Question of the Week: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve ever seen at a concert or festival?

Local Spins’ Question of the Week (March 28, 2024)

What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve ever seen at a concert or festival?

The winner in last week’s drawing of email subscribers who responded to our question of the week was reader Jeff Broddle. To be placed in a drawing for concert tickets or a Local Spins gift pack, sign up for email updates and the weekly newsletter here: https://localspins.com/subscribe-local-spins-mailing-list/

THE READER RESPONSES:

Dave Meinardi – I’d just set my 8mm movie camera down when I looked up and saw that wondrously happy drunk tipple off the top of the speaker tower at the Goose Lake Rock Festival.

Dana Kuzee – I’ll have to say of all the concerts I’ve been to this was the most outrageous! And I’ve been to so many concerts I can’t even count them all! It was the Butthole Surfers 11/7/1988 at the old Stadium Arena Annex. The crazy events that happened during the show were as follows; 1. a sex change surgery shown on a large screen; 2. a totally naked woman dancing on the stage; 3. a large cymbal filled with lighter fluid and set on fire with flames leaping high into the air. Yikes! Needless to say it was pretty outrageous, especially for GR at that time. The concert just kept on going!

Jeff Neill – Dude climbed a huge tree at Bonaroo during Jack Johnson during a lightning storm.
Paul Jendrasiak – This is probably the most outrageous thing I ever experienced at a show. I was in the photo pit. It blew up not too far from me. Thought it was the pyros from the band at first. I’d heard later that one person almost lost their eye. Boggles my mind that somebody would come to a show to do something like that.  https://www.mlive.com/…/turning_point_man_convicted_of…
John Wenger – Stephen Tyler mangled the words during the second song, fell down drunk, and crawled off the stage. Wings Stadium 1978 or 79. This concert has largely been erased from history and is not listed on most data bases. It never really got started.

Bruce Ling – The RIOT in Lowell at the Rock Concert held at the Showboat amphitheater. Nineteen-year-old me. Heart, and a number of other big names were on the bill. Gate crashers tore the fencing down and swarmed in. It started to pour and the bands left. Too much alcohol and drugs riled everyone up and the 1000+ crowd went wild. Rioters broke into Liperts Pharmacy and took the drugs. Local, County and State Police piled in. The National Guard arrived. My girlfriend and I were separated in the melee. I saw a tripping chick pull out a 12” carving knife and start poking it into the people that were in her way. As the Flat River cuts Lowell in half, and the National Guard were on the bridge across town searching those trying to cross, and I was in possession of an illegal leafy substance, and I so wanted just to just get home which was on the other side of the river, I made the long swim fully clothed, shoelaces tied together and shoes hanging over my shoulders, across the Flat with a one armed backstroke while clutching my precious baggied stash above water with my other arm. Blue microdot and purple mescaline had been handed out to the crowd before the devastation. Walking downtown the next day, it looked like the aftermath of a war zone.

Kelly Latimer – A mom breastfeeding her baby/young toddler at the back of the stage at FMG. I’m not against breastfeeding in public, but it was something very unexpected.

Jeff Broddle – I’m gonna have to say Mojo Nixon getting personal with an inflatable sheep on stage at Tipitina’s in 1991. If you wonder if “getting personal” means what you think it means, you are correct (simulated Mojo-sheep relations). However my friend who always has a better story than me also saw Mojo at Tipitina’s, but at this show Mojo leaped off the stage, broke his leg, went to the hospital, came back and finished the show.

Richard B. Kelley – Pearl Jam was opening for Smashing Pumpkins who were opening for the ‘Chili Peppers at the Kalamazoo State Theatre around 1992. Eddie Vedder took it upon himself to climb the fragile, faux Spanish courtyard wall at stage left up to the top. He then swung himself and crawled across the equally fragile arch over the stage and then climbed down the courtyard wall on the other side. Kevin Brady was running the theater at the time and damned near killed him after their set.

John Wenger – Richard B. Kelley: Reminds me of the famous clip where he snags the microphone in the truss and climbs to retrieve it. Then he uses the mic cable to slide down to the stage.

Anna Sink – The Naked Tree Guy at Wakarusa 2015 (where I was working). Unfortunately, we could not include him in the official video footage. After the YouTube video ends he escaped again, knocked over trash cans and security, and ran across the stage and when they finally caught him and had his girlfriend come to pick him up, he proposed to her and she said yes.

Scott Langford – Not all that weird, but in 1984 I saw Elton John hurl his piano bench off the side of the stage. It was at the Rosemont Horizon and I think it was his “Breaking Hearts” tour.

Robby Besson -Naked guy at Hoxeyville and spun dude eating dirt and rocks at FrostyBoyz Ent. Rosa park takeover…

Timmy Rodriguez – This might speak of my age, but I went and saw Arcade Fire at Palace of Auburn Hills during their Reflektor tour. The last time I saw them (Neon Bible Tour), was one of most magical shows I’ve ever seen. Everyone was like one, if that makes sense (dancing and singing together). This time, the crowd was way lamer. At one point, I was dancing and singing with my wife on the floor when a girl with fairy wings pushed through me, got right in my way (I couldn’t see the band anymore), turned around and started blowing bubbles. Then she took out her iPhone and lived the rest of the show through the screen of her phone. I think that’s when I realized I don’t get the younger generation….and that I realized I was no longer the “younger” generation.

Kate Meinel Kirchner -Last summer at Hoxeyville Music Festival when Brian of Full Cord had a lighter explode in his face on stage while hitting a cowbell.

Eric Stever – Chris Cornell drinking another guy’s stomach contents at ’92 Lollapalooza at Pine Knob.

Mike Dodge – Other than Aerosmith in 1985, the height of their booze and drug era, not being able to start or finish songs, losing members of the band to the point of turning the lights up until they found them… it was definitely the crowd taking over the stage during a Bob Dylan show a Pine Knob. The stage was full of people jumping up, stage diving, and jumping back up again…dozens at a time. All security was called onto the stage. During a song they moved Bob and the whole band tight against the drum riser, security formed a human barrier between the band and the madness/people on stage. A good percentage of the crowd came up and stage dived repeatedly for a good 45 minutes. With no security between the covered area and the lawn, each staircase heading down and to the stage looked like lava pouring in from the people on the lawn coming in and getting on stage. There were easily over 150 on stage. It all started when a couple of girls jumped on stage to grab, hug, kiss Bob. Security would pull them away but Bob would hang onto them tightly, not letting them get away. It was incredible how the whole thing unfolded. I bought tickets to see Ani Difranco and then saw Bob was the headline, I thought, “Bonus!” Little did I know what was going to happen. That was the “craziest” for sure. Even more than the human pyramids that formed during a Live show and people falling to the floor and being gurney’ed of the floor, blood everywhere from the stage to the exit.

Ned Rouse – At the Grand Valley Dome, I saw Joe Cocker walk behind a couple speaker cabinets and throw up his lunch or dinner or whatever and actually I had filmed it, but I lost the film over the years

Jon Shears – How deep of a dive shall we take ……. Punk rock shows in the 80’s. All bodily fluids, all types of voyeur acts. Oh the memories.

Andrew Ogrodzinski – Grateful Dead at Deer Creek in ‘95 made national news for a gate crasher riot that broke out. Apparently, a death threat was made against Jerry prior to that show which lead to the house lights remain on for the entire concert. Also attended a Gov’t Mule concert in Chicago at The Riviera where the entire city block lost power in the middle of the second set. The musicians played hand drums and percussion for an impromptu drum circle until the power came back on and the system rebooted, where they picked up where they left off. It’s documented on a DVD called ” Tale of Two Cities.”

James Gerard Collins – I saw a guy who ate a 19 gram mushroom swimming on grass. AND MAKING PROGRESS!!!! He could not vocalize in words for a few hours and was his normal polite self the next day.

Ted Bergin – Not hugely crazy, but…Post Grateful Dead show in DC my friends and I were calmly hanging out waiting for traffic to clear. We saw a bunch of people wandering by with nitrous oxide balloons in hand. We started speculating on the probabilities on which would end up the next day with gravel burns on their face. It was a target rich environment.

Lee Chase – The Damned playing in LA years ago: Drummer Rat Scabies commandeered the opening act’s drum kit for the show. The Damned kicked ass and Rat emerged for the encore buck naked. The first song started and Rat lit the drum kit on fire, dousing it with more and more lighter fluid as the band played in front of him. Show over. Drum kit over. And there was this. They only played 45 minutes before the “melee” started. Luckily we were front and center up in the balcony. May be an image of 4 people and text that says ‘Daily Photo by MAUREEN THE DEAD BOYS. punk rock band touring country. fled the Second Chance stage Sunday night after being assaulted “fans” audience. Dead Boys, fans engage in Second Chance co-owner John Carver expressed melee SECOND showed njued the brawi. said were Dead Boys riendly Second noticed general had “Nothing turned the happened Dead serambling scuffle lead from entire (totalling just minutes volley glasses according arrests; called. and Ann Arbor Police audience SAID THAT abuse the onslaught verbal because they hated DEAD. Page7’

Mike Ensing – Mayhem from crowd members crashing past guards to get on the main floor – Stones, Pontiac Silverdome Dec. 1981. Didn’t help that Mick & Keith were likely at odds causing a 2-hour delay after Santana’s set. Or maybe they were furious about the crowds’ treatment of Iggy Pop opening – complete with lots of thrown objects. Where did they get all that stuff?

Steve Goeddeke – Wanee festival 2010 in Florida, some vendor dropped a giant box of frisbees in the festival grounds on a beautiful sunny afternoon. I think “The Word” was playing, Robert Randolph with John Medeski. People started grabbing them and playing catch here and there. More and more joined it. It reached a critical mass where nobody was even playing catch with another person, a giant crowd of people were just repeatedly throwing frisbees up in the air manically. It turned into a giant frisbee vortex.

Kevin Murphy – I remember the rhythm guitarist of Kansas barfed right on the stage and then walked off stage.

Chris Moore – A long time ago I saw early Christian rocker Larry Norman at the Calvin College Fieldhouse. I was in very early (lived in the neighborhood and kinda snuck in) for a sound check. Larry must have been having a bad day and was not happy with the sound and or sound person. He kicked a wedge monitor off the stage with his foot which created a large startling sound.

Bruce Ling – Mick Jagger excited, in a skin tight body leotard and swinging on a cable above the audience at the Anaheim Stadium in ‘75. Things that make you raise one eyebrow and go, hmmm…

Paul Michael Magnan – Cobo Hall with Ted Nugent/Amboy Dukes. A guy climbed up the light scaffolding and took his clothes off and started dancing. As some security people started to climb up and get him, he came down near stage side and jumped into a crowd of women that were up front. Some guy cold cocked him and he was dragged away.

Scott VanderSchel – Jimmy Page with The Firm. He was very well loosened up on something. Smoking a cigarette the whole time, he would drool to the point where it would drip down and extinguish his smoke. A roadie would then promptly run out, light another and put it in his mouth.

Steve Lubbinge – I’ve seen The Butthole Surfers eight times. Thats all I need to say. Also, The Cows show at The Reptile House.

Joshua Duggan – I went to see The Potatoe Babies.

John Wenger – We saw this guy outside Deer Creek and probably other Grateful Dead shows cranking his guitar while weaving through the crowd on roller skates.

Jill Wylie Wenger – We were at a Grateful Dead concert at Deer Creek. We walked out of the venue and noticed a large cloud of gas in the lot. As we got closer we could see that the red shirts had confiscated multiple nitrous tanks. A large crowd were surrounding the shirts with the tanks. As the shirts released the gas into the air the crowd would lean in and breathe deeply. They kept trading out red shirts as at first the shirts were on the crabby side, as they stayed and breathed in the nitrous, they would start laughing and leaning on the tanks. It was quite the sight.

Dan Lynn – The Grateful Dead always set up speakers on the athletic field next to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley for folks without tickets to enjoy the show. There was a naked guy walking around saying, “I’m it. It’s me. I am the answer to my dreams,” and that he was Jesus. A friend and I hung out after the show to see what would happen. Turns out, the police were not happy about having Jesus preaching from the roof of their squad car, and he was yanked down pretty quickly. Years later, I found out that he spent the night in a psychiatric facility and was never arrested.

Kurt Schmiege – Billy Goat at the reptile house. The whole band and half the crowd got naked.

Darlene Cooper – My brother saw the Stones at Madison Square Gardens, the Sympathy for the Devil tour. He was returning from his Army stint in Germany. Guess it was some crazy concert. I don’t remember who was playing at the IMA in Flint, but people were passing a 4 foot long weed pipe around the floor seats. I think it might have been Spirit and Spooky Tooth. Early 70s. Made from a cardboard shipping tube, the bowl held an oz.

Jon Koeze – Iggy pop.

Lar Fitzgerald – The way The Dead controlled crowds. Witnessed from the second story in Cobo, Detroit. Dead would be grooving and the entire crowd would be sitting & grooving, then Dead would step up the tempo and the crowd, as one, be up & boogying, Dead would bring it down, and the entire crowd would sit and chill. I watched it happen the whole night, ultimate crowd communication/control! Never seen a band exercise such crowd control before or since! Also, two of Black Oak Arkansa’s guitar players smashing their guitars together over their heads at Bull Island Festival for their finale.

Marissa Postler – Maybe not that outrageous, but impressive and unexpected! I saw Young the Giant at Mo Pop years ago and they were playing in an amphitheater-style stage. All of a sudden the lead singer sees a guy with a frisbee standing way up at the top of the lawn seats, and he goes “throw it down here!” So the entire crowd goes silent and watches with anticipation as the guy carefully sets up his shot, and as he throws it the frisbee keeps looking like it’s going the wrong way and then curving back in, and as it gets closer and closer to the stage I’m thinking “oh shit is this actually gonna be close?” It finally makes its way to the edge of the stage, the lead singer dives for it, CATCHES IT, and the entire crowd goes absolutely NUTS like it’s the Super Bowl. I’m not a sports person AT ALL but in that one moment I was like “okay, I get it”

Copyright 2024, Spins on Music LLC