Watch: SLAYER's TOM ARAYA Admonishes Fans After Los Angeles Concert Is Halted Due To Safety Concerns

SLAYER's November 14 concert at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California was halted for several minutes due to safety concerns after some of the band's fans were causing damage in parts of the 17,500-capacity venue.

The thrash metal veterans were playing the second of two shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of their classic third album, 1986's "Reign In Blood" album. Seven songs into the set, SLAYER briefly walked off stage, only for bassist/vocalist Tom Araya to return and address the crowd.

 "Quiet. You need to know why we stopped the show," Tom told the audience (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "All right? Quiet. I just need your attention, all right? I don't know how many times I had this conversation when we first started playing in fucking huge places. I kept telling everybody, 'Man, you gotta fucking maintain yourself. You can't start destroying shit because they'll shut this shit down.' No, I don't wanna hear, 'Oh.' Listen, if you guys wanna have fun, you have fun right here in front of us in the middle of an area where there's nothing you can destroy — except each other. When you start doing shit on the outside of that line right there, they're gonna shut the place down. They don't want anybody to get hurt. There's a lot of people that wanna come see the show. They don't understand some of this stuff, and you guys get so fucking crazy, you start hurting each other.

"Look, you guys, I know it's hard to fucking contain yourself. It's hard to fucking maintain yourself. I know that. But you gotta fucking be respectful of the people around you, especially if you're sitting in fucking seats.

"The fire marshal said we're gonna pause. We're gonna pause until you guys get your shit and your act together, okay? And there's no one to blame but you. And you know who I'm talking about. Not these people in the front. Not them. Not them. It's you motherfuckers behind these people.

"Now we're in a time where there's no consequences for the shit you fucking do. And we need consequences. If you guys keep that shit up, we're gonna go home. And I hope you guys don't do that next time we come.

"You think I should get away with shit and not get in trouble for it? We end up in trouble for it. We have to pay for that shit.

"I'm not joking, man. I'm not joking.

"Have you ever heard me talk to you like this?

"So you need to fucking get your heads on straight and behave like human fucking beings unless you're in this fucking area right here in the front.

"Fire marshals are here, and they're here for your safety. Your fucking safety. Do you hear what I'm saying?

"All right, let's see how you act. We might come back."

SLAYER waited several minutes before returning to the stage to complete the concert.

The setlist for the show was as follows:

01. Disciple
02. God Send Death (performed lvie for first time since 2016)
03. Bloodline (performed live for first time since 2017)
04. Payback
05. War Ensemble
06. The Antichrist (performed live for first time since 2017)
07. Jihad
08. Seasons In The Abyss (delayed by several minutes due to safety concerns)
09. Born Of Fire
10. Dead Skin Mask
11. Hell Awaits
12. South Of Heaven

"Reign In Blood" album

13. Angel Of Death
14. Piece By Piece
15. Necrophobic
16. Altar Of Sacrifice
17. Jesus Saves
18. Criminally Insane
19. Reborn
20. Epidemic
21. Postmortem
22. Raining Blood

23. Black Magic

The latest incident came nearly four decades after SLAYER's legendary "seat cushion riot". (See video here.)

It was the summer of 1988, and SLAYER was in the middle of its "South Of Heaven" tour. On August 31, 1988, the tour came to New York City's Felt Forum, the small theater adjacent to Madison Square Garden — and mayhem ensued.

Toward the end of the main set, during "Ghosts Of War", the overly enthusiastic crowd began tearing up seat cushions and hurling them in all directions, many of them reaching the stage. As the danger level escalated, the band made a quick retreat to the backstage area. The seat cushions continued flying throughout the arena, and after a few minutes, Araya came out and gave the crowd a piece of his mind.

"You guys came here to have a good time, and you're blowin' it, big time!" he said. "Why don't you give us a break? We can probably never play here again."

Immediately following Araya's rant, the band launched into the final song of the night, "Angel Of Death", while continuing to dodge the dangerous projectiles.

A bootleg video later shared by MetalKult.com showed all of Araya's tongue lashing as well as the "Angel Of Death" performance. And SLAYER never played the Felt Forum again.

That same year, when SLAYER headlined a show at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, approximately 200 pissed off fans couldn't get into the concert. The band's longtime manager Rick Sales later told Loudwire that the concert was either oversold or the fans showed up hoping to get tickets and couldn't get into the sold-out gig. They eventually smashed through the front door of the venue, threw sticks and other objects at the security and formed a circle pit in front of the club. (See video report here.)

"I was inside when I first got word that this was going on outside," Sales told Loudwire. "So, I went into the lobby and I watched a kid literally run through a plate glass door. The medical area was right by the front door. They went through the door after him and I followed. They stopped the kid and said, 'Hey do you want some treatment?' He was picking shards of glass out of his body, and he said, 'No, I'm cool.' And just kept walking.

"When I followed the kid out the plate glass door, the police were organized into those little riot squads with batons," Sales added. "It was like a military exercise. Ten or twelve of them were together, jogging down the sidewalk and knocking everybody away. It was kind of like a war zone."

The local media later reported that there were three injuries and three arrests at the SLAYER show at the Hollywood Palladium; two fans were arrested for throwing rocks and bottles at police and a third was allegedly detained for trying to run over a traffic control officer with a van.