Worst Crowd Reaction you've witnessed

I was at that show. I only caught a short part of their set though I do remember the non-reaction from the entire audience. Total mismatch of opening band and headliner. Although not as bad as this rap hip/hop duo from Boston that was one of 10 openers for After Forever in New Hampshire. There wasn't enough people at that show for anything to go down beyond no one being near the stage.

I was at that show. It was After Forever and The Agonist and a seemingly unending cavalcade of local bands, the worst being the hip hop duo you mentioned. To make matters worse, the show was horribly under promoted and After Forever played in front of 25 people. To their credit, they played as if they were performing in front of 25,000 people
 
I was at that show. It was After Forever and The Agonist and a seemingly unending cavalcade of local bands, the worst being the hip hop duo you mentioned. To make matters worse, the show was horribly under promoted and After Forever played in front of 25 people. To their credit, they played as if they were performing in front of 25,000 people

That sucks... I have to ask though, is it really likely to expect good turnouts at power/prog/gothic metal shows in New Hampshire, though? For some reason, it doesn't strike me as a good area...
 
Sonata Arctica opening for Overkill in NYC April of 2005. A bad mix. The first part of SA's set the crowd was really into them. Then the Overkill crowd started to filter in and heckle the band. The SA fans were righteously pissed. There were several scuffles and I was afraid they were going to have to clear B. B. Kings. After SA's set, their fans mostly left. Another clear case of you can't just throw bands together on the bill just cause they're all "metal."

I remember that show... Me and several friends drove down from Massachusetts because at the time, the idea of ever seeing Sonata Arctica live seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... So much for that! Haha

We left right after Sonata... I don't really seem to remember there being any issues in the audience... But I was also pretty young, it was my third concert ever and Sonata was one of my all time favorite bands. There very well could have been a riot around me and I might not have noticed.
 
The Unband opening for Dio, on the Magica tour in 1999. Harpo's in Detroit. It was your typical, water-bottle-throwing, "get-off-the-stage"-yelling nightmare. They were two goofy guys with a guitar and a bass lip-synching some sort of alterna-rockabilly or something (I can't really remember). They would have been more at home opening for The White Stripes or someone. I don't know what genius put together that tour. Thankfully, the next time I saw Dio, he was matched up with Doro Pesch and Yngwie (with Jorn Lande!), which made a great deal more sense.
 
That sucks... I have to ask though, is it really likely to expect good turnouts at power/prog/gothic metal shows in New Hampshire, though? For some reason, it doesn't strike me as a good area...

I agree! For a short time, this club was actually booking a lot of Prog and power metal bands. Eventually the club stopped booking national acts altogether
 
I've only been to one show in New Hampshire and it was empty. It was Immolation with Vader last year and there were more people on stage than in the audience.
 
Although not as bad as this rap hip/hop duo from Boston that was one of 10 openers for After Forever in New Hampshire. There wasn't enough people at that show for anything to go down beyond no one being near the stage.
Which venue was that? I saw Edguy at this tiny place and I think there were 40 people there, but not much room for more.
 
That sucks... I have to ask though, is it really likely to expect good turnouts at power/prog/gothic metal shows in New Hampshire, though? For some reason, it doesn't strike me as a good area...

Someone at the show told me the place was pretty packed for Edguy. I assume it was a place that could pull a lot of the Palladium regulars depending on the band since it was only about an hour north. We made a weekend trip out of it as Nightwish was at Palladium the next night. And funnily enough ran into the only good local opener at the AF show inside the Irish pub across from Palladium.

I've seen 20 people show up for Therion in Poughkeepsie and several hundred show up for Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, and especially Nightwish at the same place. Some bands have a large enough following in the US to get people to their shows no matter where it is and some don't.

Which venue was that? I saw Edguy at this tiny place and I think there were 40 people there, but not much room for more.

Haha. Well, maybe this person's idea of packed was quite different from ours. It was Mark's Showplace, the one attached to the strip club.

I think it's the same place that fucked up one of the headlining Firewind shows while they were touring with Sonata (online ticket system said show was sold out until like a week before the show or something) so only about 6 people were there.
 
I wasn't at the show but I saw Jim Matheos say that they opened for Pantera when Parallels was starting to get alot of airplay. He said the reaction was pretty negative from hardcore Panters fans
 
Queensryche on the Rage For Order tour opening for AC/DC at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. It would have been uglier, but the majority of the crowd was still in the parking lot getting trashed.

"Queen of the Reich" was well-received; otherwise they went over like a lead balloon..
 
Someone at the show told me the place was pretty packed for Edguy.
I've seen 20 people show up for Therion in Poughkeepsie and several hundred show up for Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, and especially Nightwish at the same place. Some bands have a large enough following in the US to get people to their shows no matter where it is and some don't.



Haha. Well, maybe this person's idea of packed was quite different from ours. It was Mark's Showplace, the one attached to the strip club.

I think it's the same place that fucked up one of the headlining Firewind shows while they were touring with Sonata (online ticket system said show was sold out until like a week before the show or something) so only about 6 people were there.
Yep, same place. It could look packed since there is hardly any room for a crowd between the bar and the stage. Back by the pool tables it was empty. Weird place for a show. Heard about the Firewind debacle. Doh!

As for Poughkeepsie, The Chance is another funky place, as is the whole town. One block in the wrong direction and you're in no man's land. I was there for NW and it was definitely packed.
 
There were probably 20-25 people at the Primal Fear show when they came through Phoenix. The band was actually laughing onstage at how small the crowd was. Redemption had less of a turnout than Primal Fear did.

There was a similar showing for PF at Jaxx, last year. :( It was really sad, because I was blown away by their performance. It was like a private show! The crowd was very kind though, and we all cheered as loud as we could for them.
 
There was a similar showing for PF at Jaxx, last year. :( It was really sad, because I was blown away by their performance. It was like a private show! The crowd was very kind though, and we all cheered as loud as we could for them.

Same situation here. They played like there was 20,000 people there, and the crowd was actually pretty loud for being so small.
 
As for Poughkeepsie, The Chance is another funky place, as is the whole town. One block in the wrong direction and you're in no man's land. I was there for NW and it was definitely packed.

My first metal show was at The Chance! I had begged my mom at 15 to take me to go see Kamelot. We had no idea what to look for, and MapQuest was completely useless. Every time we thought we knew where we were going -- nope, have a No Left Turn sign...

But we did both get there, and it was fantastic. Then we discovered The Palladium and haven't looked back.

Speaking of low turnouts, I have a friend who actually saw Rotting Christ in Worcester during a blizzard. He claims that a grand total of nine people showed up. Apparently, when they went on-stage, they didn't even have a setlist - they just pointed at people and asked, "What do you want to hear?" :lol:
 
Speaking of low turnouts, I have a friend who actually saw Rotting Christ in Worcester during a blizzard. He claims that a grand total of nine people showed up. Apparently, when they went on-stage, they didn't even have a setlist - they just pointed at people and asked, "What do you want to hear?" :lol:

5 people showed up to see Pure Reason Revolution in NYC back in 07.
 
Tapping the Vein, opening for Opeth, in Philly. I believe Opeth was touring in support of Deliverance. The problem was not so much with Tapping the Vein. I'm sure they're good at what they do. However, they didn't belong on the tour. They're kind of a more Gothic, less Metal, version Evanescence. However, rather than simply ignoring them or just applauding politely, every song break was filled with people yelling at the female singer, "Show us your tits." It was beyond lame.