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St. Louis music fans have a reputation for showing up and selling out concerts when the world’s biggest entertainers come to town.

But they aren’t pushovers; they demand respect, and they don’t cater to artists’ egos when they bring a bad show to town. In fact, St. Louis fans wear their hearts on their sleeves, and if not satisfied, they will rage.

Rage is a strong word. Maybe “passionate� is a better way to describe St. Louisans who aren’t afraid to shake things up when a live music performance starts to go haywire. But fans aren’t always to blame when concerts take a left turn. Poopy plunders, inattentive security guards and immense consumption of drugs and alcohol have also created some of the wildest moments in St. Louis concert history.

Here are five moments that might help you recall a few crazy concert memories from the city’s entertainment history.

Superjam 1977

Date: July 9, 1977

When Ted Nugent and R.E.O. Speedwagon hit the stage at Busch Stadium in 1977, it was the biggest concert St. Louis had ever seen. More than 45,000 concertgoers flooded the baseball stadium decked out in band merch and ready for a day of rock n’ roll under the sun. It had been eight years since Woodstock and, for St. Louis fans, Superjam was their moment to revel in rock madness.

The concert began at 4:15 p.m. and within two hours, the first aid station was flooded with injuries. More than 100 guests were suffering from heat exhaustion, and others were brought in unconscious from drug and alcohol consumption. According to an article from the Post-Dispatch, four young people were hospitalized at City Hospital for overconsumption of substances during the event.

Although event organizers planned free admission for the last hour of the show, fans couldn’t wait and bombarded the gates, crashing the concert and overwhelming security. While damage to the gate fencing was minor, guests later broke down the glass door of the Stadium Club entrance and three people were arrested for fighting.

The Riverport Riot

Date: July 2, 1991

Thirty-four years after the Riverport Riot, concertgoer Kerrie Smith, 53, of Benton, Illinois, says she still has a bone to pick with Axl Rose.

“I always tell people, I’m still mad at Axl Rose from 1991,� Smith says. “He ruined my birthday.�

She was celebrating her 19th birthday, and a guy she was dating bought her tickets as a gift. The pair drove two hours from Illinois to see Guns N’ Roses at the Riverport Amphitheater in Maryland Heights for an evening of hair metal guitar riffs and rock anthems.

Back in 1991, it was against the rules to bring disposable cameras into certain venues to photograph live performances. But as Guns N’ Roses launched into the song “Rocket Queen,� music fan Bill “Stump� Stephenson seemed to have missed the memo. As Stephenson snapped away from the crowd, frontman Rose grew angry quickly.

“He pointed, and he kept saying, “Get him, get that guy, get that guy,� and he said it two or three times,� Smith says.

Rose stopped singing and demanded that security stop Stephenson from snapping photos. When they didn’t do it fast enough, Rose took matters into his own hands, diving from the stage and commencing to pummel the fan. When he returned to the stage, Rose ended the show, just 30 minutes into it.

“Well, thanks to the lame ass security, I’m going home,� Rose said before slamming his microphone on the stage and storming off.

Smith watched from the lawn as fans waited for Rose to return to the stage. But he never did as the band played the same beat on a loop “for what seemed like forever.� The crowd even chanted for the opening act, Skid Row, to come back and perform.

Once everyone realized the show was really over, chaos broke out. Blaming the security for the shortened performance, fans turned on the guards. They ripped up the venue chairs and began throwing them and hopped on stage to destroy the equipment. When a concertgoer standing near her was hit in the face, Smith and her date decided it was time to leave as police officers in riot gear stormed the venue. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were rear-ended by another car trying to escape the concert madness.

“I always said it was just starting to get good,� she says. “I don’t know if our drinks kicked in or his drinks kicked in ... but it was just starting to really, really sound good when it all broke loose.�

At the end of the night, 65 fans were injured, and the Maryland Heights venue sustained thousands of dollars in damage. Multiple concertgoers sued Rose following the event, and while Rose was cleared of wrongdoing in most claims, Stephenson settled with the rocker in 1993.

Rose walked away from the riot with a bad taste in his mouth for St. Louis. That was made clear when Guns N’ Roses released its “Use Your Illusion� album set in September 1991, which featured a message in the credits that read “F*** You St. Louis.� The message also left a bad taste in the mouths of St. Louis Guns N’ Roses fans.

“It was a birthday gone wrong thanks to Axl Rose throwing a temper tantrum,� Smith says.

Two nights after the Riverport Riot, Smith returned to the amphitheater for part two of her birthday present: tickets to see the glam metal band Warrant. Ironically, before lead singer Jani Lane kicked off the show, he threw a handful of disposable cameras into the crowd.

Nirvana at Mississippi Nights

Date: Oct. 16, 1991

Grunge rock band Nirvana left a legendary mark on the entertainment scene during its first and only St. Louis show. It happened in October 1991 at Mississippi Nights, the beloved 1,000-capacity venue west of the river that closed in 2007.

Venue booking agent Pat Hagin, 70, says he’d booked Nirvana just a few weeks before the explosion of its album “Nevermind.� He’d just transitioned into booking shows for Mississippi Nights after stepping back from running the venue.

“I did the booking and then they just exploded between the time I booked them and the time the show played off,� Hagin says.

Just a few weeks before, the generation-defining band released its sophomore album “Nevermind,� catapulting it to instant mainstream popularity. Bootleg copies of the 13-track album had been floating around the city before it dropped, and tickets sold for $8 to $10 with a sold-out crowd attending the autumn concert.

Hagin popped up at the club before the show started to see how things were going. He was sitting in the office talking to the owner when he began to hear agitation rise on stage and in the office. He immediately left, feeling things were going south.

Since I didn’t run the club anymore, I didn’t feel like there was anything I could really do about it,� he says.

By the time Nirvana hit the stage to open with “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam,� St. Louis fans had commenced to full rock rage. They dived from the stage headfirst into the pit, displaying extreme bouts of vicious, unruly violence that defined grunge rock shows during their heyday.

Fans were throwing objects on stage in grunge delight. They even started throwing one another as bodies flew through the air and landed on stage as the band performed. Despite Nirvana being known for its riot-inducing shows, the mayhem led to Kurt Cobain stopping the show five times and yelling at security guards for being too rough with fans. But after the fifth pause, Cobain invited the ragers on stage.

Unfortunately, the show paused again when the entire crowd rushed the stage. David Grohl fled backstage. Cobain and bassist Chris Novoselic were shoved into the walls, clutching their instruments.

After local law enforcement was called in to defuse the scene, the band resumed its set with Mississippi Nights staying open late to accommodate Nirvana’s final St. Louis show.

Hagin stands on the fact that a riot didn’t happen that night, although there was potential for mayhem. He says “I don’t know how different that show was than any other show they were doing at that point. It was a volatile era.�

Cloudy with a chance of pigeon poo at Kings of Leon

Date: July 23, 2010

Back in 2010, venue staff at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (formerly Riverport) discovered an infestation that could pose issues during live performances.

According to a statement released by the band following the show, venue management informed the band before the show that there was “a significant pigeon infestation problem with summer shows.� While none of the fans attending the show that night was pooped on, the Kings of Leon weren’t so lucky.

The poo panic began as soon as the band hit the stage, with wet, running fecal matter on some of their instruments before they started to play. As the band kicked off with the song “Closer,� pigeon poop fell from above and landed on bass player Jared Followill’s face. Despite the venue’s warning and the opening acts persisting through the fecal rain, the band continued to play.

“We couldn’t believe what the Postelles and the Stills looked like after their sets,� Followill told CNN. “We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous.�

But the avian poop parade worsened as they launched into the next song. By the time the Nashville rockers reached their track “Taper Jean Girl,� the stage had been taken over by pigeons in the rafters, leading to a rain down of feces that caused the Kings of Leon to leave the stage after three songs.

“I was hit by pigeons on each of the first three songs,� Followill said. “We had 20 songs on the set list. By the end of the show, I would have been covered from head to toe.�

The band apologized and promised to return to St. Louis at a later date, with drummer Nathan Followill tweeting more apologies.

“So sorry St. Louis,� Nathan tweeted. “We had to bail, pigeons sh**ing in Jared’s mouth. Too unsanitary to continue.�

GloRilla at the Factory

Date: March 24, 2025

Known for her in-your-face lyricism and chant-like hit records, Memphis rapper GloRilla brought her “Glorious� tour to the Factory in Chesterfield just as the weather was warming up this spring. Considering that her Grammy-nominated single “Yeah Glo!� samples the song “Run Up Get Done Up� by St. Louis rap group DaBanggaz314, it made perfect sense for GloRilla to slide through the Lou.

“I love GloRilla, so why not go,� concertgoer Ohun Ashe said after being invited to attend the show with a friend.

However, Ashe and the rest of GloRilla’s St. Louis fans left the concert early after mayhem ensued.

GloRilla’s lyricism leans into salacious, high-energy rap bars that talk about everything from fighting to being freed from the pitfalls of toxic relationships. However, when the rapper shifted gears to dance to a sexy breakdown featuring the Beyonce song “Diva,� fights began breaking out in the crowd. Ashe recorded with her phone as the fights broke out, causing the “FNF� rapper to pause the show.

“She asked ‘Do I need to end the show? Do I need to end this?� Ashe says.

She resumed performing after the two fights were broken up, only for a third to erupt immediately after, prompting her to end the show. Ashe says the fights broke out as the concert neared its end, with GloRilla being more than halfway through the setlist. Despite the violence on the concert floor, she says it was still worth stepping out on a workday.

“Being a millennial outside on a Monday, it was still was very much so worth it,� she says.