Unusual/Memorable Concert Occurrences

[Phoebe]

True story and I can't help wondering if any fellow TGPers were there too......

Around 1973 I was at a Kinks Concert at Carnegie Hall. Don't know whether or not it was caused by old "Demon Alcohol", but during the show Ray stumbled and fell backwards into Dave's Hiwatt sending the head to the floor. Fortunately it didn't land on Ray. And, miraculously, when a roadie ran out and reconnected everything, it continued working without a hitch! In those days, few Kinks Concerts went down with a dull moment.

I had almost forgotten the event until this year when Tyler impressed us with his agility and grace.

Anyone else witness similar mishaps?

 

[Garygtr]

My first concert was Aerosmith/Jeff Beck/Rick Derringer at the old Comiskey Park, July 10, 1976. During Beck's set, thick black smoke started to billow out from a section of the upper deck. Apparently a storage room that contained seat cushions caught fire. Beck said something to the effect of "we'll start our own fire" and kept playing. I was on the field, maybe 25 yards from the stage, in a dense crowd. Thankfully, people did not panic and the fire was brought under control and extinguished.

 

[razorbladeSD]

2006 Nine Inch Nails in San Diego- They stopped in the middle of the show, and didn't finish, because the drummer was having what they thought at the time was a heart attack. They ended up having to replace him for the tour because of an irregular heart beat that was exacerbated by performing at that intensity level.

They came back and performed the last show of the tour to make it up.

Then there was the Loolapalooza where a vendor walked away from his churro cart down on the field for a couple of minutes, and it was stormed, destroyed, and a massive churro and soft pretzel fight ensued, topped off with someone setting a dumpster at the back of the field on fire.

 

[pcutt]

I saw Joe Satriani back in '88 on his Surfing With the Alien tour in a club with a capacity of about 500, filled with seemingly every guitarist for miles around. During the songs the audience literally stood still with their mouths hanging open, and after each song ended there was a quiet pause for a few seconds until the audience "woke up" and clapped. This was the only concert I've been to where it was fair to say the audience was struck dumb.

 

[michael patrick]

There was this one Grateful Dead show where Jerry floated over to me on a platform made of pure white light, and then rainbows started shooting out of his eyes and he started talking to me about how the theory of relativity is God.

Oh wait...

 

[GCDEF]

Roger Waters lost control of the flying pig. It bounced around in the audience for a while, then somehow made its way back up and lodged in the big video screen for the rest of the show.

 

[aarontunes]

I saw Joe Satriani back in '88 on his Surfing With the Alien tour in a club with a capacity of about 500, filled with seemingly every guitarist for miles around. During the songs the audience literally stood still with their mouths hanging open, and after each song ended there was a quiet pause for a few seconds until the audience "woke up" and clapped. This was the only concert I've been to where it was fair to say the audience was struck dumb.

I was at a Satriani concert about that same time period, at the Paramount in Seattle. About half-way through Rubina, some girl makes it onto the stage. (probably the only one in the entire place) She throws her arms around him and won't let go. One...two....three stage-hands come to help, and finally remove her from him. Stu Hamm and whoever the drummer was have been vamping this whole time.

Finallay extricated from this girl's clutches, Joe is completely lost. With both hands, he grabs his hair (ahh, the good ol' days...) in frustration. Finally he makes a "C" signal to Stu with his right hand, and jumps back into the song.

The whole place was going nuts!

 

[cooljuk]

At a seated AC/DC show with very tight and anal security I snuck up to the stage with my camera while pretending to be on my way to get a drink or whatever. A security guard sees me, points and yells and starts walking quickly towards me so I walk towards the exit quickly while taking a few "over the shoulder" photos hoping I'll get at least one decent picture. He catches up, grabs my shoulder and says, "come with me." I figured I was on my way out the door for pissing him off and ignoring him yelling at me. He takes me right up to the stage and says, "alright son, take your pictures but make it quick." I got some really sweet pictures thanks to that security guard! Not how I expected that situation to turn out at all!

 

[gill]

saw Jethro Tull at MSG as a kid and Jonathan Livingston Taylor (James' Taylor's Brother) is the opening act. He walks out onto the stage with an acoustic guitar and sings "What would you do if I sang out a tune" and gets bombarded with garbage and booed so badly that he left and the stage needed to be swept.

After this, Ian Anderson walks out and sings "Wondering Aloud"-just him and a guitar-and dedicates it to Jonathan.

 

[Lance]

I was at a Satriani concert about that same time period, at the Paramount in Seattle. About half-way through Rubina, some girl makes it onto the stage. (probably the only one in the entire place) She throws her arms around him and won't let go. One...two....three stage-hands come to help, and finally remove her from him. Stu Hamm and whoever the drummer was have been vamping this whole time.

Finallay extricated from this girl's clutches, Joe is completely lost. With both hands, he grabs his hair (ahh, the good ol' days...) in frustration. Finally he makes a "C" signal to Stu with his right hand, and jumps back into the song.

The whole place was going nuts!

Me three! Only, it was the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Where, instead of big gulp type plastic cups, they served their large beers in what basically looks like a big cool whip bowl. I wonder if they still have those. Anyway, me and a guitar bud were in the balcony, and the place was totally packed. The only way to see the stage being our height was to stand on the metal folding chairs. Well, you sort of have to put one leg on the back, and surf them to get any kind of view. Of course, everyone around us started to do the same thing. I surfed pretty well through the first 2-3 bowls. Once I fell, the dominos came a tumbling down. Beer everywhere! Soaked from head to toe!

 

[bluesjunior]

True story and I can't help wondering if any fellow TGPers were there too......

Around 1973 I was at a Kinks Concert at Carnegie Hall. Don't know whether or not it was caused by old "Demon Alcohol", but during the show Ray stumbled and fell backwards into Dave's Hiwatt sending the head to the floor. Fortunately it didn't land on Ray. And, miraculously, when a roadie ran out and reconnected everything, it continued working without a hitch! In those days, few Kinks Concerts went down with a dull moment.

I had almost forgotten the event until this year when Tyler impressed us with his agility and grace.

Anyone else witness similar mishaps?

My very first big concert in Elgin Town Hall Scotland at the age of 15 in 1965 was to see the Kinks and the Small Faces on the same bill. During the Kinks set Ray Davies also fell backwards flat on his a** and slid to the front of the stage where a local girl Sandra Wood pinched one of his slip on shoes. He stood up realised his shoe was gone and refused to play any more unless it was returned. Sandra shouted up that she would return it if she got a kiss in return. He gave her a kiss, she gave him the shoe and they carried on.

 

[vulture]

Evening show, on the bill, Jeff Airplane, Spirit, Blues Magoos, theres ohers that I can't remember.

Chuck Berry was supposed to play the afternoon show but his plane was late so they stuck him in to open. It was flower power days & it was a flower power crowd...but.

Everybody loved Chuck sooooo much after 4 songs he was called back for an enchoir(?), and another, and another, and I don't remember how many in all.

Chuck played so long it left all the hippy headliners about 15 minutes each for their sets. Grace was pissed & showed it. (C'mon, this guy is the reason we all started playing!)

Rock N' Roll is here to stay.

BTW, Randy California did play his Sears Silvertone through the guitar case amp for "I got a line on you."...Somehow I remember that.

 

[tnvol]

Haven't seen many mishaps at shows but there are a couple standout shows. Black Sabbath at Ozzfest in 2000 I think it was. Sabbath was so in the zone. Ozzy sounded just like the record. He didn't forget any lyrics and didn't mumble like he sometimes does. The whole band just did a stellar job. They played a really tight set. It really was a dream come true because they have been my favorite band since I was a kid and to see them all together with Ozzy was just badass. I've seen Ozzy many times but that was by far the best and I'll never forget it.

Lollapalooza in 1993 also stands out. Was the first time I saw Tool live and they were freaking incredible. Rage Against The Machine also put on one hell of a show. Primus put on one of the best sets I've ever seen. Jerry from AIC and Kirl Hammet came out and jammed during their set. They played Jump In The Fire. Was pretty awesome. Maynard from Tool came out and sang Rooster with AIC. Was just an awesome day. Dinosaur Jr. also played and they were awesome. Fishbone was also there and they just tore it up. Those guys can groove better than anyone I've ever seen. KILLER live band.
And the coolest part about the whole show was that I was right the hell up front. No more than 6 feet from the stage. The whole day kicked ass.

 

[bigdaddy]

There was this one Grateful Dead show where Jerry floated over to me on a platform made of pure white light, and then rainbows started shooting out of his eyes and he started talking to me about how the theory of relativity is God.

Oh wait...

I have seen the Dead control the weather. seriously.

 

[marcher5877]

Grateful Dead

07-20-94 Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, In. (Wed)1: Stranger, Peggy-O, BIODTL, High Time, Memphis Blues, Childhood's End, Don't Ease2: Box Of Rain, Samba, L. L. [email protected], H. C. Sunshine> Corinna> Matilda> Drumz> Uncle John> Miracle> Morning Dew E: Johnny B. Goodefirst "Childhood's End" - first "Matilda"

 

[zzzezums]

Bob Marley and the Wailers at MSG 1978. Stanley Clarke opened the show and was pretty much booed for his whole set. A set of great music mind you, but not what the audience wanted. Irie.

 

[TwoTubMan]

Having Ruby Starr bum a smoke from me in the lobby of the Houston Colloseum before a Black Oak Arkansas/Blue Oyster Cult show. I didn't have a clue who she was until she appeared onstage later.

 

[OlAndrew]

Frank Zappa, The Mothers, & the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. Huge auditorium, the UCLA sports thing, if I remember right. This thing was on the Symphony calendar, and all the Donor's Circle and season ticket holders were invited. So you had an audience of about 1/2 crazed hippies and musicians, and 1/2 LA society types in tuxes and evening gowns.

When the Mothers took the stage, there was an audible gasp from the Symphony crowd. Their costumes were interesting, to say the least.

Frank had 40 of the old Acoustic Control concert amps, in a wall 2 high, behind the group. Thankfully, each one was only turned up to about 2.5. Still, you felt the music, and heard nothing else.

He had two drummers set up side by side front and center stage. They pounded away in perfect unison, staring straight ahead with fierce glares, not moving their heads for the entire song. Eerie.

Motorhead Sherwood wandered languidly around the stage, with a large stuffed giraffe, slowly inserting a rubber chicken into the enlarged nether orifice of said giraffe. Some of the symphony crowd were turning red, others turning pale. "Mister America, walk on by...." did nothing to comfort them.

Then entered the "featured" "Laurel Canyon Ballet Company", the same being a large group of nearly naked girls, many obviously gay; none of whom, equally obviosly, owned any underwear. They more cavorted than danced, and the symphony crowd were beyond responding.

The neatest thing was at the end of the regular set, Frank invited the symphony players up to jam. Not many did, but the lead cello guy (whaddya call em? 1st chair?) was a jazz lover, and he really wailed. They did a wonderful improv for about 20 minutes.

All in all, a truly wonderous evening.

 

[nmiller]

I saw Three Dog Night a few years back. For those who don't remember, their hit "Celebrate" was used for a TV drug commercial. I heard people singing along, only they were saying "Celebrex! Celebrex!".

 

[michael patrick]

I saw Peter Tosh open for the Stones at Soldier Field. Before they played "Legalize It," they passed out these humongous spliffs to the crowd. I mean, these were so big they'd have made Cheech and Chong blush....

I was, uh, twisted to say the least. It was the first time I'd ever really heard reggae, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the entire universe. But then, it was Peter Tosh... Some dude a couple of rows behind me was booing Tosh and hurling racial slurs at them while doing so. I thought it was very strange and a huge bummer, because let's face it - if it wasn't for black musicians, there wouldn't be no Rolling Stones, now would there? Fortunately, a couple of bikers who were digging the reggae grabbed him and made clear what would happen if he didn't STFU.