Crowd riots at Pennywise show

A Pennywise concert held after the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach, California on Saturday night (April 19th) was marred by rioting, with more than 50 police officers called to the scene in riot gear. According to the Long Beach Press Telegram, the crowd got out of hand after the police barred hundreds of people from entering the concert after the venue had reached its 4,500-person capacity. Officer Jackie Bezart of the Long Beach Police Department said the situation escalated, explaining, "The crowd got somewhat unruly and bottles were thrown at officers. At that point we deployed additional officers to maintain crowd control."

Five people were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries, although it wasn't clear if those were sustained during the rioting or at the concert itself.

One Long Beach resident who tried to get into the show, Jeremy Fishel, said he saw the police "hitting people with clubs...I saw this man get Tased, 40-or-50-year-old man, just get Tased. His eyes were stone cold."

The show took place at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Police blocked the surrounding streets to prevent people from attempting to enter the concert, which was over by 7:30 p.m.

Pennywise is touring in support of its latest album, Reason to Believe, and starts a North American tour on May 6th in Utah.
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