Misfits/Samhain founder Glenn Danzig ripped through a heavyweight set of songs at Albuquerque’s Midnight Rodeo Sunday, June 2nd.
The crowd revved up at the sounds of familiar songs like “Mother,” “Twist of Cain” and “Under Her Black Wings,” and to a lesser extent at cuts from the just-released “777: I Luciferi,” Danzig’s seventh solo release.
Much of the show’s histrionics were left to the sneering, snarling frontman and the variety of upside-down crosses, bare-breasted female demons and skull images that have adorned his cover art. There were no pretentious guitar or drum solos and on-stage banter was kept to minimum.
So as Danzig stalked the stage, backed by guitarist Todd Youth, bassist Howie Pyro and drummer Joey Davolia, it was all business for the punk rock legend. This attitude was somewhat in contrast to a phone conversation I had with him prior to Sunday’s show, when he was downright congenial.
It seems as though Danzig has always attempted to distance his solo career from his accomplishments with ghoul punks the Misfits and goth rock progenitors Samhain. Neither band came close to attaining the commercial success of his self-titled debut from 1988, which spawned “Mother,” arguably Danzig’s biggest hit.
At the time, pop culture maintained a strange, dichotomous attitude towards his reinvention of himself. Critics bashed him for the drastic change while adoring fans jumped on the bandwagon. Radio and television balked at “Mother” prior to its explosion.
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“We never got any radio airplay and we never were on MTV,” Danzig explained. “Even Headbanger’s Ball would put us on at the very end of the show for three minutes. At, like three minutes to (2 a.m.) when the show was almost over, that’s when you got to see Danzig.”
MTV and radio eventually came around and helped make his debut the best-selling of his career.
Then there was his much-publicized refusal to work with his former Misfits band mates towards the release of a box set, and his public bashing of those same band mates for continuing to put out new music under the Misfits moniker.
He took a different approach to the Samhain box set, an excellent chronicle of the band’s accomplishments. The box set’s release coincided with a Danzig solo release, “666: Satan’s Child,” and he took both bands on an extensive tour of the U.S.
“I think at least the Samhain box set for me was a celebration of the whole career of Samhain,” Danzig said. “On the first leg of ‘Satan’s Child,’ I went out with Samhain and then I took like a half-hour break, jumped into the shower, washed all the blood off of me and did another two hours with Danzig.”
Now the chameleonic Danzig — he has dabbled with styles ranging from gothic country to electronica — has, with “777: I Luciferi,” taken another step towards reinvention.
The album, Danzig said, is a rebellion against what he terms “frat rock” or “mall metal.” He assailed the commercializing of heavy music and said he refused to bend towards what is popular.
“That’s not going to be me,” Danzig said. “I’m not going to sell what I do just to be on MTV. I’m not changing just so you’ll play my shit on your fucking TV station.”
Danzig has also dabbled in the print industry with “Verotik,” a line of mature-themed comic books available at his official web site, www.danzig-verotik.com.
At first release, the comics sold extremely well, which forced Danzig to pull the reins back some on the project.
“It was starting to turn into what I didn’t want it to be,” Danzig said. “Now, I’d just rather put out books when I feel like it. The band is the focal point and ‘Verotik’ is just something I do to piss off Marvel and DC.”
