Is Mad Rad Back on Their Bullshit?
Or is Datarock just a group of Norwegian assholes that overreact to American assholes and in need of a serious chill pill? Mad Rad seemed to be playing some incident free events over the last few months. By incident free, I mean, no cops called and no attorney's needed. They're reputation for being the wildest party rockers in town is well-earned, but they have been doing a good job of keeping themselves in check. 
That was until two weeks ago when Buffalo Madonna took a concrete sandwich to the face during a show at Nectar where he fell right off the stage and landed on his head. Bloodied, he did complete the show, but it was a rather sloppy moment. And two nights ago, Datarock wouldn't even perform until Mad Rad left the building. The two were supposed to play a show on the same bill Saturday night at Nectar, but an apparent argument between the two camps left Datarock pissed off to the point where they got Mad Rad kicked out of the venue. A #fuckdatarock campaign was waged on Twitter the next day with folks saying Datarock over-reacted. P Smoov just chimed in via email to let me know that Mad Rad wasn't drunk, and didn't even get a chance to use their drink tickets. You can check out video of them having their performance interrupted after the jump. They were asked to leave shortly afterward.
I will say that if Mad Rad was acting too unruly, they should have been asked to leave. But if Mad Rad kept it under control (like people are saying that they did) and it was actually Datarock that acted unprofessional, Nectar should have stood up for the hometown band and not kicked them out. I wouldn't want to see Nectar taking the side of international artists -- who were only in town for one show -- over a group they've supported for the last year without fail. That seems strange and worth an explanation from the folks at Nectar at the very least.
12 comment(s)
really, reverb? says:
Why do you make this such a negative thing towards Mad Rad? It sounds like you weren't even at the show, and let me say Datarock was the problem. Mad Rad was putting on a great show, upstaging this international act. Me and the rest of the crowd booed the decision and lots of us left. Shame on you and shame on Nectar.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 3:11PM
Ricky Walsh says:
You are an idiot. These guys were performing a great show with smiles on their faces, and smiles on the crowds'. Datarock were being primadonna douchebags.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 3:16PM
Poor Journalism. says:
Fabricating shit to make the story more shocking is what tabloids do. You either have no idea what you are talking about, or you do and are choosing to change the facts to make your poor writing more interesting. Shame on you.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 3:55PM
Seely says:
Huh. I don't read this post as JC taking sides, not one bit. In fact, if he's taking a side, I'd say he's got the local boys' back.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 4:01PM
Jonathan C says:
I'm not taking a side per se. Because typically, that's not what journalists do. But I am asking the folks at Nectar to explain why they kicked a local band out if Mad Rad really did nothing wrong. That deserves to be questioned.
And no, I wasn't at the show.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 4:06PM
Janelle says:
Thanks for covering this so I didn't have to: )
I was there...Mad Rad was cool and the other group was buggin! Very hard to be neutral on this blatant dispaly of douche-bagery
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 4:11PM
lar206 says:
if you can read past the headline you'd see this aint bashing MR. reading comprehension, ppl. get some.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 4:18PM
eric says:
Being at the show, it was just a weird night all around... I distinctly remember three members of the opening bands (on tour with Datarock here from London)going up on stage to yell at the guys from Mad Rad. Then finally the sound guys and bouncers from Nectar came up and threw out Mad Rad... but that was just the start of the fun.
Datarock spent their entire set trying to get their sound straight and on multiple occasions yelled at the Nectar staff, and the night ended with Datarock actually being thrown out after getting into it with the staff at Nectar.
There was douchebaggery all around on this one, with Mad Rad really being at the low end of the spectrum. Something was going on between Nectar, Datarock, and their promote...
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 5:10PM
keith says:
So, I talked to not only Darwin, but the Keyboardist's girlfriend from Datarock about the incident (and members of Nectar Staff) and how the story goes is this:
Datarock setup all their gear on stage early on. During Mad Rad's performance, they got told they were 'too close' to the keyboards and watch it repeatedly.
Mad Rad ended up splashing water at the crowd and some potentially got on the keyboards and Datarock forced the sound engineer to pull the plug on the show.
It's not Nectars fault and I saw Mad Rad members being completely cordial to Nectar staff. They weren't mad at them.
Later, Datarock refused to go on UNLESS MAD RAD HAD LEFT THE BUILDING. Talk about little kids.
Even then, it took Datarock almost an hour to come on stage after Esser performed. It was pretty out of control, and when they got boo'd the Datarock lead singer started splashing the crowd with water, which I took as a play on what happened earlier.
I don't think Nectar was in the wrong, either, nor did Mad Rad. I think they saw it cheaper to pull the plug on Mad Rad then risk:
a) having to pay Datarock in spite of performing and pissing off their international management company
b) refunding yet more people and not having a closer.
It was Datarock's show, not a Mad Rad show. I was disappointed to barely see their set, but Mad Rad did perform almost 40 minutes.
Remember, it's not Nectar who asked them to leave, IT WAS DATAROCK. Confirmed from PSmoov, and many others including Nectar staff.
And, in case anyone cares, it was actually a really decent audience, people were super nice and chill and in spite of the drama on stage/with datarock people were their to genuinely have a good time.
PS datarock sucks. Down with Synthpop!
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 5:19PM
Nikki B! says:
Dang, it's getting a little Line Outy up in this piece. And since when are we saying "shame on you"? Hello! Get a grip!
Of course Jonathan wasn't at Nectar, he was at REVERB. He had editorial responsibility to post on this topic as it is something of a hot news story. At least he put the footwork in to get his facts checked.
Jonathan is clearly standing up for the hometown boys. If you are too eager to make a scathing comment, you just look stupid. I wasn't there either, but it sounds like Mad Rad got the shaft.
One thing that I'm curious if Jonathan C missed: "Miss_Meli
#fuckdatarock 2:20 PM Oct 4th from UberTwitter
Ms_Meli Melissa Darby"
For as much as journalists have to remain neutral, so do talent buyers. If the aforementioned tweet doesn't speak on Nectar's stand, I'm not sure what will...
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 5:21PM
Down With Datarock says:
Nectar still owes Mad Rad an apology for kicking them out and essentially catering to out of town crybabies.
Those Datarock guys give Norwegians a band name.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 6 2009 @ 1:41AM
Paul says:
Their reputation, not they're reputation.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 6 2009 @ 1:16PM