IGNITING INSPIRATION FROM DESTRUCTION

The first time a stage performance caught my attention was at Vans Warped Tour in 2000 when Tre Cool of Green Day lit his drum set on fire while Billie Joe Armstrong continued to sing “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).”

Tre Cool didn’t have to light his drums on fire, but he did, and it has been burned into my memory ever since. Before this occurrence the coolest thing I had seen on stage was a lead singer crowd surfing. Random acts of violence don’t need to happen onstage, but they sure do make performances more memorable.

Acts like this don’t only unleash teenage angst; they inspire teenagers to save up for a drum sets and practice until they’re band-performing-worthy just so they can get big enough gigs in the future to light their drum sets on fire to inspire more teenagers to get into music.

Pete Townshend of The Who was the first person to smash a guitar on stage back on Sept. 8th, 1964 at The Railway Tavern in Harrow and Wealdstone, London, England, Planet Earth, Milky Way.

Townsend hit his guitar on a low ceiling destroying the neck, and then impulsively made the best decision to date: to smash his guitar. The crowd of course went ape shit in approval. Wouldn’t you? Yes.

This is definitely on my list of time travel destinations along with seeing the 1969 Woodstock, the invention of the printing press, Sid Vicious starting the pogo dance around the mid 70s at punk rock shows, stopping the Dimebag Darrell shooter, and drinking the first Coca-Cola.

I’m guessing these days there is a severe lack of instrument destruction due to it not being cost effective, or musicians just getting attached to their instruments. It took The Who awhile to start breaking even buying new instruments after every show, but it obviously eventually became cost effective.

This ultimately led other musicians like Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Jimi Hendrix to destroy. Nirvana and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails also became known for doing this at shows.