Weird Stuff Fans Throw at Bands

Underwear (The Classic Fan Favorite)

Let’s start with the granddaddy of all concert projectiles – undergarments. From cellphones to roses, fans have been throwing objects at artists at concerts and events this year, but nothing beats the time-honored tradition of flinging bras and panties onto the stage. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon either.

Artists like Tom Jones have been dodging flying lingerie since the 1960s, practically building their entire stage persona around it. More recently, pop stars like Justin Bieber and Harry Styles have found themselves on the receiving end of this peculiar form of adoration. The whole thing is pretty uncomfortable when you think about it – imagine trying to belt out a ballad while someone’s underwear lands on your guitar amp.

What makes this even weirder is that fans apparently plan this stuff in advance. They’re sitting at home, getting ready for the concert, and thinking, “You know what? I’m gonna throw my bra at this person.” It’s like a premeditated act of… support? The psychology behind it is fascinating and slightly disturbing at the same time.

Shoes (Because Why Not?)

If you thought underwear was strange, wait until you hear about the shoe-throwing phenomenon. Dave Grohl once caught a shoe mid-performance, took a whiff of it (because apparently that’s what you do), and then hurled it back into the crowd. That’s rock and roll dedication right there – or maybe just poor judgment.

Shoes are actually pretty dangerous projectiles when you think about it. They’re heavy, they have hard soles, and they can pack quite a punch if they hit someone in the wrong spot. But fans seem to view them as acceptable concert ammunition, maybe because they’re always handy and relatively easy to remove quickly.

The whole shoe-throwing thing might stem from that old tradition of throwing shoes at weddings for good luck. Except in this case, it’s more like throwing shoes at musicians for… unclear reasons. Maybe it’s meant to be a compliment, or maybe some fans just really hate their footwear.

Dead Animals (When Things Get Dark)

Now we’re entering seriously disturbing territory. Shock rockers like GG Allin built their entire careers around chaos, so having dead rats thrown at them was practically part of the show. But even mainstream bands like Metallica have had to deal with fans lobbing deceased chickens onto the stage.

This trend is thankfully rare, but it represents the absolute extreme of fan behavior gone wrong. There’s something deeply unsettling about someone deciding that a dead animal is an appropriate concert accessory. Where do you even get a dead rat on short notice? Do you just carry it around with you, waiting for the right moment?

The whole thing raises questions about concert security and basic human decency. Most venues have metal detectors, but apparently nobody’s checking for decomposing rodents. It’s probably for the best that this particular tradition hasn’t caught on with mainstream audiences.

Hot Dogs (The Edible Projectile)

Food fights at concerts are nothing new, but sometimes specific snacks become legendary. Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo was famously struck in the eye with a hot dog during a performance, leading to an on-stage rant that became part of the band’s folklore. The incident was so memorable that fans still talk about it years later.

Hot dogs are actually pretty aerodynamic, which makes them surprisingly effective projectiles. They’re also messy, which means they can create quite a scene when they splatter on stage. Plus, there’s something almost comically American about throwing processed meat at rock stars.

The Rivers Cuomo incident perfectly illustrates how these random moments can become part of a band’s history. One fan’s poor decision with a ballpark frank turned into a defining moment that probably gets brought up in every Weezer interview. That’s quite a legacy for a hot dog.

Sex Toys (The Uncomfortable Truth)

Here’s where things get really awkward. A common object for fans to throw at performers onstage is a cell phone, which can do some serious damage. A fan threw a cell phone at singer Drake at a concert last month, which hit him in the hand, and singer Bebe Rexha was hit in the face by a phone. But beyond phones, dildos have become weirdly common projectiles at concerts.

Artists like Lizzo, Madonna, and even heavy metal bands like Slipknot have had these adult toys hurled at them during performances. It’s hard to imagine the thought process behind this – what message are fans trying to send exactly? It’s juvenile, inappropriate, and frankly just gross.

The whole phenomenon speaks to a lack of boundaries between fans and performers. There’s something deeply disrespectful about throwing intimate objects at someone who’s trying to entertain you. It’s like the worst kind of heckling, except with props.

Cash and Coins (The Painful Appreciation)

Money might seem like a logical thing to throw at performers – after all, it’s a form of appreciation, right? But coins can actually be dangerous weapons when hurled with enough force. Bono from U2 once got hit in the face with a pound coin, which probably didn’t feel like a compliment.

Paper money is obviously safer, but there’s still something odd about the whole practice. It’s like making it rain at a strip club, except the performers are fully clothed and probably don’t want your crumpled dollar bills. The gesture might be well-intentioned, but the execution is questionable.

The coin incident with Bono is particularly memorable because it happened at a massive stadium show. Imagine the precision required to nail a moving target from that distance. It’s almost impressive, if it weren’t so dangerous and stupid.

Cell Phones (The Modern Menace)

Drake was performing in Chicago on the first night of his “It’s All a Blur” tour on July 5 when a fan threw a cellphone at him on stage. According to video of the incident posted on social media, Drake was singing a slowed-down version of Ginuwine’s “So Anxious” when the phone came flying through the air from the crowd. It appears Drake almost caught the phone, but it ended up hitting his hand and flying off stage.

The cell phone phenomenon is particularly modern and particularly stupid. A fan threw a cell phone at singer Drake at a concert last month, which hit him in the hand, and singer Bebe Rexha was hit in the face by a phone. She fell to her knees as it hit her, and later posted a photo of her badly bruised eye. That fan claimed he was hoping that the performer would take some photos with his phone and then give it back.

Think about the logic here: “I’ll throw my expensive electronic device at this person, hoping they’ll take selfies with it and somehow get it back to me in a crowd of thousands.” It’s like the worst possible plan for getting a celebrity photo. Plus, modern smartphones are basically bricks – they can cause serious injury when thrown with force.

Coconuts (The Tropical Surprise)

In 1979, someone at a Led Zeppelin concert decided that a coconut was appropriate concert ammunition. The hairy projectile reportedly hit Robert Plant, who allegedly threw it right back into the crowd. This incident has become part of rock folklore, representing the kind of random weirdness that only happens at live shows.

Coconuts are particularly dangerous because they’re essentially nature’s bowling balls. They’re hard, heavy, and can cause serious damage if they hit someone in the wrong spot. The fact that Plant supposedly threw it back shows either remarkable reflexes or questionable judgment.

The whole incident raises questions about concert security in the 1970s. How does someone smuggle a coconut into a venue? Did they carry it in their jacket? Was there a coconut vendor outside the show? These are the mysteries that make rock history so fascinating.

Pizza (The Carb-Loading Projectile)

Food fights at concerts can get pretty creative, but throwing an entire pizza takes dedication. Steve Aoki, who’s famous for throwing cakes at his audiences, once had a whole pizza hurled at him during a performance. There’s a certain poetic justice to this – finally, someone was giving him a taste of his own medicine.

Pizza is actually a pretty terrible projectile from a practical standpoint. It’s floppy, messy, and likely to fall apart mid-flight. But maybe that’s the point – it’s more about the statement than the effectiveness. Plus, pizza is delicious, so it seems wasteful to throw it at someone instead of eating it.

The Aoki incident is particularly funny because he built his entire brand around food-based audience interaction. Getting pizza thrown at him was like the universe saying, “How do you like it?” It’s the kind of cosmic karma that makes perfect sense in the weird world of electronic music.

A Prosthetic Leg (The Ultimate Commitment)

In 2016, a fan at a Foo Fighters concert threw their prosthetic leg onto the stage. This was only one month after frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg at a Gothenburg, Sweden show (requiring 6 screws to hold it together), and cancelling European shows in the aftermath. Dave is back on the road in North America with the band’s 20th-anniversary tour now dubbed the “Broken Leg Tour”. Dave is in a cast and performs sitting on an impressive throne, a kind of stage-within-a-stage.

Dave Grohl, being the legend he is, kept the prosthetic leg as a trophy and even signed it before returning it to the fan. This incident perfectly captures the weird bond between musicians and their audiences – it’s gross, it’s bizarre, but it’s also somehow touching in a very twisted way.

The timing of this incident makes it even more surreal. Grohl was performing with his own broken leg, sitting on a custom throne, when someone threw their artificial leg at him. It’s like the universe was making a very dark joke about disability and determination.

Bags of Weed (The Appreciated Projectile)

Finally, we come to one of the few thrown objects that musicians actually appreciate. Rappers like Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa have had fans toss them joints or bags of marijuana during performances. Unlike other projectiles, these are usually welcomed with open arms (or at least not immediately discarded).

This tradition makes a certain amount of sense, given the culture surrounding hip-hop and cannabis. It’s like bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party, except the party is a concert and the wine is illegal in most places. The gesture is at least thoughtful, even if the execution is questionable.

The fact that these particular projectiles are welcomed by artists shows how much context matters in the weird world of concert throwing. A bag of weed for Snoop Dogg is a gift; the same bag thrown at a children’s performer would be a criminal act. It’s all about reading the room, even when the room is an entire stadium.

Live Octopus (The Aquatic Anomaly)

In 2016, during a concert in Iceland, someone threw a live octopus at Björk. This incident stands out not just for its bizarre nature, but for Björk’s incredibly calm response. She handled the situation “like a champ,” which is exactly what you’d expect from an artist known for her unique approach to performance.

The logistics of this incident are mind-boggling. Where do you get a live octopus in Iceland? How do you transport it to a concert venue? Did the fan have it in a container, or were they just carrying around a wet, squirming cephalopod? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

The fact that this happened to Björk, of all people, makes it somehow perfect. She’s an artist who’s never been afraid of the weird and wonderful, so receiving a live sea creature mid-performance probably didn’t even register as particularly strange by her standards.

Human Ashes (The Ultimate WTF Moment)

In what might be the most disturbing concert incident ever, a fan threw a jar containing their father’s ashes onto the stage during a 2019 Ghost concert. The band’s frontman, Tobias Forge, accidentally kicked the jar over, creating a scene that was simultaneously heartbreaking and horrifying.

While Pink was performing in London, a fan threw up an object onto the stage. While it’s not unusual for things like flowers or hand written notes to be thrown up on stage, this fan threw a container that had their mother’s ashes in it. Pink looked absolutely stunned and didn’t really know how to properly respond to the uncomfortable situation. Similar incidents have happened with other artists, showing this isn’t an isolated case of poor judgment.

There’s something deeply unsettling about using human remains as concert projectiles. It represents the absolute extreme of fan behavior, where grief and obsession combine in the most inappropriate way possible. The fact that multiple incidents like this have occurred suggests that some fans have completely lost perspective on what’s appropriate.

The Psychology Behind the Madness

Experts hypothesize anything from excitement to wanting fame on social media could be fueling fans’ behavior. First, boundaries between fans and celebrities have blurred in the wake of social media. Fans have what is known as a parasocial relationship with their idols, a mostly one-sided relationship in which the fan knows a great deal about the celebrity and as a result feels like they “know” them.

The modern concert experience has become increasingly complicated by social media and the desire for viral moments. Others bemoaned concertgoers’ trying to get “TikTok moments” by throwing items to get good videos. “As a society, we need to work to overcome these attention-grabbing moments and look beyond that and really get back to the root of why we go to concerts,” Milardo said. “And it’s not so that we can have a viral moment on TikTok for ourselves”.

The whole phenomenon reflects a broader cultural shift in how fans relate to performers. What used to be a respectful distance has collapsed into something much more invasive and potentially dangerous. Artists are increasingly speaking out about the need for better concert etiquette and fan behavior.

When Throwing Goes Too Far

The most tragic example of fan violence occurred when Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was fatally shot on stage by a deranged fan in 2004. While this goes far beyond throwing objects, it represents the ultimate extreme of what can happen when the line between fan and performer is crossed.

People’s perception of throwing objects has also changed as they’ve grown more aware of safety issues at concerts after high-profile incidents like the Astroworld tragedy. “Every day we turn on our phones and TVs and we see news of violence in the world,” Milardo said. “I think that because of this, these types of circumstances that are happening at concerts are sort of a reminder of why folks might feel more unsafe in large gatherings and crowds than they used to”.

Recent incidents have led to increased security measures and calls for better fan behavior. Several fans feared that such behavior would push artists to put up higher barricades at concerts or stop touring altogether. “Stop throwing things at our girlies or they’ll make us go back to concerts on Zoom,” a person tweeted.

The Future of Concert Etiquette

As concert throwing continues to be a problem, artists and venues are fighting back with new measures. Bebe Rexha was spotted wearing protective goggles at her concert Friday — and it wasn’t just a fashion statement. Instead, it was a reminder of recent injurious interactions between artists and some overzealous fans who crossed the line at recent live shows.

The industry is taking these incidents seriously, with some venues implementing stricter security measures and artists speaking out about the need for better behavior. Morgan Milardo, managing director of the Berklee Popular Music Institute in Boston, said some venues will have signs that say “no mosh pits” or “no crowd surfing” — but perhaps signs that explicitly say “no throwing items at the stage” now need to be added to protect artists.

The conversation around concert etiquette is evolving, with more emphasis on creating safe spaces for both performers and audiences. It’s a delicate balance between maintaining the energy and spontaneity of live music while ensuring everyone’s safety.

From flying underwear to prosthetic limbs, the weird world of concert projectiles reveals something both fascinating and disturbing about human nature. While most of these incidents are harmless (if bizarre), they represent a broader conversation about boundaries, respect, and the changing relationship between artists and their audiences. As we move forward, the music industry will continue to grapple with finding the right balance between fan engagement and performer safety. What would you throw at your favorite artist – or better yet, what would you keep in your pocket?