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C'etait a Porto Allegre, Y. Malmsteen avait ete conspue, arrose d'excrement suite a son chant patriotique americain.
source : http://www.chartattack.com/dam(...)3.cfm
Yngwie Malmsteen Controversy Addressed
Friday October 12, 2001 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Yngwie Malmsteen
A little over a week ago, as part of his current Latin American tour, guitar virtuoso Yngwie (pronounced "ING-Vay," although "Ying-wee" is more fun to say aloud) Malmsteen played a show in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Keeping in mind that this is a man who has played thousands of shows and is revered by guitar-nerds and rockers alike, it would've been difficult to predict how the night would've ended.
Midway through the set, the Swedish musician (who has spent a great deal of his life on American soil) played "The Star Spangled Banner." It wasn't the first time he had covered the anthem, but with the events of September 11 still fresh in everyone's minds, the song carried a little extra weight.
And not all of that weight was positive.
Some fans began to boo and jeer the anthem, provoking Malmsteen to insert it (or at least, pieces of it) throughout the show. From there, things got worse and resulted in an abbreviated encore amidst patriotic chants of "Brazil" and less-than-patriotic chants of "Bin Laden." The show finally came to a close with Malmsteen saying "God bless America and fuck you all," before a near-riot allegedly broke out.
As the touring band's only American member, keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) posted his thoughts online on October 3, the day after the concert.
"To see the anti-American rallies on CNN is bad enough, but to be in the middle of one is scary beyond words. So after Yngwie's solo we had about five songs to play. All of my spirit was gone. I finished the set disgusted, and without looking at the crowd for the rest of the show," he wrote. "After the final song, the band went to the dressing room. I told Yngwie, 'I refuse to go out for the encore under any circumstances, FUCK these people."
"The crowd went into a riot and started throwing shit on stage... I want to thank Yngwie for taking my back, and for standing up for the U.S.A.," Sherinian continued. "To the people in Porte Allegre, you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't give a fuck if I ever play your peasant-infested third world city again."
Sherinian later clarified his statement two days later with an explanation written in Portuguese, apologizing for some of his, uh, "harsh" words and acknowledging that some of the confusion and hostility may have been caused by a language barrier between the artists and their audience... to say nothing of how the USA is often perceived internationally.
Comments from fans posted on Yngwie.org tended to be more explanatory than outright apologetic.
"The fact is that the people here are very politicized, proud and tired against the oppressive, imperialist policy adopted by the U.S. during many long years in their relationship with South and Central America, etc," one fan wrote. "When Yngwie started playing 'The Star Spangle Banner,' most of the people there were surprised. Why he didn't play the Brazilian anthem instead? People didn't understood the relationship [with] what happened in the WTC and Pentagon. I'm aware that Yngwie played the U.S. anthem for many years...but most of the people there took that as a confrontation."
Others were less gentle.
"I wonder if Yngwie was expecting an applause to 'Star Spangled Banner.' He tried to play it once and got a negative response. Then during the show he tried to play it again and again. Near the end of the show he said: If you boo "Star Spangled Banner" I won't play anymore. Maybe he should remember that we paid to see him playing his songs, not "Star Spangled Banner" and that we speak Portuguese in Brazil; so most people didn't understand a word when he said that... People booed him in a spirit of jest, demonstrating that they didn't want to listen to that," another audience member posted on the website.
Still others insisted that the band should have just ignored drunken fans baiting them, and played on. And despite the fact that both Sherinian and Malmsteen stress that they don't want to politicize their music, other fans feel that it already has been.
"I'm very sad with all that happened. I want to say that I wasn't among those who booed 'The Star Spangled Banner.' But look, Mister, I did not buy the ticket to see American war propaganda. Here in South America... we've been living with the Uncle Sam boots on our faces for too long. We'll fight terrorism, not for the USA, but for all mankind. Your keyboard man said that we have started a riot and throwed shit on stage, which is NOT TRUE... A single night turned 15 years of devotion to your music into dust. I hope we can clear our hearts of all that hate."
Malmsteen himself has posted his thoughts on the incident.
"At the time, with all the adrenaline pumping, when I heard the jeering and booing I got really angry. But I didn't do or say anything at that moment, I just finished the song. Then a few more times, I just put it in anyway, 4 or 5 more times [chuckling]. Because I couldn't let that kind of thing go unanswered. You don't spit in my face and expect me to ignore it, okay? I'm not talking politics here or larger issues of imperialist whatever ・I'm talking about that one moment right there onstage. I was really pissed off and maybe I shouldn't have showed it, but I did," he explained.
Though playing the same song (even if it is the American national anthem) five times in a single concert is probably a new thing for the guitarist god, he has been doing "the Star Spangled Banner" semi-regularly in concert now for about 20 years. Still, even without the connotations associated with the terrorist attacks on America, Malmsteen did not take kindly to being jeered off the stage.
"To put it plainly, the people who booed me and yelled Bin Laden's name in some misguided attempt to show their hostility to me, I have no respect for them-- what I said over the microphone at the end of the show is directed to those specific people in the audience. But that wasn't all of the audience, I know that. That wasn't Brazil, that wasn't Porto Alegre... it was a bunch of bad apples in the audience," Malmsteen clarified.
He and his band, for the record, didn't experience any problems with later Brazilian dates in Curitiba and Sao Paulo.
Of course, according to set lists posted online, the warmer reaction may have something to do with the fact that "Star Spangled Banner" had been mysteriously replaced by Brazil's national anthem.
-Erik Missio
source : http://www.chartattack.com/dam(...)3.cfm
Yngwie Malmsteen Controversy Addressed
Friday October 12, 2001 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Yngwie Malmsteen
A little over a week ago, as part of his current Latin American tour, guitar virtuoso Yngwie (pronounced "ING-Vay," although "Ying-wee" is more fun to say aloud) Malmsteen played a show in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Keeping in mind that this is a man who has played thousands of shows and is revered by guitar-nerds and rockers alike, it would've been difficult to predict how the night would've ended.
Midway through the set, the Swedish musician (who has spent a great deal of his life on American soil) played "The Star Spangled Banner." It wasn't the first time he had covered the anthem, but with the events of September 11 still fresh in everyone's minds, the song carried a little extra weight.
And not all of that weight was positive.
Some fans began to boo and jeer the anthem, provoking Malmsteen to insert it (or at least, pieces of it) throughout the show. From there, things got worse and resulted in an abbreviated encore amidst patriotic chants of "Brazil" and less-than-patriotic chants of "Bin Laden." The show finally came to a close with Malmsteen saying "God bless America and fuck you all," before a near-riot allegedly broke out.
As the touring band's only American member, keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) posted his thoughts online on October 3, the day after the concert.
"To see the anti-American rallies on CNN is bad enough, but to be in the middle of one is scary beyond words. So after Yngwie's solo we had about five songs to play. All of my spirit was gone. I finished the set disgusted, and without looking at the crowd for the rest of the show," he wrote. "After the final song, the band went to the dressing room. I told Yngwie, 'I refuse to go out for the encore under any circumstances, FUCK these people."
"The crowd went into a riot and started throwing shit on stage... I want to thank Yngwie for taking my back, and for standing up for the U.S.A.," Sherinian continued. "To the people in Porte Allegre, you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't give a fuck if I ever play your peasant-infested third world city again."
Sherinian later clarified his statement two days later with an explanation written in Portuguese, apologizing for some of his, uh, "harsh" words and acknowledging that some of the confusion and hostility may have been caused by a language barrier between the artists and their audience... to say nothing of how the USA is often perceived internationally.
Comments from fans posted on Yngwie.org tended to be more explanatory than outright apologetic.
"The fact is that the people here are very politicized, proud and tired against the oppressive, imperialist policy adopted by the U.S. during many long years in their relationship with South and Central America, etc," one fan wrote. "When Yngwie started playing 'The Star Spangle Banner,' most of the people there were surprised. Why he didn't play the Brazilian anthem instead? People didn't understood the relationship [with] what happened in the WTC and Pentagon. I'm aware that Yngwie played the U.S. anthem for many years...but most of the people there took that as a confrontation."
Others were less gentle.
"I wonder if Yngwie was expecting an applause to 'Star Spangled Banner.' He tried to play it once and got a negative response. Then during the show he tried to play it again and again. Near the end of the show he said: If you boo "Star Spangled Banner" I won't play anymore. Maybe he should remember that we paid to see him playing his songs, not "Star Spangled Banner" and that we speak Portuguese in Brazil; so most people didn't understand a word when he said that... People booed him in a spirit of jest, demonstrating that they didn't want to listen to that," another audience member posted on the website.
Still others insisted that the band should have just ignored drunken fans baiting them, and played on. And despite the fact that both Sherinian and Malmsteen stress that they don't want to politicize their music, other fans feel that it already has been.
"I'm very sad with all that happened. I want to say that I wasn't among those who booed 'The Star Spangled Banner.' But look, Mister, I did not buy the ticket to see American war propaganda. Here in South America... we've been living with the Uncle Sam boots on our faces for too long. We'll fight terrorism, not for the USA, but for all mankind. Your keyboard man said that we have started a riot and throwed shit on stage, which is NOT TRUE... A single night turned 15 years of devotion to your music into dust. I hope we can clear our hearts of all that hate."
Malmsteen himself has posted his thoughts on the incident.
"At the time, with all the adrenaline pumping, when I heard the jeering and booing I got really angry. But I didn't do or say anything at that moment, I just finished the song. Then a few more times, I just put it in anyway, 4 or 5 more times [chuckling]. Because I couldn't let that kind of thing go unanswered. You don't spit in my face and expect me to ignore it, okay? I'm not talking politics here or larger issues of imperialist whatever ・I'm talking about that one moment right there onstage. I was really pissed off and maybe I shouldn't have showed it, but I did," he explained.
Though playing the same song (even if it is the American national anthem) five times in a single concert is probably a new thing for the guitarist god, he has been doing "the Star Spangled Banner" semi-regularly in concert now for about 20 years. Still, even without the connotations associated with the terrorist attacks on America, Malmsteen did not take kindly to being jeered off the stage.
"To put it plainly, the people who booed me and yelled Bin Laden's name in some misguided attempt to show their hostility to me, I have no respect for them-- what I said over the microphone at the end of the show is directed to those specific people in the audience. But that wasn't all of the audience, I know that. That wasn't Brazil, that wasn't Porto Alegre... it was a bunch of bad apples in the audience," Malmsteen clarified.
He and his band, for the record, didn't experience any problems with later Brazilian dates in Curitiba and Sao Paulo.
Of course, according to set lists posted online, the warmer reaction may have something to do with the fact that "Star Spangled Banner" had been mysteriously replaced by Brazil's national anthem.
-Erik Missio
