Question Of The Week: What Is Your Worst Live Concert Story?
So there I was, knee-deep in blood and guts, when Lemmy asks me to borrow a cup of sugar…
Going to a live concert can be an incredible experience. You get to enjoy the songs you love performed by the bands you love. The live setting allows you an intimate experience where you can truly appreciate the talent and ability of the musicians while directly supporting them. Maybe you go with friends or meet some new people. Perhaps you will discover a new band. Concerts are a wonderful thing…until they’re not.
Last week, we asked “What is your worst live concert story” on Facebook and Twitter and, oh boy, did we get some responses. So many that we’re going to split this into 2 posts. Some are funny, some are cringe-worthy, some are horrifying. A few are all three.
Here’s my story: Eleven years ago I saw Type O Negative with my girlfriend. I believe this was the heaviest concert she had been to up to that point. For those of you who never got the chance to see them or just don’t know, Type O Negative’s crowds were notoriously terrible. Good example: Peter Steele splashed some wine onto the crowd, saying “The power of Christ compels you…uh, you should probably get and AIDS test,” to which an older woman in the crowd says, “That’s my kinda man!” Shudder. I don’t know what it was, but for some reason, TON brought out the drunks, the addicts, the misanthropes, the assholes, the…wait, I totally understand why their audience was full of awful people.
It didn’t help that the band didn’t come out for over an hour after their direct support Brand New Sin finished. Rather than having house music play, the Chicken Dance song played on repeat. The lights would dim and everyone would cheer because the show was about to start. Just kidding. The lights would come back up and the Chicken Dance song would start again.
Type O Negative finally starts and everything is great for a while. In between songs, a group of women start pushing through the crowd and shove my girlfriend. She shoves them back. I jump in the middle to try to cool things down when out of the corner of my eye, I see a fist. I duck, take a few steps back and proceed to spear the guy, Goldberg-style, landing on top of him and dealing several punches. A small melee ensures and my girlfriend socks another guy in the face before the security guards come in. They saw what happened, throw the guy out and we get to stay, angry and frustrated, but unharmed.
As the night wears on, the crowd thins a bit and we get to watch the rest of the set with some distance from people. Or so I thought. A guy standing directly in front of us falls down during the set, on to my feet. I pick him up. A minute later, he falls down again, I pick him up. By the fourth of fifth time, I stopped helping him. He was so far gone on whatever that he couldn’t maintain and upright position. We took off during Black No. 1. On the plus side, I got to see Type O Negative. On the negative side, I had to be near Type O Negative fans. Still, it could have been much worse. Just check out some of these responses.
Getting kicked out of a John Mayer show for smoking a joint during a jam session. Evry1 ratted me out in my sec & Gf that took me dumped me
— Dental Damnation (@DentalDamnation) March 20, 2018
A guy crowd surfing from behind me pulled his leg down hard and heel-kicked me in the nose at a High on Fire show, then the next day I saw Eyehategod in a tiny room and some huge asshole punched me while he was moshing near the back of the room.
— Lucretia Boredgia (@KelseyChapstick) March 20, 2018
i saw a band tell the whole venue to beat up a girl. and i was at the cro-mags show when harley stabbed that dude.
— south of kevin (@WTPuckingPuck) March 19, 2018
A guy crowd surfing in combat boots at a @GWARofficial kicked me in the face hard enough I had to extract my eyebrow ring with a pair of pliers and wire cutters. Never been pierced since.
— Another Metal Blog (@somemetalblog) March 20, 2018
I fell asleep beside one of the speakers at a Wolves in the Throne Room show in Sydney and my ears never recovered (I had gone to the show the same day I landed in Oz after being awake for 30 hours after traveling from Ireland). #deaf4eva
— Dean Brown (@reus85) March 20, 2018
My first girlfriend offered to drive to a show we were going to an hour away and broke up with me ON THE WAY to the show https://t.co/UUbvsH0TL8
— Gordon (Construction Noise) Skramzy (@gordonskramzy) March 20, 2018
@toiletovhell a dude broke up w me on the first day of a 2 day fest. He was my ride, so I was stuck in baltimore. In january. Until the fest was over and someone could drive me home.
— Turnbullet (Hates Nazis) (@turnbullet666) March 20, 2018
Misfits reunion at Riot Fest 2016, was doing press and tried to get closer, some 6'7 guy said he would "punch me in the goddamn face" if I tried to go in front of him (I'm 5'3) + the Misfits just sucked
I poured my beer on his shoes and ran off and went home
— энхэ-туяа (@heckhammer) March 20, 2018
Riot breaks out and I have an asthma attack triggered by pepper spray. I almost can’t drive myself to the hospital because my car was boxed in by cop cars. Fun night…
— The Reason The Canucks Are Bad (@KentGBasky) March 20, 2018
Guitarist for Warbeast was in the pit at GWAR and scooped me up, tossed me over the front guardrail, neither guard caught me, fell about 5 feet onto the back of my head, thought I was paralyzed for about 20 seconds, wound up with 15 staples, 3 stitches, and a fear of Warbeast https://t.co/VOOHZCpkvQ
— Black Metal Battleship (@Leif_Bearikson) March 20, 2018
Got completely wasted, lost my phone and all of my money, dropped from 6ft in the air and landed on my back/head, climbed up on stage with Napalm Death, had to be carried out of the venue by an angry skinhead then vomited all over someone’s shoes.
— ?ictoria (@draugrqueen) March 22, 2018
@ Baroness, some fucked up guy in eyepatch pushes his way to front, accosts the crowd round him for "looking at his patch", which he got in an "archery accident". Trips out during the set, then takes off and throws his patch at the band mid ecstatic dancing. Guy looked normal tho
— Samuel Thomas Claeys (@TheViceCampaign) March 21, 2018
One super-intimate @MfnH gig at a university (!) I got literally half my hair violently ripped out of my head bc the dudes behind me wanted our spot (this was a few years back; my friend and I had waited 10 hours for it haha!) Neither of us got to enjoy that gig 🙁
— LoЯon (@_Spiced_Rum_) March 20, 2018
Saw HIM in Detroit, some hulking jacksss probabaly six years older than me (I was sixteen) grabbed my glasses off my face and broke them. I tackled him which became a brief strobe light enabled brawl. Left bruised and limping and legally unable to drive.
Also HIM were bad.
— Joseph Schafer (@JosephPSchafer) March 20, 2018
Some dude got pissed off that he couldn't squeeze between me and the guy next to me up front at a @CorpseOfficial show in 2009… so he punched me i the side and broke three of my ribs to get me outta the way.
— Dave Ingram Jr. (@DingramObserves) March 20, 2018
There was the time I was 13 and at the barricade and some guy in his late 20s, roaring drunk before the headliner came on, snarling in my ear that I was going to die because I wouldn’t give him my spot in the front. When I flagged down security, he tried to punch me. Missed
— Dear Stabby (@stabitha) March 20, 2018
Xibalba. Two tough guys took over the pit and too bad for anyone who wanted to see the show. No security. Dude windmilled into my face in a space way too tight for that (and I was off to the side). Fortunately nose and glasses weren't broken; saw Alcest later at another venue. pic.twitter.com/hOZKgpbbLi
— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) March 19, 2018
Trash Talk: I was up front and had my hands in the air. Their bassist hit his head on my hand, so he reeks back, socks me, which split my eyebrow open and caused massive bleeding.
— MISANDR (@LORD_ENNUI) March 21, 2018
We confront them about it and they are in all kinds of denial. We ask to see their gear. They tell us no and our drummer pulls his gun on them and discusses ventilation. They instantly take us to their gear where we found our missing gear. No ventilation occurred, thankfully.
— Paradox of Tolerance (@DagNabbs) March 20, 2018
Girl driving intentionally driving her stiletto down into all of the small bones on the top of my foot during a Coffinworm set. I was wearing moccasins like an asshole so yeah partly my bad.
— ?️SWORD ov CHANG?️ (@obsidianmirrors) March 20, 2018
AxCx. Total train wreck. Putnam was too drunk to get on a 1.5ft stage alone, was swinging the mic into the crowd to hit ppl & stopped the show to poop at which time the band had the crowd yell racist jokes. Drummer also threw part of the kit at someone and got in a fight.
— S.H. (@OldManHotz) March 19, 2018
What are your worst concert stories? Let us know in the comments.
