Peter Frampton's rock concert Sunday night at Treasure Island Casino in Red Wing as the warmup to Steve Miller hit the skids for several minutes after a fan took the crowd on an impromptu nostalgia trip.
Frampton, the 67-year-old native Londoner whose classic rock hits include "Do You Feel Like I Do" and "Show Me the Way," halted his outdoor show in response to a camera operator putting a woman on the two stage-straddling video screens as she hoisted Frampton album covers.
The enthusiastic fan first held up the cover from "Frampton Comes Alive," drawing a raucous cheer of approval from the crowd of roughly 8,000. This prompted Frampton to lament that the interruption came during a guitar solo. A moment later, the same thing happened, only this time the woman waved the cover of Frampton's "I'm in You" release.
Frampton mouthed an expletive as he leaned his face into the camera. Song complete, he and others exited with no explanation.
Concertgoer John Krause said he saw Frampton get into a "camera tug-of-war" with the cameraman on stage just as the unscheduled break began.
"It went back and forth between them until Peter finally let go and walked offstage, followed by his band a few seconds later," Krause said.
Casino spokesman Kevin Smith said Monday that Frampton "apparently didn't like what was on the video board for one reason or another. That was obvious." Smith, who attended the concert, confirmed that the screens were turned off "at the artist's request." Once the request was fulfilled, Frampton came back and played the two songs remaining on his set list and threw in a third.
Paul Walsh
