I was thinking about going and , perversely now wish I had. Very Tap.
From the Melbourne Age
Fistfights, boos and faffing around: Was this the worst gig ever?
Karl Quinn
By Karl Quinn
Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Forum, Melbourne, Tuesday, November 21
★★
Those who stayed to the bitter end of the shambolic, abusive and ultimately violent show from American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre in Melbourne on Tuesday night got to witness something few attendees at the mighty Forum ever see: the coming down of the safety curtain.
But by then, it was far too late. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong in a show that had fistfights, f— yous to the band and the audience, and an enormous amount of faffing about between songs. And, just occasionally, it had some great music too.
Anton Newcombe, the frontman of American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Anton Newcombe, the frontman of American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre.Credit: Principal Entertainment/Facebook
Frontman Anton Newcombe’s battles with drug and alcohol abuse over the years have been well documented. In Sydney last week he shouted at the audience, ordered one of the guitarists to leave the stage, and seemed close to an altercation with another. In the crowd, meanwhile, a scuffle broke out. Plenty of fans left early as a result of the on-stage acrimony.
On Tuesday in Melbourne, Newcombe appeared to be “tired and emotional”, as they say in the business, from the get-go as he began with a long anecdote about having been held up at knifepoint with the tour promoter outside his hotel earlier that day.
“I explained to them one thing,” he said of his assailant. “A knife won’t stop me. I will make you eat it, punch you in the stomach, stab you in the leg, grab you by the hair and drag you to the police, so get to f—.”
Despite the defiance, the incident had taken its toll on him. “I expended most of the voice that I wanted to give to you,” he said. “Unfortunately, on this day, all I can give you is everything I have.”
Brian Jonestown Massacre show ends in onstage brawl.
At its best, his singing voice is a low whisper. On this night, it was a barely audible mumble. The four guitars (often 12-string), bass, drums and tambourine nonetheless set up an impressive wall of swirling, psychedelic sound. Had it not been for the lengthy interludes between songs it might have been magnificent, despite the limitations of Newcombe’s voice. Instead, it was just a mess.
Many in the audience grew tired of the gaps – up to three or four minutes – between songs, and the torrent of abuse Newcombe hurled at the crowd, and left early. Apparently, telling Australian concertgoers that they’re a bunch of convicts who are lucky not to be speaking Japanese-accented German doesn’t go down too well. Who knew?
Those who fled the scene of this slow-burning crime against entertainment missed out on the real showstopper, though. Newcombe had grown increasingly tetchy with his six bandmates throughout the set, and finally guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt had clearly had enough. He took a swing at the band leader, chased him around the stage and wrestled him to the floor.
As the pair grappled, stage crew rushed on and pulled them apart. Finally, Newcombe sat alone on top of an amplifier, and the rigid safety curtain descended to a chorus of boos and cries of “go to rehab” from the crowd.
There were those watching who detected in all this an element of WWE-style pantomime. There was a suspicion it might all have been a piece of situationist anti-rock theatre, a little like the infamous Sex Pistols show at the Winterland in San Francisco – this band’s hometown – where Johnny Rotten asked the audience “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Many at the Forum did. But whether the show was a sham or merely a shambles, there’s little chance anyone who saw it through to the end will ever forget it.
On Wednesday, the band’s management and Australian promoter announced that the shows scheduled for the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine that night, and the Northcote Theatre on Thursday, have been cancelled “on medical grounds”
Junior Wells says
https://x.com/BenjaminMillar/status/1726937226515464498?s=20
SteveT says
That’s a shame because BJM at their best are a very good band who have made some excellent music. In fact I bought one of their back catalogue albums last weekend.
Always a controversial figure though.
spider-mans arch enemy says
It can be added as an extra feature if they re-release the ‘Dig It’ Dandy Warhols documentary.
fentonsteve says
Which reminds me, flicking through the telly channels the other day, I saw Louis Theroux interviewing Pete Doherty. I turned it off.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001sh6c/louis-theroux-interviews-series-2-2-pete-doherty
Gary says
I watched that (on YouTube). I’ve always found Doherty an interesting character. Talented and extremely self-distructive. And his involvement in the untimely and unpleasant death of Mark Bianco extremely suspicious. Plus Theroux is always watchable. Despite Doherty’s total change in lifestyle and looks, I came away from it with exactly the same impressions I had going in. At one point in the interview he genuinely seems like he’s having a heart attack. I’m not sure he’ll be around much longer.
Freddy Steady says
I kind of agree with you but I found him a bit of a sad (old style) character this time round.
Kjwilly says
Isn’t this a regular event at BJM gigs? I seem to remember a report of a similar shambolic gig on their last U.K. tour.
Junior Wells says
Almost performance art. But the cancellation of the next 2 gigs for “ medical reasons” suggests it was a ridgey didge shambles.
MC Escher says
Was that a standard Rock Girlfriend Intervention there? “Leave it, Tony, he’s not worth it” etc
Rufus T Firefly says
I’d be more surprised if I attended a BJM fight and a gig accidentally broke out.
pawsforthought says
I see the reviewer awarded them two stars. What have you got to do to just get one star?
RayX says
I was going to mention that, maybe a very good performance gets about 2,345 stars.
Gatz says
Grudging credit for doing what they’re supposed to do is my guess.
muffler says
Saw them in Brighton earlier this year. Third or fourth time I’ve seen them. Occasionally they made a genuinely awesome noise. But Anton’s level of self indulgence made it a hard performance to love. The tuning up was comfortably half the gig. He stopped a song midway through to complain that one of the other guitarists sound was terrible and made him swap amps (honestly, the guitars all sounded exactly the same all the time) and again to badmouth a roadie about something else. My long suffering partner said it was the worst gig she’s ever been to…and I’ve taken her to a LOT of terrible gigs. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is just a d@ckhead.
fentonsteve says
It isn’t often something in the Graun makes me laugh out loud, but this is from March 2014:
”
Here’s some of rock music’s most famous fights:
Anton Newcombe v everyone
Anton Newcombe could start a fight in a nunnery. A nunnery run by kittens. But this particular scrap usurps the many vitriolic words the Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman has hurled at journalists and bandmates throughout his career: featured in the climactic scene of rockumentary Dig!, what starts out as Newcombe against the fans slowly unfurls into a all-out inter-band brawl, kicking off with the gurny-faced Joel Gion and ending with a sprawling mess on the floor. It’s an act made all the more ludicrous by the wonderfully ironic statement that precedes the fight: “This next song’s about love.”
”
Others in the list include Jack White v the Von Bondies’ Jason Stollsteimer; Charlie Watts v Mick Jagger; Kid Rock v Tommy Lee; Pete Doherty v Johnny Borrell.
Hot Shot Hamish says
That looked like fun!