Pedestrian TV

Guns N' Roses Concert Turns Into Riot  March 15, 2010

Axl Rose caused a riot after refusing to perform an exclusive gig that he and band Guns N' Roses were booked to play at a nightclub in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Friday night.

The concert was hosted by lingerie model Ana Beatriz Barros and attended by a crowd of billionaires and supermodels, and was supposed to be one of three private shows that Gunners were booked to play during their current South American tour. According to reports, after learning the band wouldn't be appearing, the audience charged the stage and started to fight and destroy everything. Apparently, Brazilians aren't just great dancers, models and beach volleyball players - they are also hardcore rock 'n' roll types. Can't you just see Giselle breaking a chair over someone's face? Kidding. Kidding. Those are absurd generalisations.

Axl has the uncanny ability to elicit violence from even the most peaceful of creatures (i.e. Victoria's Secrets angels), possibly because of his corn rows, but more likely because of the ongoing rock star posturing and behaviour that he doesn't necessarily have the right to be serving up anymore. Long gone are the Appetite For Destruction hey-days when he was dating Stephanie Seymour and tinkling the ivories at the start of "November Rain".

Followers of Guns N' Roses actually wouldn't be overly surprised by the latest in Axl Rose's diva behaviour because of a history of front man antics. During a 1992 Guns N' Roses concert in Montreal, Axl called the band off the stage 55 minutes into the show complaining of voice problems, after which audience members reportedly smashed stadium windows, looted a souvenir boutique, burned a sports car and set dozens of small fires.

That ill-fated concert also had Metallica on the bill: another aging American rock band making headlines in South America within the last week. Not two days before the Gunners incident occurred, violence erupted at a Metallica concert in the Colombian capital, Bogota, when fans without tickets went nuts and stormed the venue, resulting in more than 160 arrests.

Here's some of the footage:

Holy shit indeed. Upon first viewing, I thought I was looking at scenes of Northern Ireland in the 70s or something.

Aren't Metallica peaceful, teetotaling elderly gents these days? Their shows seem to have a greater history of violence and rioting than practically any other rock group in the world, and yet there is nothing in particular that seems to be the ultimate catalyst for this kind of response. Do we blame the fans: are they/we just collectively unhinged once released into a stadium en masse? Or is it the actual music: the "fuck the man" anthems and the thrash metal speed and sound that triggers it?

Via Jam Music and Spin

PS yeah, we realise we've used an image of the old Gunners, but who really wants to look at the band without Slash and Izzy?