Social media users are criticizing Travis Scott’s handling of the audience at the Astroworld Festival in Houston over the weekend by sharing videos of other musicians stopping their concerts to address problems they spot in the crowd.
Resurfaced clips of Adele, Dave Grohl and Linkin Park have gone viral since Friday night, when eight people died during the 30-year-old rapper’s performance as a crowd of 50,000 violently surged toward the stage.
In a clip of Adele, the singer stops a performance of her hit “Rolling in the Deep” to point out to medics that a fan in the crowd has fainted.
“Can you see?” she asks the medical team. “Can someone act like they care, please? Someone’s fainted over there.”
In the clip, Adele asks audience members to move out of the way while guiding the medics to the fan in need by using her higher vantage point on the stage. She also waits until her team lets her know that the fan has been taken care of before continuing with her concert.
In another viral clip, Foo Fighters frontman Grohl stops his show to address a violent fan.
“You don’t fucking fight at my show, you asshole,” Grohl says in the clip.
The rocker then identifies the problematic fan by describing what he’s wearing before kicking him out of the venue.
“You don’t come to my show and fight. You come to my show and fucking dance,” Grohl says before adding: “I don’t put up with that bullshit.”
In a third clip that’s been getting a lot of attention online, the lead singers of Linkin Park are seen stopping a show mid-song when they notice the mosh pit is getting a bit too unruly.
“We got to look out for safety first, for real. Nobody gets hurt — that’s number one,” Mike Shinoda says in the viral video.
“We know we’ve been stressing all night about being cool, and this is the reason why,” the late Chester Bennington added. “Let’s go over it one more time: When someone falls, what do you do?”
“Pick them up!” the crowd responded in unison.
There is also a clip of the late Kurt Cobain presumably stopping an assault he’s witnessing in the crowd at a Nirvana show.
Cobain is seen throwing down his guitar, rushing toward the front of the stage and signaling for someone to leave his show.
After the ordeal, Cobain sits back down with his guitar and says:
“Copping a feel, eh, buddy?”
“Look at him! Look at him!” he continues, with fellow Nirvana members — including Grohl on the drums — pointing and laughing at the fleeing audience member.
Music fans have also shared videos of A$AP Rocky, Rihanna, Chris Martin from Coldplay, Lil Pump, Irish musician and former One Direction band member Niall Horan, British rapper and YouTuber KSI, and the metal band Avenged Sevenfold showing great concern for their audiences’ safety.
Aside from the eight people who lost their lives at Scott’s show Friday night, 25 others were hospitalized, including a 10-year-old who is said to be in critical condition.
Scott’s shows have a history of being chaotic and risky for concertgoers, The New York Times reported. He’s currently being sued by a fan who was paralyzed after being pushed from a balcony and dragged onstage in 2017. Scott has also pleaded to a recklessness charge after encouraging Lollapalooza attendees to climb over barricades.
Despite footage of Scott temporarily pausing his show when he noticed a fan had passed out, the concert didn’t stop until at least 30 minutes after emergency responders declared a “mass casualty” incident. Scott’s partner, Kylie Jenner, has claimed the rapper wasn’t “aware of any fatalities” until after the concert.
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said some of the blame falls on Scott for failing to take charge of the situation.
“The one person who can really call for and get a tactical pause when something goes wrong is that performer,” Peña told the Times. “They have that bully pulpit, and they have a responsibility.”
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