i don't get the "firebird!" heckle.
i am, quite clearly, rubbish.

Jon wrote:i don't get the "firebird!" heckle.
i am, quite clearly, rubbish.

It was a classic.

And I'm feeling pedantic enough to give it a try - you see, here in America we have funny people on the radio who make people laugh on their way to work. This is so many office drones do not kill themselves in large numbers. They look forward to the wittiness in the morning. One particular DJ made a name for himself by shouting "Freebird" at rock bands. This was funny, once (ah, the good old days). "Freebird" is a bad song, you see, and it is funny to yell a bad song title at a perceived bad band.

Stravinsky, prior to writing his seminal masterpiece "The Rite Of Spring" had written a short concert piece entitled "The Firebird", which was then just shortened further for concert audiences to "The Firebird Suite". This is performed many many times at festivals.

Firebird sounds like Freebird.

Geddit?

'firebird' was a heckle of endearment, which is always welcome

i think it is generally stupid to heckle, but i agree with brad: if you are driven to heckle by hatred and disgust, then it is generally ok to do it, as long as you know you are to be viewed as an 'asshole' by many in attendance.

i think i have told this story before, but the band 'love jones' was playing their cocktail rock at a show one time, and it was unbearable. they were introducing a song, and they said they 'could play it in a ska style, could play it in a lounge style, could play it in a....'

'play it in the alley.'

that was my finest moment as a heckler

it is tempting to heckle back from the stage, but when it doesn't work, it's pretty demoralizing

i once told a man he was less than a man for yelling at me from a distance, and, if he liked, i would meet him stage-side after our set to knock his teeth down his throat, rendering further speech difficult. i looked at him first to make sure he wasn't too big. i had no intention of fighting, and i may be incapable of fighting, for all i know. but i thought it might shut him up. it did, and luckily he was not the sort to come lookin' for me.

once a guy was making a series of loud whooping sounds throughout a long quiet part of a set. afterwards, i looked out at the guy, who was still whooping, and noticed he was with a date. 'you actually came here with a woman?' that worked, sort of.

an addendum to my earlier heckling: i also yelled "i don't approve of what you're doing in any way" during us maple.

And the joke, she is still on you!

Salut!

What about heckling dancers on a dance floor? I’m talking jump on “stageâ€

david grubbs heckling spectrum is tatol crap, as is damn near anything i've heard come out of that guy's mouth. i'd like to see pete kember heckle david grubbs though.

a couple of my favorite heckles: after a crappy band has just finished their first or second song, yell "one more!" or "thank you, goodnight!"

i once convinced a slightly drunk friend that while a guy was talking between songs, she should yell "shut it, hippie!" which she promptly did. everybody in the band and the crowd seemed slightly jilted by it, but it was just so perfect. that three second period was far more interesting and memorable than anything the band did.

this same girl was the singer in a prior band of mine, and she was double-heckled by me and one of the guitar players, totally spontaneous and, i thought, pretty funny. she was dedicating a song, saying something like "this next song is for my baby, who should be at home asleep already" and the guitar player yelled "he's out drinking" and i yelled "i thought I was your baby!" at the same time. she shrugged it off and told us to go to bed.

but the best heckle i've ever witnessed... during a show, this guy yelled, one time every ten minutes or so, "WHO CUTS YOUR HAIR?!?!?"

that was pretty awesome.

I think I've only witnessed 2 heckles. One was after our band had played and the next band went on, they played very bland indie (the english version of indie) and pretty much the only people left in the room was our band, and a few people who were with us. The lead singer kept announcing the songs and what they were about, and eventually our bass players girlfriend shouted out "Yeah, whatever". Then we all left.


The other, and I'll remember this as long as I live, was at ATP. Shellac were playing Wingwalker. Steve has his hands outstretched going "Voo voo, voo, I'm a plane, voo" and some girl shouts out "PLAY THE FUCKING SONG", to which Steve replies "THIS IS THE SONG, CUNTHOLE.............voo, voo.....voo".

The speedy retort, coupled with the amusing swearword was funny enough, but the fact that he then went back to making these perculiar little sounds without missing a beat, that just made it all the more hilarious.

I was at a show in Glasgow where the hedline band weren't so good, and the venue was virtually empty.
A friend of mine shouted something mildly derogatory, and the band's singer shouted back some total viscious tirade of abuse.
My friend replied clearly "if there was anyone here i'd be embarassed".

Also i was at a Placebo show YEARS ago (when i didn't know better) with my ever-cool big cousin.
Their singer spoke about how "this next song is about when a man goes home and makes love to a robot because he can't find a suitable woman to satsfy his...." and big cousin interrupts:
"This is pretentious nonsense, i'm going to the bar! who's coming?" Placebo's singer was visibly moved.

Lastly, i heard of a Lapsus Linguae show where the audience were speaking and lapsus (purveyors of tremedous pretense-classical-metal) were screaming "Shut the fuck up! This is fucking poignant!"