Friday night I went to see Deadboy & the Elephantmen, and the opening band was by far the worst thing I've ever witnessed in my life. Towards the end of their 'act' I finally had enough and let out a raucous "BOOO!" Which was heard loud and clear because the crowd was dead silent during their set.

So after they get off stage, their 300 lbs. tub of goo guitarist comes up to my table and confronts me. I couldn't hear what he was saying to me because the venue was playing loud music in-between sets. But my girlfriend later told me he was saying "Do you wanna take this outside?" He had a Chicago Bears hat on, and I ended up just saying to him, "Hey, man, I like you cuz you're a Bears fan, but you guys SUCK." And he just walked off. Also, the lead singer said something in my direction as he was walking off stage.

Seriously, who fucking does that? Oh, and to top off the suck-a-thon, the band name was Ceremony of Darkness.

You were sort of asking for it, but I loved your comment about the bears hat.
I think bands should be able to take shit and let it roll off their backs, but I also think crowd members should keep quiet unless they are getting up on stage next in a battle of bands situation.
I myself will never boo an opening artists unless I personally got raped by the ticket price for the show, and even then, I might have yelled shit once because of it.
I have no idea about your physical appearance and it seemed to work out well for you, but they had a right to be pissed, but never should have picked a fight over it.

let him take a swing.

you'd be doing the venue a favor.

I've never booed a band before in my life, but I can't even put into words how bad this band was.

That's bullshit. If a band wants to not get booed, they need to not fucking suck. If you don't want to get booed, follow these easy steps.

1. DON'T GET ON STAGE. Putting yourself out there invites commentary, both positive and negative.

2. If for some reason, your dumb ass needs to get on stage, DON'T FUCKING SUCK.

3. If you suck and get booed, go home and practice till you don't suck, or pawn your instruments and find another hobby, preferably an obscure one that you can excel at.

4. Don't threaten your audience because you suck and they called you out on it.

5. If you fail to do all of the above, grow some thicker skin. Christ.

It's show business, not show fun, and for the audience it's entertainment, so don't punish them and expect to get out unscathed.

I completely understand, there is a guy here in town who is an amazing drummer who plays drums for Broken Spindles when he does his live show, yet he also does this horrendous show where he uses an old casio keyboard and a crappy drum machine, and performs piss poor songs to old game show clips. I have personally only seen him do it once when he opened for his band, who was opening for Beep Beep. I clapped due to politeness after the first song, but couldn't believe his 15-20 minute set seemed like an hour of constant crap.

Only "band" I ever booed was The Sunburned Hand Of Man. I had just sat through a horrendous half hour set from Hair Police waiting for Sonic Youth to come on. Then this shitty sideshow act of losers comes on. I booed loudly about twenty minutes into their first "song" and started random yells of "go away" and "you suck". It caught on, actually.

phil speaks the truth.

although I think they have every right to confront the heckler. Not in a violent manner, of course, but still.

and "because you guys suck" is a totally viable answer.

Their last song was an Alice in Chains cover, and I couldn't even tell what song it was. My girlfriend recorded a two minute video clip of them with our digital camera, I'm almost considering posting it on youtube.

I'm not a booer, not my thing, but i NEVER feel obligated to clap either, out of politeness or any other motive. I clap when the band earns it. The burden of proof is on the band to get the crowd movin'.

DO IT.

Phil,
I just personally see a difference between a crappy band at a small club show that with proper encouragement might improve drastically over an up and coming band that thinks they are hot shit sucking it up at a big time show
I agree you should not threaten people in your audience, but I think most people at a small venue indie show or a club show where a local band might be getting a big break should take it easy on them. I think the worst sound for a band is complete silence after a song, that gives them more than enough of a message without being a complete dick.

Alright, I'm gonna. The video sucks because it's only a camera, but the audio is more than adequate.

Like i said, i'm not a booer. And I'm not a polite clapper. I'm not about to let some band shit in my mouth and call it a sundae.

There's a lot of sucking going on the whole wide world over, and it's up to the few of us who still go to shows to be honest with them, by not inflating their ego and making them think that they don't suck.

This man speaks the truth.

I don't doubt he speaks the truth, it is just around here in rather agrarian Nebraska we give everyone a courtesy clap, hell we even cheer you on after we beat you by 50+ points in college football. It is just how it works around here. If you get booed it is because you brought it on yourself by being a dick or walking off stage early, aka the early Oberst syndrome around here.

So did anyone see The Killers just suck it up on SNL? I didn't boo, but i didn't clap either.

No I did not, but they would be due a boo due to their standing in the biz.

[quote="Prince of Darkness" I'm not about to let some band shit in my mouth and call it a sundae.[/quote]
SIGNIZITURE!!

all these years of open mic's i have a pretty thick skin when it comes to hearing horrible music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knvh_Gs9HlY

Like I said, the video sucks but the audio gets the point across.

Ugh...that voice...

*edit*

I guess this is their myspace profile:

http://www.myspace.com/ceremonyofdarkness

i have only ever loudly booed the Vines, i probably would never boo a shitty local band unless i had some personal beef with them.

haha that was horrible. But where's the booing at?

Yeah, that's them. I actually checked that page out before the show when I saw them listed on the venue's web site and was expecting the worst. But I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. It was worse than expected.

Listen to the song Mandrake Root if you can.