Mike Wengren Looks Back On Disturbed’s Struggle In Chicago: ‘We Weren’t Part Of The Cool Kids’

Drummer remembers being too heavy for Chicago’s alt-rock scene and creating their own circuit.

By Griffin Kozlowski

Aug 30, 2025

Mike Wengren details the band’s relentless grassroots marketing before signing with Giant Records.

Summary

Mike Wengren recalls Disturbed’s early grind, handing out cassette tapes and building their own scene in Chicago.
The Sickness 25th anniversary tour is underway, U.S. shows now, with Europe scheduled alongside Megadeth in September.
A 25th anniversary reissue of The Sickness is out, plus a brand-new single, ‘I Will Not Break’, via Mother Culture Records.

In a new chat with Modern Drummer, drummer Mike Wengren opened up about how Disturbed went from handing out cassette tapes outside clubs to landing a major record deal.

The conversation dug into the group’s early years, their strategy for standing out in Chicago, and the first moment they realized David Draiman was the frontman.

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“August of ’96 is when we basically formed Disturbed,” Wengren recalled. He and guitarist Dan Donegan had been together since 1992, cycling through musicians without much luck. They eventually put an ad in the Illinois Entertainer and auditioned what felt like dozens of hopefuls. Then Draiman walked in.

The routine question was always, What covers do you know? Instead, Draiman flipped it back: Do you guys have any originals? According to Wengren, that was the spark.

“We went into a song, and he just started to scat a rhythmic type of melody, vocal line. We were just looking around at each other, like, ‘This is great.’ From that moment, we knew he was the guy.”

Outside The Cool Kids

Getting recognized in late-90s Chicago wasn’t easy. The city had a booming alternative scene led by Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, and Local H. Disturbed didn’t fit.

“We weren’t part of the Cool Kids club. We were considered too heavy,” Wengren said. Even major venues like the Metro wouldn’t give them a slot.

So the band carved out their own path in South Side bars, often in places that weren’t even proper clubs. They brought friends from other local acts, built a following, and started packing rooms.

That grind became their playbook.

A Promotion Machine

Every dollar made from gigs went into recording three-song cassette demos. The band would mass-produce them and hand them out after shows, whether local or national.

“We’d stand outside when the show let out and just hand out cassettes,” Wengren said. Without social media, they relied on pure face-to-face hustle.

They even divided the city. If there were multiple concerts in one night, the band would split up and promote at all of them.

Branding was everything. “We just became a self-promotion machine,” Wengren explained. That effort eventually caught the attention of another group, Lungbrush, who helped Disturbed get an opening slot at the Metro. With fans showing up in force, the label attention soon followed.

Disturbed Mike Wengren — Disturbed was officially formed in August 1996 when Mike Wengren and Dan Donegan joined forces with David Draiman.

Sickness Turns 25

Fast-forward to today, and the band is celebrating The Sickness with a 25th anniversary tour. The U.S. run kicked off February 25 in Nampa, Idaho, featuring two full sets each night. First, the band played the album front to back.

Then came a greatest-hits set. Depending on the date, openers included Three Days Grace, Sevendust, Daughtry, and Nothing More.

The party isn’t stopping in the States. In September, Disturbed will head to Europe with Megadeth as direct support. The trek runs from September 28 in Copenhagen to October 28 in Glasgow.

Disturbed - Down With The Sickness (Official Music Video)

A Classic That Stuck

Released in 2000, The Sickness is now certified five-times platinum by the RIAA and stayed on the Billboard 200 for 106 weeks.

Revolver put it on their list of “Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums.” Billboard nailed the appeal when they described “Down With The Sickness” as three and a half minutes of “alt-metal mayhem” driven by tribal beats and guitar chug.

On March 7, Disturbed reissued the record in a 25th-anniversary edition. Just a couple weeks earlier, on February 21, they also dropped a brand-new single, “I Will Not Break,” through their own Mother Culture Records.