Do Not Fight at a Jason Isbell Concert (Video)
Sometimes it’s the unscripted moments when you get to see the true character of individuals that your primary interaction with is either through their music or watching them on stage. Case in point is Saving Country Music’s reigning Artist of the Year Jason Isbell, who at a show at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin on February 7th was confronted with a few brawling fans near the front rows and had to stop the show down.
In stark contrast to the culture surrounding many of mainstream country’s male stars who seem to condone and even promote fighting, including Eric Church who once bragged to Playboy Magazine about the fighting culture that permeates his concerts which was then evidenced a few weeks later in the massive melees, multiple arrests, and colossal mess left in the wake of one of his concerts with Kenny Chesney in Pittsburgh last summer, Jason Isbell stopped down the concert to deal civilly with the fracas.
But the best part was Isbell’s mix of swear words to let the offending parties know he meant business, and the “aw shucks” authenticity of a guy originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama that made a rather common concert occurrence into an endearing display of character.
February 17, 2014 @ 3:49 pm
Makes me like even more!
February 17, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
Wish we had more of this, I’m telling you it’s gonna get to a point where someone will die and the singer will get sued and lose a LOT of money.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:04 pm
Hank 3 did this one night in Jacksonville a few years ago. He stopped the song to have a guy thrown out, but the guy ran before security could get to him I think. I saw him later in the evening but he wasn’t causing problems for anyone. I love when artists do this. They should pay attention to what is going on in the crowds more often.
February 18, 2014 @ 7:38 am
I saw Hank III do this at a show in Pittsburgh. He said that after years of touring, he could tell the difference between a mosh pit and a fight. Right after he started playing again some crazy jack ass ran on stage and dove off, but just as he jumped, the crowd moved away and he landed on his head on the concrete floor. After the show, I was walking down the sidewalk and I saw the guy sitting on the curb, covered in blood with his head in his hands.
February 18, 2014 @ 5:32 pm
That sounds disturbing. Did anybody call the paramedics?
February 18, 2014 @ 6:24 pm
Not as far as I know. I saw security carry him out, but I didn’t think about it again until I saw him sitting there a few hours later….
February 17, 2014 @ 4:05 pm
Go Jason. Cool beans.
I hate to see fighting at live shows. Whether it’s 21 or over venue or an outdoor show were kids are allowed. Concerts are sometimes the only outlet a lot of working folks get on the weekend every now and then.. to go enjoy themselves, have a beer or two and not stress. Families can go enjoy a good time with music and dance. But there will always be that one drunk turd to ruin it for the ones around them. Not trying to sound like a prude but sometimes… dammit.. it is just annoying. Because majority of the time it could have been avoided. And Seth is right… wait til something major bad happens. Or an innocent person/bystander not even connected to the situation… gets hurt. Even more of a reason for artists or whomever to stop it.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:08 pm
That reminded of a review I read of an Amanda Shires show in the Washington Post a while back, where a fight broke out at the start of the show:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/fiddle-star-amanda-shires-shows-unwavering-calm-through-melancholy-songs/2014/01/09/7475a0a4-7968-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html
February 17, 2014 @ 4:32 pm
I was at a very small Amanda Shires show she played (with Jason on guitar) in Austin right before Christmas as they were traveling back to Amanda’s home in Lubbock for the holidays, and on cue there was some prick in the crowd who wouldn’t shut the hell up and was hanging on everyone’s shoulder, running his mouth while everyone was trying to be quiet and enjoy the show. I was about a gant’s eyelash from getting in his face, but knowing my luck I would have ended up being the one getting kicked out. I swear there has to be one in every crowd, and I can understand it at some shows, but at an Amanda Shires show? Folk music and fighting really don’t mix.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:08 pm
Trig, your obsession with EC is getting ridiculous. If you, admittedly, don’t like him, quit bringing him up in every other article you write. I’ve been a “devoted” reader for about a month now, as I just learned of your site, and you, seemingly, bring him up in every other article. I frequent your website because I value your opinion and agree with your overall goals and mission, but damnit man, let it go. I have to believe that your hatred of EC, and your intolerable rants about him, are driving traffic to your site; therefore, you keep on keeping on. It’s rather ironic. Please, more article about what’s so damned great about Country music and less on why it sucks. Thanks to you and your articles, I have been turned on to the likes of the Isbells and the Brandy Clarks that make this genre so damn great. So I urge you, please more of that, less of the remedial “fight” with EC.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:54 pm
Brandon,
Look, I appreciate your feedback, and I’ve heard similar sentiments from others, and believe it or not, have been heeding it, and trying not to make “every other story” about Eric Church. There are NUMEROUS stories I could have, and really probably should have written over the past couple weeks about Eric, and instead avoided them specifically because of this sentiment.
In my defense, it has been 8 articles since I had written about Eric Church before this one, and 8 articles before that one before there was another Eric Church article, so it is nowhere close to half of my articles, it has been roughly 1/8th of my articles here recently, and I would make it hard to characterize THIS article being about Eric Church exclusively, or even a majority. I brought his name up to create contrast between the two artists. Go back and read the Playboy article about Eric Church. Trust me, it is his and his team’s desire to portray fighting around the culture of his music, and so if that is what they want, I can’t see how any harm was done to him here.
Lastly, this criticism comes up often around an artist’s album release. When a big artist like Eric Church releases an album, it tends to dominate the news cycle. I saw this same criticism about Shooter Jennings a year ago, and Taylor Swift 18 months ago, and other artists before them around their album releases. Then their album release and the aftermath passes, and I don’t talk about them at all for 6 months. Trust me, I understand that there are NUMEROUS people who probably no longer read my website because I have portrayed Eric Church negatively. Yes, it probably would have been better for business for me to have written a positive review for him. But it’s even better for business that over the years I have built a culture of trust with my readers that I am going to give them my opinion unfettered, regardless of how popular it is. I also refuse to be hand-tied from covering the news just because a certain artist’s name is involved. In fact I’m working on an new Eric Church article right now. But trust me, I am heeding your criticism, and believe it or not, it has effected the coverage of this site.
February 17, 2014 @ 5:38 pm
Please don’t misinterpret my thoughts, I, like most readers, want your true, unabashed opinion, regardless if I agree with it or not. I respect and admire that you interact with readers, as I know it would be easier to post and move on. So thank you for that. I understand that the album release causes a flood of news on Church, weather wanted or not. I’ll leave my thoughts and opinions, other than that I am a fan of his, for another day. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on some aspects of your critcisms. I value differing opinions, it’s how humans evolve, methinks. However, know that I’ll never quit visiting/reading because of your opinions of an artist and their music. That is why we read, of course. While an occasional rant is good for us all, I’ll echo what I said earlier, I’d much rather read your raves of today’s Country music traditionalists (especially the “Ten Badass Moments”). Regardless, I respect what you’re doing here and I thank you for standing up against the mainstream bullshit that is coming out of Nashville. Carry on, and thanks for your time, Trig.
February 17, 2014 @ 7:54 pm
Fair enough Brandon, I didn’t mean to jump down your throat, I just wanted to re-iterate my stance on some concerns I see from a number of readers and commenters.
“I”™ll echo what I said earlier, I”™d much rather read your raves of today”™s Country music traditionalists (especially the “Ten Badass Moments”).”
And I would much rather people read those too and that be what I’m known for. But for whatever reason, the negative stuff seems to get the most attention despite the majority of the content on the site being positive.
February 17, 2014 @ 9:18 pm
Yep, We love Trigger just the way he is.
February 17, 2014 @ 9:47 pm
Thanks to this comment, now I’m imagining Eric Church and Jason Isbell writing songs together. Goddammit, would they come up with good stuff. Not that I think they’d ever work together, but it’d be awesome.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:09 pm
This is the proper way to get rowdy at a Jason Isbell concert.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:26 pm
I was at this show!!! And I wasn’t either guy fighting! I was impressed at just how fast he stopped and turned the negative energy around and lightened the mood again with some jokes.
February 17, 2014 @ 5:32 pm
I was there too and he did a really good job of turning it in to nothing. I was standing maybe 15 yards behind the guys and just assumed it started because of people crowding around so hard. If you left your spot near the stage it was really hard to get back to it. I mentioned to a friend that night that he will probably have to start playing larger venues. Last couple times I’ve seen him have been sold out like that night or packed really tight. He puts on a hell of a show and Robert Ellis, who opened that show, was a really interesting performer as well.
February 17, 2014 @ 4:34 pm
seen ben from lucero do the same…during the “war”….think he said “yall dont fight during the war”
February 17, 2014 @ 5:53 pm
I can see someone fighting during “Tonight Aint Gonna Be Good”, but during “The War”, now that’s a sin.
February 18, 2014 @ 3:13 am
You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!
February 17, 2014 @ 4:47 pm
That was funny and righteous! Good for Jason Isbell. That is the way to take care of your fans.
February 17, 2014 @ 7:18 pm
Classy way to handle it. It’s little things like this that fans remember about artists, not just their top songs.
To this point, I want to point out and recognize Aaron “We Love Everybody” Watson as being another class act that more stars should emulate.
He had an “altercation” with a fan on Twitter recently. The fan had called Josh Abbott a deuchebag following Abbott’s admittance of his extramarital affair, and the fan mixed a Bible verse in there somewhere. Watson responded kindly but in defense of his friend Josh Abbott and quoted a different bible verse back. After a few back and forth tweets, another twitter user went after Watson for going after a teenage girl. It turns out the second lady was the mother of the first girl. Watson held his ground in defending his friend but pointed out he had no idea how old the first tweeter was. Long story short, after a few more tweets back and forth in disagreement, Watson invited them and their friends to hang out on the bus before a show sometime.
There’s good guys out there in the music world, we just have to know where to look.
February 17, 2014 @ 7:22 pm
And back to Isbell, I’ve never really listened to his stuff despite reading his name on this site often. But now I most definitely will.
February 17, 2014 @ 10:58 pm
Humorous. Is Isbell gonna be the police at all his shows now? I would think his music would mellow everyone out and put them to sleep, not rile them all up! In my experience the bigger venues always has multiple “incidents”. As he starts playing bigger shows, he can’t get worked up about some shoving in a crowd or he’ll never finish. I bet he was just in one of them moods.
February 18, 2014 @ 12:50 am
Excellent! Reminds me (a little) of being at a seated Elvis Costello gig about 10 years back. Right at the start some people went down to the front to dance. 30 seconds later one of the security guys moved in to return them to their seats. EC didn’t break stride, he just pointed at the security guy and said, “You – fuck off” and carried on singing. Masterful!
February 18, 2014 @ 2:10 am
Jason Isbell seems like a genuine guy. Am I wrong to assume that he might be the subject of a “10 Badass Moments” article at some point, Trig?
As for the incident, this reminds me of an incident I heard about involving Chris Young in which he observed a man hitting a woman in the audience, stopped the show and told security to throw the guy out.
February 18, 2014 @ 7:18 am
Hell yea makes me even more pissed I wasn;t able to catch him (X2) those tickets sold out so damn qjuick….I guess he got more exposure than I’m aware of because pre-southeastern I don’t think they had nearly the turnout…
I grew up going to punk shows but Isbell? And Trigger at the Amanda Shires show! WTF People!!!
I remember seeing a major biker fight right in front of the stage at a DAC concert in Myrtle Beach (the one and only!) at house of blues, and it was during bike week so it was packed – I’ll never forget this (huge) one old timer biker dude that stepped right in the middle – the huge security guys were scared to get in the mix…
And then we ran into the same crowd in the parking lot (they were eventually dragged out) and they were all drinking by this (awesome) van acting like nothing had happened – I totally expected it to escalate outside…
Anyways I can’t wait to see him live at some point, sounds great (live) with that fiddle!!!
February 18, 2014 @ 10:47 am
The same thing happened at a DAC concert I went to in Tunica a few years ago, except that the casino security was way too light for a DAC concert.
A pushing and shoving match between a biker (patched) and his friend (probably a hangaround) with a security guard (who was probably a good football player way back in high school, but who had been spending too much time at the casino buffets).
When it started to get pretty violent, I charged the biker who, mercifully for me, was so mad at the security guard that he didn’t pay much attention to me.
I came down on top of him and was like the dog who caught the car.
I was afraid that I would be arrested also and put in the same cell with the overly exhuberant biker.
Throughout the whole thing, which went on for around 15 – 20 minutes, DAC just continued his usual 96 song medley, claiming authorship of everything from Willie, Waylong and Me to Amazing Grace and the Star Spangled Banner.
I was at a Robert Earl Keen show in Knoxville a few weeks ago in which I thought that a couple of sections in the balcony were going to fight, but it fortunately didn’t work out that way.
But I did see a couple of chicks in front of me get into it pretty hard.
My favorite sport, by far, is boxing, but I think that fighting at concerts is stupid and I applaud Jason for stopping the matter in its tracks.
Concerts don’t need to resemble Altamont to be fun for fans.
February 18, 2014 @ 7:40 am
The worst act of fan malfeasance I have ever witnessed was at a Badlee’s concert when some guy in the front row threw a bottle at the lead singer. It was way out of the blue, as it was an older, mellow crowd who were mostly eating dinner quietly.
February 18, 2014 @ 8:25 am
I’ve only been to one Jason Isbell show and it was very chill. No rowdy behavior whatsoever; just people there who want to bob their heads a little bit while singing along with the lyrics.
Conversely, I attended several Eric Church shows when he was still playing the club circuit back in 2009/2010 and I nearly always saw some type of fight or scuffle about midway through his shows. You could always count on a fight at Rick’s Cafe in Starkville, Mississippi.
February 18, 2014 @ 10:20 am
Isbell handled that like a pro. Hilarious.
This video confirms my fear of about the crowd that’s going to see Isbell during this tour. Passionate fantatics who have found a new voice in rehabilitation mixing it up with rowdy DBT drinkers. I fall in the later department.
February 18, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
Most on point description / comment ever lol so true on so many levels
February 18, 2014 @ 1:43 pm
Most on point description / comment ever lol so true on so many levels
Reminds me of this bar in town that is below the Hispanic AA…
February 18, 2014 @ 10:23 am
Good for Jason ! People need to get a grip. I saw Randy Rogers do this one night and I’m glad artists are taking a stand against these pricks.
February 18, 2014 @ 5:49 pm
Very true. Seen Randy Rogers and Wade bowen both do this at shows.
February 18, 2014 @ 11:27 am
another reason to like him !
February 18, 2014 @ 2:15 pm
I had 12th row at the Kenney/Eric/ show. It’s a little too much to say the mess was “his” with Kenney Chesney. He was with Kenney Chesney on the tour….There were many other stories regarding this annual Kenney Chesney concert and problems regardless of the openers…problems in prior years.
Your tone and sentence imply him as the instigator of the problem. that’s a little too much. He doesn’t have that much power.
“The Kenny Chesney crowd is the most difficult crowd for our staff to work with of any of the events of the year,” says Merril Stabile, president of ALCO Parking.
cbslocal.com/2013/06/23/chesney-concert-ends-with-fights-arrests/
It happens every year. A bunch of drunk boys who don’t care.
His Playboy comments are what they are….stupid.
I applaud Jason Isbell…..
Other than the occasional outbreak…what has happened to the country music “politeness/civility) in a concert setting?
I will never go back to that Kenney Chesney kind of event even if I I get another free ticket.
Thanks,
Rakor1932
February 18, 2014 @ 5:49 pm
I hope this does not offend anyone, but I wonder whether this epidemic of fighting at country concerts (or Southern rock/punk concerts) has something to do with Southern martial culture (i.e. the “culture of honor”). I realize that this event took place in Wisconsin (and the Chesney/Church debacle in Pennsylvania), but given that both cases featured Southern singers singing in a Southern style, some of the audience might have had cultural ties to the South.
I doubt that we would see a similar brawling problem at a concert headlined by a Northern folk singer.
February 19, 2014 @ 9:25 am
It has nothing to do with geographical honor, but all to do with alcohol and the irrational thought that comes with alcohol or drugs. Not saying I’m a saint and don’t have a drink and I’ve been the ass sometimes at shows, but it wasn’t for any pride or honor, it was cause I was drunk (and about 22 at the time).
I think Isbell handled it really well. I see others above shared some stories of artists dealing with similar circumstances. I saw Jamey Johnson interrupt a set once because folks were being unruly. Like Isbell, he came across serious, but also didn’t fuel anything.
February 19, 2014 @ 7:28 pm
Wanted to say “thank you” to this site for turning me toward Jason Isbell. I had not heard of him before, but just picked up “Southeastern” today and absolutely LOVE it.
Thank you so much.
July 31, 2014 @ 4:26 am
That fella is a true class act.
August 24, 2014 @ 6:15 pm
Late to post but”¦while it was not a response to a fight, I saw Mike Cooley (solo), verbally eviscerate a drunk obnoxious person who had crossed the line”¦he was like a southern Shakespeare just lashing this man with his words while the crowd laughed and enjoyed the verbal display of punishment”¦it was so good I remember thinking while I was listening that I would never accurately recall the depth and detail enough to repeat it and I hope to hell someone caught that in a recording”¦.was that Portland?
Contrast that with Patterson Hood (solo) having to shut a jackass down in a very similar situation but without the humor it was much harder to recover from as an audience member. I told the jackass after the show that the difference between whisky and beer was that whisky would have had me dragging him out by his ear for his behavior and beer had me simply explaining to him why he was a jackass. Liquor free is typically conflict free.
November 3, 2014 @ 3:37 am
I am enjoying reading through the older stories here, and I loved the video! I have also seen a video clip of the great band, Blackberry Smoke, with lead singer Charlie Starr saying “Don’t start any shit during The Whippoorwill”. It is a song he wrote with his grandmother in mind.
On the reverse side, I was at a Dwight Yoakam concert and a guy was standing up dancing in front of his seat. Security went over to make him sit down and Dwight stopped his song and said “Leave him alone, he has been dancing during the whole show, and we are just about done.”. A concert to me is about listening to the music and enjoying it,not seeing how drunk and obnoxious I can be. I save that for home.