Candid snap of crowd reveals rock band’s brutal fail at Aussie gig

A brutal crowd snap during a US rock band’s infamously disastrous Melbourne gig reveals the exact moment everything went wrong.

A concertgoer has snapped the crowd’s brutal reaction to a US rock band’s disastrous fail at a recent Australian show.

Music lover Leon was one of the hundreds of excited fans who shelled out to see rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre perform at The Forum in Melbournne earlier this week.

But the night was not as he had hoped, with Leon telling news.com.au that from the first minute they were on stage, the band’s frontman Anton Newcombe had lost the crowd.

The popular US rock band left audiences stunned after two of the musicians started getting into a violent braw right on stage in the middle of the gig.

He snapped this extremely telling photograph of the unimpressed concertgoers faces, which he says truly speak a thousands words.

They say a picture speaks a thousands words and this one really says it all. Picture: Supplied / Leon At Large

“I just turned around and couldn’t resist taking a photo,” Leon told news.com.au.

“I’ve never seen that many unimpressed people at a gig, ever.

“Anyone who knows the band knows it’s gonna be a bit of a gamble knowing which version of Anton Newcombe you’re going to get on any given night.

“But from the minute he took the stage he sucked the energy from the crowd, like some vampire diva and it never returned.

This was hands down the worst gig I’ve ever seen. My friends and I spent hundreds on a booth only to be frustrated, annoyed, abused and unimpressed.”

Leon alleged that the frontman “abused the crowd” with various insults.

“He said he wasn’t able to sing that night, but he had no trouble yelling at the crowd,” he added.

“Anton sang terribly for about 20 minutes and spent most of the rest of two hours yelling at us.

“He called us cancerous reptiles, c***s, all manner of expletives. He said we were cancer, he didn’t want to be here, talked down to his band all night, repeatedly told us how lucky

we were that he was here.

Anton Newcombe, lead singer of US band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Picture: Thomas Girard

“He told us he wasn’t doing this for him but for us and we should be thankful he was ‘entertaining’ us. He said Australians don’t care about anything going on in the world.

“He proclaims himself a genius. I saw zero evidence to back this.”

In the end, the insults and shenanigans became so bad, Leon decided to simply walk out.

“I couldn’t stand it in the end and I walked out. I value my time too much than to watch that catastrophe,” he explained.

“What a waste of time and money. If we pay to see a band perform, surely there is some sort of ruling that the band actually performs to a standard.

“I go to gigs to get out of my head, kind of relax and enjoy something I love – live music. I don’t go to be abused. A bit of banter can be fun, this was off the charts.”

People were not impressed. Picture: Supplied / Leon At Large

They lost the crowd early on. Picture: Supplied / Leon At Large

According to concert goers, a fist fight allegedly broke out between the San Francisco based band’s founder Anton Newcombe, who is known for his wild onstage antics, and the group’s guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt.

Shocking clips of the brawl have been uploaded to various social media platforms, which appear to show one band member pushing and punching another, before the other slams a guitar on his head.

The pair chase each other around the stage and end up in a violent wrestling match on the ground, before other band members manage to pull them off each other.

The venue ended the show abruptly by activating the safety curtain, which incited a barrage of “boos” from the crowd, who also began throwing drinks and objects on stage.

Fans on Reddit and Instagram stated that the band’s behaviour and the concert overall appeared to spiral and was at times problematic in the lead-up to the fight.

Two members of the band appeared to get into a fight. Picture: Instagram / @s6phiej9nes

Members of the audience were left shocked. Picture: Instagram / @s6phiej9nes

“The lead singer basically ranted for 50 per cent of the gig, primarily calling the audience c***s and continued to mouth off at one of the guitarists,” one wrote on social media.

“Anton lost his voice but was also yelling and insulting the crowd the whole time, he and Ryan got into a fight, Anton kept leaving the stage,” wrote another.

“It was a nightmare. Two hours on stage of just constant abuse and bickering, we only got two songs.”

“Paid big money to see music, got a WWE act instead,” another joked.

“We travelled 2.5hrs, booked accommodation, and left after an hour when Anton called us all cancer for booing him when he summoned a literal torch be brought to him to single out audience members he didn’t like,” one wrote on Instagram.

“Possibly the worst train wreck of a band I’ve ever seen,” another said.

“I need trauma counselling after that disturbing behaviour on stage!”

Other fans said they “felt sorry” for the other members of the band, while others urged people to be more sympathetic to what occurred, saying that they “needed to get help”.

Anton Newcombe, lead singer of US band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Credit Ola Dyer

The show was cut early and the safety curtain was put down. Picture: Reddit

The Brian Jonestown Massacre formed in San Francisco bank in 1990.

The group was the subject of the 2004 documentary film called Dig! alongside alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols.

The band has gained notoriety over the years for their tumultuous working relationships, as well as the founder and lead singer Anton Newcombe’s erratic behaviour.

During an Australian tour back in 2018, the band was slammed by fans after making a “rape joke” while performing at Sydney’s Metro Theatre.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre were due to perform three more shows, but a statement on each of the venue’s websites stated that the gig had been cancelled “on medical grounds”, thus ending the band’s Australian tour.

The group are yet to publicly discuss the events of the Melbourne show.

The Marriner Group, which runs The Forum, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre band have been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Candid snap of crowd reveals rock band’s brutal fail at Aussie gig