Nirvana 2002 - What happened?

[Orvar Safstrom]

I think we all can agree that the gig didn’t go as we’d all hoped. Here’s the deal:

The guitar I was going to use never got to Maryland so I ended up with a last minute solution, a borrowed B.C Rich. The problem was we play 4 halfnotes downtuned and this sucker had a Floyd Rose bridge set up for regular E. If you play guitar you would know there’s no way in hell that’s gonna even remotely work. So while setting up on stage I sent Scott of Repulsion (bless him) out to find another (and he did!). As if I didn’t have enough problems, I was provided with a Mesa Boogie amp that came straight out of fuckin Poltergeist. It took the stage crew another 10 minutes to even get it semi-working. The monitors were shot to hell so we couldn’t hear ANYTHING on stage, but finally I just said “Fuck it, I don’t care. Let’s just play.” By then we we’re already 15 minutes late and without telling us the crew deducted that from our playing time. We only had 35 minutes to start with since we never had many songs back in the day. So when we had played 4 songs we were told to get the fuck off stage. We squeezed Mourning in there but had to cut several of our own songs (and the fact that we had already played two covers just made the whole fucking thing worse).

No, this is not to put blame on people, everyone tried their best to make things work, just to clear up why things went the way they did. I'm sure if you play 100+ gigs/year this would have been a minor bump in the road, but we’re really fucking frustrated that we flew around the world for one final, end all/be all gig and ended up playing 20 minutes under horrible circumstances. The fact that we did a fucking awesome show in Stockholm three nights earlier just adds to insult to injury. Somehow we’ve got to find a way to make up for this. You, the crowd were fucking magic and we owe it to you to play the States at least once properly before closing the lid on this band.

/Orvar Safstrom – Nirvana 2002

[Coma]

Originally Posted by Orvar Safstrom

this is not to put blame on people

Considering it sounds like it was your own fault.

[teapot]

It happens, you know you tried your best. I didn't know what was going on so I walked away, but I would definitely love to see a full set if you guys ever come back or tour the states.

[disGUSt(tx)]

Come back again. I watched the whole set and enjoyed it for what it was, but you guys deserve another shot.

[Orvar Safstrom]

Coma: Considering it sounds like it was your own fault.

Yeah, totally dude! Silly me. We should have realized that you can't ship something as complicated as a guitar in 2010. Also we should have brought our own monitor system, a complete (and working!) backline and our own stage crew, especially since we did this gig for free.

I guess we'll just have to hire you for expert advice next time around.

[Coma]

Plenty of bands made it over fine with their instruments.

I don't really care either way since I thought the outdoor set up sucked to begin with and was napping at the hotel during your set anyway, but it does sound like it was mostly your fault, so stop bitching about it. They should've let you keep playing and fuck up the set times (thus fucking over the bands after you) because you didn't bring all your shit?

[RyanMDF]

Originally Posted by Orvar Safstrom

Coma: Considering it sounds like it was your own fault.

Yeah, totally dude! Silly me. We should have realized that you can't ship something as complicated as a guitar in 2010. Also we should have brought our own monitor system, a complete (and working!) backline and our own stage crew, especially since we did this gig for free.

I guess we'll just have to hire you for expert advice next time around.

If you're not putting the blame on anyone, it certainly sounds like you are. At last check, there were plenty of other bands playing on that stage on a "working" backline, and I didn't hear any issues from them regarding the backline or monitors. So, perhaps it was just a bit of bad luck on your end, I'm not really sure. I also have no idea what Mesa Boogie straight out of Poltergeist you're talking about, and I don't know where it came from. That was not on the backline rental that was used on any of the stages. If anyone needs to be blamed, we should start with whoever should've shipped the guitar in a timely fashion, and it would also be cool if you would've written me expressing your displeasure about this. Also, if you were looking for a "full backline", you should've let me know what exactly you were looking for before flying to the US.
After all, we're the ones that paid for your flight tickets, accommodation for your entire stay, and ground transportation, so we're just as frustrated that it didn't go over well for you.

[Coma]

Originally Posted by Orvar Safstrom

we did this gig for free

Originally Posted by RyanMDF

paid for your flight tickets, accommodation for your entire stay, and ground transportation

Nice.

[Orvar Safstrom]

Ryan:
I certainly never blamed MDF for the missing guitar. It was sent by someone else and I had been informed that it had arrived safely at MDF. You did your best lending me a guitar but as I wrote that didn't work for technical reasons. However, the only two amps available to us was one OK Marshall and one Mesa Boogie that was shot to hell. Your stage manager himself told us that was all we had do work with, he tried to get it working properly and failed. The monitor system was cranking out loud strange noises and shutting of every other minute and we were finally adviced to shut it off. Also, part of the drumkit had broke the day before without things being replaced. As a lot of people were frustrated that we only played 20 minutes I wanted to explain here why our show was delayed.

Coma:
Yes we played for free. As in not recieving any money whatsoever. I'd say that is the definition, unless you feel all bands should fly around the world at their own expense to play.

[Coma]

You played for free...but they probably spent thousands of dollars on a band hardly anyone gives a fuck about, makes sense.

[revaaron]

"not my guitar"

[RyanMDF]

Originally Posted by Orvar Safstrom

Ryan:
I certainly never blamed MDF for the missing guitar. It was sent by someone else and I had been informed that it had arrived safely at MDF. You did your best lending me a guitar but as I wrote that didn't work for technical reasons. However, the only two amps available to us was one OK Marshall and one Mesa Boogie that was shot to hell. Your stage manager himself told us that was all we had do work with, he tried to get it working properly and failed. The monitor system was cranking out loud strange noises and shutting of every other minute and we were finally adviced to shut it off. Also, part of the drumkit had broke the day before without things being replaced. As a lot of people were frustrated that we only played 20 minutes I wanted to explain here why our show was delayed.

Coma:
Yes we played for free. As in not recieving any money whatsoever. I'd say that is the definition, unless you feel all bands should fly around the world at their own expense to play.

I understand. As you said, everyone did what they could to make it work. Backline and monitors obviously can have problems when so many bands are playing in a 3 day span, so it just sounds like you ended up dealing with the bulk of those problems, unfortunately. I can only speculate as to why the monitors were taking a crap on you during the performance because I was unaware of that happening on that stage at any other time during the weekend.
If you're referring to the guitar that Mika sent to my house, it still hasn't arrived. Apparently, that was sent by someone in the US, and I'm not really sure why they waited so long to send it. Not much that can be done about that, i guess.
Anyway, I'm not against giving this another go, if you're up for it. It's equally as frustrating for us that things didn't go over well, and you do deserve another chance to play without any technical problems.

[BloodcurseNYDM]

Orvar, you guys were amazing regardless!! Good job for getting up there and kicking ass even with the tech problems!

[disGUSt(tx)]

Very big props to both Orvar and Ryan for being willing to address this in an open forum so that the fans can be involved and completely informed. Knowing that theres no hard feelings on either side makes me able to sleep better at night, and knowing that theres still a chance to see Nirvana 2002 again is great too!

Originally Posted by RyanMDF

Anyway, I'm not against giving this another go, if you're up for it. It's equally as frustrating for us that things didn't go over well, and you do deserve another chance to play without any technical problems.

This is win. N2002 should headline prefest 2011. Just saying.

[Coma]

lol, no.

Dismember or Death Breath >

[AC Slater]

Originally Posted by Coma

lol, no.

Dismember or Death Breath >

Death Breath stinks (no pun intended).

No N2002 = No Death Breath.

What's with this forum and people liking clone bands over the real deal? lulz.

Repugnant and N2002 should play pre-fest 2011.

[Nikkowar]

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing N2002 again. I enjoyed it regardless of everything that failed, it could have been worse, they could have just stomped off the stage without finishing, but they did what they could.

Perhaps next year would be nice, too.

[disGUSt(tx)]

Originally Posted by Coma

lol, no.

Dismember or Death Breath >

Maybe, I have seen neither, and would love to see both. If they are anything like Entombed I will be pissed. They couldn't even properly play their classic material.

[entwinedwithsickness]

Originally Posted by AC Slater

Death Breath stinks (no pun intended).

No N2002 = No Death Breath.

What's with this forum and people liking clone bands over the real deal? lulz.

Repugnant and N2002 should play pre-fest 2011.

Not this shit again..

Sometimes the clone is better than the originator. It happens.

[disGUSt(tx)]

Repugnant? If they haven't played MDF yet it sure is about fucking time.

[Coma]

Dismember are incredible live.

[AC Slater]

Originally Posted by entwinedwithsickness

Not this shit again..

Sometimes the clone is better than the originator. It happens.

lolwut. All of Death Breath's riffs are directly plagiarized from Autopsy, Entombed, and Repulsion, all 3 of which just played. So in a way, Death Breath already played MDF lulz (they may as well be considered a jokeband anyway)

[xaidsx]

Originally Posted by disGUSt(tx)

Very big props to both Orvar and Ryan for being willing to address this in an open forum


Just saying.

never a fan of this in any way, but i'm glad to see things have the potential to be resolved. Orvar and the N2002 dudes are fucking amazing people on a personal level.

[RipperVanWinkle]

Originally Posted by Orvar Safstrom

I think we all can agree that the gig didn’t go as we’d all hoped. Here’s the deal:

The guitar I was going to use never got to Maryland so I ended up with a last minute solution, a borrowed B.C Rich. The problem was we play 4 halfnotes downtuned and this sucker had a Floyd Rose bridge set up for regular E. If you play guitar you would know there’s no way in hell that’s gonna even remotely work. So while setting up on stage I sent Scott of Repulsion (bless him) out to find another (and he did!). As if I didn’t have enough problems, I was provided with a Mesa Boogie amp that came straight out of fuckin Poltergeist. It took the stage crew another 10 minutes to even get it semi-working. The monitors were shot to hell so we couldn’t hear ANYTHING on stage, but finally I just said “Fuck it, I don’t care. Let’s just play.” By then we we’re already 15 minutes late and without telling us the crew deducted that from our playing time. We only had 35 minutes to start with since we never had many songs back in the day. So when we had played 4 songs we were told to get the fuck off stage. We squeezed Mourning in there but had to cut several of our own songs (and the fact that we had already played two covers just made the whole fucking thing worse).

No, this is not to put blame on people, everyone tried their best to make things work, just to clear up why things went the way they did. I'm sure if you play 100+ gigs/year this would have been a minor bump in the road, but we’re really fucking frustrated that we flew around the world for one final, end all/be all gig and ended up playing 20 minutes under horrible circumstances. The fact that we did a fucking awesome show in Stockholm three nights earlier just adds to insult to injury. Somehow we’ve got to find a way to make up for this. You, the crowd were fucking magic and we owe it to you to play the States at least once properly before closing the lid on this band.

/Orvar Safstrom – Nirvana 2002

I turned animal when you guys played, I didnt care if it was a short set with 'bad sound' it sounded fucking crushing to me!

Im glad I got to see you guys, still I think a longer set outside or inside at MDF 2011 would be very much appreciated.

[sixhundredand66]

my question is, why would you play two covers (one of which the original band themselves like two hours later) if you were so concerned about how much time you had to play?

[Soulside Journey]

Coma, I think what he means is that aside from flight/accomodations, they did not request any sort of guarantee to play. There's many bands both from the country and out of country who probably asked for a certain amount to play, especially if it was a one-off gig and not part of their tour.

I was a bit disappointed with the shortened set, and to hear about all the difficulties since you guys were the highlight of sunday for me. I was really hoping that wouldn't be the one impression i'd get from you guys. I'm hoping you guys come back for a proper farewell show in the states. Plus perhaps some more merch than a single shirt this time ;)

Here's hoping for N2002 to come back for MDF 2011.

They got a free vacation to one of the best festivals in the world for 30 minutes of "work." They may not have left with filled pockets but they definitely got the better end of the stick.

[Coma]

Originally Posted by Soulside Journey

Coma, I think what he means is that aside from flight/accomodations, they did not request any sort of guarantee to play.

I know what he meant. He's just a tool for pretending like that's not a form of payment, like they did it as charity.

[LastRites]

Yo, it was short, but it was still cool.

Shit happens, not necessarily anyones fault. I'd be down to see a N2002 set again next year though sure.

[AC Slater]

Originally Posted by dr0ne

They got a free vacation to one of the best festivals in the world for 30 minutes of "work." They may not have left with filled pockets but they definitely got the better end of the stick.

Best in the WORLD? Hell no. Best in the US? Yes.