That time In Flames kicked me off their tour bus

September 28, 2002

My friend Dan and I were doing a Sunday night Metal show on 90.3 FM in RI – a channel that reached all of RI, parts of MA, CT, and even NY on a clear night. Through this show, we managed to score meet and greet passes, as well as an interview, with the Swedish metal band In Flames. This was their Reroute to Remain tour and we were very excited. When we started our radio show, we had to build the loud rock/metal department from scratch and the In Flames single Bullet Ride (from the Clayman album) was the first CD we received after reaching out to a ton of labels and promo companies. So when they came to town, we did some outreach and set things up!

The part that sucked about this meet n greet was that we had to miss the band Sentenced as they were first in the line up. But we hung around outside the venue, found the tour manager, and then ended up on the In Flames tour bus. This was pretty sweet, and I’m pretty sure this was the first tour bus I had been on (unlike your mom). Once we were on and settled, we talked about their music, the tour, told them how much we loved the Clayman album and that we were digging the new CD as well.

I don’t remember which dude we were talking to, guitar player maybe, but Anders Friden (their singer) was sitting there listening to the conversation and eating sushi. Yep – sushi – super metal. It was a good conversation talking about what they thought of the US so far, the culture shock and different foods, and of coure the music. At some point, when talking about their style of music – which if you’re unaware is considered Swedish Death Metal (though it find it quite melodic for the most part), I asked about the song Metaphor. I mentioned that it was really soft compared to all the other songs to date and asked something along the lines of “This song is much lighter than the rest of the songs on this album and previous albums, did you write it for radio?” At this point Anders, putting his sushi aside, spoke up real quick: “No! We don’t write for radio! We write for the fans and ourselves!” It was then quickly made obvious that our time was up and we were asked to leave.

We left the bus as directed, may have been sad for a moment, then laughed. Dan quickly pointed out that I clearly offended them, and probably called me a dick for cutting our time short. Perhaps I could’ve reworded, but oh well.

We made our way into the venue, having missed Sentenced, to enjoy the rest of the show. Dark Tranquility was up next. I’d like to say they were great, but after a long day, I legit fell asleep during their set. I can sleep anywhere and we had a spot on the balcony on one of several nasty couches. This wasn’t the first or last show where I was able to fall asleep.

In Flames put on a kick ass show that night. I’d like to think that the anger I caused them fueled their performance. Killswitch Engage was next and they were awesome. They were the headliners that night. I enjoyed their performance but really became a big fan from their 2004 album The End of Heartache. Check it out if you don’t know it!

In short, don’t ask a band if they sold out to radio if your find yourself on their tour bus.

Setlist here