Most fucked-up thing you've ever seen at a show

Full on fist fight in the row right behind me at Roger Waters' show at The Tacoma Dome last tour.  It was during "Dogs" as the second set started.  There were five rows of chairs with about ten chairs in each row knocked down on the right side of the floor in front of the soundboard, while these two dudes were landing haymakers on each other's faces.  The people who's chairs were scattered looked horrified.  The kids doing security looked petrified and didn't intervene.  After about 5 minutes, the police showed up and dragged the guys off the floor.  For a second, I thought it was part of the act. 

Seen lots of people loosing their shit, getting dangerously out of control, and having to be hauled off by the cops.   Also saw a lady fall down after huffing a balloon and crack her head open on the curb.   The porto potties at Buckeye in 94 are up there too.  That's a sight that can't be unseen and still can't figure out how they got so bad as a matter of basic physics.

1 - Skydiver with the flare go down at Watkins Glen - RIP Smitty​

2 - Helpless girl got her arm broken when she was pushed through the glass doors as they were trying to be opened at a general admission Dead show at the Palace in Waterbury Sept 72

3 - Biker Gang  included as security at a Zappa show in New Haven back in late 70's early 80's.  Fucking with lots of folks, real pricks.

Full on rumble between Biker gangs; Mongols vs Hells Angles at Balboa park amphitheater in  1975. Cops came in riot gear and got way out of control. Show over. Saw regular folks getting clubbed. Ran for my life.

Grateful Dead:

1990s, Saw a naked girl wearing a garbage bag inside halls of MSG. She was FUUUCKED UP!

Dude smuggled his dog into MSG during the same run. It was a younger lab or something. Not one of those tiny lap dogs.

RFK Stadium GA field, dude just whipped his dick out and took a piss.

Funny one - Cops busted some nitrous tanks @ RFK, 1991. They opened the valves and laid the tanks on the ground to empty them out. Some guy lays down in the 'gassy grass'  near the tanks, to get one last high. Cops were not amused.

Further Fest, NJ

Opened a port o john door @ PNC Bank Arts Center parking lot. Dude was shooting up into his foot. He looks over and says, "be right out."

7/4/89 Buffalo

Naked guy masturbating atop an on field concession stand. Can't unsee that!

Wow, I could go on this a while. A few that come to mind right away...

- Hell's Angels knife fight, maybe six on four, on the front of the lawn at Shoreline in the middle of the afternoon in 2003. One guy, at least 300lbs, with a knife stuck into the side of his head & blood spraying out trying to climb over the cables as others kept going at him. I can't imagine why that image is still so clear in my mind all these years later.

- Five or six Pacific Islanders (Samoans? Tongan's? BIG DUDES!) beating the absolute crap out of a guy near the rail during a reggae fest at the Kaiser Convention Center in the early '90s. While being pummeled, the bloody dude makes it to the rail and struggles over it. The BIG DUDES try to follow him over the rail but are too big to make the jump. The man falls unconscious as security takes him to Rock Med, where he is rushed to the hospital. Those guys were trying to kill that man. I'm glad I don't know why.

- A "group of youths", maybe 20 or 30 of them, crash their way through a side gate at Shoreline during a rap fest in the mid-'90s and roam through the venue beating any/everyone in their path from the lawn down into the seated area. A friend in a wheelchair was hit so hard that his lower teeth went through his lower lip. The "group" were confronted by security near the box seats and a brawl ensued with box chairs and anything else not bolted down flying. The "group" forced their way back out of the venue as police arrived, the show never stopping.

- Food fights at Shoreline during the infamous Summer Jam rap fests of the '90s. EPIC food fights. Fifteen thousand bored young people on the lawn, broiling in the sun waiting for the next diva act that's "not ready to perform" begin throwing every damn thing they have at each other. Soon they realize it's much more satisfying to fire the shit down into the seated bowl. Apples, oranges, fried chicken, nachos, bottles of water, etc. raining down into the seats, blotting out the sun, creating a panic in the seats as people rush to get out of the bowl as fools from the stage are saying, "Common' people, INCREASE THE PEACE!!!" Needless to say their plea's fell on deaf ears.

- A Public Enemy show in '89, a big dude shoves his way past a security ticket check point. A security guy asks the man again to please show his ticket. Without hesitating the big dude SMASHES his fist into the security man's nose, flattening it and dropping him cold. Big dude says, "There's my ticket motha'fucka".

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of rap concerts.

- Jimmy Buffett at Shoreline, maybe 2000, a guy gets onto the big tent and starts climbing up one of the seams during the show, basically repelling up a mountain. He makes it close to halfway up were the slope of the tent becomes almost vertical. Naturally the tent is damp and he slips, slides down & off the tent and smashes on top of Buffett's tour bus backstage, which likely saved his life, but still he left the venue in critical condition. I believe I remember Schnee saying she knew the guy when I told this tale on the old zone. For years his snow angel mark from his slide was easily visible on the tent.

- Tom Petty at the Fillmore during his 20-show run there. During the show two women begin fighting in the middle of the crowd and one sets off pepper spray. I notice it because my eyes & throat begin stinging & burning and I can't breathe. The crowd begins to panic and crush away from the fight and I begin to panic as I thought I was having a heart attack in the middle of a rock show. Fortunately Petty saved me when right as I was certain that I was dying he stopped playing and said, "Hold on, hold on, there's pepper spray in the air" and the band quickly left the stage. At that moment as I was blind & choking I was also hugely relieved that it was "just" pepper spray and I wasn't going to die on the floor of the Fillmore. Still, I suppose there are worse ways to go.

- Grateful Dead show at Shoreline, '93 or '94. A young mother leaves her four-year-old daughter alone at their seats early in the first set, telling the people next to her that she'll be right back and Sunshine is a good girl. About a half-hour after the show is over the people get security because the mother never came back. Sunshine is indeed a good girl, is not disturbed at all and apparently slept through most of the evening. About an hour & a half after the show is over the police have called Child Protective Services to deal with the abandoned girl when mom shows up outside the closed venue gates, fried to the nines, demanding to get her daughter. She completely loses her shit when she discovers that the police won't release the little girl to her. The mother is screaming that Sunshine is "family", that she's often left alone at concerts for long periods and family takes care of family. She begins fighting with the police and gets arrested. Any of you have a daughter named Sunshine?

I got lots more, that's just what comes immediately to mind.

>>>>knife stuck into the side of his head

That's fucked up.  Hard to top that.

Santana in 2003?

Aside from some random acts of violence, drugs gone bad, urinating, crowd surges, etc...

The most fucked up thing I ever saw ON stage was Aerosmith, LOL    

At Giants stadium, early 90's, Healy telling me we need to move and take down some of the sails on the scaff in front of the PA because " I cant see the sound waves from here maaaan ".....

i saw Jaco walk into a beach bar on Ft Lauderdale beach, mid 80's - the bar was using our PA, monitors and Lighting rig for a Sunday Battle of the Bands. So, he walks in off the Strip, barefoot and walks straight in stage before the next band was about to start, picks up this dudes Fender Jazz and starts to go to town on it - turns it all the way up and just flails for about 5 - 8 minutes....picks it up off his neck , drops it on the stage and yells into the mic " my mother is black and my father is white and fuck all of you ", does a rolling tumblesault and walks out of the venue....he was dead a year or two later

Woodstock '94 - was running spotlight when Green Day got swarmed on stage

Woodstock ' 99 - the attack at Front of house when they stripped the barricade off and had people crowd surfing on the plywood...of course the riot , cleaning the stage after KORN and finding, of all things among the detritus, an electric shaver, honorable mention -  a girl who screamed ' Allison ' for so long and loud right against the rail for Elvis Costello that he stopped midsong of the third song and said " shut up you fucking cunt "...

my friend getting gassed at Orlando in '91? '92?? - i was in a store pissing and came outside to him just coughing and gagging...dudes who were nearby were like ' hey man your buddy just stood there in the cloud and never moved "....

The Original Balcony Leaper.  Palladium ‘8 . . . . I’m gonna say . . . 3(?).

Chris Spedding getting shocked repeatedly by his guitar and/or mic stand during Robert Gordon’s set; same show.

late 80's oakland parking lot. large motorcycle cop w/ helmet on smashes hippie dude in face as he's coming down the stairs from his tour bus.

bald man in white underwear covered in mud on all fours scurrying around like a dog during the other one. eugene 90. 

Took my daughter and a friend to see One Direction a few years ago at Gillette (They were grate and I love Harry - I admit it). Great seats - 18th row right on catwalk that runs from stage through the middle of field. Crowd is overwhelmingly pre- and teen girls, a bunch of moms and a smattering of dads like myself. I notice the two girls in front of us are drinking Buds which struck me as odd in a way. I'm assuming they were legal but clearly not a beer drinking type event. Well, toward the end of the show, one of the girls projectile vomits all over the kids around her. Pandemonium, freak-outs and hysterical crying ensue. It was gross but we were spared by being behind rather than in front of her. And what I found to be the unforgivable part was that her friend totally bailed on her and bolted. Poor kid was taken out by the medical staff. I'm sure I've seen other strange things in all my years of concert going, but that one sticks out to me 

I've seen a lot and I am sure I left many impressions and conversations on the way home for some folks

Sorry I guess

The most fucked up thing by far actually was discussed with zoners years ago . It was the first time played Brooklyn Bowl in Vegas, Jackie, Sco Metz Phil and a Ross quick sit in.

We were on the floor 2/3 back on left and dude man was sitting on the floor then rolling on the floor making out with his fuckin dog. Full on hugging, petting and shoving his tongue down its throat.

I was tripping my balls off and I asked 3 different people if I was wiggin out and they all agreed they were in love. The next day stumbling through a casino there is Wook man playing a slot and the German Shepard dog was sitting to his left and he had his arm around the dogs shoulder like they were husband and wife.

>>>motorcycle cop w/ helmet on smashes hippie dude in face<<<

Why was he so pissed at you Turtle?

Coventry

I was at a Static-X show in 2001 when I was 14 and saw someone run up to a guy on the ground and stab him in the forehead with a safety pin- blood squirting down his face.

>>>Coventry<<<

Damn, that's pretty fucked up.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of rap concerts.<<<<<<<<<

What were you doing there ?

Working.

Charlotte 1984, guy decided to jerk off in the middle of the floor during the break.  A BIG hole formed around him.

Rosemount 88 In the parking lot after the show, guy and girl strip right there between the cars and proceeded to the 69 position , this lasted for a couple of minutes until the crowd got so big that she went running through the without her clothes. 

Philadelphia, Spectrum, 1988.

I skipped the first night of the run to catch the Santana 20 year anniversary show at The Mosque in Richmond, Virginia, then drove up to Philly that night after the show.  When I arrived at the park where they were letting you camp next to the Spectrum, the medics were putting a sheet over some dude who had turned blue in the face and died after sucking down some nitrous.

JFK 7/7/89 - there was a naked dude on the field during Fire on the Mountain. The entire field was completely packed except for about a 5 foot radius around this guy & his buddy. There was no security anywhere around to say anything, so it was about 10 minutes before I guess his fried convinced him to put his clothes back on. Strange.

I think I will be avoiding you folks at shows. 

Maybe not the most fucked-up thing I saw but memorable and since naked people are a common theme in this thread...

At the 10/31/95 Quadrophenia show we were in the upper section where the rows of seats are fairly steep.  At some point there was a commotion and we saw yellow shirt security chasing a naked guy around.  He was fast as lightning dodging in and out of the aisles and hiding in groups of people.  Everyone was on his side, helping him evade security.  All of a sudden about 10 minuets later he falls on us from rows above!  The guy is spun out of his mind, laying there at our feet like “don’t rat me out man”.  Sure enough a minute later the yellow shirts are walking by looking for him.  Everyone in our group was cool and when the coast was clear the guy took off again.  Fun times.  To this day this show is referred to as the naked guy show. 

On a side note in NY, thanks to the fine work of seven ladies known as the Topfree Seven (right here at Cobbs Hill Park in Rochester),  topless women are 100% legal in public places. 

Funny interview at one of the subsequent Cobbs Hill celebrations :-)

https://youtu.be/6DgWvkjDGNM

Lots of stories.  One time I'll never forgot was being stuck outside a show at Nassau on a surprising cold spring night(as pretty much all my spring east coast show memories go) & we were hanging with the egg roll dude.  The yellow jacket security came by and started yelling 'we told you to pack it up!'  They circled around and one of them kicked over the pot of hot oil.  The kick sent the burning oil splashing all over the egg roll guy.  Watching this on a ten strip -  every bubble was completely defined and I can still see his face as the oil hit him.  He's screaming rolling around on the ground, we all try to help but the security, who were laughing, are pushing and swinging at us to clear away.  They hauled him off as his skin was burning.  When we circled back around the lot everything was still sitting as it was.  The Nassau County PD are at the top of the food chain of asshole cops. 

Damn Jonas.  Watching a dude's face melt (literally) while high on a 10 strip is awful.  Worse than the knife stuck in the guy's head desribed above.  Fearful of what story might top that.

On a side note, I went to WSP last night with an old friend who in the past worked at the amphitheater we were at.  I asked him about the most fucked up thing he saw while working there and be explained it was a brutal beat down by one 60+ dude against another 60+ dude over some petty dispute at a James Taylor show.

JFK 7/7/89 - there was a naked dude on the field during Fire on the Mountain. The entire field was completely packed except for about a 5 foot radius around this guy & his buddy. There was no security anywhere around to say anything, so it was about 10 minutes before I guess his fried convinced him to put his clothes back on. Strange.>>>>>>>>>

Sorry about that

Don't  Remember....

Oh yeah at Laguna seca, An ex Gf With not  very much potrine was topless, We had water guns, but wet t shirts were not yet conceived yet, It was Hot as Hell that day. She got hit by a train a few years back.. RIP God rest her soul Suzanne....she did open my mind A bit, Thanks Suzanne.

Adam Katz getting his head bashed in.

Jesus rrg 

>>>>Adam Katz getting his head bashed in.

You saw that?   I have heard conflicting accounts of who done it (yellow shirts v. hippie mafia) and understood that it was still an unsolved mystery.  If you don't mind, can you let us know who was doing the bashing?

“Hippie Mafia”  didn’t get him, he was a regular head in the wrong place at the wrong time.

JC Ken

At the Rubber Bowl in Akron in 1986, I was making my way from in front of the soundboard to the back of the field near the end of the second set. As I got behind the soundboard, a big circle had formed around a wook and wookette who were going at it in the missionary position during Sugar Magnolia on the bouncy synthetic AstroTurf at the Rubber Bowl.  

I thought it was more funny than fucked up though.

pregger chick dosed to the gills. :/

Scarlet Begonias > I Will Take You Home

-ouch-

I once saw a guy at a show using a chicken as a bong.

taper war in cal expo 94. mic stand was the weapon wrought upon one taper's head from the other. no clue why.

*but the beater did burst thru my spot in his scene flee

Either a couple of wookettes bashing each others heads in over a nitrous tank at Bonnaroo '03 or all of Pittsburgh '89.

Port-a-Potty, The Dead, Camden '03.

The horror . . . 

this same guy is now wearing a yamaka, >>

I fail to see what the fact that the guy was Jewish and wearing a Yarmulke or Kepa has anything to do with anything!?!?

Capital Centre during the '91 run, I think the first show.  We're sitting in our seats before the show, just up off the floor on Phil's side near the stage, psychedelics starting to take hold, and a few balloons bounce over toward us.  We naturally give them a swipe to keep them going and a security guy on the floor comes over to us and says "If I see you hit another balloon I'm going to kick you out of here".  We assume he's kidding and make some sort of acknowledgment to that effect and he makes it very clear that he isn't kidding.  Vibe goes south quickly, we sit there and watch him go around and pop every balloon that he can get his hands on.  We dubbed him "The Meanest Man in the World".

pregger chick dosed to the gills. :/

My wife said sorry

Scarlet Begonias > I Will Take You Home<<<

That is true. Could be the winner.

Bit did it actually happen?

Enquiring minds want to know.  (And Deadbase is at home)

Saw a lot of deranged behavior at GD shows. A lot of it I've tried to forget.

And although this is not really in the fucked-up category, it's always stuck with me as a bit of a metaphor of late model Dead Heads.

At Shoreline the last few years (93-95), they started putting up 15 foot chain link fences in the walkway immediately outside the pavilion exits. Why? Because clueless dead heads would tramp through the shrubs and landscaping instead of waiting patiently to exit.

So post show it's moving slowly, people moo'ing and such, and a furry wook decides he's going to scale the chain link fence to get to another walkway, that I suppose he thought was moving quicker. As he gets to the crest, he slips and falls over the top of the fence, completely ripping his back open. His pants somehow get caught so he's just dangling there upside down bleeding and wailing. I soon left the immediate area and he was still in the same upside down position, crying for someone to help him. Nobody seemed to be in a rush to do so.

Bit did it actually happen?

Enquiring minds want to know.  (And Deadbase is at home)<<<<<

Alpine Valley Music 1988-06-22

Foolish Heart, Looks Like Rain, Scarlet Begonias-> I Will Take You Home-> Drums-> Space-> The Wheel-> Stella Blue-> Turn On Your Love Light, E: The Mighty Quinn

https://archive.org/details/gd1988-06-22.s2.sbd.miller.119780.flac16

An interesting set of shows at Alpine in '88.  Hot weather paired with lots of new songs (this run saw the debuts of Foolish Heart, which was debuted at the first night of the Alpine run, 6-19-88, Blow Away, Believe It Or Not, and the second Victim Or The Crime, which had gotten it's premier performance at the tour opener in Minneapolis on th 17th.

I remember being surprised they were playing Scarlet Begonias 3 songs into the 2nd set, then a little let down when the jam wound down to I Will Take You Home.  

Bobby winged a Blackbird one night too.  

Probably TJ (the jumper) at the Phil Shows at the Warfield.  Can't remember teh year. 

That fucker jumped from about four seats to the right of our position on the rail.  

I had some shitty nosebleeds, and the friends/family release happened, I snapped up those Lodge seats.  Front row show, for real.

Thanks Tatters.  I think we have a winner.  And to think I used to hate it when they would do Scarlet into Bucket or Touch.

Speaking of Shoreline, one of the venue's first years we were in our '68 Westphalia and they guided us and a bunch of other VW buses into the VIP lot right outside the entrance. Anyone have a picture of all the buses lined up on either side of the walkway?

Anyway, the lot is in a bowl with grassy slopes and shrubs on top and security was trying to prevent people from coming down the grassy slopes. At one point a guy makes it to the bottom and security starts chasing him. He passes us at full sprint, a security guard in hot pursuit. Just past us someone stepped out and kicked the trailing foot of the security guy, just enough to cause it to tangle with his other leg, and the security guy was airborne, a horizontal swan dive, and he landed chest-first on the gravel and slid.  Ouch!  Looked like neither the runner nor the kicker was caught.  

Cosmic Charlie tease in Oaktown also ranks. Garcia could be real asshole on occasion.

The strangest things I ever saw at a dead show happened outside the show. The giant maker white dude walking towards the show in Philly on the dead Dylan tour. The neighborhood was sitting on there stoops watching the freaks walk by and pointing at the naked guy.

1990 coming out of rich stadium stuck in traffic and a giant naked dude leaning on the car ahead of us and choking his chicken and bending their antenna. I think it was the same dude. Maybe that was his thing wander naked outside shows. 

At Saratoga in '88 we watched a totally dosed out guy pretty much destroy a mid-60's, mint condition Mustang that someone 

had (foolishly, IMO) driven to the show. The guy caved in the roof and the hood, ripping off mirrors and the antenna, etc.

Nothing anyone there could do to stop him.

Cops finally hauled him off to the hospital.

After a CSNY show at Concord Pavilion, we came out to the lot and just a few cars down from us,

a car had caught fire during the show, and was now a totally burnt-out shell.

Imagine coming out of a good show and finding your car in either of the above conditions!

Bummer!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nyfA_rYyrek

never steal from juggalos, fammily.

£^^^ That’s what I want to be when I grow up

The world is full of lots of interesting people some with different priorities and value systems

KISS nassau collesium ~ this chick in a body suit did a full strip tease pre-show on the floor. She had a killer body too..

Are you sure that wasn't John Goodman you spotted, Localcountyline?