Mini-Riot and Fighting Break Out at Akon and T-Pain Concert in Melbourne
27 October 2009
Akon and T-Pain Concert Review - Hisense Arena, Melbourne - 27th October 2009You know that phrase "the crowd went wild"? Well this would be somewhat applicable in the case of the Akon and T-Pain concert last night, except that the crowd went ABSOLUTELY BATSH*T CRAZY. Not in a good way.
The concert was absolutely feral, to be honest, and it wasn't about the performers. From the opening strains of auto-tune legend T-Pain, the crowd of mostly 18 year old guys were running around the arena like children hopped up on red cordial. To make matters worse, the cowardice of security was apparent very early on and they did little to prevent kids running into the tickets only general admission area.
VIDEO: T-Pain - 'Bartender!
T-Pain was definitely entertaining, churning out hits like 'Buy U a Drank', his hit with Flo-Rida 'Low' and 'Can't Believe It', but that was soon interrupted by one of many brawls amongst the audience, who seemed far more interested in punching on with each other than any of the music, to which T-Pain's posse suggested maybe they needed to have sex to calm down.
T-Pain's whole auto-tune schtick, accompanied by his wacky back-up dancers and white face-painted, batman cape wearing side-kick make it hard to tell whether he's serious or not, but it was definitely a lot of fun.
Then there was the first interval, involving a highly irritating MC and young girls humiliating themselves in a dance competition on-stage to win a pair of jeans, and then Akon's DJ and band came on, heralding the longest intro EVER ("can you say A-K-O-N, A-K-O-N!", repeat for 20 minutes...), before his DJ had a geographic brain-fart and announced he was super stoked to be in "SYDNEY".
VIDEO: Akon - 'Beautiful'
No sooner had Akon got stuck into this set than the brawls had started again. It was ridiculous how many times this happened throughout the show and eventually Akon had enough, stopping the gig to try and quell the crowd and, stupidly, running into the audience. This quickly got out of control, as Akon seemed to be relying on one security guard to protect him from the surging crowd.
Tracks like the 50 Cent/Akon collaboration 'Still Kill', 'Don't Matter', 'Dangerous', and 'Beautiful', were big crowd pleasers, but then came the real highlight: NO SHOES GIRL! Sprinting on from the side of the stage, came this shoe-less, hyperventilating girl with a home-made Akon and T-Pain shirt and she was absolutely FLIPPING OUT. The "OMFG!!!!" look on her face was absolutely priceless. Later, when her and Akon danced together, pouring bottles of water all over each other and the audience was the funniest shiz ever. Unfortunately, Akon's people decided they were sick of her stealing his thunder and hauled her off-stage.
PHOTO GALLERY: Akon Goes Wild in Melbourne
Adding to the random-ness, Akon's entourage were sitting on the stage and walking on and off during the set, and T-Pain was pointlessly hanging around the stage holding a pair of drum-stucks and wearing a towel on his head.
Of course the fighting continued and, towards the end, when security guards finally stepped in, it turned really violent. According to reports today, one of the security guards was assaulted. By that stage people were starting to get injured, girls were crying and the whole situation really began to feel like it was getting out of control. At this point the police really needed to be there, which is strange seeing as they were waiting outside after the gig.
One Twitter user expressed the extent of the violence last night: XandYMag: "Akon & T-Pain concert turned into a riot. Poor boyfriend got attacked by 7 guys."
Akon did stop the concert a few times to try and control the situation but there was nothing he could do. It's unfortunate that a group of guys ruined the concert for the true fans, but at the end of the day the venue need to look at why on earth their security guards let the whole situation get so out of control.
By Rose Callaghan
Disclaimer: in our opinion T-Pain and Akon were absolutely not at fault here - this situation was completely out of their control
PS - stay tuned to thehothits.com for the footage from our lucky 'Backstage Reporter' competition winner's interview with Akon, filmed last night backstage at Hisense Arena
Comments (8)
i had the worst time at this concert, we all paid good money to watch a boxing match, it was an absolute disappointment to us fan who wanted to see akon & t pain perform.. the security need to take a long hard look at them selves and understand there jobs are to protect crowds at events such as this and the venue its self need to look at not employing 50year old men & ladies to do jobs such as this.. the concert stopped several times because of these immature acts of ferrel boys. i am highly angered and feel absolutely ripped off and not one bit satisfied with the concert i was looking forward to for years
Posted by sxcbex on 27 October 2009
that sucks! it was kind of entertaining for a while, and then i couldn't help but feel sorry for everyone that were real fans and just wanted to watch the concert.
Posted by Gossip_Bitch on 27 October 2009
OKAY, SERIOUSLT PEOPLE, WDF IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL SAYING THE CONCERT SUCKED AND SHIIT, AND THAT IT WAS ALL A WASTE OF MONNEY! WHAT THE HELLL! IF YOU WERE TRUE AKON TPAIN FANS, YOU WOULDNT LET PUNCHONS RUIN THE NIGHT FOR YOU, YOU WOULDVE JUST CONTINUED DANCING AND HAD A GOOD TIME WICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID! DONT COMMENT SAYING NEGATIVE ****, AND TO SXVBEX, IF YOU DIDNT REALISE, AKON WAS DISTRACTING YOU ALL FROM THE PUNCHONS BY GOING INTO THE CROWD AND SHHIT, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE U WERE JUST TO FOCUSED ON THE PUNCHONS, AND IF YOU REALLY WERE LOOOKING FORWARD TO IT FOR YEARS, YOU WOULDVE CLOSED YOUR EYES, LISTENEDD TO HIS VOICE AND HAD A GOOD TIMEEE! PATHETIC PEOPLE, pffft!
Posted by charlenezifa11 on 27 October 2009
what idiots us are all f*cckn not normal THE CONCERT WAS EFFING AWESOME IF U DIDNT ENJOY IT THEN UR SAD DEPRESSED AND LONELY ENJOY WHO WAS ON STAGE NOT WTF WAS GOING ON ANYWEHRRE ELSE PFFFFFFFFFFFT SADKIDS U R
Posted by lindahh on 27 October 2009
OHHH, AND ANOTHING THING! DONT FOCUS ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF THE CONCERT! THE PUNCHONS MADE IT ALL THAT MORE INTERESTING,IT GHOWED HOW MUCH AKON TRUELY WANTED TO CONTINUE HIS PERSORMANCE! ****KKKKKEN HEADDOERSSSS! AND FOR GOSSPI BITCHH! SHUT THE FUCCCCK UP, EVERYONE GOT WHAT THEY PAYED FOR. THEY PAYED TO SEE AKON AND TPAIN AND PHENESSE PREFORM A KICK ASSS SHOW, AND THEY DID EXACTLY THAT! SO SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!:)
Posted by charlenezifa11 on 27 October 2009
I HAVE TO AGREE WITH CHARLENE, AKON AND TPAINS CONCERT ROCKED IT, IT WAS ENTERTAINING AND I HAD THE BEST TIME EVER, SO THOSE HATERS ARE CLEARLY NOT CONSIDERED AKON FANS. THATS ALL. bye
Posted by natashadee on 27 October 2009
if the music didnt stop every 5minutes and security didnt lock me in the building because there was no control on the rampage outside maybe i could have seen what i paid for, im not dissing tpain & akon cos they done a great job & i applaud akon for having the balls to jump in and try put an end to the crap, but fearing for the saftey of my self & the 5males i was with was not fun, im not interested in going out to watch fights i wanted to enjoy the music which was made real hard with all the chanting and song cut outs made through out the duration of the night
Posted by sxcbex on 27 October 2009
I had the best time I was right at the front, didn't notice the fight at all until akon went there, so i had a ball got good view of akon and hot pics, he is a top performer loved every minute of it go akon u the man.
Posted by jasminad002 on 27 October 2009
