Worst Crowd Reaction you've witnessed

[jem777az]

Horrible promoter, and even worse venue. If I didn't troll around on some of the same metal boards as Nick, I wouldn't have even known Redemption was in town.

At least now it looks like they're booking their shows at The Clubhouse, which is much better. But they don't appear to spend a dime on advertising. Geez, guys...buy a dang ad in the New Times once in a while to let fans of this music know who's coming to town.

Dude you hit the nail right on the fucking head! There is ZERO advertising for the shows, save for the local openers who may be promoting their appearances. I've seriously thought about taking some of the images of the concert posters that moshpitarmy has on their website and printing my own flyers/cards to hand out at local music stores and record shops (ie -Zia).

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Dude you hit the nail right on the fucking head! There is ZERO advertising for the shows, save for the local openers who may be promoting their appearances. I've seriously thought about taking some of the images of the concert posters that moshpitarmy has on their website and printing my own flyers/cards to hand out at local music stores and record shops (ie -Zia).

They do the same thing around here. :/ The venues depend on local openers to bring people for the headlining bands.

 

[eaeolian]

They do the same thing around here. :/ The venues depend on local openers to bring people for the headlining bands.

Honestly, that's pretty much everywhere. I've hated seeing the spread of that model, but it was pretty inevitable, given the attitude of most club owners that they're doing the bands a favor by letting them play there in the first place.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Yeah.. I know I can't begin to imagine the sort of things club owners have to deal with, but you would think they would want to do some kind of advertising. I feel like relying on the openers to bring people is lazy. I'm sure there's more to it then that, but that's wishful thinking on my part.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

I'm in the same boat..... push/pull.......... tryin' to force the kids to the well of metal, then trying to force them to drink, then fending off all the 'pros' who put us down for not walking away with buckets of cash.... then fending off all the guys in 'the biz' who figure in order to do all this, a DIY band of adults can just wave a wand and presto, every odd is totally turned over in our favor. So yeah...... *tosses money into bottomless pit of ads/flyers/online stuff all while trying to NOT annoy potential fans by looking like every single other SPAMSPAMSPAM band*

I think it pretty much sucks for everyone right now, venues, bands..

 

[Megametal]

That's odd. I thought most Cheap Trick fans were Off Broadway fans.
Both are power pop bands. I have never heard Pezband, but their vocalist is the same weirdo from Off Broadway.

Off Broadway..huh..never heard of them actually. But of course now I have to check them out since you mentioned them.

 

[Charles Muller]

Blast from the past bump. This is one of my favorite threads of all time from anywhere!

 

[Arabianhazard]

Worst reaction is easily Protest The Hero opening for Dragonforce in 2006. Band members had spit dripping from their hair.

 

[Mooseknuckle]

Saw a band called "Chequered Past" open for RATT back in 86 that was absolutely awful. The crowd HATED them and was giving them hell. About 3 songs into the set, the drummer stood on his bass drum and mooned the crowd. When he stood up he was immediately beaned in the head with a beer bottle. The crowd unleashed a barrage of glass bottles at the band and the band was rushed off the stage as Crowd members started climbing on stage. It was crazy...

 

[SF Metal Man]

Worst crowd reaction to a band I've ever seen was when Stevie Ray Vaughan was playing the middle slot between Sammy Hagar and Y&T in Sacramento in August 1983. It probably didn't help that he was unknown at the time, added at the last minute, and billed as David Bowie's guitarist. He was booed constantly, had stuff thrown at him constantly, and at one point he stopped a song and said "Sammy Hagar personally invited me to play this show, and if you respect him then you should respect me." That did NOT go over well.

 

[Fire breath]

The two worst that I can remember was Trivium for Maiden a few years ago and also Funeral For a Friend for Maiden a bit before that. The Trivium was bad but the FFAF was much worse. They were slaughtered. I also remember HIM got booed supporting Metallica and Machine Head at Wembley. Apparently the singer Ville ran crying from the stage or something at the end of their set.

 

[templeofmax]

At least they weren't Frog-Stomped.

that would had been very ironic!!!

 

[March Hare]

The worst reaction to an opener I ever saw was Mindless Self Indulgence opening for ICP (don't hate. I took my younger brother this. He was a huge ICP fan at the time) at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The entire main floor was flipping them off and throwing massive amounts of garbage at them. After 3 songs or so almost the entire floor turned their backs to them and flipped them the bird in unison. Some one nailed the singer right in the face with a full extra large cup of Coke. I will give them credit though, they never missed a beat and took all the abuse like champs and finishing their set.

 

[sccaldwell]

I have two:

Some band called "Full on the Mouth" opened for Dream Theater in Philadelphia (Tower Theater?), probably 10 years ago. Given DT's technical wizardry, who in their right mind booked what was a borderline grunge band with a guitarist who - literally - did not play anything even resembling a guitar solo.

Similarly, I also saw the Tragically Hip open for Eric Johnson (somewhere in the DC area…probably 15 years ago). It was another case of "was the promoter simply on crack when he booked this pairing, or is it that his cousin/brother/bookie is in the Tragically Hip?" I don't know how Hip they were, but their show was certainly Tragic.

 

[Hammerlock]

I've never seen a band get actually booed off a stage. Myself, I usually politely nod along if I'm in the front row, because I know how tough it is to perform in front of an apathetic crowd. But two sets really stand out to me. One was a random death metal band called Echo nobody had ever heard of opening for Sabaton on their first headlining tour in the states. Somebody checked out their Facebook page. They had five likes, and there were six people in the band. So that should give you an idea of just how bad they were. I think the crowd was just kind of confused by how bad they were, more than hostile, it was a little bit mystifying to me, out of all the good Denver metal bands, they had to pick the most amateurish one out there. I've never heard a thing about the band since that one show.

The other was a deathcore/metalcore band that opened for Rhapsody of Fire/Voyager. That one, the crowd was more hostile. Vacant Throne, an excellent local USPM band, played first, so we were all in a good mood, and then these guys came out. I think the promoter just said "Well, metal goes with metal, right?" The mood in the crowd was definitely hostile, to say the least. To their credit, I think they knew they were playing for the wrong crowd, so they didn't try to do crowd work to engage us more, I think that would have made it even worse. They did their set and left, and then Voyager came on and made everything better.

 

[Justin G]

Voyager makes everything better.

 

[dcowboys311]

Some one nailed the singer right in the face with a full extra large cup of Coke.

you mean Faygo

 

[Dustin]

I've been to a few shows where there was a negative reaction to a bands set, but there is one that sticks out rather well..

I am not sure of the year/date, possibly 2002 or 2003? but the Iron Maidens were doing a show at the now-defunct Zephyr club in downtown Salt Lake. We tried to get on the bill through a mutual friend of the maidens, and were told that the local promoter already had the "perfect fit" opening the show, and they didn't know who it was. Oh well...

Fast forward a month to the night of the show. There is a line of rockers and metal heads out the door, and around the block. We were in line lamenting on how it would have been great to get that slot and play in front of "our target audience", when we found out at the door that the opening band was Starmy.

Yes, the name of the band was Starmy. They were well know in the local Salt lake circuit as one of the best indie/post rock/shoe gaze bands. We were familiar with them, and they were okay blokes, However, we were sure the metal crowd would not agree, respect nor enjoy their music. People inside the club were chattering, already making up their minds about not wanting to sit through their set. We knew we were in for a show (or lack there of).

Starmy hits the stage, and not a soul is on the floor. Everyone is back against the walls, sitting at tables and have their backs turned to them while at the bar. This place is PACKED and everyone is actively staying as far from the stage as possible.

A minute into their first song the singer/guitarist makes a comment about how "lame" the crowd was while looking at the floor, strumming his guitar as if he would rather be getting a root canal... and then all hell broke loose.

People started booing and chanting "go home!", as the band kept trudging through their first song. All the other band members of Starmy looked confused and anxious while the lead singer/guitarist just stared at the floor strumming his guitar out of rhythm. I am guessing he was supposed to be singing but was missing his cues.

There was a pause, and the singer/guitarist looks back at the drummer and nods, and they start into another song. Now the crowd is booing and chanting even louder. Then there was a LOUD booming voice from the balcony yelling "YOOOOU SSSUUUUCCCKKK!!!" over and over again. this guy was so loud, you could hear him over the other 250+ angry and annoyed concert goers.

At this point, the singer/guitarist of Starmy stops playing his guitar, takes it off and lightly sets it on the floor causing it to feedback, and walks off the stage. His bandmates are still playing, looking a each other in bewilderment as to what is happening. Then - one at a time - they also stop playing, looked at each other shrugging their shoulders, and then exited the stage themselves.

After 5 minutes, the house lights come on and the whole club erupts into loud cheering and clapping. Starmy starts packing their gear off the stage and the entire club begins cheering and clapping again even louder.

Hey, the promoter said he had the "perfect fit", and Starmy felt they were it too.

So... what did we learn?

 

[AC2]

Wow - 25 replies in and not one person has mentioned Rage at PPIV.

Steve in Philly

Dude, I literally just thought that as I came back to this thread. They gave a great performance but there was, what, like 100 people left in the room? Argh!

Earlier this year (maybe last?) Symphony X opened for Iced Earth in Charlotte. I like both bands and was surrounded by people booing them and yelling for their set to finish so Iced Earth could play. It was embarrassing...and rude. We also had some local teen death metal band open up for Sonata Arctica a couple years ago. I guess the crowd wasn't horribly rude, but it was a really sort of awkward situation. Not exactly comparable genres. LoL. But hey, good for them. Someday they can tell their kids they got to open for Sonata.

 

[spag]

I can remember going to see Emerson, Lake & Powell on tour, and someone had booked Hawaii (remember them?) to open. It was basically just non-stop harassment from the crowd till they got off stage. I can remember a similarly mismatched opener for a Marillion concert, and again, nothing but heckling the entire time. I guess nothing as bad as throwing things, or pulling the singer into the mob. Maybe the worst thing is just when most of the crowd leaves, which I've seen happen as well.