Let it not be said that Van Halen singer David Lee Roth suffers fools – or fist-fighters – gladly. In what is fast becoming a tradition among rock frontmen (and not a moment too soon given the exorbitant price of concert tickets), the singer halted a show last night in Manchester, New Hampshire to call out fans in the audience who were brawling and disturbing the good time of others.
Fan-filmed footage of the incident can be seen below; Roth's rant begins around the 48-second mark.
Diamond Dave had just launched into Van Halen’s cover of the Roy Orbison classic "(Oh) Pretty Woman" at the Verizon Wireless Arena when he noticed some violence going down in the crowd. He wasted no time halting the show and addressing the miscreants directly.
"Knock off the f---ing fighting. F--k you!" screamed Roth to the applause of fans. "What do you think this is, a f---ing mosh pit? You've got all the best-looking women on the f---ing East Coast here and all you can f---ing think of is f---ing fighting?!? Ladies, I'm on your side, yeah," he added, to more applause.
The band then picked it up from the top, with DLR having fixed the situation while aptly demonstrating his ability to use the 'f' word as an adjective, verb and modifier.
‘Go Dave’ is all I can say. Anyone who has been to a concert knows that the selfish stupidity of other audience members is always a possible threat to the enjoyment of a show, whether it’s some gigantic dude drunkenly careening all over the place or a nitwit blabbing endlessly into her cell phone.
Do I sound like a senior citizen right there? Well sorry, but I am one of those old fashioned types who likes to attend shows to hear the music and watch the musicians. Go figure. Call me Ethel McStuffypants… that’s my prerogative, especially if I have laid down a cool $100 for a ticket.
Wow, it's been so long since I've seen him - was expecting the shoulder length curly hair!
Posted by: ms | 03/14/2012 at 11:42 AM
While I totally applaud musicians with the balls to call out a-holes at shows, I must say ... DLR sounded like white trailer trash.
Posted by: ohwell | 03/14/2012 at 11:53 AM
that was great thing DLR did.We have enough fighting going.Lets us be peaceful and listen to the music.The world has to learn to be more at peace.
Posted by: Blaise McCaffrey | 03/14/2012 at 03:23 PM
To pull it off he had to talk like that. "Please sir.." would not have worked unfortunately.
Posted by: D Black | 03/14/2012 at 03:28 PM