It was only last week that we posted a video of Josh Homme’s expletive-laced onstage invective against a fan in Norway, and now Amy Winehouse has been filmed elbowing and punching a fan at the 2008 Glastonbury music festival over the weekend.
My favorite part is the way her voice gets all growly and guttural with the effort it takes to throw the punches. Talk about some solid vocal technique — her voice bends but never buckles during the strenuous assault.
This smackdown started us on a journey through the back alleys of YouTube to find more examples of fans and bands throwing down on a round of fisticuffs (see below).
Here, we see Henry Rollins allowing a fan to get in a few shots at him during a Black Flag show, only to administer his own counter-beatdown in response:
Remember that scene in The Blues Brothers where the band plays a roadhouse bar with chicken wire in front of the stage to break up beer bottles before they hit the performers? This is what happens, without the chicken wire, to Panic at the Disco:
Always, always, always remember which soccer team your South American audience favors. A riot ensues:
Then, of course, there’s the infamous onstage assault by Akon on a 15-year-old girl. This would have been a bad idea even if she didn’t happen to be the daughter of a prominent local religious figure:
Vanilla Ice destroys a television studio with a baseball bat after being forced to sit through his own music video one too many times (see Jon Stewart flinch, then reach for his water bottle):
Speaking of baseball, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards shows remarkably good baseball form for a Brit (thanks, Mark):
Fan takes down Snoop Dogg; Snoop’s posse takes down fan:
Comedians are not immune to fan violence. Witness as Pauly Shore takes one to the kisser for telling an audience member to pipe down during his set:
Tim McGraw apparently noticed a gentleman in thefront row of one of his concerts trying to attack a woman, so the country singer hauled himonto the stage, brandished a fist at him and had him dragged off by security. The guy was apparently none too offended, though — he waved his cowboy hat all the way off the stage.
Here, Maynard James Keenan from Tool demonstrates a hip flip, choke-hold and other apparent Brazilian jiu-jitsu moves on some poor fool whowandered onto the stage, probably just looking for a hug:
This guy apparently tried to sneak backstage at a Rolling Stonesconcert in Warsaw, only to get hauled off hand and foot by the band’s bodyguards. Come on…. Did youreally think it would be that easy? That backstage area is one of the best-guarded since DethKlok came through town.
A Lil’ Scrappy show goes nuts when a security guy grabs the mike during a rush by the crowd; then the security guy apparently shoves Lil’ Scrappy off the stage, resulting in a potentially big-ass lawsuit:
Glenn Danzig of The Misfits and Danzig is no match for a bouncer who lands a knockout blow before you can say 6:66 Satan’s Child (the name of Danzig’s 1999 album; thanks, Liam):
Sometimes, fans don’t even need to be involved in order for a fracasto break out. Witness this footage from Brian Jonestown Massacre’smovie DiG (pardon their French):
Jay Reatard rips the shirt off of this audience member and pops him in the face in a matter of about four seconds flat (thanks, Mark). Bonus points for the mike hitting the ground exactly when his fist hits the guy’s face — they don’t teach that in rock ‘n’ roll school:
When a fan zaps Paul Stanley of Kiss with a pocket laser light, the singerretaliates with a verbal threat to relocate the laser in a place where the sun’s lightdoes not shine:
Kurt Cobain takes a punch to the back of the head from a security guy, after he had made contact with the guy’s head a couple of times while suspended mid-crowdsurf (thanks, Mark):
Here, Gene Simmons of Kiss won’t condescend to sign an autograph for a fan, claiming that the requester’s actually a professional eBay autograph reseller. (Check out Simmons’ moneybag tracksuit while we’re on the topic.) "What a paranoid old man," responds one of the fans. "This (video) will show up, and people will seethis," says Simmons, presciently. The rocker later turns the camera onthe fan, who admittedly doesn’t look like Kiss is his favorite band(unless he’s a fan of how much money the band makes). No fisticuffs here, unless you count the emotional violence involved in watching Simmons speak for any amount of time:
It takes a different sort of gumption to beat the crap out of yourown sound guy after he head-butts you over a disagreement about theguitar levels in the drummer’s mix (Shitdisco vs. sound man). The other guitarist keeps playing until the sound man limpsoffstage, giving the episode a surreal, performance-art quality:
Can you think of any others we should post?
