Mike Portnoy meltsdown in Manila
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Topic: Mike Portnoy meltsdown in Manila
Posted By: rushfan4
Subject: Mike Portnoy meltsdown in Manila
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 10:17
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http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/mike-portnoy-snaps-over-tour-stress/" rel="nofollow - http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/mike-portnoy-snaps-over-tour-stress/
Portnoy snaps over tour stress http://media.classicrockmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/portnoy.jpg" rel="nofollow">
Losing it: But Portnoy regained his temper Former Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold drummer Mike Portnoy has admitted the stress of touring in difficult circumstances caused his onstage meltdown in Manila on Tuesday. After encountering a problem with his drumkit, he stopped playing and began throwing cymbals and mic stands around. As local crew struggled to understand what was upsetting him, he rapped to the audience about how upset he was. Portnoy is on the road with his prog rock supergroup featuring Billy Sheehan, Tony MacAlpine and Derek Sherinian – and he says the experience hasn’t been all they hoped it would be. Video, available below, shows him throwing equipment round then coming close to walking off stage. He appears to regain control of himself and encourages his bandmates to keep playing while he explains himself to the crowd in rhyme. He says: “Oh Manila, how I love you – but I hate these motherf**kers who keep f**king with my drums! When will they get it right? We made you wait all night. We want to play for you, but they make it so hard to do!” Writing on his official forum Portnoy explains the band were forced into massive compromises in order to be able to afford touring in China, the Philippines, Russia, Israel and Indonesia. He says: “On at least half a dozen occasions we’ve been frustrated to arrive at the venue only to find our requirements were blatantly ignored – wrong keyboards, wrong amps, wrong cymbals – and gear wasn’t set up as had been promised. “We’ve been as patient and understanding as we can possibly be. But when you get four guys who haven’t slept more than a couple of hours every night in order to fly to these shows, sometimes our patience can wear thin.” He says he lost control after his snare mic collapsed – and instead of fixing it, a roadie removed it, leaving his leading drum without amplification. Portnoy continues: “In the video you can see I was at least making a joke out of it. Moral of the story: we are human! And sometimes frustrating circumstances create frustrated behaviour. I’ve been waiting my whole career to play in Manila and I wasn’t going to let anything ruin my night or their show! “We carried on and everybody had a great night. I look forward to returning – although this may be the last time I tour without my own kit and my own drum tech!” < height=340 ="http://www.youtube.com//JjP4CV3SL2k?fs=1&feature=o" Border=0 width=604 allowfullscreen=""> Tags: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/tag/mike-portnoy/" rel="nofollow - Mike Portnoy ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 10:19
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Kind like my reaction would have been. He's human. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Wanorak
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 18:32
I watched the video; pretty mild-mannered snapping lol I was expecting to see him freaking out and yelling, but he seems to have his sense of humour intact  ------------- A GREAT YEAR FOR PROG!!! |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: November 15 2012 at 19:27
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Portnoy is massively OCD and I feel sorry for any drum tech who has to set up his drum kit. He is a perfectionist and a control freak like most musicians. I would not expect anything less from him. I also majorly sympathize with his frustrations. 🎵 ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: zumacraig
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 11:11
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yeah, i'm surprised this does not happen more often with touring musicians. what a grind. not to mention portnoy is probably still grieve his departure from DT. i feel for him. transition can be a nightmare. i'd like to see him chill and start doing mini tours with neal morse and building a following around the USA. that way, maybe neal would play near me:) ------------- Stardust we are. -Roine Stolt |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 12:59
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Could have been worse.....At least he composed himself and made some jokes about it. -------------   
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Posted By: zravkapt
Date Posted: November 16 2012 at 14:16
 ------------- Magma America Great Make Again |
rushfan4 wrote:Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 19 2012 at 16:38
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Hi,
I'm not sure I can feel sorry for him ... they do have the option of saying NO ... to these shows ... but they refuse to realize that the economy in many of these places is not NY City, LA, SF or London or Tokyo ... and playing, or getting exhorbitant moneys for what they do ... is not gonna happen.
There are a lot of folks that are not great musicians ... so Mike can not play drums, without all the thrills and his "setup" ... you wanna know something? ... the best drum I ever saw, and enjoyed on the stage, I first saw him tapping his fingers on the veranda, while we were yapping about everything, and non-sense that you can think of ... and you knew ... he didn't need a drum kit to do MUSIC. ... he could play it ... anywhere ... with any kit!
His name? ... Pierre Moerlin!
I enjoyed the 2 times I saw Mike with DT, but in reality he is a much better showman than he EVER will be a drummer, specially when he is not capable of adjusting the time, place and the notes in teh music ... and can only resort to what he knows and has memorized. That is the sign of a player that is not quite capable, or flexible, enough to play with folks that are much superior in musical knowledge and ability ... that he has no respect for.
We haven't even started on the fan thing yet!
Sorry Mike ... grow up and become a better musician, and stop blaming the world for your own misgivings and your total spoiled attitude and lack of appreciation for the luck and good folks you have played with ... that made you look and sound better, and you aren't! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: infandous
Date Posted: November 20 2012 at 12:47
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Uh, yeah, Moshkito.........it had nothing at all to do with his playing ability and everything to do with the snare drum being inaudible. Show me a drummer that doesn't consider the snare drum critical to ANY performance......that person is not a skilled drummer. Perhaps you also missed the part where he said that they were dealing with substandard equipment for the whole tour without too may problems. This was just the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak. It shows he's human, and says nothing about his talent at all. |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: November 20 2012 at 17:00
 very true. ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Luna
Date Posted: November 20 2012 at 17:13
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I'd hate to be bandmates with him. ------------- https://aprilmaymarch.bandcamp.com/track/the-badger" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: AlexDOM
Date Posted: November 21 2012 at 13:32
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Where does a 300 pound gorilla sleep? Anywhere he wants. It's like that with Mike you know -Neal Morse
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Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: November 22 2012 at 06:37
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I can understand Portnoy's frustration, but at the same time I agree with much of what Moshkito said. A concert is about the audience, the fans, not the band. At least Portnoy had the presence of mind to explain himself. To his credit, he continued the show. The upshot of it was that technical difficulties simply needed to be fixed. Annoying and frustrating? Hell, yes. The biggest issue is that the band was not getting the support and equipment they were promised. I will venture somebody somewhere outright lied to them,, and there were certainly lapses in communication. But if he is so picky about his equipment, why did he not require greater guarantees or bring his own along? The money? Certainly a factor. Success brings its perks, but it can also spoil. After all the years of experience he has touring, I am sure he has dealt with similiar problems before. He should have known better. What about the other band members? How have they been dealing with the difficulties? I am sorry to see that any of this has happened. I hope the show was killer, and I hope the tour runs more smoothly after this. ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: Flucktrot
Date Posted: November 24 2012 at 07:53
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I suppose I now have a greater appreciation for how shows work, particularly smaller ones (even though I'm no musician and know there are tons of aspects that I'm still not aware of). It seems that really these guys don't have much control over how they sound, which to me is very surprising. I used to go to larger shows, then got burned out by the impersonal feel of them. (You can only see the Stones so many times before you've seen everything they're going to do...) They're generally good, but it's not clear how much the musicians want to be there. What I didn't appreciate was the consistently good sound. Now with smaller shows, it's just so hit or miss. I really feel for the musicians in this case, because you can tell they are excited to be there and want to put on a great show, but the sound prevents you from really hearing half of what they're doing. In the future, not only am I going to have to think about who I want to see, but just as importantly where I'm going to see them. ------------- Thank you, God of Rock, for this chance to kick ass |
Posted By: HarbouringTheSoul
Date Posted: November 24 2012 at 10:00
| The most mild-mannered meltdown I've seen since The Room. |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: November 24 2012 at 13:40
"I did not hit her. I did naaahhttt... Oh... Hi Mark." ------------- jc |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: November 24 2012 at 15:51
+1
I mean we all know Portnoy is no good, nowhere near being a skilled drummer in most peoples eyes...wonder where that thinking comes from? -------------
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Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: November 24 2012 at 16:00
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Seems to me he was handling it perfectly, he did even continue the show, cool. ------------- Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours |
Posted By: infandous
Date Posted: November 26 2012 at 13:09
| Yeah, the more I see of it and read about it, it hardly seems like a big deal.....except to people who want to paint him as some no-talent primadonna. Heck, despite my defending him here, I'm not really that big of a fan and agree that he tends to be pretty heavy handed in his approach. However, it's also easy for anyone to see that he is a professional, and that this sort of thing is not the norm for him.......even as tame as it was. He explained himself to the audience and the show went on. He's human, which is a good thing to see every now and again. |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: November 26 2012 at 15:48
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Mike Portnoy is an incredibly gifted and wonderful musician and is easily one the very best drummers of our time, although the fact is he just caught a bad break here and for the most part handled it with grace and dignity. End of story.
------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: November 26 2012 at 16:33
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I think he handled it better than most rockers would have handled it......but with grace and dignity? IDK about that. He did curse out the stage hands and threw some of the gear around.
The good thing is that he composed himself and the show went on.... -------------
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Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: November 26 2012 at 18:53
Maybe I Overstated his grace and dignity persona. let's leave out grace. Forgot that he threw sh*t around. ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: sturoc
Date Posted: November 29 2012 at 19:17
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Have to say from working in the biz close to 30 yrs now That this is the reason you bring your own kit, amps, etc Especially to 3rd world type countries. I mean c'mon, did they really expect top notch gear or exactly what they're used to playing on / thru in those countries ??? That's what the advance is for by a competent Production Manager. That's what the sound check is for. This makes them look very very non professional. |
Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: January 22 2013 at 05:25
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Saw it here Portnoy was gr8 tho making a joke of it and then the roadies still messed with his cymbals as he was sitting in the kit! LOL those roadies had balls of steel ------------- 
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