“I was thinking I was a big buff guy that wanted to fight people at every show,” Ian Watkins jokes.
On a hot August evening outside a restaurant on the Sunset Strip, the Lostprophets frontman tells stories of Public Disturbance, a mid-90s UK hardcore band who he drummed for. He says shows during that era were “a bunch of cool times” and remembers being in a two-man mosh pit for Vision of Disorder. “It was a good vibe.”
“I opened the door and it was all white,” Josh Scogin recalls of throwing flour on Alesana during The Chariot’s 2008 tour with the band. “They went up to play and every time they’d headbang there would be this powder of flour [everywhere],” he laughs.
“It was surreal being there,” bassist Johnny Adger says of touring Europe in 2010 with Them Crooked Vultures. “On the first night, [Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones, and Josh Homme] introduced themselves to us. I was like ‘yeah, I know who you are,'” he laughs.
“We teepeed Thrice while they were playing,” says Pelican bassist Bryan Herweg. “We went out and actually wrapped them up in toilet paper.”
Chatting at a park bench on a calm street in Pomona, Herweg and guitarist Trevor de Brauw reminisce of tour pranks during Pelican’s 2008 run with Thrice and Circa Survive. De Brauw remembers testing Circa Survive bassist Nick Beard’s unicycling skills.
In the early 2000s when MonstrO drummer Bevan Davies moved to LA with his band Comes With The Fall, one of the group’s first-ever fans was Alice in Chains mastermind Jerry Cantrell.
“When we had a show…[Cantrell] would come out and do encores with us on our tunes,” says Davies. “Then we would end up going back to our rehearsal space and jamming Alice in Chains songs all night.”