Last night I saw Strapping Young Lad for the third time. It was far and away the best of the three shows, but what happened afterwards was totally unexpected. Gene Hoglan (SYL's drummer) has a minor obsession with my girlfriend, so every time we see them we usually hang out with him after their set. Gene's something of a social butterfly so he's always walking around signing autographs, etc.
Last night when it came time for the bouncers to kick us out, he handed us his backstage pass and told the bouncers to leave us alone, we were with him. After sitting around backstage for a while with Gene, Manesh (SYL's keyboardist and I probably spelled his name wrong), and the guys from Cathedral, Gene asked us if we wanted to come back to the bus.
As we came out of the venue, Devin (Townsend, and I'd assume everyone here knows how big a fan I am from our music discussions) was coming out of the bus. We did the usual, shaking hands, getting shirts signed, and then we struck up a conversation with him. Then something happened I never expected. He asked us to come on the bus and hang out (Devin's a very reclusive guy and usually stays on the bus by himself). So we got to sit in the closed-off back section of the SYL bus with Devin and Gene and talk about music and movies, and Devin plugged in a guitar and played us some material he's working on for the new record. Material that's probably only been heard by the band so far.
And here's an appropriate bit of trivia for this board: the name of his latest record - Accelerated Evolution - is taken from the film "Habitat" with Alice Krige, which Devy is a big fan of.
It was one of the greatest nights of my life. Anyone have any similar stories?
Brother R
AHH You lucky f**ker!
Townsend was the guy with the "mad scientist hair" if I'm not mistaken.
Did the drummer hit on your woman?
LOL!!
Yes, and yes. But Gene's a good guy, he's harmless.
Brother R
I've met Bruce Campbell, who is just as awesome in real life as he is in film.
Other than Bruce, I've only met one other celeb-Gene Hackman. I used to work for the DOT here in North Carolina. We have a elaborate ferry system; and that's where I was working when I met Mr. Hackman. He was traveling to one of the islands here on our Outer Banks. I spent about 2 hours of the trip talking to him. Most of the conversation was about him. He seemed self absorbed, and came off as a complete a***ole.