This article from NME set me off to thinking about admiration by projectile and how some handle being a target.  I’m sure it’s hard enough playing and performing in front of thousands of inebriated fans without having to dodge the occasional trucker bomb.  It does have the potential of causing serious injury.  Take a look at these pictures of David Bowie getting a lollipop in the eye.  I still shudder when looking at it.  But Bowie being the consummate pro, continued the show.  I’m sure he’s been hit with a few bits of detritus in his time on stage and this was just another asshole ticket holder trying to be part of the show.  Some bands are a little more sensitive. 

My first experience seeing show stopping debris was at a 1982Van Halen concert at The Centrum(DCU Center).  David Lee Roth stopped the show to announce someone had hit him with a penny.  But it was ok because he had seen who did it and after the show he was going to, “fuck his girlfriend”.  I later learned this was a planned part of the show, but it was hilarious!  Many years later i was at a DLR show at the Palladium in Worcester and right at the start, my drunk wife hurled a full whiskey and ginger on the rocks at the stage.  The cup fell way short of the mark but created a trail of pissed concert goers turning and looking at me and not my wife who immediately went back to the bar.  Am glad it didn’t make the stage or I would have had a date with Diamond Dave after the show.

I remember seeing the Smashing Pumpkins at William And Mary in Virginia in 1993.  Darcy Wretzky was hit in the face with a roll of toilet paper and immeditely walked off stage.  Luckily for us it was near the end of the show.

At the 94 Reading Festival, Jesus Lizard singer David Yau caught a Carlesberg tall-boy right side up and polished off the contents of the can before hurling it back into the unwashed masses.  He and the band played through.

At a Rollins Band show in Richmond, VA a boot hit the bass player in the face and knocked him on his ass.  An irate Henry Rollins invited the fucker on stage to take a beating.  Then instructed the crowd to find the guy with one boot on and pound his face in.  In the words of Austin Powers, “Who throws a shoe, I mean really?”

It was a sneaker that stopped a Blues Traveler show in Chapel Hill, NC.  It struck a hefty John Popper in the chest.  The band stopped on a dime and Mr. Popper politely explained how dangerous that was and asked nicely not to throw anything at the stage.  The band then started from  the precise point they stopped.

There have been numerous hardcore shows where projectiles of all sorts including human beings have failed to stop the band from plowing forward.  During a Red Hot Chili Peppers show at the late great Channel in Boston, there was so much phlegm being spit on stage that the band was slipping and falling and Anthony Keidis had it dripping off of his nose as he sang.  They never stopped.  Later on at Lollapalooza 92, while I was watching the Chilis, I was struck by an Evian bottle filled with what looked and smelled like urine.  I was already covered with Mud so I shrugged it off.

As someone who has been in a band and been hit with an array of projectiles(best ever was a full purse, which we rifled through on stage, good times), if the band can still play without injury, they should.  Aside from the few who need to contribute their unwanted gestures, the majority of people paid to get in and just want to have a good time.  The perpetrators should be apprehended and made part of the show.  A flailing on stage by the band would be a memorable experience.  But the show must go on.  I’ve also seen a few shows where the band couldn’t continue due to their own pre-show indulgences.(Hello Steven Tyler, Sean Morgan, Axl Rose, Black Crowes)  To me that’s worse.  That’s just these guys telling the fans they don’t give a shit about how much you payed to get in or how many albums you bought.   The footage of  My Chemical Romance in the NME article is a great example.  They may not be your favorite band, but they toughed it out during a hailstorm of rocks and shit and didn’t give the crowd the satisfaction. 

Please share any experiences you have had witnessing Rock Show target practice.  And in the future, please just try to sing along instead of launching a overpriced beverage at the stage.