History Main / GreatBallsOfFire

* Abbath of {{Music/Immortal}} would interrupt shows to fire breathe. Unfortunately, this was stopped at least in the U.S. after the Great White fire tragedy.

* The Midnight Riders from VideoGame/Left4Dead2 are said to have the best pyrotechnics in the business, to the point that they've been awarded the Grammy for "Most Pyrotechnics in a Single Concert". The survivors use the fireworks to signal a rescue chopper.

* If you want to see this trope embodied [[UpToEleven to the fullest]] in music video form, watch the one for Music/{{Skillet}}'s "Hero". It consists of two things: random closeup shots of cops, firemen, marines and social workers ("heroes", you see) and the band playing in front of ''massive explosion after massive explosion''. Oh, and it's ''raining'' for over half the video as well, but that doesn't stop all those [=GBOFs=] from going off undoused. To top it off, after [[StuffBlowingUp cycling through every type of pyro in the rock and roll inventory]], the video ends with a ''fucking mushroom cloud''.

* A central tendency of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' is for Dethklok's concerts to typically wind up causing impressive body counts. In one episode, for example, the band's unnamed adopted child plays with the controls to the laser light show and winds up murdering a good part of the audience and the entire London Philharmonic orchestra. Other concerts included Dethklok's attempt at a blues concert (so depressing that it could be likened to the ending of ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''), and the episode where Dethklok summons a troll (which proceeds, of course, to go on a bloody rampage). One wonders how Dethklok has a fanbase considering that anyone becoming involved with them, in any way, has a tendency to die in an exceptionally brutal fashion.[[note]]Of course part of it is because Dethklok makes ''everything'' "metal", including coffee -- "blacker than the blackest black [[UpToEleven times infinity]]."[[/note]]

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''For the biopic about Music/JerryLeeLewis, see'' '''''[[Film/GreatBallsOfFire here]]'''''.

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[-''For the biopic about Music/JerryLeeLewis, see'' '''''[[Film/GreatBallsOfFire here]]'''''.-]

''For the biopic about Music/JerryLeeLewis, see'' '''''[[Film/GreatBallsOfFire here]]'''''.

[[quoteright:250:[[Music/{{KISS}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GreatBallsOfFire.jpg]]]]

'''Examples:'''

* Parodied rather fiercely in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', where most of the bands that spring up in the wake of The Band With Rocks In are absolutely dreadful, because they think Music With Rocks In is about the image rather than actually being able to play music. This is especially true of a quartet of teenagers known as Crash, Jimbo, Scum, and Noddy, who can't even decide on a name for their band for more than a day or two at most and don't even have the talent to be SoBadItsGood. There's also an example with The Band With Rocks In themselves; we're told that at the one gig where they had the Librarian as keyboardist, the piano exploded, but he kept playing what was left. (A similar thing occurred earlier when he attempted to play Music With Rocks In on the University's organ, but that was probably more to do with the organ being a [[BunglingInventor Johnson]].)

* Most of Music/AliceCooper's repertoire is more about theatrics than the music. [[TropesAreNotBad And he makes it work.]]

'''Note:''' [-It should be emphasized that the presence or absence of theatrics or special effects does ''not'' necessarily equate with the absence or presence of musical ability, nor vice-versa; the two can co-exist quite comfortably. This article is intended to have [[TropesAreNotBad a light tone]]; let's keep it that way, shan't we?-]

[[AC:Alternative Rock]]

[[AC: Avant-Garde / Misc]]

[[AC:Christian Rock]]

[[AC:Classical]]

[[AC:Country]]

[[AC:Electronic]]

[[AC:Folk]]

[[AC:Hard Rock/Heavy Metal]]
* A similar effect in Music/{{Whitesnake}}'s DressRehearsalVideo for "Here I Go Again." Interestingly, lead singer David Coverdale gave an interview shortly thereafter in which he forswore the use of pyrotechnics altogether, saying he didn't want an explosion to get a bigger cheer than his own performance.

[[AC:Pop]]

[[AC:Rock]]

[[AC:Fictional Examples]]

->''A huge rubber {{Satan}}\\

That the music is really quite daft.''

* Parodied rather fiercely in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', where most of the bands that spring up in the wake of The Band With Rocks In are absolutely dreadful, because they think Music With Rocks In is about the image rather than actually being able to play music. This is especially true of a quartet of teenagers known as Crash, Jimbo, Scum, and Noddy, who can't even decide on a name for their band for more than a day or two at most and don't even have the talent to be SoBadItsGood.

* A central tendency of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' is for Dethklok's concerts to typically wind up causing impressive body counts. In one episode, for example, the band's unnamed adopted child plays with the controls to the laser light show and winds up murdering a good part of the audience and the entire London Philharmonic orchestra. Other concerts included Dethklok's attempt at a blues concert (so depressing that it could be likened to the ending of ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''), and the episode where Dethklok accidentally summons a troll (which proceeds, of course, to go on a bloody rampage). One wonders how Dethklok has a fanbase considering that anyone becoming involved with them, in any way, has a tendency to die in an exceptionally brutal fashion.[[note]]Of course part of it is because Dethklok makes ''everything'' "metal", including coffee -- "blacker than the blackest black [[UpToEleven times infinity]]."[[/note]]

** "Accidentally" summons a troll? I'm pretty sure they were trying to summon it.
-->"Now, we've never tried to summon a lake troll from the Finnish ''Necronomicon'', so please bear with us. Here goes..."
** That is the quote from the album, but in the original episode, they were merely attempting to apologize for a disastrous previous tour of Finland by writing them a new national anthem, with lyrics taken from the Finnish Necronomicon.

* A central tendency of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' is for Dethklok's concerts to typically wind up causing impressive body counts. In one episode, for example, the band's unnamed adopted child plays with the controls to the laser light show and winds up murdering a good part of the audience and the entire London Philharmonic orchestra. Other concerts included Dethklok's attempt at a blues concert (so depressing that it could be likened to the ending of ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''), and the episode where Dethklok accidentally summons a troll (which proceeds, of course, to go on a bloody rampage). One wonders how Dethklok has a fanbase considering that anyone becoming involved with them, in any way, has a tendency to die in an exceptionally brutal fashion.
** Because they are so very metal. No, really.
** "Accidentally" summons a troll? I'm pretty sure they were trying to summon it.
-->"Now, we've never tried to summon a lake troll from the Finnish ''Necronomicon'', so please bear with us. Here goes..."
** That is the quote from the album, but in the original episode, they were merely attempting to apologize for a disastrous previous tour of Finland by writing them a new national anthem, with lyrics taken from the Finnish Necronomicon.

* Russian composer Alexander Scriabin's tone poem [[''Prometheus: The Poem of Fire'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3B7uQ5K0IU]] from 1910 included a part for a specially designed color organ, which projected colored light onto a screen during the performance.