Whoa! I think I wish I could have seen that. What did they go to the concert for - just to have fun?
I was at a concert once and we booed the 1st act off. They were 'It's A beautiful Day' and only had one hit - 'White Bird'. After that, it went way downhill. We just stood around after they left until the main act came on.
Yup...saw (and participated in) in booing Lover Boy off the stage back in '80 or so.
For some insane reason, they were booked to open for ZZ Top (Deguelos had just come out, IIRC). Not exactly a pair of bands the compliment one another, or share much in terms of a fan base.
Anyone who throws crap at the stage should forfeit the privilege of ever attending any performance. There is no excuse for that, no matter who awful the act is.
Certainly in agreement there, Mike. If booing doesn't get it done, take a walk and get a hot dog or something. Then again, booing in and of itself is pretty rude, but I guess if a performance truly sucked.....
On a semi related tangent, this month on DirecTV, they are playing a SRV "Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival" concert from '85 or so. While I am a pretty big SRV fan, I didn't know that this was his second appearance there....the first performance 3 years prior was met with a chorus of boos.
Apparently they were booked during the same day as a 100% acoustic program....and the folkies that were there just did not appreciate SRV cranking the Stat through a wall of amps. There were clips shown of that performance, and it was vintage SRV...nothing wrong at all, but the audience was just not digging it.
But they finished the set, although they were pretty demoralized afterwards. But on a positive note, when they walked from the stage, they got word that David Bowie wanted to meet Stevie, describing him as the greatest urban blues player he had ever seen. So, there was a positive outcome, inspite of the boos and whistles.
Can't believe anyone would boo It's A Beautiful Day... unless they were opening for P-Diddy or something similar... IABD played great shows... well, 30 years ago anyway.
I remember a Bill Graham Fillmore (Winterland, actually) show from '70 or thereabouts... typically eclectic; from headliner down it was The Doors, Cold Blood, Commander Cody, and Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw... midway thru Kershaw's set, some idiot lobbed a tomato or egg at DK, hitting him square in the face... DK walked off, understandably... Graham came onstage and proceeded to give the entire Winterland audience the lecture of a lifetime, brimming with 4-letter words... thought for sure he was gonna send us all home... seems the rant went on for at least a quarter hour, when, amazingly, Kershaw came back on and asked BG if he could continue his set... which he did -- with intense fire -- to a hero's welcome.
Seems it was inspirational... each following act played harder and harder... I won't ever forget that show.
"the first performance 3 years prior was met with a chorus of boos." Yea I've got that CD and you can REALLY here the crowd booh during several songs and between songs. I guess the people of Switzerland didn't get it. Took me 2 minutes to get SRV when I heard him for the first time. 3 years later they seemed to have gotten their heads out of there.....well you know. They cheered like no other during this second tour.
I remember it well...I was channel surfing one Saturday afternoon back in early 80's, and not really paying much attention. But I stopped dead when I hit a channel where it sounded like someone was playing Hendrix. Live. And incredibly well.
It was SRV on ACL, ripping through Voodoo Chile.
Stunning. Incredible. awesome. Who the f*ck is this????? I need to buy this guys records (yes, records, NOT cee-dees at the time) NOW.
His live shows were not always top shelf, but those folks that boo'd him must feel like dolts now. They were in the presence of genious, and did not have a clue.
Anyone who throws objects at the stage should be arrested, period.
From the stage, there is no way to see something hurtling towards you, and you can sustain injury to yourself or your equipment from these objects. Bottles can kill you if they hit you in the head. It is no laughing matter.
My favorite "boo" at a concert setting came through Waylon Jennings; who showed up on stage so drunk he fell over twice in Austin Texas. After he failed to get through his second number, the fans began to chant and boo until his band was forced off stage.. and he was the lead act! (this was I think 1983 or so)
I agree that booing at concerts is rude, but I do find it perversely funny sometimes. Having seen many, many concerts over the years, I've been privy to several such incidents, and it's almost always directed towards bands on ill-conceived double bills, or for opening groups. Some notable ones off the top of my head:
Guns N Roses opening for The Cult (this was a couple years before Appetite) Alice in Chains opening for Van Halen (this was before grunge had really hit; ironically after Staley reprimanded us for being "the worst fuckin' audience they'd ever played for" the crowd went crazy with applause) Loverboy opening for Halen (no explanation needed)
Voicing some displeasure is one thing, but bottles of piss is another story...
IMO, booing is maybe "appropriate" when the band is doing something other than earnestly performing their music. If they're too wasted to play, if they can't get through their songs, if they insult the audience, then yeah, I understand. But if they're seriously performing and you just don't like what they're playing (opening band, not a set list you would have preferred, etc), I hate booing. Any performer doing their thing for real deserves at least that much respect, even if their thing is lame.
The concept of filling a bottle with urine and hurling it is genuinely confounding. The idea the people can expend that much effort and care just to behave like jackasses is amazing.