Like most white, 40-year-old, red-blooded American males, I went through a brief period in the early aughts when I listened to Staind.
Now before you click the X on your tab and silently judge me, I would like to specify that it wasn't my fault.
Backed by radio-friendly, overly sensitive post-grunge ballads that most girls who go to the lake seemed to enjoy, Staind was as impossible to avoid in the early 2000s as boot cut jeans, frosty top haircuts and the Nokia 3310.
In fact, I'd bet that 75% of all 36 to 42-year-olds living today once had a CD-R in their disc wallet that was filled with Staind, Limp Bizkit and Incubus songs that were illegally downloaded using Morpheus. It was a strange time and place to be alive.
Anyway, although it's been a while since I've thought about Staind, apparently the band's lead singer – the crooning Aaron Lewis – is still active and touring.
We know this because over the weekend he threw a temper tantrum and cussed out the crowd at the Criterion because they wouldn't shut up and listen to him play a boring acoustic song.
Here are the details via TMZ:
Staind frontman Aaron Lewis had another tough night on tour -- he couldn't get a handful of chatty spectators to shut their yap, so he stormed offstage ... again.
The country-rock star was performing solo Saturday night in Oklahoma City, where he cut his set short toward the end of the show ... but not before laying into some members of the crowd with a good old-fashioned, "Shut the f*ck up!!!"
Dude, you're Aaron Lewis. Nobody gives enough of a fuck to "Shut the fuck up" when you're playing acoustic guitar. That would be like the guy from Creed demanding people to shut their trap while he plays the piano at Michael Murphy's.
Here's more:
After some folks wouldn't abide by his demand, he stopped strumming his guitar ... and lectured the crowd on how he technically doesn't need to do this. Aaron then gets on the mic and continues the berating, telling the talkers they've been yapping all night.
Eventually the crowd quiets down enough for him to continue with the performance, but just a few seconds into the song ... he stops and slams his guitar down, leaving the stage
Wow. On behalf of fans of good music everywhere, I'd like to officially congratulate the crowd at the Criterion for getting this loser who thinks people care about his acoustic guitar to stop playing. Where were these folks at every college party I attended in 2002? The answer is probably "in elementary school."
Here's an up-front and personal video of his pouty meltdown:
I may be on the outside looking in here, but it seems like Aaron overreacted.
First of all, whether it's a bar trivia night or has-been concert for spry Gen-Xers and older Millennials who long for nostalgia, audience noise is going to be an issue at any concert, especially at a poorly laid out place like The Criterion. Any professional musician or performer worth his mudshovel would simple block out the noise and play music for the people who are paying attention.
Second, he sure didn't seem to care about audience noise when he performed that stupid "Outside (live)" duet with Fred Durst. MTV made sure to always play it whenever they would still occasionally play a music video:
Hmmn. Maybe he was mad nobody at the Criterion lit their lighters?
