I recently interviewed a local band called Aliens At Home, and I noticed they are performing again soon at The Cobalt Cabaret on October 23. Since I don’t see any shows from Green Day happening anytime soon in Vancouver, I do know that Aliens At Home, who were heavily inspired by Green Day, will be returning to perform at local venues.

They started out as a band called The Burnouts, covering Green Day’s songs for fun until their lead, Viral began songwriting and eventually tossed in two original songs in his shows. That ultimately shifted the band’s direction to now playing originals. If you’re wondering where the name came from, Aliens refers to how most of us aren’t native to the land, and that we’re all immigrants or aliens that feel at home. 

I discovered that he worked as a stagehand with my friend, and as someone who felt curious to know what the experience was like working backstage, I was a little shocked to hear how awful his experience was when he worked for Taylor Swift’s touring crew. From his experience as a stagehand, he wants to make sure that the crew at his shows don’t experience the same struggles he faced. He points out that since there’s no long-term relationship with her touring crew, in his experience, the crew was cheap and disrespectful.

Aliens At Home

I’ve only heard positive things about the local crews that worked with her, and from that, she sounded super generous. In her Era’s Tour, the amount of bonuses she gave out to the crew totaled to $197 million. There was also a time in 2015 where she flew her crew of 125 people to Australia for a tropical vacation.

To hear that Viral experienced none of that and that she allegedly went so far as to book an extra crew so that Viral’s crew couldn’t see the show completely contradicts the nice gestures that the public knows.

For stagehands, the hours are long, and the work is strenuous, but you must be focused in a fast-paced and high-pressure environment if the show is to go smoothly. Not every touring crew can have the same level of generosity as others.

Nowadays, the shady things going on behind the scenes becomes more and more transparent, but I’m glad to hear that Viral would take the extra steps to ensure his environment remains safe the bigger he gets.