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When Puddle of Mudd plays at the under-2,000-seat-capacity Joint on November 16, they will be playing one of the larger shows of their current tour. While their last tour was an opening slot for Korn in massive arenas, they have since stuck to playing small clubs.
"It's out of control," says Wes Scantlin, lead vocalist and guitarist for the rock group. "Instead of having your fans 100 feet away from you behind a barricade, our fans are right in our face. I can smell them, I can breathe them. They're right there in front of me. I can feel the sweat shaking off their brain."
Scantlin is clearly invigorated by the up-close-and-personal experience. "Man, I'm telling you it's a great feeling to have the people right there. I'm jumping into them. I feel like I'm part of it," he says. "It's all like one big happy family for one night, and it's all in the name of rock 'n' roll. It makes you feel real, real good."
Of course, if Puddle of Mudd's new album, Life On Display (to be released November 25), is anywhere near as successful as their first, the five-times- platinum Come Clean, the band will soon be playing much larger venues. While success, especially the instant kind, has been known to warp many a mind, Scantlin says that he has largely been unaffected by prosperity. "You have to be able to adapt.
"I just keep writing about real, true emotions: paranoia, alienation, frustration, desperation, confusion. All kinds of crazy emotions that everybody goes through. That's what I try to capture and write lyrically about," he says. "Throw a haunting melodic melody on top of that, and some good music, and you've got yourself a pretty good song."
Despite Come Clean's phenomenal sales, critical response was largely tepid, and in some cases, vehemently reactionary. "You can't please everybody all the time," Scantlin says. "Why are they criticizing our music? Let the people speak. Critics are just critics. Not everybody's going to like us and that's just the way it is.
"If I could actually see the people, meet the people and get to know the person that's actually criticizing, then maybe I could be more understanding," Scantlin surmises before characteristically brushing the issue aside. "I can't put all my thought into somebody criticizing our music. Let them criticize, man. For some reason, it seems to help more than it hurts."