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Hey Pandas, What’s The Worst Thing You Have Experienced At A Concert?
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Many, many years ago, I was at an Alice Cooper concert, just enjoy the music and this guy in front of me lit up a joint and started smoking it. Must have been cheap weed cause half way through the joint a seed popped out, landed on the top of his head and his hair (really thin, frizzy and un-kempt) started on fire, really kicking up a load of smoke and smell. Just kinda enjoyed watching his buddies smack him on the top of his head trying to put out the fire.
I went to a metal festival years ago with a friend who had decided that it would be a good idea to dye his hair pink the day before. You have to understand that this was before metal came of age and it was all very macho. Whilst Wasp were playing I suddenly got hit on the back of the head with something wet, large and smelly. It turned out to be half a pigs head meant for my friend. There were almost no showers on site so I had to small of dead pig for the next couple of days. Same festival, my friend just missed being hit by a bottle full of human urine. We never went again.
I was at the Motley Crüe/Def Leppard concert in Brisbane 8/11/2023.
It was a great show love both bands but the audience and the venue were terrible.
No one moved, no one danced it was like we were at an oprah. Even Nikki Sixx made comments about standing up and enjoying the show.
Then to make matters worse 10.30pm Def Leppard mid song the venue (Suncorp Stadium) put the lights on, mid f***kin song.
I would love to hear other people experiences of things that happened at a concert that just didn’t sit right?
What’s the worst thing you have experienced at a live concert
It was festival seating; everyone cross legged on the floor. I kept getting kicked in my back, which triggered my claustrophobia.. I had to get out of there!! Caused a big fuss, embarased my fiance, who later ditched me because of it!
Riot at Shrine Auditorium. Lee Michaels/Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.Lee Michaels cut his set short after Fire Dept.threatened to shut down show for violation of "no smoking" law, twice. Some of the audience refused to leave. LAPD riot squad came in and cleared the venue, violently. We had left, knowing that this would happen. Right outside the venue, we saw a LAPD squad car on fire.
Some guy a few rows in front of me was spitting everywhere. No context. He was just spitting on people, on the seats, on himself. It was disturbing.
Bloodhound Gang concert. They had a guy p!ss his pants for a free CD; he did it and never got his CD. Their sound tech body surfed from the booth to the stage naked (all ages show). Band asked all the above age girls with C+ to come up on stage; bunch of minors came up so they couldn't pull their stunt so they l left without doing an encore.
Well my experience was at a fair and not a concert but effected my concert experience after. When I was around 8 years old my mom took all of us to a really big fair at a church by my school. I was walking by with not a care in the world and out of nowhere a lady threw a large cup of beer in my face. It got mostly in my eyes and it burned like hell. I have been afraid of crowded spaces since then. So much that I have only ever been to one concert in my life, Janet Jackson Black Cat tour. I had anxiety the entire time waiting to get something thrown at me.
Not really the artist's fault, but I went to Metallica's M72 show and both nights 1. we were in the nosebleeds, and 2, sitting right behind a giant tower
I went to a yearly festival called Ottawa Bluesfest back in 2012-2013 (don't remember which year), and I saw Iron Maiden live for both years. These instances weren't so much "worst things", but completely surprising things.
The 2012 concert had some speaker issues, but the show was great. Other acts there included Opeth, and I think Monster Truck (a Canadian band).
The 2013 one, however, is where I noticed a few things. Maiden was the headlining act, with Alice Cooper playing before them. It should be prefaced that the event is an open air event, so I saw some people smoke some weed, so we're already off to a great start there.
I also saw a guy climb one of the sound towers... only for the cops to be waiting for him at the base of the tower.
Lastly, a guy launched some homemade fireworks while they were performing "The Trooper", much to Bruce Dickinson's confusion, but he rolled with it.
Other concerts I've been to have been considerably tamer than that Iron Maiden concert, lol.
In a concert hall with a lady playing the violin, accompanied by a gentleman on grand piano. A photographer for a local newspaper approaches the stage and starts taking several photos in a row, and his camera makes quite loud mechanical noises. The lady stops playing and lowers her violin, turns towards the photographer and calmly but loudly says:
"Let me know when you're done and I can start playing again."
At least he had the decency to exit the hall while everyone was glaring at him.
The king and queen of Sweden visited my home town during the king's Eriksgata and the marching band I was a member of played at the event. One of the newspaper photographers rushed right through our straight lines. Luckily, I spotted him sprinting towards me in time to lower my C-flute, otherwise he would probably have knocked my teeth out because he ran straight into the end of my flute and nearly knocked it out of my hands.
I was at Bloodstock Festival watching 3 Inches Of Blood and was near the front. I had dreadlocks at the time that were down to my a*s and I enjoyed collecting and putting beads on them.
Anyway, I started moshing, when the bobble holding my dreads in broke loose. Given how long they were, they flew and flapped all over the place and suddenly, BAM!
One of the metal beads in my dreads had hit the guy next to me in the face and chipped off half his front tooth! I felt absolutely awful and had a look of horror on my face, but tbh, I think the dude was high on coke on something, because he laughed, put his arm round my shoulder and we just carried on moshing together.
Still feel bad about it though.
Many years ago a friend and I had tickets to see The Rolling Stones 3 hours from where we lived. This girls we worked with but didn’t really know heard we were going to the concert. She and her brother had tickets and asked if they could ride to the to concert with us. She would buy us dinner and pay for gas. I was driving and said OK. I asked my Mom if I could drive her car to the concert because it was bigger. She allowed me to on the condition that there was no smoking of any kind in the car. On the drive to the concert the coworker was drinking and when we arrived she was very drunk. The coworker and her brother were sitting in a balcony above above my friend and I so we decided to meet at the car after the concert. Before the concert started we heard screaming from above and could see two women fighting. They fell over the balcony onto the people sitting below and continued fighting until some of the concert goers broke it up. One of the women fighting was our coworker. Then when my friend and were walking back to the car we heard yelling behind us. Then these two fighting women came sliding past us on the ground. One of the women was our coworker. We stopped to eat on the way home. When we were done our coworker told everyone to go get in the car and she would pay as she had agreed to. After we got in the car our coworker came running out of the restaurant with a restaurant employee running after her. She got in the car, told me to start the car and get out of there because she didn’t pay. The rest of the way home the coworker kept trying to smoke cigarettes and I kept telling her to put them out. The last cigarette she lit she dropped and burned a large hole in the seat. After we got home the coworker never came to work again. We heard a rumor that she went to rehab.
Not a big concert, but a small venue. Johnny Paycheck finally wanders in a couple hours late and obviously not happy about being there (he was wearing that hat) and under the influence of who knows what. Played a few songs, cussed us all out and left. New club lost money on the gig since most attendees demanded a refund. Ended up shutting down not long after. The woman that opened for him was good and stayed over her time. Can't remember her name (it was 40 years ago).
I caught Pete Burns of Dead or Alive in the early 90’s in a small venue of less than 50 people at a night club. Pete was definitely at one of the lower points in his career at that time though I was unaware of this until we got to the concert. This was an exclusive Pete Burns appearance so there were no opening acts. Pete was supposed to come out around 9 pm for his set but it wasn’t until 10:30 before he appeared on stage visibly upset. Not sure if something went down backstage before the performance or if he had some bad blood with the management, but Pete was having none of it. He sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” (Judy Garland) and then “Send In The Clowns” (Judy Collins) and then said goodnight and walked off the stage and did not return. At the time I was pretty bummed out because I was looking forward to some Dead or Alive but now I’m thinking Pete pulled a pretty baller Diva move that night.
Alice Cooper 7th row in the Greensboro auditorium. As part of the show he chops up a baby doll and throws parts into the audience. A leg came winging at me and with everyone grabbing for it my eyeglasses went flying. My sister found them but being wire rims it sliced me 1" on the forehead. I kept the leg for about 10 years.
Drunkards.....especially drunkards looking for a fight. Chill dudes we are there to enjoy a good show.
A old lady (60ish) came up to me at a Weezer concert and said:”do you want to smoke pot me?” The cough/spit in my face. my cousin I was there with (4 years older) just said “nope” and we walked away.
Almost every concert: People who don't care to enjoy a live concert, and proceed to ruin it for a bunch of other concert goers by holding up their smartphones, causing a sea of stage blockers, just to record a performance that's already on YouTube anyway. If *you* don't care about the live performance in real time, then settle your uncaring a**e in nosebleed area and let those of us who want to enjoy it see it and interact. Double negative points for the trash who bring their tablets.
This one isn't me, but a funny moment from when my brother went to see Avenged Sevenfold a few years back (probably around 2017-2018).
They are in the middle of the concert, and after they finish a song, the singer says "This next song is about necrophilia and murder"... they then proceed to start performing "The Beast and the Harlot".
I joke about that with my brother every so often, lol.
I thought "A Little Piece of Heaven" was the song about necrophilia and murder?
Saw a prog rock band at the Sheffield Corporation about tn years ago. Definitely not suited to that venue. Pillars in the way. Bar right where the audience are. Better suited for punk and metal shows imo.
Finally got to see my favorite band (Alice in Chains @ Halifax Metro Centre - 08/27/2014), it was their final show of that tour, and probably the last time they'll come round this way. I was so stoked for months beforehand! However, whoever did the sound mixing was horrible that night! It was so loud, you could tell what songs were being played. I'll be heartbroken about that night forever.
I had a similar issue back in '91 at Monsters of Rock in Dallas when Metallica came in. The Cotton Bowl was an outdoor venue and we were as far back as we could get because it was so overwhelmingly loud. I'm not sure how loud it was, but to be too loud for OUTSIDE is quite an accomplishment!
First time I saw Mudhoney, the really bad support act damaged the sound system so when Mudhoney came on.... The sound was awful.... Destroyed an awesome gig....
I once went and stood in line for 4 hours to get Celine Dion tickets. To keep us entertained while we waited, they kept playing "My Heart Will Go On" over the crummy ceiling speakers. I developed a splitting headache, my girlfriend and I got into a fight about whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio could have survived by getting on the door, and then my card was declined. Then I woke up, sobbing into my iceberg-shaped pillow, and remembered that I didn't even have a girlfriend.
What's the worst thing that could happen to the band? Being upstaged at your own show. That's what happened at a KISS concert I attended at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. I went to the show with my wife's then manager and she had secured pre-show passes for the meet and greet. As we, and a large group of fans, filed into the meeting area, we all began to notice the three guys sitting in the corning. They mostly kept to themselves but couldn't hide their identity long. The concert was on the same evening that the Blue Jays had just won the American League Championship series. The three guys....? Dave Steib, David Wells and Jack Morris! By the time the members of KISS entered the room, nobody cared about them because we were all in the presence of the baseball heroes of our fair city.
The first concert I saw was Kiss (1976). Some dumbass threw a firecracker at the stage where it exploded next to Peter Criss' ear. The band was not pleased. Then, at the Beasty Boys' Licensed To Ill tour, some kid in the row in front of us was so wasted that all he could do (as his date made out with every guy around her) was puke on his shoes.
1) John Fogerty show in Italy. We were standing in the front because we ran faster. Italian girl behind me didnt like that and started harassing me, looking for a fight. When i had enough i yelled at her, so she pushed me. I pushed back and...catfight!!! Clothing flying all around. I always wanted to strip at a concert, gee!! Band had a good laugh about it so i decided to do the same. Girl was escorted out by her boyfriend (I was twice as tall and at least 4 times as heavy)
2) another Fogerty show, in Norway. We arrived really early and were in line first. Local girl arrived later and demanded to stand at the front because... she was local. And we were not. Started to pick a fight but it cooled down.
3) got hit in my face by a Drive By Truckers cd at a festival once!!
Another venue: The Merriweather Post Pavilion used to sell "season tickets" which were 5 similar shows with the same seats. Show #1 a couple of guys were drinking heavily and talking loud. Very loud. Show #2 was Jethro Tull. More loud talking and I turned around and nicely told them that we were trying to hear the show. One guy gets belligerent and wants to fight so his friend takes him out of the show. Show #3 I was prepared. I extracted urushiol oul from some poison ivy and took it with me. Before those guys got there, I dumped it on their chairs. I felt bad after they arrived as they apologized and promised no more trouble. It was a hot and humid August night. I ended up with a horrible rash on my hand. I can only guess what they ended up with. Guys, if you are reading this, Sorry!
My buddy got us tickets to see Barenaked Ladies and we were in the second row! Delightful! ... the guy in front of me had to be 6'7" and was built like a tank. Didn't sit down the entire time. I couldn't see a damn think.
I'm sure this is minor in comparison, but I had great floorseats for AC/DC years ago and the two teens directly in front of me both vomited a concerning amount of alcohol practically everywhere around them, forcing us to have to stand on our seats the whole show. The smell was epic. The show was epic as well!
