I take a quick survey of the room where our gear was and don’t notice anything left behind. I walk to my car and hit the road. As I pull out, I get a call from Phreddy, the promoter. Phreddy tells me that security camera footage reveals that our fill-in guitarist has accidentally taken someone else’s gear – a bag with custom pedals and cables. I assure Phreddy that it is an honest mistake, and that I will do whatever it takes to make things right. I immediately call my wife Lindsay, who immediately pulls over in the van and checks – the gear is there! I call a very relieved fellow musician, feeling terrible that he had to go through all of that.

The next day, I head down to return the gear. It feels great to get the gear back to its rightful owner, and I am relieved that it all worked out. When I get home, I unload our van and start checking over our gear. My computer, monitor, and controller are covered in a sticky substance from a drink that was spilled on them during the performance. I notice that my Gibson SG is missing. It must not have been loaded up.

The next day, I wake up with hope in my mind and fear in my eyes. There is an email waiting for me from Dan, a manager at the Crofoot – my guitar has been found, and it is in the office, safe and secure. YESSS!!!

It is amazing to me how many people had to work together to facilitate everything that happened before, during and after the Creepy Cheapy event. I feel humbled by the whole experience!

SO What did we learn? Being a professional musician isn’t as easy as some people think. It is a labor of love. SO much work goes into a performance, every note, every hour worked at a day job to buy that guitar, that cymbal, that sweet amp. Working tirelessly and often performing for very little pay is what we musicians do, and why? Sometimes our gear gets destroyed, things get misplaced or taken by accident, and cables go missing. Some venues pay us a meager salary (often less than minimum wage), they expect us to bring their entire customer base, and we are often treated like second-class citizens. But those of us musicians who persevere, my brothers who take these hardships in stride, who recognize the good in the music scene, we are the ones who will emerge victorious! We will continue to see the world and do what we love and never look back because we know it is worth it. We will thrive on the smiles, and warm hearts of our fans, who are our family, our brothers and sisters, with whom we share so much of our souls. We know that if we focus on what’s important to us as artists, that those of us who are able to stick to it and never give up will be successful in more ways than we ever imagined.

-I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Crofoot: the staff, managers, security, and everyone involved.

-ALSO a HUGE thanks to Phreddy Wischusen, whom not only promoted the whole show, but helped me work through our issues while remaining SO cool and collected, all the while rocking the BEST damn Miley Cyrus costume the world has ever seen.

-Thanks to all the other great bands that made this the BEST Creepy Cheapy ever! Especially Danny and the Strangers

-Most importantly, thank you SO MUCH to all of our fans our friends, our FAMILY that keep us going, through your support and dedication we are able to do what we do. You guys make Michigan music what it is – the Greatest!

-Jason Demmon

http://jasondemmon.com

Check out my website often – I have some exciting updates coming soon, including a new album! (March 2014)