An incident that got Australian deathcore band Thy Art Is Murder temporarily booted from the Soundwave tour after encouraging Brisbane fans to rush the stage, has been “blown out of proportion” according to Lochlan Watt, host of Triple J metal program The Racket.
Thy Art Is Murder’s performance at the inaugural leg of the 2014 Soundwave tour at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds saw the crowd break through the security barricade after the band reportedly told them, “There are thousands of you and dozens of security. Smash them. All of you get on the stage.”
The incident sparked outrage from media outlets and tour promoter AJ Maddah, who took to Twitter to vent his anger over the actions of the band, saying they endangered the “lives of my staff, the police, security and injuring your own fans” and labelling the band “Disrespectful arseholes.”
The band issued an apology to “all affected by our set,” but according to Lochlan Watt, the stunt was done in the spirit of “excitement and fun” and not danger. Speaking to ABC 612, he said that had it been as dangerous as reported, the band wouldn’t have been readmitted to the tour.
As Fairfax reports, Watt told the station the type of language used by the band’s vocalist Chris “CJ” McMahon is common at metal shows. “He said: ‘I wanna see, you know, someone in hospital. Eff shit up … Kill each other’. But that’s sort of standard fare for a death metal kind of environment.”
“At their last song he requested the audience to get up on stage with them. He said there’s seven of these guys — pointing at the security guards — and 2500 of you. So come up on stage with us, make them work for their pay, get the hell up here,” added the Triple J host.
“All of a sudden it was like a wave of children flying over the barrier and the security just gave up,” said Watt. The host also told the ABC that a near-identical incident that occurred during a performance by US hardcore band Trash Talk on the same day went unreported by the media.
The band appear to be in agreement with Watt’s summation, writing on their official Facebook page, “Ukrainian and Venezuelan rioting, the asylum seeker issue and Tony Abbott’s government could all be occupying column inches but they report this? See you in the pit Karl Stefanovic.”
Watch: Thy Art Is Murder at Soundwave 2014 Brisbane — “Stage Rush Speech”
http://youtu.be/ilTcwe3Q8pc
