Your most succesful heckle at a live show.

Which I thought was pretty damn funny.

get off the stage!

one of the bros went like "alright" and stormed off with his flying V. my friends around me were sort of surprised/ impressed/ appalled.
as usual

"Hey turn up the DVD!"

not a heckle, i know. sorry.

(wanted to make sure it's clear it wasn't _me_ who said this, I'm reporting. but I did think it was dead on)

to be fair, the guy did a decent job and the show was awesome but i was severely let down to find out J.Marr was not going to be there. Bummer.

"More banter!!!"

My fave heckle while I was performing, during a quieter moment:

"There's some serious stuff going on here!!!"
(it showed up on the live recording)

Teenage girl at Cocteau Twins concert at the Orpheum in Vancouver back in '87 or '88 yells out to her
HOW DID YOU LOSE SO MUCH WEIGHT?!

Heard that at a Locust show. The singer rose to the challenge and said something like, "You know, you laugh, but no one understood what you said, so you look like an idiot!"

Kinda silly, cos I was halfway across the venue and I'd understood what the heckler had said.

The The Locust launched into another tune, which like all their tunes, had completely incomprehensible lyrics.

Sam Kinison had a great anti-heckle,

"Hey, that's just what yr mom said to me before the show! EXCEPT I HAD MY DICK DOWN HER THROAT SO IT SOUNDED MORE LIKE GHGGUGHUUGHGGGHG!"

I skimmed through this post too fast and thought it was about Anal Cunt!

but anyway, being right up front, i yelled "high expectations!!!"

and laetetia turned around, looks right at me, and says "what, have you got some then?"

heh, it was funny, embarassing and awesome all at the same time

Because the other LA ILM folk I know are far too nice to watch my back.

I can't remember who the headliner was, but there was a serious butt-rock crowd standing there staring at the Sun City Girls. My friend decided he would get it over with and start the heckling, even though he was a fan of the band. He started yelling "what the hell is that shit?" and "you call that rock? Play some rock, MAN!" and stuff like that.

The only problem was that no one except me knew he was joking, especially the band. He was completely oblivious to the angry glares the big, bearded guitar player kept shooting his way (we were right up against the stage, just a small, knee-high type stage). I decided to let the scene play out rather than tell him to chill out, or tell him the guitar player was getting pissed.

Finally, after about three songs of this, during a quiet part with just some drums, the guitar player walked over and grabbed my friends baseball hat and put it on his own head. My friend, completely oblivious to the fact that no one else was getting his joke, laughed and thought it was cool that a member of the band was wearing his hat.

At the end of the next song, while my friend wasn't looking, the guitar player took off his hat and, in full view of everyone else in the club, hocked the biggest wad of spit I've ever seen into the hat. He then walked over to the my friend, who was turned around gabbing to someone else, and slapped it on his head and patted it down for extra measure. The crowd erupted in laughter. My friend laughed with them...and I laughed the hardest.

Actually the crowd was a lot looser after that, and everyone seemed to dig the Girls, even if they weren't quite what they were looking for that night.

I never did tell my friend about the spit in his hat.

"I wish you were my mother!"

Chilling . . .

The gnarliest heckles I've personally received:

"Embarassing for all involved!" (in very drunken Sheffield accent)

"What do you do for fun?" (opening for Bjork in LA)

Someone else:
I saw Spoon open for Guided by Voices in SF in 1996 and some guy kept yelling between songs, "HEY YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE THE PIXIES!". You could tell it was getting on Britt's nerves.

You are my fucking hero. Thank you, really.

Also this good band I was watching at a bar started playing what I thought was some ironic, intentionally wack, lounge song. They had previously played a great cover of "When You Were Mine" and I wanted to get back to the cool shit so I started throwing lollipops at them (they have lollipops at the tables at this bar). Evidently when I'm drunk my aim is great and I was hitting band members square in the chest until the bouncer made me stop. Despite making peace with most of the band, one guy still shrieks "FUCK YOU, WONKA!" at me when they're in town. So I hurl lollipops at him and scream "IT'S VIETNAM ALL OVER AGAIN! WATCH OUT FOR CHARLIE!"

that's fuckin' great...

Dude i think i saw or heard that on some kind of recording medium?

some horrible latin pop band who dressed like the thompson twins were playing a comedy taping i was at. Someone heckled them and the singer snorted "dont quit your day job" and then I yelled: "don't quit your dye job." nailed him between the eyes. total deer in the headlights look.

-- Abbadavid Berman

...then began the opening chords to "Living After Midnight" and he told the band to "Play fucking loud" -- what a night.

I, unfortunately, won't be at that Lightning Bolt gig, because I'll be at ATP instead. It's a tough life.

To make this a productive post, a bit of reverse heckling: Iron & Wine start playing a cover of a Stereolab song released on the internet a few days earlier, and a guy who had up until that point exlaimed "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a few seconds into every song does it again. Sam Beam monotonally says "you don't know this one". I don't think he WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOed again.

more superchunk heckling stories somewhere in here: http://superchunk.com/tours.html

Well, that just put a huge smile on my face. hahahahaha

Haha, awesome. Jason Molina will be one of my favorite artists for a long time to come. He's playing on my birthday in Chapel Hill, and damn am I depressed that I'm going to miss it.

"More beard in the monitors" at Built to Spill

I will heckle opening bands that play too long. This is really the only thing that will compel me to shout stuff like "GET THE FUCK OFF THE STAGE!". The other night I went out to see a local triple-bill with my relatively new girlfriend (4 months). The second band asked the crowd "Can we play two more? Is that OK?". My girlfriend, loud enough for everyone to hear, says "NO!". God, I love her.
― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, March 22, 2006 9:45 PM (7 years ago)

so glad I had the smarts to marry this woman!

awwww. But does she heckle you at home

people being dickheads at gigs = dud

no one likes a heckler at a comedy show, so i'm not sure why it should be justified in this venue

I got muffled laughter from the crowd and called a 'cunt' by the comedian for heckling at a comedy show once.

what did you say?

no more than any other partner xxxxp

did they call you a cunt in a joking way, or were they actually proper radge?

Ex-Bible frontman Boo Hewerdine at the Purcell Room sometime in the mid-90s. First part was solo acoustic, then he picked up an electric and brought on a band. I shouted (rather wittily, I thought), "Judas!". He replied, "That's a bit harsh."

He was proper radge. He was a supporting comic and he was dying on his arse and had been for 30 minutes or so, I can't remember why precisely as it was more than 12 years ago now, but he was really poor and the crowd was not keen. He actually announced "OK, I'm going to tell a joke now" and then said something about his bicycle being stolen to open it, at which point I think I said "hooray" and clapped a bit. So he called me a cunt, probably quite rightly, and he sounded quite hurt.

I think I asked after King Missile did a Patsy Cline cover if they were taking her plane.

(Jon S Hall chuckled and looked shifty)

you're crazy for that one Morbs

It's a little disturbing to hear people satisfied that they think they managed to hurt someone's feelings.

I was thinking for a while of making a thread for stories about things that happened at concerts that werent really about the music. I thought there would probably be one already but I couldnt find any. I thought maybe I should just post any stories in the individual band threads but I'm not sure how many will sound interesting enough. Oh well...

There is a few Low mentions here. I remember before the first time I saw Low I heard people saying how glum and miserable they are on stage but every time I saw them, Alan Sparhawk seems really upbeat and charming; I liked how he would often take requests, almost start playing a song and then say "nah, that one's too boring to play".
It was the Great Destroyer tour and he was having problems with his electric guitar then got out his acoustic guitar then said that he wasnt a big fan of acoustic guitars, some people asked him why and he said "acoustic guitars are for pussies", someone in the audience seemed genuinely offended.

Just to confirm I am not satisfied now - I think I was a dick, but I was about 20.

I think Mark Kozelek was touring after his Sun Kil Moon April album, it was halloween.
There was a guy with one of those Scary Movie masks on (that parodies the Wes Craven Scream mask) hanging out the cloak room window staring at people. He later got up on stage and it turned out he was Kozelek.

He played quite a few songs with the mask on and several people were asking him to take the mask off, I think some felt it was hindering his voice but I thought he sounded fine. When he did take off the mask (somebody jokingly made a scared sound as if Kozelek had a horrible face), he said he was disappointed nobody else came dressed up, but I'd guess some people would think that inappropriate for a Kozelek gig.

Someone was trying to take photos on his mobile phone and Kozelek complained there was no romance in taking photos and that kids these days have too many gadgets. He said when he was a kid "all I had was a cone" (I think he meany ice cream), someone heckled "lucky you!", the audience laughed but Kozelek didnt catch it and seemed a bit annoyed. He later said that Scottish accents and some accent from an earlier european gig were like a screwdriver in his ear.

Some people were a bit offended by Kozelek but I had no idea how serious he was, so I just found it funny. But I've heard quite a few things about him surprising audiences with his sense of humor or being surprisingly unpleasant. I never went to see him again mostly because I'm not big on the recent Sun Kil Moon albums (some people really seem to love them though) but some bad stories about his gigs have put me off too.

When someone requested a song from a less successful album, Kristin Hersh replied "You're the one who bought that album!"

heckling is a dud. there is a time and a place for it - if a musician is acting assholish on stage or being surly to the crowd, or giving a poor show, all for it. but when it's about a dickfungus in the crowd trying to make the show about him, always dud.

last week I was doing a last minute 'scareacting' gig at a local haunted house. I had 15 minutes of training (I'd only gotten called 90 minutes before it), and then went at it, and was just really surprised at how the majority of the people going through were assholes (not even just the kids).

just shouting nasty stuff back at us scareactors. since we were characters that were allowed to talk, I realized that insulting them back in character was better revenge than getting angry, and it worked. on more than a few occasions, landed a few retorts that got the dude's entire party to laugh at him.

I sort of have to ask some of these people - why do you pay money to go out, not enjoy yourself, and make fun of stuff?

also the original vocalist of Dillinger Escape Plan (Dimitri) hated ANYTHING shouted from the audience. even positive shit. Someone shouted a request, something like "How about <song>?", and he replied "HOW ABOUT YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP.", and then he pointed at another would-be audience member and beckoned him to the stage, threatening to fuck him with a knife.

Corpsegrinder (of Cannibal Corpse) is my favorite, mostly cuz the dude is built. someone shouted "Freebird" at a CC show and he basically went on this calm, mocking tirade about how sorry he felt for the dude and immasculated him in front of the crowd, it was kind of funny.

my favorite "heckle" to do at shows is to try and get the crowd to start chanting USA! USA! during the applause between songs

I yelled "Freebird!" at Mistislav Rostropovich's final concert. He died. So I'd say it was a pretty successful heckle.

Neanderthal-

http://www.fright.com/edge/IWasAHalloweenMonster.htm

This is a really great account of a guy who did scare acting and the bafflingly obnoxious behavior of the public.

just read most of that - that's why I would never do this frequently (it was strictly a one time favor). that guy has it right though - people think they're so hilarious in haunted houses. the trick is if it's a dude, go nuclear on him, esp if he's around ladies, and he'll shut up. women that are rude, give it back in more sarcastic fashion.

my partner got slapped in the face by a drunk woman as a reaction to being scared. fortunately our security was fairly good most of the night, but he couldn't find em.

by 'nuclear' i mean land an insult that makes everybody else say "ohHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh!"

don't believe in heckling but my favorite reverse heckle was at a Dillinger Escape Plan show (in the Dimitri era)

Fan: "Why don't you play <song>?!!!"
Dimitri: "Why don't you shut the fuck up!"

At a Silver Mt Zion show last year:

Efrim (while tuning up): "Does anyone have any questions?"
Me: "When is Godspeed touring?"
Efrim: "I have no idea what you are fuckin talkin about"