Mike Portnoy Throws A Tantrum Over Drum Rig Setup

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Mike Portnoy



Jason Fisher November 08, 2012



November 08, 2012

Mike Portnoy has issued a statement regarding his onstage tantrum at a recent Manila, Philippines stop of the tour. Mike was upset over the drum gear setup and began throwing equipment around on stage while stage hands tried to put it all back together. (see video below)."On at least a half dozen occasions on this tour we have been incredibly frustrated to arrive at the venue only to find the band’s gear requirements were simply blatantly ignored (wrong keyboards, wrong amps, Zildjian cymbals, etc) AND were not setup and ready for us as was supposed to be the case and what the promoters had promised,” says Mike in a statement.“We have been as patient and understanding as we possibly can be…but when you get 4 guys who haven’t slept more than a couple of hours every night in order to fly to these shows without sleep…sometimes our patience can wear thin."In the case of the Manila show, we arrived hours before the show to find out the drums weren't setup, cymbals were missing, Billy‘s amp was wrong (again) and Tony had a buzz on his gear that would not go away…but we forged ahead because we were VERY excited to play for the fans!"At the start of Stratus (where the video on youtube is from) – my snare drum mic fell off and I motioned for the tech to come put it back on the stand/drum…and instead, he comes up to the drum kit and takes the mic away…leaving me playing with NO snare mic!!! (you’ll hear I begin playing the high tom instead of the snare)…realizing he had no idea what was going on or how to fix the situation, I stopped playing and did my little ‘rap’ while they fixed the situation and we wouldn’t have to play the whole song with no snare in the mix. In the video, you can see I was at least making a joke out of it and wasn’t maliciously trying to hurt anybody or storming off in anger."Moral of the story: WE ARE HUMAN! And sometimes frustrating circumstances create frustrated behavior. I’m not saying I was right in stopping the song…but if you see a video from later in the show, you’ll see I explain to the audience that I’ve been waiting my whole career to play in Manila and I wasn’t going to let ANYTHING ruin my night or their show!! And we carried on and everybody had a great night…And I look forward to returning…(although this may be the last time I tour without my own kit and my own drum tech…hahahaha!!!)"