It was late 2012, early days for Northlane, and the second time we went to New Zealand. We had a string of shows around the North Island, and 1st December was our final show, at Zeal in Wellington. Since we had an eight- or nine-hour drive to the airport the next morning and a really early flight, we decided to give up our headline slot and open the show. So the whole lineup was flipped on its head, pretty much, and there were only around 30 people there in the audience when we went on.
So it was comical to begin with. We were booked to headline, and then we asked to open, and the booking agent was like, “Oh … OK.” It was all a bit of an anticlimax. That was, before I fell off the stage.
There was a stage with quite a large drum riser on the back of it, with a two-metre drop to the ground, and behind the stage was about a metre gap to the back wall of the venue. About halfway through the set I’m thrashing away, none the wiser, and one of the legs of my drum throne slipped off the back of the riser. The throne has three legs on it, one of them was facing backwards, and they have a little rubber foot on each leg.
I felt the rubber foot slip off, and at that point I was like, oh boy. As soon as I felt the drop of the foot, there was absolutely nothing I could do. I couldn’t grab on to the drums, there was nothing that would have stopped me, there was a gravitational pull, and I got sucked down into the space behind the stage. It all happened so quickly. I just kind of remember feeling like I’d been folded in half.
I had my in-ear monitors plugged into this rack unit, and that got pulled down on top of me as well. The rest of the band turned around, because suddenly I wasn’t playing any more; I was nowhere to be seen. I was folded behind this stage with an in-ear rack about the size of a bedside table on top of me. They helped get the gear off me. Everyone in the venue was laughing. I hobbled back onstage and we started the song all over again.
I had big scratches down my back from sliding down the back wall, but other than that I was fine. I honestly think the back wall saved me, because if I hadn’t hit that first I probably would have hit my head on the ground, and then I wouldn’t have been laughing along with everyone else. But all I had was cuts and bruises. It was one of those comical scenarios, but it could have been worse. I’m glad I survived to tell the tale.
Northlane are touring Australia now. Their sixth album, Obsidian, is out on 22 April
