Fred Armisen

Comedian Fred Armisen is best known for his tenure on “Saturday Night Live” (where he holds the record for appearing in the second most amount of sketches of any cast member), as bandleader for NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and as creator of the IFC series “Portlandia.” But prior to honing his peculiar chameleonic talents, he was a full-time drummer in the Chicago-based rock quartet, Trenchmouth. Since then, he’s racked up multiple Emmy nominations and two Peabody Awards, typically honoring projects that showcase his enigmatic musical talent.

"In Trenchmouth, we were on tour opening for a band called Down by Law in Las Vegas. Our singer, Damon (Locks), is African-American. So we set up and started to play. Then all these skinheads showed up. Like Nazi skinheads. It was horrible.

We only played 10 minutes or something. They were not into us. But the thing that was the most depressing was there were skinhead girls with them. It was a huge bummer. We went through some rough times in the band, but that was a time that was so rough that I remember going into the parking lot and thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? What is this?” Down by Law was a great band. It’s not their fault -- they weren’t psyched about it.

Also, I’d never been to Las Vegas as an adult. That was another bummer aspect. ‘Is this what the town is like?’ That was the worst gig of my life. Luckily, nothing physical happened. But it was physical enough for me to pack up my drums and feel like we got to get out of here. It was terrible to feel so unwelcome."

— Fred Armisen