Escape the Fate & Falling in Reverse Down Under – Enough Beef for an Aussie Stew

With Escape the Fate’s upcoming Australian tour on the horizon, drummer and original member Robert Ortiz has reminisced with us about some of his previous experiences playing down under (read the full interview here). Aside from some highlights in 2009, Ortiz discussed the awkwardness that occurred at Soundwave in 2015 where the band played a couple a sidewave with Falling in Reverse.

Of course given the band’s controversial history with Ronnie Radke, the shows were a big deal for Aussie fans to see Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse share a stage together. The two bands had already kissed and made up on a U.S. tour called ‘Bury the Hatchet’ and were invited to bring the same package to sideshows in Australia, labelling it in the same way. To fans, the shows may have been exactly what the doctor ordered, but behind the scenes, the roses weren’t as red as things may have seemed.

“We had the ‘Bury the Hatchet’ tour and we’re on good terms with Ronnie, [speaking] fairly regularly now. I went and watched him when he played out here [in Las Vegas] recently, I was there lending my support to him, so it’s cool, we’re good now but when we played that particular time we weren’t on the best of terms.”

The drummer goes on to discuss how difficult those shows were. “We were put in a spot where we had to play with them and it was not our decision, basically we didn’t want to do it.” Ortiz becomes pretty blunt and elaborates honestly – “the reality is, for me, it wasn’t quite as special because that shit was fake to me even though we had done the tour with them before that.”

“It wasn’t what it should have been, it wasn’t that special and we didn’t even play any of the old songs on stage together” – which must have been a highlight for all parties across American cities. “It just wasn’t what it should have been, it’s hard to accomplish, just ‘cause there’s so many moving parts – it’s a lot more than putting two names on the bill” he explains. “If you’re [sic] gonna do it, do it right, those shows weren’t necessarily the pinnacle for me of what those two bands, on one stage, on one night, should have represented.” – Robert Ortiz

The Slash aspired artist concludes on a positive note. “We’re good now though, and who knows we may or may not do stuff in the future [together] who knows – I’m always open to it because I know what it means to have special moments like that. I know [that] our fans appreciate it because it relates to the history of the band as they know it.”

Ricky Aarons (rickysaul90)

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