Gojira Guitarist Has His Face Burned By Pyro, Comes Back Onstage to Finish Set

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“The hardest Frenchman alive,” says Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe.

(Image credit: Steve Jennings/WireImage)

During Gojira’s set at the inaugural Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 18, guitarist Christian Andreu had his face burned by a blast of pyro toward the end of the band’s performance of their song “Stranded.”

High winds blew the fire back toward the guitarist, sending him rushing offstage to seek medical assistance. Following a short break, Andreu actually returned the the stage and finished out Gojira’s set, taking breaks to splash his face with water to cool the burns.

You can check out fan-filmed footage, captured by Tim Human, of the incident below.

Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe was side stage during the performance, and shared his own photos of Andreu performing post-injury. "You are looking at photos of THE HARDEST FRENCHMAN ALIVE, Christian Andreu of @gojiraofficial," he wrote on Instagram. You can see his pics, as well as his firsthand account of the incident, below.

(SWIPE LEFT FOR MORE PHOTOS) You are looking at photos of THE HARDEST FRENCHMAN ALIVE, Christian Andreu of @gojiraofficial. Yesterday at @sonictemplefestival, my brothers in Gojira took the stage & destroyed the place. I lost track of time & forgot when they were playing- when I realized they were on, I went running to the stage with my camera. I got there right as they were playing “Backbone”- their tech @notoriouswog was like “Here’s your mic!”- I took off my glasses, put down my camera, & ran out onstage wearing flip-flops (which I immediately kicked off- hard to rock in flops) & started singing. Suddenly there was a HUGE blast of flame- SCARED THE SHIT outta me, ‘cause I didn’t know they had pyro! Anyways, I got done singing, shot a few photos, then ran to my dressing room to get a different camera lens. When I got back, Woggsy said “Christian just caught a blast of flame to the face!”- the wind was REALLY bad yesterday, & it blew the pyro right into Christian’s face- THANK GOD HE HAD HIS EYES CLOSED at that second! I looked at him & he was still playing, mostly with his eyes closed, obviously hurting & looking PISSED OFF. In between songs he walked over & asked for water & threw it on his face. Then he finished the set, & medics attended to him. He’s gonna be alright (except for some peeling & missing hair & eyebrows) but that was scary & it could have been really, really bad. Christian caught a full-on #DRACARYS to the face & still did his job. That is some HARD SHIT right there. @jameyjasta, you need to put him in the #HARDHALLOFFAME!!! Respect, Christian- you are one TOUGH MOTHERFUCKER. #Leica #LeicaCamera #LeicaCameraUSA #LeicaM #LeicaM10P #LeicaM10Ptyp3656 #🔴📷 #Summilux #Summilux35mm #LeicaCraft #MyLeicaJourney #MKexplore #drandallblythe #RatsEyesPhotography #HoneTheAesthetic D. Randall Blythe

A photo posted by @drandallblythe on May 19, 2019 at 3:59pm PDT

Richard Bienstock
Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.