Strangest thing you saw at a musical concert?

Entire band was on great form that day. Even if Axl was having an off day, I'm not sure it deserves the makings of a Ploughman's Lunch in the face

Raining bottles used to happen at Monsters of Rock, Donington back in the day. Except the bottles weren't full of beer. Practice has thankfully died out at Download festival at the same venue.

 

I thougtofthatbutit depends on who (and what ag) the person is trying the panties!

 

Guy next to me at a Devo gig had a lampshade on his head.

 

Voice Crack playing "cracked everyday electronics" (radios, kid toys and an incredible array of remote controls, all shining in the dark). And Keith Rowe playing prepared guitar with a slinky stretched to a 20 foot ceiling.

 

The power went out during an Iron Maiden show at MSG, ironically they happened to be playing 'Powerslave' at the time. The lights stayed on, but the PA went out. There's video of the whole thing...here's the soccer game.

 

I saw a Deadhead steal a police golf cart once in the parking lot and he promptly drove it straight into a ditch

 

Saw The Stones in the mid seventies in Buffalo.
It was at the football stadium
An all day event. A few acts.
Between acts they brought out dare Devils to perform tricks.
Kind of like the invention of Jackass.
This one guy was the human bomb. He put himself in a box with explosives and blew himself up.
They went off, the box shatters and he staggers to his feet feeling a bit dazed I might add.

 

I'll bet at a Devo concert YOU were the odd one for NOT having a lampshade on your head.

 

Queensryche did an what seemed odd to me. They toured with Lita Ford. She didn't open. Instead-in the middle of the Ryche show she came out and sang a few songs. Then, it was back to the Ryche.

 

Faith No More circa 1991 on the Angel Dust tour at the New Aud in Worcester, MA. The section of the floor in front of the stage had seats, folding chairs, the area behind it was separated by a small barrier and had no seats. The second the show started the back half of the crowd tore down the barrier and proceeded to toss all the chairs into a pile in the center of the floor.

Lollapalooza II at Great Woods also in MA. An outdoor shed with a grassy hill behind a pavilion. During Ministry's set the crowd tore up all the grass and started throwing chunks of sod, big ones. They also set hundreds of small fires and a few big ones. We were sitting in the last row of seats and getting pelted by sod and choking on the smoke. As the sun went down the air was full of smoke, dirt and fire. If looked like Hell. Al Jourgensen said I don't care if you destroy this place, just don't get dirt on my equipment. RHCP who headlined had the little helmets with the flames on them. They joked that they looked liked Great Woods. Lollapalooza never came back.

 

I saw AC-DC on the who made who tour ( must have been 1986?). At one point Angus appeared down by the floor seats playing his guitar solo while riding on the back of a roadie. Well, two older fans in their 40s who were sitting in front of my friend and I (we were teenagers), totally freaked out and started gnawing on the backs of their seats. Also saw the Jesus and Mary Chain in Toronto in early 86 and most of the small crowd (about 200 people) had dyed black hair.

 

I remember in 2009 at Austin city limits music festival it rained sooooo much that weekend. Zilker park had brand new grass installed right before the festival so it was a muddy nightmare. Some people made the best of it and there were kids mud wrestling and having mud slinging contests. I remember looking at one kid who was shirtless and he covered himself head to toe (including his entire face) in mud while running around.

A few days later it came out on the news that the "mud" wasn't mud at all.... it was recycled poo. People were getting sick coupled with skin rashes, etc. Nasty!

 

Another one : the free improv ensemble Les Diseurs de musique electrifying a chicken during a performance. The chicken, which came from the supermarket, was, of course, dead, plucked and cleaned already. We ate it the next day. It was good !

 

Holy crap

 

Oh yeah, I forgot... the first time I saw Iggy Pop.
Sometime in the late 70's or 80's (?) playing at the Agora in Cleveland or was it Akron, OH.
He was out of control, toward the end of the show, he was spitting up what appeared to be milkish-like
grotesque hawkers on the floor and front audience. Unreal..

We drove down to DC to see PIL, early 80's I thought it was the 9:30 Club, but I looked and it may have been somewhere else.
Anyway, before the show began we were in the men's room. I was standing, doing what you do there, and Rotten walks in
stands right next to me. People are coming in and yelling to him, etc. He stood there snarling, crazed and fuming at everyone.
Classic.

 

There are proper procedures for dealing with laser pointer infractions, outlined here:

 

This happens in Quadrophenia! Jimmy jumping from the balcony to Green Onions

 

1. Seen Bill Graham just beat the $hit out of a speed freak doing about 800 mph at the Filmore West. The guy WAS totally out of control. Bill took care of it.

2. Seen Frank Zappa play some just AWFUL music at one of his concerts. Really Strange. Pretty BAD, but hey... it was Frank Zappa!!

 

Most stadium shows in the seventies andearly eighties were pretty lawless affairs. General admission. Law of the jungle. September 27 1981. Stones. Orchard Park NY. In between Journey and the Stones guy dangles from wire connecting two sides of upper deck. Entire audience reacts as guy tries to get back up, his feet slipping and the audience moaning in disappointment. Music turned off. Bill Graham watched from the stage and as he made it back, Bill told us all to take it easy. No real security or staff presence. 30,000 on the floor. I doubt booze was sold but you could get contraband easily in the stadium. It's different now.

 

Might have been me. Red with tassels.

 

I read your post and thought "this dude's from California" and sure enough...

 

Yes! I saw the The Genitorturers once at Guavaween, it was awesome! Dildo helmets and all kinds of crazy stuff!

This thread is good times.

I hope I didn't tell this already but I recall an underground punk show at a fire hall in cow country once where one of the bands had two singers and one just screeched. He was jumping around and rolling on the ground and everything and at one point they managed to roll him up in the carpet on the stage and someone held the mike so he could keep screeching while he was rolled up like a burrito.

 

Given Tom's age, they're all probably still younger than he is!

 

Nice "get off my lawn" moment. 1974 was the year of Court & Spark, which wasn't exactly Blue. I can totally understand people wanting to have a good time to that album. You don't go on tour and take people's money and then dictate what you want the crowd to do for YOU. Sorry if you disagree.