On Friday, we had the pleasure of reporting on the sad saga of Threatin, a Los Angeles-based rock band that nobody had ever heard of despite the fact that it had tens of thousands of fans on Facebook. Threatin has been on a big UK tour, but even though it supposedly has this big online following, most of the venues it has played at have been nearly empty. The too-predictable twist here is that all of Threatin’s online fans were actually bought by frontman Jered Davis, who apparently thought a fictional fanbase would somehow translate to an actual fanbase when he went on tour in Europe (which, everything else aside, is wild).
Now that Threatin is more famous than it ever was before, the touring members who joined Davis on his tour are speaking out, and it turns out that they were just as duped as the European venues that were led to believe Threatin had legions of human fans. The drummer, Dane Davis (no relation, we assume), has told his story to Classic Rock Magazine in the UK (via Consequence Of Sound), and he says he and guitarist Joe Prunera were promised $300 each for the European tour. Dane Davis had done some research on Threatin, and while he thought the band’s online presence was “odd,” he didn’t think anything was too weird until he and Prunera learned that they’d still have to pay for their own food and other expenses while in Europe.
When Davis and Prunera started playing supposedly sold-out shows where nobody showed up, they talked to Jered Davis and got this all-time great dodge: “This is sort of strange. I’m used to more people being here.” (Yeah, nothing shady there at all.) When the articles about the Threatin scam came out and Davis realized he was part of a con, he secretly stashed his drumming equipment in a safe spot and told Jered Davis that he would be quitting the band.
Prunera gave his account to MetalSucks, revealing that Threatin’s touring bassist Gavin Carney hasn’t been able to follow Prunera and Davis in quitting the band because he can’t afford a plane ticket back from Europe. The MetalSucks story also features a deep dive into Jered Davis’ social media presence and some drama surrounding Threatin’s attempt to claim a bullshit-packed Wikipedia. It’s all a lot of fun, and we’re excited to see what the band does next.