Monday, July 26, 2010
National Skyline Kings of Leon Stop St. Louis Show After Three Songs Due to 'Infestation' of Pooping Pigeons and 'Toxic Health Hazard' Thereof
Posted by Steve Haruch on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 9:37 AM
As the Riverfront Times, our former sister paper, reported on Saturday, the shit hit the band Friday night in St. Louis, as Kings of Leon walked offstage at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater after playing only three songs because bassist Jared Followill had been shat upon — near his mouth! — by a pigeon, or perhaps many pigeons that were part of an "infestation." (Maybe they meant "birdemic"?) According to Andy Mendelsohn of the band's management in a press release (full text below), "I’m surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did. ... They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will come back as soon as we can.”
Considering the way fans were left to stand around and wonder what the fuck was going on — people really don't like that! — maybe they should wait a while before making that return trip.
According to a press release from the band's publicity arm, both opening bands, The Stills and The Postells had been voluminously shat upon during their sets, and KOL decided to "carry on regardless" — hail! Hail! Bravo! — because, I dunno, maybe 15,000 people had paid real American dollars to see them play their rock songs like big-boy rock 'n' rollers. "The band felt it would be unfair to the fans to cancel the show at that late moment," Mendelsohn continues. OK.
So they played three songs, during which time a bird pooped on Jared Followill (the fellow who plays lead bass and is also a self-described "germophobe", according to a CNN report), and then they stopped the show after three songs without telling the crowd why. And then they never came back onstage, and had someone come out and tell the crowd to go home. I guess that was less unfair to their fans than never coming out onstage in the first place, but I'm pretty sure it was only a little bit less unfair.
Again, from the press release: “ 'We couldn’t believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets,' ” said Jared Followill. 'We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous.' " You could make the argument here that real rockers don't care what rockers look like after rocking, or you could not make that argument. Either way, I'm a little disappointed in some of the comments on the RFT story. Calling the band "Queens of Leon" is supposed to be some kind of insult? First of all, the associations here are obviously Queen (awesome) and Queens of the Stone Age (pretty good). Second of all, anyone suggesting that walking offstage because a bird pooped on you is a feminine, i.e. weak thing to do, has obviously forgotten that Cyndi Lauper caught a mouthful of bird shit while mid-note back in 2004 — then wiped her mouth on her sleeve and kept going. And she survived!
Here's the official explanation from Team KOL:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEPIGEON INFESTATION FORCES KINGS OF LEON OFFSTAGE EARLY IN ST. LOUIS
An infestation of pigeons living in the rafters of the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO, forced the Kings of Leon to walk offstage after three songs last night. Even though opening bands The Postelles and The Stills came offstage complaining of getting riddled with large amounts of pigeon excrement, the Kings of Leon decided to carry on regardless. The band felt it would be unfair to the fans to cancel the show at that late moment.
“I’m surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did,” said Andy Mendelsohn of Vector Management. “Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting — it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will come back as soon as we can.”
When the band arrived earlier in the day, the venue warned management that there had been a significant pigeon infestation problem with summer shows over the years, but they were doing all they could to fix it.
“We couldn’t believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets,” said Jared Followill. “We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous.”
Kings of Leon are headed to Chicago tonight to perform at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre as scheduled.
Comments (16)
Showing 1-16 of 16
like
dislike
Venue has bad juju- when Petty played there two Sundays back, Mike Campbell passed out from heat exhaustion. After 20 minutes, the 60 year old got his ass back on stage and finished the set before going to the hospital.
Same venue where fans rioted after Axl Rose left the stage, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverport_Rio…
What a nightmare. I'm afriad of a pigeon accidently brushing up against me: an army of the lice-infested devil birds aiming their shit at my face would trigger full-on hysteria. The only thing they did wrong was not shooting them out of the sky.
put on a fucking cowboy hat and deal with it, goddamn little bitches.
Pick a few fans from the audience. Give them umbrellas and instructions to shield the band members. That would have garnered more favorable publicity. The cowboy hats are a good idea too.
I couldn't blame them for getting off stage. That is pretty rough to deal with while performing. I think the venue needs to refund the folks there and then clean the place up. Silly bastards.
Seeing both sides here, to some degree. Can't say I wouldn't freak out — or at least be pretty repulsed — if I was being shat upon by sky-vermin during a set. That said, the show must go on, right? The opening acts braved it. Wouldn't it have been nice for the headliners to have done the same?
Also, Steve, best tags perhaps ever. Really going to have to step up my game on my next post.
"Due to the unexpected abbreviated Kings of Leon performance at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Live Nation is issuing refunds on all tickets."
I was going to mention that, but was too busy working on the tags.
Suck it up boys and be eternally grateful that you have achieved so much with so little.
If you don't, I'll see you again in a couple of years back at the Exit.
So WH wants a Neil Hamburger Joke, eh?
"So did you hear that [clears throat], while playing a concert last week at the Verizon Wireless Center in St. Louis, home of the wooooorrrrld famous Gaaateway Arch ... Nashville rock and roll brother act Kings of Leon — the biggest thing to come out of Music City since Randall 'Tex' Cobb — got shit upon by pigeons? Apparently *someone* gives a crap about their music!"
Vote here for best Band of the Week
Slideshows
Top Commenters
