Most Memorable, Dirty & Naked Music Festival Moments
September 5th, 2008
With the Virgin Festival approaching this weekend, we thought we’d take a look at some of the most memorable festival moments that have happened when a bunch of fans go somewhere outside and listen to live music. Some of these are messy, some are crude and there’s one that’s tragic, but all of these have earned their place in the history of rock for one reason or another.
Radiohead + Baseball = Awesome? (Lollapalooza ‘08)
Radiohead are well known for putting on absolutely brilliant performances, although when they played in Chicago back in 2004, they got a bit of help from an unexpected source. While playing “Everything In Its Right Place” and “Fake Plastic Trees,” some fireworks from what was believed to be a Chicago Cubs baseball game started lighting up the sky. Unbelievably, the pyrotechnics seemed to effortlessly sync up with Radiohead’s performance, leaving folks to wonder if MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was branching out into the entertainment business.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_7×1lH7y6s
Green Day Take A Mud Bath (Woodstock ‘94)
Woodstock ‘94 was a revisit to one of the first musical festivals ever, although it wasn’t quite exactly the festival of love that the original was, what with artists like Nine Inch Nails and Red Hot Chili Peppers being headlining acts. Or with Green Day on the roster, for that matter. Still a young punk band learning their way, the lads in Green Day sparked one of the messiest moments in festival history when a piece of sod ended up on stage and the band called attention to it. End result? Half of the field getting ripped up by fans which devolved into a huge mud fight. No one was spared, either: bassist Mike Dirnt wound up absolutely filthy, to the point where that security didn’t recognize him and punched him out, breaking his jaw!
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hRFI436jxo
Everything Goes To Hell With The Stones (Altamont Free Concert ‘69)
Festival security guards are notoriously known to be dicks, moreso than regular concert guards. No one really knows the reasons why; it could be that they’re getting paid to face away from the band in hot weather, or it could be that they have to wear those stupid security shirts regardless of the weather, or it could be that they just hire the surliest people imaginable to work the festivals. But no matter how bad the bouncers are, they can’t compare to the Altamont Free Concert’s security detail. The Rolling Stones, of all people, decided to arrange the security details for this show. Now, I love Mick and the boys, but I can’t help but wonder if placing a group with known chemical substance lover Keith Richards in charge of something important like security was the wisest of ideas. Anyway, The Stones were part of a large concert festival that included other artists like Santana, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Naturally, there needed to be some good folks to work security, so who did the Rolling Stones tap? The Hells Angels. Yeah, the notorious outlaw biker gang was working the festival, who were paid to work the festival in exchange for $500 worth of beer. Things ended somewhat predictably, with the bikers getting rowdy with the fans, attacking them with pool cues or their motorcycles. In one incident, Marty Balin (of Jefferson Airplane) was beaten senseless onstage by one of the bikers.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5ftlnYmt4
My Chemical Romance get “Slayed” (Reading Festival ‘06)
One of the biggest problems with music festivals is that there is always some sort of schedule problem for people attending: two of your favorite acts are going onstage at the same time, you have to sit through some boring band you’ve never heard of so that you have good spots for the band you actually want to see, and so on, etc. Well, The Reading Festival had its own scheduling snafu back in 2006, which resulted in one of the festival’s greatest bottling incidents of all time. For those who don’t know, The Reading Festival has a long history of bottling unpopular acts, which involves throwing as much refuse (generally in the form of plastic water bottles) as possible at the acts in question. Due to one of the most colossally ridiculous scheduling decisions ever made, metal gods Slayer played a set directly before current rock darlings My Chemical Romance took the stage. This would be akin to having Avril Lavigne choosing to have Cannibal Corpse as her opening act. Needless to say, a bunch of jacked up metal fans, having seen one of the best metal acts ever perform, decided to stick around and perform target practice on the Black Parade.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO4QsQxcpjk
Rage Against The Machine Bare All (Lollapalooza ‘93)
Rage Against The Machine have never been ones to shy away from controversy, as anyone who knows even a little about the band would knowis aware. The band has been known to make bold statements, most notably with their impromptu march in Minnesota at the Republican National Convention earlier this week. Back in 1993, though, the band was facing a ton of scrutiny from the Parents Music Resource Center and decided that they would make a statement regarding this in the city of Brotherly Love. Onstage in Philly, the band came out stark naked, with duct tape over their mouths and stood there naked for 15 minutes. Not exactly what you would expect, but the band did make it up to disappointed fans, performing a free gig later on.
Josh Homme Loses His Mind (Norwegian Wood Festival ‘08)
Music festivals are a great source for spontaneous moments: random incidents happening due to the nature of the event. Sometimes, these events can be absolutely awesome and spontaneous. Other times, unfortunate crap can happen which leads to some unique incidents. Such a thing occurred at the Norwegian Wood Festival earlier this year, when a kid in the crowd threw a shoe at Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Homme, understandably ticked at someone throwing a friggen shoe at him, flipped out and got the kid tossed from the venue, while letting loose a stream of profanity that would probably have George Carlin spinning in his grave. Homme’s comments were also construed as being somewhat homophobic, although he later apologized and recanted for his actions.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZm32tpWY8
Courtney Love Does Her Best Courtney Love Impersonation (Big Day Out ‘99)
Courtney Love has a notorious reputation for being completely bat shiaatee insane, and her antics at Australia’s Big Day Out Festival, which had her competing with folks like Marilyn Manson and Korn on the Crazy-O-Meter, had…well, just take a look and judge for yourself. Keep in mind that this is the “clean” version.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1CxZ3wZw-M
Tragic Moments In Denmark (Roskilde Festival ‘00)
While fests should be all about the music and fun, sometimes some really bad stuff can happen at festivals. This could probably be best exemplified with Pearl Jam’s appearance at the Roskslide Festival in 2000. As the band took the stage, fans surged to the front of the stage, unfortunately trampling 9 fans who died as a result of the pressing crowd. Pearl Jam attempted to call attention to what was going on, but by then it was too late. The incident had an profound impact on the band, with Vedder immortalizing those fans who died in the 2002 single “Love Boat Captain.”
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2xo7NoQNfU
Jay-Z Plays Tribute To Oasis (Glastonbury ‘08)
Probably the greatest things at any sort of live music venue are the surprise songs that artists love to throw out to please the fans. Usually, these sorts of things aren’t recorded in the studio, so fans are treated to something truly unique and new when they check their faves out live. Recently, notoriously polite Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher shared his admiration for Jay-Z’s body of work in an interview, giving his thoughts on the rapper’s appearance at Glastonbury. Hova, apparently flattered by Gallagher’s kind words, expressed what he thought of Oasis at the start of his set, giving the fans watching the show a unique treat, as he belted out into a truly amazing rendition of “Wonderwall.” Honestly, it is moments like these, where musicians are able to check their egos at the door and have a good time, that make these festivals so goddamn captivating.
Vidya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Sa84dQKnE
That’s our list…what about your most memorable festival moments? Share them here at the bottom and keep an eye out for our roving squad of bloggers at the Virgin Festival this weekend!
Photographs Courtesy Getty Images, except RATM
Posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 5:20 pm by Trevor P. and is filed under VFest2008.
Related Articles:
24 Responses to “Most Memorable, Dirty & Naked Music Festival Moments”
-
wow, awesome list of moments
-
YOu haven’t seen when 50 Cent played the Reading Festival. He got 10 times worse than MCR.
And it was bottles filled with suspicious yellow liquid…
-
Noel Gallagher didn’t even want Jay-Z to be at the festival. Jay-Z retorted by essentially mocking Oasis by “singing” Wonderwall. Then Jay-Z, in a track Jockin’ Jay-Z (Dope Boy Fresh), claims “That bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar, Someone shoulda told him I’m a fuckin’ rock star.” Jay-Z sucks.
-
Actually, the fireworks during Radiohead came from the south side of the city - look at a picture like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozmodiar/2731628960/
Radiohead played at the south end of the park, and the fireworks were behind them. Usually, fireworks would be coming from a White Sox game, but in this case it was from a Family Night practice game at Soldier Field, home of the Bears. So, technically, it’s Radiohead + Football.
-
goodd
I like a Jay-Z
-
This one, also from Norway rocks a lot of these: A couple has sex on stage on a “The Cumshots” concert: http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/english/article250240.ece
-
Great article man! I love it!
-
missed a few momments there, at Reading fest, 50 Cent has been bottled, as someone said alot worse than MCR, and also the singer of Panic at the Disco got knocked out by a bottle at Reading, and the best of all Daphne and Celeste who were scheduled between Rage and Slipknot at Reading 2000 is completly mental they even get a paddling pool thrown at them, all these incidents are on youtube.
-
“…as he belted out into a truly amazing rendition of ‘Wonderwall.’”
Oh BOY I hope you were kidding. Did you even watch the video? He butchered that song. I think Amy Winehouse, in her perpetual cracked-out stupor, could have covered it better.
-
One of my favorites - Lollapalooza 05′: Anton from Brian Jonestown Massacre yelling across Grant Park at Dashboard Confessional telling them how much they suck.
-
Huh? I thought those were lollapolooza’s fireworks. I thought they just launched some stuff out on Lake Michigan whenever the final band of the night played. I remember nice fireworks for Pearl Jam the year before.
-
I would argue that not only was NIN not a mainstream headline at Woodstock ‘94 (despite their turnout), but they got the dirtiest of the entire festival.
-
“Photographs Courtesy Getty Images, except RATM”
That’s funny… the Getty image bank that’s owned by an oil family won’t publish pics of RATM. Good example of censorship right there through media ownership.
-
The Cubs do not and never have displayed any fireworks. The White Sox are the only team that do after a home run and/or a victory. And that night as Joe stated was family night for the Bears. They did display fireworks.
-
Yeh, I was there for that Pearl Jam concert… was very depressing, not just for us, but for them as well. Lots of desperate pleas from Eddie to the audience to back out and give space to those who were in trouble. These things happen, but really, they shouldn’t have bands that attract so much of a audience such little space. They should rethink the design of it at, such as having a podium where the crowd can stand around in 360 degrees or something, so theres less surge to get to the front.
-
What about when keith moon passed out due to tranquilizers?
-
another good one was when panic at the disco got bottled at some music festival and their lead singer got knocked out ahahaha
youtube it
-
I’m just glad you were able to limit yourselves to ‘Festival Moments’. You could easily make a Top 100 using local concert halls if this is any indication of what it takes to merit an invitation.
Not bad I guess but I’ve personally seen worse.
-
i was at the reading bottling of daphne and celeste. so, so funny, thousands of bottles of piss being hurled at the stage. its the kind of thing you never forget.
also saw panic at the disco guy get hit in the face with a bottle of sprite. did a note perfect cover of radiohead straight afterwards too which was weird.
reading and leeds are always chaos though, I’ve been there when the toilets are on fire, the security towers have been pushed over and the police are in a helicopter overhead going “everybody smile for the camera” and then seeing a few thousand people give them the finger.
good times…
-
You have got to be kidding me. Jay-Z absolutely butchers a song that is obviously way out of his league (I have heard MUCH better drunks on karaoke night) and he makes the list, but Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at Monterey is not considered memorable enough?
Sorry, that’s just full of fail.
-
how about this original Woodstock moment, Pete Townshend of The Who using his guitar to knock Abbie Hoffman off the stage?
-
The fireworks during Radiohead are fireworks that happen all summer long downtown by the water in chicago. It had nothing to do with the Cubs. Where Radiohead was playing was actually closer to where the Sox play anyway.
It happened the year before with Pearl Jam too.
-
Good article, I might just be attending V Fest
Leave a Reply
Featured
-
Fly To Paris to See Green Day With Bell!
Dear Bell Mobility subscribers: you could win a trip to Paris to see Green Day in concert!
READ MORE + -
Michael Jackson dead at 50
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson has died of a reported cardiac arrest. He was 50.CNN has just reported that the King of Pop succumbed to cardiac arrest this afternoon. Paramedics were unable to revive him en route to a Los Angeles hospital. Apparently he had no pulse when they found him.
READ MORE +
Michael is survived by his [...] Categories
-
Pages
“Radiohead are well known for putting on absolutely brilliant performances, although when they played in Chicago back in 2004, they got a bit of help from an unexpected source.”
It was in 2008