Photo Courtesy of The New York Post
This was a concert that did not go as planned. The Pizza Underground, a gimmicky pizza themed band led by former child star Macaulay Culkin, was driven off of the stage mid concert last night in Nottingham. Just 15 minutes into the bands set the fans were throwing pints of beer at the stage. To this Culkin quipped to the crowd “Why are your throwing those?… I’d rather drink them.” This only intensified the beer throwing. After being pelted twice Culkin and his band left the stage and would not return for the rest of the night.
The band, which was playing as part of the Dot to Dot Festival, received complaints from Nottingham residents earlier in the week calling the Pizza Underground a “mockery of one of the greatest bands of all time.” The Pizza Underground began as a joke between Culkin and his friends centered on singing songs by The Velvet Underground but replacing certain lyrics with pizza related words. The band’s Glockenspiel player Phoebe Kreutz joked that The Velvet Underground songs were originally written about pizza, but had to be censored due to the harsh “standards of their day.”
“It just sounds awful. I can’t believe he is doing this.” One angry concert attendee told the Nottingham Post. Why bother? It must go down well in America or something.” Another, more sympathetic attendee claimed that although “the music did sound terrible, it isn’t very fair to be hit with so much beer and booed.” The Pizza Underground did provide the audience with their trademark free pizza before their performance, though that ended up supplying the crowd with more ammo.
No statement has been released by either Culkin or the Pizza Underground. Culkin is best known for his starring roles in such early 90’s films like Uncle Buck, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Richie Rich, and My Girl. After taking a hiatus from acting Culkin returned to positive reviews in the 2004 comedy Saved. Since then he has been known for his pizza music and an ongoing tshirt battle with Ryan Gosling.