Sure, here are a few more concerts that were ruined by poor decisions, whether by organizers, performers, or the audience:
1. **Altamont Free Concert (1969)** - Headlined by The Rolling Stones, this concert is infamous for the violent atmosphere and the stabbing death of a concert-goer by a member of the Hells Angels, who were hired as security.
2. **Woodstock '99** - A stark contrast to the original Woodstock, this festival was marred by extreme heat, overpriced water, poor sanitation, and violent outbreaks, culminating in riots, sexual assaults, and fires.
3. **Guns N' Roses & Metallica (Montreal, 1992)** - This concert ended in a riot after James Hetfield of Metallica was injured by a pyrotechnics explosion and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses cut their set short due to vocal issues, leading to angry fans causing significant damage.
4. **Fyre Festival (2017)** - Marketed as a luxurious music festival in the Bahamas, it turned into a disaster with inadequate accommodations, lack of food and water, and ultimately led to the arrest of the organizer for fraud.
5. **Justin Bieber (Oslo, 2015)** - The singer walked off stage after performing only one song, frustrated by fans who were spilling water near the stage, leading to disappointed and angry attendees.
6. **Amy Winehouse (Belgrade, 2011)** - In what was meant to be her comeback tour, Winehouse appeared intoxicated and unable to perform properly, which resulted in boos and her eventually canceling the tour.
Feel free to add these examples to your list!
1. **Altamont Free Concert (1969)** - Headlined by The Rolling Stones, this concert is infamous for the violent atmosphere and the stabbing death of a concert-goer by a member of the Hells Angels, who were hired as security.
2. **Woodstock '99** - A stark contrast to the original Woodstock, this festival was marred by extreme heat, overpriced water, poor sanitation, and violent outbreaks, culminating in riots, sexual assaults, and fires.
3. **Guns N' Roses & Metallica (Montreal, 1992)** - This concert ended in a riot after James Hetfield of Metallica was injured by a pyrotechnics explosion and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses cut their set short due to vocal issues, leading to angry fans causing significant damage.
4. **Fyre Festival (2017)** - Marketed as a luxurious music festival in the Bahamas, it turned into a disaster with inadequate accommodations, lack of food and water, and ultimately led to the arrest of the organizer for fraud.
5. **Justin Bieber (Oslo, 2015)** - The singer walked off stage after performing only one song, frustrated by fans who were spilling water near the stage, leading to disappointed and angry attendees.
6. **Amy Winehouse (Belgrade, 2011)** - In what was meant to be her comeback tour, Winehouse appeared intoxicated and unable to perform properly, which resulted in boos and her eventually canceling the tour.
Feel free to add these examples to your list!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Alright, I got a little question, Woodstock.
00:07Why?
00:09Why you gotta be like that?
00:11Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:13And today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 concerts ruined by morons.
00:18Twitterverse is blasting Kanye West after apparently he stopped his concert
00:22and seemed to single out two fans who weren't standing up.
00:26One of them was in a wheelchair.
00:28For this list we'll be looking at concerts that ended up going horribly wrong
00:32because of someone's poor choices.
00:34Whether it was the organizers, the audience, or the performers themselves.
00:39Do you know of any other disastrous concerts ruined by foolish decisions?
00:43If so, please tell us in the comments section.
00:48If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below.
00:59Number 20. The Who, Ohio, US, 1979.
01:06Thousands of fans stood for hours outside the Riverfront Coliseum in Ohio
01:11waiting to attend a concert by the legendary British rock group, The Who.
01:15They're coming to Cincinnati and the second we heard about it,
01:18I couldn't wait to get tickets.
01:20That was cause for so many people, just to have a ticket was a coveted commodity.
01:25It was huge, right?
01:26It was big time.
01:27It just didn't get any bigger than that.
01:29When the doors opened, there was a stampede, which became a crushing melee
01:34as some people tried to escape while others pushed back
01:37or even climbed over those on the floor.
01:40By the time order was restored, many people were injured and 11 killed.
01:45In most cases, they had been trampled and unable to breathe.
01:49Why did this concert become lethal?
01:51Of the 16 doors, according to Rolling Stone magazine, on the west side of the building,
01:56news and police reports say only 2 to 4 were opened,
02:01with thousands waiting to stream through.
02:04It sounds crazy, but the problem seems to have been a lack of reserved seating.
02:09People were so desperate to get a good seat that they rushed in,
02:12unaware of the danger, until it was too late.
02:16Number 19. Mother of Invention, Geneva, Switzerland, 1971.
02:23This might be the only entry on this list where,
02:26although a concert was certainly ruined, something good came of it.
02:30In 1971, Frank Zappa's band, Mother of Invention,
02:34was performing at the magnificent Mantra Casino in Switzerland.
02:38When he played live, it was with a band who could perform both complicated instrumentals
02:42and salacious songs with driving rhythms.
02:46Midway through their set, a fire broke out in the hall.
02:49It's a little unclear how it started, but everyone seems to agree
02:52that a young moron in the audience was responsible.
03:04Fortunately, Zappa quickly saw the danger and got everyone to evacuate.
03:08So although the historic venue was destroyed, no one got hurt.
03:12Another band, Deep Purple, happened to be nearby,
03:15and witnessing the fire inspired them to write their iconic rock ballad,
03:18Smoke on the Water.
03:20Number 18. Curtis Mayfield, New York, US, 1990.
03:26Curtis Mayfield was a singer and songwriter whose music ranged from
03:30soulful love ballads to movie scores to calls for social change.
03:45And reflected the promise of Martin Luther King
03:48and other crusaders for peaceful change.
03:51But his live performance career ended tragically at a concert in Brooklyn,
03:55when he was only 48.
03:57The weather was ominous, with strong winds and approaching thunderstorms.
04:01However, the sponsor of the show was reluctant to cancel,
04:05since there were already thousands of people in the audience.
04:08The opening act was cut short and Mayfield was brought on,
04:11hoping to beat the weather.
04:13Just as he stepped on stage, a gust of wind brought down a heavy metal rig overhead,
04:18and a stage light struck Mayfield.
04:20The wind was just kicking up.
04:22The wind just came in like unbelievable.
04:25It just came in, and everything just started to rock.
04:28Curtis was facing the audience, and it just came down.
04:34He survived, but would be paralyzed for the rest of his life.
04:38Number 17. Kanye West
04:41Sydney, Australia, 2014
04:44Chances are, you've already heard of some controversial incident involving the rapper Kanye West,
04:50now known as Ye.
04:51He's made a number of statements that others found offensive.
04:55The fallout continues for Ye,
04:57formerly known as Kanye West,
04:59whose recent anti-Semitic comments have caused public outrage.
05:03However, it's unusual for him to make them during concerts.
05:07Back in 2014 at an event in Sydney, Australia,
05:10Ye demanded that everyone in the audience get up and dance.
05:14Two people didn't.
05:15A long awkward pause ensued as Ye complained and audience members booed.
05:20But the holdouts still didn't stand.
05:22That was because they couldn't.
05:24Both people had physical disabilities.
05:27The other fan pointed out that, hey, I have a prosthetic limb.
05:31This was at a concert over the weekend in Sydney, Australia,
05:34as reps have not said anything about the incident.
05:37Once Ye realized this, he continued the concert.
05:40However, it seems reasonable to wonder why the rapper didn't do that to begin with,
05:45rather than embarrassing two fans who just wanted to watch the show.
05:49Number 16. Kid Rock
05:52North Dakota, US, 2022
05:55Actually, it's a bit of a misnomer to call this a Kid Rock concert,
05:59but that's what it was supposed to be.
06:02The country rock singer was scheduled to perform at the North Dakota State Fair,
06:06with nearly 20,000 people in attendance.
06:09Unfortunately, dangerous weather conditions were brewing nearby.
06:13For safety reasons, officials decided to cancel the show.
06:16But they took a long time to decide.
06:19So for over two hours, the opening act, a rock group called Night Ranger,
06:23strove heroically to keep fans engaged,
06:26while everyone waited for Kid Rock to appear.
06:29When officials finally announced that he wasn't coming,
06:32the outraged audience responded by yelling, throwing objects,
06:35and even climbing on stage,
06:38which led to some fans being removed by police.
06:49Number 15. Philadelphia Orchestra
06:52Pennsylvania, US, 2023
06:55Classical music concerts get ruined by morons, too.
06:58And one of the interruptions musicians hate most
07:01is a cell phone ringing during a piece.
07:12Despite announcements made before every concert reminding people
07:15to silence their phones, somehow, it still happens.
07:18And for maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin
07:21of the Philadelphia Orchestra,
07:24two times in one performance was too many.
07:27Ordinarily, the Canadian conductor will stop the orchestra
07:30and wait for quiet, then continue,
07:33trying to maintain the continuity of the work.
07:47But in early May of 2023,
07:50after Bruckner's Ninth Symphony was interrupted twice by cell phones
07:53in the span of just a few minutes,
07:56the exasperated maestro turned around and demanded,
07:59can we live without the phone for just one damn hour?
08:03Number 14. Kings of Leon
08:06Missouri, US, 2010
08:09When rock band Kings of Leon came for a July concert
08:12at the Verizon Amphitheater in Missouri,
08:15venue managers confessed they had been having some problems
08:18with a pigeon infestation. Even with this warning, however,
08:21no one was prepared for the horrors in store.
08:27But the band's bass guitarist said he was hit by pigeons
08:30on each of the first three songs.
08:33By the end of the show, I would have been covered from head to toe.
08:36Two other bands performed first, and the members of Kings of Leon
08:39were alarmed to see their fellow musicians return from the stage
08:42looking haggard and streaked with pigeon droppings.
08:45But they didn't want to back out at the last minute,
08:48so they gamely came on and attempted to play their set.
08:51They made it through three songs
08:54before the bass player got hit in the face with bird dung,
08:57and they decided to call it quits.
09:00Ever since then when we would play a Kings of Leon song,
09:03people on, people, our listeners are saying, you know,
09:06the heck with them, or worse language.
09:09Number 13. Aerosmith
09:12Pennsylvania, US, 1977-1978
09:15Why are there two dates for this entry?
09:18You might be wondering. Well, the events are connected.
09:21Both involved Aerosmith.
09:24Both took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
09:27And both involved morons.
09:30People getting faced before they go to the show.
09:33I don't think you can blame it on
09:36the type of music they're doing or
09:39anything in particular.
09:42In October of 1997, Aerosmith were coming on stage
09:45for an encore at the Spectrum Arena
09:48and the audience threw a cherry bomb,
09:51a small but powerful firecracker, at them.
09:54Two band members were seriously injured
09:57and the group was understandably upset.
10:00However, a year later, they decided to give Philadelphia another chance.
10:07It didn't go well.
10:10About 20 minutes into the concert,
10:13somebody threw a beer bottle,
10:17the band quickly departed
10:20and would not return to the city for another four years.
10:23Number 12. Smash Mouth
10:26Colorado, US, 2015
10:29You may be wondering, why was
10:32bread involved in a concert?
10:35Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
10:38I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
10:41Well, the concert was being held
10:44at a food festival in Colorado
10:47and unfortunately, a vendor had decided to give out free loaves of bread.
10:50That's right, loaves.
10:53Drunk audience members started throwing slices of bread everywhere
10:56and some landed on the stage.
10:59Smash Mouth's lead singer Steve Harwell went berserk
11:02right as the band was playing the introduction to All Star.
11:05Come on, somebody throw one more thing at me
11:08right now and I'm gonna find you out
11:11While the band kept repeating itself,
11:14hoping for the song to start,
11:17Harwell shouted curses and threats at the bread throwers.
11:20Finally fed up, he headed down into the crowd
11:23presumably to administer a beating to several audience members.
11:26Thankfully, however, he was stopped by event security.
11:2911. Callejeros
11:32Buenos Aires, Argentina
11:352004
11:38One terrible night in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
11:41the República de Cromañón Club was packed with fans
11:44who came to see the rock band Callejeros.
11:47Around 4,000 fans,
11:50which was more than double the length of the band's first tour.
11:53The crowd was packed,
11:57which was more than double the legal limit.
12:10Someone in the crowd lit a flare and the ceiling caught fire.
12:13As everyone tried to flee, they found that
12:16most of the exit doors were locked.
12:19By the end of the night, over 100 people were dead
12:22and hundreds more critically injured.
12:25One fan complained that he locked the doors
12:28to prevent people from coming in without paying,
12:31which seems like a weak excuse
12:34considering how overcrowded the club already was.
12:40He and several officials involved
12:43were later sentenced to imprisonment.
12:4610. The Rolling Stones
12:49California, US, 1969
12:52The Rolling Stones wanted to finish their 1969 tour
12:55with a free concert in California
12:58and they had the Grateful Dead handle the details.
13:01The venue was the Altamont Speedway.
13:04The music would include the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane
13:07and, of course, the Stones.
13:10And security would be provided by the Hells Angels, paid in beer.
13:13As you can probably guess,
13:16that last part was the problem.
13:19First, the Angels got into a fight
13:22with members of Jefferson Airplane,
13:25causing the Grateful Dead to leave altogether.
13:28But the worst was yet to come.
13:31During the Rolling Stones' performance,
13:34a young man in the crowd was fatally stabbed by a Hells Angel,
13:37making a dark end of this disastrous affair.
13:439. Britney Spears
13:46Vancouver, Canada, 2009
14:04At a concert in Vancouver,
14:07about 15 minutes into her set,
14:11the audience was left waiting in the dark, confused.
14:14Someone made an announcement that the show would begin again
14:17when the stage was cleared of smoke,
14:20and everyone was reminded that it is a non-smoking building.
14:28About half an hour passed, hearing which hockey intermission music
14:31played over the speakers, presumably intended to be soothing,
14:34but apparently somewhat annoying.
14:37The audience returned and began to sing,
14:40but then, toward the end of a song,
14:43she abruptly left the stage again.
14:46When she came back for the last time,
14:49her parting advice to the frustrated audience was,
14:52don't smoke weed.
14:558. Nickelback
14:58Ilha do Airmal, Portugal, 2002
15:01In 2002, while playing a set in Portugal,
15:04the audience was belted with rocks and bottles from the crowd.
15:10No one really knows why, but given their behavior,
15:13it seems like most of the audience came to see a concert
15:16by a band they hated.
15:19After weathering two songs under this barrage of hard objects,
15:22lead singer Chad Kruger asked the crowd a pointed question.
15:28When he was answered with a bottle to the back of the head,
15:31Kruger and the rest of the band simply left the stage,
15:34though not without directing a couple of middle fingers towards the audience.
15:437. Justin Bieber
15:46Manchester, United Kingdom, 2016
15:49Normally, screams from the audience at a concert are a good thing,
15:52but maybe not so much when you're trying to deliver
15:55an impassioned speech about everyone's purpose in life.
16:01A little trite, perhaps,
16:04but hardly worth screaming at.
16:07However, Justin Bieber had to plead with the audience members
16:10to stop yelling and making noise during his talk
16:13at a concert in Manchester, England.
16:16When the screaming still didn't stop,
16:19Bieber angrily stormed off stage.
16:26Apparently, this is not a new issue.
16:29As Bieber has told British fans in the past to shut up
16:32and be quiet and listen.
16:35Bieber did eventually return to perform,
16:38but claimed the Manchester audience couldn't handle him.
16:456. Limp Bizkit
16:48New York, US, 1999
16:51Let's start off by saying there were a lot of poor choices
16:54made by people involved in Woodstock 1999.
17:00No one band is to blame for the assaults,
17:03damage and chaos that occurred.
17:06However, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit definitely made one of the worst
17:09decisions of the event when he told an already revved up
17:12crowd to start breaking things.
17:15Many people took him at his word, tearing apart sound towers
17:18and crowd surfing on the metal pieces.
17:22You've been saving your energy. This is the time to let it out.
17:25Medical tents were swamped with people
17:28who got injured in the mosh pit.
17:31By the time the band actually started playing break stuff,
17:34the crowd was way ahead of them.
17:37It's just one of those days.
17:40The festival later ended with riots and a huge fire.
17:435. Nirvana
17:46Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1992
17:50For a 1992 concert in Buenos Aires,
17:53Nirvana hired an all-female band called Calamity Jane
17:56to be their opening act. The audience treated them horribly,
17:59shouting obscenities and throwing mud and rocks
18:02until they left the stage in despair.
18:05I think lighters, lots of dirt, I don't know.
18:08Dirt and peso or money. Lots of spit.
18:11Lots of spit on Gilly, unfortunately.
18:14A whole circle of spit.
18:17Kurt Cobain wanted to cancel the show,
18:20but instead, Nirvana decided to give the audience a taste of their own medicine.
18:29They played unfamiliar, experimental songs
18:32that hadn't been released yet, and to top it off,
18:35before every number, Kurt Cobain would play
18:38the introduction of Smells Like Teen Spirit,
18:41but then segue into a different song.
18:47Whether the crowd knew it or not,
18:50their rudeness led to one of the most unusual concerts
18:53Nirvana has ever given.
18:564. Metallica & Guns N' Roses
18:59Montreal, Canada, 1992
19:02This disastrous concert began with Metallica's
19:05James Hetfield getting horribly burned
19:08by his own pyrotechnic.
19:11He was shot in the back of the head,
19:14There was an incident with the pyrotechnics.
19:17Unfortunately, James is on his way to the hospital right now
19:20and we're very sorry, but we can't continue the concert.
19:23Then, the audience had to wait over two hours
19:26for the famously unpunctual Guns N' Roses to show up.
19:29Unfortunately, frontman Axl Rose
19:32had been having vocal problems throughout the tour.
19:35And whether it was due to this, or problems with feedback in the building,
19:38the concert was canceled.
19:41Guns N' Roses also left the stage after only a few songs.
19:44We had just stopped the tour because I had throat problems.
19:47Came back and I realized, I'm going to hurt myself.
19:50I told Slash, two more songs.
19:53If we can't get it fixed, I gotta go.
19:56The audience went mad with rage,
19:59rioting and looting until they were finally subdued by Montreal police.
20:02That's when all hell broke loose.
20:05The kids start freaking.
20:08Turned over cop cars, fighting the police,
20:11burning everything in sight.
20:14People just storming into the grandstands and destroying everything.
20:17Several people were injured and Guns N' Roses
20:20ended up being banned from Montreal's Olympic Stadium for life.
20:23Number 3. Travis Scott
20:26Texas, US, 2021
20:29One of the worst things about this recent tragic event
20:32is that in hindsight, it seems easily preventable.
20:35At 9 o'clock in the morning,
20:38a security breach let thousands of unregistered fans into the stadium.
20:41An activity log from the Houston Fire Department
20:44noted trouble throughout the day, including 54 patients
20:47being treated by medical staff before 4 p.m.
20:50and dangerous crowd conditions throughout the afternoon.
20:53By the afternoon, there were hundreds of reported injuries
20:56and the Houston police described dangerous crowd conditions.
20:59Then, when Travis Scott came on stage at 9 p.m.,
21:02audience members made a mad rush toward the front,
21:05trampling everyone in their path.
21:08Those at the front of the crowd were being pushed up against this security barrier.
21:11Because of all the lights and noise, Scott himself claims
21:14he was unaware of what was going on.
21:17By the time it was over, 8 people were dead.
21:20Exactly who was responsible for this tragedy is hard to say.
21:23But clearly, the event should have been stopped before that point.
21:26The show ends around 10.12 with Scott closing it out.
21:29Running about 72 minutes in all
21:32and continuing about 42 minutes after police first reported
21:35that multiple people had been trampled.
21:43This was a highly promoted concert series that just didn't happen.
21:46Fire Festival was billed as a glamorous vacation
21:49on a remote island in the Bahamas
21:52with lots of music, food and fun.
22:00This was not exactly what the guests found when they arrived.
22:03First, their luggage was dumped out of a shipping crate in the dark.
22:06Next, they got a meal consisting of bread, cheese and a small salad.
22:09There was a tense city for sleeping accommodations.
22:12Craziness going on everywhere.
22:15Nobody knows what to do.
22:18All the resorts nearby are sold out.
22:21It's an actual disaster.
22:24No concerts ever occurred.
22:28The organizer, Billy McFarland, had scammed everyone who bought tickets.
22:31Not to mention hundreds of island workers
22:34who had devoted their time and money into preparing for the event.
22:37Some locals in Exuma who provided the festival with services
22:40are still owed more than $100,000 by the festival's organizers.
22:43More like a dumpster fire than a festival.
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23:03Number 1. Great White
23:06Rhode Island, US, 2003
23:09This is another tragic event where one can't help feeling amazed
23:12at the poor planning involved.
23:15In 2003, the band Great White was playing
23:18at the Station Nightclub in Rhode Island.
23:21The club was a small, single-story wooden building.
23:24It had no lighting system and didn't have a license for pyrotechnics or firework displays.
23:27Just seconds into their first number,
23:30the road manager set off a pyrotechnic fire near the stage,
23:33which ignited soundproofing foam in the walls and ceiling.
23:36Ironically, the man taking these pictures was shooting a video
23:39about safety at pop venues.
23:42In a matter of minutes, it grew into a deadly blaze
23:45that claimed the lives of 100 people and injured far more.
23:48Setting off fireworks in a small indoor space may seem unwise enough.
23:52However, it was revealed later that the club
23:55was also crowded beyond capacity and had no sprinkler system.
24:05If you're a fan of the song playing right now,
24:08be sure to check out the music video for it right here.
24:21.