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Post by Delicious Meatball Sub on Dec 1, 2012 22:29:43 GMT -5
In this thread we discuss all the crazy shows/experiences we had back in the day.
This is not my best story, but it's a starting point:
I went to see Wesley Willis play in Detroit in 2001. His show was exactly what you'd expect, he basically just hit the demo button on his keyboard and sang along. Anyway, I bought one of his LPs and he was signing stuff so I got his autograph, but I was pretty drunk and realized he had signed the plastic wrap and I wanted him to sign the actual cover. So I ripped off just a corner of the wrapping and went back up and asked him to sign it again. Well this confused Mr. Willis. He's sitting at a table and grabs my hand and pulls me in real close so my forehead is basically touching his. Then he starts yelling at me "Did you steal this?" This is made more unpleasant by the fact he had a big ugly tumor sticking out of his forehead that I really don't want to be rubbing against.
So I'm just a dumb drunk kid and I'm sorta freaked out and I'm trying to explain to him what happened and he just keeps yelling at me about stealing his record. Then he headbutted me. Then I fell down. Then he got up and stood over me.
At this point his tour manager came over and rescued me (I think he enjoyed taking his dear sweet time) and told Wesley that I had not stolen the record, at which point it picked me up and hugged me and signed it for me.
At Echo Project I watched a wookette giving birth during the GZA set. I was just peaking on some corn. People were trying to get medical help, but they hadn't arrived. Some other wookette claimed to be a midwife and was coaching the woman through this. Her wook man is standing there shirtless and spun like top, just making these weird sounds while he is crushing his beer can and spraying coors light all over everyone. He looked really anxious about the whole thing, grabbing his face and just making grunts and stuff. The baby's head starts to crown and the medics still haven't arrived.
This is where it gets crazy... It was so quacking dusty out there and the baby and all the surrounding fluids were immediately "muddified" by the blowing dirt. I mean, its quacking gross. All of a sudden, this quacking kid (probably 19 or 20) in his oversized neon, flat-brim LRG hat, runs up yelling "welcome to the party biznatch!" before he blows a huge plume of smoke right in the baby's face! While the umbilical cord is still attached and shiz!
The smell was unmistakeable, this baby had just been deemcorn'd.
He must have pulled the hit from a corncob, b/c it was monstrous. The surrounding crowd dropped their jaws, and someone tackled the kid as he starts to run away. He didn't make it more than 10ft and the he was probably blasting off about now.
The mom is clutching the dirty baby and trying to calm it. Though, strangely, the baby was not crying (tripping balls i guess?). And while the dude is getting screamed at, the dad suddenly pounces into action. He jumps on the dude, and starts smashing said bisco kid's face with the crushed up beer can, of which he seemingly just can't let go. The bisco kid is kicking and trying to roll out of it and the wook-dad grabs the kid's hair w/ one hand. he finally let the can go and shoves his other hand half way inside the guys mouth. He is pulling his mouth open and RIPS HIS CHEEK OPEN! repeat: rips his quacking CHEEK OPEN!
there is blood everywhere and the dude lets out this braveheart-like scream as he gets pulled off by the folks around him. Blood all over bisco kid's face, shirt and formerly fresh flat breezy. The cops/medics arrived about that time and took over the situation.
Post by g a b f r a b on Dec 1, 2012 23:25:06 GMT -5
Horn, I am jealous that you got an authentic greeting headbutt from the Daddy of Rock 'n Roll. I really wish Wesley hadn't passed before I was old enough to make a show.
Emoney, that is fucking insane. I was laughing out loud at your story, especially when the guy blew the smoke in the baby's face. If that's true then that is one of the craziest stories I've ever head. Incredible.
At Echo Project I watched a wookette giving birth during the GZA set. I was just peaking on some corn. People were trying to get medical help, but they hadn't arrived. Some other wookette claimed to be a midwife and was coaching the woman through this. Her wook man is standing there shirtless and spun like top, just making these weird sounds while he is crushing his beer can and spraying coors light all over everyone. He looked really anxious about the whole thing, grabbing his face and just making grunts and stuff. The baby's head starts to crown and the medics still haven't arrived.
This is where it gets crazy... It was so quacking dusty out there and the baby and all the surrounding fluids were immediately "muddified" by the blowing dirt. I mean, its quacking gross. All of a sudden, this quacking kid (probably 19 or 20) in his oversized neon, flat-brim LRG hat, runs up yelling "welcome to the party biznatch!" before he blows a huge plume of smoke right in the baby's face! While the umbilical cord is still attached and shiz!
The smell was unmistakeable, this baby had just been deemcorn'd.
He must have pulled the hit from a corncob, b/c it was monstrous. The surrounding crowd dropped their jaws, and someone tackled the kid as he starts to run away. He didn't make it more than 10ft and the he was probably blasting off about now.
The mom is clutching the dirty baby and trying to calm it. Though, strangely, the baby was not crying (tripping balls i guess?). And while the dude is getting screamed at, the dad suddenly pounces into action. He jumps on the dude, and starts smashing said bisco kid's face with the crushed up beer can, of which he seemingly just can't let go. The bisco kid is kicking and trying to roll out of it and the wook-dad grabs the kid's hair w/ one hand. he finally let the can go and shoves his other hand half way inside the guys mouth. He is pulling his mouth open and RIPS HIS CHEEK OPEN! repeat: rips his quacking CHEEK OPEN!
there is blood everywhere and the dude lets out this braveheart-like scream as he gets pulled off by the folks around him. Blood all over bisco kid's face, shirt and formerly fresh flat breezy. The cops/medics arrived about that time and took over the situation.
Radiohead - 2003 - SkyDome (Sears Theatre) - Toronto, ON
This was my second time seeing Radiohead and Thom Yorke did something that I have never forgotten to this day. The band was in the middle of playing Myxomatosis when a fan passed out in the crowd. Thom saw this happen and brought the show to a halt. He pointed the kid out to the medics, they pulled him out of the crowd and Thom and the band jumped right back into the song as if nothing had ever happened. In a nutshell, it showed the class and professionalism of one of the best bands on the planet!
I found a full video of the incident on line....enjoy!
Post by g a b f r a b on Dec 2, 2012 20:04:42 GMT -5
I'm sure someone knows more details than I, but basically a fat naked dude tried to rush the stage during LCD's show. Wayne was somewhere around the stage watching the set, and when the fat guy attacked, Wayne helped to tackle the dude down. As far as I know the guy never got on stage. I was at that show and had no idea it happened until after the fest was over.
Another 2010 Roo story: At Gwar I was under the tent on the left side. The guy standing beside me started sucking his girlfriend's ta-tas during the middle of the show. Her shirt was pulled down so it's not as if she was totally topless. We were just out of range of the blood spray so unfortunately these ta-tas weren't slathered in alien cum. Definitely added to the experience.
Post by Delicious Meatball Sub on Dec 7, 2012 14:58:11 GMT -5
So I received some bad news today. Blimpy Burger, the venerable Ann Arbor burger shack, is closing next summer. This is terrible news for burger lovers and Ann Arbor historians alike.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is one time in college I had lunch with John Sinclair at Blimpy. Sinclair was the manager of the MC5, founder of the "White Panther Party," roommates with Iggy Pop and and all around 70s Ann Arbor icon. He's perhaps most famous for having been sentenced to ten years in prison for selling two js to an undercover cop. He was later released by the Supreme Court who found the conviction to be cruel and unusual, but not before they started doing huge benefit concerts for him.
I was writing a paper on him at the time because I was big into concert promotion and pretty much wanted to be him. He was in town for hash bash and said he'd be glad to meet me, I asked if wanted to go to a coffee shop and he said "fuck no, lets go to Blimpy."
Anyway, he was a super nice guy, little bit wacky but gave me some good advice and the stern talking to I needed at the time which was basically "do this for the community, not the money. once the community is successful you will be too" then he told me about all the shows he did with the Grateful Dead and the MC5 glory days.
So I received some bad news today. Blimpy Burger, the venerable Ann Arbor burger shack, is closing next summer. This is terrible news for burger lovers and Ann Arbor historians alike.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is one time in college I had lunch with John Sinclair at Blimpy. Sinclair was the manager of the MC5, founder of the "White Panther Party," roommates with Iggy Pop and and all around 70s Ann Arbor icon. He's perhaps most famous for having been sentenced to ten years in prison for selling two js to an undercover cop. He was later released by the Supreme Court who found the conviction to be cruel and unusual, but not before they started doing huge benefit concerts for him.
I love everything about this post. The best part are those posters, though. Allen Ginsberg on a concert poster ahead of Phil Ochs and Archie Shepp. Good stuff.
Side note: Where's Tom? I bet his stories are the best. And Bishop, bet he was into some crazy shiz too.
Yeah I know it's on packard. I was asking about the dennys. Which was ridiculous because the story could have happened at any of the hundreds across the US. I've been.. not low all day sorry.
Post by roccoandhistaco on Dec 8, 2012 21:51:42 GMT -5
So I'm curios, who have you all actually met before or gotten an autograph from? So far I've gotten autographs from The National, Bomb The Music Industry, Deadmau5, The Protomen, Ben Howard, and Justice. Also, whole this isn't exactly crazy, one of the most memorable concert experiences has been seeing so many people cry during Sigur Ros at lollapalooza. Seriously, it was weird seeing total fratbros cry during Hoppipolla.
So I'm curios, who have you all actually met before or gotten an autograph from? So far I've gotten autographs from The National, Bomb The Music Industry, Deadmau5, The Protomen, Ben Howard, and Justice. Also, whole this isn't exactly crazy, one of the most memorable concert experiences has been seeing so many people cry during Sigur Ros at lollapalooza. Seriously, it was weird seeing total fratbros cry during Hoppipolla.
I didn't get his autograph but I did prevent Bob Weir from getting kicked out of my hotel. Does that count?
We needed a bigger space than we had in the basement of out house on Cary Street. Not for junk (though we had tons of that) but as an alternate space to hold all ages shows.
It was a dark time in RVA music history. The bands were thriving by an influx of people moving to be a part of something nWe had a collective. It had to be real because people outside of our circle were talking about it. We cooked meals for Food Not Bombs. We were producing records and fanzines. We had record stores and cafes. Goddamn, what a city. We just needed a place for kids to see these bands.
That basement was small though. 50 people and you're packed in, sweaty and sticky. People were climbing in the rafters to catch a glimpse of the band playing.
Henry St. Art Gallery became home for a lot of us. It was (is) an art gallery by day, a venue by night. They could fit so many more people than the thriving house-show circuit we had created. 300 people was a metric f*ckton of people for us to even consider. But within 6 months, we had not only reached capacity every show but we had to turn people away at the door.
That's why we were taken back when the gallery said they were gonna have to shut the doors. Shit. They were packed constantly. Why?, we asked. Turned out out of the two owners one liked to stuff powder in every hole he had and not pay rent. We had a month to figure out what to do.
After two benefits we came up with the cash to save Henry Street. It was glorious. As a "Thank You" we threw a show for all the people that came to support saving the space. We were punk rock though. We never do anything the easy way.
The premise was simple. 10 bands in 10 minutes. Each band got 1 minute to play. I sat there with a stopwatch. You go over, you get beat. Pretty simple. The band that I was playing in, at the time, donated the equipment for everyone to use. No breakdown, no setup. We were all pretty excited about this.
After the bands were asked the fliers went up. It became the talk of the "scene". Nobody thought we could pull it off. Free Show. 10 bands.10 Minutes. The bands were a surprise to the people that showed up.
It went off without a hitch. We filled to capacity. Only one band got the smackdown and that was more because I just wanted to tackle someone than anything else.
What's odd is over the years, that show became folklore in Richmond. EVERYONE was there. Never-mind the fact that I knew 2/3 of the people that Friday night. People still talk about 20 years later that they were amazed it happened.
That happened last night to me. That's why it's on my mind. I have way better stories than this but it's fresh. I'll tell you next time about how I saw Green Day get run out of a city by skinheads.
I don't have many crazy stories about shows... but I met Johnathan Richman in 2008 which is a highlight of my entire life, ahaha, as well as meeting a true inspiration to me in Edward Ka-Spel at an LPD show a month or two later.
Having to physically defend myself for the first time in... a decade or so at the Skinny Puppy concert in 09. That was something I'll never forget.
Naked tripping dude at Tool, Roo 07... yeah.
Consuming far too much corn at Erykah Badu in 09, then consuming even more during Snoop... when he was wanting us to jump, I could only lift myself on my tip toes to create the illusion of a modest jump. I then proceeded to munch out on pizza and pass out during that snoozer of a Phish concert. That was... something.
Modest Mouse in 09... Isaac had to break up a fight in the audience (I believe Kyle was there, as well, he may have a better memory of it than I).
Prince in '11... Purple Rain outfit wearing prince fan was taken onto stage, forced atop Princes baby grand and then he proceeded to hump it.
Meeting some crazy mutherquackers at the Blondes show at Moog this year... yeah, I'll just leave it at that.
NIN in 05... the audience not giving two shizs about Death From Above 1979, while I was already a fan... here we are over a half decade later and they are far more popular than they were when they were actually putting out music. Then the crowd being totally impartial to a quite underwhelming QOTSA set, which really shocked me.
NIN, Lights in the Sky... the crowd booing the shiz out of Deerhunter... again, huge band now.
Radiohead at Roo in 06... 30-something chick beside me near front of the stage acting like Radiohead was her Backstreet Boys... only reacting to the Hail To The Thief tracks, then being totally apathetic for everything else during the set, laying down and sleeping for about 30 minutes, then waking up and bitching at me about my stupid hat (yeah, the infamous purple sombrero).
Flaming Lips at Roo in 07... if you've been around here for a while, you may know that I absolutely detested this concert, and was the point where my respect for Flips as a live band really went south. Coyne babbling incoherently, nonstop, stopping and starting Yoshimi over and over and over until the crowd was loud enough for him. Then, he started talking about troops... big nono there, bud. What really got me was when he started spewing about "the sphere of life", to which I blurted "what the quack is he babbling about?". The hardcores around me even turned to me and said things to the effect of "yeah... you get used to it".
Again, nothing crazy, just memorable incidents that I found interesting.
Edit: ah, one of the best was seeing Thrill Kill Kult... 4 friends and I packed into my 88 Camry and drove all the way from Columbia to Nashville in the middle of a heatwave with no AC to see this band at the Exit/In. Groovy Mann (the singer) had two 4 packs of mini Sutter's Home wine bottles. By the time Daisy Chain For Satan rolled around, he was writhing on the floor, rolling around and yelling the lyrics to the song. He then spent the rest of the show sitting Indian style and acting like a genuine loon.
Edit: ah, one of the best was seeing Thrill Kill Kult... 4 friends and I packed into my 88 Camry and drove all the way from Columbia to Nashville in the middle of a heatwave with no AC to see this band at the Exit/In. Groovy Mann (the singer) had two 4 packs of mini Sutter's Home wine bottles. By the time Daisy Chain For Satan rolled around, he was writing on the floor, rolling around and yelling the lyrics to the song. He then spend the rest of the show sitting Indian style and acting like a genuine loon.
You get back in that 88 Camry and come back to Exit/In, let me know.
This is the only record I can find of this epic concert. I am pretty sure I still have the ticket stub somewhere. This is easily in my top 5 concerts of all time, and has been since I saw the show.
Toad's place holds about 700 people. Beck played about 15 different instruments from a piccolo to an accordion to a HUGE triangle shaped 3 string bass guitar to all the normal instruments to a bunch of different percussion instruments and various stringed instruments.
What is said about "moshing" is kind of misleading. It wasn't exactly moshing. Toads is a big bar, and there is one way in and out of the concert area thats about 10' wide. There were too many people smashed in that small area. So there was no way to move around, you were kind of pushed up to everyone around you. Everyone pretty much just LEANED in one direction or another. And an amazing thing happened. Everyone in that area ended up leaning towards a center, and it created like a little circle that bounced around the room to the music. Ive never seen anything like it in my life.
Then came Fuckin with my head. the place went fuggin nuts and it was crazy and fun and scary and he went on this tangent in the middle of it that Ive never seen before. It was my first experience with a jam. He went on for like 4-5 minutes of just bringing the audience up and down at will with different sounds and noises and stuff.
The only concert I would put above this one would be Pink Floyd a few months before.
