Metalheads Name ‘Wildest’ Concert Crowds They’ve Been In

A group of metalheads named the “wildest” concert crowds they’ve been in on Reddit.

The post, shared on the In Metal We Trust Reddit page, asked fellow metalheads to recall the shows they’ve been to with the “sickest pits,” most crowdsurfers and “ballsiest off-the-wall shenanigans.” They noted that the post wasn’t to debate the heaviest bands, but just the craziest audiences.

The individual who wrote the post noted that the bands with the wildest crowds they’d ever seen were Alestorm, Babymetal and Blind Guardian.

READ MORE: Study Shows Which U.S. States Have the ‘Rowdiest’ Concert Crowds

We rounded up some of the best responses and compiled them below, so keep reading to see which bands have had the craziest crowds at their shows. We also included some random footage of the bands’ performances to show what their concerts looked like.

Motorhead

The person who mentioned Motorhead said the reason the crowd was so crazy because there were a lot of members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in attendance. He ended up befriending one of them, who then defended him later on when someone else bumped into him hard enough to make his drink spill.

Hells Angels were used as security guards back in December of 1969 at the Altamont Free Concert — and it turned out to be a pretty violent night. Luckily, the aforementioned Redditor had a better experience.

“Those guys are really nice. Shook his hand at the end of the show and went on my way. Bumped my into him a few months later at a donut shop up in Port Perry and he remembered me,” they concluded.

Motorhead Live (Wacken Open Air 2006)

Pantera

Pantera were mentioned a couple of times throughout the discussion, with one of the most upvoted comments noting that no other show has ever come close.

“Pantera, never been to one even close… To be fair I’m more of a death metal guy so the pits were really never going to compete,” they wrote.

See a couple of responses to the comment below.

• I saw Pantera last year and it was nuts. People throwing chairs, lighting shit on fire, massive circle pits up on the lawn where we sat and down in GA. It was wild.
• Likewise Pantera for me, I remember some massive shirtless dude yelling that he was on LSD or something that he was “going to kill someone,” this was at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia during the ‘Far Beyond Driven’ tour. Dime started crunching the guitar, the strobes came on, and they belted out ‘Use My Third Arm,’ and the place went wild. I remember going home with someone’s gum in my long hair. I was 14.
• I also vote Pantera. They were at Ozzfest 2000 (or 2001?) and there were dudes lighting their shirts on fire in the pit. 

Pantera Live (1994)

Slayer

Slayer were named many times throughout the thread, but some had crazier stories than others.

“Slayer at the Aragon Brawl Room in Chicago on the Seasons in the Abyss tour. They put chairs on the floor for some stupid reason. The seating survived through Testament’s set, but as soon as Slayer’s intro music started, the crowd surged so violently that the folding chairs all collapsed, and immediately became projectiles,” one person wrote.

“I know a few people got taken out on stretchers. The venue somehow collected all of the chairs by the end of the first song, but the damage was done.”

Someone else said that during Slayer’s set at Mayhem fest, people set things on fire in the lawn area and moshed around the flame.

Slayer Live (1990)

Rotting Christ

Only one person named Rotting Christ during the discussion, but their story was certainly worthy of making it here. They saw the Greek group this past August when they were celebrating their 35th anniversary.

“Everything was insanity. We had lit some flares on the ground and we would mosh around them. There was dust everywhere, because we wouldn’t stop moshing despite all of it. Biggest pit I’ve ever been in. I didn’t know where the pit ended and where I was heading. All I knew was I was moshing harder than ever before,” they wrote.

“Sakis [Tolis] gave a very motivational speech, saluting us, the youth, for keeping black metal alive and that he’s proud of every single black metal project that is on the first steps of creating music. It was a night to remember.”

Rotting Christ Live (2024)

Other Bands Mentioned

Megadeth, Biohazard, Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies and Slipknot were among some of the other bands named. Check out the full discussion here to see the rest of the stories.