Update 12/15: After crowd-shot footage of Mike Patton’s onstage battle with a drone went viral, video taken from the drone itself has emerged on YouTube.
The clip below, uploaded by a user named Sebastian Yañez, starts with the drone providing an aerial view of the Mr. Bungle performance at Knotfest Chile. It doesn’t take long for the device to fly down to Patton’s level, at which point the rocker lures then attacks the drone.
Our original story on this epic man vs. machine battle can be found after the clip.
Watch Mike Patton Fight a Drone From the Drone’s POV
Mr. Bungle frontman Mike Patton attempted to knock a drone out of the sky during the band’s Dec. 11 performance at Knotfest Chile.
As you can see in the video below, Patton and his bandmates were in the midst of covering Slayer‘s “Hell Awaits” when the drone flew directly into his line of vision. After flipping his middle finger at the craft, Patton gestured for it to fly closer. When it obliged, he unsuccessfully attempted to knock the drone out of the air with his microphone. Patton then offered up another insulting hand gesture and led the band into their next genre-bending cover, Seals and Crofts‘ “Summer Breeze.”
The longtime Faith No More star isn’t the only singer to recently express frustration with drones flying too close to the stage, a tactic increasingly employed by fans seeking to film concerts.
Last month Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose addressed drone-flying fans on social media after noticing an increase in air traffic at the band’s Australian shows. “People were pissed,” he explained. “However much fun anyone’s having you’re still trying to stay focused and do your job and give fans the best shows you can. …We get it can be ‘fun’ to get your drone bootleg video but we’d appreciate it if anyone planning to be a drone pirate took the fans and the band into consideration and played with your toys somewhere else.”
Rose and Patton aren’t known for being aligned on many issues. Patton has admitted to urinating on Rose’s telepromoter and defecating in his cake because he was displeased with the way Guns N’ Roses treated Faith No More when the two bands toured together in the early ’90s.
Watch Mike Patton Battle a Drone
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