Bands/Artists That Brought Bad Crowds?

I saw The Who in 1982 at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Anyone who was there knows the fans were AWFUL to the two opening acts, The B52s and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Both acts had to cut their sets short because of all the hard physical objects that were being thrown at them.

It was a hot day in late November Florida, about 85 degrees, and people had been packed on the football field sweating it out for many hours. They just wanted The Who to come out and play. I felt the same but didn't participate in the mayhem. Inexcusable.

 

Not the tiniest bit surprised.

 

Johnny Paycheck, hands-down.

 

Christians to the lions. You're going to get a bad element even at a Captain and Tennille concert.

 

I used to get tickets for the Phila Spectrum from a co worker who was married to the CFO. She said the Dead was the worst. I didn't really experience it in person until my last show (maybe my fifth).
I came back from the can and the aisle was packed. I asked security to help me get to my seat. She laughed and walked away.
The guy at the top of the line said No, I'm not moving. You can stand. I said but my seat is just 2 rows down. Nope
I said is that your last word? he looked at me funny and said yes.
I didn't say anything, just fell into him. 12 people went down. The aisle cleared and I went in to my seat.
No more Dead shows for me, thank you

 

Not punk, but when Lucy’s Fur Coat started breaking out of the local scene in the early/mid nineties, their shows became more and more of a ******* frat guy gathering.

 

I saw both of those bands at the CBGB Sunday matinee. Yep, I stayed back.

I also went to the Rock Hotel a couple of times during the same period. Another place that attracted skinheads and mohawks.

 

Through no fault of their own, the Stranglers attracted a very racist crowd in their early years. When Aswad were booked as their opening act on a tour (not that bright an idea, anyway), they got such abuse from certain sections of the audience that Hugh Cornwell felt moved to go out and give the barrackers both barrels.

 

UB40. A lot of scumbags love em.

 

If you're talking about Lolapalooza 1996, they were probably the most intense live act on the planet during that time. The moshers weren't really out to hurt others, but man, people were into it, as they certainly shoulda been!

 

Jimi Hendrix, see:
at the "Open Air Love & Peace Festival" in Fehmarn, Germany on September 6, 1970.

Open air, yes.
Love & Peace, well .. not exactly ..

 

Tool. My then girlfriend got headbutted in the face and had to be escorted out before she got crushed.

 

Warning: I'm going rogue-ish with this topic. I've been subjected to unwarranted solo sing-alongs at shows that somewhat marred the concert experience. But when I saw Neutral Milk Hotel, nearly the entire audience sang along with everything.
The best behaved audience I ever witnessed was a large-ish outdoor show headlined by Sigur Ros in Nashville Tennessee. I've never experienced anything remotely like it.

 

Jr always seems to have an attitude. I guess it feeds the crowd.

 

Any shows canceled mid-way due to rowdiness?

 

Not that you probably care, but you missed one of the oddest guest performers ever at a Dead show. The Bangles joined in for the encore, along with members of The Neville Brothers.

 

I saw Manic Street Preachers headline a free festival in Swansea back in the Nineties. Quite frankly they were from the wrong part of Wales for a drunk Swansea audience to cope with and within a song or two, bottles started flying towards the stage The band took the sensible decision to vacate but after a few minutes, came back on & one of the band members said into the mic, "If that happens again, we're leaving permanently." Well, that just encouraged the crowd to recreate a bottle version of the "unleash hell" scene from Gladiator. I've never seen anything like it.

Suffice to say it was end of performance & also end of festival.

 

Well it wasn't the crowd, more the content. Back when Jimmy Buffett was a club & auditorium act he played at Campbell University (then college), a private Southern Baptist school near my home. The place was about half full, maybe 2 or 3 hundred people. A mixture of Campbell students and locals. It was my first chance to see him as I was underage to get in a club. The show was good, they took a break and were scheduled to come back for a second set. But the house lights came up and they never went back out, show over. It seems that the administrators present were taken aback by the content of many of the songs. The story goes that they told JB not to play anymore songs about alcohol, drugs, or promiscuity. He supposedly responded that that pretty much excluded everything he had so he packed up and left.

 

But maybe he could have played songs about alcohol, drugs and promiscuity?

 

Was that the crowd, or

Yes. One had to be on one’s guard at these shows for sure.

 

Not exactly a band or artist, but rather some hot, high profile shows here in LA get quite a few industry folks attending that may or may not be big fans of the artist. I suppose guest lists, comp tix people there to be seen. And the audience response can be sometimes muted or indifferent, even during a great performance.

I know I’ve witnessed some artists actually make comments about it during a show, including Neil Young, Jeff Tweedy and Aimee Mann.

It’s not always this way. We attended Kacey Musgraves show in DTLA one week after winning her Grammys. A hot show for sure. But, the Kacey fans were out in FULL force that night, and really added a positive charge to the show.

 

The worst I saw was at a show for Lemmy's rockabilly band The Head Cat (I never saw Motorhead), in a small club.
Some real violent goons looking for someone smaller to beat up.
(I got lucky and only got "vibed" big-time by these creeps...)

 

Primus left the stage when they were opening for Fishbone December 1991. Some guy jumped on stage and took Les Claypool's Union civil war hat. After pleas and threats, they left after only playing 3 or 4 songs before the incident.

Two years later, someone threw a shoe on stage and Billy Corgan threw a fit while James Iha good naturedly put on a helmet and called the town "Shoe-ston". Corgan said if any other objects on stage, they would leave. Would you believe a piece of a broken pumpkin landed on stage, and they walked off. Only 3 songs were played total. It was funny but I paid scalper prices for me and a date.


When the band came back to Houston for Lollapalooza 94, I heard Billy say he didn't care if anyone threw anything and they were pummeled with shoes. I saw the Dallas show the following night instead, and saw people leaving since they started with a dirge, a stage set like some budget Pink Floyd (small round screen, 2 lasers), and had to follow a phenomenal Beastie Boys set with guests Tribe Called Quest and George Clinton!