On Thursday, British metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon got some major shade thrown their way by Brian Baker, lead guitarist of Bad Religion. Baker, a rock music veteran and founding member of hardcore punk icons Minor Threat, reamed singer Oli Sykes and his Bring Me the Horizon crew over their backstage entitlement issues.
As reported by BrooklynVegan , Bad Religion and Bring Me the Horizon were both performing on Thursday at Resurrection Fest in Spain; the two bands were billed as co-headliners for the first night of the hard rock festival. Upon noticing a backstage sign declaring that members of Bring Me the Horizon were not to be stopped by venue security for any reason — including not having proper passes — the Bad Religion guitarist snapped a pic of the impractical notice and posted it on Instagram, stating that he would make fun of the band when he saw them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHjtSyQASsc/
Not ones to let the issue rest with Baker’s initial response to the audacious backstage signage, Sykes and Bring Me the Horizon drummer Matt Nicholls responded directly to the Bad Religion guitarist online. Nicholls’ ageist diatribe mentioned that Baker had not stopped any members of Bring Me the Horizon as he’d indicated in the post.
“Hahah I can’t imagine being as old as you are and still acting like a 14 year old girl. Saw you at least 10 times and you didn’t bat an eye lid. You got bigger things to worry about nowadays anyway, like ya pension, or cold weather.”
Baker appeared to take the Bring Me the Horizon boys’ criticisms in stride. As covered at Noisey , the Bad Religion guitarist responded to the comments from Nicholls and Sykes, sensibly indicating that they’d misunderstood his initial post. Baker then threw down the gauntlet, addressing the two musicians in an astute statement that highlighted their arrogant and inconsiderate behavior.
“It seems you’ve missed the point entirely. The issue here is entitlement. My post was a comment on your collective delusion that working local crew at a thirty band festival should be required to memorize your faces to spare you the indignity of breaking stride on the way to your backstage oasis or even worse, the humiliation of carrying credentials. Your literal display of arrogance (and the hilariously unrecognized irony within it) was what I was sharing with my followers. I honestly don’t know if your music is bad or good — it’s not for old people! I meant that you suck as humans. Sorry for the confusion.”
Baker, a punk rock renaissance man, founded melodic hardcore band Dag Nasty prior to his joining Bad Religion as lead guitarist in 1994. At the time, he was also offered a guitarist spot with alternative rock giants R.E.M., choosing to enlist with Bad Religion over the “Losing My Religion” hit-makers. As previously mentioned, one of his most respected musical forays was establishing “Straight Edge” hardcore legends Minor Threat in 1980 with revered Washington, D.C., musician Ian MacKaye.
Bring Me the Horizon was formed in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 2004 by the two forenamed musicians, vocalist Oli Sykes and percussionist Matt Nicholls. The modern metal group is currently rounded out by bassist Matt Kean, guitarist Lee Malia, and pianist Jordan Fish. Bring Me the Horizon have released five studio albums since 2006.
Both Bring Me the Horizon and Bad Religion are currently touring the world in promotion of their most recent releases. Bad Religion released their latest album, True North , in 2013 — the LP on longtime label Epitaph Records being the band’s 16th full-length effort. Bring Me the Horizon issued That’s the Spirit last September.
[Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images]
