Apologies for the headline, folks, but it truly does explain last night’s scene in St. Louis. As part of their currently ongoing summer tour, Kings of Leon made a stop at the Gateway City’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater last night, but after just three songs, the band was forced to cancel the remainder of their set, citing “safety concerns.”
No further explanation was given at the time, but drummer Nathan Followill later revealed more details on Twitter (via Gigwise), specifically noting that it had something to do with defecating pigeons — yes, defecating pigeons.
“So sorry St. Louis. We had to bail, pigeons shitting in [bassist Jared Followill]’s mouth and it was too unsanitary to continue,” Nathan wrote.
Upon receiving critical replies, Nathan added: “Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the ****ing venues fault. You may enjoy being shit on but we don’t.”
The band has not yet revealed whether the date will be rescheduled. In the meantime, you can try to catch Kings of Leon at any of their other upcoming Northern American tour dates, though, do be forewarned. Per one of the shitting pigeon’s Twitter account, they’re already prepping for tonight’s show in Chicago.
Update: Livenation will be issuing refunds to all attendees.
Update #2: The band has released a statement through their publicist:
An infestation of pigeons living in the rafters of the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO, forced the Kings of Leon to walk offstage after three songs last night. Even though opening bands The Postelles and The Stills came offstage complaining of getting riddled with large amounts of pigeon excrement, the Kings of Leon decided to carry on regardless. The band felt it would be unfair to the fans to cancel the show at that late moment.
“I’m surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did,” said Andy Mendelsohn of Vector Management. “Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting — it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will come back as soon as we can.”
When the band arrived earlier in the day, the venue warned management that there had been a significant pigeon infestation problem with summer shows over the years, but they were doing all they could to fix it.
“We couldn’t believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets,” said Jared Followill. “We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous.”
Kings of Leon are headed to Chicago tonight to perform at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre as scheduled.
Kings of Leon 2010 Tour Dates:
07/24 – Chicago, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre #%
07/26 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center #%
07/28 – Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre %
07/30 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center #%
07/31 – Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre #%
08/03 – Hartford, CT @ Comcast Theatre #%
08/05 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center #%
08/07 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live #%
08/15 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival
08/21 – Chelmsford, UK @ V Festival
08/22 – Staffordshire, UK @ V Festival
09/03 – Indianapolis, IN @ Verizon Wireless Music Center &*
09/07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Riverbend Music Center &*
09/08 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Park Stadium & Star Pavilion &*
09/10 – Charlotte, NC @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre &*
09/11 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Virginia Beach Amphitheater &*
09/13 – Raleigh, NC @ Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek &*
09/17 – W. Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre &*
09/18 – Tampa, FL @ Ford Amphitheatre &*
09/20 – Birmingham, AL @ Verizon Wireless Music Center &*
09/22 – Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion &*
09/23 – Dallas, TX @ Superpages.com Center &*
10/10 – Sao Paolo, BR @ SWU Festival
* = w/ The Whigs
^ = w/ The Features
# = w/ Built to Spill
% = w/ The Stills
& = w/ The Black Keys
