Author Topic: Philly? Why Bother  (Read 4923 times)

Fluffy

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Philly? Why Bother
« on: February 03, 2003, 09:46:00 pm »
As I am sure alot of you know, I am not a big fan of Philly, although I have seen my fair share of shows there. Fear Factory's truck was stolen there and there are countless other horror stories about Philly and the bad luck that befalls musicians who play there. Found this:<P>In yesterdays Philadelphia Inquirer there was an article Intitled Pay Your Money, Assault the Star<P>I guess Philly is one of the worst spots for fans, not only of sports but of music as well. A System of a Down's trucks which included all of their gear and merchandise were stolen from a hotel parking lot in Old City.<P>Camper Van Beethoven's David Lowery was pepper sprayed after his group which reunited after a 12 year hiatus, had played nearly two and a half hours at the Theatre of Living Arts.<P>It said what was more bizarre is that Camper's audience comprises 30-40 somethings but so many of the people were really drunk!According to Lowery "People in Philly drink more than any other city I've been in. They drink even more than Bostonians. That's an accomplishment in its own right."<P>During a perfomance at the Electric Factory in 1996 the then-popular<BR>laser pointers irritated Iggy Pop. "What kind of idiot would buy a ticket and do something like that?" Pop asked. "It just boggles my mind. I've dealt with the laser thing from time to time and it just drives me nuts. It's incredibly irritating<P>During the early 90's fans often jumped up besides recording artists so they could stage dive. Guitar pedals were stomped on and occaisonally guitars were knocked down. During a Rollins Band show at the Tocadero, Henry Rollins had enough of the free for all and collared a fan and quietly read her the riot act. "It's our stage," Rollins said. "Fans have so much room and we have a limited amount of space and I reminded her of that. That was the end of the trouble."<P>Fishbone bassist Norwood Fisher admitted that a fan making a bird noise throughtout the band's show at the Troc in 91 unnerved him. "I don't know what's with people," Fisher said. "You don't want to hear that when you're performing. It's not normal crowd noise. That kind of stuff is annoying."<P>Disruptive fans have caused some acts to delay their return to the City of Brotherly Love. In 1978 someone threw fireworks at Aerosmith while the band was performing at the Spectrum. Vocalist Steven Tyler was hit and the band avoided Philly for four years. "You have to be concerned with safety first," said Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. "That Philly show was a long time ago, but it reminds you that anything can happen at shows.<BR>

Fluffy

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2003, 09:50:00 pm »
and also the world famous GnR Philly riot. Axl's Last Stand<P>See the pictures:<BR> <A HREF="http://www.roadie.net/axlslaststand.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.roadie.net/axlslaststand.htm[/url]

Ikarus

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2003, 03:54:00 am »
i don't know, its kind of hard to make generalizations like that.  its not uncommon for gear to be stolen from dc venues, or for violence to break out in or around the venue, or for performers taking exceptions to the crowd's behavior (ever been to a fugazi show?  heh)<P>philly is one of my favorite east coast cities, but i'll admit their music venues leave something to be desired.  there is a "us/them" attitude in the city, i guess the trick is blend in with the natives.  still, i wanna go up soon to check out the mutter museum.  looks pretty sinister.

Sir HC

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2003, 11:14:00 am »
Welcome Fluffy, are you truly Camper's violin player's brother?  But don't forget, Frank Black also got all their gear stolen in Philly.  My boss is a Philly boy, and he says it is worse with pro sports there.  They will boo the team if they are not happy, fights are the norm, and god help the band that does a 1/2 time performance.  Those can get quite vicious.

chaz

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2003, 11:55:00 am »
Does anyone remeber the NBA finals between the Lakers and 76'ers a few years ago?  Some girl group (I can't remember who...TLC or Salt N' Peppa or some such thing) performed at halftime of one of the games in Philly.  One of the girls in the group was wearing a Lakers jersey and the crowd got very hostile and was booing them and everyone made a big deal out of it.<P>Anyhow, the next night that stupid band Sugar Ray played the halftime show and they were obviously (especially the singer) very rattled and scared, I guess since they are such a LA type of group...maybe they are from LA, I don't know.  Throughout their performance he was saying things like "Hey Philly, this is your house" etc. <P>It was truly funny, and oh yeah, the band totally sucked and stunk it up.  But the crowd didn't get on their case....

Fico

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2003, 12:02:00 pm »
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Veranda">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by chaz:<BR><B>Does anyone remeber the NBA finals between the Lakers and 76'ers a few years ago?  Some girl group (I can't remember who...TLC or Salt N' Peppa or some such thing) performed at halftime of one of the games in Philly.  One of the girls in the group was wearing a Lakers jersey and the crowd got very hostile and was booing them and everyone made a big deal out of it.<P>Anyhow, the next night that stupid band Sugar Ray played the halftime show and they were obviously (especially the singer) very rattled and scared, I guess since they are such a LA type of group...maybe they are from LA, I don't know.  Throughout their performance he was saying things like "Hey Philly, this is your house" etc. <P>It was truly funny, and oh yeah, the band totally sucked and stunk it up.  But the crowd didn't get on their case....</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I remember that... I think the performers were the 3 tarts from Destiny's Child... such rubbish..<P>

Sir HC

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2003, 12:21:00 pm »
THey were destiny's child.  Boss was there, he had the standard Philly response of, what the F**k were they doing playing to these fans?

Fluffy

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2003, 03:22:00 pm »
Thanx for the welcome, but I am not new to the boards, I just don't post that often. Anyway, I actually found the story in the PI thru another message board that was talking about Philly fans in general including sports and you are right, seems their sporting events are not exempt from the behavior as well. Maybe it's just Philly fans "us/them" attitude someone else mentioned. Having worked at the club for a while, I know trouble happens alot of shows, but it just seems to me Philly has more than it's fair share. As for Fugazi, I think it has more to do with the band taking a stand against bad behavior(which we know can happen anywhere)as opposed to the locale of a particular Fugazi show. Fugazi may be the exception to the rule, I think. Maybe it is because we are in such close proximity to Philly that we hear about all the problems there more than anywhere else, but it just seems that a whopping number of tour horror stories seem to come from there, although I realize they can happen just about anywhere. My personal worst audience stories are Iowa City and Denver. So it certainly isn't just Philly, but they do seem to a larger problem proportionally. As for CVB, it was actually the bass player, and no I am not actually his brother. Apparently that is a band joke, one of a couple, as I found out when I asked Viktor why he said that. The story goes, every nite is either David Lowerys b-day or someone is someones brother. I guess I was just the lucky one that nite. hehe Stranger part is, that people who have known me for years were actually asking if that was my brother and I was like, "Don't you think at some point I would have mentioned I had a brother in CVB if it was true." Anyway, we all got a good laugh out of it, and that is that. Thanx again for the welcome and I hope to be posting more in the future. I will try to not be such a lurker. hehe

megs

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2003, 03:37:00 pm »
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Veranda">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sir HC:<BR><B>Welcome Fluffy, are you truly Camper's violin player's brother?  But don't forget, Frank Black also got all their gear stolen in Philly.  My boss is a Philly boy, and he says it is worse with pro sports there.  They will boo the team if they are not happy, fights are the norm, and god help the band that does a 1/2 time performance.  Those can get quite vicious.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>just a sidenote, but i am sure philly fans are not the only vicious ones. i seem to recall many instances of hostile redskin fans, when they haven't been happy with their team's performance. sooooo this isn't just a philly phenomena (though trust me, i cannot stand the city of brotherly love!!)<P>

Sir HC

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2003, 05:24:00 pm »
Fluffy-<BR>glad you don't concider upstate NY to be so bad after the Tim Reynolds incident.  The weird thing with Philly fans is that they will turn on their own, and supposedly they love to fight.  Around here you might see a brawl, but there you are sure of it.

Venerable Bede

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2003, 01:53:00 pm »
fluffy. . what a great ween song.  <P>as to philly. . remember, the vet was the only sports venue in the nation that had a court in the basement. . .
OU812

Ikarus

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2003, 03:37:00 pm »
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Veranda">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Venerable Bede:<BR><B>remember, the vet was the only sports venue in the nation that had a court in the basement. . .</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>i think giants stadium has one too, but it is a somewhat recent addition.<P>still, can't be as bad as soccer violence.  a venezuelan friend of mine says at matches there the teams' supporters are separated by fences topped with razor wire...<P>

Fico

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2003, 03:47:00 pm »
Philly's fans have a history for being rowdy.. of the top of my head I can remember an incident where Michael Irwin (Dallas Cowboys) player was laying on the ground after a hard hit were it seemed he could've been parallized since he lost feeling of his limbs and people were cheering while he was being carried out of the venue in a stretcher..thats low..<P>I also remember one all-star game where Kobe Bryant of the Lakers was voted MVP and despite him being a philly native the crowd booed him when he got the trophy.. at the news conference afterwards he appeared and admitted to being deeply hurt.. he got drafted and signed by the Lakers, nothing he can do about it...<P>Philly is shite.... but oh those cheesesteaks...

keithstg

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2003, 04:21:00 pm »
That hit you are referring to ended Irvin's career...and they booed santa claus at an eagles game.

Fico

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Re: Philly? Why Bother
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2003, 05:04:00 pm »
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Veranda">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by keithstg:<BR><B>That hit you are referring to ended Irvin's career...and they booed santa claus at an eagles game.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Poor Santa... I bet fans considered him a fat white capitalist Dallas Cowboy... tough crowd..<P>