I'm just thinking out loud here but weird or dangerous situations seem to be happening to touring bands with increasing frequency...or do they just get more media attention these days?
I think back to The Beatles touring the South after John's "Jesus" comment (taken out of context; save your comments about that and don't derail me)...there was real concern that he would be shot onstage, and when a firecracker went off at a show George said he looked over to see if John was shot.
Not a digression but a foundation for my thinking here. We also had the club shooting in France at the Eagles Of Death Metal show, that horrible mass shooting in Vegas, the assassination of Dimebag onstage, and so on.
These days we constantly hear about these insane things happening at concerts...people somehow getting past security to get onstage (forgive me for not being able to cite particulars here but l recall that it has happened with many big names in the past few years). Somebody throwing their mother's ashes onstage at Pink, and just yesterday someone shot a laser pointer into Nick Jonas' eyes onstage, and he walked off.
For context l am a child of the 70s and saw Pat Travers get hit in the face with a gallon jug of piss (Georgia Jam, man), saw Nugent stop a show until someone was handed up who threw something at him, etc, and just read in a Peart book about Geddy being stunned for a couple of minutes after taking a Zippo to the forehead..not to mention Zappa being attacked onstage and almost killed.
In the 90s l was a nobody in a nobody band and l was accosted by a guy because his girlfriend talked to me.
So, this is behavior (not the murdering) that has been going on as long as live music has, l suppose. I equate these fuckheads with what are *commonly* now known as "tourons", who routinely desecrate places like the Colusseum, wildlife areas in Yellowstone, or decide they want to pet a bison.
And again to tie this back to bands that have to tour now to make any money, are these "tourons" becoming more of a feature now, or are we just hearing about every instance now because *everything* is instantly reported?
As far as l know this isn't an issue with progressive bands, or is it, and like all things prog, we don't hear about it?
Frankly people are just fucking crazy now and if l was a musician in a large theater- or arena level band l would be legitimately frightened. This is probably stupid and alarmist thinking, or is it? Remember when we crusters used to go to shows and get a once-over for bottles and such? What do they do now? The only big concert l have been to in 15 years was Genesis, and l didn't even get a pat-down. Do they have metal detectors at big concerts?
I am a pattern seeking animal and l think l am seeing one here that is gonna lead to something bad. Or do I? Are there just the base level idiots out there like there has always been, or is there a complacency out there that isn't considering the possibility of something tragic eventually occurring? And is that freedom for the musicians and audience just the price of admission?
Bookmarks