Ozzy Osbourne, Cow Palace San Francisco 12/81; Myself and a few friends were standing on the floor watching the show and a few songs into the set an attractive, but very wasted young woman came stumbling through the crowd to my right. She fell to her knees, and I helped her back up, she slung her arm around my neck , and ...Blarrrrg! ...barfed all over my shoes & pants. She also sprayed the people in front of us, who, seeing her with her arm around me, assumed I was with her, and screamed at me to get her out of there. They had a point, so I walked her to the women's restroom, set her down in front of it, and said Sayonara. Some girl screamed at me: "You can't just leave her there, you a$$#o!e"... I felt bad about it, but I left her there anyway. Then I had to wash my pants in the sink in the Men's room; standing in my boxer shorts like an idiot. I did the best I could to clean up, but still stunk like barf, which my friends mercilessly reminded me of every minute of the 50 mile ride home.
My wife bought tickets to Melissa Etheridge in 1995.It was for our 5th wedding anniversary. She rented a limo,had champagne in the back etc.It was a pretty cool thing to do but secretly I had wished she had bought tickets to the REM show that had played Great Woods the week before. No such luck.Maybe 10 other guys at the show.It sucked. I got "inspected"while taking a leak (they told me I passed).That was fun.Obviously they hadn't seen that many.Men were definitely the enemy on this night.Never really experienced anything like that before.My wife was embarrassed.You really couldn't hear Etheridge because her female fans were yelling some nasty s*** at her that would have put me behind bars.We made the best of it,blasted early and took limo into town for dinner and drinks.Hey,we already had a babysitter.
Worst concert experience was strictly speaking a non-concert. Minutes before departing for Copenhagen to see The Smiths in late 1984 I read in a newspaper that the gig had been cancelled. I'm not really into them anymore, but the feeling of a missed opportunity that would never materialize again still hurts. And just because Morrissey for whatever reason suddenly decided that he didn't want to go to Copenhagen. The first ever gig featuring David Coverdale's Deep Purple in 1974 was also cancelled. I can live with that. Watching one of Bob Dylan's security people punch a guy in the face after the Copenhagen 1981 gig put me off him for years. I couldn't reconcile his highly Christian profile at the time with such thuggish behaviour. I was watching it through binoculars across the arena, all the guy did was lean over the railing and say something to Bob.
In 1981, I'd imagine people at Bob's level would be very worried about 'fan interaction', given what happened the previous December. No excuse for the roughing up, though.
You think that's bad. I saw Lou Reed kick a fan in the head for doing the same during a concert in the 70s.
During Peter Gabriel's So concert, a short, 60+ year old guard rousted two young kids who had snuck onto the floor. As he walked behind them, he decided to shove the girl from behind just because he could. She went down, wasn't hurt, but the kid really lit into the guy verbally. The guard just stood there telling him to keep moving or else he'd have the kid thrown out and if the kid wanted to swing on him, go ahead. Great ending: 4 or 5 songs later, a large black guard built like a small building comes down to the guy and tells the old guard to leave and points somewhere off the floor. the guard gave some lip I couldn't hear, but the guy just shrugs. the old guy left and never returned.
In the early 70's, when I was in college in St. Louis, I dropped some mescaline and went to a Ritchie Havens concert in the school gym. Some human zero set off some sort of a tear gas device, causing a mass panic and rush for the exits. I got back to my dorm room and my room mate was entertaining two large gents in suits, who happened to be detectives searching for an underaged runaway girl. She had actually stayed in our room for a couple of days some weeks before (fun) but we played totally dumb. One of them got right in my face and started (yelling) if I knew the penalty in Missouri for statuatory rape. They finally left. The evening was intense, to say the least.
Seeing Joni Mitchel back in '75. She was just so RUDE to the audience. Walked out after the 2nd song.
Chuck is one of only a few people that Keef really slices up in the book; he tries to be nice, but it comes out that he really feels kind of hurt and disappointed by Chuck's behavior. This forum is full of stories about idols who disappointed, and Keef is another disillusioned fan.
This one is my worst, not for musical reasons, but for the weather! One of the times out of many that I've seen Rush, my wife (who was pregnant with our first child at the time) had, for the first time ever at this venue (Great Woods in Mansfield, MA) seats that WEREN'T under the roof. Of course, that night was unseasonably cold (this was August) and it just pissed down a hard, driving rain from beginning to end. We were absolutely DRENCHED, cold, miserable. Only the kick-ass music kept our moods up!
I might have told this before........... High School, boys start up a stupid club, one event: Lamb Lies Down show in Philly. They drink tons of crap on the bus, mostly hard liquor. Smoke dubes. 5 guys are so out of it, they can't get off the bus. Once inside, 5 or 6 guys in the same row get violently ill. All concerned call it a lake. Just this huge pool. The total was something like 10 sick, and a total of around 12 passed out and had to be carried out. I get to college.....a group of guys I meet from Media talk about going to see.....The Lamb. One guy got incredibly sick, his friends warned the people in front, who ran for their lives. This is arouind the 12th row, they say they never saw someone throw up so much and for so long. What was it about Genesis that caused this??
Thomas Dolby about 2 years ago. BORING!! He stood in front of his computer/keyboard making stupid faces as he was playing what I can best describe as bad sound effects. I was never a fan & a friend forced me to go. At least dinner was good that night.
Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde a few weeks ago. She was admittedly drunk and repeated herself often. Over and Over and Over. Nearly fell off her cvhair a few times too. Too bad since she actually sounded pretty good when she decided to sing a song. At one point she actually introduced one number only to play a different song!
That's unfortunate. I saw him at the El Rey in 2010 ("Pleasure Principle" show) and it was fantastic. Maybe it was just an off night?
That reminds me, I actually shook hands with Peter Gabriel during his 1978 Copenhagen concert. He was walking through the audience as the band was playing, shaking hands left and right. When he got onto the stage he took over the drum kit and played the drums for the rest of the song (Waiting For the Big One?). Definitely not in the "worst" category. David Gilmour, Copenhagen 1984. A guy gets all excited and thinks jumping onto the stage is a great idea. Bouncers disagree, and proceed to not just throw him off the stage, but into the people sitting in the first few rows. A friend of mine who had some mental issues was at one point hospitalized, turns out the crowd surfing guy was there as well.
Tin Machine massacring Roxy Music's 1972 beauty "If There Is Something". I wasn't and am still not a Tin Machine basher, as for me there's more worth in Tin Machine's two studio albums than in Bowie's Let's Dance or Tonight albums, but it was a diabolical wreckage of a beautiful song, and it didn't seem to be ending, so I left.
I had a similar experience the second time I saw Pet Shop Boys, at the Greek Theater on the Pandemonium tour. We were in the first couple rows of the main balcony and the people in front of us were drinking and chatting loudly through nearly the entire show...except when one of the hits was played. I can't stand people like that.
I've already wrote this in some other thread but... Stephen Stills in Milan a few years ago. I love the man, you know...but he started with an unrecognizable and super-floppy Helplessy Hoping sung with two consonants left, struggling to find the right intonation (mission not accomplished) and played with a Gibson from the middle ages. After that he played an acoustic set with his signature Martin that sounded like a cheap korean piece of wood. A guy behind me started screaming (in italian) 'Some people should retire!' while another guy at my right begun to explain every song to his young trophy wife from eastern Europe: 'this one is called Suite: Judy Blue Eyes and is from the first album that he recorded with..., this one is Girl From The North Country by Bob Dylan and it's called a cover version'..., this one is 4 and 20 it's from an album called Deja Vu, it's french you know...' while she seemed completely uninterested. Another guy at my left kept on telling his friends 'Stills got old but not as graciously as Jackson Browne, his voice is shot but Jackson Browne is better, hope he could still sing like Jackson Browne...' always pronouncing Browne like 'Brownie', I don't know why. Stills was dressed like some actor in 'Death Of A Salesman' with a worn out double breasted grey suit. I wanted to die.
Haha. So basically you are saying you went to a rock and roll show? You were surprised that it was loud? You were surprised that people got rowdy during a MEGADETH show? You should have known better on all accounts and not gone right up front into the mosh pit area with a kid.
Teenage Fan Club at a small San Francisco club back in 1992 or so. The drummer was so drunk he kept falling off the stool until finally very early into the gig he remained off.
Some people here know who this is about. Please, no names, OK? In November, 1989, went to see a certain 60's artist at a small club in NYC. Got there during the first show and waited in the outer bar. After, said artist comes walking through said bar, shrugs off my request for a photo, my brother snaps one as he passes, flash bulb goes off, pisses off said artist who turns, grabs my brother, shoves him against the bar and screams "YOU F--KING PUT THE F--KING FLASH RIGHT IN MY F--KING FACE!!!" Said artist's friend pulls said artist off said brother and proceeds to storm out of said venue. There we stood, two 21-year old star struck fans in complete utter disappointed shock. Skip ahead eight years (1997). I catch up with said artist alone in an L.A. parking lot. Proceed to tell him who I was- and since I am 50 times the size of said artist- proceed to (unintentionally) scare the heck out of said artist. Said artist backs up and asks in a frightened tone: "That wasn't you, was it?!" I then state that it wasn't me whom he- essentially- assaulted. I explained how awful we felt, we didn't mean to create a problem etc. Said artist vehemently apologises, shakes my hand and says "I was out of line- and at times- it has preyed on my mind. VERY glad that's over with". Now water under the bridge but wow, that night in November, 1989 truly sucked.
