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Have You Ever Been Scared at a Gig?


Charles J. White

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I was at a Tea Party gig in Halifax back in 1994 shortly after Splendor Solis had been released, and they opened the show with The River and the entire audience started to push and shove people so violently, the audience was so pumped up for the show, that I actually was fearful for my life. It was the only gig I have been at where that feeling of fear came over me. And I actually walked to the back of the room and watched the gig from afar.

Have you ever been scared at a gig?

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I went to a Bone Thugs N Harmony gig back in the day (don't ask, long story) and this paraplegic girl sitting next to me whipped out a "potato bong" with a prodigious hooter hanging out one end and a hole in the other. She lit that thing up and the smell was unlike anything I ever smelt, a combination of rotting human flesh and shit. She looked over to me, passed it my way and asked if I wanted a hit. I got outta there fast, that girl was nuts! Than, everyone on stage lit up serious cigar sized hooters and smoked that shit all while leading the audience in a chorus of, "fuck tha police, lets smoke our chronic! Any po po come up in here gonna be cold real soon!!!" I am thinking any moment either the cops are gonna bust in batons waiving or all the gangstas gonna go all NWA on this crackers ass. Pretty soon that crazy paraplegic girl was looking like a safe haven so I cozied up to her and her dead flesh - shit potato bong. She turned out to be alright, never smoked her shit but she was cool with that. I snuck outta there quick like and thanked the gods I did not end up like an extra from Boyz in Da Hood.

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Many, scared I was going to get singled out by security, they used to pick people at random at the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, I seen many disturbing fights at concerts there, this was back in the 80's. You had to be very careful smoking/having weed, because they would hall you away fast. I seen so many fights start there between security guards and concert goers minding their own buissness, and it got bloody. It got to the point the audience would cheer when the security guards got beat up, because they were assholes, and they fucked alot of concert goers over. Only the few, the very brave, brought cameras and recording devices in....

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My very first concert was in March of 83', Motley Crue opening for Kiss for the Creatures of the Night tour. I was 15. My friend's dad knew a security guard at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, and he took us to the concert and got us in just before everyone else. First I just looked around and then he said "Hurry up, get to the front of the stage before everyone comes in". I didn't know what to expect, I had never smoked weed or anything yet. Little did I know I was going to be pushed up against the fence by thousands of freaky concert goers like a big orgy, people smoking weed, people getting chased by security whenever they seen a camera flash. fights etc.

It wasn't until I seen the security guards right in front of me putting two by four boards between the fence that I was being pressed against and the stage that I realized that if that fence collapsed I would get crushed into the stage, and that was frightening enough. I was a baptised that night into concert-going.That's how the concerts were back then, fun and crazy, Those were the days...

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^ I saw Rush there in 85' for Power Windows and the place was nuts! There was some 6' tall blonde, very well endowed woman in a gold lame' dress being escorted around the Coliseum before showtime. Every 10 min or so her and her "escort" would pop up in random locations. After about 40 min of this some guy dives straight for the goods and gets tossed by the escort off the second tier down to the floor seats. All hell breaks loose and security grabs the escort and beats the shit out of him. The girl was dragged out by her hair. The poor bastard who's impulses got the better of him was carted away on a stretcher. Ten minutes later the house lights went down, the concert started, and life was good.

Very weird scene.

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I went to see Patti Smith in @ 82. I was a long hair, afghan coat wearing freak. She was considered to be "Punk" and the support act were a skinhead type of hardcore punk band. The audience looked very heavy and I could feel the eyes of the skins/punks looking at me as I made my way to my seat. I really did feel very threatened. As the show progressed we all got into it and at the end of the night we were all dancing. Pheewww.

I had a few problems coming home from gigs. In the 70's Manchester was a heavy city at weekends and long hairs were a target of Skins, football thugs, disco and soul boys. I recall a hilarious evening coming back from a show. The train station in town meant you had to walk past a " Disco". Me and a few other long hairs were approaching a line of soul boys waiting to go in to the club. As they clocked us you could see a few wanted to "introduce" themselves. Brace yourselves guys because we could be in for a hiding. But then behind us some very large heavy rockers were following us. Needless to say their expression changed and they looked death in the face. Ha

I did get mugged coming back from an Ian Gillan show. The chavs took my money and my smoke and when I protested about how I was going to get back from town with no money, one of them asked " How much is the train fare?" When I told them, one of them gave me back enough money to get the train back !!! Weird

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Donnington 1988 , I went with two in a car . One was a quite lad who went missing , news came out that two people had been crushed to death at the front , It came to time to go and he did n;t turn up at the arranged spot , two hours went by and still no sign , we had to be at work next morning so we left without him , the other bloke only tipped over the car on the way home ,I woke up to find the car sliding on its , in a trance like state, and it turns out he had got a lift home straight after the gig

PJ Harvey Duchess Of York Pub Leeds ( year ?) I ate a eighth of slate and was paranoid all the rest of the gig , EVERBODY WAS WATCHING ME

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Donnington 1988 , I went with two in a car . One was a quite lad who went missing , news came out that two people had been crushed to death at the front , It came to time to go and he did n;t turn up at the arranged spot , two hours went by and still no sign , we had to be at work next morning so we left without him , the other bloke only tipped over the car on the way home ,I woke up to find the car sliding on its , in a trance like state, and it turns out he had got a lift home straight after the gig

PJ Harvey Duchess Of York Pub Leeds ( year ?) I ate a eighth of slate and was paranoid all the rest of the gig , EVERBODY WAS WATCHING ME

I always found slate being a tad dry. A brownie would have been palatable Wes?

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Mid-80's, I was second row for ACDC in Philly. There were no chairs so everybody was pushing forward and since it was so tight, fights kept breaking out around me. I was around 14 at the time. Also, I went to Woodstock 94 and we were right up front for the first act, Joe Cocker. After awhile I noticed how tight it was getting around us. I looked up the hill and saw 1000's of people coming in. I knew it was going to get much worse so we moved more to the back. Glad we did. We were so much more comfortable.

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Back in December of '83 or '84,I saw AC/DC @ Nassau Coliseum. Fastway opened up for them. It was the loudest show I had ever been to, I could feel all of my internal organs vibrating! It was a great show but,people were throwing M-80's around the coliseum. I was scared to death of having one of those go off next to or on me. Then during TNT while we were pumping our fists into the air, my friend punched a biker dude in the jaw( he looked like a monster) but was cool about it & said don't worry. I couldn't hear for two days after that show(just that buzzing sound). Nowdays I wear earplugs to shows.

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I saw a concert a few years back where The Hives were the opening act. Our seats were up in the nosebleed section, and the rows were extremely steep/narrow. They had some crazy strobe freaky lighting that completely obliterated (our view of) the floor and our feet; we felt like we were losing our balance and would fall (we were totally sober). Not to mention the music was (IMO) absolutely horrific with a super loud beat that went right through you (with the crazy flashing strobe lights). I love loud rock music but I'd never experienced anything quite like that before. :blink: I literally white-knuckled it through that entire show; you couldn't pay me to sit through one of their shows again.

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I once went to a gig and this guy was standing right in front of me, I mean practically on me and he was going mental at the music, singing, waving and dancing while practically staring right down my throat (or soul), a true space invader and I couldn't pull back 'cos it was so crowded....swear to God I couldn't breathe or escape and I'm not normally claustrophobic

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Circa 1978 at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Minnesota, USA, Alice Cooper concert, some one released a canister of CS Gas (tear gas) under the bleachers at the beginning of Cooper's encore of Schools Out. It had all the makings of a bad trip but somehow every body got out alive and there were only a few minor injuries. The worst of which was probably to Alice's ego that night. He was yelling 'fuch you Saint Paul you suck' and the like because it seems that he may have thought that it was some type of conspiracy among the entire west side of the arena to cut him down or something by leaving early, during his encore at that! Cooper was still heavy into drinking (and drugging?) in the late 70s I believe so that probably didn't help with his paranoid thinking. I remember looking to the stage on my way down the stairs heading to exit and seeing tow handlers trying to wrap Cooper up in a blanket but he wanted to continue telling St. Paul how bad we sucked. Who could blame him? That night St. Paul really did suck when I think about it.

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Back in December of '83 or '84,I saw AC/DC @ Nassau Coliseum. Fastway opened up for them. It was the loudest show I had ever been to, I could feel all of my internal organs vibrating! It was a great show but,people were throwing M-80's around the coliseum. I was scared to death of having one of those go off next to or on me. Then during TNT while we were pumping our fists into the air, my friend punched a biker dude in the jaw( he looked like a monster) but was cool about it & said don't worry. I couldn't hear for two days after that show(just that buzzing sound). Nowdays I wear earplugs to shows.

I saw them about that time too at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. My friend Anthony was dragging me right to the front and I just stopped in my tracks and he faded into the crowd. I went way up top to the back as I didn't want my ears blasted out by them OR the cannon's they were firing. We met up later at my truck. I wasn't really scared there but in the late 60's also in SF's Golden Gate Park they always had free concerts on the weekends. Me and my brother Larry were behind the stage along with probably a thousand other people and all of a sudden the people started coming at us just like an ocean wave and we lit out with the rest of them as we couldn't figure out what was happening. Come to find the Hells Angels beat this guy up and everyone was just trying to get out of the way. But what a freaky sight to see the people all move like that.

Another time at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, CA me and another friend were sitting just above the field watching ZZ Top and there were these roving assholes going around the stadium just looking to fight someone. I was in my biker garb and the people around me were asking me to pretty much protect them from these assholes. One tried to get a rise out my buddy but he wasn't going to go to jail for that jackass. I came this close to knocking that bastard over the railing down to the field.

But in all the times I'd been to the Fillmore, Avalon, Winterland and Fillmore West there was never any trouble makers like I saw that night.

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The late 70's,saw heart and was the very top row,was a little out of it and fell down the stairs..saw headeast about this time,got caught with pot and was sent to the jail...geez

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Late 70's George Thorogood & the Destroyers.....known to have a rowdy biker crowd...( unbeknownst to me at the time..) So I had coerced a friend into going with me as I didn't want to go alone...problem was it was a small club and she was a year away from legal club age. She got some fake ID and in we went. We found ourselves a pretty good spot close to the front of the stage and about halfway thru the set this guy walks up from behind me and clocks the guy in front of me in the side of the face, then turns around and walks back behind me. The "clocked" dude turns around sees the guy behind me and the next thing I know fists are flying all around the side of my head and I'm stuck in the middle of this brawl. My friend is freaking out that we are going to get thrown out...people are backing up and I see George Thorogood ( he is seated playing..) eyeballing this little brawl yet continuing to play on...( thx George...) . Bouncers descend upon us and hands and arms are pulling us all apart....my friend is yelling " she didn't do anything she was stuck in the middle!!!" and thankfully al ot of people came forward and explained that I had indeed been caught in the middle...( and luckily NOT hit..) the other 2 guys were thrown out of the club.... First and last time I saw George Thorogood....

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Twice. Both ocurred shortly after the tragedy when the Who played in Cincinatti. Went to see Pink Floyd at Nassau Coliseum in February. The show was sold out. The outside of the arena was completely packed and it was cold out. For a place that seats around 15,000 or so, they only had 2 doors open. Every one was pushing in, it was ridiculous. Total stupidity on the part of management of that place. It's amazing no one was hurt.

A few months after that, went to a show at Asbury Park, NJ at the old Casino. General Admission. Commander Cody and Climax Blues Band. Smaller venue, probably held about 2,000. But, same thing -one door to get in for the late show and of course everyone was pushing since the show was starting later than it was supposed to. There was so much pushing that a few people in front of me passed out. Almost everyone was actually lifted into the air with all the pushing that was going on. Scary, but the show was great. Cody was great, and Climax Blues band was incredible.

Also had a bit of a scare seeing Aerosmith and Black Sabbath at Madison Square Garden. People were throwing fireworks all over the place, and the concert was in December. ARound the time Sabbath released Sabotage and I think Aerosmith had just released Toys in the Attic around that time.

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Anybody at the Altamont gig in 1969? I wasn't there but dang that sure looked scary!

Luckily I missed that one even though I was in SF at the time. I'd seen enough of the Hells Angels antics by then.

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