Machine Head’s Robb Flynn Calls Drive-In Shows “The Stupidest F*cking Sh*t I’ve Ever Seen”
Doro Pesch recently played what we’re 99% sure was the first-ever heavy metal drive-in concert, and the results appear to have been… well… awkward. It’s just weird to watch someone perform such energetic music while people sit in their cars, hang out their windows, or just ignore social distancing altogether, thereby defeating the purpose of the whole in drive-in angle in the first place. And that was for Doro, whose music isn’t even all that heavy. Can you imagine how this work for, say, Machine Head?
‘Cause Robb Flynn can’t! Kerrang! recently asked the Machine Head mastermind if the band would ever play a drive-in show, Flynn replied with an emphatic “Fuck no!” before elaborating:
“I just watched some stupid drive in show the other day where people sat in their cars and honked when they liked what the band was playing, and it was the stupidest fucking shit I’ve ever seen. If cover bands want to do that shit, it’s cool. They should have fun. But the whole point of a Machine Head show is having those 5,000 people screaming every word, pressed against the barrier, getting sweaty and piling into giant circle pits – just that cathartic release of energy. If the only option is drive-ins for a while, I can wait.”
Not only is Flynn willing to wait, but he’s willing to wait a long time. While he previously predicted that concerts and won’t return until 2022 at the earliest, he now adds that it may be another two years before the world gets back to something resembling “normal.”
“I don’t know if things will ever go back to ‘normal’ again. But I think it could be four years before things get close. I think this pandemic could go on for at least two years – coming in waves, getting better in summer and worse as we go back into flu season – then it could take another two years for people to get over that shell-shock of having been locked down for so long. Like the Spanish Flu in 1918, it’ll take time for the economy to recover, and for people to have the confidence to go back out there.
“40 million people have lost their jobs in the U.S., 25 million people have lost their health insurance. The UK has the NHS, but we’re just a bunch of fucking dummies who don’t, because we need our ‘freedom’. I would love to be wrong, but from everything I’ve heard and read, that’s how long I think it’s gonna’ be.”
Despite the long wait for concerts to return, I’m with Flynn on this one. I just don’t see how watching a show from your car can be anything but weird and unsatisfying. Not just a metal show — like, I can’t imagine watching Peter, Paul and Mary from a car. It’s just too strange. Thanks but no thanks.
