Liam Cormier from Cancer Bats Toured with Danzig and Lived to Talk About It

Photo courtesy of Girlie Action

When I was 15, I witnessed my first rock concert. It was Danzig at the Concert Hall in 1993 and it was a truly frightening experience. Scrawny little me with my chin-length hair and round glasses, trying to fit in with a mob of bikers, metalheads, goths, punks and skinheads was such a futile effort, so I gawked and absorbed every moment of the night in pure outsider astonishment. My friend and I stood in the balcony and watched all of these dudes, who each looked seven-feet tall and 200 pounds, smash into each other in the pit with fists and boot Docs flying. Above the pit stood a man with bulging biceps in a fishnet shirt, only five-foot-four-inches tall, playing the role of metal god, while singing songs about the Devil. And even though he was half the size of most dudes body-slamming each other, he was twice as scary looking. He was Glenn Danzig.

If you are somehow unaware of who Glenn Danzig is, he is the following: The founder/frontman/songwriter of legendary New Jersey punk band (and Hot Topic bestseller) the Misfits, the slightly less legendary doom punk band Samhain, and the almost as legendary blues metal band Danzig; a notorious tough guy; a kitty litter shopper; an adult comic book author and publisher; a very close friend of fellow punk icon Henry Rollins; a classical music artist; an occasional Aqua Teen Hunger Force character; and the original choice for Wolverine (eat it Hugh Jackman). The one thing he is not is the Devil. And if you ask him if he is the Devil he will “give you a clock right in the head with the elbow.”

As you can likely tell, over the past 30 something years, Glenn Danzig has been one of the most fascinating icons in heavy music. His muscular physique, howling baritone voice, obsession with the occult and penchant for threatening physical harm to anybody have made him both a menacing character and a laughable internet meme. Toronto metalcore punks Cancer Bats spent the majority of July touring with Danzig, relishing their opportunity of a lifetime. We met up with frontman Liam Cormier to see what on earth that experience was like for him, and surprisingly he and his bandmates returned with all of their teeth and a newfound respect for the man they call Evil Elvis.

A photo posted by Cancer Bats (@cancerbats) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:32am PST

Noisey: So Danzig was the first real concert I went to see when I was a teenager. This was in 1993 when the band was massive. I’m dying to know: What was it like to go on tour with him?
Liam Cormier: That 90s feeling of going to a show where there might be Nazis, you’re not sure, but a really aggressive vibe. So not every show of this tour was not like that, but given that it was Danzig and Pennywise, there were a couple of shows where the pit was so 90s. I didn’t see Danzig in 1995 but I did see Pennywise and the pit was so aggressive. I don’t know if there were Nazis but there were skinhead dudes starting up a super harsh mosh pit. We thought it was weird because there aren’t any Nazis at any of the shows Cancer Bats usually play. There were fights at some shows, but the whole tour wasn’t like that. But all of the pits were very aggressive, very 90s… but very aggressive, very 90s dads that have come back to fuck shit up.

So because Pennywise were also on the bill, was the audience divided?
Everyone was wearing Misfits shirts, so it was a tough call. But there were the goths that were Danzig 100 percent. But even the guy with the devilock is singing along to Pennywise. So that made it for a cool tour, to have both sides of it. For us, we didn’t know where we would fit in. A lot of the time when we’re on tour with a metal band, we are the punk band. No matter how much metal we play we’re still considered the punk band. Then when we’re on tour with a punk band we’re considered the metal band. So it was kind of like, “Do we play more punk songs for the Pennywise crowd or play more metal for the Danzig crowd?” And within two or three shows we realized that we’re the metal band, and that we needed to be metal as fuck and just rip it.

How did Cancer Bats get on the Danzig tour?
We got asked to do the tour by Danzig’s agent Tim Borror. We’ve done a bunch of tours with him before, like with Gwar. And I think just knowing that we’re not the youngest, but we’re not the oldest, we can fit in on a tour. We have lots of dads that come rip the pit. It’s cool because the dads who brought their kids to Billy Talent or Alexisonfire ten years ago, are now still at their show with their kids – but they bought the tickets for both of them.

What was the band’s reaction when you were asked?
Oh, we were stoked. But we were asked late, by the nature of how the tour was being booked. We had 24 hours to decide. So we were in Europe, and we were supposed to do more headline shows and tour the west coast. So we had to cancel those shows if we decided to do Danzig and Pennywise. I feel like anyone that came to see us would also be stoked to see Danzig and Pennywise for a few dollars more. We’re pretty confident in Cancer Bats fans.

Were you guys nervous at all touring with Glenn Danzig. The dude has a reputation for being unhinged and hostile.
There is a lot of mythos about him. But we also had the same thing working with Ross Robinson. We heard all of these crazy stories about him but we were generally more scared working with Ross than doing this tour. But day one Danzig said “what’s up?” to everyone. He was the nicest dude to us. So I don’t know if we happened to be on the tour at the right time or we’re just the best dudes ever, but he would say “what’s up?” to us every single day on the tour. They were super cool as a whole band. Tommy Prong came and hung out, Johnny would watch us play. They would sound check as a band. There was zero rock star attitude from their camp the whole time. I went into it not sure if we would be able to eat catering. But then Danzig would come up and say, “Dinner’s up! You should go get dinner.” And we were like, “Danzig just told us to go eat dinner!”

What was the catering like? What does Glenn Danzig eat?
It was pretty generic. I thought it might be something crazy because we heard a rumour that he only eats meat cooked over fire. Which seemed so awesome. But there was meat and I’m sure it was just cooked in a kitchen. Two of us are meat eaters and two of us are vegetarians. And there was always a veggie option. I think some of the people in his band too were vegetarian. After this tour I think he’s just the most normal dude. And he was so low-key. In Kansas City, this fan came up to him with his entire Danzig collection, and Glenn was on the ground signing it all. Like he literally had 40 or 50 pieces of memorabilia. And I guess Danzig won’t write notes, but he’ll sign everything. And we walked by him and he said, “What’s up dudes? How’s it going?” And went back to signing the memorabilia. He was the fucking realest dude! It was so awesome.

Was there any chance to have a conversation with Glenn?
It was always brief. We’d see him going in and out of the venues and he’d ask, “How was your day off?” It was never “Come and sit down.”

Were you disappointed at all that he was so nice? Or more relieved?
I was definitely relieved. I’d way rather hang out. Because I’ve been on tour with bands that aren’t the best dudes. I was working for a band back in the day that toured with Motörhead, and no one literally spoke to Lemmy. He never said “what’s up?” to anyone, never did anything. So to compare Glenn to Lemmy? Glenn Danzig is way fucking cooler. And watching Danzig? He was going fucking hard at every show, jumping off monitors! It was sick. I was floored. If I’m like that when I’m playing shows at 60? I’ll be so stoked.

How’s he looking these days? He’s still pretty buff I think.

Yeah. Someone told me he wasn’t, and that he had a bowling ball going on, but he looks jacked. And they played for almost two hours and he was running around. And that’s what was kind of crazy about the “no photos” policy. On one hand I get it, but on the other side he should just show how hard he’s ripping! I know he has his own reasons, but his stage looks really cool and he’s crushing it. I don’t think people know. Like the internet generation needs that validation to buy a ticket. I feel like they don’t see he’s going crazy and putting on the best show ever. His voice sounds awesome.

So, about that photo policy. The first night of the tour that guy who sugar-bombed Adam Levine from Maroon 5 tried to get a photo with Glenn. And Glenn put him in a chokehold. What was the band thinking when you heard about this?
There was a “no photo” rule on the whole tour. And like I said, there’s part of me that thinks “oh, that sucks.” But at the same time, there’s part of me that thinks “don’t be on your phone for the whole show!” Be in the fucking pit ripping with those fucking skinheads! Have fun in the pit. Have a good time! I remember going to shows without a cell phone. I didn’t get a phone until I was 25. I’m not that fond of it. I don’t take photos or videos at shows. I mean, I have a Blackberry, but… that’s the thing, maybe as a dude who’s seen it come up, I wanna say “get the fuck off of your phone!” I’ve played shows where we come out and the first row is filming us playing “Sabotage.” And I’m like, “Man, just rip the pit and have fun!” But a lot of people don’t want to be told what to do, and I think they’re crazier than he is. I don’t think Glenn’s being crazy at all. It’s no different from going to a comedy show and they ask you not to put their set on the internet. And people respect that request. I think it’s a shame that gets more hype. That dude sounded like a complete dick. He’s shooting photos and Glenn puts him in a headlock? Yeah, that’s what happens. That wasn’t because he was taking a photo. That was because he’s a fucking asshole.

Were there any rules for the tour that seemed out of the ordinary? Like, “Anyone listening to post-1983 Misfits will be kicked off the tour”? Or “Anyone caught reading Henry & Glenn Forever will get choked out by Glenn himself”?
No, there was nothing like that. Everything was chill. There were days when they were even listening to old Misfits on stage.

Misfits, Samhain or Danzig?
Misfits, obviously. Growing up skateboarding and seeing old Misfits articles in Thrasher, I was always, “What is this band?” But I was honestly way more into Danzig, and then got into Samhain. For me Danzig is the heaviest shit. And even still, there are old bands that have been killing it forever, but the new Danzig songs they’ve been playing are heavy as fuck. It’s awesome.

What is your favourite Danzig album and why?
I’m definitely first four. I still think there are bangers on IV. My favourite part of the tour was Danzig takes requests or gauge what the audience wants to hear. There are a ton of songs they can play, but he’s always be like [in Glenn’s voice] “Wanna hear some Danzig 1? How about Danzig 2? What about Danzig IV?” And people would cheer. But then he’d throw out songs, and he’d always ask, “‘Snakes of Christ’? How about Danzig 2? ‘Snakes of Christ’?” And no one would ever go off! Me and Jay were always yelling “Snakes of Christ!” because it’s such a bad-ass song. And then he’d play something from Danzig 1 or yell, “Fuck the set list. We’re playing everything!” It was so sick.

You guys cover Black Sabbath under the name Bat Sabbath. Would you ever consider doing Danzig songs under a name like Canzig? Y’know, because you’re CANcer Bats or maybe because you’re Canadian?
The funny thing is, and I’m not even bullshitting, like two days before we were asked to do the tour we were jamming “Twist of Cain” at sound check and saying, “We should cover this! It would be sick!” And then we literally got asked to do the tour. So I feel like in a way we channel the gods who brought that to us. And after we did the tour we were like, “Nah, we can’t cover it.”

Continued below…

Yeah, he seems very protective of his intellectual property. The funny thing is, he is releasing that album of covers. And they did a bunch of the covers on the tour, like [Black Sabbath’s] “N.I.B.” and they do it in Danzig style. He even says, [in Danzig’s voice] “We’re gonna do it Danzig-style.” It was cool, like a slower Danzig version. And then we said, “Should we also cover ‘N.I.B.’?” But we might have gotten in shit.

There is a song on your new album, "Searching For Zero," that makes me think of Danzig a little—“Beelzebub.” Is that a coincidence or is Danzig an influence?
Oh, we’re super influenced by Danzig for sure! We have songs that are that kind of vibe too. I think of like Danzig and Type O Negative having a big influence on us. Our song “Darkness Lives” is a total Danzig-style song. But yeah, Danzig is a huge influence on our band. Especially if you listen to the guitar squeals. It’s funny because we have more Danzig songs than “Beelzebub,” like “Darkness Lives.” We love that old bell sound and the sparseness. There aren’t a lot of bands that can get away with having a song be so deconstructed and also be heavy as fuck. I think that’s part of the influence that we use.

Cam Lindsay is a writer living in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Noisey Canada.