MGMT’s James Richardson may have put his foot in his mouth during a performance last weekend at the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntingdon Beach, California. Richardson’s request that the crowd give him their left shoes was met with, well, left shoes. Lots of them.
“That was probably a bad idea,” said Richardson after the footwear onslaught began.
The group has a patchy history with onstage projectiles. In September of 2010, reports that drummer Will Berman was hit with a cup of urine at a show in Manchester, England circulated widely. The suspicious liquid turned out to be beer rather than urine, but with a running tally of beverage and shoes striking stages and band members, MGMT may soon want to consider protective gear—or at least to refrain from requesting a crowd’s footwear.