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Police almost shut down the band Extreme for allegedly ‘inciting’ Indian Ranch crowd
The band's guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, voiced his displeasure in an expletive-filled rant after the venue temporarily shut off the sound system.
Webster police came very close to shutting down a concert last week headlined by the rock band Extreme, which opened for Aerosmith Thursday night at Fenway Park.
Officers took action to halt the show midway through the band’s set after a guitarist allegedly tried to “incite” the crowd as a response to the venue’s sound being temporarily turned down, according to a police report obtained by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
The incident occurred last Friday. Before the show, a retired state police lieutenant handling security at Indian Ranch in Webster told a local police sergeant that the band’s sound was up to 110db during soundcheck. When asked to turn the volume down, Extreme’s sound engineer allegedly told police that the volume “doesn’t go any lower,” the Telegram & Gazette reported.
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After contacting the manufacturer of the equipment, police learned that this was not true. Police confronted the sound engineer “about his lie,” and the volume was turned down to an acceptable level, according to The Boston Globe.
But the issue came up again later on during the show. Police received multiple noise complaints after the concert began, including one from a “significant distance across the lake,” the Globe reported. So, police went to speak with the sound engineer again. Once again, the engineer told officers that the volume wouldn’t go any lower.
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“Based off his previous untruthfulness in the matter, I utilized some profanities to gain compliance and he turned the amplifiers off. During this interaction the sound engineer was extremely animated, frustrated and disrespectful, at one point grabbing my wrist in frustration…Once he turned the volume ‘off,’ the volume was at an acceptable range that seemed consistent with the previous concerts that I’ve worked,” Sergeant Robert Larochelle wrote in his report.
The band reportedly played two songs without noticing that the house sound had been shut off. When he realized, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt gave a five-minute, expletive-filled rant about the issue, according to the Telegram & Gazette.
“In 30-something years of my (expletive) life, nobody has ever turned the house (sound) off on us. Not in Europe, not in Boston, ever,” Bettencourt said, according to the paper.
Police decided to end the concert early, as a result of Bettencourt’s rant. Larochelle requested that officers working the shift respond to Indian Ranch to prepare for a “large disturbance.” Webster Police arrived, as did a state police K-9 unit. Police from nearby Dudley, Douglas, and Oxford were placed on alert, according to the Telegram & Gazette. Officials also made a tactical plan to distribute their resources throughout Indian Ranch.
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But police realized that they were vastly outnumbered by potentially hostile concertgoers, and that the set was nearing its end. The decision to force Extreme off stage early was reversed, and officials let the band play until 10 p.m. By 10:30, the venue was cleared.
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