24/08/2006
Pirates Fan Fest
Pittsburgh, PA, USA

PIC

"Baseball’s Worst Team Fires Punk’s Best Cover Band : So you may have read here about the Gimmes pulling a Bill Buckner at the Pirates game over the weekend. Apparently dudes with sunflower seeds in their goatees and giant foam fingers didn’t take kindly to the boys putting the magic touch on their favorite jams and the band was asked NOT to return to the stadium for their final two shows! Spike commented, “That’s the most people that ever booed me in my life” and I think Dave’s expression sums it up perfectly. How could 32,000 people not get the joke? Boy are they really going to be kicking themselves in a…uh, well…maybe not. The Pirates are 51-81 though so up your butt Jobu." (source: Fat Wreck Chords)

 

STORY

Article by John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer (originally posted here...)

Band strikes out with Pirates fans
Saturday, August 26, 2006
By John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A four-run rally in the sixth for a big Pirates win, clear skies and a glorious fireworks display.

What could go wrong?

Thirty-two thousand fans found out Thursday night at PNC Park when a post-game entertainment extravaganza disintegrated into boos, jeers and an abrupt exodus of frustrated fans that, by morning, became the talk of the town.

Moments after a Mike Gonzalez save carried the Pirates to a 5-3 win over Houston, the stadium announcer urged fans to stick around for Skyblast, a well-publicized, Alcoa-sponsored, choreographed fireworks and laser light show.

For the first time in several seasons of Skyblast shows, the Pirates marketing department had booked a live band. Curiously, director of marketing Brian Chiera and his staff hired Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, a San Francisco punk cover band known for its spoofs of contemporary and classic rock hits, to play three consecutive nights of Skyblast.

The show began with questions about musical preferences posed on the electronic video scoreboard to team members. As their answers were splashed across the screen, the band played the songs the players referenced under choreographed blasts of fireworks.

Gimmes singer Spike Slawson, who grew up in Shadyside, Oakland and Point Breeze before moving 20 years ago, said he knew something was wrong when they started into Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

"There's a fine line between irreverence and lampooning," said Mr. Slawson, "and [the Gimmes] kind of ride that line. It's not supposed to be a homage -- that's not what we do. 'Stairway to Heaven' is, like sacred, though, and everyone started booing. I felt it in the pit of my stomach. That's the most people that ever booed me in my life."

Mount Washington Pirates fan Chad Kanick, 26, who watched from his seats near the left field foul pole, said he didn't know it would be "painful and awkward to watch. I almost felt bad for them. It's just the band wasn't suitable for that venue."

Bob Lucas, 46, of Upper St. Clair, saw it differently from across the field near the right side foul pole.

"I'm a big Gimmes fan," he said, "but I was surprised when I heard they would play. We have several of their records. It's throbbing bass, guitar and drums. Very punk. But the punk nature of their covers may not have been the best choice for the crowd."

By morning, word of the disaster had made it to San Francisco, where publicist Vanessa Burt of the label Fat Wreck Chords was gearing up for the Oct. 17 release of the band's next CD, a country music spoof titled "Me First & the Gimme Gimmes Love Their Country."

"I mean, why they hired a punk rock cover band is surprising to me," she said. "What did they think would happen?"

WDVE-FM morning disc jockey Randy Bowman said the station was flooded with calls about the Gimmes.

"It was about 70-30 opposed to the band," he said. "Most times, people really like to hear songs they know in a different way, but in this case they just didn't dig it. A lot of people called and said they were embarrassed that the crowd was being so disrespectful."

The Gimmes got the ultimate disrespect from the Pirates: They got canned after one show.

"Plain and simple, we missed the mark," said Patty Paytas, the team's vice president of communications. "Because of that, the band will not be participating in [the rest of its scheduled] shows. It just wasn't the right type of band."

Chiera said last night's and tonight's Skyblast performances would continue with recorded music.

"The band was very cooperative and did the songs we asked them to perform," he said. "Their interpretations of the songs were a little harder than we expected, but it was in keeping with their style of music."

Slawson, a Pittsburgh ex-pat punker who still bears Heinz Ketchup and Steeler tattoos, said he feels bad for Pirates staff "who stuck their necks out for us."

"It was an obscene amount of money for the amount of work we did, so I can't complain," he said. "We're a punk band. Getting booed by a sports crowd makes us viable."

Slawson said despite the bad experience with the hometown crowd, it hasn't soured his impression of Pittsburgh.

"I don't know why I miss [Pittsburgh] so much," he said, "but I dream about it all the time. It was like an extension of my youth in Pittsburgh -- getting booed in Little League, getting booed when my band played the Electric Banana. But at least I didn't get punched in the stomach."

 

INTERVIEW

This interview was originally posted here...

9/11/2006
Mondesi Interview: Me First & the Gimme Gimmes
On Thursday, August 24, the Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off a three-night set of Skyblast fireworks shows set to the live music of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. The Gimmes are a San Francisco-based punk rock cover band, and their playlist for the evening included their rendition of "Stairway to Heaven", among other classics.
Needless to say, the Pittsburgh crowd didn't appreciate this musical angle, and booed the Gimmes throughout the performance. The response was so bad that the Pirates fired the band for the remaining two nights and replaced them with recorded music.
The band's lead singer is Spike Slawson. Spike actually grew up in Pittsburgh and has Heinz Ketchup and Steeler tattoos. He seemed to me like a nice guy who was simply booked for the wrong event by the Pirates, based on what I read on him in the days following their performance. While I find it hard to believe that the Pirates could make any mistake in judgment, I thought Slawson was getting a bit of a raw deal, and that the Pirates should be the ones on the hook for booking the band in the first place.
Looking to wrong this injustice, I was able to get an interview with Slawson, and his answers are below. I am not a punk rock fan by any means, but I certainly respect other people's tastes. The Gimmes have a large following, and I thought it would be fair to give Slawson a forum to air out his side of the story...
The Gimmes in action

Mondesi's House: What was your first impression of the idea once the Pirates approached you?

Spike Slawson: I had strong misgivings about it. I couldn't imagine what would be worse, being booed by tens of thousands of sports fans, or cheered. Mike (our bass player/band leader) who enjoys putting us in extremely awkward live situations, was thrilled.

MH: How hard was it to continue the set once the booing began?

SS: A cover band must always remain professional. Remember the band on the Titanic? Right when the booing started I looked over at Mike and he smiled and yelled above the boos, "What did you expect? This is huge! It's the best thing that could have happened!" From lemons, lemonade.

MH: Are you at all upset at the Pirates for what happened, that they would book you for such an event? Or did it end up getting you some new fans in a roundabout way?

SS: No, I am not upset at the Pirates for hiring us. I was a little irked about being fired, however...
I doubt we have any more fans because of the incident. What's the opposite of fan?

MH: How does that crowd rank among the largest you've played?

SS: I think it was the biggest. Definitely the most I've ever been booed by.

MH: Are you surprised at all the publicity about a promotion? Usually fireworks night doesn't generate such news!

SS: I figured kind of a little buzz around town, though, not the front f****** page.

MH: What are your best memories of Pittsburgh?

SS: Shadyside growing up, the Strip shopping for meat and fish with my folks, Movies on Flagstaff Hill, the Electric Banana (now Zarra's), Late Summer into Fall, showing my San Francisco girlfriend all these places years later.

MH: Did you watch the Super Bowl, and if so, where?

SS: I watched the superbowl at Mike LaVella's house in Alameda, CA. He was the bass player for Half-Life, a pretty famous Pittsburgh punk band. He had a couple cases of Iron City shipped out, and decked his house out with a bunch of cheesy Steelers paraphernalia, too.

MH: Do you ever make it back to the city? What are your favorite places to go?

SS: I don't make it back as often as I'd like, but when I do I like going to the War Streets, the Strip, Aiello's pizza, the Southside, Brave New World records on S. Craig in Oakland, Immortal Tattoo on S. Highland, Time Bomb also on S. Highland, or just wandering around Shadyside.

MH: Did you really get booed in Little League?

SS: My parents think that it was because my eyesight was starting to go--I wear high prescription glasses now--but, yeah, the kids, and maybe even some of the parents jeered me off the field on my first day of little league. Pretty f****** disgraceful, huh? Seriously, I relived a lifetime of Pittsburgh disfavor during that half hour at PNC park. And with fireworks

MH: Would you ever do a sports event again?

SS: If you could guarantee me the same results, yes.

MH: What was your last Pittsburgh show prior to Skyblast?

SS: My last Pittsburgh show didn't happen. A few years ago my other band, the Swingin Utters, had cracked the leaf plate on our trailer on our way to New York City, and we had to find somebody to fix it in New York on a Sunday. Then I got the news that sometime in the wee hours of the morning our drunk guitar player had left all of the band's money in the trunk of a taxi cab, so we had to call every dispatcher in town, every police precinct, etc. New York is great and everything, just don't ever be vulnerable there, 'cos hungry vultures will start circling your wagon (or in our case, RV). Anyway, by the time we got close to Pittsburgh (the only town I really cared about being in on the whole tour) the show had been cancelled and I spent the night in the RV, in the parking lot of a Super 8 outside Clarion. The time before that we played a half-empty Club Laga.

MH: When do you think the Pirates will win again?

SS: Right before next year's Me First and the Gimme Gimmes annual PNC park fireworks extravaganza, of course!