Guster/Ray LaMontagne incident in Nashville...

The_Dude · Post by **The_Dude** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:55 pm

This is from a good friend of mine who lives in Nashvegas...

So, the story goes like this.......

Ray LaMontagne was opening for Guster. His songs are soft and mellow.
He had a 4 piece band. A lot of people who I assume are Guster fans were very chatty and more interested in conversation and giggling than listening to Ray sing. The chatter and the number of people chatting started growing. I'm sitting there, getting pissed, trying to enjoy the show and hear his voice.

Then the band leaves the stage, leaving just Ray and his acoustic guitar to finish the show. I can only imagine he had two or three songs left in the set, but he didn't even finish the first one.

The first song of this acoustic set was "Burn", a very passionate, bellowing ode to a woman ending a relationship. Ray is singing his heart out. Guster fans are chatting away and getting louder by the second, even louder than the music coming from the stage.

I was about ten to fifteen rows back so I didn't see the front row, but somebody in the front row was contributing to this rude, disrespectful, terribly timed chatter. Ray noticed too and dropped his hands from the strings of his guitar. He then backed away from the mic with his head down.

Several awkward milliseconds passed before he stepped back to the mic and said, "I'm sorry. Someone in the front row tonight thinks the Blues is funny". "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a........a.......... f#ck...in the audience tonight." "Yeah, I'm referring to YOU sir. Maybe you'd RATHER be home right now, drinking beer on your couch. Maybe watching your kids grow up, waiting for them to be old enough to go out and rape someone"

The crowd got immediately silent and noticeably uncomfortable, except for some of these ignorant Guster fans who started laughing and hooting at the stage. Then Ray proclaimed, "For those of you who were gracious enough to listen, Thank you for spending time with me tonight. Good Night" He walked off stage and the crowd erupted in a standing ovation.

I am still so pissed.... I feel cheated out of one of the best performances I've ever seen. I payed 100 bucks (for two tickets) and was shorted the full experience. I then went to his myspace page and noticed some comments as well as a bulletin on jambase.com revealing very similar behavior by the Guster fans at the Indy show a few nights later.

He has since cancelled the rest of his tour with Guster. If these are the reasons, I don't blame him one bit. Guster sucks and their fans are a bunch of spoiled brat frat boys. Whoever booked him with Guster needs to be fired and humiliated in public.

My only saving grace, however, is tonight I will be seeing Ryan Adams at the Ryman in the front row. I'm talking folding chairs front row. And the tickets are only 30 bucks. I'll tell you all about it Thursday when I return to work and cyberspace.

P.S. Tom Waits is playing the Ryman on Saturday night

jewlee138 · Post by **jewlee138** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:58 pm

Wow. Now I wish I would've used those tickets for the Indy show.

MynameisJenn · Post by **MynameisJenn** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:03 pm

he didn't cut his set early and there were quite a few ray fans in the place

Sankofa · Post by **Sankofa** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:20 pm

Ray was singing the Blues? Sounded more like two degrees of separation from that Your Body's a Wonderland guy with a raspy voice.