British musician Frank Carter led a female-only stage dive at his Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes Brisbane show over the weekend, preceding it with a bang-on speech denouncing anyone who makes women feel unsafe at gigs.
“I have a fearless little two-year-old, and I refuse to grow up in a world where she does not feel safe to stage dive,” he said, with a punter capturing the speech on video.
Before launching into his track Modern Ruin, he talked about the issue of assaults at concerts telling his crowd that, “the change starts now.”
“Boys, I’m talking to you,” he said.
“This is how the change happens. We have this conversation amongst ourselves and if you see anybody at any gig from now on touch anybody inappropriately, you fucking knock their teeth out. And when they ask you, what the fuck was that for, you tell them that I sent you.”
The ladies then began to stage-dive, much to Carter’s satisfaction, later joined by a handful of men.
Assault at gigs is an issue that many Australian bands have been vocal about in the past year. Rapper Urthboy spoke openly about creating, “the kind of place that my daughter would feel safe at”, punk rockers Luca Brasi called out a “piece of shit male” who felt up a girl at a gig and Courtney Barnett, among others, spoke out about it in this excellent video.
Carter wrapped up his Australian tour in Sydney last night. It was his final show with his band The Rattlesnakes for the year.
His new record Modern Ruin is out 20th January.
Watch: Frank Carter’s Brisbane Speech
https://youtu.be/YTzzAeuKvK0
