Well, not really a concert I guess, but since they played Lollapalooza, it counts.

A few years ago The Jim Rose Circus came to conservative Lubbock, Texas. If you want more info on their stage acts, you might want to google them. Just imagine what "Mr. Lifto" performance was all about!

Anyway, they start out their show. Knives and swords all over the stage. The Mexican-Transvestite-Wrestling performers come on, and I will leave it to your imagination on what they do. After their performance, it is eerily quiet. The keyboard player, the heavily tattooed Enigma, stops playing and you can hear Jim Rose yelling backstage. The cops had been watching the show and have arrest him.

Well, its only about ten minutes in the show and the crowd is angry. People start yelling, throwing things, and the two security guards take the stage. The show was taking place right next to a nightclub and he is radioing for assistance from the guards over there. The crowd begins to approach the stage, and I can just see the props being used. Luckily, the Enigma was smart enough not to join the argument backstage and started packing the knives and swords back in their cases.

Calmer heads prevailed. Promises of a refund went unfulfilled. But it was a fun night.

Yes. Back in the early 90's Stone Temple Pilots were to play at a small outdoor amphitheater at Fair Park in Dallas.

Firehose was the opening band and I don't recall who was scheduled to play second.

It was all GA and there was about 20 or 30 yards b/w the front row of benches and the stage, so the crowd obviously gathered in front of the stage.

There was a massive thunderstorm during Firehose's set. Afterwards, the PA kept announcing that the soundboard was wet and they were waiting on the weather to calm down and to get some better equipment or something like that.

Eventually the crowd removed the barrier b/w them and the stage (this might have happened during Firehoses set. We could walk up to the short stage (2 or 3 ft tall) and touch it.

As the night wore on and the rain continued to pour and the delays continued to mount, the crowd grew restless. Some idiots decided to start throwing stuff at the scaffold lighting above the stage and glass would rain down on everyone. Somehow a piece of the lighting scaffold was on the ground near the stage and the crowd grabbed it and through it on the stage.

When glass started falling on everyone my buddy and I backed away from the stage to a less crowded area. There we borrowed trash bags from someone for makeshift ponchos.

The next thing I know, I look back at the stage and the police were on the stage in full riot gear. This was 16 years ago so my memory is fuzzy. That might have been the point the crowd through the scaffolding on the stage. Sure enough, tear gas canisters started getting lobbed into the crowd. Everyone ran like crazy. Guys and girls who got hit w/the gas were balling, stumbling around unable to see. Police stood next to the only exits and ushered everyone out.

My friends parents had dropped us off and heard about the pandemonium on the radio. They came early to pick us up at our designated spot.

My parents were scared as hell as they were watching the news and found out about the riots. Not many people had cell phones then so we pulled over on the way home to call them at a pay phone as it was about a 1.5 hour drive.

I went to a Kaiser Chiefs concert and predicted a riot. They did also...I never waited to see if there was one.

a buddy of mine took a sneaker to the face during a wait for Metallica to come on once. the crowd was getting anxious and started tossing beer bottles, shoes, pretty much everything at each other.

also say a buddy get clotheslined trying to rush the stage for a 311 concert. the guy who hit him looked like a shaved bear.

i got quasi-trampled during a Bosstones set at a festival in arlington once. i think i got a slight concussion because the next thing i remember i was laying on a hill while the Chemical Brothers were playing.

no real "riots" though.

i was at the old 97's show when this happened

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2005-07-28/news/gypsy-blood/1

not a riot though...but it became a big deal

A Metallica show at Starplex almost turned into a riot. The people on the lawn were starting fires and throwing anything they could get their hands on at the people in the seats. The people in the seats started throwing stuff back. They were delaying the concert trying to wait for things to settle down, but it just kept getting worse. Finally, they got smart and decided to start the show. As soon as Metallica took the stage, all the other BS calmed down. One of the only times I ever felt unsafe at a show.

[This message has been edited by Brickhouse (edited 2/28/2008 1:45p).]

I saw White Zombie at the AstroArena in either 94 or 95. Towards the end of the concert, Rob said he thought it sucked that everybody couldn't be on the floor and that they should just come on down. Slowly, people started to trickle over the barrier to the floor until security just gave up and let it happen.

Woodstock '99

I did not stay for the carnage that came to be after Red Hot Chili Peppers ended their set, but the fires started before they even came on. I was standing near a tower that had plywood around the base of it. A couple of other groups had made small fires already, and a couple of people near me were pulling the plywood off the tower to start one by us. I figured I had built Bonfires, so I added my assistance. There are pics of me running and jumping over said fire. The music finally started and it calmed down. After the set we hauled ass to the busses so we could avoid the line, and when we got to the hotel an hour later we saw what happened in the aftermath.

not technically a riot AT the concert, but i was at emo's watching the anniversary in february of 2001 when they had the big mardi gras riot. the anniversary finished a song and the lights came on and berwanger goes, "uhhhh, sorry folks. show's over. there are riots outside or something and they told us you all have to leave."

sure enough we walk outside and the cops are shooting tear gas canisters and bean bags all over the place. people picking up those huge metal trash cans and throwing them on cars and through windows. lame.

i was at a nine inch nails show and the opening acts were the melvins and the previously mentioned Jim Rose Circus....This was in Dallas at the Fair Park Coliseum?....Anyway the Melvins came on and started playing...The crowd was not receptive and began pulling apart seats and throwing seat covers on stage directly at them...i vividly remember the band egging them on telling them to f* off etc...i remember the singer ducking while playing their songs with seat covers zipping all over the place....well after their set Trent comes on and exclaims to be cool with Jim Rose, he's my friend, blah blah blah...if the crowd is good they will come on and blow us away...well somehow that calmed the chaos and NIN came on and were great....again not a riot but it was close