Uncomfortable Concert Moments

prog4evr wrote: Saw Robert Fripp at UC San Diego in 1983 (when I was an undergrad); just him doing 2+ hours of Frippertronics (really amazing stuff at the time, I thought). He would play for several minutes at a clip and then wax poetically as only he can in between musical offerings. About 1 hour in, one of his narrative interludes was about an emotional break-up he recently had with a girlfriend; it really broke him up and he began to cry. I was only in my early 20's then (less mature and understanding than I am now), but it was a bit uncomfortable for me to see this "guitar god" show an entirely human side of himself to everyone. He was able to regain his composure and continue the awesome show for more than an hour more...

Don't know how I missed or never heard of that event, being in S.D. at the time. I did attend His Tower Records appearance in '79 on El Cajon Blvd. at College Blvd. After demonstrating His Frippertronics, He did autographs, and a guy held up his infant daughter and told Him that her name was Crimson. He readily was humbled and seemed to blush as both He and father and child got a raucous round of applause by all in attendance.

Edited by Rednight - February 13 2017 at 08:27

Lou Reed, beginning of the 80's in Düsseldorf/ Germany. The place was crammed and the moment the concert started the first ten rows stood up on their chairs and you couldn't see anymore behind these ten rows. The people started yelling at the people to sit down, while the band was coming on stage and Lou was a bit disconcerted by the yelling, not knowing exactly what was going on. So the band started to play and the first ten rows kept standing up ignoring the yelling. So some people started throwing beercans at the first ten rowers (yes those were the glorious days where you could smoke inside the concert halls and take assorted forms of beverage with you and use them to express your miscontent) So one of the beercans went way over the first ten rows and hit Lou Reed. He stopped singing, insulted the audience and left the stage with the band after three songs. This must have led to a near heart attack of the promoter while the audience started to yell even louder now. After ten minutes Lou came back and did about 40 minutes more while staring in an highly unfriendly manner towards the audience.

Another one, even so it’s actually a fascinating memory now. Summer of 1978 Open air festival at the Lorelei /Germany The headliner should have been Jefferson Wheelchair. It’s actually one of the nicest locations I know. It’s high up on a cliff on top of the Rhine valley with a beautiful view. It’s build like an antique Greek amphitheater with the stage on the bottom and steep stone rows. When we arrived in the beginning of the afternoon it was raining and there were a lot of GI’s in the audience and the general atmosphere was good.
The first acts were Brand-X and Leo Kottke who got both only mild attentions. The Atlanta Rhythm section was on the bill too but didn't play. While the stage was changed for the headliners some discussion was going on on stage. After some time the promoter came on stage and said that Grace Slick was ill and that the band couldn’t play without her. (Afterwards I learned that it was actually only Paul Kantner who refused to go on stage without Grace the others were well aware that it would be a mess to cancel the show, and they actually did the Knebworth show a week later without Grace)
So, the promoter left the stage, some music played on the sound system and then after a couple of minutes everybody realized that the concert was over. So most people started yelling and whistling, but shortly after there was a rain of beer cans, wine bottles coming down on the poor roadies trying to get the equipment off the stage. Seen that the theatre is quite steep you could easily throw from the last row something on stage. Next thing some people climb the stage and start throwing amps and assorted material down the pit and then somebody lit fire and parts of the stage started to burn. A couple of minutes later the fire brigade arrived and again a rain of beer cans went down on the poor fireman who retreated rapidly. It was really a strange beautiful atmosphere like a Wagner opera setting. We camped on site and the next morning the stage and the surroundings looked like a battle field with some parts still smoldering. Dawn of the gods.

And one more. I was still in highschool, second half of the 70’s and the venue in my hometown sponsored by Phillips always used the same ticket layout with different colours. So after each show we collected ticket stumps that were not too damaged and when a show came up with the same colour we always had one ticket that looked ok and in the rush they never looked exactly at the tickets. So we always tried to bring one of us in this way and once in he opened from inside one fire exit door and when it got open we had a couple of seconds to jump over a fence and rush in before the security guys came running. The only thing you had to bring a newspaper, roll it and put it onto the fence to protect your hands. So for an Eric Clapton show I forgot the newspaper the exit door got open and I lifted myself with my whole weight on the fence and one of the fence bars got into my hand down to the bone. I somehow managed to get over the fence, into the hall with a round bleeding hole in my hand. So I went to the infirmary and the nurse looked at my hand and said : How the f… did you do that? So I said : I fell into a bottle, perfect round hole and everything. She gave me a tetanos shot, made a bandage, but I got no painkiller and I sat through the whole show with a horrible pain in my hand.

^ Empty bottles is fair enough. I never minded taking one of those on the noggin.

I wonder if anyone here was at the legendary Gentle Giant-Black Sabbath show. That must have been one hell of an "uncomfortable moment"

Rednight wrote: prog4evr wrote: Saw Robert Fripp at UC San Diego in 1983 (when I was an undergrad); just him doing 2+ hours of Frippertronics (really amazing stuff at the time, I thought). He would play for several minutes at a clip and then wax poetically as only he can in between musical offerings. About 1 hour in, one of his narrative interludes was about an emotional break-up he recently had with a girlfriend; it really broke him up and he began to cry. I was only in my early 20's then (less mature and understanding than I am now), but it was a bit uncomfortable for me to see this "guitar god" show an entirely human side of himself to everyone. He was able to regain his composure and continue the awesome show for more than an hour more... Don't know how I missed or never heard of that event, being in S.D. at the time. I did attend His Tower Records appearance in '79 on El Cajon Blvd. at College Blvd. After demonstrating His Frippertronics, He did autographs, and a guy held up his infant daughter and told Him that her name was Crimson. He readily was humbled and seemed to blush as both He and father and child got a raucous round of applause by all in attendance.

It was well-publicized at UCSD, and I thought it was open to the general public as well. But, maybe it was for UCSD students only (not sure). There were over 300 of us crammed into a smaller concert recital hall, either at Revelle or Muir College(?). It was nearly 35 years ago, and such details of the night escape my memory. Fripp's prowess on his Les Paul and the Frippertronics machine, however, do not...

Rush's R40 tour - no fault of the band, though. I've been seeing Rush since Snakes and Arrows, and their concerts have always been a standing affair, regardless of where the seats are.

So I go to R40 with some friends, and we're pumped. They start the concert, and I think most of the people stood up to watch, cheer and have fun. If you're familiar with that tour, they started off with the latest album and worked their way backward until the first album. Understandably, that means that the more familiar material wasn't until later on; so I wasn't too surprised that people were sitting down, maybe getting a bit bored.

My friends and I, however, are big Rush fans, so we were excited to hear new material, so we stayed standing and had fun. Oldy McFart sitting a few rows behind us wasn't too pleased that his calm night of classical music was being interrupted by these standing young fellows who thought that Rush was a rock band or something. After a few ignored requests of "sit down", Oldy decided it was appropriate to throw a beer at us. I think we eventually sat down, defeated at the end of the first set, but my crew decided that we would not be swayed for the second set, and stood until the end of the show. And we had a great time too.

Like, I totally understand that everyone enjoys music in different ways; for me personally, it has to be just the right music and I have to go with the right people for me to be comfortable enough to get into the music. Sometimes I just want to sit and listen too. But I don't think I should tell people to stop having a lot of enjoyment so I can have a little enjoyment.

Now, this being a Prog forum, I'm sure there are disagreements about whether people should be standing, cheering, etc. at prog concerts, or if they should be sitting and listening, maybe depending on the band, the venue, where you're sitting, etc. In my mind, seeing Rush is a standing experience - they're loud, they've got lots of energy, there's a huge audience, they've got a lot of hits to sing along to, and no disrespect intended, but their music isn't as subtle as some other bands. There's a big audience participation aspect to it; you've just got to shout "HEY!" in 2112 Overture with the appropriate fist pump, and raise your hands to clap along to the chorus of The Spirit of Radio.

That was just part of the show. Rush pulled out all the stops to make Jacob's Ladder as realistic as possible.

ForestFriend wrote: My friends and I, however, are big Rush fans, so we were excited to hear new material, so we stayed standing and had fun. Oldy McFart sitting a few rows behind us wasn't too pleased that his calm night of classical music was being interrupted by these standing young fellows who thought that Rush was a rock band or something. After a few ignored requests of "sit down", Oldy decided it was appropriate to throw a beer at us. I think we eventually sat down, defeated at the end of the first set, but my crew decided that we would not be swayed for the second set, and stood until the end of the show. And we had a great time too.

^Ah, the joys of the festival seating back in the day.  Surprised I was not crushed to death in some of the concerts then, actually remember one show (don't remember who, when, or where...typical then) that the whole floor (no seats) of people was shoulder to shoulder just swaying and pushing forward, thought I was going to pass out it was so hot.  You could not move, you just had to stand your ground if you could....damn, having a flashback now