Hairiest concert situation you've ever found yourself in?

It's that damn spell-correct thing!

 

When I was touring with Seals & Crofts we once played the Montana State Fair in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Jimmy was scared to play but did. He was really worried about getting shocked.

We did have a huge tarp over the stage so most of the stage stayed fairly dry, but...for some reason the rain on the top of the tarp funneled down and was draining right on poor Ralph Humphrey's head. Gosh do I wish I had a camera with me for some of those shows.

 

January 31, 1985
Cow Palace

A bunch of us were standing about 20 ft. from the front of the stage (dead center) and when the reunited Deep Purple mkII came out the crowd really started going nuts
and we felt the push and shove which turned into severe swaying, almost getting buried in humans. It was so out of hand that we moved off to the side where it was far less nuts.
Sadly, we pretty much missed the opening number, "Highway Star" cause we were fighting for our lives! Good times.

 

Dylan, Blackbushe 1978. Hairies everywhere, tons of 'em, eww. Beards, too! WTF

 

Riverfront Coliseum late 70's, I forget the band. It was the out of control crush to get into the general admission show that was the norm at that place and infamously turned fatal at The Who. The crowd was crushed together in a giant wedge to get in the door. They would let 20 or so in at a time and then slide a bar across the door and everyone would crush up against each other until the bar was dropped again, a ridiculous system. I was behind a pregnant woman who as getting pressed on from every angle and screaming that she was going to lose her baby. I was right behind her fighting like hell to give her some space, but it was physically impossible. Bar slides open and I lost track of her. I hope she got in. Sounds insane but that was standard operating procedure at Riverfront.

 

I was at a Saga/Jethro Tull show around '83-84 time frame, and in between sets these three women next to me got into a knock down, hair pulling brawl. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that the guys with them got into the scrum and it became a free-for-all.

Funny thing I remember about that was during the melee the arena PA was playing the song "Whatcha Gonna Do" by Pablo Cruise.

 

1973. 19 years old, followed friends sneaking into Pink Floyd concert at Blossom Music Center because tickets were sold out. Literally hundreds of kids hiking through the woods to get to this weak spot in the perimeter. My turn came to crawl on the ground under a gap at the bottom of chain link fence, I was wearing a white t-shirt and as soon as I crawled under I stood up right near a security guard, and my t-shirt was all dirty. He just smiled and let me go on in.

 

I had a similar general admission crowd crushing story at Riverfront Coliseum for the 1976 Wings show. Everybody just swarmed inside, they never even checked or tore my concert ticket.

 

The place was fun when you were a kid, but thinking back on it, it was nuts the way they did things.

 

I mentioned this in another thread recently, but when I saw Bowie in Sacramento in 1990, the GA field crowd got very pushy/shovy when the show started. People were being knocked to the ground left and right. I was a big boy back then - 200 pounds or so - but even I got knocked down a few times.

One time a guy got in my face and threatened to punch me because he'd helped me up and thought I'd not helped him. In truth, I didn't see him get knocked down, but he didn't care - he thought I ignored his plight and said that if he fell again and I didn't help, he'd kick my butt!

After 15 minutes or so of this insanity, I moved back 30 feet or so. It sucked to go farther from the stage - I got there early for a good spot - but there was no way I'd enjoy the show with all that mayhem.

I also remember some GA shows at U Hall at UVa that were packed packed packed, but I don't remember them seeming dangerous - they were just "smushy" and sweaty...

 

My thinking was that when they went from completely free to nominally-priced that it'd eliminate the riff raff. Apparently not all of it though!

 

I was in the middle of the Guns n' Roses riot at Riverport Ampitheater in St. Louis in 1991. I worked at the amphitheater at the time but saw the show on a day off. I remember being holed up in the ticket office while the outside of it was being ransacked by drunken, angry fans. We heard glass breaking and the building was shaking. Everyone grabbed the closest thing they could to whack someone over the head with if they came through the box office door. In my case, it was a large, heavy stapler. There was also a stack of brand new phone books with nice, hard sharp edges that I was sure would not feel too good impacting someone's face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverport_Riot

 

Took a date to see a concert while still married.

 

You or her? Either way, bravo

 

When I saw U2 in 1987 during the Joshua Tree Tour, I was 15 years old or so, skinny, not very strong, and I waded my way up to the very front of the stage. At first it was amazing, but turned to hell towards the end as the crowed swayed, smashed, pushed, and shoved. I was exhausted, overheated, and my feet were in pain from being stepped on over and over again in the thin, suede Chelsea boots I was wearing. It took everything I had not to collapse and pass out. I thought I wasn't going to make it. In retrospect, it was one of the coolest shows I've ever seen.

 

Forgot my Jane's Addiction story. When they did a reunion tour, what, 12 years ago? Anyway, they were at the Fillmore in Denver, sold out at 3,600 people. Amazing show, they did the encores and left the building. But the crowd was having none of it. Refused to leave, demanding one last encore and getting pretty agitated in the process. This place had been pretty nicely restored and it suddenly looked like we were gonna have a riot and memorabilia was going to be ripped from the walls. The promoter hastily got the band back to the building and convinced them it was a public safety issue. They came out and did one more song -- and then everyone left peacefully. It was a really weird night.

 

I was so excited to see Springsteen for the first time (Greensboro, NC; 1981) that I didn't care about my seats -- literally the next to the last freakin row. When the band came onstage I jumped to my feet, as did everyone else in the entire coliseum. Well, everyone except the guy sitting directly behind me -- in literally the last row of the arena.

Dude was about the size of Texas. He waited patiently for all of 3 seconds, then tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, he just snarled: "Sit down!"

I was like ... "Man, this is my first Springsteen show ever. Let me enjoy my moment (a thousand miles away from the stage) for just a song or two."

"I said, 'Sit down!' "

I was getting pissed but fortunately my girlfriend (now my wife) saw things with more clarity.

"Hey," she said. "How bout if we trade seats?"

So that's how I ended up rocking out to my heart's content in the very last row of the arena during my first Springsteen show. And my new acquaintance got a free "upgrade" ... one row closer to the stage.

 

Seeing Rush in Tucson in the 80's. The kid right in front of us threw a heavy object and we watched it arch up and hit Geddy Lee in the face. The band immediately left the stage. The crowd could see the object came from within our vicinity. Things got REALLY unruly. Finally ALL of the bouncers pushed their way through and circled the kid who threw the object and escorted him back stage to an extremely pissed off Geddy Lee. Geddy got some stitches back stage and came back out about 30 minutes later to finish the show.

 

Not playing any Lynyrd Skynyrd in a dive bar in the South. True story

Actually not, but a Mexican heckler guy (reason I mention that is his English wasn't the best) kept being like "5 MEENUTES! HURRY UP!" and giving our band a hard time because we were setting up after showing up way late at a (truly) dive bar around where I'm from in Greensboro.

Luckily, after the first song, he was won over especially with our drummer and invited us to play a show "with my relatives from Cancun, I'll pay you whatever you want!" That, true. You either win over those type crowds or get beer bottles thrown.

 

Same exact thing for me. James Taylor at Red Rocks, last year. I got soaked to the bone, but that lightning was the most awesome (and scary) i've ever experienced.

 

Was at this show, and heeded the unspoken warning to move inside . Didnt see the collapse, but saw something wicked this way coming in the distance.

 

Quick, effective thinking on the part of your girlfriend/wife. Hold onto that woman! A gem.

 

We'll have been married 33 years by the end of July.

 

Neil Young at Madison Square Garden in '74 . . people were coming down the escalators (after the show) in droves, and the lower escalators were not working. The pileup of people at the landings got so dangerous I thought the windows were going to crack. There was such a panic, I honestly don't remember how I made it out.

Not a show, but a wait for Led Zeppelin tickets in front of (you guessed it) Madison Square Garden. No lines or organization, just hundreds of people waiting . . They opened ONE ticket window and there was a stampede, people literally falling over me. I just managed to jump over a chain fence to safety.

 

I was at a show on the first Lollapalooza tour and was hanging out at the foot of the stage when a band I wasn't all that familiar with came on. (Nine Inch Nails). Instant mosh pit. Almost broke my ribs against the stage.