Indian musicians on their craziest encounters during gigs

At a recent concert, Brass Against rocker Sophia Urista peed on a fan onstage. While she apologised for going “too far”, it has left musicians and audiences across the globe stunned. Though something like this hasn’t ever happened in India, the bizarre incidents at live shows here – by artistes or attendees – go far and wide, too.

“I am disgusted after hearing about this incident,” says singer-songwriter Rohan Solomon, adding, “The craziest fan experience I had was when a girl threw her bra at me during a show. I asked who it belonged to? By then the bouncer started dragging her out of the bar.”

For seasoned rock ‘n’ roll band Parikrama’s vocalist Nitin Malik, it has been an entirely different story, with undergarments becoming an accepted norm to show appreciation to your favourite artistes. “During one of my shows, bras were flying, as usual, and one landed on my head. I wore it on top of my T-shirt for the next song. Audiences couldn’t stop laughing,” he says, as he recalls another crazy incident. “In another show, a guy randomly said, ‘F**k you’. I called him towards the stage, smiled and told him to go back. I then told the audience, ‘Isse thoda door ho jao, yeh admi dangerous hai.’ So suddenly, there was an empty space and this guy was standing in the middle, totally ashamed.”

DJ-producer Sarthak Sardana aka Sartek recalls throwing his headphones in the crowd and seeing the unexpected: “One guy caught the wire and the other got the speaker sections. They wanted it so badly that there was an intense fight and the event had to be stopped.”

Former Euphoria member Hitesh Rikki Madan recalls getting embarrassed because of a fan during a gig: “It was at a college fest. In the second song of the act, one forsaken ripped my jeans at the seams, all the way! I was stunned. I lowered the guitar and continued the act, because I couldn’t see how to sneak out.”

But not all bizarre incidents are sudden; some are pre-planned, too. Parikrama keyboardist Subir Malik says, “It was during a 1994 Delhi gig that we wanted to do something weird. So, a shaadi baraat orchestra came up on stage. The audience stood stunned.”