The No Playback metal festival in Germany is guaranteeing all their acts will be live and authentic. Meaning, NO backing tracks or pre-recorded music from any of the bands that hit the stage.
We were clued into this unique gig by the frontman for the German thrash metal legends Destruction. On Facebook yesterday (Jan. 16,) Schmier Fink ranted about bands who use backing tracks, saying that “Many rock acts betray their fans with pre-recorded tracks.” He continued, “Do the fans really want that? Or do they want honesty and a raw live feeling of real musicians playing real instruments and not computers playing their fave songs for the hard earned ticke(t) money?” Fink wrapped with a demand. “Play live or go home … if you have pride and you are musician, stop the cheating!!!”
At the end of his post, Schmier shared a poster for the No Playback Festival, featuring a dozen bands who will ostensibly play raw and live, with no backing tracks. Check out the link and the rant at the end of this article.
The use of backing tracks in the rock and metal scene never seemed to be more controversial than it was last year. Bandleaders were very vocal either for-or-against and online fights were rampant. Dave Mustaine called bands that use tracks “fucking lazy.” Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho defended musicians that use them. And the granddaddy of all Twitter wars was waged by pro-backing tracker Ronnie Radke of Falling in Reverse, who laid into to Sirius XM host Eddie Trunk and Sebastian Bach, calling them dinosaurs and a bunch of other salty names. You can see a list of bands who proudly admit to using backing tracks below.
We broke down the mission statement on the No Playback Festival‘s website using a neato German-English online translator. What is “Das echte LIVE-Erlebnis, internationale Top-Bands der Rock- und Metal Szene, die noch den Spirit des Rock’n‘Roll verkörpern, dafür steht das No Playback Festival.” in German, spits out to “The real LIVE experience, international top bands of the rock and metal scene, who still embody the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, that’s what the No Playback Festival stands for.” Right on.
Bands scheduled to perform cleanly April 28-29, 2023 at Remchigen’s Kulturhalle include Ross The Boss, Raven, Sanhedrin, Vicious Rumors and eight others.
Schmier Fink of Destruction Posts About The No Playback Festival in Germany
Bands Who Have Admitted to Using Backing Tracks
These musicians say backing tracks help them put on the best show they can and have no shame in confessing it.
