Keeping fans happy is usually all in a day’s work for bands, but as a couple of examples that have sprung up over the weekend demonstrate, it only takes a few bad decisions to really start rubbing them the wrong way and turn the tide, just as they did for a rock band performing in Russia and an experimental hip-hop group back in their native America.

The Bloodhound Gang has been banned from Russia after angering fans at a gig for publicly defiling their national flag, as News Ltd reports.

Footage of the concert, held at Odessa in the Ukraine, shows bassist Hasselhoff telling the crowd, “I know what to do with the Russian flag.” The bass player then shoves the Russian flag down the front of his trousers and shouts “don’t tell Putin,” in reference to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Following the concert, a Cossack mob allegedly assaulted the band and pelted them with eggs for their anti-Putin antics. Now ‘The Bad Touch’ hit-makers could face criminal charges for their stage antics and were barred from headlining their scheduled Saturday night slot at a South Russian Kuban music festival following the incident.

Russia’s Investigations Committee says that the agency is looking into opening a criminal investigation over The Bloodhound Gang desecrating the national flag. Vladimir Markin of the Committee branded the band “idiots” and said “Bloodhound Gang is packing its bags.”

Hasselhoff was interrogated by police for the incident before the band left from the city of Anapa, where pro-Putin groups reportedly pelted the band’s departing vehicles with eggs and tomatoes.

The bassist for the controversial rock group apologised for the flag incident at a press conference, quoted as defending his actions by saying it was a band tradition for everything thrown on stage to be passed through his pants.

Another group that’s no strangers to antagonism is Californian noise-hop outfit Death Grips, such as when they angered their record label for leaking their album early, but now they’ve pissed off a great number of fans for cancelling a string of live appearances in the US, as Consequence of Sound reports.

The experimental trio – drummer Zach Hill, MC Ride (aka Stefan Burrnett), and Andy Morin – were scheduled to appear at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge last Friday night for a Lollapalooza-curated show but failed to turn up to the venue without citing a particular reason.

Venue operators were left in the lurch after the band failed to turn up, leaving them to announce the news to an angry, sold-out crowd that the band would not be performing, despite their gear being set up on stage and the opening band having already performed their warm-up set.

Audience members then proceeded to invade the stage and destroy equipment set up for the performance, including a drum kit that was broken into pieces, as one twitter user with a ‘souvenir’ demonstrated:


A statement posted on Facebook from the venue following the Friday night Death Grips no-show read:

We just wanted to let everyone know that tickets for last night’s Death Grips show are in the process of being refunded and everyone that bought tickets will have their money back shortly. We also would like to thank everyone at the show last night for being so incredibly cool about the situation. Despite being very disappointed, everyone at the show was respectful and we just wanted to let you know, that we appreciate your understanding as we were as surprised as you were. Thank You, Bottom Lounge.

Death Grips also failed to make their Saturday night set at Lollapalooza, with organisers saying that the group “chose not to arrive in Chicago” (the band’s set was replaced by Bad Things) and the band have yet to issue a statement but have instead canned a series of ongoing scheduled performances. Including a performance at Monteral’s Osheaga Festival and shows in New York and Boston, according to their reddit page.

The no-shows follows news that Death Grips – who in Australia for this year’s Big Day Out and headline sideshows – will be releasing their third studio album under Thirdworlds, “the band’s own label imprint created via a very unique relationship with Harvest/Capitol, to be distributed by Caroline,” according to Pitchfork with a tentative release of 2014. The as-yet untitled album will be the follow-up to NO LOVE DEEP WEB, the record that saw Death Grips dropped from Sony after they intentionally leaked it online ahead of its official release date.

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