Thirty eight years after Slayer fans infamously trashed a venue in New York by ripping up seat cushions during a show on the band’s South Of Heaven tour, frontman Tom Araya threatened to walk offstage if they repeated the chaos at an LA gig.
The thrash giants were playing the 17,500 capacity Kia Forum on Saturday November 14, the second of two shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of 1986’s Reign In Blood album. They were eight songs into the first of the night’s two sets when Araya spotted fans causing damage in parts of the venue.
The singer paused the show and asked for the house lights to be turned up. He told the crowd [as transcribed by theprp.com]: “I don’t know how many times I had this conversation when we first started playing in fucking huge places. I kept telling everybody, ‘Man, you gotta fucking maintain yourself. You can’t start destroying shit because they’ll shut the shit down.”
When the crowd began booing, he chastised them for the damage they were causing, saying that the authorities would “shut the place down” and informing the audience that they were pausing the set until things calmed down.
“They don’t want anybody to get hurt,” said Araya [as per theprp.com]. “There’s a lot of people that want to come see the show. They don’t understand some of this stuff, and you guys get so fucking crazy, you start hurting each other. You know, you guys, I know it’s hard to fucking contain yourself. It’s hard to fucking maintain yourself. I know that. But you gotta fucking be respectful of the people around you, especially if you’re sitting in fucking seats. So the fire marshal said we’re gonna pause. We’re gonna pause until you guys get your shit and your act together, okay?
“There’s no one to blame but you, and you know who I’m talking about. Not these people in the front, not them, not them. It’s you motherfuckers behind these people, yeah. You know we’re in a time where people have… you know there’s no consequences for the shit you fucking do.
“We need consequences. If you guys keep that shit up, we’re gonna go home. And hope you guys don’t do that next time we come. You know, you think you can get away with shit and not get in trouble for it? We end up in trouble for it. We have to pay for that shit. I’m not joking, man. I’m not joking. Have you ever heard me talk to you like this?
“So you need to fucking get your heads on straight and behave like human fucking beings unless you’re in this fucking area right here in the front. Yeah, the fire marshals are here, and they’re here for your safety, your fucking safety. Do you hear what I’m saying? All right, let’s see how you act. We might come back.”
The set was then paused for five minutes. Slayer eventually resumed the show after the offending fans calmed down.
The band, who reunited in 2024 after splitting five years earlier, play a short run of South American shows in December to mark 40 years of Reign In Blood.
