Braxton Keith paused a recent concert to confront his audience after he spent a stretch of a song dodging beer cans being pelted at him from the crowd. “I didn’t come here to get beer cans thrown at me,” he said. “This isn’t a goddamn Gavin Adcock concert. Don’t be throwing fucking beers up here.”
Adcock’s music tends to be on the rowdier side, but even he was vexed when he took a can to the face during a concert in September 2024. “This is unacceptable behavior for any concert, including my brother @GavinAdcockMusic,” Keith wrote in the caption of a TikTok video capturing the moment he stopped the show. “Nobody likes beer and trash getting thrown at them.”
Keith was also concerned about the audience members located closer to the stage, particularly a young girl who brought a sign to let everyone know it was her first concert. “These people in the front up here are getting wet, it’s gonna piss them off and it’s gonna piss me off,” he said. “This little girl right here has never been to a country concert before and it’s her first damn time. We’re gonna have a good show for her.”
In his caption, the singer added: “I love live music and when given the opportunity to speak up about unruliness in the concert community, I will protect my audience, band, crew, equipment, and most importantly, the integrity of live performance experiences.”
Concert etiquette has been on a steady decline in recent years. In June 2023, Kelsea Ballerini briefly left the stage during her performance at Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden after a bracelet hit her directly in the eye. She said at the time that the moment “scared me more than hurt me,” adding: “We all have triggers and layers of fears way deeper than what is shown, and that’s why I walked offstage to calm down and make sure myself, band and crew, and the crowd all felt safe to continue.”
These incidents haven’t been limited to country, either. Pink, Bebe Rexha, Harry Styles, Steve Lacy, Billie Eilish, and more have all been hit by objects on stage, ranging from Skittles and cell phones to disposable cameras and a bag of someone’s ashes.
