Slayer‘s 40th anniversary live celebration of their pivotal 1986 thrash metal landmark “Reign In Blood” last night (November 14th) didn’t go as smooth as the band had hoped. That set at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA hit a considerable snag around 8 songs in.
The group paused the show in response to rowdy fans in attendance wrecking parts of the venue. With the house lights on, the group’s vocalist/bassist Tom Araya went on to scold the audience members responsible, excoriating them for their behavior and informing them that the show wouldn’t continue if they kept at it.
Araya said from the stage [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“Quiet. I just need your attention, alright? I don’t know how many times I had this conversation when we first started playing in f*cking huge places. I kept telling everybody, ‘Man, you gotta f*cking maintain yourself. You can’t start destroying sh*t because they’ll shut the sh*t down.”
After the crowd responded with boos, Araya responded:
“No, I don’t want to hear ‘ooooo’. Listen, if you guys want to have fun, you have fun right here in front of us, in the middle of the area where there’s nothing you can destroy, except each other. When you start doing sh*t on the outside of that line right there, they’re gonna shut the place down.
They don’t want anybody to get hurt. There’s a lot of people that want to come see the show. They don’t understand some of this stuff, and you guys get so f*cking crazy, you start hurting each other. You know, you guys, I know it’s hard to f*cking contain yourself. It’s hard to f*cking maintain yourself. I know that. But you gotta f*cking be respectful of the people around you, especially if you’re sitting in f*cking seats. So the fire marshal said we’re gonna pause. We’re gonna pause until you guys get your sh*t and your act together, okay?
There’s no one to blame but you, and you know who I’m talking about. Not these people in the front, not them, not them. It’s you motherf*ckers behind these people, yeah. You know we’re in a time where people have… you know there there’s no consequences for the sh*t you f*cking do.
…You need. We need consequences. If you guys keep that sh*t up, we’re gonna go home. And hope you guys don’t do that next time we come. You know, you think guys you can get away with sh*t and not get in trouble for it? We end up in trouble for it. We have to pay for that sh*t. I’m not joking, man. I’m not joking. Have you ever heard me talk to you like this?
So you need to f*cking get your heads on straight and behave like human f*cking beings unless you’re in this f*cking area right here in the front. Yeah, the fire marshals are here, and they’re here for your safety, your f*cking safety. Do you hear what I’m saying? All right, let’s see how you act. We might come back.”
Ultimately, the band did come back to the stage, finishing off their opening set of fan favorites and running through a playthrough of “Reign In Blood” in its entirety.
