SOURCE:  http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/9833704.htm?1c

10-05-04

Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004

Band of brothers

In Iraq, bonds form fast between KC rockers and troops

By TIMOTHY FINN

The Kansas City Star

The best concert of Wes Scantlin's life took place on a fleet of flatbed trucks in a bombed-out Iraqi airfield in Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein.

Scantlin and his band, Puddle of Mudd, were surrounded by a half-dozen tanks and other armored vehicles. The crowd in front of them wore battle fatigues and full-body armor. Some carried loaded M-16s.

“We all felt pretty safe,” he told The Star by cell phone recently as the band headed for a show in Illinois. “The only thing that might have hurt us was some stray mortar or rocket-propelled grenade. So we really weren't worried. We rocked out. It was our best show ever. It totally changed my life.”

Scores of bands and musicians have entered the battle of partisan politics, either in protest of the war and the Bush administration (like tonight's Vote for Change concert at the Midland) or in support of both. Some, however, are taking a riskier but neutral approach: They are going to where the troops are and entertaining them. Among those bands: Puddle of Mudd, led by Scantlin, a Kansas City native; and Pomeroy, a five-man funk-groove band from Kansas City.

“We have chosen not to take a stand,” David Fairbanks of Pomeroy told The Star just days before his band left Kansas City on Sept. 19 for a tour of Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “I'm not sure there's a political consensus within the band, anyway. Instead, we've chosen to do what we can to serve those who are serving our country.”

Pomeroy was invited on tour by Armed Forces Entertainment, which had worked previously with the band's new management, Fresh Tracks of Chicago.

Puddle of Mudd was invited to perform in Germany and Iraq by Installation Management Agency/Europe. That organization, according to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, informally polled troops, asking them to name their favorite hard-rock bands. Jim Sohre of IMA/Europe told the paper: “The acts they were most interested in seeing were Puddle of Mudd, Korn and Limp Bizkit.”

Scantlin and the band left the United States the weekend of Sept. 9, but not without a hitch and some trepidation from relatives.

“My family was pretty worried,” he said. “But I got to call my mom and my son when I was there and tell them everything was cool. Before we left, though, my guitar tech was so freaked out about the idea of going over there that he quit working for me.”

Pomeroy, too, had to deal with some anxious relatives.

“They're all pretty freaked out,” Fairbanks said. “We've managed to stay pretty levelheaded about it. When someone hears you're going to the Middle East or Afghanistan, they automatically think of terrorism and kidnappings and beheadings.

“The two guys who are going as our sound techs are brothers and the only two sons in the family, so their family is real nervous. But we've been assured we'll have plenty of military supervision the whole time we're there. We'll probably be the safest people over there.”

From recoil to uncoil

Puddle of Mudd landed in Frankfurt, Germany, then took a bus to Baumholder, where the band played a show on Sept. 9 for about 6,000 troops in the 1st Airborne Division who were headed home from Iraq. The next day, the band flew from Frankfurt to a U.S. military base in Kuwait, where Scantlin and crew spent some time eating and visiting with troops.

The next day, they all boarded a C-130 cargo plane to Tikrit, where the reality of the war sunk in.

“We played in what was an old Iraqi air force base that had been turned into a soccer stadium,” he said. “(The U.S.) had bombed it heavily during the war, so it was kind of a freaky scene, like going to the middle of nowhere in Kansas, exploding some huge bombs and putting up some huts.

“We ate some chow with the soldiers and visited a hospital, were we saw some soldiers who were really messed up. That was hard, but they were so stoked to see us; that made us all feel great.

“Then we did the show. They pulled six flatbed trucks up by the bleachers and pulled, like, four or five tanks by the stage. The conditions were pretty rough. It was dry and windy, and you couldn't take a step without making a big cloud of dust and sand, which made it pretty hard to sing.

“The troops who were there pretty much sat there from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. waiting for us. Then we rocked out. We played for an hour and 10 minutes.

“We ended with ‘She Hates Me.' A few of the women soldiers wanted to come up on stage with us, and we were like, ‘Sure, come on up.' The next thing you know, the stage is loaded with soldiers, head-banging and stage-diving and body-surfing and having a great time. You can't drink (alcohol) over there, so any time they have a chance to unwind, they do it.

“After the show, we hung out with the troops, went to midnight chow and played some touch football.”

Politics aside

From Tikrit, the band headed back to Kuwait and then back to Germany for a Sept. 15 show in Friedberg. They returned to the United States in time for some publicity gigs in New York and then a show Sept. 19 in Boston.

As his tour bus rolled through Ohio and into Illinois on Sept. 23, Scantlin was still buzzing about the show in Tikrit and how it had changed him and shook up his view of the war.

“We took a tour in a Blackhawk helicopter of all the Saddam Hussein palaces in Tikrit,” he said. “That guy lived in another world. He was like Michael Jackson times a thousand. I guess he was totally ripping off his country and killing innocent people. So it's probably a really good thing he's out of power.

“But it's a dicey thing. The politics go so deep, it's hard to figure it out or even talk about it. It's such a complicated, strange situation. Once you meet some of those soldiers — I can't stop thinking about them. Those kids have the biggest hearts of anybody I've ever met. They are putting their lives on the line every day, basically for the sake of goodwill, so people in that part of the world can have a good life. I have so much respect for them.

“And they treated us like we were doing such a big thing. We went to hospitals and saw some of those kids who were really messed up, and they were telling us, ‘You made our day, man.' They were so happy. I feel like I became brothers with some of them.”

Pomeroy was due back in the states today. On Thursday, they were due to join a five-day a rock 'n' roll cruise of the Cayman Islands, then return to Kansas City on Oct. 13.

“We're anxious and excited about this tour,” Fairbanks said. “We've already heard from some soldiers there who heard we were coming and who've been listening to our music. It'll be as dangerous a situation as we'll ever be in, but it's all for a higher purpose: for the soldiers who chose to serve.

“The cruise at the end of it all will be a nice reward, a time to unwind and let it sink in.”

If Pomeroy's trip goes like Scantlin's, it may take more than five days in the Caribbean for everything to sink in. Ten days after his show in Iraq, Scantlin was still trying to absorb and digest it all.