MARYLAND HEIGHTS - A flock of pigeons got the best of a Nashville-based rock group Friday night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.
Kings of Leon fled from the stage after their third song, complaining they were being hit repeatedly with pigeon feces.
"The band is very sad and upset about it," Kings publicist Ken Weinstein said Saturday.
But, he said, "No band would play under those conditions."
Weinstein said band members had been warned by management of a pigeon infestation in the rafters of the amphitheater. And the band noticed that the opening groups, The Stills and The Postelles, came off the stage "riddled" with excrement, Weinstein said.
"They had to make a game-time decision," Weinstein said, and elected to play.
But after the third song, when bassist Jared Followill was hit for the third or fourth time, the band left the stage, Weinstein said.
Representatives of the concert's promoter, Live Nation, did not return e-mails and calls seeking comment.
When the band walked off, many concertgoers, unaware of a reason, became upset and began chanting an expletive and "refund."
The crowd then heard an announcement that the concert had been canceled due to 'safety" concerns.
Steve Pick, a freelance concert reviewer for the Post-Dispatch, said it appeared for a time that "things could turn ugly." But Verizon security quickly lined the stage.
The real reason for the exit wasn't learned until the band's drummer, Nate Followill, went on Twitter the news.
"So sorry St. Louis. We had to bail, pigeons (expletive) in jareds mouth. Too unsanitary to continue," he wrote.
Pick said The Stills mentioned the bombardment onstage.
Bassist Oliver Corbeil had been standing a few feet back from where Jared Followill would later stand, Pick said. After he moved, singer Tim Fletcher quipped that Corbeil had been standing in a bad spot and that something had fallen from above, Pick said.
The Stills then finished their set.
The concert's promoter, Live Nation, did announce that fans could get a refund beginning Monday.
