After a long school or work-week, there is nothing better than planning a Friday night outing to a club with a few friends to unwind and blow off some steam. I can’t think of one person in my circle of friends or even acquaintances who doesn’t like watching a live band, whether it be a raucous metal band or simply a solo performer strumming his guitar whilst singing his heart out – proclaiming his undying love, in lyric form, to the girl who left him for his brother. A whether they enjoy watching the performers, performances or both, they usually pass up the opportunity for one reason in particular – club brawls. By about 11h00 the audiences attending these gigs have passed the beer and cider swigging stage and have moved on to the stronger stuff, drinks strong enough to put hair on your chest, and this is the major contributing factor to today’s topic.

When rounding up the troops to watch a live band, you will always come across one or two people who would prefer to stay home. They have a sour taste in their mouth regarding live music venues due to the fist fights they have been privy to in clubs. Weirdly enough, the girls don’t see this as a deterrent as much as their male counter-parts do. Most of the guys would rather frequent a quiet venue as opposed to a packed one, filled with cigarette smoke, the smell of beer, and no matter where you are in the tiny venue, you are close enough to the stage to see the sweat dripping from the performers faces. More often than not their concern is having their significant other in what they deem to be a potentially dangerous environment, and that turns them off.

The reason I decided to write about this was because of an experience I had a few months ago, when I watched Van Coke Kartel play at a live music venue in Cape Town. It was unbelievable, one of the best live gigs I have had the pleasure of attending, Van Coke Kartel came alive in that small venue. I was having a great time and then, in the distance, I could see that one guy, (there is always that “one guy” who should be watching MMA and not live music). He moved around the venue, pushing and shoving his way through the crowd. He made it rather unpleasant for everyone who attended as most were there for a good time and not a single round knock-out with an intoxicated individual, weighing in at 110kg’s, sporting tribal tattoos and a baseball cap.

As “the one” moved closer to the stage, he found a no-nonsense individual willing to take him on. He obviously did not research the band he came to watch, because if he had, he would have known that this particular band and their particular front man WILL break up fights causing a disturbance during their performance. Francois was in mid-song, when he saw this altercation out of the corner of his eye, he did what looked like an impressive fly-kick high in the air, as if he was channeling Jean Claude Van Damme, ending with his foot just missing the brute’s head and them both landing on the beer soaked floor. The crowd cheered and Francois was again hailed the ultimate rock star by his adoring fans in the club, who then spread their take of the events on Facebook and Twitter. Francois later admitted that it was not, in fact, an amazing fly-kick, the likes of which you would witness in an ETV Friday night action flick, and that he had actually tried to tap the guy with his foot but lost his footing and ended up falling off stage, into the crowd below… but let’s stick to the fly-kicking story, it lives perfectly alongside Van Coke’s other urban legends, including the one where Francois supposedly slaughtered a cat on stage in Hermanus.

I thought about this incident on the drive home and wondered, how do the musicians feel about this? They rehearse tirelessly for hours each week and spend their time perfecting their art, only to be interrupted by hooligans in the crowd. A little more than a year ago, Dave Grohl kicked out a fan out for starting a fight during his performance at a London gig. If you haven’t watched the video, you can view it here. Grohl stopped midway during Skin and Bones and “ushered” the gentlemen out whilst offending him and his mother and informing him that people don’t attend his shows to “fight, they come to his show to dance”. Is this the right approach? Should musicians intervene? Or should they carry on performing as if nothing has happened? Metal bands encourage “walls of death” and “mosh pits”, which regularly end with people getting hurt and fights breaking out, which then, in turn, lead to an event being labelled as a “Great Gig”. As a rock performer, when a gig is going well and an incident breaks out, does it effect their performance negatively? Does it just leave a bad impression of the venue? Or are the artists too immersed in their own performance to focus on what’s happening in the crowd? I spoke to a few of our top musos and this is what they had to say on the topic:

I think it’s your responsibility to stop the show,address the crowd and get those f-ers to stop fighting or get them thrown out. The mosh-pit is part of rock&roll culture, but when people are getting hurt it needs to be contained.  Violence and aggression at shows spoil it for both band and audience – Laudo Liebenberg, frontman of aKING.

Wynand Myburgh, bassist of Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel, went on to say

It is all very simple and inevitable – the mix of alcohol and loud music, dancing and especially the infamous ”moshing” [taking place], fights will break out. It is kak and no one wants it to happen, but people come to a rock show to blow off steam and most people do drink to much or even plainly abuse alcohol to the point of either hurting themselves or someone else. In the South African culture, getting hammered at a festival or club is completely normal and acceptable  I do not see this changing very soon. It is thus not the rock ‘n’ roll, but the ”gummy bear juice” that fuels the fights. For the time being we will see the occasional fight. I just hope that no one gets hurt.

Lastly, I spoke to Francois Van Coke, front man of Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel (and the individual who inspired this article with his “infamous” Fly Kick) who had this to say on the matter:-

I have seen a fight get out of control a couple of years ago at a Fokofpolisiekar show at KKNK in Oudshoorn. Lots of blood and 2 guys had to go to the hospital, I also stopped that fight, but a little too late. I don’t really want to see guys get hurt at our shows. I think anyone should be able to attend the shows. That fight at KKNK happened after there was a Brandy special at the bar. R10 for a double. haha. The karate water obviously helped get the okes amped up on that occasion. Those fights normally break out close to the front, so I think the girls should stand back when things start getting heated. The combination of aggressive rock ‘n’ roll, booze and testosterone will cause fights until the end of time. The trick is just to stop them before they get out of hand and if okes can’t control themselves they should leave the show.

The musicians have a valid point, as long as there is that mix of alcohol and heavy riffs, there will be fighting at gigs. Its something we have to learn to live with, work around and avoid when we find ourselves in those heated situations. We don’t let our dislike of reckless drivers deter us from driving on the N1 to work in the morning, so fighting in clubs should not prevent us from supporting our local bands.