When Bands Stop Concerts and Walk Out on Fans
You’ve seen our Loud List on When Bands Stop Concerts to Save Fans, but there’s another side to the story. Here’s 10 times that bands stopped their shows and walked out early.
Back in the 1990s, Axl Rose was the king of starting shows late and somehow still ending them early. Riots and freak-outs at Guns N' Roses shows made the evening news back then, but even when Axl reunited the band in the new millennium, the frontman would cut gigs short if anyone in the crowd threw something on stage. During one show in Ireland, about two-thirds of the crowd left after an Axl outburst, and those fans were actually refused refunds after the fact.
Aaron Lewis could be considered the Axl Rose of the 2010s, admonishing and walking out on fans more times than we can count. One trick that sometimes doesn’t go over well is the Staind frontman’s closer, where he plays an acoustic and sings without a microphone. To pull it off, however, the crowd needs to remain quiet, and when they don’t comply with Lewis’ demands for silence, he sometimes doesn’t take it well.
“Have we got any Nickelback fans in Portugal?” Of course, the answer is yes, but the band understandably cut one gig short after be pelted by flying objects. After stopping the 2002 show, Chad Kroeger gave the fans two options — hear some rock ’n’ roll or go home. He was immediately hit in the head with a rock, forcing Nickelback to end their set after less than two songs.
Check out this compilation of When Bands Stop Concerts and Walk Out on Fans in the Loud List above.
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