Takin' A Ride

Something always seems to be happening at Slayer shows in San Diego. On Feb 1st 1986, Slayer played at the Adams Ave Theater. I mentioned my personal story here. But a lot more happened that night.

You know in interviews how Slayer talks about how their fans are so crazy that one jumped off a balcony and onto the stage and went through it? Well that happened at this show.

From the War At The Warfield bonus feature on Slayer’s fans:

I actually know someone who knows someone who knows that guy, so I may be able to track him down and ask him about it. But that wasn’t the most amazing thing that happened at this show. What was the most amazing thing was that during the 4th song (out of 15), Jeff Hanneman’s amp blew out! The show must go on, so Tom gave his bass to Jeff and Tom took over just being a frontman. And I don’t think Jeff missed a note on bass.

Check it out (along with Mike from Legion’s story about that night and how the recording came to being):

Slayer was also supposed to play at the Sports Arena (!) on 6/6/06! But I think Tom had to have gall bladder surgery and the show was postponed until a month later, which was actually during Comic Con.

Speaking of Comic Con, Slayer played the House of (Anything But) Blues during Comic Con on July 21, 2016.

Packed house, of course. And rabid crowd, of course. Someone spit on Tom for some reason and Tom immediately stopped the show to tell the person off. And get him kicked out.

The next day, Slayer did a signing at Comic Con at the Nuclear Blast booth. Tom showed up early and hung out with us for a little bit. Then the band showed up for the signing. Everyone was amazing and it was truly one of the best signings I’ve ever been to.

When Slayer played San Diego for the last time (so far), it was also at the Sports Arena. The show was general admission. And “sold out”. Anyone could go anywhere. Except they had the whole upper tier of the Sports Arena closed off! So not only did the promoter lose out on selling thousands of more tickets, the people that were there, were crunched up in the lower levels and the floor. Fire marshal showed up and they had to stop the show. Tom came out with the fire marshal and told everyone to move back and spread out. They opened up the curtains at the upper level, but you know what? Out of the thousands of people there, I saw about 5 go up to the upper levels. Thankfully the show continued, because if it didn’t there would’ve been a riot.

Here’s my clips of the show: