Booksoup in Hollywood and Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco proved wonderful venues for the final two book events of the Small Victories promotion tour.

Last Tuesday’s event in LA attracted a large crowd of Faith No More diehards keen to hear from Small Victories author Adrian Harte and long-time Faith No More producer Matt Wallace. After some initial words from the guest speakers, including the author asserting that Faith No More were in many ways an anti-LA band, a lively Q and A session followed, enlivened by many personal recollections and anecdotes from Matt Wallace.

Author Adrian Harte was joined by two Faith No More members in Mike Bordin and Bill Gould for the San Francisco event and the wonderfully-located Green Apple Books on the Park.
The session was a little more informal, and after a brief author introduction and an even briefer introduction from the author of the two FNM members seated eitehr side of him, a long and wide-ranging audience Q and A session followed for over an hour.

AngelPasto is comments on the last post gave a very thorough rundown of what was discussed and here’s an updated summary of those point and more:

On Epic: they included it in most setlists because it felt right, they didn’t get bored playing it. Moved the song to earlier in the setlist to avoid the sense of people waiting for it. Both made the point that it a song they like a lot, and that they, of course, chose to select Epic as the single that ultimately provided their breakthrough.

On Angel dust: they don’t feel is necessarily their best album, just one album offering a portrait of a specific time of the band, like any of the other albums. Mike said he prefers King for a Day actually. And Bill came equipped with a large previously unopened box of Angel Dust cassettes that he distributed to the audience.

On Last Cup of Sorrow video: Bill explained that it is one of their favourite videos and gave an explanation on how the video was selected, also explained in great detail in the book.

On playing with Chuck versus with Mike Patton: music is played the same, no difference from an execution perspective

On Chile connection: Billy said many of the details in the book were new to him (e.g., the notes about Chilean author Alberto Fuguet). They also said they were in the end cool with Chileans spitting on them, Mike said he was happy to be at the back of the stage though.
Billy mentioned Chilean band Como Asesinar a Felipes as one of the good new bands. In fact, Billy had just come back from Chile, where he was mixing their latest album which includes a collaboration with Chino from Deftones.

The band also spoke in great detail of their Brazil tour experiences for Rock in Rio and the 1991 tour.

On being a San Francisco band: it’s unlikely that the band would be the same if it was based elsewhere, they both agreed. Bill also told the story of how FNM and Primus has both competed in a battle of the bands contest at The Stone but both lost to a third band, who won the prize of an Arista recording contract.

On rotation of guitar players: the core of their creative process does usually not include guitars. Guitar players at some point want to play solo parts, which they don’t seem to appreciate much…

On jamming currently: they hinted they were jamming occasionally until recently, but the site they used in Oakland was flooded about a month ago.
The rehearsal space/studio in Oakland was indeed flooded at the start of the year, and the actual room that the band was using and where Sol Invictus was recorded has been damaged beyond immediate repair. However, all instruments, equipment and great has been salvaged, and the band has now moved into another room in the same complex, previously used by the band Testament, and it is in the process of being set up now.

Thanks from me to Matt, Mike and Bill and all at Booksoup and Green Apple for making these events so unforgettable.