- Sep 15, 2017

10 Fans Performing With Bands

Have you ever been to a concert, looked up in the middle of your favorite song and thought "it would be awesome if I could be up there?"

As a musician myself I've had those fantasy moments, looking back into the crowd of people and awing at the sheer mass of people all singing in unison to their favorite band.

Well, for a few lucky fans out there, the musicians of some of these bands have been awesome enough to let them participate. Weather it's singing, or bringing out a guitar and going "Who here can play the whole thing note for note?"

While some of these bands aren't necessarily in the punk genre, it's still "punk" as fuck for these larger than life superstars to exchange these awesome moments with their fans.

10.) Coldplay

Right out of the gate Coldplay can be described as many things, but punk isn't one of them. However Chris Martin of Coldplay has of late had this really cool "laid back moment" with the audience where it's just him and the piano playing one of their more well known songs "Everglow."

One lucky audience member during this moment that knows how to play piano gets chosen to come up and play the song while Chris sings.

This really cool moment was caught on June 6th, 2017 in Munich.

9.) Keith Urban

Drifting even more far south away from punk is Keith Urban. Now I can't say much bad about the guy, he writes some of his own songs, he plays his own music, he's one hell of a guitarist and he's married to Nicole Kidman. Other than that, once upon a time I used to play in a cover band and actually banged out some Keith Urban songs. (You Look Good In My Shirt.)

For one lucky fan named Rob Joyce he got to be Keith's back up guitarist for this song "Good Thing".

This awesome moment was caught on July 2nd, 2016 in Gilford NH

8.) Bowling For Soup

Hey a punk band! Now this one isn't exactly "fan oriented." However, imagine you're the opening band for one of your favorite bands. They're playing one of their most iconic songs, and then the lights go out, and you're on stage in front of a ton of screaming fans finishing the song?

Well that's BFS's thing with their iconic song "Ohio, Come back to Texas." My favorite video of this HAS TO BE of my good buds from the band Punchline performing this on the Get Happy Tour circa 2006.

The sound is a little shit on this one, for another angle CLICK HERE.

7.) Foo Fighters

I could go on forever about how awesome, humble and all around good Nirvana drummer "Uncle" Dave Grohl is. Shit I could write a blog just about his awesomeness. The guy has been so great to his fans since his Nirvana days especially since the inception of Foo Fighters. He's been known to do awesome things throughout the years like pull people on stage and let them sing, play countless charity events, and as of late has been spotted in the crowd during a Metallica show, and let's not forget finishing an entire set with a broken fucking leg.

Here's an awesome moment of a dude playing drums captured on Sept. 7th, 2015.

6.) Paramore

Ever thought, "yeah, I'm a dude, but I got Haley's range." Well that's what fans got an opportunity to do when Paramore made it apart of their repertoire to let one lucky fan come up and finish out the end of their hit from 2007's Riot album "Misery Business."

Now while this doesn't always turn out so well since Haley is such a phenomenal singer, I've skimmed the web for a clip someone killing the song. Killing as in a good thing, not killing as in murdering it.

Captured in Tilburg Netherlands on June 26, 2017

5.) Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi has been known for a lot of things since the Jersey boys exploded in the 80's with songs like "Wanted Dead or Alive" "You Give Love A Bad Name and "It's My Life."

Before I dive into this next clip, I must talk about an awesome prank Jon did for his fans. Where he dressed up like cowboy bartender at a karaoke bar where fans sang Bon Jovi tunes. He revealed himself at the end leaving all shocked as hell. Hats off to him on this one.

This next clip though was of one that happened in my hometown of Pittsburgh PA, of a fan that sang "Born To Be My Baby." He also killed it.

Captured Pittsburgh PA, April 7th, 2017.

4.) Avenged Sevenfold

To say that A7X has a loyal fan base is an understatement. There are diehard fans out there that do crazy things like tattoo the band's logo on their skin, I would never do something that crazy. (I have blink-182 bunny, MxPx Pokinatcha Punk, Milo of Descendents)

Avenged Sevenfold has been nothing but humble to their fans, even pulling them on stage to play some of their awesome songs. Some fans got to play guitar, sing, play drums but this one lucky fan apparently ate a nice bowl of "shreddy wheats" before he ripped it on Syn. Gate's ax.

Captured in Hershey, PA on May 8th, 2014

3.) MxPx

People that know me know that I wouldn't be able to have this countdown without talking about this awesome band. Back in 2008 MxPx had a Karaoke Nights on their U.S. tour.

They had a contest where lucky fans entered singing one of their favorite MxPx songs, then the band picked a winner to sing on stage with them.

For yours truly things lucked out and Katie (the winner) never showed up, so I waved my hand, and asked if I could take her place. It was such an awesome moment which sparked the moment where I became buds with lead singer Mike Herrera.

Captured Elkins WV, 2008.

2.) blink-182

What pop-punk band can say that if it wasn't for blink-182 they wouldn't be who they are today. This band has always been awesome to their fans, Mark Hoppus interacts well with fans on Twitter, Travis Barker always takes photo ops with fans, and Matt Skiba even while touring with Alkaline Trio took time out to talk to fans. Let's not forget about Tom Delonge, while touring with BCR and AVA he's always been a fan oriented guy.

Blink did this awesome show back in 2003 called Duets where fans won the chance to play with musicians like Usher and Travis Barker of blink.

This lucky dude got to record and play Stay Together for the Kids.

Lately blink's newest schtick is letting fans come up and play their songs. I wish this was so back in 2009 when my brother snuck in a giant sign that said "Travis Let Me Play A Song." accompanied by another sign that said "I promise I won't suck". Alas, it didn't happen, though Mark Hoppus did point to him and say "not this time."

Although it wasn't the same brother, years later my other brother got the awesome opportunity to soundcheck for the band.

That's him on the far left holding Skiba's Jag.

I'm super proud and jealous of the moment. (I'll have my own one day.)

My video however isn't of him ripping up sweeps (which is totally unheard of) on the blink-182 guy's git-fiddle.

No my video has to go to this 13 year old kid on drums, who not only got to beat the shit out of Travis' drums during soundcheck, but was RE-INVITED back on stage during the set to play their song "Always."

Captured Orlando FL, May 4th, 2017.

1.) Green Day

If you think I was saving the best for last, then you bet your fucking ass I was. Green Day since as long as I've been a fan of them, has always had this segment in their set where they play the classic Operation Ivy song Knowledge. Fans of the band know that this is their chance to shine, when Billie Joe asks for 3 people to come up on stage and play the 3 chorded masterpiece.

I mean they've been doing this since like 2001? I don't know. I just remember watching this when YouTube first came out and thinking "holy fucking shit, that would be awesome."

Captured Reading Festival, UK August 24th, 2001.

The band has then since went on to embark on camaraderie with fans by letting them do more than just the Op-Ivy tune like sing entire verses to songs, and even go as far as play ALL 9 MINUTES of Jesus of Suburbia on guitar.

How much more awesome could this get? Well a lot of fans have walked away with a guitar that night. Most of the time after these songs Billie Joe tells the fan that they can keep the guitar they just played if they do a stage dive or a front flip off of the stage.

This sweet moment was...

Captured Philadelphia PA, August 23rd, 2009

I wish more bands would be as awesome as these guys have been. Maybe in the future some bands will pull out of their shell and you'll see more interaction with fans like this.

A really cool idea would be a contest that bands could enter that was sponsored by something awesome where their prize would be to go on a full fledged tour with the headlining band hosting the contest rather than just be an opening act. If someone decides to do that, get back at me!