Utter Trash--Brave Words

How to Bring a World Class Metal Festival to Cleveland

An interview with Mark Gromen of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles Magazine

By Bob Ignizio

If you’re an American metal fan, chances are you’ve heard about the great metal festivals like Bang Your Head or Wacken Open Air and wished something like that would happen closer to home. Well this year you’re in luck, because Canadian based metal magazine Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles has picked Cleveland, Ohio to be the site for their first ever Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles Six Pack Weekend scheduled to take place at The Odeon from June 12^th through 14th. The bands playing include Candlemass, Entombed, Trouble, Jag Panzer, Nevermore, Wolf, Elegy, and the debut of Mercyful Fate axemen Michael Denner and Hank Sherman’s new project Force of Evil. There will also be vendors and non performing guests like Tim “Ripper” Owens of Judas Priest, Pete Way of UFO, and Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir on hand to sign autographs and talk to their fans. I recently conducted an interview with the event’s organizer, Brave Words writer Mark Gromen, and he filled me in on the details.

UT: Brave Words is based out of Canada. What made you pick Cleveland for your first big festival show?

Mark: Several variables actually. I lived in the city from '82 to '90, made a lot of great friendships within the metal community, and periodically I return for shows. Within the industry, it's widely known what a great metal town Cleveland is, buying lots of albums and supporting just about EVERY tour that goes through town. NYC and Philly don't have ANYWHERE near as many metal shows as Cleveland, even though both populations are much bigger. The print media and college radio have been extremely supportive of metal as well, not dismissing it as a lesser lifeform. Lastly, the magazine wanted to be associated with an American city, to sort of be seen in a bigger light, that it's not merely a Canadian publication (not that there's anything wrong with being Canadian), but too many people, especially in Europe, tend to see BW&BK as solely a Canadian enterprise, when it sells more in the US and is available in 25 countries around the world. Hopefully being associated with an American city will remedy that prejudice to some extent. Cleveland being the first major market close to the Toronto home office, it just made sense.

Mark: Knock wood...everything has gone pretty smoothly thus far. The one stumbling block we've encountered is the reluctance of some European bands to participate. The reasons are not unfounded, hearing horror stories about how some bands have been (mis)treated at other US based festivals. Although the magazine has a stellar reputation, having NO prior experience in producing large scale shows left some skeptical. That's why we have to do it right, once, then we hope they'll be more interest from overseas bands. That said, we are also bumping up against the lucrative European summer concert season. Who would want to play one show in the States, for 1000 people, for a smaller payday, when they could stay in Europe, avoid the hassles of overseas travel, get paid more, and play to a bigger audience? We understand that, so hopefully do the fans, because if this thing tanks, there's even less chance bands will want to come over here. We really need give them a professional set-up and show them North America cares about metal!

Mark: The decision to do this has been brewing for several years, with each overseas excursion I take independently, or with other members of the BW&BK family. Fact is, there's no evidence the US can support anything more than a club show. Look at the other events that have been run here, Milwaukee Metalfest being the grandfather of them all and the excellent job Glenn Harveston has done with making the ProgPower series a success. Those are the kingpins and to assume we can do better, first time out of the box, is arrogant and a recipe for disaster, if you ask me. Ultimately, we'd like to keep this event in Cleveland, for its entire lifespan, provided there's a demonstrated interest, growing along the way.

UT: The lineup for the show is incredible. As a fan, are there one or two bands in particular that you're looking forward to seeing?

Mark: Thanks for the compliment about the line-up! The vision was to differentiate ourselves from the other festivals, by offering a wider range of music, yet still under the metal umbrella, as that's the strong point of the magazine too. Believe it or not, the decisions regarding the line-up have mostly been a one man job, mine. I did get input from Tim Henderson and some suggestions/help from Cleveland metal guru, Bill Peters, but ultimately, it came down to me negotiating and saying "yes" or "no" to the terms. Having seen Candlemass twice last years, as well as when they played upstairs at the Phantasy, back in the 80s, it's a thrill to bring them back to North America (let alone Cleveland!) for their first gig in over a dozen years. Same thing about Trouble, but they almost jumped at the chance to play Cleveland again, remembering the great shows in town. Otherwise, all the debuts are exciting, particularly Wolf, who I also saw last year and Force Of Evil, which is basically Mercyful Fate without King Diamond. This will be the Danish band's first appearance ANYWHERE in the world (we've scooped Europe, for once) and it will happen at the BW&BK 6-Pack Weekend.

UT: What are your plans for the future of this festival? Do you think it's possible to eventually put on a show in North America that would rival some of the bigger European festivals?

Mark: Problem is, there are so many obstacles to overcome that the Europeans don't have. Most of the attendees overseas are kids, as opposed to here where it's twenty somethings or beyond depending on the music. You need to have a credit card to rent a car or reserve a hotel room, which seem like necessities to attending a US show out-of-town. In Europe, nearly everyone arrives by train and camps out. There’s not too many urban settings where thousands of people can (or would even WANT to) camp out. After the fiasco of the last Woodstock, do you really think there'd be too many people lining up to allow thousands of camping metalheads loose in a major city, or even in the countryside for that matter? The insurance and potential lawsuits would scare off most, even if the reputation is unwarranted.

UT: How have the ticket sales been going so far and what's the breakdown of local ticket buyers vs. folks from the rest of the world?

Mark: Given the demise of the WMMS metal show, and the brief hiatus of Music's Bottom Line, both of which offered initial support, it's been pretty good. As I alluded to earlier, other shows cropping up overseas plus all the great summer package tours and the Iraq war have probably taken the BW&BK 6-Pack Weekend out of the spotlight or siphoned off some cash - temporarily, we hope. That said, ticket sales are good, but not sold out, so make sure you get them early! Right now, it's about 50-50 in terms of local sales and people from out of town. We've made a point to alert the Cleveland community that this is not just another local show and demand exists for tickets from elsewhere, so don't wait, hoping their will be a walk-up sales. There may be, then again, The Odeon isn't THAT big a place.

Mark: Just want to stress this is supposed to be more than a concert, what with the extra guests who will be attending, solely to meet audience/sign autographs (apart from bands that are performing). We'll be giving away CDs and DVDs, like door prizes, all weekend, as well as magazines and BW&BK merchandise. There will be almost a dozen vendors and don't forget about the local Cleveland area showcase, on Thursday, with seven more bands (although there's a small, separate admission for that night).