Some people will do anything to get a better view of the show! Case in point: Slipknot were forced to pause their set at Knotfest Australia on Friday (March 24th) in Melbourne after a fan scaled a massive speaker tower.
Audience footage of the performance sees the climber seated atop a dangerously tall speaker tower facing the stage. He remained there for several songs, inciting both jeers and shouts of encouragement from the crowd below. It took until the ninth song of the set, “The Heretic Anthem,” before festival organizers finally directed the daredevil fan to come down.
“Hi Knotfest, we’ve stopped the show because there’s people up in the air,” said an announcement over the PA. “Anybody that’s up in a tower needs to get down or the show will not commence until you’re down.”
When the fan finally reached the ground — where he was swarmed by security guards — Slipknot returned to the stage and frontman Corey Taylor commented on the situation by mostly praising the band’s Australian fans.
“I can’t take you crazy motherfuckers anywhere man, Jesus Christ!” Taylor said. “Got you climbing on shit, jumping off shit, rolling on shit — what the fuck?! That’s fine, I can’t stay mad at you. This is by far one of my favorite fucking countries in the entire fucking world. I mean that. You guys helped put us where we are and we have never forgotten that, god damn it, so thank you so fucking much.”
Apparently, the speaker climber had a copycat, because Slipknot’s Knotfest set two days later in Brisbane was also halted due to someone climbing a tower, according to Setlist.fm (footage of this one has not yet surfaced).
Below you can watch footage Slipknot’s Knotfest Australia set in Melbourne and the daredevil fan in question.
