Male musicians having items of women’s underwear thrown at them on stage remains a common occurrence – Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates and even Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, to name a limited handful, have all experienced it.
But female musicians having men’s boxer shorts thrown at them is a slightly rarer occurrence. But that’s exactly what happened to shredder Nita Strauss during an Alice Cooper show last year.
“The year was 2021,” she says in a new Instagram post. “The city will remain nameless. Touring had just started back up post lockdown, and the band and fans were in a good mood.
“In the front row, around my side of the stage was a group of a few younger guys. They were having a ball. Singing the words, headbanging along, shaking their fists in the air, and raising the horns at all the appropriate times.”
She continues: “One of the guys, in particular, was trying to get my attention throughout the show, blowing kisses and making that heart-hands symbol every time I glanced in that direction.‘A bit much,’ I mused, but I was happy to see people at a show having fun and didn't think much of it. Teenage Frankenstein rolls around, the second to last song. I glance down. The guy is gone. Smart! Probably beating the traffic out of here.”
She adds that when the band played the final song on the set, School’s Out, the man had returned.
“His friends are cracking up,” she recalls. “I was wrapped up in the show and didn't notice something wadded up in one of his hands. Suddenly, a gray, sweaty UFO hurtled onto the stage and landed on the center riser, between me and Alice. We all immediately BURST into uncontrollable laughter.
“The guy's boxer briefs were brazenly laid out on the riser, showing ALL the after-effects of being worn all day at a hot, outdoor August show. Mercifully, Chuck [Garric, bass] or maybe Ryan [Roxie, guitar] hooked the waistband of the boxers onto their headstock.”
Strauss remembers that the bandmate who scooped up the boxers hurled them back in the direction of the man who had originally thrown them, but as “headstock tossing is notoriously inaccurate”, overshot the throw.
“As a result, an innocent bystander a few rows back who had his hands in the air and mouth wide open, suddenly got a face full of [the guy’s] sweaty underwear. The ‘aargh’ was audible over the concert noise and I think that was one of the many times I actually fell down from laughing so hard.”
“The moral of the story is this: Don't throw your boxers at a girl unless you're prepared for them to go places you didn't expect. (Or, ya know… maybe just don't throw your boxers at a girl in general).”
