2008 Woodie Awards
'36 Crazyfists' breaks the ice
Typhani Yang
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: Features
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Thursday was the band's second night on their U.S. tour "Bound By The Road."
"It's good to be in California, where it's sunny so we can wear shorts," singer Brock Lindow said on stage.
"36 Crazfists" is from Anchorage, Ala., and have been together for 15 years.
The crowd at The Boardwalk consisted of about 200 people who went wild as Lindow screamed out barely-audible lyrics, jumped on stage and banged his head -- all at the same time.
"36 Crazyfists" performed songs from past albums and entertained the audience with a new song from their next album, "The Tide and Its Takers," which will be released on May 27.
The music was extremely loud but it was catchy and one couldn't help but start nodding along with it, even if heavy metal isn't exactly your taste.
Lindow looked a bit intimidating with his full beard and beanie but he was friendly. It was amazing that the voice coming out of Lindow on stage was the same one that greeted me before the show. His voice gave no indication that he had just been screaming out a performance the night before at The Fat Cat, a club in Modesto.
The band played with what seemed like a passionate finesse. It exuded energy throughout its performance and had no problem getting the crowd involved.
April Fabre, 24, a fan who attended the concert, has "36 Crazyfists" albums and said she likes everything about them.
"I've never heard anyone who sounds remotely like them, and I like it," Fabre said.
With the band's busy schedule, it was fortunate that Lindow spared some time to give insight on "36 Crazyfists" and to what can be expected of the band in the future.
Q: What is the meaning behind the name "36 Crazyfists?"
A: It was from a Jackie Chan movie from the '70s. It just sounded like a good thing at the time. We're all big Jackie Chan fans and we just like old kung fu movies. There's no mystery meaning behind it.
Q: How was the video shoot?
A: It was amazing! We made it a couple of weeks ago in Anchorage, where we're from. It was about 30 degrees below zero so it was pretty cold, but it was amazing.
Q: Were you all friends before becoming a band?
A: Uh, where we come from everyone who plays music basically knew each other, so, yeah, I'd say we were all friends before.
Q: Are you the one who writes the songs for the band?
A: I write all the lyrics. I don't put the music together. The guitarist does.
Q: What is your inspiration for your album?
A: We try to have lyrics in a hopeful sense and content and basically just trying to get through everyday life.
Q: What do you hope people get from your music?
A: Hopefully it could help them in a difficult time. It did for me so, you know, it's an outlet to find light in a difficult time.
Q: What motivates you to keep producing music and going on tours?
A: We just love to play music. We're four guys from Anchorage and doing something no one's ever got to do. We're extremely grateful and thankful for the opportunity to play music. It was basically our dream to be able to play music and get it to people outside the circle of our friends. It's crazy that we get to go all over the world because of this, so we keep doing it.
Q: What do you think has been the band's greatest success so far?
A: We have a new record coming so it's a pretty big success for a 15-year band. There are a number of things. There's not really one thing standing out in my mind. We've been all over the world and we never dreamed that so that's a massive success -- just being able to travel and meet people all over the place. It's been pretty awesome.
Q: What do you remember as the best memory with the band?
A: Well, a few summers ago we played for the Download Festival in England. We played for about 170,000 people at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It's amazing when you have that many people in front of you. It's kind of, like, humans on display almost because as far as I can see, to the left and right of me, there was people. I just remember the one moment when we all looked at each other and it hit me the hardest because it was like, wow this is out of my mom's basement and we're here and there's so many people. That was a pretty surreal moment.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: Our next album comes out May 27. There's gonna be lots of tours. We're gonna be in Europe in June.
Q: What's your favorite band aside from "36 Crazyfists"?
A: Metallica. Metallica is the band I listened to when I was 12 years old and they influenced me.
Q: What is your personal philosophy on life?
A: My personal philosophy on life is ... my father-in-law once told me, 'Be who you want to be and not what others think you should be.' That always gets me in my soul so that's a philosophy I've always lived my life by.
"36 Crazyfists" will be playing again in West Hollywood at The House of Blues. For more tour dates, visit www.36crazyfists.com. Also on tour with them are "DevilDriver," "Napalm Death," "Walls of Jericho" and "Invitro."
Typhani Yang can be reached at tyang@statehornet.com
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