Top Ten Onstage Meltdowns
In honor of Guns N' Roses pulling their shit together and working a well-received and functional tour (with a gig at Continental Arena tonight and MSG on Friday), the New York Post put together a chronological list of their top ten rock 'n' roll concert debacles. Some you know, some may be a history lesson.
1. The Kinks: The Post speaks to two events here. First, during a concert in The Kink's '60s heyday, Dave Davies worked himself into a tantrum and released the beast by knocking over one of Mick Avory's drums; Avory responded by crashing him with a cymbal. Another event occurred years later, when Dave objected to his brother (and Kinks lead singer-songwriter) Ray bringing his girlfriend on stage. Girlfriend's identity? One Chrissie Hynde.
2. The Who:At the band's Woodstick set in '69, acid-loving activist Abbie Hoffman tried to grab the mic after "See Me, Feel Me" to preach his good word (Hoffman denies the entire incident). Pete Townsend promptly took his guitar to Abbie's head and said, "Fuck off my fucking stage!"
3. The Rolling Stones: Altamont. You oughta know. Watch Gimme Shelter or read Wiki.
4. G.G. Allin: This dude was a punk singer whose shows were often less about the music and more about the extremes to which he would violate himself, his audience, and his stage (via urination and defication). Check out this montage to get a feel.
5. Guns N' Roses: The infamous Metallica/GN'R show of '92 in Montreal, with Metallica opening and forced to cut their set short due to James Hetfield catching on fire ('cause of a bum pyrotechnic – a reasonable excuse to call out sick), and Axl walking off stage after just four songs ('cause his voice wasn't feeling well). Cue insane rioting.
6. Cat Power: We know how well she's doing now, but we know it's been a rough road for Chan to stage comfort. The Post singles out the '99 Bowery gig where Chan ended a song in the audience with her nose pressed to the ground and unsure audience members gathering around to calm her. Now she's the face of Chanel and an SNL hopeful. Who knew!
7. Fiona Apple: Seems like everyone's got a story from a Fiona gig, and the Post recalls Apple's 1997 VMA acceptance speech ("The world is bullshit!") and her Roseland Ballroom sound-problem fueled walk-off ("Fuck, this is a nightmare."). But if she wasn't so nutso, her music just wouldn't be as good, ya know?
8. Ryan Adams: The cautionary tale told to all first time Ryan Adams concert attendees: Don't call him Bryan! It was a 2002 gig in Nashville where a heckler found it witty to continually request "Summer Of '69," until Ryan had him refunded and ejected – with the house lights up! Always so dramatic, that's our Ry.
9. Great White: One of the biggest tragedies in rock history. Another bum pyrotechnic tale, only this one involves a Rhode Island rock club, impermissibly flammable soundproofing, and 100 deaths. Suppose the Post was going with "meltdown" quite literally with this one.
10. Blondie: The scene was set at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony for Blondie, with Debbie Harry ready to take the stage and play her inaugural gig. Former Blondie guitarist Frank Infante crashed the ceremony and asked to join. Debbie's response: "Can't you see my real band is up there?" Ouch.
This is obviously the sort of stuff that's impossible to whittle down to a "Top 10" format (precisely what makes it so much fun!), so rather than ask you about the merits of the list, we'd rather hear about the craziest stage breakdowns you've ever seen -- doesn't matter how big the band (though if we know 'em it's obviously a cooler story!). We just wanna hear about the crazy shit you've seen performers do when their thinking is a little skewed. Bonus points if you were at any of the incidents in the Post's list.
Posted at 12:41 PM in Shit List
Tags: Blondie | Cat Power | Fiona Apple | Guns N' Roses | Ryan Adams | The Who
i'm pretty sure ryan's mpls show in 2003 was his best meltdown ever. he almost cried on stage, bitch about westerberg, kept putting his cig in his drink, climbed up speakers, kicked his amp, threw his guitar. then a month later he broke his wrist. it was amazing
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i'm pretty sure ryan's mpls show in 2003 was his best meltdown ever. he almost cried on stage, bitch about westerberg, kept putting his cig in his drink, climbed up speakers, kicked his amp, threw his guitar. then a month later he broke his wrist. it was amazing
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Does TV count? I mean, the Ashlee Simpson meltdown was pretty classic, as well as the Milli Vanilli.
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Does TV count? I mean, the Ashlee Simpson meltdown was pretty classic, as well as the Milli Vanilli.
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Black Lips - Mercury Lounge '06. It got them banned for life and left Wolfmother standing in a puddle of piss when they followed.
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Strange the on-stage murder of Dimebag Darrell didn't make the list...
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Here's the thing about The Black Lips, though. On stage they're a totally manic disaster area, but they never miss a beat. Off stage, they've got their act together and they're reasonably regular dudes who aren't like good buzz and a crazy rep ruin their business end.
Their show at Sin-e was pretty calm, although their was some making out at the Bowery show a month or so back. Lovely dudes.
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What about when Ray Davies ODed onstage? That has to be worse than any hissy fit his brother pulled.
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Yeah, I saw The Black Lips open for Be Your Own Pet about 6 weeks ago at the Southpaw. In addition to some random making out, the guitarist dropped his pants and proceeded to "play" the guitar sans hands...
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Maaaan - that Woodstick was a good time. Nyah.
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Just about any Brian Jonestown Massacre show after 1:00 am.
Seriously, they played at the Rock Hall in Cleveland, then did a late night show after at their favorite local room. They finish at the Rock hall at about 9 and show up to the Grog Shop at midnight. Can't find the key to the trailer and are so fucked up it hurts to watch. It is also Anton's birthday, so the band presents him with a giant Bowie knife with a scabbard. He proceeds to menace the audience all evening with teh blade. Inspired jams, though, after they finally got started.
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3 words, suckas....
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
anton is the shit!
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I think Liam storms off stage every show now doesn't he.
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3 words, suckas....
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
anton is the shit!
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What that was supposed to say was..."insert any Oasis show here"
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Yeah, I saw The Black Lips open for Be Your Own Pet about 6 weeks ago at the Southpaw. In addition to some random making out, the guitarist dropped his pants and proceeded to "play" the guitar sans hands...
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Last year at the Great American Music Hall in SF I watched Ian Brown beat down an audience member and then his whole band beat down a security guard and then Monkee Man beat the guard in the head with the mike. It was better than a Stone Roses reunion.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=k4yjOwucz4M=
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That Fall show at Brownies back in 1998 when the band got in a fight onstage and MES ended up in jail was the craziest thing I ever saw.
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the smashing puympkins in houston in like 92 or so.they were touring for Siamese Dream and somebody threw a shoe a billy to which he said they woudl leave the stage if anybody threw anything else...
so of course the shoes started flying and poor james iha is trying to coax the depareted coragan back the the stage and he whined himself off, but from what i understand that is classic billy corgan.
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The White Stripes at the Greek Theater in Berkeley California. During his cover of Love sick a radio station balloon bounced on stage. Jack looks at it and then stops playing. He walked over picked it up and said we had to think about what we did. Jack and Meg walked offstage and hand the balloon to a stage hand who pops it when the crowd is silent and everybody says "AWWWWW" in unison. (apparently this happened two nights in a row)
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Fear (the old LA punk band) at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ in 1993 is my pick. There were only 40 people there and about half of them were Nazi skinheads. During Fear's set, the Nazis were sieg-hieling as they beat each senseless in the mosh pit. Fear's set was cut short (the power went out on them right in the middle of the encore), the cops showed up and needless to say everyone (me included) got out of there as quickly as possible!
I also saw a Nazi skinhead get beat up right in the middle of the Bowery outside of a CBGBs hardcore matinee in the mid '90s.
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atari teenage riot at the whisky in 97 or 98? Some hippie kept telling alec empire to "chill out man, america is a free country" which then resulted in him getting alecs boot in his mouth. alec then unzipped his leather pants and stood there defiantly in his leopard skin ballhuggers until he walked offstage.
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Lim Bisquick's set at Woodstock '99. I thought a full fucking riot was going to break out. Turns out, I was right. That was some scary shit.
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How about in 1993 when Shannon Hoon got naked and peed on the first two rows of fans at a concert in Vancouver and then abruptly called the show off 30 minutes into their set? Drunk fans will never turn on each other quicker than when there is urine involved.
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Badly Drawn Boy Damon had about 4 consecutive meltdowns at his SF gig a couple weeks ago--one of which involved him insisting he was "going to quit the music bizness forever."
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Funny that you mentioned GnR pulling their shit together... cause they cancelled their show tonight, for what seems like no reason, at the last minute.
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Two crazy Houston shows:
The last Unicorns show, they spent half the time yelling at the audiance and the other half walking on and off stage in anger
Two gallants any one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Gallants_%28band%29
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i went to a Slipknot show when i was 14.
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didnt Nellie McKay have a meltdown too? I seem to remember some rant about hating her record company or something?
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Adam Ant oh so many years ago. So totally pissed he couldn't stand and had no idea where he was. He punched a fan who jumped on stage, probably less than 100 folk present, but apparently missed completely, lost his balance and fell into the audience. Back on stage he stabbed the guitarist with his mike stand then realizing what he did turned around in shock and smashed some lights on a pole with the same mike stand which tipped over into the audience. After a couple of faint stabs at actually singing he ended up stalking off stage screaming about how fucking Texans don't appreciate good music. We weren't in Texas.
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the detachment kit beating the shit out of a drunk joe strummer fan @ irving a few years ago
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GN'R cancelled last night?! Silly Axl. And yet I believe them when they say Chinese Democracy is coming out this year. Such a sucker!
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Verily any show featuring soon-to-be-former-bandmates of The Fall.
Bill P above was right -- Brownies is the apogee of a very wavy wave -- but I also saw them in high Dada at Philadelphia's Trocadero in 1997 -- a tussle involving a half-hour of microphone testing and off-stage drink refills, several attacks on the keyboardist, the recruitment of some witless shlub to drone out lyrics on the size of the stage, Scanlon's climactic attack on Smith during which he actually threw his bass at him, and the band's haunted lingering afterward, reduced to a hollow keyboard moan and collapsing drums.
At times I've felt fear in a concert audience, but I've never felt such *existential dread*...
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Here's Keith Richards whacking a stage invader:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D7g3s44FZlY
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I dragged my then-girlfriend to see The Chili Peppers at the grand opening of a club in Baltimore in the early 90s. Only, the Fire Department closed the club that afternoon, so they had to move the show to an ill-equipped venue around the corner.
The power went out twice. During one of the "intermissions", Flea regailed the audience with a story about getting a blow job from a fan back at the hotel.
Not exactly a meltdown, but good stuff.
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The only time I've seen Pinback (here in Eugene), they got all pissy with each other onstage for whatever reason and from there on out it was negative vibes for the rest of the short set.
Unfortunately, listening to Pinback has never been quite the same idyllic experience since.
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How about when Lady Sovereign left the stage after two songs in Philly because "she didn't like the sound system". I wasn't there (can't stand her), but apparently there was absolutely nothing wong with the sound and she was just being a brat.
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I went to (try) and see Lady Sov at famous local dive Fibbers in York, UK. However, the gig had been pulled due to her apparent issues with the soundsystem. Talking to the venue owner a couple of days later it transpired that they had only sold 42 tickets so she got back in her van and drove off
Still, grime is all about keeping it real, eh?
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A few days after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" broke Nirvana was still playing small clubs. At Trees in Dallas the crowd was huge and Kurt and a Security guard got into an onstage fight. Nirvana never came back to Dallas, I don't think. Amazingly, You can find footage of the scuffle on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3dllyI0qY
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