Me First & the Gimee Gimees
A notorious show!
My alt-rock radio station in NJ, WHTG, used to play Me First & The Gimee Gimees on our punk and hardcore show, and their shtick was doing punk covers of well-know songs that were often tongue-in-cheek. When I heard that the Pittsburgh Pirates had booked the band to play after three games on 8/24, 8/25, and 8/26, I was very surprised. I had a hard time believing the Pirates had booked the band, and I found it odd that the band would be into such a gig. (Apparently, it was the money. Also, Me First singer Spike Slawson is originally from Pittsburgh, but I don't know how that fit into the booking, if at all.)
It did not go well. When the band started playing songs that the crowd knew but were performing these songs in a style that the crowd didn't care for, the boo-birds started coming fast and furious. (The Pirates must have thought they were booking a standard cover band.)
Suffice to say the other two performances were cancelled.
According to PunkNews.org, a team spokesperson said, "Last night, everyone enjoyed a tremendous ballgame & a spectacular fireworks show. We also included a live band that we thought would be a good addition to the show. Unfortunately, we missed the mark. Because of this, the live band will not be a part of tonight's or tomorrow night's performance. We sincerely appreciate our fans feedback & take that into great account in everything that we do."
The band's Slawson was quoted by the same article as explaining, "There's a fine line between irreverence and lampooning, and we 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. It was an obscene amount of money for the amount of work we did, so I can't complain. We're a punk band. Getting booed by a sports crowd makes us viable."
I looked online the next day and found some comments people has written about the show. Here were a couple: "The band tonight was about the most hideous thing the Pirate organization has put on the field. And considering Dave Littlebrain put Burnitz, Hernadez, Randa, and others on this team, that speaks volumes.... Honestly, it's so bad, then after the game tomorrow, I am running out of there before it starts."
Also: "The show was suppose to be spectacular. Instead the 32,000+ fans which attended the game booed the band after they totally cut up some famous songs made famous by big time bands and singers. The band which calls its self a punk band sang a song and then a few minutes of fireworks were to be folowed [sic] by the orginal [sic] playing of the song, but that may of been a mistake as the orginal [sic] version of the song made the band look even worst as fans booed.... Overall the bad [sic] sucked and let;s [sic] just hope they don’t perform at Skyblast 2 and 3 which are tonight and Saturday."
I'm so glad I was there. I loved every minute of it.
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