Monday, July 26, 2010

A New Generation of Rock Critics?

Given the amount of attention I have given to questions of how one criticizes or examines music performance, I found it impossible to pass up the following BBC News report this morning:

Rock band the Kings of Leon have been forced to end a concert early after pigeons defecated on them from the rafters of a US venue.

The rockers abandoned the gig in St Louis after three songs when bass player Jared Followill was hit in the mouth and face by pigeon droppings.

Drummer Nathan Followill later apologised to fans via Twitter, saying "it was too unsanitary to continue".

Their publicist added the band found it hard to carry on after the incident.

"Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn't deal [with it] any longer," said Amy Mendelsohn.

"It's not only disgusting - it's a toxic hazard. They really tried to hang in there."

Opening acts The Postelles and The Stills had also come off stage after their sets were covered in excrement.

There are any number of animals-as-critics stories. Most of them are about animals on the opera stage (along with one great story about raccoons at the Hollywood Bowl). This puts a new twist on such stories!

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