Speaking of the Plasmatics. I was their Guitar tech back in the late 80s for a tour. Recall before starting we met at Wendy's place in NYC, a huge warehouse full of props a few old cars costumes, weird mannequins. It was an amazing collection of the absurd and odd complimented by some awesome theatrical stuff.
We got the band gear together. As usual the chainsaw was loaded in the truck and i thought that'll be interesting. We did one rehearsal at the first gig's venue. During that time i was informed that before every gig me and the drum tech had to hunt down cheap guitars locally. No Prob I said, knowing Wendy likes to destroy things onstage.
And in addition during one particular song I will be dressing in a Doctors long white lab coat with a Black executioners mask on standing inside a upright coffin holding a cheap guitar.
"Hmm okay.. What ?!?! " doing a double take !
As if handling two guitarists numerous guitar changes and bass players gear weren't enough ?
So here's how it went night after night :
Place the coffin onstage during a blackout along with a wooden guitar stand jig thing.
Put on the Doc coat and mask, grab the cheapo guitar
Stand in the closed coffin there was a que when Wendy swings the lid open I thrust the guitar out she pulls me outta there takes the gtr puts it on the stand, fires up the chain saw and proceeds to thrash thru it .
Meanwhile the lead guitarist is in a wheel chair playing furious leads, rolling back and forth acting like a crazy person. a sign above his head said " Lebotomy Patient " Yeah i know, but that's how we spelled it. Me just standing with arms folded watching the debacle thru two eye slits in the mask. If you only could have seen the terror on my face , good God !
This goes on nite after nite with no real incidents. After a few gigs the guitarist and I were talking how she was getting real close with that saw and one of these nites someone is gonna get nicked or worse !
Well that night finally came :
Everything went as 'normal' till I stepped out, she took the guitar with one hand, chain saw running in the other I was like 'whoa that's a new move'. Most times the chainsaw was on the floor ready to go after i moved a step away.
Lead guitarists in the wheel chair was closer than usual to the guitar stand as it was a smaller stage that nite. Wendy starts thrashing and swingin and cuttin away at the gtr, then I feel it: a stinging pain in my arm sh*t ! String shrapnel ! i could see our wheel chair bound guitar playing Lobotomy patient bleeding from both arms still playing-What a trooper !
Sliced pickups, plastic, wood, frets fly thru the air. The crowd screaming nuts ! of course they had no clue the blood was real.
I slowly stepped back into the coffin and out of the danger zone. the look of shock on the other band members faces will be etched in my mind forever.
The song came to end -Blackout -I raced over to the guitar player got him out of the chair plucking metal out of him and cleaned him up. He was in a state of shock kept saying "WTF, WTF ! I can't believe what just happened." Bandaged some cloth and gaff tape round his arms and out he went Blazing into the next song. Wow!
I wasn't hit that bad but still I muttered "Do i need a flak jacket for this gig now "?!
After the show we were all about leaving the band that nite and i was seriously considering a career change perhaps Forest Ranger ahhhh peace and quiet, not alot of people, yeah that sounds nice.
Rod, Wendy's manager/husband and all around good guy, convinced us that it wouldn't happen again etc etc. Wendy apologized admitting that she really does lose her mind on stage. Yeah well we knew that already ! But very true as Offstage she was a sweetheart.
So both me and the lead guitarist stayed and finished out the tour. At the end I promptly said my good byes and finally got a great full night's sleep without any nightmares !!!
We got the band gear together. As usual the chainsaw was loaded in the truck and i thought that'll be interesting. We did one rehearsal at the first gig's venue. During that time i was informed that before every gig me and the drum tech had to hunt down cheap guitars locally. No Prob I said, knowing Wendy likes to destroy things onstage.
And in addition during one particular song I will be dressing in a Doctors long white lab coat with a Black executioners mask on standing inside a upright coffin holding a cheap guitar.
"Hmm okay.. What ?!?! " doing a double take !
As if handling two guitarists numerous guitar changes and bass players gear weren't enough ?
So here's how it went night after night :
Place the coffin onstage during a blackout along with a wooden guitar stand jig thing.
Put on the Doc coat and mask, grab the cheapo guitar
Stand in the closed coffin there was a que when Wendy swings the lid open I thrust the guitar out she pulls me outta there takes the gtr puts it on the stand, fires up the chain saw and proceeds to thrash thru it .
Meanwhile the lead guitarist is in a wheel chair playing furious leads, rolling back and forth acting like a crazy person. a sign above his head said " Lebotomy Patient " Yeah i know, but that's how we spelled it. Me just standing with arms folded watching the debacle thru two eye slits in the mask. If you only could have seen the terror on my face , good God !
This goes on nite after nite with no real incidents. After a few gigs the guitarist and I were talking how she was getting real close with that saw and one of these nites someone is gonna get nicked or worse !
Well that night finally came :
Everything went as 'normal' till I stepped out, she took the guitar with one hand, chain saw running in the other I was like 'whoa that's a new move'. Most times the chainsaw was on the floor ready to go after i moved a step away.
Lead guitarists in the wheel chair was closer than usual to the guitar stand as it was a smaller stage that nite. Wendy starts thrashing and swingin and cuttin away at the gtr, then I feel it: a stinging pain in my arm sh*t ! String shrapnel ! i could see our wheel chair bound guitar playing Lobotomy patient bleeding from both arms still playing-What a trooper !
Sliced pickups, plastic, wood, frets fly thru the air. The crowd screaming nuts ! of course they had no clue the blood was real.
I slowly stepped back into the coffin and out of the danger zone. the look of shock on the other band members faces will be etched in my mind forever.
The song came to end -Blackout -I raced over to the guitar player got him out of the chair plucking metal out of him and cleaned him up. He was in a state of shock kept saying "WTF, WTF ! I can't believe what just happened." Bandaged some cloth and gaff tape round his arms and out he went Blazing into the next song. Wow!
I wasn't hit that bad but still I muttered "Do i need a flak jacket for this gig now "?!
After the show we were all about leaving the band that nite and i was seriously considering a career change perhaps Forest Ranger ahhhh peace and quiet, not alot of people, yeah that sounds nice.
Rod, Wendy's manager/husband and all around good guy, convinced us that it wouldn't happen again etc etc. Wendy apologized admitting that she really does lose her mind on stage. Yeah well we knew that already ! But very true as Offstage she was a sweetheart.
So both me and the lead guitarist stayed and finished out the tour. At the end I promptly said my good byes and finally got a great full night's sleep without any nightmares !!!
